Emily Rossum (Mystic River, The Day After Tomorrow) has joined the cast of Stephen Chow's live-action film adaptation of the ultra-popular Dragonball manga. Chow has scored recent box office success with his genre-bending comedies, Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle.

Rossum joins Eriko Tamura (Heroes) and Korean pop star Joon Park in the cast. (Park will also appear in Warner Bros.' upcoming Speed Racer big-screen adaptation.)

 

James Wong (The X-Files, Final Destination) wrote the screenplay and will direct.

 

Dragonball is currently scheduled to release Aug. 15, 2008. 

 

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David A.R. White (Mercy Streets, The Moment After) is a busy writer, actor, and producer who has joined forces with his fellow leadership team colleagues at Pure Flix Entertainment to launch Outreach Cinema, a new venture that will put faith-based feature films (and everything needed to promote them) in the hands of churches to use as a community outreach tool. White serves as a member of the leadership team of Outreach Cinema.

 

The first film arrives Dec. 31 of this year: The Wager stars music legend Randy Travis, Nancy Stafford (Judging Amy, Matlock), Jude Ciccolella (24), Bronson Pinchot (Perfect Strangers), and Candace Cameron Bure (Full House) in a dramatic adaptation of Job's story, told in a modern-day Hollywood setting.

Infuzemag.com recently spoke to David about The Wager, Outreach Cinema, and the challenges of creating theatrical-quality films with a strong core of faith.

 

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The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced their Golden Globe nominations yesterday, veering from the critics association award trends somewhat  by showering Atonement with the most nominations, at seven. Charlie Wilson's War is second on the total list, with five.

Best Motion Picture -- Drama will come down to seven films: American Gangster, Atonement, Eastern Promises, The Great Debaters, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men, and There Will Be Blood. In the Best Motion Picture -- Comedy or Musical category, a diverse selection of nominees will vie for the prize: Across the Universe, Charlie Wilson's War, Hairspray, Juno, and Sweeney Todd.

A complete list of nominations is available here.

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I heard a rumor recently: Any film that makes over $200,000,000 in theaters automatically gets a sequel. Even if this were true, it still wouldn't explain the relentless onslaught of "2" movies this past summer, including Butterfly Effect 2, Bringing Down the House 2, The Hills Have Eyes 2, and the more subtly titled sequels Elizabeth: The Golden Age, 28 Weeks Later, and Evan Almighty. But this summer also saw the rise, or technically the fall, of at least four "3" movies: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Shrek the Third, Spiderman 3, and Rush Hour 3.

Disappointed and somewhat mystified audiences have the rest of the year to wonder what hit them. However, it is easy to see where these trilogies went wrong when you look at achievements like the Bourne series, which should be held as the standard for action films and "3" movies alike.

The Bourne Ultimatum is the capstone to a trilogy started in 2002, and stars Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, along with Joan Allen, Julia Stiles, and series newcomers David Strathairn and Scott Glenn. From film one, each Bourne installment has demanded a sequel, not driven merely by box office numbers but by sheer storytelling genius. In The Bourne Ultimatum, Director Paul Greengrass successfully transforms the final printed words of Robert Ludlum (the novel's late author) into an adrenaline-laced action masterpiece.

Before anyone ever sat down to adapt the 870-page Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the franchise already faced considerable challenges. Film franchises begin to tire once they reach their fifth installment. Many of the artists, writers, and designers who helped to tell a successful story in the beginning have started to check out, and creative endeavor splinters under the pressure to deliver another $100 million hit.

The immense popularity of the books, and some wise decisions on the part of Warner Bros., kept "the boy who lived" above water for four films. Steve Kloves, who adapted the first four films, had already proven an immense story could condense well onto film and still run under three hours. The Goblet of Fire, however, carried many visual elements that transitioned well to the screen. Phoenix -- a darker, longer, and much more cerebral tale -- does not.

After witnessing the death of a student and the return of Lord Voldemort last year, Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) ambles along the streets of Little Whinging to pass the summer days before he can return to school. Dementors interrupt his cousin Dudley's (Harry Melling) cruel taunts, propelling the boy wizard into another cauldron of trouble. Soon he's whisked into hiding by the Order of the Phoenix -- the underground resistance formed by Headmaster Dumbledore in the first years that Voldemort terrorized the wizarding world -- now reestablished to counter the looming threat of the Dark Lord's return.

