Movies

Rumors are flying that Natalie Portman plans to take it all off in her new film, "Goya's Ghost."

The record companies are not the only ones getting their litigation fix. The Motion Picture A ssociation of America has been filing its fair share of suits as well. Over the years, movie companies have filed various lawsuits to stop various technologies, including now nearly outdated VCR. Reports have the MPAA mulling over the possibility of adopting the RIAA strategy of going after individual consumers who download or otherwise purchase illegally made movie copies.

While promoting their film in Europe, Brandon Routh and the cast of "Superman Returns" have been bombarded with questions about another summer blockbuster, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."

With "Pirates" breaking records it's opening weekend and "Superman" fighting to break even, the comparisons came as no surprise and the cast was certainly prepared for the line of questions.

Kate Bosworth, who plays Lois Lane in the flick, laughed off rumors of competition with boyfriend (and "Pirates" star) Orlando Bloom. "It's like the only thing that we talk about. Come home everyday, come home from work and talk about the box office," she joked, "It's so not a part of our consciousness, we are equally supportive of each other."

Where the heck is Suri Cruise? My cynical opinion -- Tom wants to out do Brad.

So here's my theory. Brad and Angelina got around $4 mil for the first pics of Shiloh, which they donated to charity. The word on the street is that Tom and Katie couldn't get more than $3 million for Suri pics. When you're as big as Tom Cruise, the only place to go is down. He was the biggest star in the world for a long time, loved by all. Now he's neither the biggest nor loved that much.

So forget about the conspiracy theories. People just weren't as into Suri pics as Shiloh pics, and it probably drove Tom nuts. But wait -- there's a solution. Create a mystery and the world will go crazy. That's exactly what I think is going on. If people start questioning if this baby really exists, the pictures automatically become more valuable. If he gets more than $4 mil, he beats Brad. I'm guessing if that happens, the money goes to Scientology, which could make the whole plan backfire.

First Batman returned with "Batman Begins" then Superman flys into the action with, well, "Superman Returns." Now it's time for the original tormented man in a cape to rise from the grave as Universal Pictures has decided to resurrect Dracula from his slumber.

The studio has optioned a script entitled "Dracula Year Zero." It turns out everyone gets a fresh start-- including Vlad the Impaler who returns in a tragic dark love story.

While no production date has been slated, TMZ is curious who will fill Bela Lugosi's shoes in the title role.

Sure, it 2006, and it's a branded entertainment universe. We get it.

But some deals just plain turn our stomach.

Take today's LA Times coverage of Team Baby, a company that until very recently only made "sports booster videos for newborns and toddlers to watch alongside their cheering parents."

For now, we'll leave aside whether or not the state should come and take the child of any parent that makes their pre-verbal pupae absorb team sports propaganda before they can even walk, let alone express a preference for Pampers over Huggies. Instead, we'll focus on the most recent abomination in parenting: The recent arrival of Michael Eisner and today's just-announced Team Baby deal-making that really makes us feel queasy. You see, now, Team Baby is linking up with NASCAR, amongst other franchise team sports, presumably so your not-yet-motile moppet can can mourn alongside you when Dale Earnhardt, Jr. or some-such plows into the wall at turn two at Talledega.

Sure, per the Times, "... the NASCAR educational videos will focus on the primary colors of the cars, the shapes of the wheels to teach the concept of a circle and on the pit crews to demonstrate team work." But CEO Greg Scheinman also admits, "The cars do crash; we can't sugar coat that. [But]...we won't have beer ads. There is an M&M car, but we are not selling the candy. It's just a really, really nice, fun, painted car."

Uh, well in that case, sure. The fact that our kid's first words might be "Winston Lights" or "Mopar" is just fine with us - just as long as it's not "Peanut M&M."

Ick.

We just got off the phone with one of our Deep Throats, and said Throat shared with us some juicy gossip about Deep River, the production company based at Paramount Pictures and responsible for flicks like "The Honeymooners" and "Laws of Attraction." Namely, it's coming to a fork, and will split in two this fall.

Deep River was, of course, created by some very Deep Pockets: Those of the founder of sub-prime lending company The Money Store, Marc Turtletaub, who wanted to become (and did) a highbrow movie producer, and the purse-strings of long-time movie maker David Friendly, the guiding force behind popcorn movies like "Dr. Doolittle" and "Big Momma's House," and this year's sequel.

The issue, our insider tells TMZ, is that Turtletaub wants to continue financing cheapie indie movies, like this year's $8 million Sundance Film Festival favorite, "Little Miss Sunshine," and last year's adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer's "Everything is Illuminated," while Friendly wants to keep making bigger, broader studio films.

Indeed, Turtletaub may well be onto something: "Sunshine" sold to Fox Searchlight this year for $10.5 million, and is widely expected to mop up Oscar nominations for a hefty cast of pros like Alan Arkin, Toni Collete, Greg Kinnear and the red-hot Steve Carell. You can expect more of these kinds of movies from Turtletaub: We hear his new company, yet to make a deal with a studio, is to be called "Big Beach." No word yet on whether either Friendly or Turtletaub will be staying put at Paramount via a first-look deal, but clearly, all studios are looking to for any excuse to trim their rolls - even if your name is Tom Cruise.

Variety today says as much - but something we reported weeks ago: It's what-have-you-done-for-me-lately time at Sony, Paramount - anywhere, really.

A Hollywood screenwriter is suing pretty much everyone involved with "Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl," the first installment of the now record-breaking "Pirates" series.

Royce Mathew claims in the 80s and 90s, he "created and wrote a number of original works including drawings, screenplays, outlines, blueprints, storyboards and other original materials...which he generally entitled "SNPM," standing for 'Super Natural Pirate Movie.'"

According to the lawsuit, obtained by TMZ and filed in United States District Court, Central District of California, Royce alleges he created "various drawings depicting his pirate ship, which he named the Black Pearl, and an original design for a 'medallion,' both of which are are central elements of his screenplay." Royce says he registered the drawings and his screenplay with the U.S. Copyright Office.

Royce says the screenplay contained a blacksmith/swordsman named Will Turner, an eccentric pirate captain and a unique cursed crew whose curse was revealed only in the moonlight. Royce claims the daughter of a British governor named Elizabeth falls in love with Will Turner. In "Pirates of the Caribbean," Orlando Bloom plays Will Turner and Keira Knightley plays Elizabeth Swann, who falls in love with Will Turner.

In "You, Me and Dupree" Owen Wilson once again plays the uninvited guest, only instead of crashing weddings this time he's a really annoying guy crashing on a friend's couch.

Wilson plays Dupree and told reporters at the Hollywood premiere of the film last night that there's definitely a little bit of his character in him.

"I think for my older brother I was a little bit of a Dupree when he was first married. Sometimes they would even try to lock me out to get some privacy. One time I had to go in to get some clothes and I ended up going through the crawl space and falling through the ceilings. That didn't help the marriage."

Will Hollywood blockbuster budgets continue to fly "up, up and away?" Not necessarily.

At least, not at Warner Bros. Pictures. After a $225 million "Pirates of the Caribbean" sailed into port, taking the wind out of "Superman Returns'" $205 million Spandex, Warner Bros. executives are said to be circumspect as to whether the Man of Steel will fly again.

Talent agency insiders with ties to the film tell TMZ that Warner Bros. Pictures president and COO Alan Horn has informed agents that a sequel hinges on whether grosses of "Superman Returns" can crest the $200 million mark domestically. What's more, the studio plans to shave millions - many millions - off any "Superman" sequel's budget. (Amusingly, in the current "Superman Returns," Lois Lane pleads with Lex Luthor, "But millions will die! " It turns out she was right on the money.)

As Variety's box office guru Ben Fritz noted last July 4th, "Superman Returns is off to a strong start, albeit not as fast as a speeding bullet. Warner Bros. superhero tent pole grossed a solid $52.5 million on its opening weekend and $74 million over the five-day Fourth of July frame. Since its Wednesday opening, the Bryan Singer-helmed franchise restart has taken in $106 million."

Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards confirmed Monday what everybody already knew: He will join Johnny Depp in the next "Pirates of the Caribbean" film.

"As far as I know I believe I'm doing a week or so in September. That's the story that's what I'm told by the newspapers, that's what Johnny says so yeah...It suddenly answered the question as to why he [Depp] paid for all those dinners." Richards will play the father to Captain Jack Sparrow in the third film, "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End."

Sienna Miller has a new trend -- she's hot for her leading men.

While she was filming "Factory Girl" last month, she was rumored to be hooking up with "Factory" leading man, Hayden Christensen.

And now this month she's filming a new movie, so you know what that means ... new man!

Click to see more pics

Captain Jack Sparrow and his band of scurvy dogs sailed into theatres this weekend and invaded the box office for a record $132 million -- even if they didn't manage to plunder many plaudits from the critics.

In fact, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" proved once again this summer that taking a beating from the critics only heightens the chance that a movie's going to open big. For instance, one of moviedom's most influential critics, Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwarzbaum, put the smackdown on "Pirates," calling it "a hellish contraption into which a ticket holder is strapped, overstimulated but unsatisfied, and unable to disengage until the operator releases the restraining harness." Schwarzbaum gave the film a dismal D+ -- and look what happened.

Captain Jack Sparrow and his shipmates have plundered the Death Star and the "Star Wars" empire, and now they're heading full sail at Spider-Man and the truly valuable booty: the all-time biggest weekend movie opening ever.

"Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" took in $55.5 million at the box office on Friday, setting a record for the largest one-day take ever.

Captain Jack Sparrow himself was bestowed the highest honor of achievement by the Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe. Depp was presented the Grand Medaille de Vermeil last night, an award given to those who demonstrate devotion to the city.

"The country itself, the city itself has been very kind to me. It introduced me to my beautiful girl Vanessa, gave me two beautiful kids - doesn't get better than that," said a proud Depp, who came to the premiere with girlfriend Vanessa Paradis.

The presentation was made at the French premiere of his new film, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" and co-star Orlando Bloom had only good things to say about his co-star.

"Johnny is a guy who sort of has a lot of integrity, he's an actor who's doing his work and he's focused on the work and developing characters and he's courageous with it. It's as simple as that."

The Oscar-nominated actor has traded his "Hustle & Flow" Jerry Curl for swim trunks in his new film about a 1970s era coach of a swim team for troubled teens.

Taking on the role of Jim Ellis in "Pride" required Howard to whip himself into shape, losing nearly 30 pounds to get into character. "This is the first time I really had to train for a project..I had to learn how to swim, to be in a competitive state," says the actor of his training.

It wasn't all boot camp though, especially with co-star's Bernie Mac's presence keeping things light on the set.

"Every Friday he hosted a party at one of the local bars for the whole staff," Howard says of Mac, but the perks don't stop there, "and a masseuse come every Friday to take care of the crew and all of that and as a result people are applauding."