Here’s something different! Sam Shepard is Butch Cassidy in Blackthorn, a new film by Spanish director Mateo Gil. You might not be familiar with his directorial efforts as this is the first film he’s directed in the English language but, he’s also the writer of The Sea Inside(with Javier Bardem), Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes) and its American remake Vanilla Sky (both starring Mrs. Bardem, Penelope Cruz) and Agora (with Rachel Weisz).

Blackthorn is the story of Butch Cassidy (now calling himself James Blackthorn and living in Bolivia after surviving the shootout with Bolivian Federales that killed The Sundance Kid) who pines for one last sight of home and his family before he dies and undertakes the long journey back. After a chance encounter, he finds himself aligned with a young robber and the duo become a target for gangs and lawmen alike.

There’s always room for a good old-fashioned western. The operative word being good. The genre does seem to be making something of a comeback although, since that seems to happen once a decade, the case can be made that westerns never really go out of vogue. In addition to this summer’s Cowboys & Aliens (which was at its core, a terrific western), in the last eight years alone we’ve had James Mangold’s remake of  3:10 to Yuma, Ed Harris’ Appaloosa and Kevin Costner’s Open Range. I’d stack any of those against anything by John Ford or  Andrew V. McLaglen. Sam Shepard, whose last western was 2007′s The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, with the mid-western twang of his voice full of whiskey and dust and long years and his craggy weather beaten face, seems perfectly cast  to take over the mantle of Butch Cassidy from Paul Newman. I’m willing to give this a shot, even if it did seem to come out of nowhere.

Here’s the full length trailer:

and a MovieWeb exclusive TV spot:

Blackthorn stars Sam Shepard, Eduardo Noriega, Stephen Rea, Nicolaj Coster-Waldau and Padraic Delaney. It comes to VOD today, September 2 but will get a limited theatrical release on October 7.

Stay connected with us! Follow us on Twitter, fan us on Facebook or subscribe to our RSS feed. We’d love to hear from you.

When you think Oscar host do you think Eddie Murphy? Whether you do or not, Eddie is apparently the front-runner to host the 2012 Oscar Awards.

Deadline has the exclusive that a meeting with Oscar producer Brett Ratner and the Academy president Tom Sherak will take place and Brett will be recommending only one name as host for the 84th Oscar Awards: Eddie Murphy.

The 50 year old comedian and actor hasn’t been seen in a lot of things recently but is going to be starring in Brett Ratner’s Tower Heist with Ben Stiller that is set to open November 4 and is receiving very promising buzz to be very funny.

However another name has been batted around recently and that is none other than Billy Crystal who does an amazing job at hosting the Oscars and has shown interest in hosting this year’s. Word is that he will be incorporated into the show somehow but with Eddie Murphy doing the main hosting.  If you ever watched Eddie Murphy on SNL or any of his other films (Beverly Hills Cop, Trading Places, 48 Hours and the list goes on) you know he is very gifted.

What do you think of Eddie Murphy as your Oscar host? The 84th Annual Oscars will take place February 26, 2012.

Stay connected with us! Follow us on Twitter, fan us on Facebook or subscribe to our RSS feed. We’d love to hear from you.

Photo: Andres Oteros/WENN

Rihanna spent time on her Labor Day weekend taking her little brother Rajad shopping at The Grove yesterday. He’s lucky to have such a nice sister and I can relate. I have the best sister ever!

Rihanna took Rajad to Nordstrom’s for some shoe shopping and then to the Game Stop for some Games’ shopping. What a nice big sister!

Do you love her outfit? Rihanna looks fierce and I must say I love her natural hair. The color and curliness is gorgeous and gorgeous on her! What do you think?

Stay connected with us! Follow us on Twitter, fan us on Facebook or subscribe to our RSS feed. We’d love to hear from you.

