OHMYGOSSIP — Milla Jovovich is set to star in new action thriller ‘Protector’.
The ‘Resident Evil’ actress has reportedly signed up to play a former war hero in the film, which has been compared to Liam Neeson’s 2008 classic ‘Taken’, with Adrian Grunberg directing from Bong-Seeb Mun’s screenplay.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jovovich will play Nikki, who has left her violent past behind her so she can focus on raising her daughter.
However, she wakes up in an abandoned factory and finds out Chloe has been kidnapped, leading her on a journey into the criminal underworld.
With the police and military hot on her heels, she has to do everything she can to find her daughter.
Production is set to get underway in New Mexico over winter.
The 48-year-old actress has starred in numerous sci-fi and action films during the course of her career, including ‘The Fifth Element’ and the ‘Resident Evil’ franchise, and she’s still amazed by the fans of the genre.
Back in 2021, she told SFX magazine: “There was a thing that came out a few years ago about on-screen kills.
“They said that I had the most kills: more than Sylvester Stallone, and more than Jet Li. And I’m thinking, ‘God bless the sci-fi fans that sit at home and count every single kill’.
“Do you know what I mean? Because who else would take the time to do that? Imagine how much work that was, so time-intensive. It’s not a machine that does that, it’s a human!”
Meanwhile, she has been cast in ‘Twilight of the Dead’, the final zombie movie George A. Romero was working on before his death in 2017.
The horror icon’s estate are teaming up with Rountable, with the original treatment written by the Romero, while Joe Knetter, Robert Lucas and Paollo Zelati have penned the screenplay.
The film will be set on a tropical island, while director Brad Anderson admitted he “teared up” at the end of the script.
He previously said in a statement: “I see this film in the same way as successful post-apocalyptic thrillers such as ‘I Am Legend’, ‘A Quiet Place’, ‘The Road’, and ‘The Last of Us’ — genre stories that are as emotional as they are intense.
“When I first read ‘Twilight of The Dead’ I teared up at the end. Which is weird for a film of this type. But it has that kind of pull, that combo of horror and heartbreak that I love.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Daniel Craig doesn’t care who the next James Bond actually is.
The 56-year-old actor played 007 in five blockbusters – starting with 2006’s ‘Casino Royale’ and ending with 2021’s ‘No Time To Die’ – and while the hunt is on for his successor, he has insisted he’s not too fussed about the ongoing debate.
Asked about the next actor to take on the iconic role, he told Variety with a smile and chuckle: “I don’t care.”
Daniel – who playing a question and answer game with ‘Queer’ co-star Drew Starkey – also struggled to remember the number of Bond films he’s starred in.
Drew joked it was “too many”, and he agreed, adding: “I don’t know either. I’d have to count. One, two, three… five? Five.”
With movie bosses looking for the next person to play Ian Fleming’s iconic fictional spy, Jennifer Salke – global head of Amazon MGM Studios – recently gave an update on the casting process
She’s working closely with Eon Productions and producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson to find the best way forward.
She told The Guardian newspaper: “There are a lot of ideas [about potential actors] that have popped up that I thought are interesting.
“I think there are a lot of different ways we can go. We have a good and close relationship with Eon and Barbara and Michael. We are not looking to disrupt the way those wonderful films are made. For us, we are taking their lead.”
Salke went on to insist Bond fans are being “patient” as the search continues but she doesn’t want to leave too much of a gap between 007 films.
She added: “The global audience will be patient. We don’t want too much time between films, but we are not concerned at this point.”
A number of actors have been rumoured to be in the running to play Bond, including ‘Godzilla’ star Aaron Taylor-Johnson who was rumoured to have been handed a formal offer to take on the role.
Aaron even won the backing of former 007 Pierce Brosnan – who played Bond in four films between 1995 and 2002 – who insisted the 34-year-old movie star would be an excellent choice.
During an appearance on ‘The Ray D’Arcy Show’ on RTE Radio 1, Pierce said: “I think the man has the chops and the talent and the charisma to play Bond, very much so.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Ariana Grande has insisted singing live in ‘Wicked’ was a “no-brainer”.
The 31-year-old actress stars as Glinda alongside Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba in the upcoming big screen adaptation of the iconic Broadway musical, and they were determined to sing live on set rather than dub their vocals in post-production.
She told E! News: “It was an immediate no brainer for Cynthia and I. We both were like, ‘Well of course we’re singing live.’ ”
Her co-star, 37, agreed and insisted there is “something special” about performing and filming in that way.
She added: “There’s something special about what happens when music is live in a room.”
‘The Boy Is Mine’ hitmaker Ariana threw everything into her character, and even worked on changing the natural pitch of her speaking and singing voice.
