Puss In Boots has plenty of swagger in new video

Is your cat everything you want him to be? Chances are he's not, and here's Puss In Boots, late of the Shrek movies, to drive the point home for you in the new The Cat Haz Swagger video.

Shower Up With Puss In Boots

It's the latest in a series of commercial parody vids from DreamWorks in the eve of the new Puss In Boots movie, due Nov. 2. The Swagger video is a send up of Isaiah Mustafah as the Old Spice Guy.

"If your cat got off the catnip and got himself a cape and some boots, he could act like me," says Puss while exiting a shower (we thought cats didn't like water?)  for the saddle of a white stallion.

 Puss proceeds to produce magical golden eggs from his paw.
"Does you cat have golden eggs?" says Puss, voiced by Antonio Banderas. "I didn't think so."
Alas, no.

The Cat Haz Swagger video comes on the heels, er, hind legs of two previous send-ups, He's So Legendary, a send up of the Dos Equis The Most Interesting Man In the World spots, and No Pants Pants, in which Puss proclaims "you want pants that feel comfortable, you want pants that make you look good. That's why you want no pants at all. All that I need are the boots."

Puss may opt to go pantless, but we do note in the Swagger video he does wear a towel around his waist.
The animated Puss In Boots will co-star the voices of Salma Hayek, Zach Galifianakis, Billy Bob Thornton, Amy Sedaris. Check out the videos below, starting with Swagger.

Puss In Boots - He's So Legendary HD

Puss In Boots "No Pants" Pants

Cobie Smulders Talks The Avengers, Joss Whedon And 'Maria Hill' Preparations!

Appearing on the latest How I Met Your Mother podcast episode, actress Cobie Smulders discussed her 'Maria Hill' role in Marvel Studios' summer blockbuster The Avengers, her multi-picture deal, and ultimate praise for director Joss Whedon. Although it's nothing much revealing, check out what she says below

Cobie Smulders Talks The Avengers,
Joss Whedon And 'Maria Hill' Preparations!

On how many Marvel movies she's signed up for...
"Plus this one, seven more I think. This doesn't mean I'm doing seven films - just means if they like me, then they'll have me on more."
On any surprises working on a film of this size...
"Yes, everything. I had no idea what it was gonna be like at all. I was so happy to see a friendly face in Joss Whedon because I know him socially. - But [the film] was huge; the magnitude of it. I mean, just the amount of people it takes to make a film like this and move out to Albuquerque, New Mexico; People were working on the movie almost seven months before I arrived there."
On what it's like working with Joss Whedon again...
"A dream. It was very handy to work with him because I was very intimated. There were a lot of extremely talented, very famous, people working on this film. And I felt very green. And he was so kind to me and I really feel he brought out the best in me performance wise. I really went in there going like, 'I will do whatever you want me to do Sir.'"
On training for the none-physically demanding role...
"I hired this amazing black-ops trainer to teach me how to hold a gun, take me to a shooting range, how to hit, how to hold myself, how to walk and basically how to look. I don't do a ton of fighting in the movie, which is why I wasn't offered a trainer, but I wanted to look like I had the ability to. And I really just got down and dirty with the character, but then I finally went on set; when you're about to roll, all the "blubbity blue" you've been working on kind of messes with. And you become a little bit detached."

Something else I found rather cool in the interview was Cobie somewhat explaining the character's background. For instance, she noted that Maria Hill was from Chicago in the comics, and evidently in the film. And before the cameras began rolling, she thought about how a Chicagoan would act, and how she could incorporate that in her performance. Anyhow, like I said, it's nothing much.

 Marvel's The Avengers picks up when an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security. And Nick Fury, director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. With director Joss Whedon at it's helm, and an ensemble cast including Chris Evans (Steve Rogers), Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark), Chris Hemsworth (Thor Odinson), Jeremy Renner (Clint Barton), Mark Ruffalo (Bruce Banner), Scarlett Johansson (Natasha Romanoff), Clark Gregg (Agt. Phil Coulson), Cobie Smulders (Maria Hill), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), with Tom Hiddleston (Loki Laufeyson), and Stellan Skarsgard (Professor Erik Selvig), the film releases worldwide May 4, 2012!

