Angelina Jolie - Tomb Raider

I haven't done anything here in awhile, so why not get the ball rolling with the obligatory Angelina Jolie/Tomb Raider pic?

You know Tomb Raider came out in 2001, but she is still referred to as "Tomb Raider star Angelina Jolie" in a lot of news stories.
Of course now with her filming the Disney movie "Maleficent", you wonder if all that will change.

Angelina Jolie - Upcoming Movies

With all the talk about Brad and Angelina's twins starting preschool, Angelina possibly being named Special Representative on the Afghan refugee situation, her two day trip to Libya and them selling their 13 million dollar Malibu home, you'd think Angelina had just given up acting.

True, her last film was The Tourist in 2010 and so far in 2011 the only thing she has coming out is Kung Fu Panda 2 where she again does the voice of Tigress.

But Angelina has several film project lined up including Churchill and Roosevelt (with Anthony Hopkins possibly as Churchill), Salt 2, Maleficent (The Sleeping Beauty story from the perspective of the princess' evil nemesis), Cleopatra and that still Untitled Kay Scarpetta Project.

Her biggest deal at the moment is the December 23rd, 2011 release of In the Land of Blood and Honey, that she wrote and directed.
This love story set during the Bosnian War was shot in Bosnia in October of 2010 and stars local actors.

Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp - The Tourist Updates

The debut poster for Columbia Pictures comedy-drama -thriller "The Tourist" was released this week.
The poster has a close up of Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp, and carries the tag line, "It all started when he met a woman,".
The film is was directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck and is a remake of the French film by Anthony Zimmer.



Interestingly, Tom Cruise was once set to play Frank (Johnny Depp's character), but he pulled out, was replaced by Sam Worthington, and then Johnny Depp
You may recall that Cruise was originally supposed to be the lead character in "Salt" and when he pulled out, Angelina took over the role.

If you havent seen the trailer yet, here it is...



You can check out the film's website here:
http://www.thetourist-movie.com/


Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp - The Tourist Updates, posted to http://angelina-jolie-pitt.blogspot.com/, on October 2nd, 2010

Angelina Jolie - Salt Opens Today

I first mentioned Salt back in August of 2008, and now almost two years later we finally get to see Angelina Jolie's completed project.

Salt opens today but yesterday, Angelina, director Phillip Noyce, producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura and co-star Liev Schreiber showed up at the Salt panel at Comic-Con in San Diego.
I think this may have been her first Comic Con appearance.

So far critics have been fairly positive about the films....
Rotten Tomatoes reports that 56% of 95 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 5.9 out of 10.
Metacritic gave it a rating score of 64 based on 34 reviews.
Kirk Honeycutt of the Hollywood Reporter liked it, as did Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert and Karina Mitchell of CBS News.
Both said it was cartoony violence and action, but it worked.
Oddly, a lack of CGI seems to be praised quite a bit.
Avatar backlash?

So now everyone seems to be looking forward to The Tourist (with Johnny Depp) and Cleopatra is already generating a lot of buzz.




Angelina Jolie - Salt Opens Today, posted to http://angelina-jolie-pitt.blogspot.com/ on July 22nd, 2010

The Actress Angelina Jolie, Part Four

In 2005, Angelina Jolie only had one movie released, the romantic action comedy film Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
I have to admit though, it was one of my favorites.
Of course her co-star in the film was Brad Pitt, and I thought they showed amazing chemistry.
I wonder if the film was like couples therapy for them?
Anyway, the film was one of the biggest hits of 2005, and earned over $478 million worldwide.


Her next film was 2006's The Good Shepherd, directed by Robert De Niro.
In this film she co-stared with Matt Damon, William Hurt, Alec Baldwin and Joe Pesci.
This film was nowhere near as successful as Mr. & Mrs. Smith, only pulling in $99.4 million worldwide.

In 2007, Angelina directed her first movie, the documentary A Place in Time.
The movie was screened at the Tribeca Film Festival and distributed through the National Education Association.
It was shown mainly in High Schools, and chronicled life in 27 locations around the globe during a single week.


Also in 2007, she appeared in A Mighty Heart, directed by Michael Winterbottom.
Again, this film failed to really take off, taking in only a little over $18 million worldwide, although the critics seemed to like it.
The film did get Angelina her fourth Golden Globe Award and a third Screen Actors Guild Award nomination.