Photos: Owen Beiny/WENN

Along with the new International poster, we have a couple of short interviews for the upcoming action-adventure/spy drama Killer Elite. Didn’t I tell you this stuff was going to climb flying at us? (I saw a standee for K.E. at the theater yesterday when I saw The Debt and I got all excited!) Jason Statham, who brought his stubble, and Clive Owen, who brought the evil ‘tache, sat down to talk about making the film and working with first time director Guy McKendry and, of course, acting royalty Robert De Niro.

I know I’m not supposed to think this when looking at Jason Statham, but he is absolutely adorable when he smiles. In this clip he talks about his character, Danny Bryce, working with De Niro, working with the director, training for the role and the film’s story:

…and I could listen to Clive Owen talk for hours. Love that deep, rumbling voice. (He used to be #1 on my List of 5 Freebies until…well, you can guess…) In the first clip, Owen speaks to what attracted him to the project, his character, Spike, preparing for the role and the fight sequences.

In the second, he talks about working with Guy McKendry, what the film is about and who the “Feather Men” are:

Killer Elite opens everywhere September 23. Hopefully we’ll get a verdict from Fearless Leader after she sees it at TIFF!

Stay connected with us! Follow us on Twitter, fan us on Facebook or subscribe to our RSS feed. We’d love to hear from you.

Oh this is good! It’s the first actual clip from Tomas Alfredson’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy! Not only does it feature one of my personal faves, Mark Strong as Jim Prideaux, but it helps explain, to the uninitiated, the long and cryptic title.

In the clip, John Hurt as “Control”, the man at the top of the “Circus” (as we’ve been told in the trailers), otherwise known as Britain’s foreign intelligence agency (MI6). He briefs agent Prideaux (Strong) in the hunt for the mole, assigning code-names to each of the suspects in the hunt.

Now, this could all be considered a touch “spoiler-y” by some, but I don’t think so. I don’t think anything is revealed here that is going to make anyone not already familiar with the source material believe they have anything figured out. This one is a puzzle wrapped in an enigma, wrapped in a riddle.

Have I mentioned lately how much I’m looking forward to this?? We here in the colonies have to listen to the Brits lord it over us from 16 September, when Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is released over there, until December 9. it screens at the Venice Film Festival this week so all tolled, that’s more than three months of Twitter and Google alerts boasting about having seen the most incredible cast ever assembled in one place, including Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ciaran Hinds…*deep breath*…Don’t get me started. We talked about this already.

Stay connected with us! Follow us on Twitter, fan us on Facebook or subscribe to our RSS feed. We’d love to hear from you.

These blinds are all about the sex save for the last one. Then again this is Hollywood and isn’t it always about the sex? Gawker rules!

Any guesses?

1. ”When his wife was in labor at the hospital, this B list musician was getting pleasured by a nurse in a nearby room. This isn’t the first time he’s done this to her.” [BuzzFoto]

2. ”Which female director not really known for directing dislikes her most recent lead actress so much that she refuses to speak with her unless forced to by the circumstance. Turns out the lead actor had a thing for the actress and not the director, and the director was and is still ticked off about it.” [CDaN]

3. ”Two very popular actors. He is smoking hot, and everyone loves her. They are both good looking and at the top of their game. They’ve been spending a lot of time together and look like a sweet and happy couple. Not so fast. There’s no ring or proposal or engagement coming. This sweetheart and the sexy guy she’s been hanging around with are just friends. They can have fun and be silly and go for walks and eat dinner and support each other’s professional projects. The paparazzi get their photos, the two of them get publicity, and each of them sees their popularity rise while they tease a possible romance. A bearding friendship is so much less pressure than a bearding marriage. Yes, they’re both gay.” [Blind Gossip]

4. ”What former child actress who continues to still act and do a bunch of other things is trying to keep her separation a secret until after her latest promotional push because it is kind of the opposite of what she is selling.” [CDaN]

Stay connected with us! Follow us on Twitter, fan us on Facebook or subscribe to our RSS feed. We’d love to hear from you.