Dan Aykroyd: 'Ghostbusters 3' to Start Shooting in 2012

After seemingly endless months of speculation, the long-awaited (and possibly ill-advised) revival of Ghostbusters could finally be in the offing. Dan Aykroyd appeared on Dennis Miller's radio show to announce that Ghostbusters 3 has "an excellent script" and is looking to start shooting in 2012, possibly as early as spring. As far as story details are concerned, Aykroyd indicated that "the promise of Ghostbusters 3 is that we get to hand the equipment and the franchise down to new blood, because my because my character, Ray, is now blind in one eye and can’t drive the Cadillac. He’s got a bad knee and can’t pick up the pack ... We need young blood, and that’s the promise. We’re gonna hand it to a new generation."

When it comes to who might portray the new blood. Aykroyd indicated he's got an eye on Matthew Gray Gubler of Criminal Minds, but casting is still a ways off. He stopped short of promising a Bill Murray return, offering the diplomatic qualifier, "What we have to remember is that Ghostbusters is kind of bigger than any one component." It's hard to imagine Murray having much interest in a Ghostbusters: The Next Generation storyline, but after the Garfield films, anything is possible.

The things they say

"I have been told it’s very slimming. But let me tell you, no matter how I look in black, you don’t want to imagine me in white." Portly filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro on his penchant for wearing black.

Moore hosts hunger benefit

The Kids Are All Right star hosted an outdoor fundraising event, called What's On The Table, with famed chef Tom Colicchio in The Hamptons over the weekend (20Aug11) to benefit America's charity coalition United Way.

Colicchio tells Bloomberg.com, “The visibility I have for doing (reality competition TV show) Top Chef helps me... bring people into the tent. And this is a time when people need food more than ever.”

Saving Private Ryan actor Ed Burns and his model wife Christy Turlington were also on hand to show their support, with each guest paying $250 (GBP156.25) to attend.

The United Way's Big Apple branch has seen a startling 30 per cent increase in those seeking aid from food pantries and soup kitchens across the city, which has put a stress on the area's supplies and resources.

Graham to star in TV comedy

The actress will replace Paula Marshall in new comedy Little in Common, according to TV Guide magazine.

Marshall appeared in the pilot episode of the show, which also stars funnymen Rob Corddry and Kevin Hart and actress Gabrielle Union.

Graham last appeared on TV in 2006, when she starred in the short-lived Emily's Reasons Why Not.

Goldberg adopts orphaned kitten who escaped death

The tiny Russian blue kitten's plight became a headline-grabbing story in New York after it was rescued from the Verrazano Bridge by a good samaritan who watched the horrific incident unfold.

Goldberg, a longtime animal lover, introduced America to the miracle cat while hosting U.S. talk show The View in a bid to raise awareness about animal cruelty and stir up adoption bids, and now the Sister Act star has adopted the pet.

In a post on her Facebook.com page, she writes, "For all of you who remember me on The View meeting Verrazano, the kitten who was thrown out the window of a moving car on the Verrazano Bridge, I adopted him and I was finally able to take him home. His nickname is Vinny."

But even though the kitten now has a permanent home, he still has another problem to face - Goldberg's other cat, Oliver.

She adds, "Oliver's not too happy but Vinny is having the time of his life. I think he'll get Oliver to come around sooner than later."

Wahlberg brothers open burger diner

The actor, New Kids on the Block singer Donnie and their chef brother Paul are opening Wahlburgers - a play on their famous last name - in their native Boston, Massachusetts.

The fast food diner will be located at the city's Hingham Shipyard, where the brothers have a popular Italian restaurant, called Alma Nove, which opened in 2009.

The food-loving siblings are also planning to open a pizza place next spring (12).

Hilton's reality show axed - report

The socialite's latest TV venture, The World According to Paris, will not be returning for a second season, according to New York Magazine.

The much-maligned series premiered on U.S. network Oxygen to just 400,000 viewers in June (11) and ratings have continued to plummet throughout the summer (11), prompting producers to decide not to renew the show.

A rep for the series tells TMZ.com, "The show just recently completed its run and no pick up decision has been made."

The heiress has previously found much success with her reality show productions beginning with The Simple Life, her project with childhood best friend Nicole Richie, which attracted a cult following throughout its five-season run.

Del Toro: 'I can't go back to Mexico'

The Pan's Labyrinth director fears he and his family will become targets for drug lords seeking ransom money if he goes home.

