The New Megan Fox Is Hubba Hubba

So we all know Megan Fox is out of Transformers 3. And Michael Bay has been looking for Sam Witwicki’s new love interest. So here she is. Meet Rosie-Huntington Whiteley. The good news, she’s a Victoria’s Secret model. The bad news, she has no previous acting experience. So what do you think? Straight swap with Megan Fox? Hot for hot, but no acting talent? We’ll just have to wait and see.

She’s been offered the role but not quite confirmed yet. I would think we’ll know pretty soon since Transformers 3 will start shooting in about 2 weeks. Appropriately, I’ve included a few pictures of this Rosie-Huntington Whiteley. Enjoy. =)

Megan Fox Leaves Transformers 3, Says Her Decision

So Paramount have said that Megan Fox will not be in the next Transformers movie. Hooray! No more useless acting. There is speculation that it was director Michael Bay’s decision not to hire Fox for the third film. It makes sense since she went on that rant about him and calling him Hitler in the process.

But Fox’s reps have come out and given a statement on her behalf saying “Megan Fox will not be starring in Transformers 3. It was her decision not to return. She wishes the franchise the best.”

But I’m sure she was fired. Or at least I’d like to think so. Makes things more fun that way. Heheh. Gemma Arterton is rumored to take Megan Fox’s place in the movie but not as Mikaela. Instead, as Sam Witwicki’s new love interest. Yes, this will be interesting. Transformers 3 is set for a July 1, 2011 release.

A Nightmare On Elm Street 3D Sequel?

All together now…groan. So I didn’t like the reboot. And now they’re going to make a sequel. In 3D? Come on. Don’t make me hate something I already dislike. I honestly cannot wait until the we come out of this saddening 3D phase we’re in with movies right now. 3D only wastes your money and ruins a good movie experience or makes a bad one even worse. If Hollywood wants to make 3D films, STOP converting them from 2D. Actually shoot the damn movie with 3D cameras. But until they do, I’m a firm believer that 3D movies nowadays are a waste of effort.

But for business, it’s all good. It attracts a bigger audience who are willing to pay more money than they normally would for the 2D version. Apparently A Nightmare On Elm Street had the biggest horror film opening for the April/May bracket with $32.9 million in it’s first weekend. That has obviously convinced Warner Bros. to make a second one. Here is what producer Bradley Fuller had to say:

We think that 3D movies have to be designed and written as such. If Eric (Heisserer) and Wesley (Strick) came to us with a Nightmare sequel script that is for a 3D movie, we’d be fools not to make it. Using 3D for a Nightmare sequel has to work conceptually for us, though. I don’t want to shoehorn the story just so we can use 3D technology. I do really think this movie and the visual style would work well within a 3D environment, though, so you never know.

There you go. We’re going to get another crap horror film in crap 3D. I just hope Jackie Earle Haley doesn’t agree to do the sequel. He’s just too good for a movie like this.

Source: /Film

Batman 3 Release Date Announced

Warner Brothers have just announced that the 3rd installment of the most recent Batman franchise is going to get a July 20, 2012 release date. Both Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale are confirmed for the project and I’m sure more of the other cast members will return as well.

Nolan will have to step it up a gear with this one as Batman 3 will be competing against films like The Avengers, Battleship, Star Trek 2, and the Spider-Man reboot, all opening around the same weekend. And he has just about 2 years to get the movie done and dusted. It’s going to be a monumental task to come up with a movie better than that of The Dark Knight. But Christopher Nolan is, after all, a monumental director.

Until 2012, I’m very excited for Nolan to wrap post-production on his latest project, Inception, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

First Official Thor Photo Released

Check this out. Hot on the heels of the release of Iron Man 2 in cinemas this past weekend, Marvel have just released one picture from their next film, Thor, scheduled for release next year. Playing the lead role is Australian actor, Chris Hemsworth. Name sounds familiar? That’s because he played George Kirk, Jim Kirk’s dad in last year’s Star Trek.

