Oliver Stone to shoot new movie in Bulgaria; working title Constantine

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) - A year after the release of his controversial historical epic Alexander, world-renowned director Oliver Stone plans to shoot his next movie in Bulgaria, a spokeswoman for the project's producers said Wednesday.

"The working title is Constantine, and shooting will start in mid-2006 in Bulgaria," said Antoaneta Naidenova, a spokeswoman for the Sofia unit of U.S.-based Nu Image/Millenium Films.

She was unable to provide any details on the film's plot or cast, citing the early stage of production.

Stone, director of Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July and Natural Born Killers, visited the Balkan country last month, but did not speak to journalists.

Bulgaria has recently been drawing many foreign film crews attracted by cheap prices and well-trained labour.

In April, Hollywood director Brian De Palma started shooting near Sofia for his new movie, The Black Dahlia, featuring two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank. The film is based on a James Ellroy novel about the mysterious killing of a fledgling actress in 1940s Los Angeles.

At least three other Hollywood movies are to be shot in Bulgaria in 2005 and 2006, including Bruce Beresford's The Contract with Morgan Freeman and the fourth sequel of the famous Rambo action film with Sylvester Stallone.

Stone Denies Night Watchman

Oscar-winner sets record straight.

May 13, 2005 - It was reported recently in the trades that Oscar-winner Oliver Stone was mulling directing the James Ellroy tale The Night Watchmen. Spike Lee had previously been attached to helm the LAPD crime drama but dropped out. Keanu Reeves is still apparently attached to star.

Stone, however, is not directing the film after all. He issued a press release on the matter. "Contrary to recent reports in the media, I've never announced or intend to make films called Constantine, The Night Watchman or the life story of Margaret Thatcher," Stone's press release Thursday declared.

Stone had been developing a script with writer John Ridley but "it didn't work out. ... I'm no longer involved with it."

Producer Avi Lerner is thought to be financing Night Watchman via his Millenium Films' shingle.

-- IGN FilmForce

100 years in the evolution of the sci-fi film

Originally published May 15, 2005For more than a century, science-fiction filmmakers have been pushing the cinematic envelope, offering visions of benign and malignant technology - from noble droids to scheming super-computers. Here are a few highlights:

A Trip to the Moon (1902): French director Georges Melies' primitive special effects delighted audiences throughout the world.

Metropolis (1926); Fritz Lang's bleak, dysfunctional future has been a recurrent sci-fi theme ever since.

Things to Come (1936): H.G. Wells himself co-wrote the script for this visually arresting tale of an apocalyptic future.

Buck Rogers serials (1939): Olympian Buster Crabbe played one of the movies' first outer-space heroes.

Destination Moon (1950): This adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's novel proved as attentive to the science as the fiction.

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951): Gort the robot was among those trying to save humans from themselves in this cautionary tale.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956): Seedpods from outer space rob humanity of its soul in this paranoid masterpiece.

Forbidden Planet (1956): Without Robby the Robot (left), R2-D2 and C-3PO might never have sprung from George Lucas' imagination.

Star Trek (1966): Gene Roddenberry's original TV series helped transform sci-fi fandom from a cult to an obsession.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968): Arthur C. Clarke, Stanley Kubrick and a giant black obelisk elevate the sci-fi film to a higher intellectual plane.

Star Wars (1977): George Lucas uses computer wizardry and a bad guy named Darth Vader to launch the most popular movie franchise ever.

Alien (1977): A bunch of working stiffs encounter perfect evil in what may have been the first blue-collar sci-fi film.

Blade Runner (1982): Director Ridley Scott and actor Harrison Ford (above) graft sci-fi to film noir in this adaptation of Philip K. Dick's grim short story.

The Matrix (1999): Keanu Reeves (below) guides eager fans through a labyrinth of computer technology, new-age philosophy and artificial intelligence run amok.

Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005): The Dark Side prevails, for now ...

- Chris Kaltenbach

Keanu's korner . . .

Actor Keanu Reeves, who has been all over town filming "Il Mare," claims he has no time for his band "Becky." He told a Sneed source he "loves the band and loves playing guitar, but I'm constantly in the process of making movies, which keeps me busy."

And it pays better, natch.

Is Keanu playing Romeo to Lynn Collins' Juliet?

BY BILL ZWECKER SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

Sounds as if Keanu Reeves was even busier than we realized during recent filming here. Seems that along with his moviemaking, the actor's love life also got a boost.

Reeves reportedly started a romance with his ''Il Mare'' co-star Lynn Collins -- best known for her sterling performance last year as Portia in Michael Radford's acclaimed remake of ''The Merchant of Venice,'' starring Al Pacino as Shylock.