He tells Time magazine, "I cannot go back to Mexico as a director because of the kidnapping of my father. A film is a highly visible venture, and I can’t risk it."

And Del Toro admits he always regrets the fact he can't simply go home: "Every day, every week, something happens that reminds me that I am in involuntary exile... As a man, the kidnapping defined my life."

Arquette signs up for Dancing With The Stars - report

The Scream star is set to appear on the upcoming season of the hit reality TV show, and on Thursday (25Aug11) he was spotted heading to the network's studios in Los Angeles for a rehearsal with supposed dance partner Kym Johnson, reports TMZ.com.

At the time WENN went to press, a rep for the actor had yet to comment.

TV bosses have not released a roster of contestants for their new season, which will air in September (11), but recent reports have suggested reality TV star Kristin Cavallari and George Clooney's ex-girlfriend Elisabetta Canalis will be among the contestants.

Enjoy the Silence: 'The Artist' Trailer Debuts

The Artist was the toast of this year's Cannes Film Festival; star Jean Dujardin walked away with the Best Actor Award. The film opens November 23, 2011.

'Phineas and Ferb' Headed to Big Screen

Dan Povenmire and Jeff Marsh, co-creators of TV's Phineas and Ferb, have signed a deal to adapt their hit Disney Channel animated series for the big screen, THR reports. Also included in the deal is an additional season of the series and a new pilot for a possible spinoff show.

Phineas and Ferb first debuted on the Disney Channel in 2007 and swiftly became one of the network's top-rated series. It has been thrice nominated for Best Cartoon at the Kids Choice Awards, but has yet to snag the coveted honor. Three weeks ago, the cable movie Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension debuted to stellar ratings, drawing 7.6 million viewers.

Chevy Chase Mulls Return to 'Vacation,' 'Fletch'

His career resuscitated thanks to a choice role on NBC's Community, Chevy Chase is now plotting his return to the big screen. The Caddyshack star revealed to Collider his plans for a new Vacation film, one based on "an idea that would be basically like a Swiss Family Griswold. There’s a cruise, there’s a fire on the ship, we think the whole ship’s on fire and we jump—it’s just a little fire—and we end up on an island where we meet Randy [Quaid, who plays Cousin Eddie] somewhere who’s been left there from an old Survivor series.”

Asked about a potential Fletch reboot, he replied, cantankerously, "I’m not gonna do Fletch unless I’m Fletch, if they start writing something for a kid who’s Fletch and I’m just helping out, 'Bye.' I mean, there’s no reason why, at my age, I can’t still be Fletch. I’ve always been getting this impression that they’d like me to be mentoring a younger Fletch type thing." Hollywood has been seeking to revive Fletch in one way or another for years, but the project has never seemed able to attain any momentum. The latest effort has Dictator co-writer David Mandel attached to direct.

The things they say

"As a kid, I dreamed of having a house with secret passages and a room where it rained 24 hours a day. The point of being over 40 is to fulfill the desires you’ve been harboring since you were seven." Mexican moviemaker Guillermo Del Toro on making his childhood fantasies come true.

Miller to play Bridges in ghost movie

The Victoria's Secret star will be the human form Bridges' ghost cop character takes in the film R.I.P.D.

In the film, Bridges and Ryan Reynolds play representatives of the Rest in Peace Department, who track down misbehaving spooks causing chaos as they leave the earth, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Miller isn't the only Victoria's Secret hottie to land a major movie role in recent years - Rosie Huntington-Whiteley played the leading lady in the latest Transformers sequel.

Bloch insists drunk party guest apologise for 'fat' jibe

The style king was leaving a Tuesday night (23Aug11) bash at New York's Standard nightclub when he took offence when another man attempted to bar two strangers from the elevator.

A source tells the New York Daily News the drunk party guest blurted out, "No fat people allowed in the elevator; only people who threw up their dinner can fit."

Bloch and the lift operator insisted the man apologise to the couple. He did.

Aykroyd: 'Ghostbusters 3 is a go with or without Murray'

The Lost in Translation star remains the last original castmember to sign on for the sequel and now former co-star Dan Aykroyd has revealed the project could be moving forward without him.

Appearing on radio host Denis Miller's show recently, the Blues Brothers star said, "We will be doing the movie and hopefully with Mr. Murray. That is our hope. (But) the concept is much larger than each individual role."

