CHRISTIAN BALE went to a hospital in Aurora, Colorado to visit victims of the deadly shooting spree at a midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" last week.Warner Brothers didn't put him up to it, either. They issued a statement saying, quote, "Mr. Bale is there as himself, not representing us." One of the victims, Carey Rottman, posted a picture of himself and Bale on Facebook. He was shot in the leg. Bale spent over two hours visiting seven patients who were still being treated for their wounds. A hospital administrator says, quote, "The patients were really happy to meet Bale. -"They are obviously big fans of his movies. They wanted to see Batman and were really pleased to see Bale." Christian also visited a memorial for the victims and joined a prayer circle. They didn't announce or call attention to themselves, and Bale refused to give an interview to a TV news crew that happened to be there.
Here is the raw footage from the Associated Press.
A six-year-old boy named Zachary has leukemia, and was given the chance to have a wish granted through Make-a-Wish. His wish was . . . to meet and become HELLBOY. Zachary is a big comic book fan, and his parents said he's watched the "Hellboy" movie about 100 times while getting treatment in the hospital.
So the people at Spectral Motion studios brought Zachary in, and also put out a call to Ron Perlman, who played Hellboy in the movie. Ron went through four hours of makeup and costume work to become Hellboy one more time. Zachary just thought he was getting a tour of the studio, but at the end of the tour, Ron showed up and gave Zachary a sit-down with Hellboy. After that, the Spectral Motion artists put Zachary in the make-up chair and turned HIM into a miniature version of Hellboy.
Michael Fassbender will star in and co-produce "Assassin's Creed," the bigscreen adaptation of Ubisoft's videogame franchise, through his DMC Film banner....
ERIC CHURCH did a short film called "Mixtape" . . . and it debuts this Saturday on CMT. Eric calls it the "emotional backstory" to his song "Springsteen".
The year's biggest film, Marvel's The Avengers, will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on September 25. The superhero flick has made over 600 million dollars at the domestic box office to date. That's not all. Marvel has put together a 10-disc, six-movie Blu-ray box set called Phase One -- Avengers Assembledthat will include copies of The Avengers plus five other superhero movies it's released in recent years, such as Iron Man and its sequel. No word yet on a release date, though a trailer for the box set just hit the Web.
Super Hero Geeks, we can now rejoice!
Tim Burton's latest collaboration with Johnny Depp features Johnny as a vampire named Barnabas Collins. He was human until a jealous witch cursed him, and buried him alive for 200 years. When he's released by a construction crew, he returns home to restore the family name to its former glory. The dysfunctional Collins family is played by Michelle Pfeiffer, Jonny Lee Miller, and 15-year-old Chloe Grace Moretz. And because you can't have a Burton-Depp collaboration without her, Helena Bonham Carter is also in it. She plays Michelle Pfieffer's live-in psychiatrist. The witch is played by Bond girl Eva Green. As for cameos, watch for Christopher Lee as an old man at the pub. Johnny says, quote, "One of my favorite moments that I've ever been able to experience in a film was that I got to hypnotize Dracula. I got to hypnotize Christopher Lee." Even though the movie is played for laughs, it's based on a supernatural soap opera that took itself pretty seriously. The original "Dark Shadows" ran on ABC from 1966 to 1971 and starred a guy named Jonathan Frid as Barnabas. Jonathan passed away last month, but he does have a cameo in the movie. In the scene where Barnabas throws a ball at Collinwood Manor, if you watch closely, you'll see Johnny greeting the original cast members from the TV show at the door.
Iron Man, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk and their friends were box office heroes over the weekend. The all-star superhero film Marvel's The Avengers earned an estimated 200.3 million dollars, easily the highest-grossing debut weekend for a movie in domestic box office history. The total shatters the old record of 169.2 million set last year by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.
A few other tidbits from The Avengers' big weekend:
* The Avengers reached the 200-million-dollar mark faster than any other movie in U.S. box office history.
* On Friday, the day it opened, The Avengers enjoyed the second-highest single-day gross of all time with 80.5 million. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 made 91.1 million on its first day of release.
* The Avengers established a new record for a Saturday, with 69.7 million.
* The Avengers has now earned an estimated 641.8 million dollars worldwide since it opened overseas about two weeks ago.
TAYLOR SWIFT'S acting career is just getting started. She's done a guest spot on "CSI", had a small part in "Valentine's Day", and did voice work for "The Lorax". But that doesn't mean she's going to be showing up in one silly movie after another. Taylor says, quote, "When I look at acting careers that I really admire, I see that it's been a precise decision-making process for these people. They make decisions based on what they love and they do only the things that they are passionate about. "They play only characters that they can’t stop thinking about." Taylor's also concerned with only picking what she feels are quality scripts. She says, quote, "I'm such a fan of great writing and great storytelling. "I'm looking for great, powerful writing behind whatever cast is surrounding it, whatever director is steering it . . . that would all be peripheral to the fact that the story is brilliant and has to be told.”
