After returning to the Fast & the Furious franchise it had looked like Vin Diesel was going back to the XXX franchise as well, but that has all changed. 

An article on Cinefools.com says that Vinny has pulled out of XXX: The Return of Xander Cage.  I would think this will be very bad as it follows on the heels of original director Rob Cohen (The Fast & the Furious, XXX) pulling out as well and little known filmmaker Ericson Cole stepping in. 

Details for Diesel’s departure have not been released.  What does this mean for the XXX franchise?  I, personally, have seen XXX nor it’s Ice Cube sequel.  I suppose they could go ahead with another actor.  What do you think?  Should they bother and would it make any money anyway?

Update: Breathe easy folks, it looks like this rumour has been debunked.

Good news for history buffs as Robert Redford’s next directing gig will start shooting this week and he has rounded out an impressive cast.

According to Variety, the Conspirator, which is about the aftermath of the Abraham Lincoln assassination, will star James McAvoy, Robin Wright Penn, Tom Wilkenson, Evan Rachel Wood, Alexis Bledel, and Kevin Kline.

Wright Penn plays Mary Surratt, the only female charged in the conspiracy to kill the president, and McAvoy plays Frederick Aiken, the war hero assigned to defend her. Wilkinson will play Reverdy Johnson, the former attorney general who as a U.S. senator is the mentor to the young lawyer and sympathetic to Surratt. Wood plays Surratt’s daughter, Anna, and Kline plays Lincoln’s War Secretary Edwin Stanton. Bledel plays Aiken’s wife, Sarah Weston.

No word if there will be any flashback scenes with Lincoln and his killer John Wilkes Booth or if they will mention that Abe Lincoln  ranked number one in U.S. Presidents with awesome facial hair and facial warts.  The Conspirator will hit theatres in 2010.

Apparently, I’m all about the Chris Pine news this week.

It’s been 7 years since we’ve seen CIA analyst Jack Ryan on the big screen, but our wait may finally be over.  Variety is reporting that Paramount is in talks with Mr. James T. Kirk to reboot the franchise based on Tom Clancy’s novels.

Although talks have just started, it is expected that Pine will sign up.  The studio and producers are working with a new, original script by Hossein Amini (Four Feathers, Killshot).

It’s still pretty early and it’s unsure if the franchise will get going before or after Pine stars in the next Star Trek film.  Pine would be the fourth actor to play Jack Ryan behind Ben Affleck, Harrison Ford and my personal favourite Alec Baldwin.

Are you pining (hardy har har) for a new Jack Ryan film?

It’s a sad day in the entertainment world as one of it’s most colourful characters has passed away.  ‘Captain’ Lou Albano was 76.  

While some know him from his starring role opposite John Ritter in the 1992 hit film Stay Tuned and his many appearances as Mario in the Super Mario Brothers Super Show, others may know him from his portrayal of Cyndi Lauper’s Dad in the videos for ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’, ‘She Bop’ and ‘The Goonies R Good Enough’.  I, for one, will always remember him as one of the greatest wrestling personalities of all time.

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After working with Shia LaBeouf for a couple of films, D.J. Caruso could be set to helm a new film starring another young Hollywood hot shot, Chris Pine.

Variety reports that Paramount Pictures is trying to round the two of them up to begin production early next year on The Art of Making Money.  It’s the story of a fellow named Art Williams who was a small time thief who became an expert counterfeiter.

The film is based on a true story and can be found in the pages of the book titled The Art of Making Money: The Story of a Master Counterfeiter by Jason Kersten.

Pine, who is currently starring with Denzel Washington in Tony Scott’s Unstoppable, would play Art Williams. 

Caruso most recently directed Eagle Eye and Disturbia.

You know, for a multi-million dollar company Playboy makes some odd decisions.  With the recent weird Marge Simpson cover to the news we get from In Touch Weekly magazine that Hollywood mess Tara Reid will be appearing in their pages. 

Apparently, she did a photo shoot this month. 

I doubt we’ll see it anytime soon as the scars from that odd boob job and her botched liposuction are going to take a very long time to hide.

