Actress Judi Dench says she's battling blindness

LONDON (AP) — Actress Judi Dench is battling to save her sight.

The James Bond star said in an interview published Saturday that she had been diagnosed with macular degeneration, an eye condition which can cause blindness, and that her eyesight was already so bad that she couldn't even read her own scripts.

The 77-year-old told the Daily Mirror that she was relying on friends and family to keep her up to speed with her lines.

"It's usually my daughter or my agent or a friend and actually I like that, because I sit there and imagine the story in my mind," she told the newspaper during an interview at a London hotel. "The most distressing thing is in a restaurant in the evening I can't see the person I'm having dinner with."

The Mirror didn't say exactly where or when the interview took place. Messages left for Dench's agent were not immediately returned Saturday.

Oscar Outrages: Best Actors

The category is best actor in a motion picture, not best actor in a relatively tame motion picture. In certain quarters, there's still more passion behind actors left off the best actor list — and those never even considered — than the five chosen candidates. "Shame," "The Devil's Double," and "Rampart" are not easy films — they are violent and sexual and divisive. But what performances!

Michael Fassbender
Often considered the sixth Oscar nominee, the one that was just shy of making the cut, Fassbender did the awards rounds for "Shame," getting the requisite number of jokes about his full-frontal nudity. Even Oscar nominee George Clooney made a crack about the star's endowment from the stage at the Golden Globes. While I may have misgivings about "Shame" as a whole (another conversation), I have none about Fassbender and his performance. And it doesn't stop there: his repressed Carl Jung in David Cronenberg's "A Dangerous Method" was pure, irony-free and considered in every movement.

Weekend Picks: ‘Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace,’ ‘Journey 2: The Mysterious Island,’ ‘Safe House,’ and ‘The Vow’

Last weekend, "Chronicle" put mind over matter and eked out a narrow box-office victory over Daniel Radcliffe's shriekfest, "The Woman in Black." Both flicks will need some supernatural services to stay ahead of the competition, as every film opening this weekend is a strong contender for the top spot.

Four major releases are going wide this weekend, offering a little something for nearly every type of moviegoer. From stunning special effects to unlikely love stories, from CIA master spies to Jedi Knights, no matter what you choose, you're sure to be taken on a fantastic journey. With so many super selections, we boil down the choices below and note the kinds of fans who will most enjoy each flick.
 
20th Century Fox'Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace'
Rated PG for sci-fi action/violence.

Diane Kruger Sparkles in Silver

Diane Kruger could look good in a burlap sack. So imagine what she looks like in a silver and sheer dress. Short answer: A lot better than just good.

The stunning star, 35, attended the Sidication Gala dinner in Paris on Thursday night and sent heads turning and cameras flashing while walking the red carpet. The asymmetrical gown by Erdem showed off Kruger's legs and arms. Style Bistro named the outfit its "Look of the Day." It was a bold choice, but, not surprisingly, Kruger pulled it off.

Indeed, Kruger has a history of making daring fashion moves. But she's not perfect. Some of her outfits have been more successful than others. E! Online called out Kruger for a recent ensemble (not the silver dress which is above reproach). And there was the time at the 2005 Golden Globes, when Kruger wore a tummy-bearing gown. As she put it in an interview with Stylist magazine, "Well, maybe that wasn't the right occasion for that dress."

But whatever she wears, you can be sure that she picked it out. In another interview with Stylist, Kruger said, "It's important for me to choose my own dresses, choose my own makeup. So often in Hollywood all these women have stylists and they all look the same."

AARP's best movie for grownups? "The Descendants"

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Add another accolade to the pile already collected by "The Descendants" this awards season: the Alexander Payne/George Clooney collaboration has been named Best Movie by AARP: The Magazine's 11th annual Movies for Grownups Awards.

During a ceremony at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on February 6, Glenn Close will be awarded the Best Actress award for "Albert Nobbs," and Oliver Litondo will be named Best Actor for "The First Grader."

Christopher Plummer nabbed Best Supporting Actor honors for "Beginners," Vanessa Redgrave was Best Supporting Actress for "Coriolanus" and Stephen Daldry got the Best Director award for "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close."

