The $3.5 billion Pirates of the Caribbean franchise may see another mega-star reprise in its fifth installment, and it may not just be Johnny Depp . Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards may return to the franchise after an invitation from Depp. Richards has bombarded the franchise in all four installments with his persona alone. Depp made no secret that the superstar musician inspired his flamboyant portrayal of Jack Sparrow since its launch back in 2003 with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl . Richards took the cue and sailed into the role of Captain Teague in 2007 with Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End and again in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011). Now with a fifth return the swashbuckling franchise, even Depp is apparently awaiting Richards’ final ayyy or nay, though he teased that the plank has been lowered for his return. “I spoke to Johnny a couple of weeks ago and he said, ‘Are you up for another one?’ I can leave it at that because I know no more,” Richards told BBC 6 Music. “But I do have the costume! (It helps because) some kids who don’t know nothing (sic) about the Rolling Stones go, ‘There’s Johnny Depp’s dad! There’s Captain Teague, arrgh!” Keith Richards and the rest of his Rolling Stones crew have hit the big screen more recently in Brett Morgen’s documentary Crossfire Hurricane , which had a premiere bash last month at the BFI London Film Festival and is currently making the fest rounds. The feature marks the bands’ 50 years together. [ Source: Hollywood.com ]
Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert are shifting their attention from Evil Dead to Angels of the Apocalypse. The filmmakers have teamed up with Good Universe to acquire multipicture rights to Susan Ee’s bestselling Amazon Publishing book series Angelfall. The project sounds like it has the potential to be a Hunger Games -type franchise. Raimi and Tapert will produce while Good Universe principals Joe Drake and Nathan Kahane will take executive producer credits for what the players obviously envision as a film franchise. Lucy Stille of Paradigm brokered the deal. Ee, a lawyer-turned-writer, initially self-published Angelfall, and after being courted by a number of publishing houses chose to have her debut novel released through Amazon Children’s Publishing. The book became an instant success, topping Amazon’s Most Wished For Teen Book list and ranking fourth on the Young Adult best seller list just behind the Hunger Games trilogy. She will publish a second Angelfall book in fall 2013. If you’re not familiar with the universe Ee has created, here’s the Angelfall synopsis that was included in the announcement. Do I detect a whiff of Legion in the plot? Six weeks after angels of the apocalypse descend to demolish the modern world, street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back… even if that means making a deal with an enemy angel Raffe, a warrior who has been left bleeding and wingless. Having only each other to rely on for survival, the two journey towards the angel’s stronghold where she must risk everything to rescue her sister and he must decide whether to put himself at the mercy of his enemies for the chance to be made whole again. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Christina Ricci , and it looks like the long layoff did her some good. Here she is at the Ninth Annual CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Awards, making me wonder where Christina’s been all this time. And more importantly, whether she’s given any more thought to sleeping with a blogger. I’m, uh, asking for a friend… Related Articles: Christina Ricci Is Really Hot All Of A Sudden? Alessandra Ambrosio Bikini Pictures Simona Fusco Stratten Bikini Pictures Emma B Bikini Pictures Photos: Fameflynet
Please comment, like and subscribe This is a brand new piano solo of Bieber’s brand new single As Long As You Love Me from his album Believe. I love the new album and particularly the new sound he is going for! I hope you enjoy my interpretation of what is sure to be a future number one! Please share to you friends if you enjoy and tweet to Justin! Also, my Facebook and Twitter links are below. Many thanks for all the support! Facebook: www.facebook.com Twitter: twitter.com http://www.youtube.com/v/i7isy9UkMu4?version=3&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata Continue reading here: As Long As You Love Me – Justin Bieber ft. Big Sean – Piano Solo
Please comment, like and subscribe This is a brand new piano solo of Bieber’s brand new single As Long As You Love Me from his album Believe. I love the new album and particularly the new sound he is going for! I hope you enjoy my interpretation of what is sure to be a future number one! Please share to you friends if you enjoy and tweet to Justin! Also, my Facebook and Twitter links are below. Many thanks for all the support! Facebook: www.facebook.com Twitter: twitter.com http://www.youtube.com/v/i7isy9UkMu4?version=3&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata Continue reading here: As Long As You Love Me – Justin Bieber ft. Big Sean – Piano Solo
Following the shocking news that David Petraeus resigned yesterday as director of the CIA due to an extramarital affair, news outlets have now confirmed the woman at the heart of that scandal: Paula Broadwell, the former chief of U.S. Central Command’s biographer. A Harvard graduate, Broadwell spent a great deal of time with Petraeus while doing research for “All In: The Education of General David Petraeus.” She wrote and talked about the unlimited access she was granted for the book, which included running in the mountains of Afghanistan with the General. Broadwell is a native of North Dakota and was valedictorian of her high school. She currently resides in Charlotte with her husband and has two children. An FBI investigation reportedly uncovered evidence that Broadwell and Petraeus were involved romantically. The former has yet to make a statement, while the latter handed his letter of resignation to President Obama yesterday. Petraeus has been married for 37 years and also has two kids with his wife, Holly. He entered civilian life as the head of the CIA in 2011, following nearly four decades as a decorated military officer.
