�Mission Impossible 4� to be filmed in Dubai

The fourth sequel of action blockbuster �Mission Impossible� starring Oscar-winning actor Tom Cruise will be partly filmed in Dubai, the Gulf Arab emirate�s media office said today.

Dubai, a regional tourism and trading centre, is slowly emerging from a debt crisis following a crash of its property market after a global financial downturn. The slowdown led to billions of dollars in project cancellations and thousands of job losses.

Tom Cruise will star in �Mission Impossible 4� to be filmed in Dubai.





�Preparations for filming in Dubai have been agreed with the production company, Paramount, following two months of meetings and location scouting,� the media office said in a statement.

�Actual filming of the project, that will attract more than 400 industry professionals, is expected to commence within a few weeks,� it added.

Dubai has been on a mission to become a Singapore-style global business and leisure centre with fast living and no income tax.

As part of its ambitions, it has strived to become a movie hub in the region, launching a film festival to much fanfare in 2004, and marketing itself as a one-stop-shop for international movie production with projects such as Dubai Studio City (DSC).

Government-run Dubai Media Incorporated will provide technical and staff support for the production of the movie, while DSC will assist with technical and logistic support. The film will be directed by Brad Bird, known for pictures such as �The Incredibles� which grossed more than $261 million (RM807.53 million) in box office takings in 2004, and �Ratatouille�, which won the Oscar for best animated film in 2007.

Cosmopolitan Dubai has become a magnet for celebrities and movie stars with its luxury hotels, overlooking soft sandy beaches, palm-shaped man-made islands, and a skyline boasting the world�s tallest tower.

De Niro, Norton down for acting rematch in �Stone�

�Stone,� an ambiguous and dark drama premiering at the Toronto Film Festival, may not be an easy story for some audiences , but the nuanced tale was a draw for acting heavyweights Robert De Niro and Edward Norton (picture).

�I always liked the script,� De Niro said of �Stone,� which deals with hypocrisy and guilt, and is set in the rapidly decaying environs of post-recesson Detroit.

�I thought the whole thing had an interesting tone and feel about it,� the Oscar winner told Reuters in an interview.

De Niro plays Jack Mabry, a prison parole officer just days from retirement who has to deal with the manipulative Gerald �Stone� Creeson as one of his final assignments.

Played menacingly by Norton with cornrows and a hard stare, Stone is not above using his sexy wife Lucetta � model-actor Milla Jovovich in a shift from her �Resident Evil� action films � as the bait to force Jack to recommend an early release.

However, the line between criminal and upstanding citizen blur as Stone undergoes a spiritual transformation, while Jack�s encounters with Lucetta pressure his already decaying marriage and force him to compromise his own principles.

None of the characters are easy to sympathize with, and the film�s ending could best be described as ambiguous.

�I think that most of the films that I�ve really been affected by in my life have been the ones that really left me with a lot of questions in my head, a lot to think about,� Norton told Reuters.

De Niro-Norton rematch

The pairing of De Niro and Norton, considered among the greats of their respective acting generations, reunites the co-stars of the 2001 heist flick �The Score.�

But Norton said it took some convincing to get him to sign on. �At first the script was a little bit elusive for me. I didn�t really get it,� until director John Curran won him over, he said.

�But I definitely thought it was great to work with somebody a second time. (De Niro) has a very particular way of working.�

De Niro � known for immersing himself completely in roles, such as when he gained 60 pounds to play boxer Jake La Motta in �Raging Bull� � will often go off script in the middle of a scene to get a more authentic response from his co-stars.

�He really makes you earn scenes. He can be very resistant to doing things that just are following scripts. If you don�t earn the response, he kind of won�t give it to you,� Norton said. �It�s very bracing, actually.

While the scenes with Norton and De Niro might be a delight for film buffs who enjoy a good old acting showdown, the film, which hits theaters October 8 has earned mixed initial reviews.

Kirk Honeycutt of the Hollywood Reporter calls it an �unconvincing melodrama that few viewers are willing to buy.�, while Erik Childress of Cinematical says the film is �thrilling for what we�re left to ponder afterwards more than any suspense inherit in the interaction during it.�

Norton admitted that moviegoers looking for the characters to redeem themselves at the end of the film may come away disappointed, but he said the film�s strength lies in its ambiguity and unanswered questions.

�I see a lot of really crappy movies that are making sure you understand that redemption took place and they just put me to sleep,� he said.

�Everything doesn�t get redeemed in life, and I don�t think that�s the only thing that makes a movie have an impact.�

Firth stammers to success in �The King�s Speech�

The story of the man who would rather not be king is stealing Oscar buzz at the Toronto International Film Festival this week, with Colin Firth (picture) as the monarch who overcame a debilitating stammer to do the job.

