IN THE PRESS: Read the New Empire Magazine Article for Channing Tatum’s ‘Public Enemies’
November 27, 2008
In my previous post, I let you all know that there was a new article in the January 2009 issue of Empire Magazine that featured Channing Tatum’s upcoming 1930’s crime drama ‘Public Enemies‘.
Gotta love the internet, because I was already able to find the high quality scans of the article. You can click on each image below to enlarge it and view the cover and the 5 page article:
The January 2009 issue of Empire Magazine is currently on UK newsstands.
‘Public Enemies‘ is helmed by Michael Mann and stars Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, and Channing Tatum. An adaptation of Brian Burrough’s book “Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-43,” the film centers on the government’s attempt to stop John Dillinger and his gang and is set to debut in theaters July 1, 2009. The highly-anticipated trailer should be released some time next month.
IN THE PRESS: First Look at Channing Tatum’s ‘Public Enemies’ in Empire Magazine
November 26, 2008
The highly-anticipated 1930’s crime drama ‘Public Enemies‘ is directed by Michael Mann and will feature a dream cast of Johnny Depp as John Dillinger, Christian Bale as FBI agent Melvin Purvis, Oscar winner Marion Cotillard as Dillinger’s love interest Billie Frechette, and Channing Tatum as Pretty Boy Floyd (just to name a few).
Each month on the UK site for Empire Magazine, readers are able to take a peek inside the new issue before it hits the shelves. This month they’ve revealed two shots from the film in their January 2009 issue showing both Depp and Bale in character, the first official shots we have seen from the production.
Fans can CLICK HERE to check out the images on their website or you can take a look at the pics I have uploaded into the CTU photo gallery. Enjoy!
An adaptation of Brian Burrough’s book “Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-43,” ‘Public Enemies‘ centers on the government’s attempt to stop John Dillinger and his gang and is set to debut in theaters July 1, 2009. We should hopefully see a trailer around Christmas time.
As always, I’ll try to get a copy of the magazine once it does hit newstands this week, and I will add the high quality scans to the photo gallery as soon as I can so fans everywhere can read it.
UPDATE (November 27, 2008): You can CLICK HERE to see a high quality scan of the entire Empire Magazine article.
Win Tickets to the Premiere & After Party of Channing Tatum’s ‘Public Enemies’
November 20, 2008
If you’re a big fan of Channing Tatum, Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, and their highly-anticipated historical drama ‘Public Enemies‘, AND you have a little lot of spare cash to throw around, then this may be your lucky day!
The charity auction site CharityFolks.com
currently has an auction benefiting the ACLU of Southern California where a lucky fan can bid on 2 tickets and after party passes to the June 2009 Los Angeles, California premiere of ‘Public Enemies‘.
The next bid is currently at $2,300.00 for this once in a lifetime experience, and the auction ends at 3PM on December 1, 2008. You can CLICK HERE to bid and/or to get more info on the auction.
‘Public Enemies‘ is a film adaptation of Bryan Burrough’s book Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933–34 and is directed by Michael Mann.
The crime drama is set during The Great Depression with the focus on the FBI agent Melvin Purvis’ (Bale) attempt to stop criminals John Dillinger (Depp), Baby Face Nelson (Stephen Graham) and Pretty Boy Floyd (Channing Tatum). ‘Public Enemies‘ is set to be released in theaters on July 1, 2009.
New Review from Test Screening of Channing Tatum’s ‘Public Enemies’
November 14, 2008
Channing Tatum’s true-life, 1930’s crime drama ‘Pubic Enemies‘ that also stars Johnny Depp and Christian Bale has already been voted one of the most anticipated films of 2009, and now Ain’t It Cool News has posted a review from someone who recently attended a screening of the highly-anticipated, unfinished Michael Mann film which was held this past Wednesday night (November 12th) at the Mann Westlake Village movie theater in California.
You can CLICK HERE to read the entire review, but here’s some highlights from the insider’s review of the film…
“I’ve been away for a while but finally caught a test screening worth talking about again. 
Just got back from a screening of Michael Mann’s Public Enemies with Johnny Depp as gangster John Dillinger and Christian Bale as the FBI agent hunting him. Mr. Mann was in attendance, in fact he sat right behind me…
Anyway, the movie runs about 2 hours 40 minutes right now by my estimation… The cast is excellent - everyone. Johnny Depp is charming and funny and Bale does a fine “serious man-on-a-mission”.
