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ReelzChannel Celebrity Rundown
Legendary actor Peter O'Toole announced yesterday that he is retiring. The actor released a statement declaring that "it is time for me to chuck in the sponge. The heart for it has gone out of me: it won’t come back." The eight-time Best Actor nominee was probably best known for his roles in Lawrence of Arabia, The Lion in Winter and Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
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Rumors are swirling around Sofia Vergara and a new ring she's been wearing on her left hand. The actress has been celebrating her 40th birthday at a resort in Mexico accompanied by her on-and-off-again boyfriend Nick Loeb. A picture was posted on Twitter of the Modern Family star sporting a big diamond ring on her left hand, and that got the engagement speculations started. A rep for the actress told Peopleenespanol.com that she is not currently engaged and that the ring was just a loaner from a jeweler.
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Another recent celeb rumor was shot down this week. Seth Meyers was said to be the frontrunner to co-host Live! with Kelly starting this fall, but he denied the reports. He didn't beat around the bush when he talked the Orlando Sun-Sentinel saying "No, no, no, no, no." Meyers said he is excited to be at Saturday Night Live for an election year season and has no intention of leaving right now.
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Rainn Wilson announced earlier this week that he is launching a new YouTube Channel, SoulPancake, and he promised that if they reached 5,000 subscribers he would post a video of himself meditating in a Speedo. Right now, the channel has already exceeded its goal by about 600 subscribers and the promised video was posted. A word of warning: once the image of Rainn Wilson in a Speedo has been seen, it cannot be unseen. Now Wilson has upped the ante and has declared that if the channel reaches 10k he will give a random senior citizen a piggy-back ride across the street.
Posted 07.11.12 by Mandy -
Writer-director James Gunn has been relatively quiet of late about his upcoming "superhero" movie Super, which follows a short order cook named Frank (Rainn Wilson) who decides to fight crime as a costumed superhero after his wife (Liv Tyler) leaves him for a drug dealer (Kevin Bacon).
Gunn originally wrote Super in 2003, but wasn't able to make it until years later, when Gunn's "email buddy" and comic book writer Mark Millar had started writing Kick-Ass, which featured a similar storyline about a high school teenager who decides to fight crime alongside a younger, female sidekick. While Super also has a sidekick in Ellen Page, Gunn pointed out last September that his "movie could live with four superhero movies of guys without super powers" and that Super is "a little darker" than Kick-Ass. To prove it, Gunn has released the first poster for the movie, which adds the tagline, "he'll totally f**king beat evil.
A new preview clip for the movie is also online, shown during Rainn's appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman. The clip shows the first meeting between Rainn and Page.
watch the clip >> Posted 02.26.11 by Ryan -
Director Barry Blaustein's upcoming Peep World isn't the first movie about a dysfunctional family, but it is the first to cast Michael C. Hall, Sarah Silverman, and Rainn Wilson as siblings driven to the brink by their youngest brother's (Ben Schwartz) tell-all book airing the family's dirty secrets. Hall plays the responsible one in the family, while Silverman plays an unemployed actress, Wilson is the black sheep, and Schwartz is their father's favorite.
IFC has released an official trailer for the movie, which is finally opening in March after failing to make an impact when it debuted at the Toronto Film Festival last year. The impressive ensemble also includes Taraji P. Henson, Judy Greer, and Ron Rifkin.
watch the trailer >> Posted 02.02.11 by Ryan -
A new clip from writer-director James Gunn's upcoming violent black comedy, Super, debuted during the 2010 Spike TV Scream Awards and now it has been released online. The independent "superhero" movie about an everyman (Rainn Wilson) who dons a costume to go after the drug dealer (Kevin Bacon) who has seduced his wife (Liv Tyler), has struggled to avoid comparisons to Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass, which also features non-powered people in costumes fighting crime, but this new clip shows that the violence in Super is far more realistic and gritty than the stylized violence in Vaughn's movie. Warning: This clip is NSFW!
Super debuted in September at the Toronto International Film Festival and is expected to get a limited theatrical release later this year. Ellen Page, Linda Cardellini, and Nathan Fillion also star.
Posted 10.23.10 by BrentJS -
James Gunn is known amongst horror fans for writing the screenplay for 2004's Dawn of the Dead, directing 2006's Slither and stealing producer Brian Grazer's haircut, but this year sees Gunn expand his reputation to the comic book world with Super, which follows Rainn Wilson as a short order cook who decides to become a superhero when his wife (Liv Tyler) leaves him for a drug dealer (Kevin Bacon). The movie premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, where IFC picked up the distribution rights, ending Gunn's long history with Super, one he explained to SuperHeroHype began in 2003.
This was a script I wrote in 2003. It was gonna be a short film and I just kept writing and it got long, that's all. So I fell in love with the script. It was something I really wanted to tell. I had producers back in 2005, Chuck Roven, who produced The Dark Knight, and I even had backing. I had a lot more money for the movie at that time too from this other company, but we couldn't agree on a lead actor.