�The King�s Speech� stars Firth as Britain�s George VI. It centers on the monarch�s relationship with an Australian speech therapist, played by Geoffrey Rush, as his brother abdicates and kingship is quite literally thrust upon him.

�This movie has best picture and best actor nominations written all over it,� Hollywood Reporter�s Risky Business blog wrote. �And maybe best screenplay, best director and best supporting actor too.�

George VI, known to the family as Bertie, had never expected to inherit the throne. But his older brother, Edward VIII, stepped down in 1936 so he could marry a twice-divorced commoner, American Wallis Simpson, and Bertie became the king who would lead Britain into war against Nazi Germany.

�Most stories about kingship are about the pursuit of power, the seductions of power and the corruptions of power,� director Tom Hooper told reporters this weekend.

�This is a story about a man who absolutely at the core of body did not want to be king, did not want the job and tried to avoid it. When you see this story, there�s no way you can look at it and say how lucky the British monarchy is. It comes with a curse, and he rises to meet it.�

Some of the most painful scenes in the movie show Firth tongue-tied in front of a microphone, unable to shape a single word. His audience watches, concerned, embarrassed, sometimes even distressed.

Firth, nominated for an Oscar for last year�s �A Single Man,� said one of the challenges in the movie was finding a tempo for a story that centers on an individual who really can�t string two words together.

�This is a guy who takes 20 minutes to get a word out. It�s hard to pace that one,� he said. �How much can we afford to dwell on painful silences? Having established them, can we afford to perhaps pick up the pace a bit?�

But the movie is also about trust and class, as Bertie is forced to shed his royal reserve to work with a therapist whose methods are unconventional at least.

Rush, an Oscar winner for �Shine� in 1997 and a two-time nominee, plays Lionel Logue, an Australian transplanted to a dark and grimy London. He insists on calling the king by his family nickname, Bertie, and wants Bertie to call him Lionel in return.

�There�s this class and cultural divide between an imperial figure and a very anonymous colonial guy,� Rush said.

New �Resident Evil� rules world box office

�Resident Evil: Afterlife,� the fourth film in a zombie franchise starring Milla Jovovich, topped the worldwide box office during its first weekend, but could not prevent overall sales in North America from hitting their lowest level in two years.

The videogame-derived film earned US$73.2 million (RM234 million), of which US$27.7 million came from the United States and Canada where it was the only major new release, distributor Screen Gems said yesterday.

Jovovich reprises her starring role in the latest instalment for the �Resident Evil� franchise




Even with earnings boosted by premium pricing for 3D engagements, the gross handily beat forecasts and the openings for the previous films in the series.

Internationally, �Afterlife� earned US$45.5 million from 29 markets, opening at No. 1 in most of them, including Japan (US$15.5 million), Russia (US$9.5 million), Spain (US$3.4 million) and Britain (US$2.9 million).

The previous film, �Resident Evil: Extinction,� opened to US$23.7 million in North America, and US$17.4 million in those same 29 markets two years ago. It ended up with US$146 million worldwide.

Screen Gems, the mid-budget arm of Sony Corp, collaborated on development and production with German producer Constantin Film. The new one cost Sony about US$52 million. It was written and directed by Paul WS Anderson, Jovovich�s husband, who originated the franchise in 2002.

In North America, �Afterlife� earned more than the combined total of the next six films as overall sales slumped in the weekend following the Labour Day holiday, the traditional end of the lucrative summer movie-going season.

Sales for the top 12 films totalled about US$68 million, according to the box office analysis division of Hollywood.com. This ranks as the lowest total since the September 5-7 weekend of 2008, when the top 12 pulled in just US$50 million.

Screen Gems also claimed the No. 2 movie in North America as the heist thriller �Takers� earned US$6.1 million, rising one place; its total stands at US$48.1 million after three weekends.

Last weekend�s top film, Focus Features� George Clooney assassin drama �The American,� dropped to No. 3 with US$5.9 million, for a 12-day haul of US$28.3 million.

Rounding out the top five were the violent exploitation homage �Machete� with US$4.2 million, and Drew Barrymore�s latest romantic comedy bomb �Going the Distance� with US$3.8 million. Their respective 10-day totals rose to US$20.8 million and US$14 million.

Focus Features is a unit of General Electric Co�s NBC Universal. �Machete� was released by 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp. �Going the Distance� was released by Warner Bros. Pictures, a unit of Time Warner Inc.

�Aftershock� closes in on all-time record

Director Feng Xiaogang�s earthquake epic Aftershock is closing in on China�s all-time box office record � but rather than rejoicing, the production house behind the film is starting to sweat.