Michelle Rodriguez Was Apparently In A ‘Resident Evil’ Movie, Returning For ‘Retribution’

We’re not sure that there’s a single franchise out there that’s cheaper and more joyless than “Resident Evil.” The video-game adaptation is now a decade, and four entries, old, and has continued to add literally nothing to the zombie genre, the action movie genre and the cinematic artform in general. But with the last film, “Resident Evil: Apocalypse,” proving by far the biggest entry in the series, taking nearly $300 million worldwide, there’s no end in sight, and original helmer Paul W.S. Anderson, who also directed the fourth entry, is returning to the series for “Resident Evil: Retribution,” on which shooting is imminent, ahead of a release a year from now.

Michelle Rodriguez Was Apparently In A ‘Resident Evil’ Movie, Returning For ‘Retribution’

The film is bringing back several series veterans, with top-liner Milla Jovovich leading Sienna Guillory and Boris Kodjoe, who play…we don’t know, zombie fighters or something. But the cast is going further back than that: Colin Salmon, who was cut into tiny cubes by a laser in the only vaguely memorable scene in the first film, tweeted that he’d be coming back, and now according to Bloody Disgusting, Michelle Rodriguez is returning too.
We confess that we’d forgotten that Rodriguez was in the original, but Wikipedia tells us that she played a commando called Rain Ocampo, who, like Salmon, didn’t make it to the credits, being zombified and killed by heroine Alice. This means one of a number of things in the new installment: either 1) the film is at least in part a prequel to previous entries, 2) the characters are somehow resurrected, perhaps through cloning, which has figured in previous installments, 3) Anderson has forgotten that he cast Rodriguez and Salmon in the original, and has given them new roles, or 4) the realization has been reached that no one gives a flying fuck about the continuity of the “Resident Evil” movie franchise.
So, anyway, a paycheck for Rodriguez and a bone thrown to whoever it is out there who really cares about this series. The globe-trotting film shoots any day now in Toronto, Japan and Russia, again in 3D, and has been set by Screen Gems for a release on September 14, 2012. Our hunch is that it may, at some point, involve some kind of dated “The Matrix”-aping action sequence full of bad CGI. Yeah, some people say we’re psychic. No big deal.

Does Hollywood need its own brand of moneyball?

Facing runaway production budgets, shrinking audiences and undependable revenue streams, Hollywood is at a financial crossroads.
Is it time for the movie industry to adopt its own version of “moneyball”?
In the new film “Moneyball,” actor Brad Pitt plays Billy Beane, the real-life general manager of baseball’s Oakland Athletics and a man with a problem: His star slugger, Jason Giambi, is a free agent. The cash-strapped Athletics can’t afford to match a mammoth contract offer from the rival New York Yankees.
To compensate, the GM hires Ivy League math whiz Peter Brand (played by Jonah Hill) to identify and acquire an “island of misfit toys,” a group of cheaper, less-talented players whose undervalued ability to get on base collectively can replace the slugger’s home run hitting. The bargain-basement A’s don’t win the World Series — but they do make the playoffs, ripping off a record 20-game winning streak en route.
Could a similar strategy — making less expensive movies, and more of them — be the answer to Hollywood’s own fragile business model?


Hollywood movies that performed poorly at the box office relative to what they cost to produce include “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” with Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton

 “This is a fear-based industry,” said Los Angeles-based independent producer and distribution consultant Jerome Courshon. “Nobody wants to upset the apple cart and look for ways to do things significantly differently.”
Of bombs and Bombers
Today’s film industry is like the free-spending Yankees, wedded to a blockbuster-oriented business model in which studios expend ever-increasing sums on a smaller number of star-studded, special effects-driven productions in the hope of spawning mega-hits like “Avatar” and “Titanic” — two movies that cost about $280 million and $200 million to make, respectively, but earned a combined $4.6 billion in worldwide box office gross.
As a result, the major studios reportedly have trimmed the annual number of films they release by nearly a third over the last five years, while the average cost of their movies has jumped from $42 million in 1995 to $78 million this year.
Yet, as with baseball, bigger costs mean bigger risks: When the Yankees spent almost $40 million to sign Carl Pavano to a four-year contract before the 2005 season, the oft-injured pitcher’s lack of production was a big reason the team failed to win the World Series for four consecutive years.
The cinematic equivalent? This summer’s “Cowboys & Aliens,” a film that cost an estimated $163 million to produce but only earned $129 million in worldwide ticket sales. It’s only the latest in a long line of high-priced, effects-laden bombs, including 2010’s “Prince of Persia” — which had a $200 million budget and earned $90 million — and 2009’s “Land of the Lost,” a $100 million film that made just $30 million.
“Limiting the risk of box office bombs has for some time centered on choice of product — superhero spectacles are targeted at the younger folks who are inclined go to the multiplex,” said Christopher Sharrett, a professor of communications and film studies at Seton Hall University. “But the move to new technologies like CGI and 3-D tends to emphasize the maxim that it takes money to make money.”
With the above squeeze in mind, some in Hollywood believe their industry needs a Beane-like approach — call it movieball.
Movieball?
In a recent interview, former Disney CEO Michael Eisner suggested that studios should try to string together small hits instead of always swinging for home runs, because the growing riskiness of the blockbuster model means that “you can make a small fortune, but you better come with a large fortune.”

