…and a couple of other people. Kidding! This Means War stars Hardy along with Chris Pine and America’s Sweetheart, Reese Witherspoon, who appears to be trying to “sexy-up” her image. It’s been over a month since the first trailer dropped and we haven’t really heard anything since. Hardy’s been in the news, of course, filming The Dark Knight Rises (which finally just wrapped), but  I've been curious about This Means War since I first heard about it.  Hardy's first post-Inception gig , I’m more than a little skeptical about the fact that it’s a rom com. I’m well aware that what’s on the page and what an actor signs for isn’t necessarily what’s delivered to the viewing public and romcoms are inherently fraught with pitfalls for an actor. A bad one seems to burn up more cred than a bad drama or actioner for some reason. I may be alone in my thinking but,  from the trailer we saw it appears that this might actually have a little 'heft' to it, at least some action.

Hardy and Pine play spies, actually CIA agents, who inadvertently fall for the same woman, Witherspoon. Here's the official synopsis: The world’s deadliest CIA operatives are inseparable partners and best friends until they fall for the same woman. Having once helped bring down entire enemy nations, they are now employing their incomparable skills and an endless array of high-tech gadgetry against their greatest nemesis ever – each other.

With leads as likeable as Hardy and Pine, this has real potential, in my opinion. This Means War also stars Chelsea Handler, Abigail Spencer (currently filming Of Men and Mavericks with Gerard Butler), Angela Bassett, David Koechner, and Til Schweiger and opens February 17, 2012. Enjoy the new pics!

Okay these I like. Sure, it’s always nice to see Tom Cruise glowering out from beneath a hoodie, but we’ve been looking at that image from Mission:Impossible – Ghost Protocol for months. Who else ya got? Well, as we’ve known for some time, they’ve got Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton, Anil Kapoor, Michael Nyqvist, Lea Seydoux and some guy in a blue suit that I can only assume is Vladimir Mashkov. Okay, where’s Ving Rhames’ poster? Or Josh Holloway’s?

Well I guess it’s a start. These came from the film’s UK Facebook page, so it’s possible we’ll get more. In the meantime, What’s very cool about these is that we can kind of figure out who everyone is from their poster and the subtle differences in the tag lines. The IMF team of Ethan Hunt (Cruise), Brandt (Renner), Benji Dunn (Pegg) and Jane Carter (Patton) all get “No Plan. No Backup. No Choice.” Makes sense since we know from the trailers and clips that the team has been disavowed and are being framed for bombing the Kremlin and trying to kill the Russian President. All in a day’s work.

But then, on the posters for Kurt Hendricks (Nyqvist), and two other people who apparently have no names (at least according to imdb), the characters belonging to Lea Seydoux and Vladimir Mashkov, all have “No Plan. No Backup. No Mercy.” Are we to take from that that they are the villains? And where does that leave Brij Nath (Kapoor) whose poster says “No Plan. No Backup. No Secrets”? Are there no secrets because he knows them all? Is he a double agent of some sort? Hmmm…

The goodies are coming at us nearly nonstop now that the wait is thankfully getting shorter. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol opens in half the world (starting with Dubai where it will open the Dubai International Film Festival) between December 14-16, including US IMAX on the 16^th before opening wide in the US and Canada on December 21. The UK gets it on the 26^th.

Tyler Perry has been getting A LOT of flack for putting Kim Kardashian in his currently-filming movie the Marriage Counselor, so he addresses it with his fans because that's how Tyler does it! He's very open and takes the time to communicate with his legions of fans.

Let us know your thoughts on the matter. In his own words, Tyler explains the choice:

Hey guys,

I think many of you know that this is a very difficult time of year for me, so what I try to do is make sure that I’m working during this time. All I wanted to do was shoot a great film and try to keep my mind off the holiday grief that I have been experiencing for the past two years. I could not have imagined I’d be getting all these emails about Kim Kardashian. I HAVE SEEN THEM!! YOU HAVE BEEN HEARD!! …LOL. Now, may I say something? Can a brother get a word in?….LOL. Y’all gave me a new movie title, Tyler Perry’s “Diary of a Mad Black Woman Cause You Hired Kim Kardashian, Don’t Make Me Take Off My Earrings and Boycott Yo A**.”…LOL.  Some of my ladies are upset. Ok, all jokes aside, can I have my say? Will you at least here me out?

 

I was in a Mexican restaurant and the cutest little old woman stopped me and said, “I want to talk to you about KAR-DAT- CHA-NEM.” I said, “Ma’am?” She said, “What is wrong with you putting her in the lead role of your movie?” By the time I explained to her that she was not in the lead role and why I thought she should be in “The Marriage Counselor”, she said, “Oh, I see your point and I can’t wait to see the movie.” So, if you don’t mind, I’d like to share with you what I said to her then maybe you’ll see why I wanted her in the film.

This movie is about a young lady named Judith (Jurnee Smolett), who grew up in the countryside of Virginia in a trailer park. She was raised in the church by her mother Sarah (Ella Joyce). Judith married her childhood sweetheart Brice (Lance Gross) and had the perfect life until she graduated college and went to work in the big city.  After college, all she wanted to do was be a marriage counselor, but the only job she could find was working for a matchmaker named Janice (Vanessa Williams). Janice has several employees that work for her, including a woman named Ava (Kim Kardashian). Ava is constantly trying to influence Judith on everything from her shoes to her hair. Judith meets a man at work named Harley (Robbie Jones). Harley challenges everything in her life from her marriage to her husband to her faith. Meanwhile, Brice (Lance Gross), Judith’s husband works at a pharmacy owned by Mrs. Waco (Renee Taylor). Brice has just hired a coworker named Melinda (Brandy), who has some major demons that she is running from. In the end, the choices that both of these young women have made come crashing down on them and their lives will never be the same.  I wish I could tell you more, but I don’t want to ruin it for you.