So what do you think of the casting of Hemsworth as Thor and what do you think about the photo below? Leave your thoughts.

Thor hits cinemas May 6, 2011.

2010 Golden Globe Nominations Announced

So it’s that time of year once more where there will be plenty of talk of ‘award-worthy’ movies. We are of course, in the process of building up to the 2010 Awards season, culminating at the Academy Awards. The nominations for the Oscars’ little brother, the Golden Globes, as it were, have just been announced and you can check them out below.

Best Motion Picture — Drama

• Avatar
• The Hurt Locker
• Inglorious Basterds
• Precious
• Up in the Air

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Drama

• Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria
• Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
• Helen Mirren, The Last Station
• Carey Mulligan, An Education
• Gabourey Sadibe, Precious

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Drama

• Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
• George Clooney, Up in the Air
• Colin Firth, A Single Man
• Morgan Freeman, Invictus
• Tobey Maguire, Brothers

Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy

• (500) Days of Summer
• The Hangover
• It’s Complicated
• Julie & Julia
• Nine

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy

• Sandra Bullock, The Proposal
• Marion Cotillard, Nine
• Meryl Streep, It’s Complicated
• Meryl Streep, Julie and Julia
• Julia Roberts, Duplicity

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy

• Matt Damon, The Informant
• Daniel Day Lewis, Nine
• Robert Downey Jr., Sherlock Holmes
• Joseph Gordon Levitt, (500) Days of Summer
• Michael Stuhlbarg, A Serious Man

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

• Mo-Nique, Precious
• Julianne Moore, A Single Man
• Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
• Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
• Penelope Cruz, Nine

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

• Matt Damon, Invictus
• Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
• Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
• Christopher Waltz, Inglorious Basterds
• Woody Harrelson, The Messenger

Best Animated Feature Film

• Coraline
• The Fantastic Mr. Fox
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
• The Princess and the Frog
• Up

Best Foreign Language Film

• Barria
• Broken Embraces
• A Prophet
• The White Ribbon
• The Maid

Best Director — Motion Picture

• Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
• James Cameron, Avatar
• Clint Eastwood, Invictus
• Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
• Quentin Tarantino, Inglorious Basterds

Best Screenplay — Motion Picture

• Up in the Air
• It’s Complicated
• District 9
• The Hurt Locker
• Inglorious Basterds

Best Original Score — Motion Picture

• Michael Giacchino, Up
• Marvin Hamlisch, The Informant
• James Horner, Avatar
• Abel Krozeniowski, A Single Man
• Karen O. and Carter Burwell, Where the Wild Things Are

Best Original Song — Motion Picture

• “I Will See You,” Avatar
• “The Weary Kind,” The Crazy Heart
• “Winter,” Brothers
• “Cinema Italiano,” Nine
• “I Want to Come Home,” Everybody’s Fine

Best Television Series – Drama

• Big Love (HBO)
• Dexter (Showtime)
• House (FOX)
• Mad Men (AMC)
• True Blood (HBO)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Drama

• Glenn Close, Damages
• January Jones, Mad Men
• Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife
• Anna Paquin, True Blood
• Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama

• Simon Baker, The Mentalist
• Michael C. Hall, Dexter
• Jon Hamm, Mad Men
• Hugh Laurie, House
• Bill Paxton, Big Love

Best Television Series – Comedy or Musical

• 30 Rock (NBC)
• Entourage (HBO)
• Glee (FOX)
• Modern Famiy (ABC)
• The Office (NBC)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Comedy or Musical

• Toni Collette, United States of Tara
• Courtney Cox, Cougar Town
• Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie
• Tina Fey, 30 Rock
• Lea Michele, Glee

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Comedy or Musical

• Alex Baldwin, 30 Rock
• Steve Carell, The Office
• David Duchovny, Californication
• Thomas Jane, Hung
• Matthew Morrison, Glee

Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

• Georgia O-Keeffe (Lifetime Television)
• Grey Gardens (HBO)
• Into The Storm (HBO)
• Little Dorrit (PBS)
• Taking Chance (HBO)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

• Joan Allen, Georgia O’Keeffe
• Drew Barrymore, Grey Gardens
• Jessica Lange, Grey Gardens
• Anna Paquin, The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler
• Sigourney Weaver, Prayers for Bobby

Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

• Kevin Bacon, Taking Chance
• Kenneth Branagh, Wallander: One Step Behind
• Chiwetel Ejiofor, Endgame
• Brendan Gleeson, Into The Storm
• Jeremy Irons, Georgia O’Keeffe

Best Peformance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

• Jane Adams, Hung
• Rose Byrne, Damages
• Jane Lynch, Glee
• Janet McTeer, Into The Storm
• Chloe Sevigny, Big Love

Best Peformance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

• Michael Emerson, Lost
• Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother
• William Hurt, Damages
• John Lithgow, Dexter
• Jeremy Piven, Entourage

As far as I know, movies that have a lot of critical buzz around it at the moment are The Hurt Locker, Brothers, Precious, Up in the Air and A Serious Man. I haven’t watched most of these movies. But I definitely will get around to it before the Awards season and try to give my opinions on them. Until then, mark your calendar for January 17th, 2010, which is when the Golden Globes will be airing.

Source: ScreenRant

First Look At Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith In Kung-Fu Kid

When I first heard about our favorite The Karate Kid would be remade I was like “Oh no”. When I heard that Jackie Chan would play Mr. Miyagi and Jayden Smith as the kid, Daniel LaRusso, I was like “Oh noeeessssssss”.

Luckily they’ve decided to change it up a bit and now the official title is Kung-Fu Kid. It makes things a little better. The deal is that Dre (Hayden Smith) is a video game-loving skateboarder who’s forced to move to China with his mother (Taraji P. Henson). Dre finds it hard to settle in and doesn’t understand or speak Mandarin. He gets beat up and as a result receives kung-fu training from maintenance man, Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) and Mandarin lessons.

These two pictures are the first to come out of the set of the film. In the picture below, at first glance I thought Jackie Chan looked like Sly Stallone. Right?

Kung-Fu Kid is directed by Harald Zwart and produced by Jaden Smith’s dad, mega-star Will Smith. The film will get a US release on June 11th of next year. There’s no news on a Malaysian release date just yet.

Source: /Film

Subtitle for Pirates of the Caribbean 4 Revealed

For months now there has been talk of the 4th Pirates film to revolve around Captain Jack Sparrow in search of the Fountain of Youth. But the rumors were neither squashed nor confirmed. Recently at the D23 Disney Fan Expo, the banner above was unveiled which had the official subtitle for the film – On Stanger Tides as well as a confirmed general release period of summer 2011.

People did some digging and Cinematical found a book with the exact same name and is about pirates and the Fountain of Youth. Here’s the official synopsis of the book On Stranger Tides written by Tim Powers:

“Puppeteer John Chandagnac, bound for Jamaica to recover stolen money from his uncle, becomes Jack Shandy after pirates attack his ship and force him to join their crew. Shandy’s struggle to accept his new life grounds the story for readers, even as Blackbeard and vodun magicians whisk everyone away to dreamlike lands where the Fountain of Youth itself awaits. The chaotic sea battles sing, though at times key events happen so quickly that they get lost in the shuffle as Jack tries to comprehend where he’s going and what’s at stake.”

So what’s the deal here? Are Disney ripping off a book? Can’t be the case. Maybe they’re going to adapt the book into a movie. Either way, I’m excited for Pirates 4.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides has Chicago director, Rob Marshall, rumored to be directing, with Johnny Depp being the only cast member we know of so far who is definitely returning (Keira Knightley has previously said no to returning). Production is supposed to start next Spring and is (as mentioned) set to be released in the summer of 2011.

