Rama's Screen

Harris Interactive is an American market research company that specializes in public opinion research through all kinds of survey channels inlcuding online polling. They’ve gathered a list of 10 favorite film stars and the honor belongs to Clint Eastwood. Even though Eastwood has called himself retired from acting after Gran Torino, Americans are still die-hard fans of his work. Hell I still watch The Good, The Bad and The Ugly on VHS once in a while
And look, John Wayne is in this top 10. Turns out The Duke is the only actor, living or dead, to appear on the list every year. I wonder what he’d think of The Coens’ remaking True Grit.
The poll of 2,276 adults was conducted from Dec. 7-14, 2009. Here are America’s top 10 favorite film stars

1. Clint Eastwood
2. Johnny Depp
3. Denzel Washington
4. Sandra Bullock
5. Tom Hanks
6. George Clooney
7. John Wayne
   
8. Meryl Streep
9. Morgan Freeman
10. Julia Roberts

Do you agree with that list? Who’s your favorite film star this past year?

If Morgan Freeman’s roles in movies can be defined by his chain of command, and Nic Cage by the many hairpiece he had to wear, Maxim thinks Denzel Washington’s recurring theme has always been expressing his emotions through his glasses, hat, and facial hair. If you’re still confused, maybe the Venn Diagram below could give you a better, clearer explanation… Read the rest of this entry »

The following info got no solid confirmation yet but the idea of Denzel Washinton and Will Smith sounds epic. Panjiba reported that in 2002, Will Smith’s production company, Overbrook Entertainment, bought the remake rights to the 1974 Sidney Poitier-directed Afro classic UPTOWN SATURDAY NIGHT. Since then, Smith tried to get Martin Lawrence and Eddie Murphy with the intention to make it an all star African American Ocean’s Eleven but nothing happened. Til now.. Read the rest of this entry »

A behind-the-scenes featurette for THE BOOK OF ELI is online, via Yahoo. This is probably the first movie in which Denzel Washington gets to perform some martial art skills, some deadly self-defense moves, I don’t recall him ever doing this type of fight stuntwork in his previous gigs as an actor all these years. Watch the vibrant video featuring the awesome stunt coordinator Jeff Amada (Fight Club, The Last Samurai, The Bourne Supremacy) who’s also working on THE GREEN HORNET… Read the rest of this entry »

Don’t mess with Denzel Washington, cause he has a machete and he’s not afraid to chop your arm off if you get too close just like what happened to that one poor bastard in the trailer for the upcoming The Hughes Bros.-directed post-apocalyptic action/thriller THE BOOK OF ELI. MySpace has the poster that gives you up close shot of Denzel lookin’ like a badass hobo. The story revolves around a lone warrior (Washington) who must fight to bring society the knowledge that could be the key to its redemption. Gary Oldman plays the despot of a small makeshift town who’s determined to take possession of the book Eli’s guarding. View the whole image after this jump… Read the rest of this entry »

WB has released the new full theatrical trailer for THE BOOK OF ELI, the post-apocalypse action/thriller from The Huges Bros. (From Hell) starring Denzel Washington with his machete, Mila Kunis as the disciple, Gary Oldman as the villain and Ray Stevenson as his right hand man. Everybody is in place and the place is a big junkyard wasteland. As much as I’d like to see Washington doing martial art moves and chopping off people’s arms, I can’t help but think the storyline might be generic, lots of bullet time and all we get is an average result starring actors more talented than this gig

The Book of Eli revolves around a lone warrior (Washington) who must fight to bring society the knowledge that could be the key to its redemption. Oldman has been set to portray the despot of a small makeshift town who’s determined to take possession of the book Eli’s guarding.

THE BOOK OF ELI opens January 15th, 2009

Lately, there’s been an inevitable Korean invasion. Popstar Rain will have his movie NINJA ASSASSIN hitting theaters this fall, Lee Byung Hun will show up as Storm Shadow in this weekend’s G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA. Kwon Sang-Woo is rumored to play Kato in Seth Rogen’s THE GREEN HORNET movie and Chan Wook Park’s latest masterpiece, the vampire love story, THIRST has got the whole town talking.

This is not necessarily an invasion but definitely proof that Korean films have made quite an impression even more so now than ever..according to Twitch, Denzel Washington might star in the US remake of the 2005 Kim Ji-Woon’s A BITTERSWEET LIFE, originally starred Lee Byung-Hyun as a crime lord’s chief enforcer, assigned to look after his boss’ young mistress. The project has been in development at Fox and no director is attached yet. I’ve never seen the original version but I’ve heard great praises about it and if Denzel’s involvement is confirmed, I’m sure even those who are against remakes won’t mind it much because let’s face it, who doesn’t like Denzel and his movies?

The trailer for THE BOOK OF ELI is one of the many trailers that hit the web during this Comic-Con weekend. You can watch it via the media player below, it’s Denzel fighting like Jason Statham.
Check out the Comic-Con lo-quality teaser poster.
About the trailer, it looks stylish but ordinary at the same time, nothing about it separates it from any other post-apocalyptic movie that tries to have that visual ala 300.
Explain to me this though.. I can understand putting Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman’s names.. but why did The Hughes Bros. think it’s necessary to include Mila Kunis‘ name along with those two greats?! She’s not even in their level yet, her name doesn’t sell tickets, theirs do.

This story is about a lone warrior (Washington) who must fight to bring society the knowledge that could be the key to its redemption. Gary Oldman plays the despot of a small makeshift town who’s determined to take possession of the book Eli’s guarding. Also starring Michael Gambon, Jennifer Beals and Ray Stevenson

THE BOOK OF ELI opens January 15th, 2010

I’m here at Comic-Con ‘09 so not much room and time for internet at the moment, so real quick now, earlier this month, it was reported that Denzel Washington decided to leave UNSTOPPABLE project because of salary conflict. “Fox cut a $107 million tab down to $100 million, but wants it in the low $90 million range. Fox asked Scott to drop his fee from $9 million to $6 million, and wanted Washington to shave $4 million from his $20 million paycheck. Washington declined”
Fox’s move was understandable because the recent The Taking of Pelham 123 remake only earned $60 Million
But the two time Oscar winner was willing to reconsider and review the latest draft of the script if Fox was willing to make a different offer

Now variety reported that Denzel Washington has officially returned to UNSTOPPABLE which reunites him with his favorite director Tony Scott, marking the 5th time that they’ve done films together (Crimson Tide, Man on Fire, Deja Vu, Taking of Pelham 123).
With a script by Mark Bomback, Washington would play an experienced engineer who jumps in a locomotive with a young conductor (Chris Pine) to chase down a runaway train carrying a cargo of toxic chemicals and gas enough to wipe out a nearby city.
It doesn’t say how much in dollar amount was given to Denzel to keep him smiling but pre-production is back on schedule in Pittsburgh.

Last we heard, the thriller project UNSTOPPABLE didn’t take off because of budget problem, which was understandable because after the recent The Taking of Pelham 123 remake only earned $60 Million domestically, any studio would be hesitant to fund the next collaboration of Scott-Washington. So according to Variety, after 3 months of uncertainty, the 2 time Oscar winner, one of the most celebrated, respected, admired actors of our time has exited UNSTOPPABLE.

UNSTOPPABLE for 20th Century Fox, would’ve reunited Denzel Washington with his favorite director Tony Scott, marking the 5th time that they’ve done films together (Crimson Tide, Man on Fire, Deja Vu, Taking of Pelham 123).
With a script by Mark Bomback, Washington would play an experienced engineer who jumps in a locomotive with a young conductor (Chris Pine) to chase down a runaway train carrying a cargo of toxic chemicals and gas enough to wipe out a nearby city.

So here’s what led to this halt… “Fox cut a $107 million tab down to $100 million, but wants it in the low $90 million range. Fox asked Scott to drop his fee from $9 million to $6 million, and wanted Washington to shave $4 million from his $20 million paycheck. Washington declined”
I’m a bit shocked that Washington wasn’t willing to sacrifice $4 Million. I always thought he was an actor that’s about the work, not the money, maybe I thought wrong. Does he really need $20 Million?
There might be hope though, because the report also says that Fox is still willing to make a different offer to get Washington to re-consider his decision and Washington is willing to take a look at the latest script draft.
I think Washington needs to distance himself from Scott for a while. When was the last time he did any independent Sundance gigs anyway?