After I finished writing this movie, I sat back and re-read it. Half way through my read, the gravity of what I had written hit me. I knew that this message was not only for my age group, but for all audiences, especially the youth.  ESPECIALLY THE YOUTH!!  YOUNG FOLKS NEED TO SEE THIS!!!   And not just the young people that follow me, but the young people that are following other young people, as well.  I wanted a younger cast, that’s why I put Jurnee in the lead and invited Lance Gross, Robbie Jones and Brandy.  About two months ago, long before I even heard about Kim’s marriage or divorce, I was trying to finish up the casting. I said to one of my producers, “who else is out there that young people are looking up to?” One of my producers showed me pictures that his daughter had taken of several hundred kids lined up around the corner to get into a Kardashian store. They wanted to meet Kim. I thought, what better person! She literally has millions of young people following her. I thought and still do think, that it would be very responsible of her to be a part of this film. To have the young people that look up to her, see her in a film that is about, what happens in life when you make the wrong choices. Whether you’re aware of it or not, to be honest with you I wasn’t, millions of young people adore her and are following her every move. If one of those young people see this film and find the strength to live a better life and not go through what these characters went through in this movie, then we have all done what I feel I’m being led to do here. I hope you understand. I really do!

And lastly, because I believe that my films speak from the inside out, why wouldn’t Kim Kardashian be invited into a film about Faith, Forgiveness and the healing power of God?  What is wrong with that??

I welcome your comments at http://www.tylerperry.com/talk.

 

Admit it, you needed a little of this, this morning…

The Descendants had its red carpet premiere Tuesday night in LA at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences headquarters. This is not to be confused with the red carpet galas in Venice or Toronto or any of the other world class film festivals where the movie has been feted since late August. Serial Monogamist Gorgeous George brought along his current squeeze, Stacy Keibler, to continue their PDA parade, just to make sure that Elisabetta Canalis (and everyone else) knows he’s moved on. The Descendants, director Alexander Payne’s first film since Sideways in 2004, is Clooney's second bid for awards attention this year after Ides of March, which he also directed.

We just had a new tv spot and now we’ve also got some new images, so along with the pics of all the pretty people (seriously, Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber are just too hot) who came out to support the film, including costars Shailene Woodley, Robert Forster, Beau Bridges, Judy Greer and Matthew Lillard and the other Hollywood types, there are some stills of the actual movie.

The Descendants opens this Friday November 18. Enjoy the pics!

Mariah Yeater is SO going down. TMZ has obtained text messages that occurred between Mariah and a friend whose identity is being protected but has been named 'John' where she not only identifies someone by the name of 'Robbie' as the father but tells this John dude to erase all messages from her mother that identifies Robbie as the father! What an evil little biatch. Then she  goes on to say this 'John' will get a cut of the money she's been trying to extort from Justin Bieber:

"ERASE ALL MESSAGES from my mom." "Ill kick u when we get paid."

Her middle name is Laci. Apparently TMZ has several of the messages but has published a photo of two of them. One of which reads:

"[John], would you please stress to Robbie how important it is for him to be in his son's life?.."

This 'John' person has shared the text messages with Justin's lawyer Howard Weitzman who tells TMZ:

"This information proves Mariah Yeater fabricated the story.  Our independent investigation indicates Ms. Yeater never meet Justin, she has consistently identified another man as the child's father, and Ms. Yeater and her co-conspirators hatched this scheme in order to extort money from him and to sell her story to the media."

"There have been no settlement discussions and there never will be."

Yesterday we reported that Mariah's paternity suit had been withdrawn. Later in the day reports were that the reason for withdrawing the suit was so that an out-of-court settlement could be worked out. 

While I would love to see Justin's team sue the crap out of Mariah I have to step back and think about that poor, innocent baby in all of this. Mariah losing everything would mean this baby's life would be really terrible, but then again evil biatches like this should not have kids.

Either way she is so busted.

Photo: TMZ

This is very exciting! We just had some new images from Disney Pixar’s Brave and now we’ve got a brand new trailer.  Brave is one of the films I am looking forward to the most for 2012, not least because I’ll be able to sit in the dark and listen to some authentic Scottish accents from some of my favorite authentic Scots (Kevin McKidd, Craig Ferguson, Billy Connolly, Robbie Coltrane, Kelly Macdonald among others).   It also looks incredibly beautiful, like an armchair (or theater seat as it were) tour through the Scottish Highlands.

The synopsis: Since ancient times, stories of epic battles and mystical legends have been passed through the generations across the rugged and mysterious Highlands of Scotland. In Brave, a new tale joins the lore when the courageous Merida (Kelly Macdonald) confronts tradition, destiny and the fiercest of beasts.

Merida is a skilled archer and impetuous daughter of King Fergus (Billy Connolly) and Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson). Determined to carve her own path in life, Merida defies an age-old custom sacred to the uproarious lords of the land: massive Lord MacGuffin (Kevin McKidd), surly Lord Macintosh (Craig Ferguson) and cantankerous Lord Dingwall (Robbie Coltrane). Merida's actions inadvertently unleash chaos and fury in the kingdom, and when she turns to an eccentric old Wise Woman (Julie Walters) for help, she is granted an ill-fated wish. The ensuing peril forces Merida to discover the meaning of true bravery in order to undo a beastly curse before it's too late.

Brave comes to theaters June 22 in the US and Canada, 17 August in the UK