News: Julia Roberts

We haven’t seen much of Julia Roberts since 2004’s disappointing Ocean’s Twelve, with this week’s Charlotte’s Web featuring merely her voice as the titular spider, following her earlier voice work on the animated The Ant Bully last year. If you’re a fan of the tabloids you’ll doubtless know why – she gave birth to twins in November 2004, and is currently expecting another child, due in the summer.

Nonetheless, she found time amidst all the pregnancies and childcare to star alongside Tom Hanks and Philip Seymour Hoffman in what looks set to be a pretty major movie (as if the three stars – with nine Oscar nominations between them – aren’t indication enough…). Charlie Wilson’s War is due out in December in the States, just in time to qualify for the 2008 Oscars, and it’s a pretty likely contender for a slew of big nominations. Directed by the rather good Mike Nichols (with five Oscar nominations under his belt), who directed Roberts in 2004’s Closer, it is based on the true story of Texas Congressman Charles Wilson (Hanks) who, soon after the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan, was the man who realised that the United States needed to get subtly involved in the conflict. The upshot? The funding of covert CIA operations and training of local tribesmen – including a number of Islamic fundamentalists who would go on to form a little group by the name of Al-Qaeda. Topical, political, and plenty of scope for epic storytelling. It has Oscar written all over it.

The only other film Roberts has in the works is The Friday Night Knitting Club, a rather more low-key affair, based on the novel by Katie Jacobs about a group of women who make friends in a knitting shop in New York. Roberts is the only name currently attached – though whether it will happen now she’s pregnant again is anyone’s guess.

News: Robert Redford

Veteran screen icon Redford hasn’t been showing so much of his usual good taste in picking his roles of late, with his turn as a horse in this week’s Charlotte’s Web not quite what you’d expect from the Sundance Kid.

Next up he’ll be returning to directing for the first time since 2000’s cheesy disappointment that was The Legend of Bagger Vance with another typically Redford schmaltz-fest along the lines of his earlier The Horse Whisperer and The River Runs Through It, in which he’ll also star. Aloft follows a couple of men who track a peregrine falcon across America, so looks to be more of the same.

This is the man who’s pretty much single-handedly responsible for the success of the Sundance Film Festival, for God’s sake, and so in turn for the careers of the likes of Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh, Jim Jarmusch and Kevin Smith – he should know quality when he sees it, so why hasn’t he directed a decent film since 1994’s excellent Quiz Show?

Well, with any luck, his other upcoming directorial project, Lions For Lambs, could finally indicate that he’s got his film sense back. He’ll again star – alongside Tom Cruise (in his comeback flick after the world decided he was certifiably potty) and Meryl Streep – though this time the material looks both far more interesting andfar more promising, set as it is around the events in modern day Afghanistan, and how they have impacted on United States society. It could well prove to be the first major War on Terror-era movie to join the “Vietnam Vet” genre, of which the impressive likes of The Deer Hunter and Tom Cruise’s best film Born On The Fourth Of July are but two of the most well-known. It’d be nice to see Redford do well again at any rate – even if a side-effect would be the revival of Cruise’s career…

News: Dakota Fanning

The Shirley Temple of the early 21st century continues to ascend as the main human character in this week’s Charlotte’s Web. It’s an instantly recognisable name even if you can’t place her typically cutesy child star face – she was Tom Cruise’s daughter in War of the Worlds, and has also starred alongside Denzel Washington in Man On Fire since her breakthrough role as Sean Penn’s daughter in 2001’s I Am Sam. Not a bad list of co-stars for a twelve-year-old…

Next up she’ll be going dramatic again, taking the lead in Hounddog as a troubled teenager who escapes from the world via the music of Elvis Presley – and featuring one particular scene that has been the cause of much tabloid outrage and controversy, considering Fanning’s age.

After that she’ll lend her voice talents to the lead character in Coraline, based on the children’s novel by cult comic book writer Neil Gaiman, about a girl who discovers a portal to another world. Teri Hatcher, Ian McShane and Jennifer Saunders fill out the cast.

Finally it’s back to yet more deep drama with The Secret Life of Bees, exploring racism and bereavement in the 1960s Deep South. She looks to be going for an Oscar, this one. But does she have the talent? Unsurprisingly, at her age it’s rather too early to tell…

News: Steve Buscemi

Everyone loves Steve Buscemi, one of the oddest-looking and quirkiest character actors in Hollywood, and he’s ideally cast as the voice of a rat in this week’s Charlotte’s Web. Hey, everyone’s got to pay the bills, right?

