Alice Cooper to look in Dark Shadows

Not had your fill of Tim Burton and The Actor-brad Pitt news yet? Well the duo have hit the head lines once again with news that Alice Cooper can look in Dark Shadows.Who'll the rocker participate in the giant screen adaptation from the kitsch Television show? Themself, obviously!Getting existed within the '70s - once the film is placed - he's an ideal act to experience a personal ball tossed by vampire Barnabas Collins (Depp).Can they CGI him inside a Tron: Legacy stylee to shed time?No need. Cooper just needs the trademark make-up he accustomed to put on at that time and that he can hide the surplus years.

Miramax Announces Recommended Refinancing

SANTA MONICA (October 28, 2011) Miramax Film NY, LLC today introduced its intentions to re-finance its outstanding indebtedness getting a movie rights and contracted receivables resource-backed securitization (the Miramax Film-Library Securitization). It's anticipated that, prone to market together with other concerns, the Miramax Film-Library Securitization will close to the coast the fourth quarter of 2011. The notes being launched beneath the new securitization facility will probably be offered and agreed to customers within the united states . States pursuant to Rule 144A and outdoors the united states . States pursuant to Regulation S beneath the Opportunities Act of 1933. The notes will not be registered beneath the Opportunities Act of 1933 or any condition opportunities laws and regulations and rules and is probably not offered or offered within the united states . States absent registration or possibly an relevant exemption within the registration needs in the Opportunities Act of 1933 and relevant condition laws and regulations and rules. This news release shall not constitute an offer to promote or possibly a solicitation from the offer to purchase the notes or any other opportunities, and shall not constitute an offer, solicitation or purchase inside a condition or jurisdiction through which this type of offer, solicitation or purchase might be illegal. The Miramax Film-Library Securitization is prone to market together with other concerns, so there can be no assurance that it's going to be completed on terms that are acceptable to Miramax or whatsoever.

WB to release Soderbergh film

Warner Bros. has picked up Steven Soderbergh's drama "Magic Mike" and set it for release on June 29. Matthew McConaughey, Channing Tatum and Alex Pettyfer star. Tatum plays the title character, a stripper and dancer who takes Pettyfer's character under his wing and mentors him on how to hustle both on and off the stage. McConaughey portrays a former exotic dancer who now owns the club where "Magic Mike" works. Pic draws on Tatum's experiences working as a teen stripper in Tampa. Nick Wechsler and Gregory Jacobs are producing with Tatum and his 33andOut Prods. partner Reid Carolin, who also penned the script. "Mike" will open against Paramount's "G.I. Joe: Retaliation." Sony's "The Amazing Spider-Man" is set for July 3. Contact Variety Staff at news@variety.com