It boggles my mind that there is no place on earth where life does not flourish, in some form. Volcanos? Yes. At the frigid bottom of icebergs? There, too. And everywhere in between, in terms of extremes of harsh environments.

It's in the Arctic Circle that the team behind the much-loved March of the Penguins follows the stories of two creatures in particular: a female polar bear eking out her survival, and a female walrus doing the same, each in her own milieu. We follow them from infancy to adulthood as they battle the unforgiving climes at the top of the world to survive and reproduce. And it is a fight every step of the way.

Narrated delightfully by Queen Latifah (who brings a very welcome warmth to the storytelling that should appeal to children especially), Arctic Tale features stunning photography and a sweet soundtrack (by Joby Talbot) that helps lighten the mood during the necessarily harder scenes of death and struggle.

 

After decades of being declared dead (except in Disney features, of course), the musical has returned to prominence thanks to Chicago, Rent, Phantom of the Opera, and Dreamgirls.

Those are all fine movies, but not exactly family-friendly fare. In the past three decades, the Grease franchise has been the only live-action film musical that appeals to all ages, and the new run of musicals leaves that demographic out in the cold.

Until now. With the release of Hairspray on DVD, a new musical that can be enjoyed by the entire family has arrived. Hairspray tells the story of a "big" girl who desperately wants to dance on a local television show, and yet finds that there are more important things in this world than temporary fame. It is a feel-good story with big dance numbers and incredible singing, couched in a story of fighting segregation.

The cast is first rate. John Travolta (Grease, Pulp Fiction, Wild Hogs) stars as Edna, Michelle Pfeiffer (Batman Returns, Fabulous Baker Boys) is the villainous Velma, and James Marsden (X-Men, Enchanted) takes on emcee duties as Corny Collins, the host of the dance show. Zac Efron (High School Musical) as Link the teen sensation, and Queen Latifah (Bringing Down the House, Chicago) shines as Motormouth Maybelle, the guest deejay on the dance show during the monthly "Negro day." But the standouts are newcomer Nikki Blonsky as Tracy Turnblad and Elijah Kelley as Seaweed.

In FOX Searchlight's Waitress, Keri Russell stars as Jenna Hunterton, a waitress (no surprises there) at a small town diner. Jenna is a talented pie baker, using her original concoctions to capture and express the highlights of her life, including everything from her mundane daily chores to her miserable marriage to Earl (Jeremy Sisto). When Jenna finds out she is pregnant, she is sure her dead-end life is doomed, and takes solace in the comfort of her encouraging friends Dawn (Adrienne Shelly, who also wrote and directed the film) and Becky (Cheryl Hines).

Jenna inevitably meets the town's new Ob-Gyn, Dr. Pommater (Nathan Fillion), and is taken aback by his charm and concern for her. Their relationship turns romantic, however, without reason or remorse. The doctor is also married, but like Jenna is searching for fulfillment through honest companionship either has yet to experience.

While Waitress could have taken this affair into a distasteful direction, the film maintained its integrity throughout the story and actually evoked sympathy -- without ever seeking to justify the wrongful actions of the characters.

The biggest challenge for the theatrical Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End was outdoing its prequels. While the movie did achieve this goal in terms of production budget, running time, and sheer density of special effects, it neglected the essentials -- story and character. Box office numbers argued the contrary, but many critics saw the film as the final nail in a coffin whose construction began in Pirates: Dead Man's Chest. As the conclusion of a widely successful trilogy, At World's End was not the kind of film to elicit responses like, "Save your money, just buy the DVD." It was, however, somewhat below audience expectations.

Taking its own history into account, the latest Pirates DVD has a clear purpose: to reveal director Gore Verbinski's original plan and vision for a film gone sadly astray. To his credit, this collection effectively conveys the passion and dedication that drove this film to completion in less than a year. While diehard fans will enjoy the bloopers and deleted scenes, there is something here for the cynic as well.