Did you know Washington State is a “mutual combat” state. So, you can fight right in front of the police like “Phoenix” is doing here! Fast Forward to 6 Min mark “Phoenix Jones, Midnight Jack, Red Falcon, Bishop and Westlake Drake are on a routine patrol of the University District when they come across a man yelling at a car. The suspect, out side of the car in the orange shirt, starts punching the window of the car scaring the passengers of the vehicle. Phoenix steps in, stops the assault while Red calls 911. The suspect in orange then changes his target to Phoenix and begins using racial slurs. After 8 minutes of trying to de-escalate the situation the cops arrive (this is a the 2:32 mark of your condensed video). Phoenix Jones tells the officer that he would like to leave and would like a police escort to the team’s car. The cop agrees and then the suspect in orange says “F**k you ni**er! I’ll bring this to your house!” At this point Phoenix agrees to mutual combat, the two shake hands and the fight commences. Right before Phoenix knocks out the suspect in orange, the suspect says “You know you don’t want none of this”. His friends confuse this with him trying to stop the fight and begin another verbal attack on Phoenix.” – P Big fans of Phoenix Jones… that white boy should have looked up Phoenix first, then he would’ve known he’s a trained MMA fighter. SMH… youtube
As far as underdog success stories go, no film this year holds a candle to the crazy true resurrection of the obscure Florida-set 1987 rock ‘n’ roll martial arts pic Miami Connection . A totally ’80s actioner shot independently by Korean-born Tae Kwon Do expert and future Grandmaster Y.K. Kim, the film tanked so hard upon initial release (in just eight theaters in Central Florida) that it sat languishing in obscurity for decades… until the maverick visionaries at Drafthouse Films discovered the gloriously cheesy and infectiously sincere tale, about five orphaned Tae Kwon Do black belts who face off against biker ninjas while moonlighting as a synth rock band . Thanks to Drafthouse Films, the upstart distribution arm of the Drafthouse Cinema specializing in a kind of bold, genre-leaning fare that has so far yielded one Oscar-nominee ( Bullhead ) and another Oscar hopeful (Korea’s 2012 contender Pieta , by Kim Ki-Duk) in just two years of existence, contemporary audiences can share the unbridled joy that emanates from Miami Connection ‘s unique combination of martial arts action, ’80s rock, and genuinely sweet message of friendship (forever). Miami Connection has everything: Evil biker ninjas, “stupid cocaine,” catchy songs with titles like “Friends Forever,” a touch of romance, a lot of bromance, and, at the center of it all, one Y.K. Kim. A cross between Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee, Kim plays Mark, a college student who lives, plays rock and roll, and trains in Tae Kwon Do with his four best friends John (Vincent Hirsch), Jack (Joseph Diamand), Jim (Maurice Smith), and Tom (Angelo Janotti). When Jane (Kathy Collier) joins their band Dragon Sound, her seedy brother and his evil ninja-gangster pal set out to destroy them. Awesomeness ensues! The Korean-born Kim wrote, co-directed, and starred in Miami Connection , which began as an action movie pitch from a director who’d seen Kim promoting his martial arts philosophies on Korean TV. Kim knew nothing of filmmaking, but he seized the opportunity, recruiting some of his own Tae Kwon Do students to star alongside him. It wasn’t the smartest financial venture, to say the least. Kim, still a force of nature who now runs a martial arts school, tours as a motivational speaker, and developed a five-step program for success, has no regrets about the indie bomb that ended his filmmaking career before it even had a chance to take off. “All my friends and community leaders and media came up to me and said, ‘Don’t try to make a movie – you are a martial arts expert, you are not a movie maker,'” he remembered when we met to chat in Austin at Fantastic Fest , where Miami Connection played to a raucous crowd. “So many people in Central Florida tried and not one person finished a movie, and that means you were asking for bankruptcy. But all my students were excited; with martial arts spirit you don’t just give up. So I started.” Long hours, not enough money, and crew shortfalls threatened to derail the production; Kim stepped into multiple roles behind the scenes and went without sleep. “You name it, I did casting, cleaning up, catering, dialogue, location scout,” he said. “Five nights I didn’t sleep, just five or ten minutes here in the daytime, like a cat.” Through the blood, sweat, and tears, Kim and Co. thought they were making a hit movie, until everyone in Hollywood passed after watching the film. “I went to Hollywood, showed it to Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal, you name it – over 100 distribution