'Bloodwork,' 'Boy' to Lightning

Lightning Entertainment has acquired worldwide rights to "Bloodwork" and "Boy Wonder" with plans to release the pics in the U.S. via its Lightning Media label. Lightning made the announcement Tuesday as part of unveiling a slate of seven completed films -- including "Brake," "Columbus Circle," "The Trouble With Bliss," "Scents and Sensibility" and "Wrath" -- on which it's acquired international sales rights with plans to debut the pics at the upcoming American Film Market. Lightning president Robert Beaumont said, "The reinvigorated marketplace is looking for compelling stories and cast-driven theatrical feature films that will appeal to global audiences, and we aim to satisfy that buoyant demand." Action thriller "Brake" stars Stephen Dorff as a Secret Service agent held captive by a terrorist group and used as a pawn as the countdown to a catastrophic plot unravels. Gabe Torres directs and Chyler Leigh and Tom Berenger co-star. Thriller "Columbus Circle," directed by George Gallo and starring Selma Blair, Amy Smart, Giovanni Ribisi, Jason Lee and Kevin Pollak, centers on a reclusive young heiress who's endangered when she's befriended by the glamorous new owners of the apartment next door. "The Trouble With Bliss," formerly known as "East Fifth Bliss," is written and directed by Michael Knowles and stars Michael C. Hall, Lucy Liu, Peter Fonda, Chris Messina and Brie Larson. Hall portrays a 35-year-old man-child who still lives at home and finds himself falling into a romantic relationship with the precocious 18-year-old daughter of a friend. Formerly known as "Phase One," the thriller "Bloodwork," directed by Eric Wostenberg and starring Travis Van Winkle and Tricia Helfer, is set in a medical research facility where two college friends take part in a drug trial. Romantic comedy "Scents and Sensibility" stars Ashley Williams, Marla Sokoloff and Nick Zano in modern-day reimagining of Jane Austen's classic novel directed by Brian Brough. Crime thriller "Boy Wonder" centers on a young boy who witnesses the brutal murder of his mother and becomes a self-appointed vigilante seeking justice and revenge in NY City. It's written and directed by Michael Morrissey, who makes his feature-film debut. Australian horror thriller "Wrath," directed and written by Jonathan Neil Dixon and starring Corey Page, Stef Dawson, Rebecca Ratcliff and Xavier Fernandez, follows a group of friends who come across three disturbing strangers in the remote countryside. Contact Dave McNary at dave.mcnary@variety.com

'SNL's' Darrell Hammond Reveals Crack Addiction, Leaving NBC 'in a Straightjacket'

Saturday Night Live castmember Darrell Hammond reveals a disturbing crack habit, cutting himself and alcoholism in his new memoir, God If You're Not Up There, I'm F--ked.our editor recommends Russell Brand Draws Mixed Reactions From 'Saturday Night Live' Debut'Community' Enrolls 'Saturday Night Live's' Taran Killam Hammond -- who grew to fame impersonating Donald Trump, former president Bill Clinton and a raunchy Sean Connery on Jeopardy -- writes, "I kept a pint of Remy in my desk at work. The drinking calmed my nerves and quieted the disturbing images that sprang into my head ... when drinking didn't work, I cut myself." VIDEO: Emmy Roundtable: Comedy Actors Hammond -- who spent the longest time of any castmember on the show, 14 seasons and 270 appearances -- says he was once taken from NBC "in a straitjacket." When his wife came to visit him at NY Hospital, "I didn't recognize her," he adds. He writes that he was addicted to cocaine in 2002, but in 2009 -- during his 14th and final season on the show -- "I had the brilliant idea I should try crack." He ended up spending time in a crack house in Harlem. He went to rehab that same year. In 2010, he announced he was addicted to vicodin and coming down from a high while performing at comedy club Caroline's in NY City. He entered treatment again. "I'd started adding an obscene amount of cocaine to my binges ... I had to be creative about how I did it without other people catching on or letting it interfere with the work. At least too much," he writes. VIDEO: Emmy Roundtable: Comedy Showrunners He hasn't heard what his former co-workers think about the book yet. "I don't have anything bad to say about anyone there," he tells the NY Post. "They all really went above and beyond the call for me." After beating his drug addiction, Hammond starred this summer in Sag Harbor as Truman Capote in one-man play Tru. He's also involved in Will Ferrell's Funny or Die website. Related Topics Saturday Night Live

Bloomberg: Proprietors Might Take Hulu Public

This news is surprising because for any lengthy while this is a lousy economicclimate to complete any initial public offering. But Bloomberg is confirming that Hulus proprietors News Corp, Wally Disney Company, and Providence Equity Partners (Comcast needed to divest if this bought NBCUniversal) may reconsider the IPO idea after their abrupt decision to cancel the internet content site’ssales auction.Hulu hadplans to have an IPO this past year that imagined a $2 billion value to assist the website contend with Netflix and Amazon . com. The finish from the auction also can lead to conversations about purchasing out stakes in Hulu held bymembers of senior management, based on the Wall Street Journal.

Community Exclusive: Malcolm-Jamal Warner Returns... to Remarry Shirley?

