But I hope non-“Twilight” fans will get out to see “The Blind Side.” It’s a thoughtful, inspiring movie based on the real-life book by Michael Lewis titled “The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game.”

It’s about a homeless, oversized, uneducated teenager named Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) who’s taken in by a wealthy woman named Leigh Anne Touhy (Sandra Bullock) and her family. As it turns out, Michael has a talent for football and ends up doing well in the sport – thanks to Leigh Anne’s guidance and inspiration.

It’s directed by John Lee Hancock and also stars Tim McGraw and Kathy Bates. “The Blind Side” is rated PG-13 for one scene involving brief violence, drug and sexual references. Watch the trailer and see what you think.

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Check out the trailer here, and a behind-the-scenes clip here. Here’s more from MTV: Ellen Page talking about what her roller derby name would be.

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Directed and written by Kristopher Belman, "More Than a Game" includes one-on-one interviews, rare news footage, home videos, and personal family photographs.

It’s rated PG for brief mild language and incidental smoking, and also features Dru Joyce, Romeo Travis, Sian Cotton, and Willie McGee.

Check out the official site, and watch the trailer below.

Image: Lionsgate Films

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That’s what happened with “Moneyball” a baseball drama being directed by Soderbergh and starring Brad Pitt (pictured, at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival in May 2009).

The cast and crew were prepped to start shooting this week, but Columbia pulled the plug; co-chair Amy Pascal says she wasn’t comfortable with the script, which has changed a lot since the project was greenlit.

You have to wonder just what major changes were made to the script that Columbia would shut it down. The screenplay, adapted from Michael Lewis’ nonfiction book, follows the Oakland Athletics and their general manager Billy Beane, who assembled a contending ballclub despite a payroll much lower than most teams.

Pitt and comedian Demetri Martin had been cast, with other roles going to actual baseball players David Justice, Darryl Strawberry, Lenny Dykstra and others. 

So what will happen now? Over the weekend, Soderbergh shopped the project to Warner Bros. and Paramount. If neither bites, it could go back to Columbia with some major overhauls.

Image: INF

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Read on to learn more about Papajohn’s pivotal role in helping Peter Parker become Spider-Man, what it’s like to duke it out with Bruce Willis, and his roles in some of the hottest movies this year, including “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” “Terminator Salvation,” “Land of the Lost,” “G-Force,” and “Old Dogs.” Oh, and why he just might have to kill me!

Jane: You were drafted by the Texas Rangers in 1985, but chose instead to attend Louisiana State University on a baseball scholarship, playing starting center-fielder on the first LSU team to go to the College World Series in 1986 and 1987. What was it like going from the world of sports to the world of film and TV, doing stunts and acting? “Long strange trip” keeps popping into my head, but you’ve really had an awesome, interesting career.

Michael: I remember when I would make a great defensive play or have a great at bat in baseball, I would get a high. Then when I had an opportunity to do stunts, I got that same high on the set. When I had my first acting class, I was in a scene and the situation my character was in felt so real to me, and I got the same high. Right then, I knew I wanted to be an actor.

Jane: Your first movie was as a stunt double for Dennis Quaid in 1988’s “Everybody’s All-American.” Had you thought about working in the film and TV industry prior to that?

Michael: That was my first film experience. It was a life-changing event. Not only did I double Dennis Quaid, I also got to work with some of the top Hollywood stunt men in the business.  That film experience, “Everybody’s All American,” led me to my first speaking line with John Goodman, which then lead to my getting a SAG card, which lead to my close connection to the director, Taylor Hackford, who really encouraged me to pursue this as a career.

Jane: You played the pivotal role of “the carjacker” in 2002’s “Spider-Man.” What’s it like being the character who ultimately led Peter Parker to become Spider-Man? (And I think this applies to your character, too: “With great power comes great responsibility.”

Michael: It was awesome playing that part. The director, Sam Raimi, had me in mind for the part because he knew me from our work on “For Love of The Game.” It was really exciting playing that character. I remember being on the set for the first day. I was so nervous, and I remember doing my first rehearsal in front of the camera and hearing Sam Raimi yelling from across the set from his director’s chair, “Papajohn, I’m so excited you’re playing this role.” It made me feel great, but I was still a bit nervous, so I just used that edge for the character.

Jane: You have some amazing movies coming up this year: “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” “Terminator Salvation,” “Land of the Lost,” “G-Force,” and “Old Dogs.” Are you like the hardest working guy in show biz or what? Do you ever sleep?

Michael: I really enjoy working hard. The whole business excites me. Being an actor/filmmaker, I love the atmosphere on a set. It feels like family. Hey, I only die in one out of the four films, so that’s pretty exciting. Who needs sleep?