Rascal Flatts has a lot on their plate with a new album and concert film hitting theaters in the next few weeks. They'll be adding even more to that plate with the launch of a new chain of restaurants. Gary LeVox says that they hope the restaurants open later this year. "We’re just trying to expand our brand and give fans something new and different from us." That's all the details Gary is giving up for now. In the meantime, you can pick up their new album, Changed, on April 3. Their Rascal Flatts: Changed -- One Night Exclusive Theater Event takes place April 5. Check out FathomEvents.com for details and tickets.
Here's the new trailer for the new Marvel "Avengers" movie coming Spring 2012! I can't wait for this one! I thought Iron Man was really good. Didn't see Captain America or Thor yet, but they are all present in this one! Looks awesome! Check it out!
GEORGE LUCAS is releasing the original "Star Wars" trilogy on Blu-Ray this September 16th. And that can only mean one thing: "Star Wars" nerds in an uproar over the weird changes he keeps making. Basically, whenever George Lucas releases a new version of "Star Wars", whether it's on DVD, a boxed set, whatever, he tinkers with them by adding CGI special effects, adding deleted scenes, or removing previous changes that fans didn't like. And this time even regular fans might get annoyed. Because at the end of "Return of the Jedi", he dubbed in audio of Darth Vader screaming "Noooooooo!" while the Emperor electrocutes Luke Skywalker.
I'm not much for videos over a couple of minutes. BUT...with that being said, this is not your typical "Scoreboard At The Stadium" proposal! No Sir! This is probably the most creative proposal ever! Totally worth your time. Enjoy!
It may seem that famous musicians are just GIVEN movie roles because, well, they're famous. But TRACE ADKINS says that wasn't the case for his part as a badass biker in MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY'S movie "The Lincoln Lawyer". Even though McConaughey invited him to try out for the role, Trace says it wasn't just handed to him on a platter. He explains, quote, "I had to go read for it. And I really appreciate the fact that the director Brad Furman told me, "I didn't know who you were. You got the part because you won the part."I appreciated that." Then again, Trace didn't "appreciate" that the director was that clueless. He said, quote, "But it kind of hurt my feelings at the same time. I thought I was a bigger deal than that. 'What do you mean you don't know who I am?'" By the way, if you haven't seen the movie yet, don't get your hopes up about seeing a lot of Trace. He's only in it for three minutes. Here's how he describes his scenes. Quote, "I'm in it at the beginning, and the end, and there's a buncha crap in the middle."
Throughout history, there have been numerous instances where a movie character was set up for DEATH . . . but ultimately saved by a script rewrite. Here are some of the most famous cases . . .
"Lethal Weapon 2": At the end of the movie, MEL GIBSON'S character, Martin Riggs, gets shot several times, "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" plays, and . . . HE LIVES. Apparently, the producers decided they had a real franchise on their hands. (--There ended up being two more "Lethal Weapon" flicks.)
"Rocky 5": Rocky was supposed to die in his street fight with Tommy Gunn. SYLVESTER STALLONE thought better of it . . . and 16 years later, in 2006, he gave the character a much more respectable send-off with "Rocky Balboa".
"First Blood": In the original novel, John Rambo dies at the end. Stallone even filmed that ending. But ultimately, he decided to spare the character . . . and his bank account was most appreciative. Here's the alternate ending . . .
"Scream": DAVID ARQUETTE'S goofy cop character, Dewey, wasn't supposed to make it out of the first movie alive. Director WES CRAVEN actually shot the ending both ways: With him living and dying. For some reason, the decision was made to keep him around . . . and he'll be back for the upcoming "Scream 4".
"Return of the Jedi": Han Solo was NOT supposed to survive the "Star Wars" saga. The plan for the third film was to have Han's friends rescue him from Jabba the Hut . . . but for Han to later die in the raid on the Death Star. It was GEORGE LUCAS who nixed the idea. HARRISON FORD wanted Han to die, as did writer Lawrence Kasdan. Gary Kurtz . . . who produced the first two movies . . . recently said, quote, "George decided he didn't want any of the principals killed. By that time there were really big toy sales and that was a reason."
"Full Metal Jacket": MATTHEW MODINE'S character, Private Joker, ended up being the main character. But he was supposed to die when Private Pyle . . . played by VINCENT D'ONOFRIO . . . went postal. Modine himself convinced director STANLEY KUBRICK to keep him alive.