Source: Screen Rant

Michael Jackson’s This Is It Movie Poster

Barely 3 months since his passing, Sony Pictures have released the poster for the This Is It movie. The movie, if you didn’t already know, will be a sort of music-documentary type focusing on the final couple of days of Michael Jackson’s life when he was rehearsing at the Staples Center for his 50-date This Is It concert at the O2 Arena in London, England.

Some 80 hours of rehearsal footage was captured by AEG Live, the company that organized the concert, and Sony are using a fraction of those 80 hours to make this film. The film is directed by Kenny Ortega, the same person who directed the High School Musical movies, Michael Jackson’s This Is It concert in London as well as his public memorial at the Staples Center in June. Check out the poster below.

Michael Jackson’s This Is It is set for release in America October 28 and a day later here in Malaysia.

The Walt Disney Company To Buy Marvel Entertainment For $4 Billion

I know this is pretty old news by now but I just want to write about what this deal means to everything Disney and Marvel we consume. After the announcement was made that Disney were to buy Marvel for $4 billion in cash and stocks, fanboys all over the world went “NOOOO!!” in tandem. It is pretty scary to know that fewer companies are controlling the content we consume but there are plenty of positives that can be taken out of this deal.

First off, Disney have already said that they will not interfere with the current Marvel management. Which means we will not see Mickey-man or High School Musical Origins: Troy, which is a good thing. From here on it’s just uphill.

Imagine what a powerhouse company like Disney can do with the 5,000-odd characters from the Marvel catalogue. They have already stated their plans to work on lesser known Marvel characters which should be good news for fanboys.

Also, there is the AWESOME possibility of having Pixar work on some Marvel movies. And with their Disney-ABC Television Group, don’t be too surprised to see superhero TV series to start popping up in the future and kicking Heroes’ butt.

Disney are of course known for their straight-to-television, low-budget movies like the first two High School Musicals and numerous others. So there that possibility of them making superhero movies for the Disney channel. The only problem would be the inability to include violence in the movies.

Putting the film and television industries aside, Disney also have the largest collection of theme parks and imagine how epic it would be to have Marvel superhero amusement rides.

Of course, everything above is completely hypothetical and only time will tell whether this deal will be a good one for fanboys and the general consumer alike. If Disney do what they say and leave the Marvel team to do their own thing, then I think we have nothing to worry about but a lot to be excited for. I know I’m excited!

Feel free to let me know what you think of this merger. I forgot to mention that $4 billion is a ridiculous amount of money! Spare change for Disney though, I bet.

Avatar Teaser Trailer

First off, Happy Avatar Day! So James Cameron's Avatar has been getting about as much hype as Transformers 2 got, I would say. I had a bad experience with Transformers 2, so this time around I'm keeping my expectations down. So far, I haven't had to work hard at that because for one, there hasn't been a lot of marketing material thrown at us and secondly, I'm not impressed with the Avatar teaser trailer that went live on the Web last night.

Although a lot has been said about how the CG and the 3-D technology was utilized differently in the making of this film, I just did not take kindly to what I saw in the 2 minute teaser. Having that been said, I am still looking forward to seeing what the mesh of CG, live-action and motion capture will look like in both 2-D and 3-D.

About Avatar Day, it was announced at last month's San Diego Comic-Con that on August 21, in selected theaters all around the world, a special sneak preview of the film will be shown free of charge. A total of 16 minutes of 3-D footage is supposed to be shown in 3-D. I know that this is happening here in Malaysia too. Check out Cinema Online for more deets.

The footage we will be showing on 22 August 2009, Saturday at 11.30am GSC Mid Valley Hall 4 will add up to total running time of just over 16 min and includes a short James Cameron intro in 3-D (run time: 39 seconds) and 3-D movie footage (run time: 15 minutes, 34 seconds), which in addition to a shorter edit of scenes from the Comicon footage concludes with an action montage culled from finished footage of the teaser trailer.