Next up it’s a return to directing for Buscemi – who’s put in some impressive, low-key efforts with his directorial efforts to date – for Interview. This time he actually could have hit on something that’s not only interesting for its own sake, as his indy-tinged outings have all been to date, but could also have the potential to make some money. Buscemi himself stars as a fading political journalist, forced to go and interview the hottest soap star of the moment – played by our very own rising starlet Sienna Miller (who looks all set to do a post-Tom Cruise Nicole Kidman and prove amply to the world that she’s not just the bit of stuff on the arm of a pretty-boy actor). It’s just played at Sundance, and is getting rave reviews so far.

Then its back to his usual small part in Adam Sandler’s latest, I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry (Buscemi’s been in six Sandler films to date, and has generally been the best thing in all of them), before getting to take the lead for a change in stoner comedy We’re The Millers, as an aging pot dealer who decides that all he needs for his last big score is a pretend wife and kids and a motor home. Finally, he’ll be once again lending his distinctive voice to a somewhat ugly character in the animation Igor – although oddly not the hunchback assistant to John Cleese’s mad professor of the title, as that part’s being taken on by the somewhat less vocally dextrous Christian Slater. But still, might be fun, and is due at some point in 2008.

News: John Cleese

The former Python seems to be steering clear of the camera lense for the next couple of years, with this week’s Charlotte’s Web the first of three films in which only his distinctive voice, rather than his equally-recognisable face, will appear.

Next up he’ll reprise his role as the pompous King Harold in the much-anticipated Shrek the Third (due 29th June in the UK), alongside pretty much all the cast of the last two. Then he’ll be re-teaming with his Charlotte’s Web co-star Steve Buscemi to voice the potty professor Dr Glinkenstein in animated comedy Igor, due 2008.

Also coming up is a writing project, with Cleese co-scripting the prehistoric comedy Crood Awakening, all revolving around the discovery of fire. It was originally planned to be produced as a stop-motion effort by Wallace & Grommit’s Aardman Animations but, since Aardman and US animation studio Dreamworks parted company after the release of the collaborative effort Flushed Away, it looks rather like it might end up being CGI instead. Either way, it’s not expected until at least 2010, by which time Cleese will be happily in to his seventies.

News: Kathy Bates

Bates may still be best known for her Oscar-winning turn as a raving spycho in 1990’s Misery, but she crops up in all kinds of films, as her outing as Bitsy the Cow in this week’s Charlotte’s Web demonstrates amply.

Come the end of the year she’ll be cropping up in two more movies where voice work’s all important, with Jerry Seinfeld’s much-anticipated The Bee Movie being followed by the decidedly less anticipated “musical family adventure comedy” Christmas Is Here Again. But – just to make sure no one thinks she’s getting lazy – she’s also going to be cropping up in the decidedly less cheesy Vince Vaughn / Paul Giamatti comedy Fred Claus around the same time.

Then its a switch back away from comedy for P.S. I Love You, with Hilary Swank as a young widow whose husband has left her messages to help her cope with his death, before some heavy-duty drama in First Comes Love, set amidst the 1980s AIDS epidemic. But still, that’s not due until late 2008 – a long time to wait for a dramatic performance from one of the most subtle dramatic actresses currently working. Nonetheless, considering Hollywood’s sexist ageism, the fact that an actress in her fifties can manage to have so many films on the go is pretty impressive…

News; Oprah Winfrey

It’s been pretty easy to forget that chat show queen Oprah is an actress – not least because this week’s Charlotte’s Web is her first big screen outing since 1998’s Beloved, and her first acting turn full stop since 1999’s direct to video Our Friend, Martin. It always takes a few seconds to remember that she received an Oscar nomination for her acting debut in 1986’s harrowing The Color Purple.

Still, although she may have another film in the works, it doesn’t look like fans of daytime TV need worry that she’s going to abandon them just yet. It looks to be merely a small voice cameo in Jerry Seinfeld’s upcoming animated comedy The Bee Movie – and I doubt yet get odds worth bothering with if you were to bet that she’ll be playing herself.

Still no sign of her running for President, though…

News: Cedric the Entertainer

Comedian Cedric hasn’t especially lived up to his self-adopted title in most of his cinematic outings to date, and this week’s Charlotte’s Web is hardly an exception – though considering the calibre of the rest of the cast this is hardly surprising.

Should it ever get a release on this side of the pond, his next outing will be the apparently dire Code Name: The Cleaner, where he plays a man with amnesia who ends up thinking he’s a spy. Then he’ll crop up in a smallish role in the decidedly more promising Talk To Me, alonside Martin Sheen, Don Cheadle and Chiwetel Ejiofor, based on the life of 1960s radio and TV personality Ralph “Petey” Greene (Cheadle), before reprising his voice role as Maurice the Lemur in Madigascar 2, before heading off for the famly musical Caught On Tape, about a boy with a video camera who starts spying on his mother’s dodgy boyfriend.

Not much chance of any real entertainment from Cedric any time soon, in other words…