companies, and every single person said, “This is trash! Don’t even try. You will waste more money and it’s not going to work,'” said Kim. After taking Miami Connection to Cannes, Kim and actor Joe Diamand sat down to rewrite the film, adding in elements of Kim’s Tae Kwon Do martial arts philosophy. The new version opened theatrically in eight theaters in Florida, but poor word of mouth effectively killed the film upon arrival. “One guy was a very popular movie critic in the newspaper – I still have his review – and he wrote: ‘Worst Movie Of The Year – don’t go watch!'” Kim said. “People listened to him and in weeks, it was dead. I lost all the movie, dead. The name Y.K. Kim was trash. But I started a new life. I built it up right away. I’m a fighter.” Diamond and his fellow martial arts students/actors were, he says, “devastated” by the failure. “It was as if all the air had been kicked out of our guts,” said Diamand. “We were horrified; we just couldn’t believe it. We had a lot more hope.” “We were just so numb after putting all the energy into it and getting no recognition for it that it was one of those memories we wanted to forget about,” he continued. “On the one hand it was viewed as pure inept campiness originally, and now it’s being viewed as more real and sincere – we were martial artists going out there pretending to be actors, rather than actors pretending to be martial artists.” The re-embracing of Miami Connection by contemporary audiences has heartened Kim, Diamand, and the rest of Dragon Sound, who reunited at Fantastic Fest to play all two of their original Miami Connection rock songs. “You can’t fake this stuff,” Diamond said. “We really did feel this way about each other because we were all martial arts students practicing together. People originally thought we were trying to be actors but really it’s about being martial artists and getting that message across about friendship and a true indomitable spirit. This is how we lived; this is what we believed in. And this is what we wanted to show.” Before joining Grandmaster Kim and Diamand in cementing our newfound eternal friendship in song in a karaoke room at Austin’s Highball (we sang Queen’s “You’re My Best Friend,” in case you were wondering), Grandmaster shared with me five lessons from the philosophy that life, martial arts, and now Miami Connection have taught him. Hit the jump for Grandmaster Y.K. Kim’s life lessons (and the real story of how all those biker boobs popped up in Miami Connection …
Here’s a lil’ positivity for the evening. Charles Tillman and his wifey Jackie are getting ready to have their fourth child in a couple of weeks. Tillman tweeted, “God, family, football. Baby is coming Monday. Don’t worry, I’ll be there Sunday.” He repeated the sentiment over on ESPN’s Sports Center in an interview earlier this week as well. Charles had let his teammates know that he may not be playing in the game this coming Sunday and he confirmed he was hesitant to play; “This game is important to me, but after what we went through with my middle child Tiana, to me football is second … It’ll always be second or third in my life. That was a great lesson learned, to teach me that family — when I’m done playing football — my family will always be there for me”. The Tillman’s had to rush finding their daughter Tiana a heart transplant in 2008. Congrats! Images via tumblr
David Petraeus has surprisingly and abruptly resigned as director of the CIA. The decorated former chief of U.S. Central Command cited an extramarital affair. “After being married for over 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair,” Petraeus’ resignation letter said. “Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours.” “Teddy Roosevelt once observed that life’s greatest gift is the opportunity to work hard at work worth doing.” “I will always treasure my opportunity to have done that with you and I will always regret the circumstances that brought that work with you to an end.” The retired four-star general had a distinguished 37-year career in the military before joining the CIA, commanding forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Petraeus, 60, has been widely praised by both sides of the political aisle. He took the helm of the CIA in September 2011; his sudden resignation came as a surprise, just days after President Barack Obama won reelection . President Obama said in a statement: “By any measure, he was one of the outstanding general officers of his generation, helping our military adapt to new challenges, and leading our men and women in uniform through a remarkable period of service in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he helped our nation put those wars on a path to a responsible end.” “As director of the Central Intelligence Agency, he has continued to serve with characteristic intellectual rigor, dedication and patriotism.” Obama accepted Petraeus’ resignation Friday.
