Dennis Quaid protects children from health disasters

[Snipped for Keanu]

On June 4-6, Quaid will be pitching in to help IHC by literally going for the green.

That's when his second annual golf tournament — the Jiffy Lube/Dennis Quaid Charity Classic in Austin, Texas, will tee off. Expected to compete in the golfing weekend are Hollywood linksters Keanu Reeves, Luke Wilson, Greg Kinnear, Frankie Muniz and Leslie Nielsen. Quaid's band The Sharks will perform with help from Don Felder of the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac's Billy Burnette. The fundraiser will also benefit three local charities – the Austin Children's Shelter, Any Baby Can and the Children's Medical Center of Central Texas.

Keanu Reeves featured in NHL advertising campaign

2:23 PM EDT, 05/24/2004 Keanu Reeves featured in NHL advertising campaign

More Matrix Box Set Details

May 20, 2004 - The Digital Bits has the news that a number of online retailers, including Australian's e-tailer EzyDVD, are listing a 9-disc The Matrix Trilogy DVD box set in Region 4, although there is no street date.

The set breaks down as three discs for The Matrix, three discs for The Matrix Reloaded, two discs for The Matrix Revolutions, and the Animatrix DVD.

Among the features are new HD transfers of the films, an extended version of Reloaded with an hour of additional footage and new documentaries, commentaries and other newly-created special edition content.

We've already noted that Eric Matthies Productions, a media production company in the Hollywood area, let the information out that it was working on the box set by boasting of it on its corporate Web site.

EMP said it is working on "over one dozen hours of new material for this upcoming collectors [sic] edition release. This expanded edition of discs will include detailed documentaries on the philosophy and science behind the Matrix scripts as well as a look at the history of action cinema. EMP is also creating a densely layered documentary package estimated at nine total hours using footage that has not been seen in the other Matrix releases."

So far, it looks like this will be quite a set.

-- IGN DVD

Erik Davis consults on A Scanner Darkly!

Boing Boing pal Erik Davis sends us this exclusive bit of insider insight into the Hollywood adaptation of Philip K. Dick's surreal SF novel "A Scanner Darkly": "This spring, I had the opportunity to read and consult on Richard Linklater’s screenplay for Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly, which is set to start filming this July. As I love many of Linklater’s films, this was a great honor, although much less funny than the New Yorker’s description of me as a “Dick expert.” Expert or no, I can tell you that I have every reason to believe that Linklater’s film will be what Dickheads everywhere have been waiting for: the first “real” “authentic” PKD movie. While the film updates the historical vibe from paranoid 70s to paranoid 00s, the script is dark and tart, funny and faithful. Nearly all the dialogue is drawn from the novel, and the few changes sharpen Dick’s themes rather than squelch them. Linklater has kept the story dark, and haunted by rumors of God.

As has been reported, Keanu Reaves will play Bob Arctor, the Orange County narc who goes schizo after being assigned to spy on himself. Linklater has been planning this project for years; it was Reaves’ interest in the story that finally got the ball rolling. As has been already noted, Winona Ryder, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, and Rory Cochrane round out the cast, though it also needs to be mentioned that these are some of the most famous druggies in Hollywood. Actually, I don’t know anything about Rory’s personal habits, but he sure spouted convincing cannabinoid bon mots in Dazed & Confused.

During my time at Linklater’s pine-forested getaway pad outside of Austin, which features a pagoda, a huge stone tower, and many pinball machines, I got to meet the genius team whose digital rotoscoping helped make Waking Life one of the few masterpieces of the new millennium. These are definitely the guys you want to bring Bob Arctor’s scramble suit to life."

First book by celebrity portrait photographer, PLATON, to be published in June 2004.

Major debut at exhibition and special book launch in New York. PLATON'S REPUBLIC ($59.95, hardcover, 240 pages), a collection of over 120 iconic portraits taken by Platon during the past decade, will be published by Phaidon Press in June 2004. Known for his bold and graphic signature portrait style, Platon has been commissioned by some of the world’s most influential magazines to photograph some of the most prominent people of our time. Included in PLATON'S REPUBLIC are politicians, actors, directors, architects, artists, musicians and athletes. Platon has designed an innovative one-time NYC exhibition to celebrate the book's publication. Held at Milk Gallery (June 17-26), the exhibition will travel to London and other cities throughout 2004 and 2005. The opening night party (Wed., June 16) will bring PLATON'S REPUBLIC to life and buzz to the gossip pages. Rubbing shoulders will be celebrities and subjects from the book, along with major influencers and players from the worlds of photo and fashion, advertising and media, film and music, art and design, politics and culture, and more.