The actor also confirmed reports suggesting the new film will set up a series of new Ghostbusters films: "The promise of Ghostbusters 3 is that we get to hand the equipment and the franchise down to new blood.

"My character, Ray, is now blind in one eye and can't drive the cadillac. He's got a bad knee and can't pick up the pack.

"Egon (Harold Ramis) is too large to get into the harness. We need young blood and that's the promise. We're gonna hand it to a new generation."

Danner diagnosed with osteoporosis

The Meet The Fockers star was shocked when she was diagnosed with the thinning bone condition and she has since researched the problem and now realises its common among all women in their 50s and 60s.

She explains, "One in two women over the age of 50 will have a fracture-related osteoporosis. When I heard that, I thought, 'Woah! I better get on the case.'"

Danner is behind the launch of a new website, act2reducefractures.com, which offers advice and tips for fellow sufferers and proactive steps those approaching 50 about how to avoid osteoporosis.

Pressly avoids jail over DUI arrest

The Joe Dirt star was almost three times over the legal limit when she was booked.

Pressly was charged with two counts of driving under the influence and driving with a blood alcohol level of .08 or higher.

TMZ.com reports the first count has been dropped after she agreed a deal with prosecutors; she pleaded no contest to the second count on Thursday (25Aug11) and was placed on probation for three years.

The New Guys: The Diverse Next Generation Of Action Stars

While I like Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, and Michael Fassbender as much as the next girl, the current batch of rising stars in Hollywood are starting to look even more homogenous than usual. Put Sam Worthington, Chris Pine, and Andy Whitfield in a line, I’m not sure I could tell them apart. Let’s not even get started on Michael Cera and Jesse Eisenberg - their own mothers would confuse those two. We’ve heard that variety is the spice of life, but Hollywood doesn’t seem to be taking that lesson to heart. Here are some alternatives to the usual leading men of the big screen who we think could make the next great action stars.

1. Jason Momoa




The native Hawaiin star of Conan The Barbarian might not be a household name yet, but he’s on his way. Despite being consigned to generic beefcake (not that we mind beefcake) roles in Stargate: Atlantis and Game Of Thrones, Jason Momoa’s natural charisma made those roles memorable. Plus, at the young age of 32, he’s already achieved the platonic ideal of beefcake masculinity by filling Arnold’s sandals in the Conan The Barbarian remake. Of course, Momoa is more than just a pretty face (and abs) - the actor is currently writing the script for a Conan sequel. Momoa’s a representative from an older, 1980’s school of movie stars, which makes him unique in a land filled with Michael Ceras. Since Sylvester Stallone isn’t getting any younger, and Dwayne Johnson seems to have gotten distracted by stuff like Tooth Fairy, Momoa could be the next big action star.

2. Idris Elba

You can’t talk about Idris Elba without talking about Stringer Bell. Elba was riveting as Bell, The Wire’s most complex criminal; a man who could order a beloved character's death without remorse but was still a model student in his Econ class at the local community college. Since his heralded Wire role, Elba has gotten more mainstream exposure, leading his own BBC cop drama Luther, appearing on The Office, and nabbing a supporting role in Marvel’s Thor film. Anyone who can wear Heimdall’s golden disco-suit and still look badass certainly has enough charisma to lead a film. Fortunately for Elba fans, he’s set to star in Guillermo Del Toro’s science fiction epic Pacific Rim. Stringer Bell working with genre legend Del Toro, fighting space aliens in a giant robot suit? Legendary Pictures, you can shut up and take my money. To make the wait for 2013 more bearable, he’ll also be appearing in Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, due out next summer. While The Wire’s alumni have had mixed levels of success (ranging from solid lead roles to drug arrests), no one deserves mainstream success as much as Elba. Well, except Michael K. Williams.
3. Asano Tadanobu

Most Americans haven’t heard of Asano Tadanobu, but that’s likely to change over the next few years. The Japanese movie star has recently started to make international waves. His starring role in Mongol garnered critical praise in the west, showing that he can carry an epic (and one in a different language, to boot). Since then, he’s started taking smaller roles in Hollywood films, appearing in Thor and the upcoming Battleship. He’ll also star alongside Keanu Reeves in the American remake of the 47 Ronin. Plus, he’s already got his cult street cred down, from his role as scarred, blond badass Kakihara in Takashi Miike’s Ichi The Killer. It can be difficult to break into Hollywood as an international star, especially one who doesn’t speak English as his first language. But action films tend to level the playing field slightly, since dialogue isn’t as important as ability to look awesome with a sword in one hand and a blonde in the other. If Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jackie Chan can do it, why not Tadanobu?





