29. Robert Downey Jr. The actor saved lives and broke hearts, while picking up rave reviews as Tony Stark in this summer's Iron Man.23. Shia LaBeouf It was a rough year for the former (and very cute) Transformers star, but he still managed to receive the Choice Movie Actor: Action Adventure award for his role in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull at the 2008 Teen Choice Awards and a Rising Star Award at the BAFTA Awards. 20. Michael Cera The former Superbad and Juno star confirmed his lack of game in this year's Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist, but he's got charisma.17. Emile Hirsch This summer, the former Girl Next Door shy guy proved he has looks and guts in Speed Racer. 14. Christian Bale This summer, The Dark Knight broke box office records, while Christian's looks sparked a new appreciation for superheroes.13. Brad Pitt Between the twins, two major films, and recent attempts to bring back the stache, it's been a busy year for Mr. Pitt.11. Ashton Kutcher This year, the prankster let us in on What Happens in Vegas... and caught our attention in all those camera commercials.1. Robert Pattinson The London native formerly known for his role as Cedric Diggory in the Harry Potter series is heating up the big screen this winter as Edward Cullen in Twilight.
Jake Gyllenhaal Triple Feature. This title will be released on December 23, 2008. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.Rendition - Music from the Motion Picture [SOUNDTRACK] The Dark Knight (Full-Screen Single-Disc Edition).The Dark Knight reunites director Christopher Nolan and star Christian Bale, who reprises the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne in his continuing war on crime. With the help of Lt. Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman sets out to destroy organized crime in Gotham for good. The triumvirate proves effective, but soon find themselves prey to a rising criminal mastermind known as The Joker, who thrusts Gotham into anarchy and forces Batman closer to crossing the fine line between hero and vigilante.The Dark Knight on Blu-ray: Heath Ledger stars as archvillain The Joker, and Aaron Eckhart plays Dent. Maggie Gyllenhaal joins the cast as Rachel Dawes. Returning from Batman Begins are Gary Oldman as Gordon, Michael Caine as Alfred and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox. Blu-ray three-disc set includes:
* Movie with Focus Points (picture in picture) * Explore your favorite movies through BD-Live™, an interactive gateway to exclusive content * Gotham Uncovered: Creation of a Scene: Director Christopher Nolan and creative collaborators unmask the incredible detail and planning behind the film, including stunt staging, filming in IMAX®, and the new Bat-suit and Bat-pod * Batman Tech: The incredible gadgets and tools (in HD) * Batman Unmasked: The Psychology of The Dark Knight: Delve into the psyche of Bruce Wayne and the world of Batman through real-world psychotherapy (in HD) * Gotham Tonight: 6 episodes of Gotham Cable's premier news program * The Galleries: The Joker cards, concept art, poster art, production stills, trailers and TV spots * Digital Copy of the feature film
Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist (R1) in February - Artwork added Sony Pictures Home Entertainment have announced the Region 1 DVD release of Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist on 3rd February 2009. In this comedy starring Michael Cera and Kat Dennings two bridge-and-tunnel teenagers, nursing broken hearts, fall in love during one sleepless night in New York while searching for their favourite band's unannounced show.
Features include:
* 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen * English DD5.1 Surround * French Dolby Surround * English and French subtitles * Digital Copy of the film for playback on PSP™ and iTunes * Deleted scenes * Outtakes * Music Video: “Middle Management” by Bishop Allen * Storyboard Animations with optional filmmakers’ commentary * A Nick & Norah Puppet Show by Kat Dennings * Ari Graynor’s Video Diary: A Look Behind-the-Scenes * Faux interview with Michael Cera, Kat Dennings and Eddie Kaye Thomas * Photo Gallery * Commentary with director Peter Sollett, actors Michael Cera, Kat Dennings and Ari Graynor * Commentary with Peter Sollett, authors Rachel Cohn and David Levithan and screenwriter Lorene Scafaria
Reese Witherspoon in a promotional still of "Four Christmases".