New York, (PRWEB) May 21, 2004 -- “Platon's photos have captured people — famous, infamous, anonymous — in ways that reveal them, in ways that unveil them, in ways that leave them open to entirely new interpretations. He is an artist working in a commercial form and that combination makes him the most distinctive photographer at work today.” ~ David Granger, Editor in Chief, Esquire

Seen in PLATON'S REPUBLIC are former presidents George Bush, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter; American politicians, senators and government leaders Rudy Giuliani, John Kerry, Edward Kennedy, Jesse Jackson; and from England, the former leader of the Labor Party, Michael Foot, and the Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott. From the media are 60 Minutes’ journalist Mike Wallace, CNN guru Larry King, commentator Studs Turkel, watchdog Matt Drudge. From inside and outside Hollywood are directors Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, Erroll Morris. Actors Al Pacino, Keanu Reeves, Anjelica Huston, Benicio Del Toro. From the music world are Quincy Jones, Michael Stipe, Chuck D., Leonard Cohen. Architects Daniel Libeskind and John Pawson. International soccer star David Beckham and prizefighter Oscar De La Hoya. Fashion designers Paul Smith, Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood. Artists Gilbert and George, Yoko Ono, and Peter Blake. Photographer Helmut Newton. And the list goes on and on and on.

Most are considered celebrities and household names, but Platon also has captured the faces of prejudice, controversy, crisis and pride in portraits that include the mother of an assassin, neo-Nazi skinheads in North Carolina, demonstrators and activists at an execution in Texas, surviving Congressman who fought in the Vietnam War, among others. There is also documentary work and “collective portraits” of two cultures in grief taken during the respective aftermaths of September 11th in New York and the funeral of Princess Diana in London.

Consequentially, various timely themes and issues — such as what defines power and “staying power,” the undeniable presence of fame and celebrity in the culture, the current international dialogue between America and Britain, the sweeping transformation between the Clinton and Bush eras — emerge throughout the book.

Trained as a graphic designer, Platon’s sharp visual language is reflected in the layout of PLATON'S REPUBLIC. Designed by Platon himself, the book is not broken down into chapters dictated by chronology or category, but rather evolves in a rhythmic sequence of what Platon considers “channel surfing through contemporary culture.” An intimate portrait of the controversial musician and performer Marilyn Manson is juxtaposed with one of Dr. Robert Schuller, the ubiquitous TV evangelist and head of the Crystal Cathedral Church. The Reverend Al Sharpton gives the sign of black power, followed by a severe close-up of Jesse Helms, one of the key mobilizers of the religious right. Series of iconic studio portraits are punctuated with documentary images, appearing as spreads throughout the book.

PLATON'S REPUBLIC concludes with “What’s It All About?” Thirty pages of personal scrapbooks provide a first person, hand-written, behind-the-scenes account of what it was like to meet his subjects and what occurred during the photo shoots, along with other special memories, recollections and anecdotes. Designed with French folds, the book’s jacket reveals a hidden version of the scrapbooks, playfully reproduced at a very small scale.

Many subjects share the book’s cover in a brilliant and dense collage Platon created over the course of one year. Looking like a mushroom cloud, the organic shape represents what Platon calls “the explosion of culture” and a mixture of both the high and the low.

MORE ABOUT PLATON
Platon’s full name is Platon Antoniou, a Greek name pronounced in the French manner. But he goes by Platon “for simplicity’s sake.”

Born in London in 1968, Platon was raised in the Greek Isles by his English mother, an art historian, and Greek father, an architect, until the age of seven when his family returned to London. He attended St. Martin’s School of Art, and after receiving his BA with honors in Graphic Design, he was then awarded an MA in photography and fine art at the Royal College of Art, where one of his professors and mentors was the late John Hind, the creative director of British Vogue. While still a student, he received British Vogue’s “Best up-and-coming Photographer” award in 1992, along with the opportunity to contribute both fashion and portrait images to the magazine.

Now an Englishman in New York, Platon left London in 1998 after spending a few years working for George, the magazine about politics and media culture founded by the late John F. Kennedy, Jr. Recruited to shoot for its premiere issue, Platon maintained a long-term relationship with the magazine and Kennedy, and this significant and incomparable introduction to American culture and politics included one of Platon’s favorite assignments: a cross-country trip in order to document the 20 most fascinating men in America.

Later, as reported in Photo District News, “his career coup was snagging a photo shoot with then-President Bill Clinton for the cover of Esquire. Dubbed the “Crotch Shot,” because of the low camera angle and the central focus of the shot, the image caused a stir and put Platon’s name in the gossip columns.” With the pressure of having to do the shoot in less than ten minutes, and knowing this was the last official presidential portrait (since Clinton was on the brink of exiting office), Platon said he got the now-notorious shot by asking, “Mr. President, can you show me the love?”

Since the early 1990s, Platon has continued to shoot fashion, portrait and documentary work for a range of international publications, including The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, GQ, Vanity Fair, Newsweek, Premiere, Arena, The Face, i-D, Black Book, The Sunday Telegraph Magazine, The Observer and The Sunday Times Magazine. His advertising credits include campaigns for Motorola, Nike, Levi’s, IBM, Rolex, Ray-Ban, Tanqueray, Kenneth Cole, Issey Miyake, Moschino, Timex, Garrads, among others.

He is represented worldwide by the agent, David Maloney, at Art Department in New York, whose stellar roster of talent includes both rising stars, such as Norman Jean Roy, Robert Maxwell, Christian Witkin and Nick Waplington, as well as legends Steve McCurry, Bruce Davidson and Mark Ellen Mark.

Platon’s photographs have been exhibited at Hamilton’s Gallery in London, Spiral Hall in Tokyo and the Carla Sozzani Gallery in Milan. His first solo show in New York recently opened at the Leica Gallery (May 13 – June 19, 2004) and features his documentary work from around the world.

