OHMYGOSSIP — Nicolas Cage has insisted he “doesn’t need” to be in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The 59-year-old star – who was born Nicolas Coppola, and is the nephew of ‘The Godfather’ director Francis Ford Coppola – admits he needs to be “nice” about the MCU because he got his name from Stan Lee’s comic book character Luke Cage.
Speaking at the Variety Legend and Groundbreaker Award at Miami Film Festival, he said: “I’ve gotta be nice about Marvel movies, because I named myself after a Stan Lee character named Luke Cage. What am I going to do, put Marvel movies down?
“Stan Lee is my surrealistic father. He named me. I understand what the frustration is. I get it. But I think there’s plenty of room for everybody.
“I’m seeing movies like ‘Tar.’ I’m seeing all kinds of artistic and independently driven movies. I think there’s plenty of room for everybody.”
Asked if he wants to be part of the MCU, he said: “I don’t need to be in the MCU, I’m Nic Cage.”
Last year, Cage admitted he would love to be in Marvel movie ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’.
The ‘Ghost Rider’ actor responded to speculation he could reprise the role of Johnny Blaze and his superhero alter ego – who he played in the 2006 movie and its 2011 sequel ‘Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance’ – in the Marvel blockbuster.
He said: “Oh, I don’t think so. I don’t think they’re casting me. I mean, I would do it.
“It would be fun. I’d love to work with Cumberbatch, but I don’t think that’s happening.”
Cage also made it clear he doesn’t agree with his uncle Coppola or filmmaker Martin Scorsese when it comes to the MCU.
Coppola previously backed Scorsese’s critique of comic book films and their impact on the film industry, insisting it’s “despicable” that Hollywood values money over art.
He argued: “There used to be studio films. Now there are Marvel pictures. And what is a Marvel picture?
“A Marvel picture is one prototype movie that is made over and over and over and over and over again to look different.”
However, Cage has defended the big budget blockbusters and insisted there is no “conflict” between different genres of cinema.
He added: “I think that the movies that I make, like ‘Pig’ or ‘Joe,’ are not in any kind of conflict with Marvel movies.
“I mean, I don’t think the Marvel movie had anything to do with the end of the tweener. By tweener, I mean the $30 to $50 million budget movie. I think movies are in good shape.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Adam Driver had the time of his life on ‘Megalopolis’.
The 39-year-old actor features in the ensemble cast of Francis Ford Coppola’s movie about an architect who tries to rebuild a city as a utopia following a devastating disaster and was thrilled to be working with ‘The Godfather’ director.
Adam told Paste: “‘Megalopolis’ is one of the most exciting things that I’ve been a part of, with Francis in particular.
“It’s one of the best shooting experiences I’ve had. And the things he’s made, there’s no frame of reference for it. It’s so unique and inventive and hopefully accessible by everyone. That it’s not so elusive that it’s for a certain audience, it’s for everyone.
“And he is everything that you hope he will be.”
‘Megalopolis’ is a passion project for Coppola as he started writing the movie back in the 1980s and Adam praised the filmmaker for being “inventive” with his self-financed project.
The ‘House of Gucci’ star said: “I know his movies so much more because it’s impossible not to watch them and see him in all of them. He’s so courageous.
“He made it himself so he would have control over the thing it was. He kept pushing it to be as inventive as it could be.”
Previous reports suggested that Francis was struggling to keep control over the film amid a high staff turnover and an escalating budget but the legendary director insisted that the shoot had been smooth.
The 83-year-old filmmaker said: “I’ve never worked on a film where I was so happy with the cast.
“I am so happy with the look and that we are on schedule. These reports never say who these sources are. To them, I say, ha, ha, just wait and see. Because this is a beautiful film and primarily so because the cast is so great.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz, Michael Fassbender and Owen Wilson are in talks to star in a Netflix film from director Nancy Meyers.
The big-budget movie is currently titled ‘Paris Paramount’ and tells the story of an above-the-line filmmaking duo who begrudgingly reunite on set after falling in and out of love with one another.
Meyers is directing from her own script and also serves as a producer on the film, which marks her first behind the camera since the 2015 flick ‘The Intern’ – which starred Robert DeNiro and Anne Hathaway.
Sources say that actor deals for ‘Paris Paramount’ are yet to be sealed as budgeting on the project is still being worked out.
Netflix has not commented on the news.
Meanwhile, Scarlett recently discussed how she believes that she was “groomed” to become a “bombshell-type of actor”.
The 38-year-old star was frightened of becoming pigeonholed during her younger years but has now managed to take control of her career.
Scarlett reflected: “I kind of became like an ingenue, sort of, and I just think that’s part of – young girls like that are really objectified, and that’s just a fact.
“I did ‘Lost in Translation’ and ‘Girl With the Pearl Earring’ and by that point, I was 18, 19, and I was coming into my own womanhood and learning my own desirability and sexuality.”
The ‘Black Widow’ actress thinks that she “got stuck” on a very specific trajectory during her younger years.
She said: “I think it was because of that trajectory I had been sort of launched towards – I really got stuck.