The awards ceremony, which honors outstanding acting, directing and writing of filmmakers 50 and over, will also include a Lifetime Achievement Award for Sharon Stone.

"AARP The Magazine is proud to celebrate movies that engage grownup audiences with challenging topics, thoughtful new approaches, and sterling work by actors, actresses, directors, and writers, all at the top of their games," editor Nancy Perry Graham said.

Action! Chuck Norris endorses Newt Gingrich

One day before the South Carolina primary, actor and martial arts extraordinaire Chuck Norris endorsed Newt Gingrich for president, saying he believes that Gingrich can both "return America to her glory days" and "outwit" President Obama.

We believe Newt's experience, leadership, knowledge, wisdom, faith and even humility to learn from his failures (personal and public) can return America to her glory days. And he is the best man left on the battlefield who is able to outwit, outplay and outlast Obama and his campaign machine.
...
If you're ready to keep fighting the good fight and once and for all restore our republic, then I invite you to join my wife, Gena, and I by endorsing, rallying behind and voting for Newt Gingrich as GOP nominee and then president of the United States.

By Chris Moody

Angelina Jolie’s Wild Awards-Season Past (news/articles)

The superstar Angelina Jolie will be heading once more to the Golden Globes as a nominee, this time for her directorial debut of her foreign-language film, "In the Land of Blood and Honey." But before she was a U.N. ambassador and mother of six, the Golden Globes winner caught notice for her wild streak.

Back in 1999, the actress won the Golden Globes award for best supporting actress for her title role in the HBO production of "Gia." The 24-year-old continued to make a splash, literally, at an afterparty by jumping into the Beverly Hills Hotel pool in her sparkling Randolph Duke gown -- and dragging a reporter in with her.

The native to Los Angeles later commented, "What's funny to me is that everyone wasn't jumping into the pool. It's one of those events, and the people in the room are supposed to be free and wild, but everyone is so tame and careful."

Nobody would accuse Jolie of being tame or careful in those days. In 2000, the actress scored a well-deserved Academy Award for best supporting actress for her performance in the film "Girl, Interrupted," and then things got weird.

She kissed her brother, James Haven, on the lips, and further shocked people with her acceptance speech, declaring herself to be "in love" with her sibling. Haven later called that moment "amazing." But he added, "It was totally misconstrued."

Don't expect any such behavior at the coming awards show. The 36-year-old, who has been with A-lister Brad Pitt for six years, said she knew things would change with the adoption of her first child: "I knew once I committed to Maddox, I would never be self-destructive again." She added, "Now I have five more [kids], so I have to behave."

'Man of Steel' Countdown – Will the REAL Superman Please Stand Up?

When Henry Cavill was first cast as Superman for the new film Man of Steel, there were a number of questions he simply couldn’t, and often still can’t, talk about. One of the most popular questions he had to dodge was “Who is the REAL character, Clark Kent or Superman.”  Of course, revealing the answer would have given away major plot points of the film. It may not sound like a big deal, but serious Superman fans can put together the things they hear and see to figure out aspects of the movie that the filmmakers would rather keep hidden until the release.

As a Superman fan, the second biggest question I’m regularly asked is, “Who is the real character?  Clark Kent or Superman?”  (The first is, “Who would win a fight, Batman or Superman?” And the third is “who would win a race, Flash or Superman?”)  Well, the answer is far more complicated than it sounds, but ultimately it depends on the continuity.

“And who, disguised as Clark Kent”

For the first half of Superman’s existence in the comics, the radio series, the George Reeves TV series and so on, Superman was the real guy.  He would disguise himself as Clark Kent with a pair of glasses and a suit so that he could work as a reporter at The Daily Planet, a major metropolitan newspaper. This was specifically to help him learn of threats and situations where his unique brand of help would be required. By working with a news engine, he would be among the first to hear when an alien invasion was taking place so he could take off as Superman, save the day, change back to Clark and hopefully get the story written before Lois could beat him to it.

What Were the Biggest "Flops" of the Year?

