What a bomber

That next project is rumoured to be The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad, starring Keanu Reeves - an old hand at the Hollywood Down Under thing - in the role of the Arabian Nights hero. If it goes ahead it will, by all accounts, be a special-effects-driven spectacular set in eighth-century China, and quite a score for Fox Studios Australia.

"If I do The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad I'll definitely be coming back to Australia for all the interior work," Cohen says. "I'd do the exteriors in southern China. Frankly, the Stealth experience merely proved that if you do run into problems in Australia, you can solve them."

Exclusive Photos: THUMBSUCKER PREMIERE

Keanu Reeves, Benjamin Bratt and others attend the Hollywood premiere of this indie film directed by Mike Mills

By: SUE SCHNEIDER
Photo Editor
Published: 9/8/2005

LOCATION: Hollywood

THE SKINNY: On September 6th at The Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, the Los Angeles Premiere of THUMBSUCKER was held.

It was a small premiere, no red carpet, but the stars of the movie did come out. Seen walking into the theatre was Keanu Reeves (who stars as the "guru" orthodontist), Lou Pucci (a seventeen year old ? Justin Cobb - who still sucks his thumb), Kelli Garner (who Justin has a crush on), Benjamin Bratt (who stars as TV star Matt Schramm), The Polyphonic Spree (music) and director Mike Mills.

Joining them were guests: a very pregnant Talisa Soto (Benjamin Bratt’s wife), Constance Zimmer, Paul Johansson, Kelly Rutherford, Hector Elizondo, Justin Chatwin, Carrie Ann Inaba, Bahar Soomekh, and Brady Corbet.

Hollywood Whack Attack

When David Wells over at Hollywood Elsewhere asked readers recently who in Hollywood they would "whack" (in the Godfather sense of the word), he soon found his inbox stuffed with a virtual avalanche of responses, all of them passionate, most of them very specific. Some examples:

"Larry or Andy Wachowski. I'd make Keanu [Reeves] pick which one survives, Sophie's Choice-style. Somebody has to pay for the total Matrix collapse of '03, and you can only blame Joel Silver to a certain extent." --John Sheridan

"If I were going to execute people, I'd start with Keanu Reeves. His movies qualify as crimes against humanity. In fact, just about everyone associated with Point Break would get at least a near fatal beating. Also, McG's body would mysteriously turn up at the bottom of a mine shaft." --Brad Sims

Wells occasionally speaks up with what he calls the 'Wells Exception': "Keanu has been pretty good in more than a few films. He was perfect in The Matrix and in the Bill and Ted movies and in River's Edge. And what's so terrible about Point Break?"

A reader from Florida suggests a more productive solution in dealing with the shite-bringers: "Is whacking the way to go? Are we past the point of reprogramming? Locking up Michael Bay, McG, etc. in your prison and then forcing them to watch good movies 16 hours a day, until they can't comprehend the shit they made before? It might be kinda fun to see how long it would take to break them." --James Watson

Check out Wells thoughtful and literate website here, and please keep the thread going with suggestions of your own.

Weisz intent on playing activist in 'Constant Gardener'

By BARRY KOLTNOW, The Orange County Register

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. --- Rachel Weisz was in Los Angeles, shooting the supernatural thriller "Constantine" with Keanu Reeves. The mostly middle-of-the-night shooting schedule was exhausting, and time off was rare. When she finally did get a day to rest, she packed an overnight bag and flew to London.

Twenty-four hours later, she was back on the set in L.A.

No, the British actress had not suffered a sudden bout of homesickness.

She had heard that director Fernando Meirelles was in London, and Weisz needed to speak to him as soon as possible. The script of "The Constant Gardener" was that good.

Who made Connery disappear from film of scandal?

SEAN Connery has denied using his position as one of cinema’s greatest stars to write himself out of a film about a notorious Hollywood scandal.
Half a century ago Connery was an unknown actor when he was caught up in a violent relationship between Hollywood legend Lana Turner and her American gangster boyfriend Johnny Stompanato. Connery was rumoured to be having an affair with Turner and the jealous mobster pulled a gun on him at one point.

Keanu Reeves and Catherine Zeta-Jones are in talks to play the starring roles in a film about the relationship between the actress and the hoodlum, which ended with Stompanto dead on Turner’s bedroom floor with a knife in his stomach.

But, in a new film about the affair, Connery has disappeared from the story. Connery denies his absence has anything to do with him. Speaking from his home in the Bahamas, he said he’d had no discussions with the producers about the film. “I’m not involved,” he insisted.

Connery said he knew nothing about the film, despite his friendship with Zeta-Jones and the fact that he and the film’s writer are represented by the same agency. He said: “The first I’ve heard of it is this moment.”

Turner was a sexy blonde, marketed by MGM as “The Sweater Girl” in the late 1930s. But drink and relationship problems marked her personal life . She was in her late 30s when she came to Britain to make Another Time, Another Place in 1957. She played an American journalist who has an affair with a BBC reporter, played by 27-year-old Connery. There was speculation the kissing continued off-screen.

Stompanato flew over from the US, arrived unexpectedly on set and in front of witnesses pointed a gun in Connery’s face and told him to keep away from his girl. Connery twisted the pistol from Stompanato’s grip, while his other fist delivered a blow to the gangster’s nose.

Back in the US, Stompanato kept a low profile, staying away from the Oscars, where Turner was up for best actress for Peyton Place. Connery was in town , and met up again with Turner at an Oscar-night party.

Turner suffered beatings from her enraged boyfriend, who knew Connery was back on the scene. A week after the Oscars, Stompanato was dead.

The official verdict was “justifiable homicide” by Turner’s teenage daughter, who feared for her mother’s life . One of Stompanato’s associates leaked private letters, which mentioned Connery, to the press.

The new film is provisionally entitled Stompanato , but there is no news on who might play Connery. “He’s not in the film,” said a spokeswoman for the US production company 3 Arts Entertainment . “He’s not in the script. The script came to us after it was written, so you could maybe contact the writer.”

But scriptwriter Sebastian Gutierrez is “unavailable” for comment indefinitely, according to his at CAA – the agency which also represents Connery.

Asked for his views on the upcoming film , Connery said: “My attitude is indifference.” He refused to discuss Turner or Stompanato.

04 September 2005