Yvette Nicole Brown, Malcolm-Jamal Warner Is Community's Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown) prone to leave her with ex-husband another shot?Fall Preview: Get scoop inside your favorite returning showsFormer Cosby Show kid Malcolm-Jamal Warner will reprise his role as Shirley's ex Andre inside an approaching Season 3 episode, TVGuide.com has learned exclusively. Then when he's doing, he'll have only one factor on his mind: walking lower the aisle with Shirley again.Warner, who's presently starring on BET's Reed Involving the Lines, first came out around the enter in Season 2 when Shirley wound up pregnant. Although Shirley feared that Chang (Ken Jeong) was the child's father, it absolutely was ultimately revealed being Andre, offering a glimmer of expect the first sort couple's future.But according to creator and executive producer Serta Harmon, Shirley is probably not prepared to stop her new existence revisit her old one.Is Community really apt to be "less strange" this year?InchRebecca found college because she will be a broken lady," Harmon states. "She'd been passing up on her stability, so she w as prone to strike out by hand. Now quite all of a sudden, her stability has returned to her, but she's still attending college. So, there's an enormous question that should be asked for third season: Is she prone to stay here and why?"Warner is predicted to return inside the third season's twelfth episode, that's slated to air between early 2012.You think Shirley should get remarried?

Aaron Eckhart On For I, Frankenstein

He'll be Stuart Beattie's creatureWorking under prosthetics clearly assisted to energise Aaron Eckhart for that Dark Dark night (though we are sure the existence of Christopher Nolan along with a solid script did not hurt). Therefore it is not shocking to understand he's posting towards the makeup artist's chair again for I, Frankenstein. Stuart Beattie has written the script, and he's dealing with directorial responsibilities for that film, which is dependant on Underworld co-creator Kevin Grevioux's graphic novel. The plot follows Adam, the creature from Mary Shelley's story that has in some way steered clear of the mob of angry villagers as well as their fire-happy ways, and it is still making it through in our day because of an inherited quirk. Winding up inside a strange, dark metropolis, he's trapped inside a massive, centuries old war between two fighting immortal clans.''Mary Shelley's story is one of the development of the very first individual,Inch Beattie informs Variety. "This is actually the story about this being becoming human."Beattie and co is going to be wishing the twist around the Franken-story can make the film stick out in the glut of films being created (a minimum of five finally count) concerning the mad researcher and the creation. Beattie will start shooting next The month of january around australia.

Ratings Pit Of Debt: SNL Takes Small Slide With Ben Stiller In Host Slot

Alec Baldwin and Melissa McCarthy rate slightly over Ben Stiller, no less than to date as NBC’s Saturday Evening Live is anxious. Despite special looks by Hugh Jackman and Kenny G together with a hosting stint from Stiller — starring inside the new Brett Ratner feature Tower Heist – the thirdinstallment of SNL’s year could average merely a 4.8 rating/12 participate metered-market houses. That comes even close to a 5.1 for your season premiere on friday with host Baldwin together with a 5.2 on March. 1 with McCarthy presiding. Last evening’s amounts could happen to be affected by a few rain delays throughout Game among the American League Championship Series on Fox, pushing the sport’s conclusion far after normal. Texas wound up beating Detroit, 3-2. In grownups 18-49, however, last evening’s SNL matched up in the two.6/11 created with the Baldwin-situated season kickoff.