Lady Gaga Premiering Short Film At Paris Fashion Week

Lady Gaga Premiering Short Film At Paris Fashion Week

Lady Gaga is returning to Paris Fashion Week to debut a top-secret short film at designer Thierry Mugler's runway show.
The Paparazzi hitmaker has been working on the project with Dutch photographers/filmmakers Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, the duo behind the video for her latest single, You and I.
Nicola Formichetti, Gaga's stylist and creative director for the Mugler label, also worked on the mini-movie, which will be shown during the spring/summer 2012 presentation for the designer's Women's Wear Collection.
Details about the film are being kept under wraps until its big reveal next week (begs26Sep11), but reports suggests it will feature a previously-unreleased remix of one of the singer's tracks.
A promo photo for the project teases fans by showing a clapperboard dated 09.20.2011, suggesting the film was shot on Tuesday (20Sep11).
An edit of the film will hit the internet the day after its premiere.
It won't be Gaga's first appearance at a Mugler show in Paris - she stunned the crowd during his showcase in March (11) when she strutted her stuff on the runway and performed her song Government Hooker.

Universal Lines Up New Scarface Movie

“You know who the real crooks are? Those sleazy Hollywood producers!” Words uttered by an infinitely wiser soul than I and, if we adhere to the ‘takes one to know one’ theorem, then ones which seem particularly apt today, given the news that Universal is seeking to fashion a fresh Scarface for the 21st century.

Universal Lines Up New Scarface Movie

Universal was the studio that backed the 1983 iteration of Scarface, a movie directed by Brian De Palma, penned by Oliver Stone, produced by Martin Bregman, and which starred Al Pacino as Tony Montana, a Cuban refugee turned cocaine kingpin who has since gone on to be regarded as one of the most iconic gangsters in cinema history. And it is Universal again lending its clout to the proposed new version, with the now-80-year-old Bregman also back on board. The studio’s ex-chairman, Marc Shmuger, will be producing under his freshly-inaugurated Global Produce banner.
This third Scarface will apparently be neither a remake of nor sequel to the De Palma movie, with the basic premise of an immigrant rising to power in America via the construction of a criminal empire instead being the key retained aspect. Shmuger, Bregman and Universal reportedly know the direction they want to take, and are now ready to meet with potential scriptwriters who might fashion a suitably compelling screenplay.
The precursor to Tony Montana was Chicago mobster Tony Camonte, played by Paul Muni in 1932’s Scarface: The Shame of a Nation (the subtitle was tacked on by censors in a bid to deglamorise the criminality depicted in the movie), a character so obviously based on Al Capone that the legendary mob boss allegedly dispatched some ‘advisors’ to the film set to ensure that all was to his satisfaction (to the relief of director Howard Hawks, the response from Capone was favourable and he even purchased his own print of the movie. What a sweetheart).
But whether the next Tony is Camonte or Montana, or something else again, the key question is ‘Which actor is going to be charged with playing him?’ Your suggestions, please!

From Hollyoaks to Hollywood for Gemma Atkinson

As Gemma Atkinson pulls on a new season playsuit for our fashion shoot, all bronzed limbs, bouncing curls and gleaming smile, she certainly looks red carpet ready.
So there's never a better time for Bury beauty Gemma, 26, to head to the capital of showbiz – Los Angeles – this week for a series of meetings aimed at kickstarting her career in Hollywood.
Since leaving Hollyoaks in 2006 after five years playing Lisa Hunter, she's steadily racked up the career credits, from West End theatre in Calendar Girls, more TV drama, including most recently a three month stint on long-running BBC medical drama Casualty, and filming a succession of movies that are due for release in the coming months.