Reese talks about her Christmas plans. The actress, who is able to shower her children with plenty of presents, says she prefers instead to give them few presents so they would appreciate them more. Reese told the BBC, “I'm a little strict about that kind of stuff. I think kids do best when they only have a couple of things that they really enjoy. I try and stay away from the gluttony of things. They don't appreciate it as much. When they only get one or two things they really like it." Christmas in Irak can be so boring, but Swofford had a good time drinking and dancing wearing little more than his Santa Hat.I wish you a very Happy Holidays Season, dear Weirdos! I hope you receive a lot of gifts from your beloved ones, at least a small real smile (which is probably the best present). Don't forget your Santa Hats!Lacey Chabert, Rachel McAdams, Lindsay Lohan and Amanda Seyfried in sexy Christmas outfits in "Mean Girls".Billy Bob Thornton and Lauren Graham in "Bad Santa".Katie Perry wearing a Santa Claus costume for the Jingle Ball show in Anaheim, California. R.I.P. Bettie Page, The Pin Up Queen.
A musical video featuring some love scenes starred by Emile Hirsch in "The dangerous lives of Altar boys", "The girl next door", "Imaginary Heroes", "Alpha Dog", "Into the wild" and "Speed Racer". Songs "Heartache spoken here" by Warren Zevon and "Shine a light" by Kevin Ayers.
New additions to the Iheartjake gallery, from Jarhead's London Screening, 2005. Jake with Sam Mendes and Peter Sarsgaard.Jake with Peter Sarsgaard and Kate Winslet at Jarhead's London Screening. Jake attending the "Eternal Sunshine" Hollywood Premiere.Jake with Kate Winslet at 2005 Pre-Golden Globes Party.
"With Revolutionary Road I think I enjoyed the concept more than the film itself as Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet both offer up conflicting viewpoints and you are able to connect with both of them on one level or another. Kate Winslet’s character looking for a way to restart the marriage while DiCaprio’s character is right in line until a great opportunity at work and other contributing factors throw a kink in their plan to pick up and start their lives over in Paris. The film has some amazing performances and you will see Leonardo DiCaprio jump two spots as he, in my book, is a serious contender for Best Actor. Kate Winslet is good, but I have a feeling expectations may have led me to believe it would be amazing. I personally believe she is much better in The Reader.
Michael Shannon is unfortunately going to come in second to Heath Ledger with a performance that makes the film something special (Josh Brolin and his performance in Milk will suffer the same fate). This isn’t a review of the film, and like I said I like the ideas brought up in the film more than the film itself, which you will notice once you get to the Best Picture charts". Source: www.ropeofsilicon.com
"There is a reason for the unfairness – it takes an hour and a half for Winslet to get through hair and make-up and the production can’t wait; but, in the end, she can’t stand it any longer. She strides off to stand in for her stand-in and delivers every line as if her life depended on it. Winslet stays in character between them. For about eight minutes she inhabits another life that she has spent weeks imagining in every detail, a life defined by dark secrets, and quite unlike her own. After the second “cut” she exhales and hangs her head. Daldry comes over and massages her shoulders. I scribble in my notebook: “This is what they’re paid for.”
– The Reader is already being talked of as an Oscar contender. In fact, he almost agrees. “She certainly gets paid for going into an emotional state, and, first of all, understanding what the character needs to do,” he says. “In other words she has a huge intellectual facility, but married to a huge emotional facility that is just fearless.” The reader of the title first appears as a teenager drawn into an affair with an older woman, played by Winslet, who is working as a tram conductor. She then disappears without explanation – at least until the teenager, grown up (and played by Ralph Fiennes), is stunned to see her in the dock at a major postwar Holocaust trial. He is left to wonder how he could have loved her, and whether he has compromised himself in doing so. He is also mystified, almost to the end, by her true motivation. The book has been criticised as too willing to humanise the generation condemned by the historian Daniel Goldhagen as “Hitler’s willing executioners”. But it is also on school and college reading lists from Leipzig to Los Angeles.Schlink also agreed, but Winslet was busy starring in Revolutionary Road, directed by Sam Mendes, her husband. So Daldry turned to Nicole Kidman (she had won an Oscar as Virginia Woolf in Daldry’s The Hours). Kidman signed on, but then fell pregnant. Daldry went back to Winslet, who by this time was free. All he needed now was a male lead. He cast Ralph Fiennes.
Thus did the most talked-about German novel in a generation acquire a British producer, director, screenwriter and starring line-up. For good measure, Sydney Pollack and Scott Rudin, Hollywood legends both, joined Minghella as producers. Never let it be said that German nationalism lives on in the movies. Schlink and the German actors cast in The Reader’s smaller roles have – so far – expressed nothing but gratitude for the chance to work alongside an Anglo-Saxon A-team. Their careers all stand to benefit, not least because of the sheer weight of expectation that is about to settle on Kate Winslet’s shoulders: she has been nominated five times for an Oscar, but never won. Kate Winslet was nominated to Oscar for Best Performance in a Leading role for "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" in 2005.
