Australian actor Eric Bana is to star in a movie adaptation of Audrey Niffnegger's novel The Time Traveler's Wife, it was reported on Wednesday.
Bana, the star of Munich and The Hulk, will play a Chicago librarian who is affected by a gene that causes him to hurtle backwards and forwards through time involuntarily, The Hollywood Reporter reported.
Canadian actress Rachel McAdams of the Wedding Crashers and The Family Stone fame, will co-star as Bana's love interest, the report said.
Meanwhile, two-time Academy Award nominee Edward Norton will play scientist-turned-superhero Bruce Banner in a new movie version of The Incredible Hulk, Marvel Entertainment said on Monday.
The new movie is based on the comic book series telling of the exploits of Banner, a scientist who transforms into a giant green brute.
Norton, 37, is among Hollywood's most versatile actors, having appeared in more than 20 films including American History X and Primal Fear, both of which earned him Oscar nominations for acting. For the most part, his roles have been in dramas such as last year's The Illusionist, making his choice to portray a comic book hero a novel idea.
"His ability to transform into a particular role makes him the ideal choice to take on the character of Bruce Banner/The Hulk," said Kevin Feige, president of production at Marvel Studios.
The Incredible Hulk will be directed by Louis Leterrier, a Frenchman whose previous films include the action adventure The Transporter. The new movie is expected to be in theaters by June 2008, and will be distributed by Universal Pictures.
Universal, owned by General Electric, and Marvel teamed up in 2003 to produce and distribute Hulk, which was directed by Ang Lee (李安).
His version of Hulk raked in US$245 million at global box offices, but the amount was deemed to be a modest sum given its high expectations and budget of nearly US$140 million.
The stars and the director of Spider-Man 3 gave no clear clues on Tuesday whether Sony's money-spinning superhero would return to the screen in a fourth adventure, but fans got a glimmer of hope from Kirsten Dunst.
Asked how her character — Peter Parker's love interest, Mary Jane Watson — had developed in the latest film, Dunst told a news conference: "I admire her bravery and she's always been a challenging character for me.
"I think this last film — not the last film, but the third film — has really been a culmination of that growth of family," she said, referring to the cast.
"It's really apparent on the screen because of all the hard work we've put into it," said Dunst, dressed in a black turtleneck and pleated knee-length skirt.
In a nod to the importance of the revenue-boosting international market, Spider-Man 3 premiered in Tokyo on Monday. It will debut globally on May 4.
Tobey Maguire, who plays Parker in the action series, and director Sam Raimi were also at the packed news conference, but no reporters got a chance to ask the question on every fan's mind: will there be a fourth movie?
Entertainment Weekly magazine on Monday cited Raimi as confirming a long-held Hollywood rumor he might direct a movie version of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit if Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson is not eventually hired.
Dunst separately told the magazine that a Spider-Man 4 without Raimi, herself and Maguire would be "disrespectful to the whole team" and would be a big flop.
Hollywood is banking that good things really do come in threes as it prepares to unleash an unprecedented series of blockbuster sequels on the summer box-office.
In a rare alignment of the tinseltown stars, three of the most profitable franchises in history release their long-awaited third instalments next month: Pirates of the Caribbean, Spider-Man and Shrek.
The trio of blockbuster follow-ups are part of a broader trend of summer sequels as Hollywood studios opt for tried and tested formulas on the basis that "if ain't broke, don't fix it."
"Somebody counted it and said there were 14 sequels this summer," Lew Harris, the editor of the respected movies.com Web site. "This is absolutely the summer of the sequels."
As well as Pirates, Spider-Man and Shrek, a number of other successful films of recent years were readying sequels, with a fifth instalment of the money-spinning Harry Potter based on J.K. Rowling's books heading the field.
George Clooney and Brad Pitt will return for crime-caper Ocean's 13, while Matt Damon is reprising his role as assassin Jason Bourne for a third time in The Bourne Ultimatum.
Other sequels include Bruce Willis action movie Die Hard 4 (Live Free and Die Hard), Fantastic Four, Evan Almighty and Hostel 2.
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless
Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s