But the couple clearly kept things quiet here. According to a source on the ''Il Mare'' set, ''If there was something going on, they certainly were very discreet. ... If there was a romance, there was no hint of it -- that we could see.''

Interestingly, in the film, Reeves plays an architect and condo developer. Collins plays his secretary who becomes his girlfriend. Could it be a case of life imitating art?

Reeves wrapped his filming a week ago but stuck around to attend the U2 concert Saturday night. Collins finished her work on ''Il Mare'' about a week earlier.

Sandra Bullock is still in town until the total production wraps its Chicago filming in about 10 days.

Collins -- a native Texan -- is a Juilliard graduate with a strong background in Shakespearean theater. Prior to her "Merchant of Venice'' role, she starred as Ophelia in a New York production of ''Hamlet'' and played Juliet in Peter Hall's ''Romeo & Juliet'' production in Los Angeles.

The 26-year-old actress heads to London this summer to play Charlotte Bronte in the upcoming ''Bronte'' film about the 19th century British family of writers.

CELEBRITY SIGHTINGS

Stars of IL MARE, Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves were seen at the Cubby Bear Chicago together last week.

Something to Gossip About

For such a domesticated week in Hollywood--what with Keanu Reeves reportedly getting superheavy with costar Lynn Collins, Jen Lopez and Marc Anthony out 'n' about all cozy-like and Jennifer Garner reportedly preggers with Ben's baby--it certainly is a tad demonic nonetheless. But then, I've always been a pretty suspicious broad.
[Snipped for Keanu]

Source Number Two let me know Keanu and Lynn, who just finished Reeve's latest flick with Sandy Bullock up in Chicago, are already living together in the posh Hollywood Hills, to which Keanu's peep's didn't have much comment--how strange.
[Snipped for Keanu]

Rotten Tomato

Posted by Scott Weinberg on Tuesday, May. 10, 2005, 01:02 PM

Scott Weinberg writes: "Variety reports that Universal Pictures will be adapting Christopher Golden & Thomas Sniegoski's "Outcast" series for the big screen. The currently very busy screenwriter Charlie Mitchell ("The Children of the Dust Bowl," the upcoming "Sinbad" flick with Keanu Reeves) will be...

...adapting the first book into screenplay form, which "takes place in Arcanum, where everyone except a young boy named Timothy possesses some magical power." Needless to say, the series is yet another that's being described as Potter-esque in nature."

Fill it with flowers, no less

Fill it with flowers, no less

May 9:

It’s flowers, not fillers, that make a beautiful arrangement, says Abdul Razak Ahmad. The former Beverly Hills’ floral designer to the stars tells SYIDA LIZTA AMIRUL IHSAN how it’s done. IF Abdul Razak Ahmad’s opinion about our taste in flower arrangement is anything to go by, we are not blossoming in this department. “The arrangements are usually loose and predictable,” he said. “For centrepieces, what are often used are oblong arrangements with pointy ends. “There are too many fillers and greens. I mean, it’s called a flower arrangement simply because it is supposed to feature flowers, not leaves.”

Then again, Abdul Razak is no ordinary florist. He was Beverly Hills’ LA Premier head floral designer who was responsible for the flowers at the wedding of Tinseltown’s former golden couple Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, as well as Drew Barrymore and actor Tom Green.

His list of clients looks like a Hollywood party guest list, boasting names like Tom Cruise, Madonna, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu Reeves, Elton John, Barbra Streisand, Ricky Martin and Mark Wahlberg.

“Reeves’ mother Patricia loves yellow so he specifically asked for that colour to be incorporated in the centrepieces for her birthday party. We used yellow cymbidium orchids for that,” he said.

[Snipped for Keanu]

Little Known Fact

Little Known Fact

Prior to his stellar acting career, Keanu Reeves was an MVP goalie at De La Salle High School in Toronto. His goaltending landed him the role as French Canadian netminder "Heaver" in Youngblood. Patrick Swayze was trained as a figure skater and had never played hockey before filming started and Rob Lowe had never been on skates.

Sighting @ Chicago

THE SCENE: Actor Keanu Reeves caught the Anthrax show at the House of Blues and later relaxed with friends at the Kaz Bar in the Loews House of Blues Hotel. I think it is safe to say that Keanu loves Chicago! . . . Financier Richard Driehaus was eyed enjoying the ambience at the new Reserve nightclub.

Aghdashloo Driven To SF&F

Oscar nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo (House of Sand and Fog) told SCI FI Wire that she'll next be seen in the fantastical film Il Mare, one of several SF or fantasy films that she's worked on recently. Il Mare is a love story in which Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock communicate across the years via a mysterious mailbox.

The Iranian-born Aghdashloo, who recently appeared on Fox's 24, said that she's surprised that her blossoming career has transported her toward such SF-related films in the same way that Oscar winners Halle Berry (Catwoman) and Charlize Theron (Aeon Flux) were.