REVIEW: Real Steel Is Movie Comfort Food, with Robot Boxers

In Real Steel Hugh Jackman plays a boxing promoter who’s forced to reconnect with his estranged son. But the boxers on which Jackman hangs his hopes aren’t human: Real Steel, which is based on a Richard Matheson short story, is set in the near future, when “robot boxing” is all the rage. Controlled by their handlers, these overgrown Rock’ Em Sock ‘Em Robots are sent into the ring to do the work real human athletes used to do, but not even these guys are always built to take a punch. Just like their primitive plastic forebears, their blocks get knocked off routinely. Real Steel, directed by Shawn Levy (with Steven Spielberg as one of the executive producers), is a big, expensive-looking entertainment masquerading as a modest, straightforward one, and sometimes the illusion works. Jackman’s Charlie Kenton is a down-and-out former boxer looking for his next big metallic meal ticket. Instead, he gets temporary custody of the son he seems to have forgotten he had, 11-year-old Max (Dakota Goyo), whose mother has just died in an accident. Charlie wants nothing to do with Max, and basically sells him off to the rich husband of Max’s aunt (played by a frosty Hope Davis, in the dragon-mom role), who wants custody. But one of the intricacies of the deal is that Charlie must first spend the summer with Max. And although the two don’t get along too famously at first, their relationship and their fortunes turn around when they stumble upon an early — circa 2016 — robot boxer that’s been relegated to the scrap heap but that still has plenty of fight left in him. Atom, as that robot is called, has a measure of charm compared with his newer, slicker counterparts. His eyes glow blue from behind his flat, fencer’s mask face, allowing him a degree of expressiveness. He also has a special characteristic built right in: He’s a sympathetic robot, able and willing to absorb and imitate any action a human makes. The predictability of Real Steel — the fact that we know father and son will gradually be drawn closer, and that Atom will become a hero in his own idiosyncratic robot way — is less a liability than a kind of comfort food. This is one of those futuristic pictures that, the presence of robots aside, doesn’t look all that futuristic: The characters’ outfits have that retro-rugged gray-brown vibe of clothes you can find hanging on the sale rack at Diesel. (The exception are the limp, drapey T-shirts worn by Evangeline Lily as robot mechanic, and Jackman’s love interest, Bailey; she gets the Rick Owens stuff that you have to go to Barneys to get.) Shot by Mauro Fiore, the picture manages to look crisp and glossy even in its semi-drabness. And the action sequences are fairly clean and reasonably exciting — at their best, they capture the aura of watching a real-life fight, where athletic artistry coupled with the risk of real pain keep you wanting to watch, even when you have the impulse to turn away. Jackman is predictably raffish and swaggering — watching him is painless, though the role doesn’t ask a lot of him emotionally. Goyo’s Max is a scrappy little wiseacre, but you warm up to him: His role in the proceedings is to see value in a thrown-away robot — as a thrown-away kid, he can sure identify — and he slips into the role comfortably. Still, there’s something disappointingly anonymous about Real Steel. (The screenplay is by John Gatins, working from a story by Dan Gilroy and Jeremy Leven, inspired by Matheson.) It goes through all the motions, properly and efficiently, and yet it’s missing some core warmth. Watching Real Steel, I kept thinking of Brad Bird’s retro-modern cartoon The Iron Giant, and of how that picture humanized a metal alien so effortlessly. Atom is appealing enough, but the movie conditions us to care for him more than it gives us reason to. In the end, we just give in, because that’s what the movie expects of us. But even within that context, a few sequences stand out: When Max realizes Atom can imitate human movement, he urges Charlie to train with him, and the two set up an impromptu training ground in front of an old motel, right-jabbing and uppercutting in unison. The moment is captured in wide shot and carefully cut, so we can take the measure of both of these bodies, the mechanical one and its flesh-and-blood counterpart, in all their glory. Sugar Ray Leonard consulted on Real Steel, and though I’m not sure you can see evidence of that awesome street cred throughout most of the movie, it certainly shines through here. As Jackman and Atom work through their moves, simpatico, they present the brief illusion that something might actually be at stake here. And that muscle might have more in common with motherboards than we ever would have thought.