Platon is based in New York City where he lives with his wife.

4th Annual Taurus World Stunt Awards Blow up with Excitement -- Literally!; Awards To Air on Spike TV May 26 at 9 p.m. -- EDT/PDT

May 17, 2004 03:00 AM US Eastern Timezone

4th Annual Taurus World Stunt Awards Blow up with Excitement -- Literally!; Awards To Air on Spike TV May 26 at 9 p.m. -- EDT/PDT

HOLLYWOOD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 17, 2004--

In an explosion that shook Hollywood like a small earthquake, a pyrotechnic stunt performed at the 4th annual Taurus World Stunt Awards (TWSA) created a fireball far bigger than had been planned. To the shock of co-hosts Dennis Hopper and Carmen Electra as well as 1500 audience members, which included celebrity guests Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Keanu Reeves, Brendan Fraser, and Kristanna Loken, the planned finale of the show resulted in almost total destruction of the platform stage at Paramount Studios where the show was held. All those involved escaped unhurt, but even the most experienced stunt people were stunned by what they witnessed.

The audience saw co-host Electra pull a cigar from second-year host Hopper, and throw it towards a pre-determined area where it was to ignite in a mock explosion. Instead, the pyrotechnic explosion produced a huge ball of fire that produced heat felt in the first row of the crowd. The stunt thrilled the crowd, none of whom knew what they were seeing.

Other seemingly more routine stunts in the show included:

-- Co-hosts Dennis Hopper and Carmen Electra skydived onto the Taurus World Stunt Awards stage from an airbus above the historical Paramount Pictures to open this year's ceremonies. And then ...

-- The over flow crowd consisting of Hollywood's most celebrated actors, directors, producers and stunt performers were skeptical that a stunt of that caliber could be topped until Brendan Fraser leapt off a 10-story building through a glass ceiling to present the Taurus award for Best High Work. And then ...

-- Action star, Michelle Rodriguez (S.W.A.T.) crashed onto the stage after an eye-popping car chase throughout the studio's "New York" lot to present the award for Best Work with a Vehicle. And then ...

-- A stuntman engulfed in flames horrified the audience as he walked on-stage to hand the winner's envelope to Adam Brody ("The O.C.") so he could present the award for Best Fire Stunt. These were just a few of the intense stunts performed that ignited excitement at this year's show.

On top of all the dramatic entrances and death-defying stunts, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger personally presented a special award to Red Bull Energy Drink founder Dietrich Mateschitz. It was Mateschitz who envisioned the TWSA four years ago and made it all a reality with his commitment and a financial endowment that established the Taurus World Stunt Awards Foundation. The TWSA Foundation provides financial assistance to stunt performers who experience a debilitating stunt related injury.

Other celebrities in attendance to witness the insanity of this year's awards included Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Dave Navarro, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Kevin Nealon, Johnny Knoxville, Burt Reynolds, Bill Paxton, and many more!

The Winners

The Best Fight award was presented to Tony Angelotti and Mark Wagner for their work on Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. The Best Work with a Vehicle award was handed to Joffrey Brown, Gil Combs, Andy Gill, Richard Epper, Jack Gill, Steve Kelso, Henry Kingi Sr., Steve Picerni, Bennie Moore, and Charlie Picerni Sr. for their work on Bad Boys II. The Best Specialty Stunt was given to Clay Cullen Jr., Michael Gaines, Mike Massa, and J.P. Ruggerio their work on The Italian Job. The Best High Work award was presented to Paul Eliopolus and Tanoai Reed for their work on The Rundown. The Best Action in a Foreign Film award was given to Roland Busch for his stunt coordination on Countdown auf der Todesbrucke. The Best Fire Stunt was presented to Dave Forman, Nobu Obikane, Takashi Sakamoto, Taketo Nakamura, Akira Kamito, Jean Jacques DePlanque, Kazuki Tsujimoto, and Peng Zhang for their work on The Last Samurai. The award for Best Stunt Coordination and/or 2nd Unit Directing in a Feature Film went to Spiro Razatos (2nd Unit Director) and Andy Gill and Steve Picerni (Stunt Coordinators) for their work on Bad Boys II. The award for Best Overall Stunt by a Stunt Man was presented to Tanaoi Reed, Marko Zaror, Paul Eliopolus, and J.J. Perry for their work on The Rundown. The award for Best Overall Stunt by a Stunt Woman was presented to Debbie Evans for her on The Matrix Reloaded.

Honorary Awards

Keanu Reeves was honored with the Action Movie Star of the Year Award for his work in The Matrix Reloaded. Jonathan Mostow received the Action Movie Director of the Year Award for his outstanding work on Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, which has grossed over $400 million in worldwide box office receipts. Veteran stunt professional Ronnie Rondell, whose work has contributed to numerous blockbuster films including Speed and Thelma & Louise, was chosen by the World Stunt Association to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award.

For more in-depth features, stories and information, log onto the Taurus World Stunt Awards website at www.worldstuntawards.com.

About Spike TV:

Brian Diamond is the executive in charge of production for Spike TV for the 4th annual Taurus World Stunt Awards. Jim Burns is the Senior Vice President of Sports and Specials for Spike TV.