Such has been the unprecedented interest in the fortunes of the film � following the director�s boast last year that it would become the first-ever Chinese production to surpass 500 million yuan (RM233 million) � that producers and co-distributors the Huayi Brothers are remaining tight-lipped about just how and where the money is coming from.





Aftershock � which follows the fortunes of a group of survivors of China�s 1976 Tangshan earthquake � opened on around 4,000 screens around China on July 22 and has now collected more than 400 million yuan overall.

That figure includes receipts from China�s IMAX theaters which � for the very first time � opened a film at same time as regular cinemas.

IMAX screens picked up 4.3 million yuan on the film�s opening weekend � from its overall 160 million yuan. But Huayi Brothers have this week refused to be drawn on the make-up of the film�s now-400 million yuan, telling the film industry website Film Business Asia it had become a �very sensitive subject.��

There has been some controversy over Chinese box office figures in recent years � for both local and foreign releases � with some studios being accused of inflating numbers to grab more headlines. The raw data, meanwhile, is usually released by the Chinese government.

The previous highest-grossing Chinese film was last year�s The Founding of a Republic � made to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of China�s People�s Republic � which took in an estimated 410 million yuan. Avatar sees the all-time record for any film released in China by earlier this year raking in around 1.3 billion yuan.

Meanwhile, the Hollywood box office smash Inception � which has now collected an estimated US$370 million (RM1.16 billion) worldwide has had its mainland China release date brought forward by almost a month � to September 2 � to avoid running into local productions which will be released for the country�s �Golden Week�� of holidays which begin with the October 1 National Day.

The period is traditionally a peak time for films in China as families gather for a week of feasts and celebrations.

'Eclipse' Scene: Check Out A Sneak Peek Before MTV Movie Awards!

Last month, when we told you Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner would be on hand at the MTV Movie Awards to present a never-before-seen clip from "Eclipse," fans went wild trying to guess just what footage they'd get. Would it be the part where Edward Cullen proposes to Bella Swan? That much-hyped tent scene that co-star Elizabeth Reaser called a "chaste three-way"?



Well, the full clip won't be unleashed until the Movie Awards this Sunday, but it's just cruel to make you wait that long to find out what you'll be getting on show night. So we pushed and we pulled, we twisted arms and engaged in activities that might be illegal in some countries � and voil�: a teaser clip of the "Eclipse" scene to come.

As you can see by hitting play on the embedded video, the scene features Edward, Bella and Jacob in a parking lot. A bit of this footage cropped up in the trailer that dropped in April, but the full clip promises to show much more than anyone has yet seen.

In the teaser, a concerned-looking Jacob approaches Edward and Bella. "Look, I'm here to warn you," he tells him. "If your kind come on our land again ... "

"You should leave now," Edward responds.

As Twilighters know, the three of them are about to be pulled into an epic confrontation with the nefarious vampire Victoria and her band of newborn bloodsuckers. At the moment, though, both these men who love Bella are still butting heads.

Tune in Sunday night to check out the full clip during the Movie Awards. Pattinson, Stewart and Lautner will be introducing the scene live and in person. What's more, co-star Chaske Spencer will be MTV International's official red-carpet correspondent, reporting live from the scene outside the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California, where some of Hollywood's biggest names will be stopping by to chat.

And then, of course, there will be the awards themselves. "New Moon" is up in five categories: Best Movie, Best Female Performance (Stewart), Best Male Performance (Pattinson and Lautner), Best Kiss (Stewart and Pattinson) and Global Superstar (Stewart, Pattinson and Lautner). Fan voting in all these categories is now under way at MovieAwards.MTV.com and will stay open through Saturday. Head over to make sure your favorite stars and movies triumph on the big night.



In THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE, Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger as Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between Edward and Jacob � knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella is confronted with the most important decision of her life.

James Franco to star in "Rise of the Apes"

James Franco has his damn dirty paws on the lead role in "Rise of the Apes," a prequel to the "Planet of the Apes" franchise.

The Fox feature focuses on a scientist (Franco) who has been testing a cure for Alzheimer's on apes. The test subject named Caesar starts to evolve rapidly, and the scientist takes him home and protects him from cruel doctors.



The story is designed to be show the modern-day event that set in motion the eventual dominance of apes over humans seen the classic 1960s and '70s movies. It is unclear how much of the movie will focus on the ape inciting an ape revolution, but given that Peter Jackson's WETA effects house is on board, the monkey play could be significant.

The apes will not be actors in costumes but rather rendered digitally to be photo-realistic by New Zealand-based WETA, employing certain of the groundbreaking technologies developed for "Avatar."