So here is the long-awaited, highly anticipated teaser trailer for James Cameron's Avatar. Enjoy.



Official Plot Synopsis:
Avatar takes us to a spectacular new world beyond our imagination, where a reluctant hero embarks on a journey of redemption and discovery, as he leads a heroic battle to save a civilization. The film was first conceived by Cameron 14 years ago, when the means to realize his vision did not yet exist. Now, after four years of actual production work, Avatar delivers a fully immersive cinematic experience of a new kind, where the revolutionary technology invented to make the film, disappears into the emotion of the characters and the sweep of the story.

James Cameron's Avatar hits Malaysian screens December 17.

15Malaysia

This post is a couple of days overdue, at least. But better late than never, especially since this project is ongoing. So, what is 15Malaysia?

15Malaysia quite simply is a local short film project. It involves 15 short films made by 15 of our very own filmmakers. This initiative is produced by Pete Teo who is local singer-songwriter with the help of P1. Yes, P1 the WiMAX people. They’re the ones who are sponsoring the project and making this possible.

The 15 short films are directed by known filmmakers like Amir Muhammad and the late Yasmin Ahmad, as well as relatively unknown directors. The actors in the short films aren’t nobodies either. The cast of these films feature actors, musicians and even politicians, the most notably of which is Khairy Jamaluddin.

What are the films about? Well, a lot of things.

All our films have socio-political subject matters. These vary from corruption, race relations, inflation, Islamic banking, social apathy, ethical commerce, pedophilia, government health warnings and so on. Some are funny, other serious – all try to deal with aspects of Malaysian life. Each filmmaker was responsible for choosing his or her own subject matter.

The brilliant thing about this project is that all 15 of the short films are available for viewing and download on the Web, entirely FREE. However, not all 15 films are available just yet. A new short film is made available every couple of days. The project was launched this past Monday and a film by Ho Yuhang titled Potong Saga started things off. Yesterday, Yasmin Ahmad’s short film, Chocolate was released. You get the idea. Tomorrow, we’ll be getting The Tree by Amir Muhammad, which I’m very much looking forward to. The last film to be released will be Rojak! by the Suleiman Brothers on September 16th.

Where can you watch or download these films, you say? Well 15Malaysia have their very own website at 15malaysia.com. It’s a very well done site with a lot of information but very simplistic in design. Be sure to check it out if you haven’t already and download the short films.

Here are a couple other 15Malaysia links:

Their Facebook fanpage already have over 35,000 fans. http://www.facebook.com/15malaysia

Their Twitter account has already amassed an astonishing 782 followers. http://twitter.com/15malaysia

You can also follow Pete Teo on Twitter. And, of course, myself as well at @mikecampton.

To end this post, here are some trailers for the short films. Remember to check the films out on 15malaysia.com.

First Official Photo From James Cameron’s Avatar

In the wake of having our minds blown by Wikus van de Merwe and Christopher Johnson from District 9, it’s time to look forward to arguably the only other film this year that could possibly be as good as District 9. I’m talking about non other than James Cameron’s Avatar. Yes, that other Sci-Fi flick. Well, here’s a really cool photo of Sam Worthington (yes, the Terminator Salvation dude) in the lead role of his new film. Apparently, he’s in almost every single scene of this movie. So if you don’t like him as an actor, then you’d probably hate Avatar. Take a look at the photo though. If you’re wondering what’s in the tank of water in the background, it’s Sam Worthy’s alien avatar. Cool innit? Check it. from

Sam Worthington plays Jake Sully a paraplegic war veteran, who gets the opportunity to travel to another planet, Pandora, to work with a mining operation. Because the planet is so harsh, traditional armor and envirosuit solutions are not good enough to protect miners, and a clone program has developed in which DNA from humans and Na’vi, the natives that inhabit Pandora, are combined. The result is essentially a cloned Na’vi that can house the consciousness of an individual with human DNA. This means that Jake will be able to walk again.