Spike TV, the first network for men, is available in 87 million homes and is a division of MTV Networks. MTV Networks owns and operates the cable television programming services MTV: Music Television, MTV2, Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite, TV Land, VH1, CMT: Country Music Television, and Spike TV, as well as The Digital Suite from MTV Networks, a package of thirteen digital services, all of which are trademarks of MTV Networks. MTV Networks also operates and offers joint ventures, licensing agreements and syndication deals whereby its programming can be seen worldwide.

Pirates,' 'Rundown' Daredevils Win Annual World Stunt Awards

By From 7online.com and the Eyewitness News Team
(Los Angeles-AP, May 18, 2004) — As celebrities ranging from Brendan Fraser and Michelle Rodriguez literally crashed the stage in mock stunts, the men and women who risk their lives to make movie action-sequences look realistic were honored Sunday at the World Stunt Awards.

The Day's Top 25 Stories- NY, NJ, CT, US, Entertainment
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Tony Angelotti and Mark Wagner won the best fight award for their swashbuckling in "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," while a crew of 10 drivers were honored for best vehicle work in "Bad Boys II."

Paul Eliopolus and Tanoai Reed won best "high work" for their plunges in "The Rundown" and were also among the four others honored as best overall stunt men for that movie. Debbie Evans was recognized as the sole best overall stunt woman for her work in "The Matrix Reloaded."

"The Terminator" star and current California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was among the celebrity attendees, joining Keanu Reeves, who was award the Action Movie Star of the Year for his work in "The Matrix" sequels.

Jonathan Mostow, who directed Schwarzenegger in last summer's "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," won best action movie director.

The fourth annual event was set for broadcast on the Spike TV network on May 26.

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Hollywood honours movie daredevils

LOS ANGELES — As celebrities ranging from Brendan Fraser and Michelle Rodriguez literally crashed the stage in mock stunts, the men and women who risk their lives to make movie action-sequences look realistic were honored Sunday at the World Stunt Awards.

Tony Angelotti and Mark Wagner won the best fight award for their swashbuckling in "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," while a crew of 10 drivers were honored for best vehicle work in "Bad Boys II."

Paul Eliopolus and Tanoai Reed won best "high work" for their plunges in "The Rundown" and were also among the four others honored as best overall stunt men for that movie. Debbie Evans was recognized as the sole best overall stunt woman for her work in "The Matrix Reloaded."

"The Terminator" star and current California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was among the celebrity attendees, joining Keanu Reeves, who was awarded the Action Movie Star of the Year for his work in "The Matrix" sequels.

Jonathan Mostow, who directed Schwarzenegger in last summer's "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," won best action movie director.

The fourth annual event was set for broadcast on the Spike TV network on May 26.

Stunt actors praise Pirates fight

The Pirates of the Caribbean fight involved swords and acrobatics
Stunt actors have named a swashbuckling battle from Pirates of the Caribbean as the best film fight of the past year.
Tony Angelotti and Mark Wagner won the World Stunt Awards prize after standing in for actors Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom during the acrobatic sword fight.

Keanu Reeves was named best action movie star for his Matrix trilogy work.

Actors Brendan Fraser and Michelle Rodriguez crashed onstage in mock stunts at the Paramount Pictures lot ceremony in Los Angeles on Sunday.

A high-speed boat chase through the canals of Venice in the 2003 remake of The Italian Job won the best speciality stunt prize.

Keanu Reeves was honoured after performing many Matrix stunts
The best fire stunt was judged to be in a scene from The Last Samurai, when soldiers in a battlefield are set alight by several explosions.

Will Smith movie Bad Boys 2 took two awards for a vehicle scene and its stunt coordinators Andy Gill, Steve Picerni and Spiro Razatos.

Debbie Evans was named best stuntwoman for her work in Matrix Reloaded, while stuntmen Paul Eliopolus, JJ Perry, Tanoai Reed and Marko Zaror shared the male stunt of the year prize for The Rundown.

California governor and Terminator star Arnold Schwarzenegger also attended the event, while Jonathan Mostow, who directed him in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, was named best action movie director.

Prize winners were voted for by the World Stunt Academy, which incorporates nearly 1,000 stunt professionals.

Film premiere gets funky reception

Film premiere gets funky reception

Veronica Redgrave
The Gazette

May 16, 2004

Burns Coutts from Environment Canada (left), Claude Etique from Swiss Re, and producer Karen Coshof attended premiere. CREDIT: TYREL FEATHERSTONE, THE GAZETTE

Jacques Languirand and Isabelle Blais narrate the French version of The Great Warming, the recently launched documentary produced by Montreal's Stonehaven Productions. Keanu Reeves and Alanis Morissette narrate the English. The film had its Quebec premiere at a funky reception, hosted by Karen Coshof, creator and producer of The Great Warming, filmed in eight countries on four continents. Husband, Mike Taylor, with daughter Lisa, both also of Stonehaven, were on hand as were guests David Anderson, the minister of the environment, humorist Maxim Martin, Burns Coutts, from Environment Canada, Andre Belisle, winner of Canadian Geographic's Environmental Protection Prize, and Claude R. Etique, from Swiss Re, major sponsor of the film.