“We’re in a whole new era.” It’s an era in which, just maybe, Daldry will go up against Kate Winslet’s husband for an Oscar, and, with the help of at least one of them, Winslet will finally get one of her own". Source: entertainment.timesonline.co.uk
"He died halfway through the film I'm currently making, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. We had finished shooting in London on Saturday night. On Sunday, I went to Vancouver to prepare for the next stage and Heath went to New York. He was supposed to be turning up in Vancouver on the Friday. On Tuesday he was dead.
None of us could deal with it. It was impossible - that was the problem. It was absolutely impossible that this could be a fact. But there it was. I was working in the art department when I heard the news, and we stayed there all afternoon. At sunset, thousands of ravens flew over the window and I thought: those are the ravens from The Brothers Grimm, and they are all going to salute Heath.
In terms of his acting, it still rankles with me that he's dead because he would have been streets ahead of anyone else in his generation. He just kept getting better and better. He was fearless. On Parnassus, he was improvising all the time and it was better than what we had written. I don't normally encourage that kind of improvisation, but in a sense I felt Heath was writing this film. He was an incredibly funny performer when he wanted to be - his comic timing was just extraordinary - and then he could break your heart the next minute. When he died, there were all these nonsensical stories coming out about Heath Ledger, James Dean and River Phoenix, all destroyed by the system - but that's bullshit. What happened was an absurd accident. I still don't understand it. I know he was exhausted - the last thing he said was that he was so tired and just wanted to sleep. You actually think at certain times angels come down to earth and Heath might have been one of them. And then he's gone and you think: this is all wrong, all the other people should be dead. He should be leading us all into a wonderful world of adventure".Source: www.guardian.co.uk
"Now that Heath Ledger has been posthumously nominated for a Golden Globe, there's maneuvering behind the scenes as to who will accept the award should he win.
"Kim desperately wants to do it," one cognoscento tells us of Heath's father. "But the studio and the producers would rather have Michelle receive it on behalf of Matilda" - the couple'sdaughter.
Some Hollywood insiders have speculated that the foreign journalists who decide upon the Golden Globes choose some nominees based on their attractiveness and star power, to goose up their televised awards show's ratings. Michelle Williams, who broke up with Ledger four months before he died in January, is a lot purtier than the senior Ledger, who accepted an "Aussie" award for his son last weekend.
But a friend of the family tells us, "Why would Michelle be involved? She had nothing to do with the movie. They weren't even together when he passed away. Would you have your ex-wife accept your award? And they weren't even married. [Director] Chris Nolan or [star] Christian Bale would make more sense. Michelle makes no sense. It's like those rumors that she would go to the premiere of 'Dark Knight.' That was never in the realm of possibility."Source: www.nydailynews.com
"Onscreen he wears angst and desperation like a badge of honor. Raging in the existential cult drama "Donnie Darko" (2001), crossing the fine line between passion and obsession in "The Good Girl" (in which his character, one Holden Worther, lugged a beat-up copy of The Catcher in the Rye across Texas in writer-director Miguel Arteta's shout-out to Salinger's protagonist), mourning the loss of life and youth in "Moonlight Mile", Jake Gyllenhaal has become the movies' poster child for outsider, misfit characters".Chelsea Clinton: "I would encourage people to read it in the hope that maybe it would have a similar inspirational effect. Did you feel Holden Caulfield-esque while you were making "The Good Girl"? Do you even agree with your character's interpretation [of the book]?
Jake Gyllenhaal: "There's something about him that makes me think he's only read that one book. He's so lost that he just sort of takes on this "Holden" persona because he understands it's universal". Source: www.highbeam.com
Q: Why do you like to play outsider types?
Hirsch: I don't know. There's something about the good-hearted guy fighting the system. I just love that. That's how Speed is. He's a really focused guy with a heart of gold and the corporations are trying to crush him and use him for his skills to make them more money. And when he doesn't want to play ball, they want to destroy him.Source: chud.com/articles
29. Robert Downey Jr.
23. Shia LaBeouf
20. Michael Cera
17. Emile Hirsch
14. Christian Bale
13. Brad Pitt
11. Ashton Kutcher
1. Robert Pattinson