Javier Bardem in Discussions to Voice Villain in 'Despicable Me 2' (Exclusive)

Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic/Getty ImagesJavier Bardem Javier Bardem is within discussions to voice a brand new villain in Wretched Me 2, the follow up to Universal and Illumination's surprise 2010 hit. The very first movie adopted a villainous mastermind, voiced by Steve Carell, who connects together with his paternal side once the trio of orphans he employs to have an evil plan melt his icy heart. PHOTOS: 10 Big Babies: Movies Which Have Arrived at the ten-Figure Mark Carell and the majority of the other gamers in the first movie are required to come back however the new plot, being stored under systems, requires a brand new villain, that has a boy of their own. Bardem would voice the baddie, whose title is El Macho. (His son's title is Machito.) As the WME-repped actor, and recently minted father, has performed many villains on-screen -- Bardem won an Oscar for playing sociopathic hitman Anton Chigurh in 2007's No Country For Old Males -- this could make his first turn, evil or else, within the animation world. PHOTOS: Movie Report Card: 10 Greatest Flops of 2011 (To Date) Universal has set a This summer 3, 2012 release for Wretched Me 2, that is being directed by Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud. Wretched Me Javier Bardem Worldwide

Rankings Empire Builder A.C. Nielsen Junior. Dies

NEW You are able to - Arthur C. Nielsen Junior., who changed the organization founded by his father right into a global researching the market and TV rankings giant, died on Monday,the NY Timesreported.our editor recommendsDemand Media, Nielsen Shares Hop on First Buying and selling DayAEG Live getting into tune with Nielsen, Billboard He died at 92 in Winnetka, Ill. where he resided the majority of his existence. He'd Parkinson's disease, the paper reported family people as saying. His father who founded the A.C. Nielsen Co., brought the best way to the roll-out of the very first TV audience measurement system in 1950, while Nielsen Junior. moved the organization into start up business areas, the Timessaid. The boy then grew to become leader of the. C. Nielsen in 1957 and chairman in 1975, managing its growth. Under his leadership, the firm changed from the business producing under $4 million annually in revenue to 1 with annual revenue in excess of $680 million, based on the Occasions. He walked lower from active leadership in 1983 to pay attention to the role of chairman emeritus and help broker the purchase of the. C. Nielsen to Dun & Bradstreet Corporation for $1.3 billion annually later. It wound up being offered to new proprietors down the road. The organization has become referred to as openly exchanged Nielsen Holdings. The Hollywood Reporterwas a part of a privately owned predecessor company. The Timeshighlighted that even today, within the TV business, rankings are frequently simply known to as "the Nielsens." Related Subjects

Evangeline Lilly Drops Hobbit Hints, Inspires Nerd Boners While Speaking Elvish

At last night’s premiere of Real Steel, co-star Evangeline Lilly — fresh from shooting The Hobbit in New Zealand, ZOMG — caught up with Access Hollywood for an unusually geeky Access Hollywood chat, during which she dropped a few lines in Elvish. So hot, right LOTRers? See if you can devise plot hints from the Elf-speak dialogue she trilled, after the jump. Something something “Come now!” And something something “The cells are empty!” Good luck figuring it all out, Middle Earthers. My favorite moment comes at the beginning of the chat when Lilly drops some real talk, admitting that with all of the prep crews helping her on set she has no excuse for messing up her Hobbit performance as Tauriel, a woodland elf. If only all actors were so self-aware! And then, the ultimate question: “Are you scared of the fans of this?” Because you should be! My preeeee-cious… Oh wait, my bad. The question was, “Are you scared of the fans of this… because they are such rabid fans?” Same difference, I guess. And Evangeline is rightfully scared. “My character is actually not in [J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel] The Hobbit,” she explains. “My character is an invention of Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Phillippa Boyd, so either fans are going to love her or absolutely despise and be bitter towards her because she’s not authentic.” Aaaaand then Access Hollywood’s on-air interviewer brings it back to LOST, offering the theory that fans of the television series are also huge Tolkien nerds and therefore will forgive Lilly for perverting the legacy of their literary icon. Hmm. Sure? Evangeline Lilly Dishes On Filming ‘The Hobbit’ [Access Hollywood]