Tuesday, November 10

• Cecile de France Joins Matt Damon in Clint Eastwood's Hereafter

  Belgian actress Cécile de France has agreed to star in Clint Eastwood's Hereafter, according to Variety.

  The movie, a meditation on death involving the parallel stories of three people, takes place in Paris, London, Hawaii, and San Francisco. France portrays a journalist who has a brush with death, starring opposite Matt Damon, who is also in Eastwood's Invictus.

  Two months ago, Movie Line claimed to have obtained a copy of the script for Hereafter and described the plot in extensive detail. The site also referred to Damon's character as a "handsome, shy, soft-spoken" factory worker who can see the dead.

  Production on Hereafter began last month, and Warner Bros. has slated the movie for a December 2010 release. Invictus is due this December, placing both upcoming Eastwood projects at the heart of Oscar season. No doubt a decision driven by Eastwood's recent Oscar success — five of his last six directorial efforts have received at least one Academy Award nomination. Strangely enough, the most financially successful of the six, Gran Torino, was the only shutout.

  
  

  Posted 11/10/2009 by Rich Z

  Related: Clint Eastwood | Matt Damon | Invictus

Sunday, November 1

• Another Piece of the Action in New Trailer for Green Zone

  The first domestic trailer for Green Zone showed off a lot of Bourne-like action and intrigue as Matt Damon pursued the hidden mysteries of the Iraq war. Without giving away too much more of the plot, the international trailer puts a bit more emphasis on the intrigue and divided loyalties of the players involved. There are clearly a lot of secrets here that people a willing to kill to protect. Lots more action footage here as well, including some pretty impressive shots of a helicopter going down after being hit by a missile.

  
  

  Posted 11/01/2009 by Bill

  Related: Matt Damon | Green Zone

Thursday, October 29

• Trailer for Clint Eastwood's Invictus Now on the Web

  Clint Eastwood is less than a year away from his 80th birthday, and he's still going strong. Oscar season is not far away, and Eastwood's next release, Invictus, is already gaining buzz as a potential contender.

  The trailer below is now on the web, and it looks and sounds like the trailer for every other drama released by a major studio. That said, the story looks promising: How Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) used the 1995 Rugby World Cup as a platform to address a South Africa still divided after the recent end to apartheid. He enlists the aid of Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon), the captain of the South African rugby team, in an effort to unite the country.

  What's refreshing is that neither Freeman nor Damon feels familiar. Although Freeman's voice is easily recognizable, it's different enough from the omnipresent voice-over narration tone we've all heard non-stop since March of the Penguins. And Damon sounds like he's worked quite diligently on a South African accent.

  Invictus is based on the John Carlin book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation. The adapted screenplay was written by Anthony Peckham, who also drafted the script for the upcoming Sherlock Holmes.

  
  

  Posted 10/29/2009 by Rich Z

  Related: Clint Eastwood | Matt Damon | Morgan Freeman | Anthony Peckham | Invictus

Tuesday, October 27

• Is Matt Damon Bourne Again in Green Zone?

  The first trailer has surfaced for Green Zone, an action-adventure adaptation of Imperial Life in the Emerald City. No, nothing to do with The Wizard of Oz. This Emerald City is an award-winning non-fiction account of America's misadventures in Iraq's American-controlled international zone. A darkly comic, often absurdist tale reminiscent of Catch 22, it would seem to lend itself to an interpretation heavy on the irony, perhaps along the lines of The Men Who Stare at Goats.

  Not so much, from the look of this trailer for Green Zone, which seems headed off more in the direction of The Bourne Identity and its progeny. With Bourne Supremacy and Ultimatum director Paul Greengrass at the helm and Matt Damon headlining, I suppose this should come as no big surprise. What we know about the plot so far is that Damon plays a U.S. agent sifting though lies and deception in search of weapons of mass destruction. (I guess we all know how that turns out.) But this first glimpse promises plenty of Bourne-style action and intrigue along the way.

  
  

  Posted 10/27/2009 by Bill

  Related: Matt Damon | Paul Greengrass | Green Zone

• Matt Damon and Josh Brolin Joining True Grit

  Variety reports that Josh Brolin and Matt Damon are looking to re-team with Joel and Ethan Coen for their upcoming "adaptation" of True Grit.

  OK, so Damon has never worked with the Coens before, but he did have a small scene in Finding Forrester, which starred Sean Connery who was in The Rock with Nicolas Cage, so it's practically a return. Brolin is certainly returning, having worked with the Coens on their award-winning No Country For Old Men.

  Damon is in talks to play a lawman who teams up with U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges stepping in for the late John Wayne) and a 14-year-old girl that head into Native American territory to find the murderer of the girl's father. Brolin is negotiating to play the killer.

  The Coens are directing and producing True Grit from their script, which will follow the original Charles Portis novel that inspired the 1969 movie that garnered Wayne an Oscar. True Grit will start production next March and open in late 2010.

  The Coens' latest, A Serious Man, received strong reviews and is in theaters now.

  
  

  Posted 10/27/2009 by Ryan

  Related: Ethan Coen | Joel Coen | Matt Damon | Josh Brolin | True Grit

Friday, September 18

• Matt Damon to Star in Eastwood's Hereafter and Soderbergh's Liberace Pic

  Yesterday afternoon, Variety reported that Matt Damon has agreed to star in Hereafter, Clint Eastwood's next production, with a script by Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon, The Queen). Just hours later, Empire reported that Damon had also signed on to star in Steven Soderbergh's upcoming biopic of Liberace.

  Although Warner Bros. is keeping the plot of Hereafter under wraps — describing it only as akin to The Sixth Sense — Movie Line, which claims to have a version of the script, has described the plot in extensive detail. Based on that description, the movie seems less a supernatural thriller and more a tragic meditation on death. Damon's character is described as a "handsome, shy, soft-spoken" factory worker who can ... yes, indeed ... see dead people. Production on Hereafter is expected to begin this fall.

  Meanwhile, Soderbergh confirmed that Damon is onboard for his next project, saying at the Deauville Film Festival that Damon has "accepted the challenge." Damon would most likely play the male lover of Liberace, the flamboyant musician whose stage and TV career spanned from the 1940s to his death in the late 1980s. The movie will apparently focus on a 1982 lawsuit, in which Damon's character revealed Liberace's homosexuality, shocking many around the world.

  The untitled project already has Michael Douglas on board in the main role, and Soderbergh talked about his enthusiasm for Douglas' fit for the role.

  We've already done some costume and wardrobe tests on Michael, and they're very, very, very good.... I swear to you, Michael amazed me. He crushed it.

  Damon has starred in other projects by both directors. He can be seen in Soderbergh's The Informant!, now in theaters, and he is also featured in Eastwood's Invictus, which is due out in December. The latter movie stars Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela and Damon as Francois Pienaar, captain of South Africa's 1995 Rugby World Cup team. It tells the story of Mandela's attempts to use the rugby event to heal his country's reputation after years of apartheid and internal struggle.

  
  

  Posted 09/18/2009 by Rich Z

  Related: Clint Eastwood | Matt Damon | Michael Douglas | Morgan Freeman | Peter Morgan | Steven Soderbergh | Liberace | The Informant!

Thursday, September 17

• The Informant! Reviews

  Matt Damon gained 30 pounds to play the role of infamous corporate whistleblower Mark Whitacre, a top executive at agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland who helped the FBI expose price fixing at that company in the 1990s. If that doesn't sound like the setup for a successful comedy — even in the hands of director Steven Soderbergh — you could be right.

  "...a groovy-looking, chuckle-baiting, fact-based movie from protean director Steven Soderbergh..."

  — Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

  "Who said true-life crime stories have to make serious movies? Bright, breezy, and downright goofy, this superbly captures the workings of Whitacre’s highly imaginative mind and the outlandish nature of the crime."

  — Mark Salisbury, Premiere

  "Amusingly eccentric rather than outright funny..."

  — Todd McCarthy, Variety

  "A comedy about corporate fraud, malfeasance, and a mental disorder that never quite succeeds as a comedy."

  — Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter

  "Unlike the director's [Soderbergh] usual organic efforts — in which great style never results in overstylized — The Informant! feels overamped from start to shrugging finish."

  — Robert Wilonsky, Village Voice

  
  
  

  The Informant - Trailer

  Matt Damon stars - Releasing Sept. 18, 2009

  Posted 09/17/2009 by reelz

  Related: Matt Damon | Steven Soderbergh | The Informant!

Friday, August 21

• Fourth Bourne Movie Finds a New Writer

  

  According to The Hollywood Reporter, Universal has hired Josh Zetumer to write the script for the fourth Bourne movie. Zetumer is also working on a script for a new version of Frank Herbert's novel Dune.

  Originally, Bourne Ultimatum scribe George Nolfi was on board to pen the fourth movie in the franchise. But he also signed to write and direct The Adjustment Bureau, an adaptation of a Philip K. Dick short story that will feature Bourne star Matt Damon. With that movie about to enter production, Nolfi abandoned the Bourne franchise, at least for the moment. Universal hopes that he will return.

  
  

  Posted 08/21/2009 by Rich Z

  Related: Matt Damon | George Nolfi | Dune | The Bourne Ultimatum

Wednesday, June 24

• Trailer for Miyazaki's Ponyo Online

  Disney has released the first trailer for Ponyo, the newest movie from the acclaimed Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, whose Spirited Away won the 2002 Oscar for Best Animated Film.

  The movie tells the story of a goldfish princess who wants to become human and befriends a five-year-old boy. According to Nausicaa.net, the plot only superficially resembles the Hans Christian Anderson fairytale The Little Mermaid. The site Ghibli World, a collection site devoted to Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli, noted that elements of the story reference Die Walküre, a 19th-century Wagner opera. You might remember the opera's "Ride of the Valkyries" from the famous helicopter sequence in Apocalypse Now.

  The English-language version of Ponyo is scheduled for a limited American release on August 14. It will feature the voices of Liam Neeson, Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Lily Tomlin, and Cloris Leachman, among others. Enjoy the trailer:

  
  

  Posted 06/24/2009 by Rich Z

  Related: Cloris Leachman | Hayao Miyazaki | Liam Neeson | Lily Tomlin | Matt Damon | Tina Fey | Cate Blanchett | Ponyo

Wednesday, June 17

• Frank Marshall Updates Bourne 4 and Jurassic Park 4

  Producer Frank Marshall (Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Bourne Identity) spoke to ComingSoon.net about some of his upcoming projects, including a fourth Bourne movie, which Matt Damon and The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum director Paul Greengrass agreed to return for last year. Marshall says the project is moving forward, but the story is still being developed.

  We'd like to shoot next year. It's trying to get everybody's schedules in the right place and getting the script right. We've done pretty well with these scripts that are pretty loosely put together, but I'd like the script to be really solid this time before we go forward. We're spending a lot of time on this story.

  What about another Jurassic Park?

  We just have to see if they can come up with a story. We don't have a story.

  Marshall is also developing a remake of the 1980's classic The Neverending Story.

  We love the book and we've always thought there was an opportunity (because) there were a lot of elements in the book that weren't in the movie. It's another one where we're still working on the rights and it's a huge thing to get it. Once we get it, we'll bring on a writer, but that's kind of off in the distance. But it's a great story.

  Marshall is currently producing The Last Airbender, M. Night Shyamalan's live-action adaptation of the animated series. The movie opens July 2, 2010.

  
  

  Posted 06/17/2009 by Ryan

  Related: Frank Marshall | M. Night Shyamalan | Matt Damon | Jurassic Park | The Neverending Story | The Bourne Identity | The Bourne Ultimatum | Raiders of the Lost Ark | The Bourne Supremacy

Friday, June 5

• Clint Eastwood's Invictus Slated for December Release

  Variety reports that Warner Bros. has announced a December 11 release date for Clint Eastwood's Invictus.

  The movie, formerly titled The Human Factor, stars Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon as Francois Pienaar, captain of South Africa's 1995 Rugby World Cup team. It's based on John Carlin's book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation and tells the story of Mandela's attempts to use the rugby event to heal his country's reputation after years of apartheid and internal struggle. The title comes from the William Ernest Henley poem of same name, which Mandela often quoted.

  Invictus's mid-December release places it at the heart of Oscar season, which means it will undoubtedly get some nominations. Five of the past six Eastwood features were nominated for at least one award, including Million Dollar Baby, which earned Eastwood his second Best Picture and Best Director awards. Surprisingly, the one that wasn't nominated was his most commercially successful, last year's Gran Torino.

  The December 11 release date also puts Invictus aside Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones, so it's already looking to be a very promising Oscar season.

  
  

  Posted 06/05/2009 by Rich Z

  Related: Clint Eastwood | Matt Damon | Morgan Freeman | Peter Jackson | Million Dollar Baby | Gran Torino | The Lovely Bones

Tuesday, January 20

• Matt Damon: Bourne Ultimatummy?!?

  Everyone's talking about New Moon star Taylor Lautner's impressive weight gain in anticipation of the heavy lifting he'll have to do in the soon-to-start-shooting Twilight sequel New Moon. But we still think the most remarkable transformation we've seen in a long while is the one Matt Damon pulled off for The Informant, which is due out later this year. Reportedly, Vincent D'Onofrio holds the all-time record for gaining weight for a movie role, packing on 70 lbs. for his part in Full Metal Jacket.

  Contemplating the full blubber jacket Damon put on for The Informant in this US Magazine spread on shape-shifting thespians, we can't help but think of him as the new champ, regardless of actual numbers. Even his hair looks significantly chubbier than it usually does, a feat not even D'Onofrio could pull off. (He opted for the skinhead look instead.)

  
  

  Posted 01/20/2009 by reelz

  Related: Matt Damon | The Informant! | The Twilight Saga: New Moon

Wednesday, August 20

• Stars Come Out for Presidential Conventions

  A few weeks ago, John McCain famously called Barack Obama "the biggest celebrity in the world" and likened him to Paris Hilton. Which, if we're doing our celebrity math right, makes John McCain Nicole Richie, right? Soon, the two political glamourpusses will be headlining their respective party conventions, and everyone wants to know who else will be attending.

  Well, you know how stars are -- they go where the stars are. According to the NY Daily News, the Democrats are getting George Clooney, Madonna, Matt Damon, Kanye West, Scarlett Johansson and a bunch of other Hollywood A-listers. And the Republicans are getting "Redneck Woman" singer Gretchen Wilson. And maybe Kid Rock. Meanwhile, eternal rebel Sean Penn is blowing off both Establishment Parties (and parties) to chant a few protest slogans and maybe knock back a few cold ones with Ralph Nader. Yeah, that should be fun.

  
  

  Posted 08/20/2008 by reelz

  Related: George Clooney | Matt Damon | Scarlett Johansson | Sean Penn | Nicole Richie | Paris Hilton | Madonna

Monday, February 25

• Bourne returning for a fourth go-round; Damon on board

  It seems that nothing in the world can stop amnesiac superspy Jason Bourne -- not even the death of his creator, author Robert Ludlum, who passed away in 2001 after penning the three novels upon which the blockbuster trilogy is based.

  Variety reports that star Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass have signed on for a fourth chapter of the Bourne franchise, much to the surprise of those of us who assumed that the series would end with 2007's The Bourne Ultimatum. No word on when the flick starts shooting or what it will be called. Our suggestion: The Bourne Addendum.

  Source: Variety

  
  

  Posted 02/25/2008 by reelz

  Related: Matt Damon | Paul Greengrass | The Bourne Ultimatum | The Bourne Supremacy

Monday, October 22

• Bourne Non-News Gets "Dugg" by Forgetful Fans

  Perusing the top-rated headlines on Digg.com this morning, I came across a story that was receiving a lot of hits, or Diggs or Karma or whatever they are calling it - something about news of Matt Damon returning for a fourth Bourne movie.

  The story came from website slashfilm.com, whose source was reported to be Agence France Presse in Tokyo. Yahoo! News also reported on this non-story.