What about Kick-Ass? Do they compare? >> Posted 09.18.10 by Ryan -
The cast of writer-director James Gunn's labor of love Super, currently in production in Louisiana, has been filled out with the addition of 11 more cast members. According to ComingSoon, Nathan Fillion, Linda Cardellini, and nine others join Rainn Wilson, Kevin Bacon, and Liv Tyler in the "super" hero movie. Nine of the 11 additions are actors that Gunn has worked with previously.
These are people I like and admire but with whom I also share common creative goals. It helps imbue Super with an uncommon life, warmth, and energy. Super is an act of love for all of us, and it's wonderful having the people I love the most helping me make it.
Described by Gunn as a "dark, comedic, gritty, very unusual, and grounded" on his personal website, Super tells the story of a regular guy (Wilson) who becomes the costumed hero The Crimson Bolt to win back his wife (Tyler) from a drug dealer (Bacon). Fillion will portray the pop icon who inspires Frank's transformation from "zero" to "hero," while Cardellini will play a potential love interest.
Posted 01.19.10 by BrentJS -
Writer-director James Gunn has been developing his new picture, Super, for years and the final pieces of the pre-production puzzle are finally falling into place with the addition of another lead actor and a new producer. According to Screen Daily, Amanda Marshall of Ambush Entertainment has joined the production team and Kevin Bacon has signed on to star opposite Rainn Wilson.
Super tells the story of an ordinary man (Wilson) who puts on a superhero costume and goes out in search of the drug dealer (Bacon) who has charmed away his wife (Liv Tyler). First announced via his personal website back in September, Gunn said that Super is "not a spoof" of superhero movies, but rather a "dark, comedic, gritty, very unusual, and grounded film" with themes of "love, violence, perseverance, and faith."
Gunn was recently quoted as saying that Bacon is the perfect actor for the role of Jacques, the drug dealer, because of his range.
Kevin Bacon is one of the few actors nimble enough to give life to Jacques, our supervillain with a nice streak. We need to love Jacques even while he's doing horrible things – Kevin is one of the only actors I know who can pull that off.
Super will also star Ellen Page as Libby, a "kid sidekick" to Wilson's costumed alter-ego the Crimson Bolt.
Posted 12.20.09 by BrentJS -
When a genre is hot at the box office, there's bound to be a few spoof movies released in the hopes of cashing in on the trend. So it's no surprise that yet another comedic poke at superheroes is on its way to the big screen. Variety reported last night that Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, and Liv Tyler will team up for Super, a comedy about an average guy (Wilson) with no powers who dons a superhero costume after his wife (Tyler) falls under the spell of a drug dealer.
Shortly following the announcement, the writer and director of Super, James Gunn, updated his personal website to reflect the news.
I have never loved a screenplay more than Super and have been working on it for years. Rainn and I have been working together on the project for a few months now — Rainn will be playing the lead role of Frank D'Arbo who dresses up as a superhero called the Crimson Bolt; he's got no superpowers other than a pipe wrench.
This is not a wacky, over-the-top comedy. Super is a dark, comedic, gritty, very unusual, and grounded film and I think Ted is just the guy to help us get it done right. Being that this is a low-budget, independent movie that takes a lot of risks, Rainn, Ted, and I didn't really expect to get big names for the other cast members — so you can imagine how shocked we were to get our first choices for the two female leads — Ellen Page and Liv Tyler! They're both amazing actresses and awesome people and I can't wait to work with them!! Liv will be playing Sarah, Frank's wife, who leaves him for a drug dealer, and Ellen will play the role of Libby, a young sociopath who dons a costume and forces herself into Frank's life as his "kid sidekick."
Gunn went on to say that Super will be "The Passion for rebels, oddballs, fanboys, and freaks everywhere." Production is expected to begin in December.
Posted 09.11.09 by BrentJS -
A scathing email from director Michael Bay to executives at Paramount Studios has leaked, complaining about the lack of marketing for this week's release of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen:
You all talk so glowingly about Transformers being the movie of the summer but unfortunately this has not gotten to the public. I still run into so many people even this weekend with kids that ask "is that movie coming out this year?".
In the email, dated May 4, Bay goes on to speculate that the problem might be financial:
I cannot figure if this is a cash issue with your company? Is there some clever idea why are we not spending? I'm not sure. I'm sure the movie will do fine, but not to your internal expectations because right now we are fooling ourselves by being cocky.
In a second leaked email, dated June 6, Bay sounds conciliatory, but it's hard to tell the intended tone:
I've been working a month and a half seven days a week and wonder why I bust my ass for Paramount??
Why? Because you have treated me so well. Paramount is like family. Thank you all for busting your butts and bringing your 'A game' for the release of Transformers.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen stars Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, John Turturro, Rainn Wilson, and Josh Duhamel.
Posted 06.22.09 by BrentJS -
In what might be the polar opposite of his role as Dwight Schrute in TV's hit The Office, Rainn Wilson plays "The Fish" -- trading his Regional Manager duds for really tight spandex and pleather. Priscilla Hojiwala sat down with him to talk about living the life of a rock star, which included trashing a hotel room and kissing Christina Applegate. Find out more about his comic -- and surprisingly touching -- work in The Rocker in our interview with Rainn Wilson.
Posted 08.21.08 by reelz