In movie terminology, a "flop" is a film that loses money -- usually a lot of it. I offer this somewhat obvious clarification because I often see people on the twitter using "flop" to describe a film generally accepted as terrible. And while we can all agree that Transformers 2 (and 3) (and probably 1) are all terrible films, they've each made a bajillion dollars. That's an actual figure. But thanks to The Hollywood Reporter, we can now point to about 15 flicks that fared pretty poorly at the box office.

As THR semi-explains, it's not nearly enough for a film's alleged budget to match its reported box office haul. When you consider the profit share with the exhibitors, the back-end deals, and the outrageous costs of "prints," advertising, and marketing, a film needs to "make" about 2.5 times its budget to break even. Yeah, it's a tough business. We'll save some of the surprises for the THR piece (it was their idea first), but here are a few relative surprises:

Green Lantern -- There were four big superhero movies last summer, and one was obviously bound to finish "last." THR puts the Green Lantern budget at $200 million, but that seems a rather low estimate, and the film has barely grossed $220 million worldwide. Here's hoping the sequel turns out a little less messy (I didn't hate this movie) and we focus a little less on the budget.

Cowboys & Aliens -- There are always a few big-big-budget casualties each summer, and unfortunately this one seemed semi-doomed from the start. Sci-fi westerns might work well for Joss Whedon, but they rarely (if ever) translate into big box office. Tonally askew and not all that much fun as a whole, C&A didn't earn much in the "word of mouth" department, and ended up with about $180 million worldwide on a budget slightly lower (?) than that.

The Year in Film: 2011's Biggest Surprises

Just as quickly as it began, 2011 is rapidly drawing to a close. I think we can say, without fear of contradiction, that this has been quite a bizarre year for movies, movie news, and movie stars. Despite our best efforts to expect the unexpected, predicated upon the increasingly erratic nature of Hollywood and celebrity over the last several years, there were still plenty of moments that genuinely surprised us. In fact, there were so many moments of astonishment that it was difficult to whittle the list down to the top 20.

Below is our attempt to do just that. Hopefully, these were the same moments that most left you scratching your head and pondering the unpredictability of the movie industry.

King's Speech Wins Oscar (Gets PG-13 Re-release?)
Now don’t misunderstand us, The King’s Speech is a terrific film. What was so shocking about it’s taking best picture during the Oscars in February is that it was up against several films that could have easily bested it: The Social Network, Black Swan, Inception, heck even Toy Story 3 seemed more likely to take home the statue.

But even more surprising than The King’s Speech winning the Oscar was its subsequent theatrical PG-13 re-release. Given that this is a film about a political leader struggling valiantly against his own speech impediment—which included frustrated, almost compulsive, swearing—the removal of all the naughty words seemed a bit antithetical to its emotional core. 

We Miss Getting Cabin in the Woods...Again
I guess we really should have expected another delay in this beleaguered horror film from director Drew Goddard and co-writer Joss Whedon.

'The Amazing Spider-Man' Update: New Look at The Lizard; Playset Reveals Additional Villains

As has happened in the past, when you have a big property you're looking to do some serious merchandise business off of, then you should expect a lot of character and story leaks to come from these toys since they're developed long before the film hits theaters. We've already seen a couple images of Spider-Man's latest nemesis, The Lizard, that way, and now another strong, live-action look at The Lizard's face close-up has been revealed thanks to images of some kind of remote control. We caution that these may only be test pieces and not fully finished products ready for shelves, so this version of The Lizard may be slightly different from the one we see on screen. More over at Idle Hands.

Additionally, another Amazing Spider-Man toy looks to have revealed a pretty big spoiler from the film's climactic action sequence.

Spoilers Ahead
The playset (seen below) is a recreation of the film's big Oscorp Tower FX Battle, and the characters featured include Spidey, Lizard and SWAT Lizard, the latter of which confirming a previous rumor that Dr. Connors (played by Rhys Ifans) is able to transform an entire SWAT team into Lizards as well, providing our hero with one heckuva difficult fight. Chances are this is a reveal they'll show us in trailers as we inch closer to the film's July 3rd release, but now that there are several of these toy images out there hopefully the studio will decide to release an official Lizard shot soon.