Jane: You’re the Lead Stunt Double in “Old Dogs,” but have acting roles in the rest of those films. Are you moving out of stunt work and doing more acting (because I would imagine stunt guys eventually have to move into something else, right? Before the body completely breaks down?)

Michael: When I was working on “The Waterboy,” stunt doubling Adam Sandler, I knew on that set that I really wanted to start focusing more on my acting. I just knew in my heart that I wanted to go more into the acting direction. I still enjoy stunt work, and I just worked on “Old Dogs” with John Travolta as his stunt double for select scenes, and that was great. So, I enjoy stunt work when it involves playing a role.

Jane: Tell us about your role in “Terminator Salvation.” Do you have scenes with Christian Bale? I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask: Is he as intense in person as he always seems on-screen?

Michael: I can’t tell you if I have scenes with him, because I’d have to kill you… As far as him being intense, when he first walked in the make-up trailer, that was the first time I actually saw him on set. He was in full wardrobe, and I said to myself… Man, he’s ready to go to war!

Jane: Talk a little about “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.” How does your character of Cal play into the storyline?

Michael: I was excited to play that role because there was such a great back-story coming in. Megan Fox talks a lot about my character in the previous film, so in this film … well … all I can say is … we have a very, very close relationship.

Jane: “G-Force” looks like the cutest movie ever made, and you play an FBI Techie in that movie. Seems like quite the genre switch for you after doing mainly action flicks. How did your role in G-Force come about? Is it considered an action film?

Michael: It’s a Bruckheimer film, so trust me, there will be action. As far as a genre switch, it was refreshing. I got to play a good guy. I didn’t kill anyone or get killed.

Jane: You did stunts in “Live Free or Die Hard.” Please tell me you were involved in the stunt where Bruce Willis jumped out of the semi and ended up on the top of the fighter jet. That was an awesome stunt! Was it mainly computer-generated, and if not, how the heck was it filmed?

Michael: I actually had an acting part in the film. I wasn’t in that particular scene, but I went toe to toe with Bruce Willis. So it was just me and Bruce Willis in an intense fight scene, and I had the best of him until he shot me in the foot and then four times in the chest, so I guess he got the best of me.

Jane: I see where Bruce Willis has three action films coming up. Did he have his bones injected with adamantium like Wolverine, and if not, how does he keep doing these intense action flicks?

Michael: I loved working with Bruce Willis. He’s intense and professional and always had the crew laughing.

Jane: What’s it like for you as a stunt guy, going to work every day knowing you could end up with broken bones or a head injury or something? I mean, it must take a certain kind of person to do that work year in and year out.

Michael: Having an athletic background … you prepare … you show up … and do your job the best you can. When I’m working I always remember what Bear Bryant used to say, “Expect the unexpected.”

Jane: What’s the most dangerous stunt you’ve ever done?

Michael: The most dangerous stunt I ever did was on “The Waterboy” doubling Adam Sandler. I was sitting on top of an air-boat, going 30 – 40 mph on a lake, I hit land and the boat went air born with me holding onto the arm of the chair and no seat belt. I almost lost my grip, flying off it. Thankfully, I was able to hold on. But that was a close one.

Jane: What’s the most difficult stunt you’ve ever done?

Michael: In “Spider-Man,” when I trip out the window backwards to my death, I couldn’t look where I was falling. I just had to trust that I would fall on the pad correctly. That was a tough but great scene.

Jane: What’s the stunt you WISH you’d never done?

Michael: My first commercial in Los Angeles. It was hot in the valley that day, and I was doubling an actor wearing a fat suit. I ran into a goal post head first, 29 times. After 13 times I couldn’t count anymore, but I told the wardrobe guy to count for me, because every time I’d hit the goal post, they would pay me $100. And the director was yelling at me from his tall tower through a megaphone, “Use your head more!!!”  It got so bad — I was overheating, two black eyes, head swollen — that the head guy from the wardrobe department stopped everything, checked my blood pressure, and then yelled out to the set, “It’s a wrap!!!” That’s the first set I’ve been on where wardrobe called “wrap.”

Jane: And I must ask about ending up in the emergency room after being kicked by Cameron Diaz in stiletto boots while filming “Charlie’s Angels.” How did you explain that to the docs and domestic violence people there, and does Cameron still send you flowers on the anniversary of the event? (If not, she should!)

Michael: Cameron Diaz is off the hook. This was actually a fake leg and fake foot with a stiletto shoe on it for close ups that caused the trip to the ER. Once the ER staff got the true story about the shoot schedule (1 AM) they realized I wasn’t drunk, just tired from a night shoot.

Jane: Anything else you’d like to add?

Michael: When I first worked with the director, McG on “Charlie’s Angels,” right before the first take he came up to me and said, “Hey Papajohn, have fun, film lasts forever.” I’ve never forgotten that, and when I saw him again in New Mexico on the set of “Terminator Salvation,” I told him how much that thought stays with me.

