Forgive the non-movie-ness of this post, and the fact that I’m just a dad gushing about his daughter right now. But there is something about her eyes in this photo — which I took when we went with some of my in-laws for a ride on the Christmas train at a nearby park today — that just makes me go, “Wow.” The last time I can remember reacting to a photo of hers like this was when I took the... Read more

My review of National Treasure: Book of Secrets is now up at CT Movies. Read more

“On film and in real life, two pregnant 16-year-olds spark moral debate.” So reads a headline on a recent story by the Associated Press — referring, of course, to the revelation two days ago that Britney Spears’s sister Jamie Lynn is pregnant, and also to the movie Juno, which goes into wide release on Christmas Day after an enormously successful three weeks in limited release. Both of them were beaten to the punch, though, by Keisha Castle-Hughes, who also became... Read more

A week or two ago, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull producer Frank Marshall gave a couple of interviews in which he confirmed the identities of certain new characters, but as I mentioned at the time, he neglected to say anything about the character played by John Hurt — an actor who knows a thing or two about sci-fi and fantasy films, having worked on the original Alien, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings films, among... Read more

Three months ago, producer James Middleton said the next Terminator movie would feature a new main character, and John Connor would be somewhere off to the side, “influencing” the new main character in much the same way that Jesus “influenced” the title character in Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. Then, two weeks ago, producers Derek Anderson and Victor Kubicek seemed to scuttle that idea when they said that John Connor is a “very central character throughout the next trilogy”... Read more

The Hollywood Reporter tells us: New Line Cinema has taken possession of “The Rite,” the true story of an American priest who studied at an exorcism school in Italy. Contrafilm’s Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson will produce a feature film based on the upcoming nonfiction book by Rome-based journalist Matt Baglio. Michael Petroni signed on to write the adapted screenplay before the writers strike. Fletcher & Parry Films will co-produce with Contrafilm. Baglio was allowed to follow a young priest... Read more

Two months ago, there was talk that Sean Penn and Heath Ledger might star in Terrence Malick‘s long-in-development “complex drama” Tree of Life. Now, Variety says Sean Penn and Brad Pitt are in talks to do the film — which is interesting, since some descriptions of the film have made it sound a little like Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain (2006), which Pitt was once supposed to star in, until he dropped out shortly before production. Read more

I slept in this morning — as much as the children climbing all over me would allow, that is — and haven’t checked my news feeds yet, but thanks to an e-mail from my friend Bruce, I now know that, according to the Associated Press, Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema have patched things up and will work together on The Hobbit after all: Jackson, who directed the “Rings” trilogy, will serve as executive producer for “The Hobbit.” A director... Read more

My article on National Treasure: Book of Secrets — including interviews with Nicolas Cage, Jon Voight, Diane Kruger and director Jon Turteltaub — is now up at CT Movies. Incidentally, Voight just might be the first filmmaker outside of the local film industry that I have interviewed, albeit in group settings, more than once. About nine years ago, I and several other student journalists from across the continent took part in a series of phone interviews with the cast and... Read more

Here are the figures for the past weekend, arranged from those that owe the highest percentage of their take to the Canadian box office to those that owe the lowest. The Golden Compass — CDN $4,730,000 — N.AM $40,968,000 — 11.5%Awake — CDN $1,290,000 — N.AM $13,006,000 — 9.9%Hitman — CDN $3,430,000 — N.AM $38,162,000 — 9.0%No Country for Old Men — CDN $2,970,000 — N.AM $33,562,000 — 8.8%Atonement — CDN $247,846 — N.AM $2,964,000 — 8.4%Enchanted — CDN $6,660,000... Read more