Avatar gets its release December 18, 2009.

Source: /Film

First Look at Tony Stark’s Mark IV Iron Man Suit

If you’re a big comic book fan or even if you just watched the Iron Man movie, then you should know that there were 3 versions of the suit- the one Stark built in a cave to bust out of it, the prototype suit and of course the final red and gold suit.

A little under a week ago, Jon Favreau Tweeted that they had wrapped production of Iron Man 2. Just about a day or two ago in San Diego at Comic-Con, a picture of all three suits including a brand new one on show at the Marvel booth, was taken. Check it out below.

Very cool eh? Let’s zoom in a little bit.

Here you can see that the Mark III suit (left) that was in the last film is similar to the Mark IV suit which we will see in the next film. Also, the Mark IV suit is much less bulky and looks sleeker than the Mark III. How will this look on RDJ? We’ll just have to wait until the movie gets release to find out. And that will be May 7 of next year.

Here’s the Mark IV suit all by its lonesome.

Source: Screen Rant

First Look at Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger

Fans of Freddy Krueger and slasher films in general will be excited this, the first image of Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger in the upcoming remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street directed by Samuel Bayer. Check out the picture below. And the teaser poster further down.

If you have no clue as to who Jackie Earle Haley is, then the picture below should help you a little bit.

Check out the teaser poster for A Nightmare on Elm Street below. It hits theaters April 16, 2010.

Transformers 2 Devours US Box Office

NOTE: The first half of this article may be boring unless you’re interested in the figures. But if you’re not, jump straight to the second half where I give my thoughts on the Transformers 2 insanely addictive marketing campaign. And yes, you were probably a victim, as I was. And it lead to my own demise.

Even after watching Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, I cannot resist posting a story about the movie. But this is a big story. What is it, you say? It’s the story of Michael Bay’s super massive summer blockbuster really following through with that notion of being a “blockbuster” and at the same time busting the US box office.

WARNING: A lot of numbers are coming at you.

Cutting all the crap, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen grossed an obscene $201.2 million at the US box office in its first five days that was Wednesday through Sunday. That figure is only 2nd in the history of 5-day openings to none other than The Dark Knight which grossed a cool $203.8 million in the same time frame last summer.

Transformers 2 also came in second to The Dark Knight for the biggest opening day gross, getting $60.6 million and $67.1 million respectively. As for Transformers 2’s conventional opening weekend (Fri-Sat), it was the 7th biggest ($112 million) grossing film in history after The Dark Knight, a Shrek movie, two Spiderman movies and two Pirates of the Caribbean movies. However, because Transformers 2 opened on a Wednesday instead of the regular Friday, it has the record of having the highest 5-day total for a movie to have been released on a Wednesday. Spiderman 2 is second in that regard when it grossed $152.4 million from Wednesday to Sunday back in 2004.

Combined with the $186.1 million the movie managed to gross in other countries across the world, it takes the total worldwide gross for the movie to $387.3 million as of Sunday.

As things are right now and how things are going for Transformers 2, it doesn’t look so good for me and my top 10 grossing summer movies predictions list.

Here is a recap of all the numbers:

Opening day US gross: $60.6 mil

Opening weekend US gross (Fri-Sun): $112 mil

Opening 5-day US gross: $201.2 mil

Foreign gross as of Sunday: $186.1 mil

Worldwide gross as of Sunday: $387.3 mil

I’m sorry for going on about all these numbers. If you didn’t understand a word of what I was saying, I apologize. I’m just amazed by how much money what is a pretty average movie can take in. I guess at the end of the day all this commercial success is spawned from the incredibly dense and interest-generating marketing campaign for the movie. There were so many posters, trailers and TV spots shown in theaters, on TV and on the Web, it was so overwhelming.