The movie will shoot this summer in British Columbia. Rupert Wyatt is on board to direct.

Franco's credits include the "Spider-Man" films and "Milk."

�Grey�s� pumps finale full of suspense

 
Yes, Dr. Derek Shepherd has plenty to look gloomy about on the season finale of "Grey's Anatomy." A shooter is on the loose in the hospital, and that's not even the end of it

There are a few ways to look at the jam-packed two-hour season finale of "Grey's Anatomy." It was a cleaning-out of a couple of characters that were going nowhere; it was a whirlwind tour through a bunch of long and drawn-out romantic story lines; and it gave several actors massive, Emmy-baiting showcases.



But mostly, it was an absorbing and suspenseful story that went just a little off the rails from the sheer amount of business heaped upon it.

It began with Gary Clark, who's been suing the hospital over the death of his wife. He showed up with a gun and almost immediately did away with the little used Dr. Reed Adamson, one of the Mercy West imports, in the supply room.

More significantly, he shot Alex, who dragged himself into an elevator where he waited patiently to be discovered � much like Carter once did in the famous "Carter and Lucy get stabbed" sequence on "ER," in the shadow of which this episode inevitably exists. When Reed's body was discovered, the hospital went into lockdown.

Meanwhile, Lexie and Mark found Alex and dragged him into a conference room, where Mark cut him open and Lexie stuffed balled-up surgical gloves in his mouth to keep him from screaming. (Seriously, pretty intense, this whole thing.) Their battle to save Alex was on.

In the most harrowing story of the episode, Clark came into the room where Bailey was hiding with Percy and a patient named Mary (played by Mandy Moore). Bailey heard Clark ask Percy if he was a surgeon, and when Percy said yes, Clark shot him. So when Clark dragged Bailey out from under the bed (yikes!) and asked her if she was a surgeon, she lied and said she was a nurse. Once Clark left, Bailey's battle to save Percy was on.

Meanwhile, Meredith was elsewhere in the hospital, happily learning that she was pregnant. But before she could tell Derek, Clark found and shot him as a horrified Cristina and Meredith looked on from the opposite walkway. (It must be said: It was a very nicely composed sequence). Meredith and Cristina's battle to save Derek was on.

Down in the OR, Owen and Teddy were mid surgery when the lockdown began. They had to move the patient, making Avery the only one there to receive Meredith and Cristina when they brought Derek in. This left only Cristina to do Derek's surgery.

But when Clark found them (he really got around), he put a gun to Cristina's head and demanded she stop working on Derek. A horrified Meredith and a conveniently arriving Owen looked on as Avery bluffed Clark into thinking Derek was dead long enough for Clark to leave � and then, naturally, they saved Derek's life anyway.
Alex was spared, too. Lexie barely survived an encounter with Clark herself, then announced to the half-conscious Alex that she loved him. This fact was not lost on Mark, who proposed to her last week. Lexie didn't even mind when Alex briefly mistook her for Izzie in a state of delirium, so their relationship seemingly is on track.

Not everybody is so lucky: Owen picked Cristina over Teddy, but Cristina had already dumped him by then, so it's not quite clear whether she intends to take him back.

But you can't win them all. When Bailey heroically dragged Percy through the corridors of the hospital only to find that the elevators were stopped for the lockdown, she realized there was no way to get him to the OR and that he would die. She sat on the floor with him, cradled his head in her lap and stayed with him until he died. So that's two Mercy Westers who didn't find spots in the story and got themselves killed as a result.

Much of the episode worked, until one part that felt like it had been tacked on for no good reason: Meredith miscarried while all the madness in the OR was developing.

There was a lot to like about the episode: Bailey's devastated explosion of temper at the elevators, Cristina's speech to Meredith about how she herself couldn't operate on Derek with Meredith in the room, and the scene in which Webber calmly talked Clark into killing himself to end the standoff.

But the miscarriage felt very much like an add-on, not quite earned. Having a pregnancy announced and lost in the same episode seems manipulative, and not really up to what was going on the rest of the time.
The other unsuccessful segment involved Arizona and Callie, who once again bickered annoyingly during an otherwise tense and serious story. They then got back together once again because they papered over their child issues again, with Arizona apparently agreeing to have kids even though she still doesn't actually seem to want them.

All in all, it was a very well-done finale, but it got away from the writers just a little at the end. With the shooter seemingly everywhere you didn't want him and everyone trapped with precisely the most dramatic person possible, it got a little ridiculous.

But in the end, the acting � including big nights for Chandra Wilson, Sandra Oh and Ellen Pompeo � carried it off.

Executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse reflect on wrapping up 'Lost'

THEY GET 'LOST': Damon Lindelof, left, and Carlton Cuse.

"Lost" executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse may be the most interrogated men in America. The leaders of "Lost" -- the ABC sci-fi mind-bender that ends its run Sunday -- have spent the better part of six years being bombarded by questions about what's happening on the island. This weekend, they're expected to deliver answers. How are they coping with the pressure? We snagged Q&A time with them in New York and found out.



Are you worried about the finale and how people are going to respond to it? Or are you just trying not to think about it?

Cuse: I think we're actually kind of excited about it. We've known large parts of the finale for a long time and I think it's like we're finally going to get a chance to end the show and see how people respond to it. We're really proud of the finale.

On some level it's hard because how the audience reacts is kind of out of our control. What we can do is basically make the best version of the end of the show that we knew how to do. And we feel like we made the version of the finale we wanted to make.

After the last moment of the show, what would you say is the emotion most people are most likely to feel?

Cuse: I hope sadness. If you go to a movie and it's a great experience, the experience at the end of it is always like this sadness that it's over, that your time with these characters is finished.

Lindelof: There's two things that are going to happen when the show ends. The first feeling is going to be based on what you just watched, the actual content. And the other is the feeling that you have as a result of knowing that the show is actually over. And some people are going to confuse the two.

And I think one of the really brilliant things about "The Sopranos" [finale] as a storyteller is the artistry of it, which Carlton and I have talked about ad nauseum. Basically David Chase said: I'm going to take away from you the first feeling, which is that feeling of "The show's over. How do I feel about that?" -- and he replaced it with "What just happened? Did my cable go out? I'm a little surprised by this." So the idea that the show ended so abruptly, as opposed to, we moved out of the diner and he played the emotion of, ah, this is the final shot of "The Sopranos" -- this is what it is.

We did the exact opposite. We leaned into the emotion. And you know, we tried to take those two feelings and make them the same, which is that what you're watching on the screen is exactly the same as "The show is ending."

After the series ends, you're going into radio silence and not speaking publicly about the finale. Do you know what the statute of limitations on that silence will be?

Cuse: No

Lindelof: The interpretive element of "Lost," the fact that you immediately need as soon as the episode is over to seek out a community of people to express your own thoughts about it, understand what they thought about it and form an opinion, that's the bread and butter of the show. The more we talk about what our intention was, the more we take it away from the audience. And we have no interest in doing that, ever.

Movie review: 'Shrek Forever After' aims for

 
The last installment of the "Shrek" franchise finds the green ogre (voice of Mike Myers) in a world in which he has never been born thanks to villainous Rumpelstiltskin

The Shrek we meet at the start of "Shrek Forever After" is a shell of an ogre: mean and green on the outside, but all mellow yellow inside. Married life and fatherhood have made him soft, and no longer scary. Gone are the angry mobs who used to chase him with pitchforks, replaced by some obnoxious brat at his triplets' birthday party, who keeps demanding, "Do the roar!" as if Shrek were just another celebrity with a worn-out catchphrase.



Can this be the monster that we know and love, or is he merely going through the motions, catering to the clamoring crowds that want to see him do what he's always done, one more time?

The same thing might be asked of the movie, the fourth and supposedly final chapter in the animated series. Has "Shrek Forever After" still got it, or is it just a crass attempt to cash in on a now-tired franchise?

Believe it or not, there's life in the old boy yet. After a disappointing third outing, this "Shrek" brings the cycle of fairy-tale-themed films to a fine finish.

The premise itself will sound familiar. Not from earlier Shrek movies, but from the 1946 "It's a Wonderful Life." In an attempt to get back some of his mojo, if only for a day, Shrek (voice of Mike Myers) finds himself in the position of George Bailey, in a world in which he has never been born.

That's because he makes a magical deal with Rumpelstiltskin (Walt Dohrn). Shrek gets 24 hours to live the life he used to have, before fame and family came along. In return, Rumpelstiltskin gets to take a day from Shrek's life.

Our hero should have read the fine print more carefully. Rumpelstiltskin picks the day Shrek was born, meaning that, while Shrek now finds himself in a world unencumbered by diapers and responsibility, it's also a world in which all the good he's done has had no effect. He wasn't there to rescue his wife, Fiona (Cameron Diaz), from her tower prison. Rumpelstiltskin is now king, and his kingdom is a police state, run by witches who hunt down ogres and toss them in jail. Fiona is the Amazonian leader of the ogre resistance movement.

Fortunately, there's an escape clause: If he and Fiona share one "true love's kiss," Shrek gets his old life back. All he has to do is make Fiona fall in love with him -- all over again. If he doesn't, he'll evaporate come sunrise.

