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: Rachel Weisz

After this week’s odd sci-fi, The Fountain, Weisz’s turn in the comedy/romance Definitely, Maybe, written and directed by the writer of Bridget Jones 2 and Wimbledon will come as a bit of a break. But then it’s back to the experimental, with a role in cult director Wong Kar-Wai’s My Blueberry Nights, starring Norah Jones as a woman taking a road trip across the US, and co-starring the likes of Jude Law, Tim Roth, Natalie Portman and Ed Harris. She’ll be teaming up with Wong Kar-Wai again in 2008 for a remake of Orson Welles’ classic The Lady From Shanghai, with Weisz set to take the Rita Hayworth role.

Before that, though, it’s back to comedy, with a part in the Paul Giamatti and Vince Vaughan-starring festive bit of fun Fred Claus, due Christmas 2007, as well as another return to Africa following Weisz’s superb, Oscar-winning turn in The Constant Gardener. This time it’ll be a period piece, with Weisz playing the object of Colin Firth’s affections in the 19th century historical drama The Colossus,covering the final years of Cecil Rhodes’ regime in what is now Zimbabwe. Sir Ian McKellen will take on the role of the imperial hero/scoundrel.

News: Rachel Weisz

Brit lovely Rachel Weisz is just one of the big names in this week’s kids’ fantasy Eragon, though she’s only on voice duties. We’ll soon be seeing a lot more of her, however, with a number of big parts in big movies due over the next weeks, months and years.

Due in January, after a perhaps appropriately insanely long wait, is oddball director Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain – a much-delayed, hugely ambitious sci-fi/fantasy romance spanning 1,000 years and three separate, if linked, storylines revolving around Hugh Jackman’s efforts to find Weisz, his one true love. It has been slated at least as much as praised by those who have seen it so far, so could prove interesting.

Then will come more standard fare, with Weisz’s turn in the comedy/romance Definitely, Maybe, written and directed by the writer of Bridget Jones 2 and Wimbledon. But then it’s back to the experimental, with a role in cult director Wong Kar-Wai’s My Blueberry Nights, starring Norah Jones as a woman taking a road trip across the US, and co-starring the likes of Jude Law, Tim Roth, Natalie Portman and Ed Harris. She’ll be teaming up with Wong Kar-Wai again in 2008 for a remake of Orson Welles’ classic The Lady From Shanghai, with Weisz set to take the Rita Hayworth role.

Before that, though, it’s back to comedy, with a part in the Paul Giamatti and Vince Vaughan-starring festive bit of fun Fred Claus, due Christmas 2007, as well as another return to Africa following Weisz’s superb, Oscar-winning turn in The Constant Gardener. This time it’ll be a period piece, with Weisz playing the object of Colin Firth’s affections in the 19th century historical drama The Colossus,covering the final years of Cecil Rhodes’ regime in what is now Zimbabwe. Sir Ian McKellen will take on the role of the imperial hero/scoundrel.

News: Judi Dench

The veteran Dame, who celebrates her 72nd birthday on 9th December, may well be the only major Bond cast member retained fromthe Brosnan years in this week’s Casino Royale, but let’s face it, she’s been a star for so long that she’d hardly be fussed even if they had decided to drop her.

Other than the next film in the series, the as-yet untitled Bond 22, she will be returning to work with Iris director Richard Eyre for Notes on a Scandal, set for release in the UK on 7th February 2007. Dench plays a teacher drawn to the new Art mistress at her school, played by the excellent Cate Blanchett, who gets swiftly entrapped in a web of illicit love, lies and deceit. She is also rumoured to be appearing in the next film from Shanghai Knights and The Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin, Fred Claus – unsurprisingly due Christmas 2007. Starring Paul Giamatti as Santa Claus and Vince Vaughan as his good-for-nothing brother Joe, it could well turn out to be a fun festive treat – though quite what part Dame judi will have in the proceedings is anyone’s guess.

News: Sean Penn

Politically active Penn, playing the populist demagogue Willie Stark in this week’s All the King’s Men, at the start of October again hit the headlines in the US for yet another outspoken attack on President Bush. In a statement read out by his King’s Men co-star Mark Ruffalo at a meeting subtly entitled “World Can’t Wait—Drive Out the Bush Regime”, Penn – who visited Iraq in December 2002, prior to the US-led invasion – lambasted “the arrogant, the misguided, and the cowards [who] argue that an immediate pull-out of our troops from Iraq would inspire lack of confidence and the lost credibility of the United States.” Supporters of Bush were once again, unsurprisingly, a tad miffed.

In terms of film work, Penn has only one acting project in the pipeline. Due out in 2008, In Search of Captain Zero will see him play a surfer and former drug-runner who heads off on a road-trip through Central America to find a long-lost buddy with whom to share his dream of an “endless summer”. Could be a return to Penn’s breakout stoner role in the 80s classic Fast Times at Ridgemount High, but with the Central American setting and Penn’s involvement, it’s pretty much guaranteed there’s going to be some critique of US policy in the region.

Penn is currently trying out his skills behind the camera again with Into the Wild, a self-penned adaptation of a 1997 book based on a true story about a university who suddenly gave up all his possessions, hitchhiked to Alaska and lived in a school bus in the forbidding wilderness. He’s got some decent talent on board, with Lords of Dogtown star Emile Hirsch in the lead role and the likes of Vince Vaughn and Catherine Keener in support. Could be worth keeping an eye on.