Incredible First Teaser for Ridley Scott's 'Prometheus' Shows its 'Alien' DNA

If you're a trailer junkie, you've no doubt been intrigued by Fox's cocky build up to Prometheus, Ridley Scott's first science fiction film since Blade Runner. Sure, there's nothing wrong with trying to build awareness that your trailer is about to hit, but Fox has been releasing 30 second teasers hyping this teaser for the past three days. And if you're asking people to watch a 90-second pitch for them to watch a trailer that itself is only 60-seconds long, it better be a damned good trailer.

Well, now that the final teaser is up on Apple, turns out the wait and hype was worth it. Sure, it doesn't tell us a lick about what the film is actually about (you'll have to rely on the official synopsis below for that), but it does accomplish two very important things very quickly. The first is that it once and for all removes any doubt that this is an Alien prequel. No, we don't glimpse any traditional xenomorphs in it, but that title font over those visuals will give any Alien fan heart palpitations. Secondly, it also confirms that the Ridley Scott that could pull off masterworks like Alien and Blade Runner hasn't disappeared, he's just been in cold storage. But now he's back and it looks like he's just getting warmed up.

1998 'Godzilla' Writer: 'If You're Gonna Fail, Fail Big'

When a film fails in Hollywood, everyone involved is usually quick to pass the buck – and with good reason. Films that fail costs studios money, and when studios lose money, there’s usually at least one sacrificial scapegoat offered up to the movie gods to keep everyone happy. Usually, that sacrifice is a studio exec, but directors, actors, and writers can all take the blame for a bad movie as well. With careers potentially on the line, it’s not a surprise that everyone involved points their finger at someone else when things go bad.

 

It’s refreshing when it doesn’t happen, which was the case when Bloody-Disgusting caught up with screenwriter Dean Devlin at this year’s Saturn Awards ceremony. Devlin was the guy who wrote the script for the dreadful 1998 version of Godzilla.

Devlin was asked about the Gareth Evans-helmed reboot, which made him introspective about his take on the giant green lizard. Surprisingly, he’s all in favor of the reboot and took a lot of the blame for the 1998 film’s failings onto his own shoulders.

“Listen, I think there's a lot of wonderful stuff in that movie, I really do," he said in the film's defense. "[But] I think the problem with that movie was the script I wrote. I think Roland did an amazing job directing it, I think the actors are great, I think when people look back now on the Blu-ray and see the visual effects, it's a lot better than what people said at the time. The problem was the script! I made some big errors in that script. I wish I hadn't, I wish I had a chance to fix it. But in another way, it's allowed me to be a better writer since, because I made the mistakes on one, and I realized I'm never gonna make those mistakes again!”

Cruise Takes Quiet Christmas With $26.5M 'Mission'

LOS ANGELES – Tom Cruise's latest mission has won a holiday weekend that's shaping up with some silent nights at movie theaters as business continues to lag.

Studio estimates Sunday placed Cruise's "Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol" a solid No. 1 with $26.5 million domestically over its first weekend in full release. The movie raised its total to $59 million since it started a week earlier in huge-screen cinemas and expanded nationwide last Wednesday, and distributor Paramount estimated that revenues will reach $72.7 million by Monday.

Cruise's fourth "Mission" flick was a bright spot over a Christmas weekend filled with so-so tidings for Hollywood, whose usually busy holiday stretch since Thanksgiving has been a bust.

Generally well-reviewed movies from Steven Spielberg ("The Adventures of Tintin"), David Fincher ("The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo") and Cameron Crowe ("We Bought a Zoo") -- with casts that include Matt Damon, Scarlett Johansson and Daniel Craig -- opened with modest to weak results.

Despite predictions from studio executives that 2011 could be a record-setter that would finish with a bang, domestic revenues remained stuck at a sluggish pace that has lingered all year.

Best Movies Of 2011

In 2011, Daniel Radcliffe brought the "Harry Potter" franchise to a firecracker of an ending after a decade bewitching the multiplex. Ryan Gosling played kissy-face with Carey Mulligan in an elevator, then turned around and smashed a dude's skull in. Kristen Wiig made us laugh, Martin Scorsese made us gasp, and Kermit the Frog made us want to sing along.