From Hollyoaks to Hollywood for Gemma Atkinson

 They include her first part in a Bollywood movie, that required Gemma to do a crash course in Hindi, no less!
She smiles: “When I accepted the part my character was to be an English girl and wasn't going to require me to speak Hindi.  But then the scripts came through and I thought 'hang on a minute', and yep it was in Hindi.  But I had a great tutor and I was able to learn my script in six days.”
And she's even tried her hand at movie producing, working as co-producer on the Britflick Airborne which is due for release in February.
“Producing was great because you see things from a different angle, and you feel a bit more important but that's about it,” she confides.  “In future I'd maybe like a shot at directing and I have always been interested in that side of things as well.”
But what is most exciting our Bury beauty at the moment is her latest trip to Hollywood.
The 26-year-old jets off to LA this week to meet with the US-based management firm she's just signed with, and who have set up a raft of meetings with TV and film execs.
She smiles: “It's exciting and I'm just going to go with an open mind about what's available out there.  I'd love to work out there, but I wouldn't want to live out there permanently, I'd get too homesick!”
But while there are stars in her eyes, there's certainly no diva behaviour from our Gemma – who's wonderfully down-to-earth when she heads for our shoot in the Manchester Arndale centre to model new autumn/winter fashions from high street store Peacocks.
She admits that while she loves the girly outfits for our shoot, during the day she can more often than not be found in
Even when she whips out a pair of Christian Louboutin skyscraper heels that she has brought along to wear during the shoot – those super-expensive heels beloved by celebrities and WAGs - it turns out there's an explanation for them.
She explains: “These were actually a present, I haven't a clue how much they would cost.
“My friend Danielle Lineker [the actress and wife of ex-footballer Gary Lineker] bought them for me after I introduced her to a director who I'd worked with and which led on to things for her.  It was just so kind of her, and I really didn't expect it at all.”
She teams the heels with some of the somewhat more affordable wares from the new autumn/winter Boutique Collection at high street fashion store Peacocks. 
The collection includes the hugely popular vintage-inspired range by Pearl Lowe, who has been working with the retailer for seven seasons now.
For our shoot, Gemma was certainly working those vintage themes that remain so popular for the new season, looking like a 1940s pin-up as she tried out the flirty floral playsuit topped off with a snazzy hat – which you'll be seeing everywhere in the shops this autumn.
And her punishing exercise regime of recent weeks will certainly have helped to keep that figure in such sizzling form.
For she's just completed two mammoth physical challenges to raise funds for charity – a 3,000ft mountain climb, followed a couple of days later by getting on her bike for the 60 mile Manchester to Blackpool Night Ride on behalf of the British Heart Foundation.
She admits: “My lips were blue when I got home after that!  We completed it in 4 hours and we all got drenched! The rain was none stop so we were freezing too but we raised lots of money for The British Heart Foundation which is a charity close to my heart so I'm thrilled.
“I would definitely take part in the bike ride again and would recommend it to people wanting to try something different and challenging for a great charity.”
And if it would get us looking anything like her, it would certainly be worth it.
She laughs: “My legs are freakishly strong for a lass!” 
In between our photos she heads back to her phone to update her twitter – telling me she's only recently set up her own official account – after, like many celebrities, falling victim to imposters pretending to be her on the microblogging site.
She says: “I couldn't even have my own name because someone else was using it and pretending to be me, so now I'm @gematko if anyone wants to follow the real me on Twitter.”
Meanwhile, things are going swimmingly for Gemma in her personal life too – as she recently revealed she's moving to Sheffield to live with her boyfriend of three years, former Britain's Got Talent finalist, judo expert Liam Richards.
She beams: “It feels all grown up, but I'm really looking forward to moving in with Liam.”
All clothes pictured are availble from the Boutique Collection at Peacocks stores nationwide, unless stated.

‘Kick-Ass’: Mark Millar knows exactly how it will all end

Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.’s “Kick-Ass” comic continues with the saga of high school geek Dave Lizewski and his transformation into the violent vigilante in the current seven-issue miniseries “Kick-Ass 2,” the second portion of the trilogy. The comic is nearly halfway through its run (No. 3 came out Aug. 24) and is still as popular as ever with five reprintings of issue No. 1 of the series alone. Hero Complex contributor Jevon Phillips caught up with writer Millar to find out what’s going on with the title and to get some answers about a movie sequel.