It starts off with a dramatic breakout of Johnny’s gang from prison with a pretty killer Mann caliber shootout, and then we meet Christion Bale as a rising star in the FBI tapped to lead the manhunt for Dillinger. J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup - excellent) hand picks him for the job and while the scenes with Hoover are good and somewhat entertaining by themselves I don’t think they necessarily contribute that much to the movie…
The best part is the love story between Dillinger and actress Marion Cotillard from La Vie en Rose, who plays a bright girl leading a fairly simple life who Dillinger falls in love with (rather quickly - but it’s humorous and it works). Their relationship is well developed and the most effective storyline, interleaved well in to the movie as to not take away from the action for too long… which is important because that is what Michael Mann does best and there’s plenty of it in this movie…
I do think this will be a terrific movie when it’s done, way better than Ali and better than Miami Vice (which I enjoyed)…”
‘Pubic Enemies‘ is set to hit US theaters on July 1, 2009, and you can go to IMDB to get a complete list of the current release dates around the world. The word on the street is that we may get to see the trailer for ‘Pubic Enemies‘ before the historical drama ‘Frost/Nixon‘ when it hits select theaters on December 5, 2008 and has a wide release on December 25, 2008.
CHANNING TATUM MOVIE BYTES: ‘Dear John’, ‘Public Enemies’, ‘Fighting’, and ‘G.I. Joe’
October 29, 2008
I keep finding little snippets of information all over the internet about Channing Tatum’s films. By themselves, each piece of info would make for one very short article, but as they say, there’s power in numbers. Together, they all have become a new CTU article series I will affectionately call “Channing Tatum Movie Bytes“. Enjoy!!!
DEAR JOHN
Dear John author Nicholas Sparks is currently promoting his newest #1 New York Times best seller The Lucky One all over the country, and he recently shared insider tales about his books and movies with over 200 high school students in Northern Arkansas. From his 90 minute Q&A session we learn that ‘Dear John‘, the movie and the epic love story that Chan is filming right now in South Carolina, will be released in theaters by October 2009. If you’re a fan of the extremely popular author, CLICK HERE to read more highlights from his talk.
PUBLIC ENEMIES
MovieTickets.com spent this summer surveying thousands of movie fans to select the most anticipated movies through Summer 2009. Channing Tatum’s real-life crime drama ‘Public Enemies‘ ranked #4 overall and #2 amongst female movie-goers. With Channing Tatum, Johnny Depp, and Christian Bale all in the same cast, it definitely doesn’t take a psychic or a survey to predict they’re not going to have any trouble getting people into the theaters for this one. ‘Public Enemies‘ is set to hit US theaters on July 1, 2009, and the last I heard, they were trying to release a trailer this Winter. You can CLICK HERE to read more about the survey.
FIGHTING
Channing Tatum’s ‘Fighting‘ co-star Terrence Howard has been promoting his new album and was recently interviewed by the Australian magazine Babble Baby. In the interview, he confirms that the film is still scheduled for a Spring 2009 release, so hopefully that means that the possible purchase of Rogue Pictures by Relativity Media I mentioned in a recent article will not affect the release date of the film.**fingers crossed**
G.I. JOE: RISE OF COBRA
Uber producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura was recently interviewed by MTV.com. The ‘G.I. Joe‘ executive producer had the following to say to MTV News about some of the early scenes he’s been working on with director Stephen Sommers,
“We are in post-production, and it’s looking really good…It’s going to be really fun, and it’s going to be big…There is going to be two or three really large sequences in it that are really going to blow people away. But I think that, more than anything, what differentiates it from a lot of these big movies is that there are eight or nine very well-drawn characters.”
I hope this means we are still on schedule to see a ‘G.I. Joe‘ trailer during the holidays as we were previously promised, but rumor has it that we may have to wait until Oscar season instead. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recently announced an end to a long-standing ban on movie advertisements played during their Oscar night, and it’s considered to be a big deal in the industry. Many feel that ‘G.I. Joe‘ would be a great candidate for Paramount to promote during the telecast, but nothing has been confirmed yet. The one thing we do know is that ‘G.I. Joe‘ is scheduled to hit theaters on August 7,2009.
Channing Tatum Project Update: ‘Battle in Seattle’, ‘Public Enemies’, ‘G.I. Joe’ and More…
August 27, 2008
There’s been a lot of different things going on with Channing Tatum’s movies lately, so I thought that I would give fans a quick update.
Battle in Seattle
Channing’s upcoming drama ‘Battle In Seattle‘, where he plays a riot cop by the name of Johnson, was the talk of the Democratic National Convention yesterday when it was shown at the Impact Film Festival. The screening was held at at the Starz Film Room and was only open to the delegates at the Denver, Colorado-based political convention. Attendees were also able to take part in a Q&A with director Stuart Townsend and actress Charlize Theron after the movie.
Star-studded premieres are planned for BIS in mid- to late September in L.A., New York., and Sacramento. The movie will then premiere in the following growing list of cites on the dates listed below.
- September 19, 2008 - New York, San Rafael, San Fransisco, Minneapolis, and Seattle
- September 24, 2008 - Sacramento
- September 26, 2008 - Pittsburgh, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C.
- October 3, 2008- Plano, Philidephia, and Santa Barbara
Fans can CLICK HERE to buy tickets. If the movie is not currently scheduled to show in your city, make sure to keep demanding it. Rumor has it that if a city gets 200 demands, then the producers at Redwood Palms Pictures will try to bring the film to your city too.
The ‘Battle In Seattle‘ marketing team has been in high gear for a while and is currently adding fans to their update list. Its easy to join. All you have to do is e-mail their private account at youcontroltheworld@yahoo.com and put “Battle In Seattle” in the subject line. You don’t need to put any message in the body of the e-mail. Once they get your e-mail they will keep you up to date on all of ‘Battle In Seattle’s progress.
Based on one of the most incendiary political uprisings in a generation, ‘Battle In Seattle‘ takes an in-depth look at the five days that rocked the world in 1999 as tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in protest on the World Trade Organization. What began as a peaceful protest intended to stop the WTO talks quickly escalated into a full-scale riot and eventual State of Emergency that squared off the protesters against the Seattle Police Department and the National Guard.
Fans can CLICK HERE to download the free trailer from ITunes.
Public Enemies
A journalist who played as as extra in Channing Tatum’s 2009 drama ‘Public Enemies‘, where Chan plays the doomed 1930’s bank robber Pretty Boy Floyd, recently gave us some new info on the release of the film.
It appears that there has been an official informational release sent to theaters from the studio to remind theater owners to reserve space next summer for the film. It confirms that the film will be released July 1, 2009. The reporter was told by inside sources that even though the film is still in the midst of editing, there will be enough cleaned up and pieced together footage for theater preview trailers to be ready for the Christmas holiday movie releases.
An adaptation of Brian Burrough’s book “Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-43,” Channing’s film centers on the government’s attempt to stop John Dillinger and his gang. The star-studded cast also includes Johnny Depp who plays Dillinger and Christian Bale portrays the famed FBI agent Melvin Purvis.
G. I. Joe: Rise of Cobra
Channing Tatum will play the lead role of Duke Hauser in what MTV has declared to be one of the most anticipated movies for summer of 2009, and I know that fans are definitely looking forward to seeing Chan flex his super hero chops in the big-budget, action film ‘G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra‘.
They wrapped filming in on the movie in the Czech Republic in June and not too long after one of the crew members posted his impressions of Channing one of the IMDB messages boards. If you want to get an idea of what it’s like to work with Channing on set, read below…
“So I did a little work on GI Joe, and I have to say it was really refreshing just how cool and unassuming Channing was. When you work with actors often, you come to expect a certain degree of self-absorption. They’re just a different breed in general–partially because they live in very different realities than the rest of the world. Channing was ALWAYS cool. He seemed like someone who knew he was in a fortunate position. He never dragged his feet coming to set, he insisted on taking care of himself, and usually had a smile on his face. Ray Park was the same way … absolutely gifted martial artist, and completely humble. For the sake of these two guys, I hope the movie does really well, as we need more personalities like theirs in the A-list.”
‘G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra‘ revolves around a European-based military unit known as Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity (G.I.J.O.E.), which is a hi-tech, international force of special operatives that takes on an evil organization led by a notorious arms dealer.’G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra‘ is currently scheduled to hit US theaters on August 7th, 2009.
Pinkville
Channing was scheduled to start filming Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone’s ‘Pinkville‘ last November until the production was derailed by the writer’s strike. I’m now hearing from multiple sources that the film may be back on sooner rather than later. Right now, this is just rumor, but if it turns out to be true, they will most likely have to recast some roles depending on which actors are available.
‘Pinkville‘ is a drama about the investigation of the tragic 1968 My Lai massacre that occurred during the Vietnam war. Channing was supposed to play real-life hero Hugh Thompson, a helicopter pilot who, upon realizing what was happening below, put a stop to the killing by placing his craft between gunmen and the few villagers who were left, and telling his two shipmates to fire on the soldiers if they shot any more people. They airlifted the survivors and reported the carnage to superiors.
What’s Next for Channing Tatum
Channing is scheduled to start filming his romantic drama ‘Dear John‘ next month in South Carolina, his movie ‘Fighting‘ will be released in January 2009, and his movie ‘Parkour‘ will start filming early next year. Fans can CLICK HERE to get a complete list of Channing’s past, current, and future films and watch their trailers.
NEWS FLASH: Exclusive New Photos of Channing Tatum and the ‘G.I. Joe’ Cast
May 8, 2008
After the whole leaked photo debacle, I was worried we would have to wait a really long time before Paramount would release promotional photos for Channing Tatum’s upcoming live-action movie ‘G.I. Joe‘. Since the production wrapped filming at the Downey, California set this week, the studio decided to open their doors to a select group of media outlets, and they let those same media outlets release exclusive photos of the cast yesterday.
The reporters were given an opportunity to visit the enormous Downey, California set of Paramounts’ ‘G.I. Joe‘ this past Monday. They were even allowed to watch Channing Tatum (Duke) and Sienna Miller (The Baroness) shoot an action scene during their visit.
Their tour was conducted by mega-producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura who recently gave an indepth interview to Collider about ‘G.I. Joe‘. They also interviewed Sienna Miller, Channing Tatum and Ray Park (Snake Eyes), and the studio will allow them to release the interviews when we get closer to the film’s August 7, 2009 theatrical release.
The media outlets were practically sworn to secrecy, so they are not allowed to give away too many details about their tour. In return, the studio has now allowed each of them to release an exclusive photo of cast members and give a little bit of detail about the sets they saw. As G.I. Joe says, “Knowing is half the battle.”, so here’s what we know…
Before it’s latest incarnation into a film set, Downey Studios was used to construct vehicles of flight like small bi-planes during the 1930’s and to construct military aircraft during WWII. Later NASA used the location to build different vehicles for the Apollo Space Program and to build of the Space Shuttles Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavor.
They were allowed to tour various sets, including Destro’s M.A.R.S Arctic Headquarters. The M.A.R.S. sets consisted of the Submarine Docking area, The Doctors Laboratory, The Diving Bell Room, Entry Way to the Diving Bell, Destro’s Submarine, the Control Room to the M.A.R.S Secret Arctic Headquarters and a giant ice cave that leads to the super secret M.A.R.S Arctic Base. They also visited part of the M.A.R.S. Weapon factory located in an ex-Soviet state (the legitimate part of Destro’s operations).
As far as the G.I. Joe sets were concerned, their tour included a yet-to-be-named Joe Submarine, a small two man submarine called a “SHARC” (Submersible High-speed Attack and Reconnaissance Craft), the cargo area of a troop transport and the remains of the Urban Combat Level of The Pit.
Based on the action figures created by Hasbro, director Stephen Sommers’ cast also includes Dennis Quaid (General Hawk), Ray Park (Snake Eyes), Marlon Wayans (Ripcord), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Rex), Rachel Nichols (Scarlett), Arnold Vosloo (Zartan), Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Heavy Duty), Said Taghmaoui (Breaker), Chris Eccleston (Destro), and Byung-hun Lee (Storm Shadow).
You can see the official photos for most of the main characters below, including the previously released photos of Scarlet and Snake Eyes. Enjoy!
IGN: The Baroness
CHUD: Ripcord
COMING SOON: Heavy Duty
COLLIDER: General Hawk
LATINO REVIEW: Storm Shadow
IESB: Destro
DARK HORIZONS: Breaker
Scarlett
Snake Eyes
After production wrapped for ‘G.I. Joe‘ at the Downey set on Monday, Channing headed to an orchard near of Madison, Wisconsin to film his role as Pretty Boy Floyd in the upcoming Johnny Depp movie ‘Public Enemies‘. This week he also heads to Prague with most of the ‘G.I. Joe‘ cast and crew for the next month or so to finish filming the movie in the Czech Republic.
‘G.I. Joe‘ will have it’s theatrical release August 7, 2009. You can CLICK HERE to get all of the current international release dates for the film.
NEWS FLASH: Do You Want to Be in Channing Tatum’s ‘Public Enemies’?
May 4, 2008
Although there have been no sightings of Channing Tatum on the set of his upcoming 2009 film ‘Public Enemies‘ where he will play the 1930’s romanticized bank robber Pretty Boy Floyd with Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, I thought I would go ahead and give everyone a quick update and let you know about a cool opportunity to actually be a part of the film. 
‘Public Enemies‘ has continued to film at a break-neck pace on location in midwest cities like Chicago and Aurora in Illinois and Oshkosh, Clayton, Manitowish Waters’ Little Bohemia Lodge, Milwaukee, and Columbus in Wisconsin.
Recent news reports are saying that the production filmed in the capital city of Madison, Wisconsin this weekend in the North Hearing Room at the Capital building. Madison’s 95-year-old Milwaukee County Historical Society building will also serve as a location very soon.
This coming week ‘Public Enemies‘ is scheduled to film in Beaver Dam and then head back to Columbus before they leave Wisconsin for good and continue filming in Chicago, Illinois.
The entire cast and crew are scheduled to film in Chicago for 5 or 6 weeks and wrap filming of the big budget movie some time in July.
The production will film exterior shots at the Biograph Theater. At some point, the Portage Theater’s interior will be used for inside shots, because the Biograph was remodeled a few years ago when it became Victory Gardens’ new home.
On the casting front, Shawn Hatosy has reportedly been cast as FBI agent John Madala, Serbian actress Branka Katic will play Romanian brothel owner Ana Cumpanas (aka Anna Sage and “The Woman in Red”) from Chicago who identified the notorious gangster John Dillinger for FBI agents, and “Lost” fans are excited to hear that Emilie de Ravin will play bank teller and hostage Anna Patzke.
You can see Emilie in the photo above in between scenes with Johnny Depp in his role of John Dillinger. You can CLICK HERE to get a pretty complete list of the current cast of the film. You can CLICK HERE to see almost 400 beautiful photos of the set and actors involved in filming.
Finally, I wanted to let everyone know about an online auction benefiting the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial that will allow one lucky person to make their big screen debut in ‘Public Enemies‘.
Universal Studios donated an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experience for one person to be in a featured extra, non-speaking role in a scene with Johnny Depp in the Michael Mann directed film ‘Public Enemies‘. The winner must be 18 years or older and will spend the day filming during the time period of May 19 – May 31, 2008, in the Chicago, IL area.
This rare chance is part of the CharityBuzz.com online auction benefiting the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial. CharityBuzz is an online charity association that raises money for non-profit organizations through events such as online auctions and live bidding events.
After 13 bids for the role, the next minimum bid is now at at a whopping $37,000. If you’re lucky enough to have the funds, you can CLICK HERE to learn more about the auction and place your bid by the May 7th auction close to help support the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial.
The gangster film is an adaptation of Brian Burrough’s book “Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-43″ and centers on the government’s attempt to stop John Dillinger and his gang.
‘Public Enemies‘ will have its theatrical release next summer in the US on July 1, 2009, in the UK on July 3, 2009, and in the Netherlands on July 9, 2009.
Channing Tatum Declared The Next Big Action Star
April 17, 2008
It’s been a while since I’ve posted an update on Channing Tatum’s live-action movie ‘G.I. Joe‘, so I’m going to try to get everyone caught up on recent happenings with the film.
For starters, above you can see two new cast photos that have been released by the film of crossbow expert Scarlett (Rachel Nichols) and Joe team ninja Snake Eyes (Ray Park).
Channing was recently interviewed by ReelzChannel.com about his newly released film ‘Stop-Loss‘, and they also got a little scoop on ‘G.I. Joe‘. As a fan of the original ’80s animated series, Chan admitted he was a little starstruck when he stood next to Ray Park in his Snake Eyes costume.
“Snake Eyes looks pretty cool in person, I gotta say,” he recounted. “He was always my favorite character. To see him standing next to you is just like, ‘Whoa!’”
You can click on the image below to watch a video where Channing compares ‘Stop-Loss‘ to ‘G.I. Joe‘ in a recent Access Hollywood interview:
‘G.I. Joe‘ is all about the “Real American Hero” and coincidentally, I recently found an interesting article about the new “geek” trend in action heroes. It seems that the impending retirement of “dashing, swashbuckling heroes who can beat up and out shoot any bad guys who come their way” (i.e. Harrison Ford, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson, Arnold Schwarzenegger) has left a bit of a void.
The article was saying that the new breed of action star is less like the stereotypical hero of yesteryear and more like Shia LaBeouf in ‘Transformers’, James McAvoy in ‘Wanted’, and Emile Hirsch in ‘Speed Racer’. Peter Safran, a Hollywood talent manager and producer, was quoted in the article and sees only one up-and-coming young actor who could step into the macho shoes of the 1980’s heroes.
Not surprisingly, he feels that Channing Tatum has everything it takes to fill the traditional hero void. “He is a man and he’ll be the next big action star,” Safran predicts. Also not surprisingly, I could not agree with him more, and we’ll soon be seeing Chan play those types of roles in his upcoming films ‘Battle in Seattle‘, ‘Fighting‘, ‘Public Enemies‘ and of course in his lead role as Duke in ‘G.I. Joe‘.
Thanks to Fabulous Channing Tatum Fan Lainy, you can learn more about the film by reading a recent USA Today article below:
First Look: ‘G.I. Joe’ Aims to Bridge Eras of Toy, TV Fans
By Anthony Breznican, USA TODAY
Say hello to Snake Eyes — just don’t expect him to say anything back.
This is the first character reveal from next August’s G.I. Joe movie — the mute, faceless, black-clad ninja commando, among the most famous of the good guys from the 1980s incarnation of the decades-old Hasbro toy line.
Just as Paramount breathed new life into the Transformers franchise last summer, the studio is hoping to do the same to this sci-fi soldier series about a team of military experts battling the villainous Cobra organization.
G.I. Joe refers to the team, not any one person, and Snake Eyes is its mysterious lone wolf. In the movie, shooting now and set for August 2009, this fearsome figure is played by Ray Park (Darth Maul in the first Star Wars prequel).
“He’s the world’s greatest ninja, but he’s also next-generation. He’s not afraid to use a sword one second, and a split-second later he’s pulling out his Glock,” says director Stephen Sommers (The Mummy and Van Helsing). “His chief nemesis is arguably the world’s other great ninja, Storm Shadow. The two grew up together, were blood brothers and now are mortal enemies.”
Channing Tatum (Step Up) plays all-American team leader Duke. Rachel Nichols (Alias) plays the crossbow-wielding Scarlett, Marlon Wayans is paratrooper Ripcord and Dennis Quaid is the commander, Hawk. On the evil-doer side, Sienna Miller plays the raven-haired Baroness, Christopher Eccleston is Destro, the arms dealer who hides behind a silver mask, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (3rd Rock From the Sun, Brick) plays multiple roles, including the Cobra Commander.
Depending on which decade you grew up in, the name G.I. Joe can mean very different things. Hasbro initiated the G.I Joe line as 12-inch dolls in the 1960s, with generic figures representing the U.S. military branches.
The franchise was relaunched in the ’80s with smaller action figures, new heroes featured in comic books and a popular after-school cartoon.
Transformers producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura also is overseeing this project. He says the appeal then, as now, is broad, across race and even gender. (G.I. Joe was one of the few toys for boys that had female characters.)
“There are quite a few characters in it, and almost certainly a character in which an audience member can see themselves, or want to be,” he says.
Sommers stresses that the movie is an origins story, so his challenge is to explain why the bad guy wears a metal mask, why Snake Eyes doesn’t talk and other strange things kids took for granted. “For people who know nothing about it, it’ll make sense,” Sommers says. “And to people who love
this stuff, it’ll show where they all came from.”
Since the above article was released, there have been reports that Brendan Fraser has booked the role of Gung Ho, the Cajun gunnery sergeant, that Kevin J. O’Connor has filmed a cameo, and that an offer has been extended to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson for the role of Hector Delgado (aka Shipwreck).
Finally, IGN recently released an exclusive video that allows you to meet the cast of G.I. Joe. In their words, it’s the first of many featurettes exploring the characters as they make the trip from page, toy, or TV to the silver screen — collecting and comparing the film’s various casting choices to their cartoon counterparts. You can CLICK HERE to watch the video or you can check it out below. Enjoy!
Director Stephen Sommer’s big screen live-action adaptation of ‘G.I. Joe‘ is scheduled to release in theaters on August 7, 2009. You can CLICK HERE to get a complete list of all of the world-wide release dates for the movie.
NEWS FLASH: New Release Date and Location News for Channing Tatum’s ‘Public Enemies’
April 6, 2008
It’s been a while since I have updated everyone on Channing Tatum’s upcoming film ‘Public Enemies‘. Although Chan has not started filming yet, because he’s been working on ‘G.I. Joe‘, the production has been going full steam ahead all over the Midwest with A-List stars like Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, and Marion Cotillard.
Universal recently announced that ‘Public Enemies‘ will be released in theaters on July 1, 2009. With an A-List cast, a huge budget, and a 4th of July weekend release, I think the movie has officially earned its summer blockbuster status.
As I previously mentioned, there’s been a lot going on with the movie. They filmed in 20 degree weather with Johnny Depp and hundreds of fans in Crown Point, Indiana March 24th - 26th at the old Lake County Sheriff’s House and Jail where Johnny re-inacted the March 3, 1934 Dillinger escape from the Crown Point jail.
The production then moved to Chicago on March 27th where they filmed night shoots with Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, and Rory Cochrane in the Clark, Sheffield, and Newport areas. In the photo on the left, you can see the 1930’s shanty town the production created under a section of Chi-town’s famed elevated train in a neighborhood called Lakeview near the Wrigleyville area of Chicago.
They also converted a large portion of the block to look like Chicago in the 1930’s, which included fake cobble stone streets like the previous shoots in Columbus. The street lamps were replaced with old-fashion, gas-lamp lookalikes, and they placed several vintage cars on the street. They are even having old train cars run on one of the tracks of the elevated. You can CLICK HERE to see lots of great photos from the set taken by someone who lives on the street where they filmed.
The film crew and cast have now moved to the Paramount Theatre in downtown Aurora, Illinois for today and tomorrow. The historic location originally opened in 1931 and was the first air-conditioned movie palace opened outside of Chicago in Illinois. It will be used as a stand in for Chicago’s Biograph Theater in the film.
Just to give you a little background, John Dillinger (Depp) was killed by federal agents as he stepped out of the Biograph Theater on July 22, 1934. It was chosen by Paramount, because they liked the beauty and historical accuracy of the theater for the time period. Designed by nationally renowned theater architects C.W. and George L. Rapp, the gorgeous theater is a hybrid of Art Deco and traditional French Renaissance style.
Next they are supposed to film in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, which will fill in for the March 6, 1934 Sioux Falls Security National Bank and Trust robbery where Dillinger and his gang stole almost $50,000. Reportedly pre-production and filming will take place in downtown Oshkosh from April 10 - 20. Actual filming is set to start April 11th and will last approximately two days at the Old First National Bank on Main Street.
On or about April 29th, the production will head back to Columbus, Wisconsin to film again for a day or so. About the same time, they are also scheduled to film in downtown Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. The lobby of The Rogers, which opened in 1928 and is formally known as Hotel Rogers, will be used for the shoot. Maple Avenue and Spring Street will be shut down for filming.
It’s also been announced that John Dillinger’s November 20, 1933 bank robbery in Racine, Wisconsin where his gang robbed the American Bank & Trust Co., wounded two people, and took another 3 hostage will be shot at the Milwaukee County Historical Center. If you would like to know more about Dillinger and his gang’s bank robbing crime spree that spanned from 1933 to his death in 1934, you can CLICK HERE.
Based on reports, the production is supposed to also head to the following locations soon:
- Richland Center, Wisconsin
- Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin (Little Bohemia Resort)
Since the last post about this film, they have added a ton more cast and crew. Academy Award-winning composer Elliot Goldenthal will reunite with director Michael Mann, 13 years after his score for Mann’s popular action thriller ‘Heat‘. Mann’s films are known for having an eclectic soundtrack, so we should expect different kinds of music in addition to the original score by Elliot Goldenthal in the final cut of the film.
As far as casting is concerned, Variety recently reported that Billy Crudup has been chosen to play FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and Stephen Lang will play Winstead, the leader of the Texas Rangers who joins the manhunt for John Dillinger and his gang. Rory Cochrane is playing agent W. Carter Baum. Gangsters Ed Shouse and Tommy Carroll will be played by Chicago actor Michael Vieau and Spencer Garrett.
Below you will find the main ‘Public Enemies‘ cast list and the roles they will be portraying:
- Johnny Depp - John Dillinger
- Channing Tatum - Pretty Boy Floyd
- Christian Bale - Melvin Purvis
- Marion Cotillard - Billie F
rechette - Giovanni Ribisi - Alvin Karpis
- Stephen Dorff - Homer Van Meter
- David Wenham - Pete Pierpont
- John Ortiz - Frank Nitti
- Stephen Graham - Baby Face Nelson
The gangster film is an adaptation of Brian Burrough’s book “Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-43″ and centers on the government’s attempt to stop John Dillinger and his gang.
Stay-tuned to Channing Tatum Unwrapped, and I will let you know when Channing finally lands on the ‘Public Enemies‘ set.
IN THE PRESS: Channing Tatum and Ryan Phillippe’s ‘Stop-Loss’ Interview from Collider and Teen Hollywood
March 23, 2008
Channing Tatum and his friend and ‘Stop-Loss‘ castmate Ryan Phillippe recently did a press junket in Los Angeles, California to promote their film that hits theaters March 28, 2008.
Both Collider.com and TeenHollywood.com attended the same interview with Chan and Ryan, so we now have an audio of the entire interview from Collider.com and the complete transcript thanks to TeenHollywood.com.
In the information-packed interview, we not only get to learn about the actors’ experiences with ‘Stop-Loss‘, we also get an update on ‘G.I. Joe‘ and ‘Public Enemies‘.
You can CLICK HERE to listen to Channing and Ryan in the Collider.com interview, and you can read the entire TeenHollywood.com transcript below. Enjoy!!!
Best Buds Ryan Phillippe & Channing Tatum
Mar 20, 2008 - Lynn Barker
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We are sitting across from two sizzlin’ hot hunks! Channing Tatum made our hearts beat faster in She’s the Man and Step Up. He recently threw some bangin’ flip moves in the sequel Step Up 2 the Streets. Ryan Phillippe’s blue-eyed blondness blew us away in teen classics I Know What You Did Last Summer and Cruel Intentions and he was impressive as a WWII sailor used by the government for publicity in Flags of Our Fathers.
These guys couldn’t be more different; Ryan’s driving force is his children (with actress Reese Witherspoon) and being a dad is at the forefront of his decisions. Channing is just now achieving very hot bachelor status and lovin’ it. In the very involving and important drama Stop Loss, about Iraq soldiers being forced back into combat after serving their tour, the two play best high school buddies from Texas who serve in Iraq only to become adversaries when one goes AWOL.
To emphasize their differences, the two friends (they bonded during boot camp for the movie) were dressed very differently for our interview; Ryan in white tee that revealed a tattoo on his lower arm, cute hat, lots of silver bracelets and black pants and Channing in crisp, dressy black shirt and black suit pants. We were sitting close enough to Channing to notice a small gash in one of his eyebrows….
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TeenHollywood: Do you have a little boo boo there [we point to his forehead]?
Channing: [laughs] Interesting story. [He looks around] Make sure my publicist isn’t in here. He’ll kill me. I got into a head-butting contest with one of the soldiers last night.
TeenHollywood: Oh, one of the real Army guys you met?
Channing: Yeah. I lost!
TeenHollywood: So you haven’t left your role behind yet then?
Channing: It’s not totally gone.
TeenHollywood: How did both of you come to be in the film? Did [writer/director] Kimberly Peirce pick you?
Channing: I chose Kimberly on this one. I totally read the script. I heard that Kim was doing a movie. I loved her first film [Boys Don’t Cry]. I read the script and had no idea about [the] stop-loss [rule]. I fell in love with [the story]. I fell in love with Steve [his character]. The idea of playing a soldier was always in my mind. I thought that Steve embodied someone that I’ve always wanted to be. I just never really had the balls to go and join the military, you know? Then I did a really extensive audition process, long, back and forth to New York and stuff like that and eventually came on the movie.
Ryan: I had read the script. I had just finished working and I was worn out and I went to meet with her and we had a decent meeting and she didn’t want me [we laugh] and the studio kind of did.
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Channing: I didn’t know that.
Ryan: Yeah. I spent more time with her and then at that point I wasn’t sure whether or not it was right for me either. I felt like she was a filmmaker and she’d have me forced upon her and then I guess she changed her mind. We started spending time together and developed a great working relationship and I decided it was a great opportunity to work with her and to play this character. There was so much range and all of the emotion with this guy. As we started shooting I was so happy that it all worked out because I loved the experience and everyone I was working with so much.
TeenHollywood: So how do you see your character Brandon King [the guy who goes AWOL after being “stop lossed”]?
Ryan: I see
him as a guy who has always known what is right and lived that way through most of his life. I think he is a very straightforward, decent, honest guy and through the events of this movie finds himself having to reconsider all those things about himself. I think that crisis of conscience and that soul-searching over what is duty and honor and weighing what is most important to you… I think his whole life everything was kind of black and white to him. There’s a right way to do things and a wrong way.
TeenHollywood: You guys play best friends. I wondered if you had to get together separately to get that dynamic before you shot.
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