  Reading through the story provided further proof of the notoriously short attention span of American movie fans.

  The quote from Damon reads: "If Paul Greengrass, maybe years down the road, was interested in doing another one, then I would do it, too," Damon said.

  Reading this, the quote seemed quite familiar, so I returned to the transcript from Damon's Four Seasons Press Conference in July, attended by ReelzChannel.com, where Damon said "I love the character, and if Paul Greengrass calls me in ten years and says, "Now we can do it, because it's been ten years and I have a way to bring him back. Then there's a world in which I can go, 'Yeah, absolutely.' We could get the band back together if there was a great idea behind it..."

  Were Bourne fans not paying attention to Damon's interviews promoting the third movie this summer or does the fact that he repeated the same spiel three months later make it "news worthy?"

  By the way, Christopher Lloyd says Back to the Future 4 "could happen," Harold Ramis believes Ghostbusters 3 is a possibility and I hear that Brazillian Job movie might just come together.

  
  

  Posted 10/22/2007 by reelz

  Related: Matt Damon | The Bourne Ultimatum

Wednesday, August 1

• Movie news: Damon, Gervais, and Black

  Looks like the golden boy from Boston has another project in the works. Matt Damon, whose third installment of the Bourne series, The Bourne Ultimatum, opens on Friday is finally getting his passion project with director Steven Soderbergh off the ground.

  According to MTV.com, the two men have been trying to get their movie, The Informant, under way for years and filming is finally scheduled to start next spring. In it, Damon will play Mark Whitacre, the real-life whistleblower from Archer Daniels Midland who was defrauding the company while also ratting them out to the FBI. Not exactly what one would call a company man.

  British funnyman Ricky Gervais (Night at the Museum, Extras) has signed to star in Early Retirement, a comedy about a workaholic who retires to spend more time with his family, says Variety. No directors are attached yet.

  Jack Black has another high-concept comedy in the works, says Variety. Universal plans on making The Lost Adventures of Stone Perlmutter Jr., a mockumentary about an Indiana-Jones like adventurer who has a disasterous journey in seach of such artifacts as Yetis and the lost tomb of Jesus. Black will, of course, star.

  
  

  Posted 08/01/2007 by reelz

  Related: Jack Black | Matt Damon | Ricky Gervais | The Lost Adventures of Stone Perlmutter Jr. | The Informant!

Monday, July 23

• What's next for Matt Damon?

  On the heels of Bourne Ultimatum's August 3rd release, the question is what's next for Matt Damon. With a strike looming over Hollywood once again, the actor may have difficultly fitting everything he wants to do into his schedule before the strike date.

  ReelzChannel.com spoke to Damon at a press conference for Bourne Ultimatum this weekend. The actor openly discussed his pre-strike hopes:

  "I'm hoping to do the Green Zone movie (Paul Greengrass' Imperial Life in the Emerald City)... I'm doing The Informant with Steven Soderbergh, which we've been trying to do for years, starting April 15th. We have a strike coming, and Steven knows I want to do Paul's movie, so he moved it all the way up so he'd basically go April 15th to June 30th, and the strike starts the next day. If Paul can get me in before April 15th...then I can do it."

  Damon has also been linked to Darren Aronofsky's boxing picture, tentatively titled The Fighter along with Departed co-star Mark Wahlberg. "The full script isn't in yet," Damon says. "It's another thing that's out there."

  
  

  Posted 07/23/2007 by reelz

  Related: Matt Damon | Paul Greengrass | The Bourne Ultimatum

Sunday, July 22

• Damon on Star Trek

  At the junket for The Bourne Ultimatum this weekend, Matt Damon dropped some news about the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie that is in the works.

  When IGN asked him whether or not he was going to play Kirk, Damon disavowed the casting as Internet rumor. "It's the early years. I think he's hiring probably like a 20-year-old actor," Damon said of Abrams.

  If you've watched the video, you can decide for yourself  whether or not he's telling the truth. In the meantime, we'll let you know as soon as we hear anything!

  
  

  Posted 07/22/2007 by reelz

  Related: Matt Damon | Star Trek