"It's a bit of a surprise, but I don't mind it," Aghdashloo said in an interview at this week's Saturn Awards in Los Angeles. "I love science fiction. In this science fiction love story Il Mare, I play a doctor, and my friends say it's my first non-stereotypical role."

In Il Mare, Reeves and Bullock find themselves in the same house, but at different times, and fall in love by exchanging love letters through a mailbox that transcends a two-year time difference.

Aghdashloo said that she also has a cameo role in the upcoming SF film Serenity, based on Fox's canceled TV series Firefly. "I love the director [Firefly creator Joss Whedon]," she said. "I love the story. But I can't say much about it, except that, no, I'm not an alien."

Aghdashloo will also appear in The Exorcism of Emily Rose, which is loosely based on a true story about a priest who performs a deadly exorcism on a young woman. "In that I play a key witness," she said. "I come from an old country [Iran] that's 5,000 years old, and as you can imagine ghosts are everywhere. I knew a lot of people who had experience with exorcisms. Personally, I believe in angels, I don't believe in devils. I have many [angels] looking out for me." Il Mare is eyeing a 2006 release date.

Keanu and Sandra may be the stars, but Maple Lake getting star treatment

Sunday, May 1, 2005

By Steve Metsch
Staff writer

The buzz in Willow Springs and Palos Hills is about a movie whose two stars are seldom seen.But that hasn't stopped Tatiana Marquez, 19, from being a regular visitor to Maple Lake.

The Cook County Forest Preserve District lake, southwest of 95th Street and Willow Springs Road, is where some scenes for "Il Mare," starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, are being filmed.

The time-traveling romance, a remake of a Korean movie, has Reeves playing an architect and Bullock playing a doctor. They begin exchanging love letters, but soon discover they are living two years apart.

Exactly when the stars show up at Maple Lake is anybody's guess. The movie has a closed set, and those close to the production are far from chatty.

But you get a peek of the movie set, a glass house built on the lake's south shore, from what Marquez calls her "thinking spot," a paved parking lot along 95th Street, about a half-mile west of Willow Springs Road.

She visits almost daily.

"I'd never imagine something like this would happen near Willow Springs. I mean, nothing like this ever happens in Willow Springs," she said.

A tip-off that filming is going on, regular visitors said, is a parking lot at Crawdad Slough, southeast of 95th Street and Willow Springs Road. If the lot is filled with vehicles, Hollywood types are busy nearby.

On a recent morning, Marquez was joined by Carolyn Rudinsky, 17, of Western Springs. The two had never met before, but found themselves chatting about the stars, and life in general, for an hour or so.

"My mom told me about the movie, so I came out here," Rudinsky said.

Marquez said she "saw some sailboats on the water one day, and that was really cool."

A police officer for the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, whose job is to shoo away curious onlookers from the main entrance for Maple Lake, and declined to give his name, said the night sky is sometimes "lit up like a Christmas tree" with movie lighting.

Another officer was not so friendly shooing away a reporter one recent evening. But star-struck folks can sometimes stop by for a peek without being given the bum's rush.

Palos Hills residents Therese and Arnold Duran, driving home from Lemont, heard a movie was being shot at Maple Lake and stopped for a look.

"I think it's great for this area to get some publicity," Therese Duran said. "I used to bring the kids here to fish when they were younger."

She was fishing for sightings of Reeves and Bullock, but nobody was biting.

Oak Lawn resident Eric Rakowski stopped his pickup truck, dug out his binoculars and got a good look into the glass house.

"I hear that Keanu likes it in Chicago. I know when his band played Ridge Fest, a friend of mine said he was good to talk with," Rakowski said.

Maple Lake was selected because Warner Bros. location manager James McCallister recalled some filming there for a TV movie called "Evil Has a Face" in 1996, said Ernie Malik, publicist for "Il Mare."

"It's a key location for us. We couldn't find another one like this in the tri-state area. So we decided to build the house here and film here," Malik said.

The movie company "may do more filming in Willow Springs, but that has not been confirmed yet," Malik said.

What is confirmed is that Maple Lake will be in better shape when the film crews leave.

Warner Bros. agreed to pay the county a $100,000 shooting fee, and will pay a penalty of $1,000 a day if the July 1 deadline is not met, said Steve Mayberry, spokesman for the Forest Preserve District of Cook County.

In addition, Warner Bros. will play at least $40,000 for restoration work to the lake area, Mayberry said.

"If the work should exceed that, they'll pay it. We have a commitment from them that they'll leave the area even better than how they found it," Mayberry said.

A cleanup is needed, said Marquez, who pointed to empty beer cans, bottle caps, and other trash lying on the shore.