Michael Papajohn and Chris Rock in “The Longest Yard”

Michael Papajohn in “The Longest Yard”

Michael Papajohn and Arnold Schwarzenegger in “Eraser”

Photos: Michael Papajohn; Buena Vista Pictures; Paramount Pictures; Columbia Pictures

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"The Blindside" is based on a novel by Michael Lewis, "The Blind Side: Evolution of the Game," and tells the true story of football player Michael Oher (projected to be one of the first players in this year’s NFL draft). Oher grew up homeless, but was taken in by a white family who encouraged him to aim high. 

Bullock will play Leigh Anne Touhy, the wealthy matriarch of the conservative household that takes him in. It’s directed and written by John Lee Hancock.

Bullock’s other films this year include "All About Steve" and "The Proposal," and four others in the next few years, including "The Expendables," Sylvester Stallone’s mercenary film.

What do you think about this? I’m excited to see Sandra Bullock back on the scene, because I love her work.

Image: Sony Pictures, 2007

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I saw "The Wrestler" with my 14-year-old son (I don’t recommend it, though – too much sex), and without knowing anything about the storyline, he thought it was a documentary. That’s how good Mickey Rourke is in this role. He’s not just playing a broken down shell of a man who’s all alone. He actually IS that man. So I’m guessing when he thanked his dogs in his Golden Globe speech — "sometimes all a man’s got is his dogs" — he knew what he was talking about.

And watching the movie, it’s hard to imagine anyone else in this role. They couldn’t have cast some pretty boy who’s at the top of his game. It just wouldn’t have been authentic. So … kudos to whomever cast Mickey Rourke in "The Wrestler." Well done.

The story follows Rourke’s character, Randy "The Ram" Robinson. He’s an old wrestler who should have retired years ago. But it’s all he knows, so he spends his days doing matches in gym auditoriums for fans who’ve followed him for years.

Randy is beaten and broken down, both emotionally and physically, surviving on a diet of pills and injections, but still spending money to get his long hair bleached and his body tanned. When he’s not getting pummeled in the ring – and I mean pummeled – he hangs out at a seedy strip club and tries to make time with an exotic dancer named Pam a.k.a. Cassidy (Marisa Tomei). She’s trying to move on with her life, and just not sure she wants to get involved with this mess of a guy. But you get the feeling she sees something gentle underneath his grizzled exterior.

Randy also has an estranged daughter, Stephanie, he hasn’t seen in years, played by Evan Rachel Wood. He truly wants to have some sort of relationship with this girl, but his fumbled attempts aren’t helping much.

"The Wrestler" is one of those movies that sucks you in and makes you feel for all these characters. They’re all in rough shape, one way or another. It’s really a character study, more than a movie with a defined plot. The main plot revolves around Randy’s pathetic existence and his relationships, with side-plots involving a heart attack he suffers after a particularly rough match, and a possible re-match with a famed wrestler he took on 20 years ago.

But even though his life is pathetic, he keeps on trying, takes a minimum wage job in a store and ends up working, of all places, in the deli department. I kept telling my son, yeah, I’d love to buy sliced ham and potato salad from this guy.

The R rating is spot on. My son was fine with it, because he’s a budding filmmaker who sees a lot of movies that might be too intense for other kids. But there’s lots of wrestling violence – including several REALLY bloody scenes – and several scenes of nudity in the strip club, as well as one outright sex scene.

In summary, "The Wrestler" is a great character study with all the right actors in their roles and authentic settings. As my son says, it seems like a documentary about a broken down guy, and it sort of is in a way.

The only reason I didn’t give it five geckos is because I thought the ending was kind of a throw-away. It seemed like a commercial ending, and didn’t seem true to the movie.

What about you? Did you like "The Wrestler"? Did the ending seem true to you, and not too commercial?

Images: TM and copyright, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. All Rights Reserved.

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I saw a picture of Mickey Rourke at the Venice Film Festival this year and have to say, he looked pretty darn tough. Now Page Six is reporting that he nearly took his own life in a gory murder-suicide. Even wrote a heart-wrenching note to his estranged wife, Carre Otis.

“I was about to commit two mortal sins,” Rourke, who’s set for a big comeback in “The Wrestler,” tells Steve Garbarino in next month’s Maxim. Before killing himself, he planned to snuff out “a guy who raped Carré when she was on heroin and beat her up.”

Rourke dropped the idea after visiting Father Pete Colapietro, a longtime pal. “He admitted he had [bleep]ed up his relationship with his wife,” Colapietro says. “[He had] a letter he’d written to Carré – a note of a conciliatory nature. I told him, ‘Let’s fold it up and put it behind the statue of St. Jude.’”

The pair then retired to the rectory to drink wine, smoke and work through Rourke’s problems. Geez…that’s pretty intense!