She recently told the New York Times newspaper: “It was really important to erase as much of myself as possible, so that they could just be looking at Glinda.”
She has been met with backlash from trolls online after traces of Glinda’s high octave have remained in her voice for months after filming wrapped.
However, she previously told Vanity Fair: “There is a part of the world that isn’t familiar with what it takes to transform your voice, whether it’s singing or taking on a different dialect for a role or doing a character voice for something.
“When it’s a male actor that does it, it’s acclaimed.
“There are definitely jokes that are made as well, but it’s always after being led with praise: ‘Oh, wow, he was so lost in the role.’ And that’s just a part of the job, really.”
Despite the critics, Ariana is “really proud” of the work she’s done and the voice she figured out for Glinda.
She explained: “Part of why I did want to engage [with critics] is because I am really proud of my hard work and of the fact that I did give 100 percent of myself, including my physicality, to this role. I am proud of that, so I wanted to protect it.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Ben Whishaw didn’t get to travel with the rest of the ‘Paddington in Peru’ cast.
The 44-year-old actor has reprise his role as the beloved bear for the third film in the franchise, but he wasn’t able to join the cast and crew on location in South America.
Speaking to Simon Mayo on his Greatest Hits Radio ‘Drivetime’ show, he said: “I did not leave Lexington Street where the post-production place is – I was just in the basement there the whole time.
“I would have liked [to have gone to Peru] but it was never even an option!”
Ben opened up on his lengthy recording process, which stars with him watching a cut of the movie with “no bear” on screen.
He explained: “You’ve got the script on a music stand, the film on a big screen but – at least when we begin – it’s at the very rough early stage of being edited so there’s no bear.
“Sometimes there’s a sketch, that doesn’t move, and sometimes there’s a tennis ball in place of Paddington and I wear a camera on my head that films my face and then you just have a crack at it.
“It’s a stab in the dark to begin with, you have no idea really what you’re doing, because there is no Paddington at that point.”
He noted it can take around 12 months to complete, because of how “complex” it is to animate Paddington himself alongside the live action cast.
He added: “It takes a long time the whole process – from start to finish it’s a year, not every day obviously, or even every week, but it takes a year because it’s so enormously complex to animate the bear.”
Meanwhile, Ben admitted he and Paddington definitely don’t agree when it comes to the bear’s love for marmalade sandwiches.
He said: “It is me making the noise when you hear when you see Paddington eating marmalade sandwiches [on screen] but I really can’t stand marmalade, it doesn’t agree with me.
“So, what you hear is me eating bread or sometimes I munch on fruit or even my own hand!”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Henry Winkler and Lena Headey are to star in action movie ‘Normal’.
The ‘Happy Days’ star and the ‘Game of Thrones’ actress will appear opposite Bob Odenkirk in the forthcoming film, which is from the team behind 2021 movie ‘Nobody’.
According to Variety, Winkler will portray the mayor of the Minnesota town of Normal, which is populated by friendly Midwesterners, and Headey will take on the role of local bartender Moira.
In the motion picture, Odenkirk will play Ulysses, who is appointed as the substitute sheriff of Normal.
The movie will see Ulysses uncover dark mysteries following a local bank robbery.
‘John Wick’ creator Derek Kolstad has penned the screenplay, with help from Odenkirk, and the film will be directed by Ben Wheatley.
Odenkirk and Kolstad will also team up to produce the motion picture alongside Marc Provissiero.
In a joint statement, the producers said: “We’re thrilled Ben Wheatley joined us on this one.
“He is an absolute master of the form.
“We love our cast and are excited to try and capture something unexpected.”
Ryan Allen, Brendan Fletcher, Peter Shinkoda, Billy MacLellan, and Jess McLeod are also part of the cast.
‘Breaking Bad’ star Odenkirk previously revealed ‘Normal’ is “full of red herrings”, and said the suspense is comparable to a film by M. Night Shyamalan.
He told The Hollywood Reporter: “When they presented the idea [for Normal] to me, it just had this quality to it I don’t think I’ve seen in an action movie in forever.
“I’m going to call it suspense mystery. You could argue that the ‘Bourne’ films, especially the early ones, have that element, where he’s trying to explore and solve a mystery, the mystery of his own past. There’s that sort of dimension in this story …
“We don’t want to give anything away. But the first thing I said [to Derek] was, ‘This has an M. Night Shyamalan-kind of level of suspense and mystery’. There’s a sustained sequence of figuring out what really is going on, including some major red herrings.”
Speaking about the movie, Kolstad said: “If I were to describe ‘Normal’, I’d say it was a love letter to Hitchcock and the British crime thrillers I grew up with as a kid, it has the more grounded elements of films from the 1970s.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Danny Devito “loves” getting to act opposite his daughter.
The Lucy, 41, Grace, 39, and 37-year-old Jake with his estranged wife Rhea Perlman and now he and his eldest have teamed up together as a father and a daughter in the upcoming holiday film ‘A Sudden Case of Christmas’.
He told MovieWeb: “It was amazing! It was really, really great. Lucy and I love working with each other, we were planning to do a Broadway show which we ultimately did but then this came along as a gift. Playing a father and daughter, we played father and daughter in the play, not that we can’t play other parts together but this is something really special for both of us.”
In the film, a couple bring their 10-year-old daughter to her grandfather’s hotel in Italy to tell her that they are separating and the little girl spends the holiday season trying to get them back together.
Lucy – who starred on the ABC sitcom ‘Melissa and Joey’ opposite ‘Sabrina, the Teenage Witch’ actress Melissa Joan Hart – was then asked if there was any difficulties working with the ‘Matilda’ star on a day-to-day basis but she insisted that there was never any trouble.
She said: “Not really, no, to be honest, we went into the whole experience like ‘I can’t believe we’re here, I can’t believe we’re even able to do it’. And this is a Christmas movie, so let’s enjoy it, have fun, the crew is amazing. The crew was amazing. The lead of the movie, Antonella Rose, is so professional, so gifted and just a joy to work with.”
‘A Sudden Case of Christmas’ will stream from November 7.

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OHMYGOSSIP — Ryan Reynolds has confirmed he is working with Hugh Jackman and Shawn Levy on an upcoming film away from Marvel.
The 48-year-old actor and Jackman, 56, worked with the director, also 56, on the superhero smash-hit ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’ and Reynolds has now revealed the trio will be reuniting for another picture separate from the superhero tentpole.
Speaking on Variety’s ‘Awards Circuit Podcast’, the actor teased: “I’m spending the year writing. I’m writing a movie for myself, Hugh and Shawn to do that is not Marvel.”
Aside from ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’, Reynolds had worked with Levy on 2021’s ‘Free Guy’ and sci-fi flick ‘The Adam Project’ the following year.
‘Deadpool and Wolverine’ saw Reynolds’ ‘Merc with a Mouth’ finally star opposite Jackman’s iconic mutant superhero, though the actor previously admitted he was unsure whether the 2024 blockbuster was the last time he will get to play the character because Levy had made the film as “a complete experience” that doesn’t set up future instalments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
During an interview with Collider, Reynolds said: “I would say Shawn made it pretty clear, and I think in the most loving way because, talk about the greatest uptown problem any human beings could have is a studio like that saying, ‘What’s next?’ or, ‘How can we make something else?’
“But this movie was made as a complete experience. It wasn’t meant to be a commercial for another movie. It wasn’t meant to be any of that stuff. I get a great deal of joy making a movie like that.
“But honestly, right at this moment, I have no idea if I’ll ever wear that Deadpool suit again. I hope I do, but I don’t know. Right now’s the time to just kind of hang it up for a bit and see what happens next.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Daniel Craig wants Netflix to keep ‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’ in cinemas for longer than a week.
The streaming giant agreed to give the movies a limited theatrical run before releasing them on the service after acquiring the rights to the murder-mystery franchise and now the 56-year-old actor has admitted he hopes the company will let the third movie ‘Wake Up Dead Man’ remain on the big screen for longer to ensure fans of all ages get a chance to see it.
When Variety asked Craig if he wanted Netflix to give the flick a longer theatrical run, he said: “You know I do.
“Hopefully, Netflix will push it out a bit, and people will get to see it. The people I speak to — the fans, I suppose — all they want to do is take their families and go see it at the cinemas. That’s all they want to do. Hopefully we can give them that experience.”
The former James Bond star is set to return as detective Benoit Blanc in the upcoming picture, where he will be joined by the likes of Jeremy Renner, Mila Kunis, Thomas Haden Church, Cailee Spaeny, Glenn Close, Andrew Scott and Josh Brolin in another whodunnit case.
While the other actors have remained tight-lipped as to who they will be playing, Brolin revealed he would be portraying a priest in the flick, which is set to be released next year.
He told TotalFilm: “I’m playing a priest. My wife reminded me … She said, ‘Do you remember a year ago you said that you wanted to play a priest? It’s like you manifest this s***.'”
Reflecting on the picture, the ‘Avengers: Endgame’ star heaped praise on his “new favourite director” Rian Johnson and labelled the film as “one of the greatest experiences [he’s] ever had”.
He gushed: “Rian is probably my new favourite director. It was one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had. Incredible cast.”

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