Is the world ready to see this girl in the buff?  Do we want to?

You can catch the American Pie actress fully clothed in the upcoming comedy Last Call later this year.

According to our friends over at WENN.com , when Al Pacino was a struggling actor in his youth back in Sicily, the future Carlito’s Way star traded sex for room and board.  Hoo-ah!

Back in 1960, he went home to his native land after dropping out of school to pursue his dream of acting.  A gossip column in the New York Post said he decided to sell his body to keep a roof over his head.

Al Pacino said “At 20, I lived in Sicily by selling the only asset I had – my body.  An older woman traded food and housing in return for sex.  I woke mornings not really loving myself.”

Fantastic.  What celebrity would you shelter in return for sex?  This could be a new weekly poll. Let’s keep it clean though, folks.

In another story of actors wanting to become musicians or musicians wanting to become actors, here comes the tale of Ryan Gosling and his band Dead Man’s Bones.  According to Jam!, my favourite cast member of Breaker High has decided to take a few months off from acting and focus on music.

I suppose he’s earned the chance to do this.  With superb acting performances in The Believer and Half Nelson maybe he can translate that into music.  If you haven’t heard much from his band check this out.  Not much in the way of actual music videos from the band, but you can get a good idea of what they’re about.

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I have to say that this year’s edition of TIFF and the city of Toronto as a whole made me much less angry than it usually does.  Good work, city of Toronto.

However, I did get hit by a car.  News at 11.

Friday afternoon brought me back to the Ryerson theatre for a screening of the new Drew Barrymore film Whip It.  Although, the roller derby scenes were fantastic, the rest of the film left something to be desired.  Read the ol’ review here. 

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Whip It
Directed by Drew Barrymore
Starring: Ellen Page, Marcia Gay Harden, Kristen Wiig, Drew Barrymore, Juliette Lewis, Eve, Jimmy Fallon, Daniel Stern, and Zoe Bell

Whip It stars Ellen Page as Bliss, a bored Texas teenager who feels the need to escape her small hometown, her meaningless waitress job and the beauty pageants that her mother wishes she would take more seriously. On a shopping trip to nearby Austin, Bliss spots some roller derby girls delivering flyers for their upcoming games.  The derby girls are covered in tattoos and piercings.  They wear short skits, high socks (oh yeah) or fishnets.  Bliss likes the style, grabs a flyer and heads home.  

With her best friend in tow, Bliss heads to the game and is introduced to a hard-hitting, take-no-prisoners sport for women.  She meets some players Smashlee Simpson (Barrymore), Rosa Sparks (Eve), Iron Maven (Lewis), Bloody Holly (Bell) and Maggie Mayhem (Wiig), who invites Bliss to try out for the team next week.  Bliss makes the Hurl Scouts team and begins attending practices and games all the while keeping it from her debutante mother (Harden) and oafy father (Stern).

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It has became a bit of a tradition for me to completely blow off a screening at least once a year.  Last year, it was the 4 hour Che.  Well, I didn’t disappoint myself and when I woke up Thursday morning, I decided that it was time.  So, see you later Kamui.  It pained me to ditch a ninja movie, but after 11 movies and 2 wrestling events in 6 days, I was a mess.  Physically and mentally.

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Vengeance
Directed by Johnnie To
Starring: Johnny Hallyday, Anthony Wong, Lam Ka Tung, Lam Suet and Simon Yam

For those that have read my TIFF reviews and updates over the past few years, you may remember me mentioning a director by the name of Johnnie To.  Not only is he a great action director in Hong Kong, but I think he’s one of the best ever in the world.  There’s something to his style that I just love, so you can imagine how happy I was that his latest film Vengeance came to TIFF.

Vengeance is the story of an older man with a failing memory named Costello (Hallyday) whose daughter is in a hospital struggling to survive, while her Chinese husband and their two kids lay dead after a gang hit.  Who wanted them dead and why?   Costello is immediately warned by police to stay out of the way and let them do their jobs.  He crosses paths with some hitmen and hires them to find the ones responsible for hurting his daughter.

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