For me, all the hype building up to the movie only made the movie so much worse than it really was. The buzz for the movie was so alluring it gave me more expectations on top of my already high expectations from after the last movie, and I ultimately got let down. Makes me think twice about getting too sucked into the whole viral/publicity/marketing campaign thingamabob in the future.

What is my point? My point is, I use to love trailers and posters, and I still do. But you have to keep in mind that the trailers of movies will sometimes be better than the movies themselves. This was exactly the case for Transformers 2. Kudos and congratulations to Paramount’s marketing department are in order, I guess.

If you have any thoughts on the matter, don’t be afraid to drop me something in the comments below.

Source: Box Office Mojo

News Bits: Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Jeff Goldblum, Transformers 2, Oscars and Spread

Here's a little roundup of some of the entertainment news bits that are being talked about most in mainstream and social media right now.

Farrah Fawcett died at the age of 62, after fighting cancer for the last three years. Her pin-up poster is still the best-selling poster in history, selling over 12 million copies.

Michael Jackson, the King of Pop also died earlier today at the age of 50. He was reported to have suffered a heart attack and died of cardiac arrest. His autopsy results and more details on the cause of his death should be revealed by Friday afternoon in the States. The sudden news of his death has sent shockwaves around the world. Millions of fans around the world are mourning the loss of this legendary icon.

Jeff Goldblum (Jurassic Park, Independence Day) was also reported dead but later it was confirmed that it was only a horrible hoax. His rep released a statement saying Goldblum is “alive and well”.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen opened in theaters on Wednesday in the US and managed to gross $60.6 million in just that one day. This figure is the highest ever for a Wednesday opening. Experts say the movie could easily reach $150 million at the end of the week. However, movie critics are continuing to pan the movie. The movie currently has a score of just 22% on Rotten Tomatoes, compared to 38% just four days ago. Topping the bad news some more is the controversy created over the racist innuendos of two of the Transformers 2 characters; The Twins- Skids and Mudflap. They very clearly speak with African American accents, use relatively vulgar language (as vulgar as PG-13 would allow), talk slang like “bust a cap in somebody’s ass,” admit to being illiterate, and one of them even sports a gold tooth.

Best Picture category at next year’s Academy Awards will have the number of nominees increased from five to 10. This will give movies like Pixar’s Up and new comedy The Hangover a chance to maybe get nominated where they had no chance previously.

Spread, Ashton Kutcher’s new comedy, out August 14 in the US, now has a trailer. I’ve embedded it below.

Ashton Kutcher was one of countless celebrities voicing their grief on Twitter over the news of Michael Jackson’s passing. He had this to say-

I plea to the public to refuse to consume media that does not respect the anonymity of Michaels children.

Below are some of the many celebrity heartfelt Tweets:

@mileycyrus michael jackson was my inspiration. love and blessings

@mrskutcher I am greatly saddened for the loss of both Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. Especially for their children!

@Tyrese4ReaL I can’t believe I’m about to write this Michael Jackson May God Bless your SOUL WE LOVE YOU FOREVER REST IN PEACE I’m sad this is horrible

@ashleytisdale So sad. Saying a prayer for Michael Jackson

I was never a super hardcore fan of Michael Jackson, but I was a decent fan of his. The strongest memory I have of Michael Jackson is that of the numerous people who have made fun of my name and called me Michael Jackson, instead of Michael Jason Campton, which is my proper name. I love his music, and his dancing even more. I think he is the best dancer to have ever lived. His music and videos will definitely be around for many years to come.

If you have any interesting stories in entertainment to share, tell me about it. Also, if you have anything to say about Michael Jackson, go ahead.

If you’re on Twitter, go ahead and follow me and/or @reply me at @mcampton.

Transformers 2 Fun Facts + One Transformers 2 Clip + Three Transformers 2 TV Spots = Pure Transformers 2 AWESOMENESS

So, what is it? Five days away from the release of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and people cannot be more pumped up. Ever since January, we’ve been teased and teased and teased so many times. Right before the movie hits theaters all over the world, here are a few more Transformers 2 goodies for you.

