Movie News

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Depicting an awkward romance between two young misfits set in the backdrop of a traveling carnival, "Splinterheads" mainly comes across as a low-rent version of "Adventureland." Although Brant Sersen's comedy, which opened Friday (November 6), has amusing moments, they come too far between to elevate the film above the standard indie level of quirkiness for its own sake.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Joe Jackson, the elderly father of late pop star Michael Jackson, on Friday filed a court petition seeking an allowance from the singer's estate, saying his son had supported him for many years.

WARWICK, R.I. - Two-time Oscar-nominated actor James Woods has sued a Rhode Island hospital over the 2006 death of his younger brother.

NEW YORK - Broadway has found its Spider-Man — rock singer Reeve Carney.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Matthew Broderick says he's puzzled by the bashing he's received for his actions during the first New York preview of "The Starry Messenger," a new play by good friend Kenneth Lonergan.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. And judging by what's in theaters this holiday movie season, his name is George Clooney.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Isla Fisher is eyeing "Desperados," a feature comedy described as a female-oriented "Hangover."

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter)- British rocker Dave Stewart of Eurythmics fame will team with Oscar winner A.R. Rahman ("Slumdog Millionaire") to write the score for "Street Dancing," an against-all-odds movie set in the world of dance competitions held in Singapore and New York.

NEW ORLEANS - Actors Tom Hanks, Patricia Clarkson and James Cromwell walked the red carpet Thursday before a private screening of the Hanks-produced war film "Beyond All Boundaries" held at the World War II Museum in New Orleans.

LAS VEGAS - A 19-year-old woman was the driving force behind a youthful burglary ring that preyed on Hollywood's rich and famous, often brazenly walking into unlocked homes to make off with cash, jewels and family heirlooms, authorities said.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The holiday season starts early this weekend, as Disney opens director Robert Zemeckis' 3D animated feature "A Christmas Carol."

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Oscar-winner Morgan Freeman has settled a lawsuit involving a female passenger traveling in his car when it crashed last year, the woman's lawyer confirmed Friday.

TOKYO (Hollywood Reporter) - A priest's son embarks on a path of sin and panty photography motivated by confession-compulsion in "Love Exposure."

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Ashley Greene is going from vampires to ghosts.

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Hal Holbrook continues his late-career renaissance, begun so vividly with his Oscar-nominated turn in "Into the Wild," with this elegiac drama about an octogenarian who still has a lot of fight left in him.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Dan Aykroyd and Anna Faris are in negotiations to star in "Yogi Bear," a live-action/animated feature take on the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon.

JACKSON, Miss. - Morgan Freeman has settled a lawsuit related to a 2008 car accident that seriously injured him and a passenger, according to court records posted Thursday. Terms of the settlement were not released.

LOS ANGELES - Lou Filippo, a World Boxing Hall of Famer who judged 85 world champion fights and had small roles in the "Rocky" movies, has died. He was 83.

The picture is getting prettier for real-big-screen company Imax.

BEIJING (Hollywood Reporter) - Rupert Murdoch's wife is among the producers of "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan," an English-language Chinese drama starring Zhang Ziyi, perhaps the country's most exportable actress.

NEW YORK - Mo'Nique likes to laugh. A lot.

Los Angeles - Two of Tinseltown's best-looking stars lit up the red carpet on Wednesday night, Nov. 4, in Hollywood, as Charlize Theron and Viggo Mortensen brought their long-anticipated film "The Road" to the AFI Fest at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Based on the 2006 Cormac McCarthy novel, the film's release date has been juggled around for more than a year, but it will finally arrive just in time for Thanksgiving.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - John C. Reilly and Mary-Louise Parker are in negotiations to join Bruce Willis in the thriller "Red."

Capsule reviews of films opening this week:

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) He may not be a household name in the United States, but Michael Fassbender is fast becoming one of the hottest young stars in Hollywood.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Call it higher fidelity.

LOS ANGELES - Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival is going on the road for one night next winter.

Cameron Diaz and James Marsden have a terrible moral dilemma in Richard Kelly's "The Box": Press a button on a mysterious container, they'll get $1 million, and someone they don't know will die.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Sundance Film Festival organizers on Wednesday unveiled plans for a one-night expansion of January's event to theaters in eight U.S. cities, hoping to encourage a discussion about the role art and cinema play in people's lives.