In "Kick Ass 2," the vigilante joins up with Justice Forever

JP: OK, first let’s get two things out of the way before we get to “Kick-Ass 2″ and “Kick-Ass 3.” What did you think about “Super”? It came after “Kick-Ass” and was pretty similar in tone… MM: “Super” was an amazing movie. One of the best things I’ve seen this year. Because it was released a year after “Kick-Ass” and dealt with similar themes, a lot of people thought we’d been ripped off, but I can say without a shred of doubt that the story was being worked on at the same time I was writing “Kick-Ass” and we weren’t ripped off in any way. The writer and director, James Gunn, is an email mate of mine, and it was genuinely just a coincidence. This happens all the time, and the movies are so different in execution I actually think they really complement each other. James is a brilliant writer, by the way. He wrote Zack Snyder’s best movie so far, “Dawn of the Dead,” and in my view actually managed to improve upon the classic. He also directed a brilliant flick called “Slither,” which I would urge people to see.

JP: And the second thing that’s on people’s minds: How do you feel about the DC relaunch?
MM: I’m delighted to see DC getting back in the game with their reboot. Making characters who are as old as Donald Duck relevant to a modern audience isn’t easy. I joked about how they were Botoxing these old dudes and squeezing them back into their tights, but in all seriousness it’s been good for retailers and after a long time of soft sales on the bulk of their characters they’ve really got people’s attention again. I love a lot of the guys over there and grew up with these characters. Creatively, it’s not where my head’s at, because I think we need to do what Stan Lee and Jack Kirby did in the ’60s and move forward, creating a new generation of characters and concepts for a 21st century readership. But I like the fact they’ve done something ballsy like this and it’s put money in the pockets of retailers. I don’t know how long it’s going to last in the medium term, but a nice little boost in the meantime.
JP: So now, the “Kick-Ass 2″ miniseries is on shelves. Can you give us an overview?

MM: Sure. “Kick-Ass 2″ picks up immediately after the credits of the first movie, and we see that Red Mist has turned his back on being an amateur superhero and wants to become the world’s first supervillain. At the same time, we take the “Kick-Ass” idea to the next level to where all the amateur superheroes out there in New York start to form a gang and, essentially, a real-life version of the Justice League or the Avengers. It’s a very ground-level view of what a super-team would be like, their headquarters below a pub and these guys all having collections every week to pay for coffee and biscuits at their meetings, but it builds up quickly into something not unlike the classic “The Warriors” movie from the ’70s. You basically have a gang of good guys and a gang of villains out there trying to take out the other and Red Mist becomes the leader of the bad guys, finding out the heroes’ secret identities and pulling their lives apart. The cops are caught in the middle of all this and Hit-Girl, of course, is a major player. She basically retired in the first book and is now living with her stepfather, being a good girl and going to girl guides and so on. She’s like Clint Eastwood in “Unforgiven,” except instead of tending a farm when she hangs up her gun she’s hanging out with 12-year-olds and watching “Glee,” desperate to pick up a knife and a machine gun again but promising her stepfather she won’t.
JP: With supervillains (can they be called super?) gathering and Red Mist’s evil transition, the series, though always kind of dark and brutal, seems to have taken an even more violent turn. Is this just a product of the times?
MM: The idea of “Kick-Ass” is what would happen if a kid put on a costume and tried to fight crime. As I realized on Page 15, this was going to get very violent because very quickly, if he was effective, he’d start making enemies. He’s running into bad people and this escalates in the sequel because something Darwinian has happened. The emergence of the superhero has created, in essence, a supervillain fashion and to make themselves stand out from regular criminals these guys need to go to the next level. It’s got nods to everything from Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange” to modern-day shootings where alienated teenagers, spoiled and disassociated from normal life, turn their frustrations upon innocent people. “Kick-Ass” was about a boy trying to be Batman or Spider-Man. “Kick-Ass 2″ is about his enemies trying to be Heath Ledger’s Joker.

Guillermo Del Toro Talks Change In Exclusive 'Mimic' Director's Cut Clip!

Guillermo del Toro has come a long way since 1997's "Mimic," a movie about a genetically engineered breed of insect called the Judas Breed that feasts on humans and can copy their appearance and behavior in stunning fashion. But even with films like "Pan's Labyrinth" and the "Hellboy" movies to his name, the legacy of "Mimic" remains: two direct-to-video sequels have been produced, and now a brand new director's cut is coming to Blu-ray on September 27.

The "Mimic" director's cut, featuring seven minutes of restored footage and a wealth of never-before-seen featurettes, certainly boasts a vision of the movie that you've yet to see. But even if it had seen the light of day previously, del Toro would likely argue that the movie has changed — or, at least, you have changed.

In this exclusive look at one of the "Mimic" Blu-ray's featurettes, del Toro speaks about the nature of storytelling and life, an ever-flowing river that necessitates the steady stream of endless change. For GDT fans, this is can't miss material; give it a watch and see for yourself.