Movies

UPDATED 11/1/06...

Hi-Ho, Silver!

Casey Silver, that is.

TMZ has learned that the former Universal Pictures president cum producer is on the verge of drawing a bead on a new Western called"Godless", with Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes ("Jarhead") directing. A spokeswoman for Mendes confirms the project is "one of several he's developing" but noted the film could not begin work on any new film project until next year.

Based on a script by Scott Frank (himself Oscar-nominated for Universal's 1999 crime drama, "Out of Sight"), "Godless" follows a mysterious stranger who's taken in by a widow and her son. When the law catches up with the enigmatic interloper, he turns himself in, but soon enough his old - and rather violent - compadres come looking for him.

TMZ hears offers have also been made to Sean Penn and Joaquin Phoenix to star, but it's unclear if their reps will commence negotiations for the project anytime soon.

If the plot to "Godless" sounds a might familiar, it ought to. It sounds more than a little similar to the upcoming James Mangold ("Walk the Line") remake of "3:10 to Yuma," a classic horse opera from novelist Elmore Leonard. In Lionsgate's "Yuma," as was first reported here, a desperado is apprehended by the local sheriff, but soon after, his gang comes looking for him, too.

No worries about the market becoming besotted with Westerns, however. "Godless" isn't scheduled to begin shooting until May of next year, around the time that "Yuma" should be ready to hit theaters with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale starring.

Bosworth was spotted walking with male model James Rousseau in New York's West Village on Monday.

Kate and her beautiful stranger seemed to be smitten with each other as they gazed into each other's sunglass-covered eyes.

Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore may be a superstar couple, but that doesn't make them bulletproof when it comes to bad criticism.

The lovebirds were attacked by the boobirds at the premiere of Kutcher's new film "Open Season," after pulling a fast one on the green carpet. Instead of stopping for press, the couple, along with Demi's daughter Tallulah Belle, scampered past the invited media, leaving the everyone high and dry ... and without the money shot they all came to get. Fearing they'd go home with only a Martin Lawrence interview, the press let the couple have it.

However, all was forgotten moments later, when Ashton appeased his critics by heroically returning to the green carpet after dropping off his wife and step-daughter.

The upcoming "Black Snake Moan" starring Samuel L. Jackson, Justin Timberlake and Christina Ricci has taken an unsual approach in promoting the film.

Paramount Vantage has created a contest that challenges fans to download artwork and audio from the film and create a trailer for the new movie. The winner gets a trip to the Sundance Film festival.

Set in Tennessee, the southern gothic film chronicles a tale of rage and love when ex-blues guitarist Lazarus (Samuel L. Jackson) discovers Rae (Christina Ricci) beaten nearly to death along side the road. Lazarus decides to cure Rae, a woman known for her insatiable desire for sex, of what he thinks are her wicked ways. All the while Rae's true love Ronnie (Justin Timberlake), who is supposed to be headed to Iraq, goes looking for her.

With a tale like that, folks are sure to come up with some interesting ideas for the trailer.

Diddy learned a lesson in humility Monday, after a taping of "TRL."

Diddy was planning to beat a hasty retreat after his appearance, only to be stopped at the door. Turns out, law enforcement was out in full force in front of the MTV building in Times Square. To people on the outside, it looked like the traffic control was for Diddy. But no, the commotion was caused by a secretary.

Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State herself, was coming to the MTV building for an interview. Secret Service and cops, some armed with M-16 rifles, watched attentively as Condi made her way inside. The Secretary, who was wearing a bright red dress, stopped traffic -- literally! And all Diddy could do was wait.

The ceremonial flight was attended by 3,000 guests and given a final farewell by aviators, mechanics, and guests. The jet joined the Navy fleet in 1972 and was used to defend U.S. aircraft carriers from Soviet bombers.

Interesingly, the F-14 is now a household name because of the hugely successful movie, but the flying antics by Maverick (Tom Cruise), and his rival Iceman (Val Kilmer) is what put the Tomcat into Hollywood history. Recently, the plane has used as a pet name for Tom and his fiancée Katie Holmes -- TomKat.

On September 25, 1969 in Swansea, Wales Catherine Zeta-Jones was being delivered from her mother's womb into the world. On that same day, her husband Michael Douglas was celebrating his 25th birthday.

On Sunday, Michael and Catherine commemorated the eve of their shared birthdays by having dinner at London's Wolseley Restaurant.

Monday also marked an extra special day for Michael because besides turning 62, he is now eligible to start receiving his federal retirement benefits. Obviously, Catherine still has a ways to go as she's only 37.

While there's no word on how the duo will spend their day, one thing's for sure, with 99 candles between them, they're going to need one mighty large cake.

The first screenings of Mel Gibson's new movie "Apocalypto" weren't in New York or Los Angeles -- they were in Oklahoma. And, despite the fact that these were the big debut screenings for the film, Mel and his crew didn't exactly roll out the red carpet.

At a screening on Friday, at a casino in Goldsby, Okla., reporters were kept behind partitions. At another screening, at Cameron University on Thursday, Gibson showed up wearing a mask and wig. Not only that, but his Oklahoma-based publicist had said last week that the Oklahoma screenings had been cancelled -- probably to throw reporters off the scent. We all know the kinds of trouble Mel's been through lately, but he might be taking things to an extreme here. "Apocalypto," which is schduled for release on Dec. 8, is set in the last days of Mayan civilization in Mexico.

The upcoming documentary "Deliver Us From Evil" will be released without a rating, after its trailer -- which makes reference to specific acts of child molestation by a priest and shows that priest watching children on a playground -- was given a "redband," or restricted, rating by the Motion Picture Association of America.

"Deliver Us" examines the child-molestation scandal that scarred the Catholic Church, and hones in particularly on the story of Father Oliver O'Grady, the northern California priest who has admitted (and does so on camera in the film) that he sexually abused numerous children over the course of 30 years. In the trailer, O'Grady talks about feeling "aroused" by the sight of children naked and in their underwear, and specifically mentions one incident with a victim.

The MPAA told Lionsgate, the film's distributor, that "the content is adult in nature, with overt comments about child molestation throughout," according to the Hollywood Reporter. And with its red-band rating, the organization, in effect if not by edict, excluded the trailer from playing in most theaters, which usually won't screen trailers with the tag.

Thus, Lionsgate has decided to release the film on October 13 without a rating. Says Lionsgate president Tom Ortenberg, "We're not looking to pick a fight with anybody...We owe it to our filmmaker, Amy Berg, and to the film to do whatever we can to get this movie seen."

The streets were filled with screaming fans outside the Chinese Theater in Hollywood for the premiere of "Jackass Number 2". Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Dunn, Preston Lacey, Bam Margera and even Bam's parents were all in attendance to celebrate the premiere of the boy's second feature film.

The classic theme from the James Bond films is ready to be 'Shaken and Stirred.'

DJ AM is teaming up with Smirnoff Vodka and new Bond film "Casino Royale" for a contest looking for the best remix of 007's iconic score. The winner will receive DJ equipment and the chance to open for AM at a Vegas nightclub.

"This contest will give aspiring DJs and musicians an opportunity to put their own spin on one of music's most iconic songs," said DJ AM. "As a long time Bond fan, I'm psyched to be a part of this contest and am looking forward to hearing and judging the final entries."

Wannabe DJs can download the theme song on the Smirnoff website. The entries will be judged on originality, creativity and artistic style. Online entries will be accepted until October 13, mail-in entries through October 17.

Stay tuned to TMZ for the winner!

A 69-year-old talking about sex is usually a little creepy. But when that 69-year-old is Jack Nicholson, we're all ears.

Nicholson is on the cover of the latest issue of Rolling Stone talking about his dating habits (he can't remember the word "monogamous"), his lack of protection (he claims to have never bought a condom) and his sexual partners (he says they have ranged in age from 21 to 69 in the last year).

"I do like company when I have it. That's always exhilarating," he told the mag. "I'm unattached for quite a while so I have varied company."

With Jackass Number 2 about to unleash it's vulgar fury on the world, we here at TMZ thought it would be appropriate to commemorate the momentous occasion with our own little Jackass montage, courtesy (of course) of our friend and Jackass alumni turned Wild Boy, Steve-O.

At any given moment you can find Steve-O acting crazy, spilling celeb dirt or even promoting the use of marijuana in order to prolong his 15 minutes of fame. All the while, TMZ has been there to catch it all. Here's our ode to Jackass and Steve-O.

Breaking News: Here's a thought. Try working for an actual Hollywood patron before you next kvetch about the stress of working on your overseer's cubicle plantation.

They might work for companies with obscure names, like Clyde is Hungry, or Saturn Films, but if we told you their bosses' names, you'd get it immediately: Saturn, of course, is Nicolas Cage's production company, run by Norm Golightly. Type A Films might not mean anything to you, but in Hollywood, you're talking about Reese Witherspoon's production company, headed by Jennifer Simpson.

And, of course, there's Bradford Simpson, who until today was the head of Leonardo DiCaprio's Warner Bros.-based production company, Appian Way.

Simpson is a well-regarded guy, who was lured to Hollywood after working as the head of production of the doyenne of indie film, Christine Vachon, and her New York-based Killer Films.

Having relocated, Simpson was charged with finding those quirky, interesting movies that the studios just don't usually make anymore for leading men with a brain. (He'd previously served as an associate producer on Kim Peirce's "Boys Don't Cry" and a co-producer on Todd Haynes excellent "Far From Heaven.") Appian made headlines over the summer by developing a movie for Leo about acid guru Timothy Leary, hiring playwright Craig Lucas ("The Dying Gaul") and Leary archivist Michael Horowitz to develop the screenplay. But part of the problem was that that deal came about because of Leo's dad, George, the underground comic book guru and longtime friend of Leary's. In short, lots of interesting stuff is in development, but little has come to fruition under Simpson.

Who's at fault for this?

That's a little more complicated.

In four years, DiCaprio has made three pictures with one director: Martin Scorsese. His next film, "Blood Diamonds" for director Ed Zwick ("The Last Samurai") was something that Zwick and Warners had kicked around for years - not an Appian Way production at all. But it would be a little unfair to call DiCaprio a capitalist pig only interested in big paydays: Leo cut his fee substantially on three of his last four pictures to make them happen.

On the other hand, superstars' producing partners also have to gingerly negotiate some tricky waters every day: Get close to your star, and interest them in doing your homegrown projects, but not so close that you threaten the agents and managers who make such a fine living putting the big star into big paydays. ("Blood Diamonds" is said to have cost Warner Bros. some $100 million.) It can make getting things done challenging to say the least.

It's not clear whether Simpson sensed he was about to be pushed out by Leo's team for not making rain, or tired of waiting for Leo to become available, but one thing appear for certain: Now Brad's become "The Departed."

For two decades, Father Oliver O' Grady, by his own admission, molested scores of boys and girls in various parishes in California, becoming one of the most notorious pedophiles amongst the priests defrocked in the scandal that rocked the Catholic Church. A powerful new documentary tells O'Grady's story, and suggests that while his crimes were monstrous, the alleged cover-up perpetrated by the church was truly unforgivable.

"Deliver Us From Evil" tells the story of how the Catholic Church moved O'Grady from parish to parish in order to avoid liability and deflect criticism. Internal church documents prove that, beginning in 1973, Church superiors knew of O'Grady's actions and lied to parishioners and local law enforcement to protect him.

Some of the most remarkable moments of the film are the interviews with O'Grady himself. His dispassionate account of the hundreds of children he molested is disturbing enough; combined with the stories told by the survivors, filmmaker Amy Berg creates a moving, powerful, and unforgettable narrative. A never-before-seen taped deposition given by Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony and his former second-in-command Monsignor James Cain is also featured in the film.

The documentary has a limited release on October 13th and goes wide October 27th.

British actor Rupert Everett has admitted to being sperm-free.

Everett tells London's Daily Telegraph this is a result of being on alopecia (baldness) medication."I don't have any sperm left. If I stop taking the pills, all my hair will fall out, but I would rather have hair than sperm." What a choice!

Rupert is plugging his autobiography, "Red Carpet and Other Banana Skins," in which he makes some provocative comments on some of Hollywood's biggest stars.

Besides admitting to having a heterosexual affair with Susan Sarandon, the out and proud actor portrays his "My Best Friend's Wedding" co-star Julia Roberts as skittish and says Sharon Stone has become "unhinged." "Sharon Stone is an extraordinary character, extremely intelligent, totally controlling, really fun but...unhinged. And that's kind of fabulous." Nice cover-up Rupe!

But you won't catch Everett saying negative things about his good friend Madonna. As to why she gets off easy in his book, Everett says "Well. We all have authority figures." And her Madgesty appreciates it.

Rupert is even harsh on himself and believes that as he reaches closer to turning 50, "Now no one wants me."