Memorable moments, all. But what makes a great film — what makes it one of the best of the year — is not just a buzzworthy few seconds here and there, but a moviegoing experience packed with them.

How, then, do we pick the Best Movies of 2011? How do we weigh Joe Cornish's genre-busting directorial debut against Matthew Vaughn's rescue job of our favorite comic book mutants? Do we favor George Clooney's ability to elicit laughs in the most tragic of circumstances, or do we bow down to the staggeringly raw performance by Rooney Mara?

Those are questions no one person could answer. So we gathered a roundtable of the savviest minds at MTV to discuss, debate, argue and occasionally curse about everything that went down at the multiplex this year: Eric Ditzian, Josh Horowitz and Amy Wilkinson of MTV Movies and Kevin Polowy and Brooke Tarnoff of NextMovie. In the end, we came up with our 10 picks:

10. "Attack the Block"
In a year filled with alien-invasion movies from the likes of Michael Bay and J.J. Abrams, it says a lot that Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish's little indie that could, "Attack the Block," was the best of the bunch. Taking science fiction for a ride through the gang-ridden streets of South London results in a wildly inventive and hilarious twist on the genre, complete with what has to be the absolute best creature design seen in any movie all year. Believe, bruvs: This suspenseful, action-packed and endlessly charming movie was the sci-fi flick of 2011. Allow it. — Josh Wigler

Daniel Craig Calls 'Dragon Tattoo' Very 'Adult' Movie

Rape, murder, intrigue ... the feel-bad movie of Christmas may not leave audiences feeling bright and merry but "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" star Daniel Craig suspects the dark drama will inspire smiles among at least one group.

"Look, I'm a David Fincher fan, so it was an easy choice to make when accepting this film," Craig told MTV News at the film's New York City premiere. "It's a great story. It's an adult movie. The babysitters are going to get, hopefully, a lot of money out of this film. That's why I wanted to get involved."

The film, based on the novel by late Swedish author Stieg Larsson, follows journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Craig) as he tries to solve the 30-year-old murder of teen Harriet Vanger, with the help of asocial hacker punk Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara). Mara has been earning raves for her performance as the damaged heroine and even netted a Golden Globe nomination on Thursday. Craig said he had no doubts as to the newcomer's abilities.

"We all knew she was good. She's just committed as an actress, and she made all of the right choices with David's help and everyone else's help," he said. "She's just blossomed as somebody. As I said, we knew from the beginning that she was good enough — it was everyone else who had the problem."

Best known for her work in Fincher's "The Social Network," Mara returned the compliment, expressing gratitude for Craig's help and guidance on set. "Daniel is an incredible actor, and I don't think we've seen him in a role like this before, and he's brilliant," she said. "I couldn't have asked for a better person to sort of have my coming out. He was very patient and generous with me."

"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" opens December 20, a day earlier than its initial release date.

5 Important Things About The New 'Man Of Steel' Image

The world got its first look at Henry Cavill as Superman today, thanks to a new image released by Warner Bros.

Our first peek at the Man of Steel as he'll appear in Zack Snyder's upcoming reboot is a nice one, with lots of information for mainstream and hardcore fans alike to absorb, discuss, and debate. The new costume offers up more than a few departures from recent incarnations of the DC Comics character, but also features a nice mash-up of nods to the Man of Steel's visual history.
After studying the photo for a while, here are the first five things that caught my eye about the new Superman...

The Shield
As with every incarnation of Superman's costume, the iconic symbol on his chest is likely to garner the most attention — and rightly so, as it's gone through a lot of changes over the years in comics, film, and television. In the new Man of Steel image, the “S” shield appears to be significantly larger than it was in Superman Returns, and raised higher on the chest of the costume. This would seem to fall in line with the recent redesign of the character in the comics world, which also involved enlarging the shield and moving it closer to Superman's neckline. The new costume also continues the trend of having a raised shield rather than a symbol in the fabric of the costume, which was one of the major changes made to Superman's suit in the last film.