“I was kind of being groomed, in a way, to be this what you call a bombshell-type of actor.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Katy O’Brian turned down a role in a “huge project” because she wanted to diversify her career.
The 33-year-old actress trained as a martial artist before launching a career in Hollywood and after appearing as a henchwoman in Marvel’s ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ and Major Sara Grey in ‘Black Lightning’, she had to learn to say no to some big movie roles so she could avoid being typecast.
In an interview with Collider, she said: “I used those roles as a stepping stone. I think a lot of people hopefully would agree, if you are getting cast, that’s a good thing. And if you are getting work, that’s a good thing, especially when you’re first starting out. And then once you start to want to branch out, I had to start turning down roles. And I said specifically, ‘I’m not doing another henchman role. So either don’t send me the audition or let me tell casting or whoever. I’m not coming in for that role. That’s not how I see myself. That’s not how I want to be represented on screen. There was a project, it was a really big project for a certain franchise that was, again, it was another henchman role and I turned it down and because of that I was probably able to audition for other projects in that universe.”
Katy is now starring as Jentorra in ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ alongside Paul Rudd and went on to explain that the “hardest part” of making the switch to movies from television was not having a stringent schedule.
She said: “Sometimes I’d show up to set and they’re like, ‘You’re gonna learn a fight scene right now.’ The hardest part for me though, and the strangest part is, generally [in] television, it has to be done next week, right? You’ve got to get the episode done next week or it’s not gonna get done.
“For ‘Ant-Man’, I never knew what days I’d be working. The schedule changed constantly. You’ve got all these A-list actors that have a bunch of other stuff to do and everyone’s flying in and out. I do not envy the ADs. I don’t envy the producers. I don’t envy anybody that has to be in charge of any kind of schedule for that stuff. You really genuinely never know when you’re gonna be there or no.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Tessa Thompson says Sylvester Stallone “felt ever-present” on the set of ‘Creed 3’.
Although Stallone’s Rocky Balboa appeared in ‘Creed’ and its sequel, the 76-year-old actor did not return for the third movie in the franchise but Tessa believes he is still a big “part of the DNA” of the series.
She told The Hollywood Reporter: “This might sound like a line, but I sincerely think that he’s so a part of the DNA of this that he felt ever-present to me. It actually took me a minute to be like, “Oh shit, [he’s not here.]” There’s something about returning to these movies and all the history that we have with them, and Sly is so wrapped up in that. And in some ways, his absence makes him an even bigger figure in my mind, in terms of the franchise. He’s built something that is so strong and so durable that we were able to reinvigorate it and borrow from the universe and create something of our own. And in the success of this film, we also get to say that it’s durable, and that has so much to do with Sly.
“It’s a passing of the baton, but for whoever is left holding it, it’s warm because of the hands that were on it before.”
Tessa, 39, also praised her co-star Michael B. Jordan for making his directorial debut with ‘Creed 3’.
She said: “What really impressed me was how great he was with the crew. It didn’t surprise me because he’s a lovely human and is so well liked on set, but he has the kind of energy that lightens a set and makes everybody feel good. But you would never really know that he was also balancing performing, directing and the onslaught of decisions and questions that he had to answer. But I never observed him be short with anybody. He maintained a spirit of play and joy.
“But because we are so close in our way and have worked together for so long, I could tell when he was stressed in a moment. I would look at him and he would just give me a face. I would just look at him and think, ‘Oh, he’s having a moment’. And he then would just say to me, ‘Yeah’. And I would be like, ‘All right, take a breath’. And he’d take a breath. So that would be a moment where he would let the air out, but never in a frustrated way. It was just in a, ‘OK, you see me, you know me. This is a moment’. And I found that so deeply impressive. I also felt really lucky to get to be that kind of support. He was just so tremendous with the crew and everyone.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Aaron Taylor-Johnson has joined the cast of the ‘Nosferatu’ remake.
The ‘Bullet Train’ actor is set to star in the new film version of the horror classic from director Robert Eggers, alongside Bill Skarsgard, Nicholas Hoult, Willem Dafoe, Emma Corrin and Lily-Rose Depp, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
No details have been given on the role Dafoe could be playing.
‘Nosferatu’ tells a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman (Depp) in 19th century Germany and the ancient Transylvanian vampire (Skarsgard) who stalks her and brings untold horror with him.
‘Nosferatu’ has been a passion project of Eggers’ for several years and came close in 2019 when Anya Taylor-Joy and Harry Styles were in discussions to star. The story was first told on the big screen by F.W. Murnau as a silent German film in 1922 and was remade by Werner Herzog as ‘Nosferatu the Vampyre’ in 1979.
Eggers previously admitted he worries that all the problems he’s had with the project could be a bad omen.
He said of the remake: “I’m just starting to think that [F.W.] Murnau doesn’t want me to make it. It feels like that. “It just feels like it’s so hard, and I don’t know why. And I think [Werner] Herzog had the right … because of German history and German cinema history, to make it. And maybe the ghosts of Murnau and Albin Grau are telling me … stop barking up that tree. I don’t know. That doesn’t mean that that’s true. I’m just wondering.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Amanda Seyfried wants to be in the movie adaptation of ‘Mean Girls: The Musical’.
The 37-year-old actress made her big screen debut as Karen Smith in the 2004 comedy which serves as a parody of the high school clique system and revealed that she and her co-stars Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, and Lacey Chabert are all “100 percent” interested in making cameos in the upcoming adaptation of the Broadway musical based on the film.
She told ‘Entertainment Tonight’: “It’s not really up to us anymore … It would be nice to hang out. I just think that this legacy has just broken all records. Everything that Tina [Fey] keeps doing, just putting it in a different way with the Broadway show, so amazing.
“Who wouldn’t want to be a part of it? It’s nice. But all of us are 100 percent into it. Maybe the mothers of our characters? That’s what I was thinking, but listen, I have not even seen the script.”
Meanwhile, the ‘Mamma Mia!’ star recently revealed that she felt as if she didn’t “belong” at the audition for the cult classic as she initially tried out for the role of Queen Bee Regina George – which eventually went to Rachel McAdams – whilst future ‘Gossip Girl’ actress Blake Lively unsuccessfully went up for the part of Karen.
She said: “I was in the room with Lacey and Lindsay and Blake, and I knew Lindsay and Lacey from their movies and TV, and I was just a little bit like, ‘Oh my god. What do I do? I don’t belong here ’cause I flew in from Pennsylvania or whatever.
“Blake I didn’t know, but I just remember thinking she was so gorgeous, and I was like ‘She’s the perfect Karen.’ ‘Cause I was Regina in the room, but things happen.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Seth Rogen will be joined in ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem’ by Jackie Chan, Rose Byrne and John Cena.
The 40-year-old actor is producing the movie and voicing warthog mutant Bebop and on Saturday (04.03.23) he introduced lead cast members Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu and Brady Noon – who will voice turtles Donatello, Michaelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael respectively – to the world at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards, as well as revealing the rest of the all-star line-up.
Jackie will voice the Turtles’ mentor Splinter, while Rose will play Leatherhead and John will be Bebop’s pal Rocksteady.
In addition, Hannibal Buress has signed up as Genghis Frog, Ice Cube as Superfly, Natasia Demetriou as Wingnut, Ayo Edebiri as April O’Neil, Giancarlo Esposito as Baxter Stockman, Post Malone as Ray Fillet, Paul Rudd as Mondo Gecko, and Maya Rudolph as Cynthia Utrom.
Paramount Animation President Ramsey Naito said of the line-up: “We are beyond thrilled by this world-class cast we’ve assembled to bring these iconic, beloved characters to life in a new chapter of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles universe.
“This really sets a new bar for this globally celebrated franchise, and we can’t wait to show audiences this film.”
Seth previously said the movie – which is directed by Jeff Rowe – will be “deeply personal”.
He said: “We found a way to make it deeply personal. It’s a teenage movie, we’re putting a lot of our own feelings — of awkwardness and insecurity and a desire to belong and be accepted and all that — into the movie.
“And as I sit around with the other people working on [the film], I’m like, ‘We found a way to care about this,’ which is great.
“‘Ninja Turtles’ is something I loved as a kid. We have a lot more things like that that we’re working on, this ‘Darkwing Duck’ show and things like that. That becomes a fun part of the challenge: How do you infuse more and more of yourself into your work? I think the more of yourself you put in, the more people like it.”
The film is set for release on 4 August.

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OHMYGOSSIP — Lisa Ann Walter thinks a remake of ‘The Parent Trap’ would be “possible”.
The 59-year-old actress played the role of housekeeper Chessy in the 1998 Disney comedy – which saw Lindsay Lohan make her motion picture debut as long-lost twins Hallie Parker and Annie James who switch places in order to reunite their parents – and she is convinced that any potential reboot would be “genius”, as long as original screenwriter and director Nancy Meyers is on board.
Speaking to Extra TV, Lisa said: “Look, if Nancy Meyers writes it, it’s gonna be genius. I don’t know if that is something that could happen… With Lindsay doing work again, as beautiful and talented as she is, certainly, anything is possible.”
‘The Parent Trap’ was itself a remake of the 1961 Disney film starring Hayley Mills, and was ultimately based on 1949 German novel ‘Das doppelte Lottchen’ by Erich Kästner.
The ‘Abbott Elementary star was joined in the family movie by Elaine Hendrix as villainous stepmother-to-be Meredith Blake and joked that any reboot should feature her as the “good guy” this time round.
Lisa added: “I think in this version, we need to make Meredith a good guy!”
‘Dynasty’ actress Elaine, 52, previously insisted ‘The Parent Trap’ – which also starred Dennis Quaid and the late Natasha Richardson – should be “left alone” but admitted that she would be happy to be part of any reboot.
She said: “We were already a reboot and so I’m biased in that I think it should be left alone, but if it’s going to be rebooted, then yeah, I think we absolutely should be a part of it.

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