Starting off with some Revenge of the Fallen fun (more mind-blowing than fun, actually) facts. Taken off Michael Bay’s blog.

Robots

• 14 robots last time, 46 robots this time (ILM only)
• If you had all the gold ever mined in the history of man, you could build a little more than half of Devastator.
• Optimus Prime will be life size on IMAX screens in many forest fight shots.
• Devastator’s hand is traveling 390 miles per hour when he punches the pyramid.
• The pyramid destruction simulation was 8 times bigger than the old rigid simulation all-time record holder at ILM.
• All robot parts laid out end to end would stretch from one side of California to the other, about 180 miles
• Devastator’s parts stacked tip to tip would be as tall as 58 empire state buildings.
• If all the texture maps on the show were printed on 1 square yard sheets, they would cover 13 football fields.

Disk space

• Transformers took 20 Terabytes of disk space. Transformers 2 took 145 Terabytes. Seven times bigger!
• 145 terabytes would fill 35,000 DVDs. Stacked one on top of the other without storage cases, they would be 145 feet tall.

Rendering times

• If you rendered the entire movie on a modern home PC, you would have had to start the renders 16,000 years ago (when cave paintings like the Hall of Bulls were being made) to finish for this year’s premiere!
• A single IMAX shot in the movie (df250) would have taken almost 3 years to render on a top of the line home PC running nonstop.
• IMAX frame render times: As high as 72 hours per frame!

Imax

• Optimus Prime will be life size on IMAX screens in many forest fight shots.
• Imax frames take about 6 times longer than anamorphic to render.
• IMAX frame render times: As high as 72 hours per frame!

ILM screen time
ILM Screen Time is about 51 minutes.
Devastator

• Devastator is as tall as a 10 story building.
• Devastator has more than 10 times the number of individual parts found in an average car.
• Laid out end to end, Devastator’s parts would be almost 14 miles long.

Devastator totals

• Number of geom pieces: 52632
• The total number of polygons: 11,716,127
• The total length of all pieces: 73090 feet
• The total length of all pieces: 13.84 miles

Is all that freaking insane or what? Now for all the video goodies. Here’s a clip from the movie called “We Gonna Die” in which Sam, his new buddy, Leo, and Mikaela are being chased by Decepticons.

Finally, check out three brand new TV spots called “Ancient Power”, “Everything” and “Bumblebee”.

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen "Ancient Power" from Bay Films/Michael Bay Dot Com on Vimeo.

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen "Everything" from Bay Films/Michael Bay Dot Com on Vimeo.

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen "Bumblebee" from Bay Films/Michael Bay Dot Com on Vimeo.

First Look: Mickey Rourke as Whiplash in Iron Man 2

Today, Iron Man 2 director, Jon Favreau broke the picture of Mickey Rourke as Whiplash on Twitter. First asking us to stay tuned, then said Whiplash!, accompanied by a link. The link was to a USA Today page on which an article was written about the new Whiplash photo. Here it is, check it out.

The USA Today article gives us a better understanding of the villain’s story. Whiplash aka Ivan Vanko is a Russian who "has constructed his own version of a suit," Favreau says. He manages to break out of prison using his suit. He sports a power pack on his chest similar to that of Tony Stark and Favreau says that "the technologies are definitely related, that's part of the core theme of the film."

In the photo, Whiplash is seen at the Monaco Grand Prix. Director Jon Favreau is being very secretive when it comes to the movie’s plot. But expect a lot more to be revealed in the coming months.

Iron Man 2 comes to theaters May 7, 2010.

If you’re on Twitter, follow Jon Favreau as he updates about the production of Iron Man 2, @Jon_Favreau. Also, you can follow my Tweets at @mcampton.

Transformers 2 Tokyo World Premiere Highlights

Here's a better look at the world premiere with the official video.