British actress Kate Beckinsale is reportedly fighting Jessica Biel for the lead role in her husband Len Wiseman’s remake of Total Recall. The 37-year-old Aviator star and Biel, 29, are currently said to be in talks to join Ethan Hawke, Colin Farrell and Bryan Cranston in the new film. According to website CinemaBlend.com, Farrell will star in the movie as Douglas Quaid — the role Arnold Schwarzenegger played in the original 1990 movie. If Beckinsale clinches the lead role in the flick, it won’t be the first time she has worked with her director husband — she teamed up with Wiseman for the first two Underworld films.
Actress Penelope Cruz has admitted she took advantage of filming Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides by taking to the sea to answer her calls of nature. The Oscar-winner was pregnant while filming the fourth pirate movie in Hawaii. And she revealed that she had to be creative when there was no toilet around. The 36-year-old told Entertainment Weekly: “I had to keep going into the water every 15 minutes!” Penelope and husband Javier Bardem welcomed their son Leo in January.
Courteney Cox has warned fans not to hold their breath waiting for a Friends movie. The actress said that if it was up to her, she would have already made a film to follow up the hit series, but that different schedules would make it virtually impossible to do it now. She told The Mail On Sunday: “I just can’t see that happening. I mean, I’m not in control of it and if I was, we’d have already done it. “But it involves so many different people’s lives and schedules that I just don’t know how you’d get it all together. So no, I don’t see it happening.” But she remains best friends with co-star Jennifer Aniston and said that she is trying to fit in a project with Lisa Kudrow, who is now an executive producer for Who Do You Think You Are? She explained: “Lisa’s asked me to be on it; apparently they’ve found something in my family history which they won’t tell me because they like to surprise the person. It’s an amazing show and I’ll probably do it – it’s just trying to find the time.”
Hollywood actress Meg Ryan is set to make her feature directorial debut with new film Into The Beautiful. The story is said to focus on a Big Chill-style reunion with friends, although Meg is not expected to step in front of the camera. The 49-year-old joins a host of other actresses-turned-directors including Drew Barrymore and Jodie Foster. According to Variety.com, Into The Beautiful is due to start shooting this September in New York and casting is to begin soon.
Actress Jennifer Lawrence has landed the coveted lead role in The Hunger Games. The 20-year-old will play Katniss Everdeen, a girl who joins a survival contest in order to save her community, in the movie based on the best-selling book series that many have compared to the Twilight franchise. The story is set in the future, where teenagers are randomly chosen to participate on the TV programme Hunger Games, which forces them to compete to the death. According to The Wrap, the Oscar-nominee finalised the deal yesterday and is said to have beaten actresses Hailee Steinfeld, Emma Roberts, Chloe Moretz and Abigail Breslin to the role. Lionsgate plans to adapt the book series as a trilogy, which will include The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay, based on the novels by Suzanne Collins. The film will hit cinemas in the US in March 2012.
Sex And The City star Kim Cattrall plays an ageing stripper in new flick Meet Monica Velour. In the less-than-glamorous role, Cattrall plays Monica Velour, a former 1980s porn star, who is now a single mother forced to dance in seedy strip clubs to make ends meet. Despite being jeered by audience members, Velour has one admirer — a young man who is obsessed with the over-the-hill dancer and who tries to help her, after he finds her living in a trailer park.
Actress Sharon’s Stone infamous leg-crossing scene in Basic Instinct has been voted the most paused moment in movies. A new survey by rental firm Lovefilm found that over a third of the 1,000 people asked paused the scene in the 1992 movie where the 52-year-old actress gives viewers an x-rated flash. In second place was Jennifer Lopez flashing her bottom in last year’s movie The Back-Up Plan while in third was a stormtrooper hitting his head in the science-fiction movie Star Wars. In fourth place was Jamie Lee Curtis’ flash in Trading Places and in fifth was Jessica Rabbit’s lack of underwear in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Actress Sigourney Weaver has admitted she never used to like science-fiction movies. The 61-year-old is starring in new alien film Paul with British actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. She said sci-fi never used to be her first choice for movies. During an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, she said: “I found sci-fi a little cold and cerebral and was more interested in action, but I love it now. “I got lucky – I’ve only made five science fiction films but they all turned out to be wonderful.” Weaver has starred in some of sci-fi’s biggest hits such as the Alien movies, Ghostbusters and Avatar.
Kristen Stewart’s rep has denied reports that she turned down the opportunity to play Lois Lane in a Superman remake. The 20-year-old actress was said to have been asked to take on the part of the roving reporter, but her spokesman told People that at no point was she approached about doing the film. “There are a number of fabricated stories circulating,” said the rep. “The fact is that she has not met on this film nor has she been approached for this film.” The reboot of the 1978 film is expected to be released in 2012.
Actress Michelle Pfeiffer will play Chris Pine’s mum in new Dreamworks movie Welcome To People. The film is being directed by Alex Kurtzman and it will also star Chris Pine, Elizabeth Banks and Olivia Wilde, according to Variety. Pfeiffer, 52, will play the role of the mother of a young businessman, played by Pine, who returns to his family home after his estranged father’s death. He then finds out he has an older sister, played by Elizabeth Banks, that he never knew about as well as a young nephew. Wilde, 26, will play the role of Pine’s girlfriend in the film, which is set to start shooting later this month.