4. and 5. Don Glover and Danny Pudi

We’re grouping this Community duo together because, honestly, we’re not sure if we could stand separating BFF’s Troy and Abed. While Community has one of the best ensembles on television at the moment, Danny PudI’s pop-culture fixated Abed and Donald Glover’s overenthusiastic Troy stand out as the funniest members of a painfully funny cast. Comedy and action cross over all the time - just look at Tropic Thunder or Pineapple Express - and either of these actors could make an ideal transition. (Community’s zombie outbreak and paintball showdowns already serve as mini action films in themselves.) Pudi’s already branching out a bit, taking a role in supernatural LARP comedy Knights of Badassdom, and appearing alongside genre-crosser Seth Rogen in My Mother’s Curse. Glover’s internet campaign to play Spider-Man in the new film didn’t make it off the ground, but that doesn’t mean that other action roles won’t swing his way.

6. Dev Patel

Poor Dev Patel didn’t get his action career off on the best foot. After gaining international attention for his role in Slumdog Millionaire, Patel appeared in the dismal M. Night Shyamalan adaptation The Last Airbender. While it may have been a bad career move, we can’t really hold his acting against him since Shyamalan has managed to make even established actors like Mark Wahlberg, Paul Giamatti and Joaquin Pheonix look silly. Patel’s got the charming everyman quality that Shia LeBeouf always seems to be trying for, but without the baggage of being involved in Transformers or Indiana Jones 4. His next major role, in English Oscar-bait flick The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel isn’t a step in the action direction, but should gain him back some critical cred after Airbender.



7. Gael Garcia Bernal

Go find a twentysomething year old woman. Go on, I’ll wait. Now ask her what she thinks of Gael Garcia Bernal. I’ll assume that you’re reading the next paragraph a couple of hours into the future, because I’ve yet to meet a woman who wouldn't talk for ages about this guy. Maybe it’s his homoerotic role in Y Tu Mama Tambien, or his passionate turn as a young Che Guevara in The Motorcycle Diaries. Or maybe it’s just his dreamy hazel eyes. But whatever it is, it makes him ideal as an action star. Women watch action flicks too, and it helps to have a hero who’s appealing to that demographic (think about Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean, or Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones, for instance). Bernal’s next few projects include starring with Al Pacino in Hands of Stone, and alongside Daniel Day Lewis in Martin Scorsese’s Silence - which is very impressive company for a young actor. It seems like Bernal is being groomed to join the Oscar-winning elite, but that doesn’t mean that he can’t slum it in an action film from time to time.


8. Chiwetel Ejiofor

Odds are, you’ve seen Chiwetel Ejiofor in something, be it as one of the five hundred characters in Love, Actually, the chilling Operative in Serenity, or the drag queen star of Kinky Boots. Ejiofor isn’t afraid to play outside the box, choosing roles diverse enough to rival Gary Oldman, and executing them all with flair. We know that he can pull off supporting action roles, from watching his thrilling turns in Serenity and Children Of Men, but Ejiofor has a unique, contained charisma that would make for an interesting action hero. He’s next appearing alongside James Caviezel in Savannah, and in historical drama Twelve Years A Slave, which should only improve Ejiofor’s exposure. Soon, he may stop being a “hey, it’s that guy” kind of actor and start being a “hey, it’s that awesome guy!” kind of actor.

Final 'Abduction' Poster Sends Taylor Lautner on the Run

I'll be blunt: I'm excited for Abduction.

Yes, the recent trailer makes it look like a Bourne Identity-lite starring Twilight's Taylor Lautner, but that's the charm. The September months can be a limbo for cinematic entertainment, a middle ground between blockbusters and Oscar fodder. Abduction, from what I can tell, is the perfect breather during that change of seasons.

Silly, slick and starring a teenage heartthrob, Abduction, directed by Oscar-nominated director John Singleton, takes the wait-why-didn't-anyone-tell-me-I'm-a-spy?! formula and injects it with a surprising amount of A-List supporting talent and Lautner's signature death stare. The final poster for the film supports the theory that the movie might be the most fun I have at a theater this September. Mostly because it has no qualms riffing on its predecessors.

Bring it on, Lautner! I fully expect you to defy physics while sliding down the face of a building. You promised.