More after the jump…

He also talked up his dogs, including one named Loki who travels everywhere with him. “She’s like a giant Xanax, you know? I’m not going to get religious on your ass, but I truly believe God created dogs for a cause. They are the greatest companions a man could ever have.” He adds: “My bed’s never empty.”

And apparently, neither is his bedroom, stocked with sex toys and a stripper pole. He said, “I’m waiting for the right girl to come in and [I'll] say, ‘You wanna see something?’”

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Gecko Rating:

© 2008 Universal Studios National Football League Blogcast, NFL Blogcast

by David Kindervater, Every Morning Quarterback

“The Express” is more than just another football story. It’s also a civil rights history lesson. Roughly ten years before my time in America, one young black man became a symbol for a country struggling to move past its long-held views on people of color. His unprecedented journey unfolded as he shattered not only sports records, but also perceptions of what was possible for an African-American at the time. His name was Ernie Davis, but his fans knew him better as “The Elmira Express.”

More after the jump…

Based on a true story, “The Express,” which I was invited to a special advance screening of earlier this week, follows the extraordinary life of college football star Ernie Davis (played brilliantly by Rob Brown), the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy, college football’s highest individual honor. His quiet (and I emphasize quiet because Ernie was a polite gentleman) fight for equality and respect forever changed the face of the game of football. And his civil rights story continues to inspire new generations. President John F. Kennedy said of Ernie: “He was an outstanding young man of great character who served — and my hope is, will continue to serve — as an inspiration to the young people of this country.”

 
© 2008 Universal Studios

Under the guidance of legendary Syracuse University football coach Ben Schwartzwalder (”no stranger to football movies” actor Dennis Quaid handles the role masterfully), Ernie is a raw talent who needs guidance. Coach Schwartzwalder provides the disciplinarian coaching, but does his own share of learning from Ernie as he watches his incredible story unfold.

Despite nurturing three All-American black football players on his teams, coach Schwartzwalder was not exactly a poster child for civil rights, and he kept himself distanced from the black players. Ernie would change not only a culture, he would change his head football coach and ease their social and racial differences.

Ernie Davis was a black man at a college where there were maybe two other black men playing football. It was a time of racial segregation. But if you went down to play football against colleges in the south (as Ernie would do in MVP fashion at the 1959 Cotton Bowl in Dallas), there were no black players. Even water fountains were separate — one for whites and one for blacks.

As much as I have known a time like this existed, it still registers as unfathomable to me. But Ernie’s was a great story in this time. He could live in the black world and the white world pretty seamlessly. He didn’t threaten people. He had a gift of getting along with everyone — a kind of peacemaker. But the south sure didn’t want him playing football in their stadiums. Racist fans would scream their protests and throw beer cans in disgust.
© 2008 Universal Studios

I found it interesting that “The Express” was shot primarily in and around Chicago. A total of seven different stadiums were used to represent the 12 in the movie. The end result is 1960s Syracuse — its stadiums and its architecture. The attention to period film details is impressive. In fact, take a close look at coach Schwartzwalder’s desk. The little pint milk carton from the university and the Saltine Warrior Bank add a regional flavor to the movie.

You’ll also notice distinct “visual acts” to the film — from quasi black-and-white, to vibrant colors, to an almost bleach-bypass type of approach with extreme contrasts. It’s impressive. So are the older materials and styles of the football jerseys. There are no Nike or Under Armour logos.

Ernie would never make it beyond college football. We already know his ending so there aren’t any surprises here. Sadly, he would die from complications due to acute myelogenous leukemia before he would ever play a down of professional football. What an amazing NFL player Ernie would’ve been. As tragic as that is, thankfully his important contributions to society and the game of football will be remembered forever.

This is an important movie that can serve as an education and inspiration for all people — no matter who you are or where you’re from in life. It’s also a movie about accepting yourself no matter who you are. What Ernie Davis came to understand was that he could find meaning — even in a short life — and make a big contribution outside of that. We can learn a lot from Ernie’s story.

Click here to check out the trailer.

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My friend and her son saw this the other day, and she said it’s a great movie, but you’d better bring a whole box of Kleenex. A real tear-jerker!

It tells the true story of Ernie Davis (Rob Brown), who overcame many obstacles to get into Syracuse University’s football program. Under the guidance of Coach Ben Schwartzwalder (Dennis Quaid), Davis became one of the school’s best players, even surpassing Jim Brown’s achievements. In 1961 Davis became the first black player to win the Heisman Trophy, but that’s not the end of this story…

More after the jump, including a trailer…

Directed by Gary Fleder, this movie is rated PG for thematic content, violence and language involving racism, and for brief sensuality. Runtime is 129 minutes. In theaters Oct. 10, 2008.

Trailer:

Image: The Express, Universal Pictures, 2008

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