Anne Hathaway Catwoman

The lucky a-holes of io9 got to visit the post-production oasis for John Carter, aka A Princess of Mars, Pixar's live-action adaptation of the first book of Edgar Rice Burrough's sci-fi genre building series, and have filed a terrifically detailed report from there, along with a decent amount of conversation with director Andrew Stanton. They've seen the trailer, they've seen Woola and the Tharks and Dejah Thoris doing a slutty shimmy no doubt (harlot). I liked this bit from Stanton:

"Tharks are 9-foot to 10-foot tall green aliens with four arms and tusks. They're all CG, so I went with my Pixar gut and experience, and got actors because of their eyes, their voice, and their acting ability. That's all that's going to be left when all of this is said and done. Those are three things that can translate directly to the animated characters, once they're portrayed there. I got Willem Dafoe and Samantha Morton, and this is what I asked them to do, which was to be on stilts with gray pajamas on, with face cams in 100-degree heat. That's how I sold it. I didn't know how else to get around this issue. I said, "How would you like to wear gray pajamas and be on stilts and wear face cams and stand in 100 degree heat in the desert for six months or three months?" They said, "Where do I sign?""

--- Swimming With Fassy - Michael Fassbender has joined every other Irishman actor in existence in the cast of Brendan Gleeson's adaptation of Flann O’Brien’s 1939 novel At-Swim-Two-Birds. I am not familiar with this novel, but here's the world's briefest description:

"The story follows a teenage student who populates his creative writing with important characters from his own life." 

"our scenes with Michael were totally intense! I'll just say that whoever he is dating (I heard its Zoe Kravitz), is most definitely not disappointed with his...er, manliness."

I mean, anybody who's seen Hunger knows this already (link NSFW), but it's always a welcome reminder.

--- Ze Plane - Apparently there was word via Twitter (a tweet which has since been deleted, so who knows) over the weekend that Dominic Cooper had joined the cast of a Hervé Villechaize bio-pic, which is starring Peter Dinklage (who looks nothing like Hervé, height aside). It's called My Dinner With Hervé and Cooper's apparently playing a journalist who interviews the Fantasy Island star about his life, which probably had more to it than shouting, "Ze plane, ze plane!" for a couple of years, right?

--- Planet of the Rapes - James Franco would like you to know that he's not a gay rapist, thank you very much.

--- Solar Flair - It's nothing new really if you're familiar with the books but in an interview at AICN with James Purefoy (mmm James Purefoy) they got him to talk a little bit about his character in John Carter (have they renamed it just JC yet?) and what the filming was like. A little bit.

"The character is called Kantos Kahn and he is the admiral of the Xavarin, which is a gigantic sort of ship. But in the John Carter world, these ships fly through the air and are powered by solar panels, so they go very, very fast when it’s very, very sunny, and they slow down a little bit when it’s cloudy."

--- Dino Might - Seems like it's every six months or so that we get some fresh Jurassic Park rumor-mongering - June of 2011 has Spielberg meeting with a writer to discuss possibilities or whatever. Seems to me this shouldn't be so damned hard - put some dinosaurs on an island, have humans visit said island, and go. Instant movie. As long as there's no strapping laser guns to dinosaur heads we're fine.

--- Easy Being Green - Ryan Reynolds looks pretty darn adorable on the cover of the new Entertainment Weekly, eh? Too bad his movie's being savaged by the critics. Well not really "too bad," I mean I think the pretty boy can take it since he cashed his check awhile ago, no doubt. Probably in between his 485th and 486th sit-up of the day.

"Winslet will play a single mother of an awkward and isolated young son who takes in a stranger. He turns out to be an escaped convict and ends up teaches the boy life lessons, while she falls in love with him over the course of Labor Day Weekend."

It has to be more interesting that that sounds, right? Anyone read the book? Hey if it's got Kate I'll watch it, I just want good things for her, is all.
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--- War's The Pitts - STYD has got some shots from the set of World War Z, the adaptation of Max Brooks' zombie-apocalypse book that's finally getting made after a few years of yap. There's nothing much to see yet, but that nice look at the length of Brad Pitt there demands I at least link.