The Hair
Maybe I'm mistaken, but I don't see anything resembling a spit-curl on this incarnation of Superman. While this wouldn't be the first time Superman has gone sans-curl (neither George Reeves nor Dean Cain sported the familiar curl), some recent photos from the set of the film that surfaced online would seem to indicate that Snyder and the Man of Steel creative team are flipping the script on us, and Clark Kent is the one with the spit-curl. Could this be yet another way the reboot is redefining the character's big-screen style?

Action and Creatures Galore in New 'John Carter' Trailer

The beloved Edgar Rice Burroughs character John Carter (of Mars) is finally nearing his big-screen debut, and Disney is ramping up the excitement with new posters and trailers. Embedded below, the new John Carter trailer certainly looks like a worthwhile way for a young movie geek to spend a Saturday afternoon, but the grown-ups among us are hoping that collaborators Andrew Stanton and Michael Chabon have something in store for the elders.

Boasting one crazy cast (Willem Defoe, Dominic West, Bryan Cranston, Thomas Haden Church, and James Purefoy are all in there), the long-awaited John Carter hits theaters next March. Until then, here's some kinetic craziness...

2011 in Review: 'Thor' Trumps 'The Dark Knight Rises' on Twitter; First 2011 Movie Montages Arrive Online

Every year Twitter is kind enough to let us know what the top trending topics of the year were — because they don't want us to lose hope in humanity when we see things like "#YouKnowAFatPersonInvented" at the top of the list. It may look like a bunch of names and fragments from the year past, but the list can teach us a few things about 2011's most popular entertainment.

 

Top trenders are broken down into categories like "hashtags" and "television," but the one we're obviously interested in is "movies." It's not surprising that superheroes have won top spots on the list, with Thor coming in first. The film is a precursor to the long-awaited Avengers movie and bringing a popular comic character to life for the first time doesn't hurt either. The Dark Knight Rises holds the second spot. It isn't due out until July next year, but unless you've been living under a rock then you know the build up to Christopher Nolan's latest Batman movie has been immense. It would also help explain why the soon-to-be Catwoman, Anne Hathaway, is the number three trending actress on the list. X-Men: First Class holds the third spot, beating out last place's Green Hornet — which currently holds a 44% at Rotten Tomatoes. Trying to sell funnyman Seth Rogen as an action hero and a comic-book character a lot of people aren't familiar with are among a few of the reasons for its failures. Fast Five manages to be the only non-superhero flick in the group. The film did phenomenally well and Justin Lin has really brought the franchise back with a Fast Six on the way for 2013.

'Starship Troopers 4' is Happening, Will Focus on Neil Patrick Harris' Character

The idea of a new Starship Troopers movie focusing on Neil Patrick Harris' psychic intelligence officer from Paul Verhoven's original 1997 masterpiece (yes, masterpiece) is just too good to be true. Literally. As in, that idea isn't quite happening. Sony is moving forward on a fourth feature film sequel to Verhoeven's Troopers, and it will focus on Carl Jenkins, but unfortunately it won't be live-action.

Don't worry, that's not entirely a bad thing. As anyone who has seen Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation and Starship Troopers 3: Marauder can attest, simply being a live-action descendent of Verhoeven's film isn't a guarantee of quality. So perhaps the switch to animation for Starship Troopers: Invasion is exactly the breath of bug-killing air this franchise needs. Sony's also found someone who can be that breath: Shinji Aramaki, who anime fans will recognize as the director of Appleseed.

Ed Neumeier, who wrote all three of the previous films, will be returning as an executive producer, as will the star of the first and third films, Mr. Casper Van Dien, though this entry will be written by a one Flint Dille (he wrote the quite good video game Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay). As for the specifics of the plot, this is what The Hollywood Reporter was able to share, "The new story centers on Carl Jenkins ... going missing while on a clandestine mission with alien bug-fighting soldiers tasked with a rescue mission that has sinister consequences."

Starship Troopers: Invasion is expected to get a theatrical release in Japan, a nation that apparently has better taste than the US, where the film will be going straight to DVD and Blu-ray. As for what director Aramaki will be bringing to the table, here's the trailer for Appleseed: