Click.

MORE MOVIE GUNK

That's Portman sans locks as Evey. And the unknown who was going to play V (James Purefoy) has been replaced by Agent Smith/Elrond himself, Hugo Weaving. God, V's going to be an insufferable boor, isn't he? Also, Stephen Fry is playing The Voice, who he described in a recent interview as a voice of opposition to the fascist regime, which prompted Warren Ellis to write that he expects Watchmen to be a fucking musical (The Voice in the graphic novel is the government's PR machine, a consummate liar and sexual deviant).

Speaking of Watchmen, its greenlight was turned off due to recent executive shuffling at Paramount and a recently-struck deal with Marvel Comics. I think its status now is that the producers and director (Paul Greengrass, for those keeping track) now have to re-pitch the entire project to new suits, and they have several things going against them: a) it's not a Marvel property, b) there are no known characters, c) no sequel potential, d) it's a bit of a downer, and e) the budget's somewhere around $100 million. Rumors circulating around the time were John Cusack as Nite Owl, Sigourney Weaver as one of the Silk Spectres (I forget which), and Jude Law has said he wants to play Ozymandias (Law is a big Watchmen fan). But nothing may happen, which wouldn't bother me at all.

Possibly my favorite photographer, David LaChappelle has directed a film called Rize. I also want to see Kontroll. Looks interesting.

I guess Goblet of Fire and Chronicles of Narnia will be fighting it out this holiday season, and it occurred to me the other day that this summer, both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, who basically invented the summer movie, both have monster summer movies coming out. Hm.