The 2004 edition of the I Musici de Montreal Chamber Orchestra's fundraising gala took place at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth. Under the presidency of Renaud Caron, there with his wife Renee, the event brought in 450 guests, including Mayor Gerald Tremblay and his wife, Suzanne Tailleur, Kay and Raymond Chretien, Mireille and Andre Bourbeau, Claire and Marc Lalonde, Odette and Guy Savard, Jane and Eric Molson, Helene Robitaille and Pierre Beaudoin and Christiane LeBlanc and Davis Joachim, executive director of I Musici de Montreal.

The evening paid homage to France Chretien-Desmarais, a dedicated supporter of the orchestra. Attending with her husband, Andre, France was toasted by Alan B. Gold and Robert Charlebois. She received a bouquet from orchestra director Yuli Turovsky and a fabulous Faberge-style egg, from the orchestra.

Guests noted included Jacques Robert, Marisa and Francesco Bellini, Denise and Robert Tessier, Francine Sauriol and Pierre Barnard, Denise and Bill Kovalchuk, Carole and Serge Leclaire, Francine Letourneau and Clermont Gignac, Elise Sasseville and L. Philippe Angers, Sylvain Lafrance, Pierre Genest, and Lynn Hague of American Airlines, the orchestra's official transporter.

The honorary committee members were Jean Turmel (there with his wife, Lorraine), Luigi Liberatore, Clermont Gignac (there with his wife, Francine Letourneau), Ronald Corey (there with his wife, Danielle), Andre Caille and France Chretien-Desmarais. Major sponsors were CGI, CDP Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, Dynamique, Hydro-Quebec, La Presse, Power Corporation of Canada and BMO Financial Group. The event raised $225,000 for I Musici, and already the 2005 gala is planned, where the orchestra will honour Marisa Bellini on April 27, 2005.

Concordia University's John Molson School of Business held its second annual innovative fundraising event called the Best of the Best Extravaganza, with guests moving from one venue to another to sample cocktails and delicious dinners.

Hosted by Concordia's Jerry Tomberlin, dean of the John Molson School of Business, Frank Di Tomaso, from Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton, there with his wife Anne Marie, and Lee Hambleton, president of the International Food and Wine Society, (there with his wife, Janet). The event sold out at $1,250 a ticket.

Guests included Lillian and Stephen Vineberg, Cornelia Molson, Maurice A. Forget, Sonia and George Hanna, Jane and Eric Molson, Lise and Dan O'Neill, Charles Lapointe, Marianna Simeone, Michael Di Grappa, Diane and Sal Guerrera and their son Jonathan, Joey and Odette Basmaji with their daughter Cristelle, Carolyn and Rick Renaud, Anita and Ned Goodman, Janet and Hans Black and Susan and Jonathan Wener. The movable feast started at Alto Palato restaurant for antipasto, moved to Le Latini for the main course and ended at Il Cortile for cheese and 'dolce' (sweets). The event raised $115,000, which will go to PhD fellowships for business students at Concordia University's John Molson School of Business.

E3 2004: and Sega's big E3 announcement is... (cue: drum roll)

[Computer Buyer] 10:58

After a couple of weeks of speculation, hype and anticipation, Sega's big E3 announcement has been revealed to be the mildly-interesting-but-hardly-very-exciting news that it has bagged the publishing rights to Warner Bros.' MMORPG The Matrix Online.Sega's 'revelation' at E3 had the kind of impact normally reserved for a helium-filled balloon bouncing off a baby's head. 'That's it?' was the astonished response from many, especially after the press, including us, had reported on the deal back on Monday before Wednesday's show kick-off.

'We thought you were planning a new console...' balked a few over-imaginative souls seated at the back.

So there you have it, Sega is publishing the PC MMORPG The Matrix Online. We knew it. You knew it. Ubisoft had it, but for whatever reason, didn't want it. We can hardly contain ourselves. At least Keanu Reeves hasn't lent his acting talents to the game.

Bullock dates tough guy mechanic

Sandra Bullock can dispense with any bodyguards now she is dating tough guy TV mechanic Jesse James.

She may have to lose her Miss Congeniality title as well, if Mr James carries out his threat to strike out at photographers seeking a snap of the less than golden couple.

Ames has his own show, Monster Garage, and has customised bikes and cars for stars like Kid Rock, Keanu Reeves and basketball hero Michael Jordan. But he isn’t making too many friends in the media.

“Those paparazzi had better shove to the shopper or they’re gonna get the s**t beat out of them – and that’s a fact,” he said the other night.

Constantly Constantine

Constantine is based on the DC comicbook "Hellblazer" about a supernatural detective named John Constantine. The movie will chronicle his teamup with a female police officer and their journeys through a demon and angel infested world hidden just under the surface of Los Angeles. Sorta reminds me of something written by Joss Whedon.

Well the first trailer is out and it's not terribly unpromising. There's some flailing around and a lot of destruction. I just wish Keanu wasn't still dressing like Mr. Anderson.

A perfect war

The historical epic Troy, based on Homer's The Iliad, offers filmmakers what modern-day reality does not

BY RENE RODRIGUEZ

rrodriguez@herald.com

NEW YORK - Hollywood has loved war as long as the movies have existed. Right from the silent era, filmmakers have used the battlefield as a canvas for stories to commemorate the fallen, honor the valiant, satirize folly and reexamine, or even rewrite, history.

But while this love affair rages on, the nature of war movies themselves has changed. With few exceptions, contemporary context, realism and analysis are out.

Today, Hollywood war movies, if they're not pre-Vietnam historical dramas a la Pearl Harbor or Saving Private Ryan, are mostly all about awe and grandeur and adventure -- about far-flung lands, ancient history, mythological creatures and fantastic realms. Escapism is the primary objective: Only from a safe distance do the movies dare to make a connection -- metaphorical or otherwise -- to present-day events.

[Snipped for Keanu]

TO THE PAST

Instead, it's easier to look to the past, both real and imagined, like Troy does, or The Last Samurai, which sent its 19th century warriors galloping on horseback en masse against their heavily armed opponents, or Cold Mountain, a Civil War romance that began with a gigantic battle where the very sky seemed to turn blood-red. Even The Alamo made room for a point-of-view shot of a cannonball hurtling toward the fort.

Oliver Stone is in post-production on his epic Alexander, starring Colin Farrell as Alexander the Great, who used his vast armies to conquer nearly the entire world during his reign as king of Macedonia. Ridley Scott is currently filming Kingdom of Heaven, an epic set during the 12th-century Crusades starring Orlando Bloom, and is set to follow that up with Tripoli, about a group of American, Arab and Greek soldiers (led by Keanu Reeves) who marched across 600 miles of desert in 1805 to overthrow a corrupt ruler.

Sega Enters The Matrix

The U.S. arm of Japanese video-game publisher Sega Corp. said that it has struck a deal with Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment to co-publish The Matrix Online, a massively multiplayer online game based on the Matrix movies, the Reuters news service reported. Sega of America said it would manage distribution of the game, while WBIE will oversee its development and operations, and the two will jointly handle marketing. The game is expected to be released this November, the wire service reported.

When The Matrix Online was first announced, it was to be published by France's Ubi Soft Entertainment, but Ubi Soft dropped out of the project earlier this year. The Matrix Online is being developed with input from the Wachowski brothers, who wrote and directed the movies and oversaw a previous game, Enter the Matrix, the wire service reported.

A console video game based on the Matrix films, Atari's Enter the Matrix drew poor reviews from the gaming press, but still sold millions of units, Reuters reported.

News? Rumors? Gossip? Wire Us!

Keanu Reeves is already planning his 40th birthday celebrations

Keanu Reeves is already planning his 40th birthday celebrations, but don't hold your breath for an invite. The Matrix star, famous for his loner lifestyle, is considering spending his big birthday in the ultimate lonely environment. 'I'm seriously considering being really alone in the middle of a desert,' says the actor who reaches his big 4-0 in September. 'I haven't definitely decided yet ・I might even have an outrageous party!'. Party... desert... we know which one we'd choose

Reeves Back With Ex

The Matrix star Keanu Reeves has rekindled his romance with actress Autumn Macintosh - and pals predict they'll soon wed.

The couple, who dated for four years in the '90s, were spotted enjoying a romantic date together late last month (APR04) at posh Los Angeles eatery The Ivy.

A pal tells America's Star magazine, "It's really serious. Autumn is ready to settle down and start a family and she thinks Keanu is, too.

"Autumn has always loved Keanu and he's so taken with her."

A theater brimmed with glitterati, onstage and off, when Sam Shepard brought a star-studded cast to town. A new film documents the mayhem.

However else it is remembered, "The Late Henry Moss" may have been the biggest boys' night out ever in a San Francisco theater. In a testosterone- fueled main event at Theatre on the Square in the fall of 2000, the movie-star playwright Sam Shepard rode back into his artistic hometown for the world premiere of an emotionally bruising drama with a knockout Hollywood cast.

Nick Nolte and Sean Penn played a pair of brothers grappling with their memories of a father who proved every bit as potent after death, in his bleak New Mexico hideaway, as he was in life. Woody Harrelson came along to play the role of a lunkhead taxicab driver. Cheech Marin made his stage debut as the dead father's genially befuddled neighbor.

As for the patriarch Henry Moss himself, film and television actor James Gammon may have brought a less commanding marquee presence to the project but wound up carving the deepest impression. Gammon's emotionally scouring performance in the title role was something for the ages. Sheila Tousey, the sole woman onstage, held her own as Henry's girlfriend, logging a good stretch of her stage time in a bathtub. The playwright did double duty as director.

Anyone who could buy, scrounge or finagle a ticket during the show's six- week run did. Keanu Reeves, Michelle Pfeiffer, Geoffrey Rush, Dennis Quaid and Michael Tilson Thomas were among those who attended. Long before it opened -- and pretty much regardless of what happened onstage -- "The Late Henry Moss" became the city's defining theatrical landmark of the new millennium.

A new film documentary about that mega high-profile San Francisco stage premiere opened Friday at the Roxie. Michael Almereyda's "This So-Called Disaster" features rehearsal footage and interviews with Shepard, cast members and musician T Bone Burnett, who was then on the cusp of his own breakthrough in the Coen Brothers' film "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"

There are also still photos and home movies of Shepard's own father, who died in 1984. The playwright, who is famously reticent about his personal life, offers some surprisingly frank reflections about the father figure who looms so large in his work, from "Curse of the Starving Class" and "Buried Child" to "True West" and "Henry Moss." Although insisting that "the intention is not to make a Xerox of my life," as he tells a wire service interviewer in "Disaster," he estimates that 85 percent of Henry's story and character is his father's own.

Longtime followers of Shepard's career may be particularly taken by the physical similarities of the playwright, now 60, and his father. Connections that have always been refracted through art become visible bloodlines onscreen. Shepard remarks that it took him 10 years to finish "The Late Henry Moss" and that he was "hoping this could be the final play about that." By "that," he means the pull of his father.

Even as it summons the artistic genesis and production of the San Francisco premiere back to mind, Almereyda's pinhole peep into a celebrity hothouse serves to remind us how huge cultural events have a way of obscuring our view of them. The bigger things become, for whatever reasons, and the more intently they're observed, the harder they are to discern for what they are --

and aren't. Everything has a way of going grainy close-up, like much of the footage in the film.

Certainly that was case, four years ago, with Shepard's latest exploration of the father-son dynamic set in the cavernous American West. From the moment it was announced as a Magic Theatre production at Theatre on the Square, "Henry Moss" touched off a media and box-office frenzy that inevitably shaped the perception and reception of the play. It was a kind of Faustian bargain for Shepard: One way or another a cast that would draw this kind of attention was bound to change the play's trajectory and impact.

In an interview that appears in American Theatre magazine this month, Shepard says he was "totally naive" about the impact of his all-star cast, a somewhat curious admission for someone who's been in and around the Hollywood celebrity culture for more than a quarter of a century. His first major film role, in "Days of Heaven," dates to 1978. He has worked in more than two dozen films since and lives with the actress Jessica Lange on a ranch in Minnesota.

"It never even crossed my mind that this would be a circus for San Francisco socialites," Shepard says. "They were very generous, they attended and dressed up and there were cocktail parties and all. But nobody saw the play. They saw Nick, they saw Sean, they saw Woody, they saw Cheech."

Larry Eilenberg, a San Francisco State professor of theater who was artistic director of the Magic Theatre at the time, tends to agree. "When Sam first sent me the play, I wasn't thinking about the hoopla," Eilenberg said recently. "I was thinking about the play. I liked the script very much then and I still do."

By loading his world premiere cast with big names, Shepard now concedes, he may have distorted the play's future life by creating unrealistic expectations. After its San Francisco run, "Henry Moss" has received only one major production, from New York's Signature Theatre Company in 2001. Asked if superstar casting had harmed the life of the play, Shepard tells American Theatre's Don Shewey, "I guess it did. It was a kind of lesson for me. Maybe I shouldn't have directed it. I don't know if it would be any different."

Eilenberg echoes those misgivings. "In general, I do think playwrights profit from having someone else as a director."

Eilenberg resists the widespread reading of "Henry Moss" as a reworking of "True West," a 1980 play (premiered by the Magic) that also has two brothers squaring off over an absent father. "That's what great playwrights do -- they revisit their themes," Eilenberg says. "I think this play confronts the American family in a more searching way than he'd ever done before."

Indeed, in the play's memorable last act, Gammon and Nolte achieved an agonizing catharsis. "Are you seeing me right now?" Gammon's devastated patriarch asked his son. As a father who was both dead and blazingly, miserably alive, Henry was posing the eternal questions about identity, memory, love, spiritual inheritance and existence itself. The first act, by striking contrast, was badly blurred by wayward writing and Penn's rudderless performance. Audibility problems required heavy miking of the actors, which only amplified a sense of strain.

It was not, in any sense, an easy birth. A serious health crisis (still undisclosable) nearly scuttled the production before opening. Nolte, whose mother had just died, arrived for rehearsals with a foot and leg injury that hampered him onstage. Film and TV shooting schedule conflicts forced the cancellation of several performances during the run.

Catering needs, hotel requirements, drivers, flights in and out of town, agent-driven control of poster photography and other matters that are customary for Hollywood stars added new levels of complication for a locally mounted stage production. The cast received Equity scale salaries of about $800 a week.

"Working with so many stars was certainly a sobering experience," recalls Jonathan Reinis, Theatre on the Square's producer at the time. "There was a price to pay. This was a case of the tail wagging the dog."

To a certain extent, "This So-Called Disaster" can be seen as a post- facto corrective to the celebrity glare that may have blinded many -- including the playwright -- to the true character of "The Late Henry Moss" the first time around. Seated on a porch and musing cryptically on his father's life and personality, Shepard refocuses attention on the autobiographical roots of this play and others.

A family friend, meanwhile, gently points out the distance between historical truth and theatrical fiction. "In fact," notes Johnny Dark, "he (Shepard) grew up with two sisters and a strong relationship to his mother." The truth is no easier to pin down here, finally, than it is in the plays.

But "Disaster" is mainly a rehearsal film, and as such, inevitably invites a kind of voyeuristic attention on Penn, Nolte, Harrelson and the others. Almereyda, a longtime friend who cast Shepard as the ghost of Hamlet's father in his modern-dress "Hamlet" film starring Ethan Hawke, wasn't about to air any dirty laundry from the production. But there are some revealing glimpses of what went on during rehearsals at the Magic's Fort Mason home and then downtown at Theatre on the Square.

On the night of the first public performance, Gammon looks confident and relaxed backstage, while Penn frets nervously. "It was a rough first act," he mutters at intermission. Questioned by a cast member about the familiar notion of the theatrical fourth wall, Shepard embarks on a textbook discussion of the concept, touching on Brecht and Jerzy Grotowski, that probably wouldn't have happened with a company of regular theater actors. Nolte, in a strangely transfixing interview, recalls a period of personality "disintegration" in his youth that led him to become an actor.

And somehow, for all the firepower of the players involved, a certain air of innocent optimism, wistfully tinged, comes across. "I'd rather be a musician," Shepard says at one point, "but I'm not." The noise and chaos and static of the theater, for better or worse, demanded to be heard.

Matrix Online Testers Sought

Warner Brothers is signing up potential beta testers for The Matrix Online, its upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game, based on the SF film trilogy. The company will choose several thousand applicants to take part in the beta test.

Applicants must live in the United States or Canada, meet minimum system requirements, have an active Internet connection and agree to the terms of the test. Testers will be selected starting this month.

The Matrix Online continues the story of the Matrix movie trilogy. Players will inhabit an enormous urban sprawl, which spreads for miles in all directions, where a secret war is being waged for the survival of humanity and machines alike.

Four Join Keanu's Scanner

Phillip K. Dick adaptation casts up.

May 04, 2004 - Today's edition of Variety scoops that actors Winona Ryder, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, and Rory Cochran are set to star opposite Keanu Reeves in A Scanner Darkly. The film, an adaptation of Philip K. Dick's sci-fi novel of the same name, gets underway soon at Warner Bros. new indie unit, Warner Independent Pictures.

Richard Linklater (School of Rock, Dazed and Confused), who wrote the most recent draft of the Scanner script, will direct the film. He's expected to apply the same technique he used in the stylistically rotoscoped animated film, Waking Life – shooting the movie's live-action scenes and then animating over them.

A Scanner Darkly is the story of Bob Arctor, a dealer of a lethally addictive drug called Substance D, and Fred a police agent assigned to tail and eventually bust him. To do so, he has taken on the identity of a drug dealer named Bob Arctor. And since Substance D – which Arctor takes in massive doses – gradually splits the user's brain into two distinct, combative entities, Fred doesn't realize that he is actually narcing on himself. Reeves plays the lead character.

George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh's Section 8 is producing the film which is expected to start production in May.

Wachowski brother and sister(?)

May. 3, 2004 12:00 AM

The Wachowski brothers are dead. Long live the Wachowski, um, siblings.

That's if you believe the rumor that half of the Matrix creative team - Larry - is morphing from male to female.

The Chicago Sun-Times says Wachowski, who created the movie trilogy with his brother Andy, is on his way to becoming Linda.

"As always, it was impossible to get any comment from the press-shy Wachowskis, but several longtime friends of the Rogers Park, Ill., native confirm that Wachowski is planning to complete the process of becoming a woman," the paper reports.

Keanu Reeves wins World Stunt Award

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Keanu Reeves will be honored for his work in action movies at the upcoming World Stunt Awards.

"Keanu's work with The Matrix trilogy was some of the best from an actor of his generation," said Gernot Friedhuber, executive producer of the show. Warner Bros.

The awards, which recognize the men and women who put their lives at risk to make fights, explosions and tall-building falls on TV shows and movies look more realistic, will be presented May 16.

Nominees were selected from 19 films, including Kill Bill — Vol. 1,Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,Bad Boys II,Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and The Last Samurai. Categories include best fight, best fire stunt and best work with a vehicle.

Carmen Electra and Dennis Hopper are set to host the event, which will be taped at Paramount Studios for broadcast on Spike TV on May 26.

The 39-year-old Reeves will receive an honorary trophy for best action movie star. His films include The Matrix trilogy, Speed and Chain Reaction.

"Keanu's work with The Matrix trilogy was some of the best from an actor of his generation," said Gernot Friedhuber, executive producer of the show. "He has consistently shown an ability to learn from the stunt teams on his many films and has expressed a genuine interest in the field of stunt work."

Ronnie Rondell, the renowned stunt artist whose 50-year career includes Speed,Lethal Weapon,Twister and Days of Thunder, will receive the World Stunt Association's lifetime achievement award.

Keanu Buys Sister New Home

The Matrix star Keanu Reeves has splashed out on a plush new home on the Italian island of Capri, for his ailing sister Kim.

And in an extra show of generosity, the actor has also kept the house he once shared with Kim in Los Angeles - just so his maid can hold onto her job.

A source tells In Touch Weekly that Kim - who has long suffered from leukaemia - relocated to Europe so she could easily go back and forth to Paris, where she is being treated.

And after Kim left the home she shared with Keanu, he decided to buy a new place for himself in Los Angeles.

A source says, "But Kim's longtime housekeeper would have been out of a job if he sold this house. The woman is a single mom, and Keanu feels really loyal to her. He could have just given her money, but this woman is proud and would have never accepted it."

So now Keanu is keeping the old home - even though it now sits empty.

The source adds, "She still cleans the house, and Keanu is happy to pay her."

Photo Copyright Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images