That much is reminiscent of the first two movies, which also revolved around the power of a transformative kiss. But there's enough here that's clever and new -- and at times very funny -- to keep things from feeling stale.

Many beloved old characters return, only much transformed. Gingy the gingerbread man (Conrad Vernon) is now a scarred professional gladiator, fighting animal crackers in an arena for sport. Donkey (Eddie Murphy) is a mangy beast of burden, pulling the paddy wagon into which Shrek is thrown after he's captured. Most hilariously, Puss (Antonio Banderas) can no longer fit into his boots, having put on well more than a few pounds as Fiona's pampered pet.

Among the new characters, Rumpelstiltskin makes for a perfect villain. Vain, insecure and ridiculous in an assortment of constantly changing wigs, he's a pleasure to boo and hiss at.

The Pied Piper also makes an indelible debut, without ever uttering a word. Hired by Rumpelstiltskin to round up ogres, he carries a high-tech flute with him -- it has settings for rats, witches, ogres, etc. -- that makes dancers out of whatever and whomever he wants, to consistently amusing effect. If you liked the episode of "Glee" where the football team shakes it, improbably, to Beyonc�'s "Single Ladies," you'll love the sight of hulking, line-dancing ogres.

Have we heard some of this before? Sure. But as with the best fairy tales -- the ones that bear repeating again and again -- the delight in "Shrek Forever After" is not in the tale itself, but in the telling.

*** PG. At area theaters. Contains slapsticky action and bathroom humor. 98 minutes.

'Glee' Looks To Add Susan Boyle To Long List Of Guest Stars

"Glee" has already had some phenomenal guest-stars, including Josh Groban, Kristin Chenoweth, and Neil Patrick Harris. Now, Entertainment Weekly has learned a certain music sensation may be appearing on the hit Fox series in a season two Christmas episode: Susan Boyle.


The "Britain's Got Talent" runner-up is conveniently on the same record label, Columbia, as the "Glee" cast. And who would Boyle play? "I have two words for you: Lunch. Lady," says "Glee" co-creator Ryan Murphy. "I think Kurt would just die to give her a Christmas makeover. I don't even know if she's interested but it's been pitched." Besides the potential Boyle guest spot, Murphy also tells EW that there are plans for the cast to release a Christmas album as well (Rob Stringer, Columbia/Epic's chairman, wouldn't confirm the Boyle or Christmas album details but did say, "All very interesting ideas. I'll bring them up at the next development meeting.").

The new issue of EW (on stands Friday) features Jane Lynch as Sue Sylvester on the cover, and has more information about what's in store for next season, and details on the season finale.

LeBeouf: Indiana Sequel Criticism feel role and movie was not done properly

Critics were relatively kind about the Shia LeBeouf �Indiana� sequel performance, but panned the �Kingdom of the Crystal Skull� as a whole. Now, the young Transformers star is talking to the press about his disappointment with the movie, and placing the blame on himself, the movie writers, and director Steven Spielberg. Check out the full story, with pictures and video below!



Shia talked to reporters at the Cannes international film festival over the weekend. He said that his own performance was questionable at times during the filming.

Specifically, LeBeouf�s �Indiana� sequel performance suffered during the tree-swinging scenes.

�You get to monkey-swinging and things like that and you can blame it on the writer and you can blame it on Steven. The actor�s job is to make it come alive and make it work, and I couldn�t do it. So that�s my fault. Simple.�

He said he even spoke with Harrison Ford, and found that he too was underwhelmed.

�We had major discussions. He wasn�t happy with it either. Look, the movie could have been updated. There was a reason it wasn�t universally accepted.�

Is he worried about mouthing off about a legendary director? Apparently not.

�I�ll probably get a call, but he needs to hear this. I love him,� the young actor said. �He�s done so much great work that there�s no need for him to feel vulnerable about one film. But when you drop the ball, you drop the ball.�

Shia said that his real worry is about his upcoming Wall Street movie.

�I feel like I dropped the ball on the legacy that people loved. If I was going to do it twice, my career was over. So this was fight-or-flight for me.�

He said that clearing the air about the �Crystal Skull� would re-establish his credibility with the audience.

�I think the audience is pretty intelligent. I think they know when you�ve made � . And I think if you don�t acknowledge it, then why do they trust you the next time you�re promoting a movie.�

What did you think of LeBeouf�s �Indiana� sequel performance? Do you like his candid approach to his previous movies? Let me know in the comment section!

Also, check out the pictures and video below!

Noami Watts stars as CIA operative Plame in Cannes film

 
Actress Naomi Watts, left, director Doug Liman, center, and actress Liraz Charhi, right, pose during a photo call for the film "Fair Game", at the 63rd international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Thursday, May 20, 2010


Actress Liraz Charhi, left, and actress Naomi Watts, right, pose during a photo call for the film "Fair Game", at the 63rd international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Thursday, May 20, 2010.

Naomi Watts has gotten used to playing unstable women. But with the Cannes Film Festival entry "Fair Game," Watts is playing a woman as steady as they come in Valerie Plame, whose secret CIA identity was leaked by the George W. Bush administration.

 
Actress Liraz Charhi, left, and actress Naomi Watts, right, pose during a photo call for the film "Fair Game", at the 63rd international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Thursday, May 20, 2010



 
From left, actor Khaled Nabawy, actress Naomi Watts, actress Liraz Charhi, and director Doug Liman, rigjt, pose during a photo call for the film "Fair Game", at the 63rd international film festival, in Cannes, southern
France, Thursday, May 20, 2010.




Directed by Doug Liman ("The Bourne Identity," "Mr. and Mrs. Smith"), "Fair Game" chronicles the battle Plame and husband Joe Wilson (Sean Penn) fought in the scandal that called into question the White House's rationale for going to war in Iraq in search of weapons of mass destruction.

"She's a real woman, and more of a woman than I've ever played thus far. A lot of the material I've been drawn to in the past been about women in some kind of psychosis, since David Lynch," said Watts, referring to Lynch's 2001 Cannes entry "Mulholland Dr.", a career-making role in which the actress starred in a tale of shifting identities and twisting personalities.

"But this woman transcends her psychosis, and not alone," Watts told reporters Thursday before "Fair Game" premiered. "She has this incredible husband, Joe Wilson, who gives her the encouragement and strength and belief that they are strong enough to go forward and tell the truth. And who really would have gone there? I certainly wouldn't have. I couldn't have done it. So I'm just in awe of her strength and her courage."

One of 19 movies competing for the festival's main prize, "Fair Game" arguably is the most politically charged film to play in the Cannes main competition since Michael Moore's war-on-terror documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11," which won the top award in 2004.

Beginning in the early days of the U.S. war on terror after the Sept. 11 attacks, "Fair Game" traces Plame's background as a covert operative, taking on assumed identities to uncover details about possible weapons programs in Iraq and elsewhere.

After the Bush administration cites a supposed uranium deal involving Iraq, Joe Wilson writes a piece in The New York Times disputing the information, noting how he was dispatched by the U.S. government to Niger in west Africa to investigate the case but found no evidence of a uranium sale.

Soon after, Plame's CIA cover was leaked to the news media. She says her outing came in retaliation for her husband's Times piece.

I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, then Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, was convicted of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI in the Plame investigation. President George W. Bush commuted Libby's 30-month prison sentence.

In "Fair Game," Watts' Plame and Penn's Wilson face death threats against their family, hostile criticism from the government and accusations of betraying their country.

Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador, fights back in a media campaign against the White House, while Plame refuses to respond publicly to the scandal, which strains their marriage to the breaking point.

"I was so captivated by the character of Valerie Prime and the character of Joe Wilson that I almost forgot it was a true story," Liman said. "She's this incredibly private person, and he's this extroverted, larger-than-life character. And they're married. That's real."

The film is based on the couple's memoirs � Plame's "Fair Game" and Wilson's "The Politics of Truth."

Plame also appeared in the Cannes film "Countdown to Zero," director Lucy Walker's documentary about the continuing danger of nuclear arms. A weapons-proliferation specialist, Plame was among those interviewed about the possibility of terrorist or accidental nuclear detonations.

Though Plame and Wilson were at Cannes for the "Fair Game" premiere, they were not participating in the film's publicity, including a festival press conference.

"She and Joe are both here and are very supportive of the movie. Obviously, part of the story is that they wanted, especially Joe wanted, this story to be told," Liman said. "But this is a film festival, and we were told that in the history of Cannes, they wouldn't normally bring the people on whom the film was based to the press conference. That is the procedure for Cannes."

Fox unveils 4 new comedies, 3 new dramas

Fox announced Monday that it will add four new comedies and three dramas to its schedule next season, revamp "American Idol" and give "Glee" the coveted post-Super Bowl slot.

As usual, the No. 1 network leaves some questions lingering in the air. For starters, Simon Cowell must be replaced on "Idol" - so auditions for hopeful and deluded singers won't begin until September. And if the network has anyone in mind to replace Cowell, it's not saying. The Tuesday performance nights of "Idol" will be 90 minutes and the Wednesday results shows will be 30 minutes - of course you'll believe that when you see it - ostensibly because people complained so much about bloated advertising and promotional inserts taking away from the enjoyment of the series and bleeding over into other shows.



Of Fox's dramas, the biggest deal is probably "Terra Nova," a "let's go back in time to the dinosaur age" thriller from Steven Spielberg, which will be heavy on computer-generated graphics and thus has no firm timetable as to when it will appear on the schedule. Those familiar with Fox announcing shows that don't end up making the air might snicker, but if you've got Spielberg attached and the entire support of Fox, odds are that it will makes a splash sometime in 2011.

Because Fox has an early-season commitment to baseball and historically makes its biggest ratings push in January, only four shows are scheduled for fall, including "The Good Guys," a comedy-drama that starts on Wednesday (and thus is not considered a new show for next season).

Since "The Good Guys" is unproven, ratings-wise, and viewers have yet to trust or adjust to summer scheduling, you might want to take a wait-and-see approach to whether that show returns in the fall.
Fox's dramas are:

"Lonestar" is about a man in Texas married to the daughter of an oil baron (played by Jon Voight), but who is also shacking up with a woman elsewhere in the state. If you're thinking "Dallas" meets "Big Love," well, maybe.

"Ride-Along" is a midseason drama from Shawn Ryan ("The Shield," "The Unit") about Chicago cops (it's shot on location, too). It stars Jason Clarke, Jennifer Beals and Delroy Lindo.

"Terra Nova," the Spielberg epic, is also a midseason series and is being billed by Fox as "an epic family adventure" that "follows an ordinary family on an extraordinary journey back in time to prehistoric Earth as a part of a massive expedition to save the human race."
Fox's comedies are:

"Running Wilde," the much-anticipated new fall comedy from "Arrested Development" creator Mitch Hurwitz and writer Jim Vallely, stars Will Arnett, also from "Arrested Development," and Keri Russell ("Waitress," "Felicity"). He's rich, immature and obnoxious, she's his childhood sweetheart whom he's now trying to romance.

"Raising Hope" is a fall comedy from Greg Garcia ("My Name Is Earl"), starring Lucas Neff ("The Beast") as a single guy without much motivation who gets a woman pregnant - and that woman is going to be in prison. So he raises the baby with his dysfunctional family. Also starring Martha Plimpton and Cloris Leachman.

"Bob's Burgers" is an animated series that is remarkably not from Seth MacFarlane, slated to air in midseason. It's from Loren Bouchard ("Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist," etc.) and revolves around a family that runs a burger restaurant. Again, don't judge a series on paper.

"Mixed Signals" is an ensemble comedy also penciled in for midseason. It's about what almost every other comedy is about these days - single people trying to navigate relationships.

Fox had already renewed "Lie to Me" and "Human Target" - the latter moving to Fridays. The network canceled "Til Death," "Sons of Tucson," "24" and "Past Life."

Robin Hood steals UK box office spot from Iron Man

Robin Hood's latest big-screen outing has debuted at the top of the UK and Ireland box office, pushing Iron Man 2 into second place.

The Ridley Scott movie, which openedCannes Film Festival last week, took �5.75m to Iron Man's �1.6m.

Horror remake A Nightmare on Elm Street stayed in third place with �0.65m, and Hot Tub Time Machine stayed in fourth with �0.57m.

Furry Vengeance dropped three places to round out the top five with �0.55m

Critical reaction to Robin Hood, starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett, has been mixed.



This big-budget epic has taken a few liberties with the traditional outlaw story - Richard The Lionheart is portrayed as a selfish, warmongering monarch, while the Sheriff of Nottingham plays only a peripheral role.

It failed to topple Iron Man 2 from the North American box office last weekend.

Other films in the top 10 include Four Lions with �0.49m, and Jennifer Lopez's latest film The Back Up Plan, which enjoyed till receipts of �0.48m.

How To Train Your Dragon and The Last Song both dropped a place, taking �0.24m and �0.18m respectively.

Date Night, starring Steve Carell and Tina Fey, was at number 10 with takings of �0.13m.

New �Twilight Eclipse� Trailer Premieres (VIDEO)

The new and final trailer for the next film in The Twilight Saga, Eclipse, premiered on The Oprah Winfrey Show on Friday. While Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner continue the love triangle, their appears to be less moping about and more action this time, set up by the threat of an army of vampires. We finally get a glimpse of the much-anticipated battle scene between the Cullens, the Wolf Pack and Victoria�s army of newborn vampires. Twilight Eclipse is set to take a bite out of the box office on June 30. But you can catch Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner and Dakota Fanning on a special episode of Oprah on May 13.