It's not unusual, Malik said, for movie companies to leave shooting sites in better shape.

"A lot of times, that does happen. For example, if we were to use somebody's kitchen for a movie, we'll usually restore it to a better situation," he said.

The forest preserve district had the area slated for restoration, so the movie could not have arrived at a better time, Mayberry said.

"We haven't heard from any other movie companies, but we won't turn a deaf ear to anyone that has an interest in filming in the forest preserves," Mayberry said, "as long as we are able to protect the land."

The glass house is slated for demolition when filming is done, Mayberry said.

Kelly O'Brien, an alderman in nearby Palos Hills, is excited that scenes for the movie are being filmed nearby.

"It's a chance to showcase how beautiful the area is," O'Brien said. "And the improvements offer a long-term benefit for the forest preserve."

There's been only one drawback for her.

"I wish I could say that I bumped into Keanu Reeves, but I haven't yet," O'Brien said.

CONSTANTINE held on to the No. 1 spot

Celebrating the beginning of Golden Week in Japan-comparable business-wise to Memorial Day weekend in the United State-Constantine held on to the No. 1 spot in its third weekend. The supernatural thriller grossed $2.6 million from 350 screens, a 13 percent jump from the prior weekend. Its $14.3 million total is now 72 percent ahead of X2: X-Men United, 63 percent higher than National Treasure and 49 percent better than Van Helsing. The overall international total grew to $142.4 million.

Filming in the streets

May 2, 2005

Filming in the streets

The Hollywood news keeps coming for Chicago.

Dustin Hoffman and Will Ferrell officially started filming scenes for their flick "Stranger Than Fiction," rising early last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to film scenes at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

The majority of the scenes were shot in campus buildings. Ferrell, who plays an IRS auditor in the film, was walking around in a geeky teacher's outfit. Nerd alert!

Hoffman and Ferrell will film more this week, and they're not leaving anytime soon. Ferrell moved into a downtown condo with his family, since he'll be filming here most of the summer.

Meanwhile, Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves finally filmed a scene together for "Il Mare" downtown Wednesday night. The film jumps back and forth in time, so the two stars rarely share scenes. But Bullock and Reeves filmed a 4th of July scene at Navy Pier—right by the ferris wheel with fireworks blazing—until the early hours of the morning.

The two had Thursday and Friday off but were back to work over the weekend. On Saturday, Bullock kicked it at Daley Plaza, where her scene involved a wreck with a bus and a few cars. Someone gets hit by one of the vehicles, and Bullock goes to check the victim's pulse. Sandy B. filmed at the North River Center on Sunday.

PARTY TIME

Crobar could have been mistaken for its neighbor, VIP's, Friday night when Jenna Jameson's porn star posse, the Club Jenna Girls, made an appearance.

The girls put on a fashion show and pranced around in Coquette lingerie for hundreds of drooling men. Several excited guys whipped out their camera phones and captured the hot moment. But, to their dismay (And mine too, actually!) the girls were fairly covered up.

Meanwhile, nightclub-dessert bar Sugar kicked off its new Tuesday night parties, Fierce Tuesdays, last week with a packed house and a fashion show featuring the latest styles from Akira and Vent.

Local celebs and media types such as radio host Mancow Muller enjoyed cocktails and appetizers at the dessert bar's soiree. Mancow enjoyed one martini in particular, the Cow-wienie. Yes, the powers that be at Sugar named a martini, made with Effen Black Cherry and Red Bull, after their fave host. So the next time you go to Sugar—make it a Cow-wienie. They are fabulous.

SIGHTINGS

Former "Party of Five" star Jeremy London was spotted at the Hunt Club on Sunday night. ... Former Blackhawks star Denis Savard hung out at Grotto on Friday night. ... Eddy Curry celebrated the Bulls' success of getting into the playoffs at Sugar on Monday night. ... The Club Jenna Girls stayed at the W-Lakeshore Hotel over the weekend.

Sighting Anthrax @ House of Blues,Chicago

Posted by Pink Metal

Keanu was really super nice- seeing as how I threw him in the pit!we were moshing hardcore & then he linked arms with me & started headbanging & then he was playing air guitar! what a freak! I told him he was gonna get killed. He just kept saying "comon' we need a good song!" and "I love these guys!" It was hilarious!

Posted by I81B4U

I don't get the bagging on Keanu. (Granted I always have bagged on his acting) But, he was super cool to me and even let me get a pic with him. He was courteous and didn't seem like he was a pompus ass. So I really can't see him being a Dick! Now I am pissed because he was so cool that I can't bag on him anymore.

BTW/Buddy where did you go! I went to talk to Scott for you and when I came back you were gone. Did everything work out? I didn't see you upstairs.