And of course in 2007 she appeared in Robert Zemeckis' "performance capture" fantasy film, Beowulf.
Angelina played Grendel's mother and was digitalized.
Beowulf did much better, pulling in over $196 million dollars worldwide.
The film used a a motion capture process like The Polar Express and Monster House, and was released in IMAX 3D, Real D, Dolby 3D and standard 2D format.


2008 started off with a bang (literally) as Angelina appeared as the assassin "Fox" in Wanted.
The movie itself is a far cry from the comic series it was based on.
The film got pretty much positive reviews from critics and made over $341 million worldwide.
Wanted won the Empire Award for Best Sci-Fi / Superhero Movie of 2008, and was nominated for two Academy Awards, the Critics Choice Award for Best Action Movie, the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film, three MTV Movie Awards,and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble.
And yes, the sequel is pretty much a go, with Fox being resurrected.


And in 2008, Angelina did the voice of Master Tigress in the animated Kung Fu Panda.
Again, the film received positive reviews from critics and pulled in over $600 million worldwide.
On November 9, 2008, it was released on DVD and Blu-Ray.
And like Wanted, there is a sequel planned, Kung Fu Panda: The Kaboom of Doom.


Staying busy in 2008 (and drastically changing geras) Angelina appeared in Clint Eastwood's drama Changeling which was based on the "Wineville Chicken Coop" kidnapping and murder case.
Changeling made over $113 million worldwide, with most of the money being made overseas.
The film was nominated for three Academy Award and eight BAFTA Awards.


And now Angelina is working on Salt, an action thriller film directed by Phillip Noyce.
Her co-stars in the film are Liev Schreiber and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
Interestingly, the role was originally written for Tom Cruise, but the script was rewritten for Angelina.
The official release date is set for July 23, 2010.

The Actress Angelina Jolie, Part One

Everyone seems to focus on Angelina Jolie's adoptions, charities, weight, relationship with Brad Pitt, rivalries with Jennifer Aniston, Megan Fox etc., no one seems to actually focus on the actress Angelina Jolie.

Angelina has done thirty five movies, counting her current project "Salt".
She started out with her very first movie "Lookin’ to Get Out" in 1982 at the age of seven.
The film was written by Al Schwartz and her father,Jon Voight, and Angelina appears as Jon's character's daughter "Tosh" near the end of the film.

Of course she didnt show up in film again until 1993's Cyborg 2 as Casella "Cash" Reese.
Cyborg 2 was actually part of a trilogy starting with Cyborg (starring Jean-Claude Van Damme) and ending with the direct to video Cyborg 3: The Recycler.
In the third movie, Angelina's character was played by Khrystyne Haje.

Then came 1995's Without Evidence where Angelina starred with Scott Plank (Melrose Place).
But Angelina's other 1995 was the cult hit "Hackers".
Angelina starred in it as Kate Libby also known as "Acid Burn".

1996 saw three movies with Angelina come out, Mojave Moon ( with Danny Aiello, Anne Archer, Michael Biehn, Alfred Molina and Peter MacNicol), Love Is All There Is (a romantic comedy film) and Foxfire.

In 1997 Angelina had three more projects.
Two TV movies (True Women and George Wallace) and a theatrical release, Playing God ( with David Duchovny, Timothy Hutton and the awesome Peter Stormare).
Playing God didn't do very well, but the TV movie George Wallace got Angelina a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Series/Miniseries/TV Movie, and an Emmy Nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie.

So finally, Angelina Jolie was getting some attention.


posted to http://angelina-jolie-pitt.blogspot.com/ on August 18th, 2009

Angelina Jolie News: Iraq, McDonalds and Wanted 2

Lots of Angelina Jolie news today so.....

Angelina made her third trip to Iraq last Thursday show her support for Iraqis affected by war.
Why three trips?
Well you have to remember that besides beign an actress, Angelina is also a U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Goodwill Ambassador.
Angelina first visited Iraq in 2007, then again in Februray 2009, and then again last Thursday.
On Thursday she toured a makeshift settlement on the outskirts of Baghdad on Thursday, where 20,000 Iraqis live.

And in other news, Angelina and Brad hit a McDonalds drive thru over the weekend.
Yep, thats actually being reported as news.
Details: Brad was driving, Angie rode shotgun and all the kids ( Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, and the twins, Knox and Vivienne) were in the back.
No word on what they ordered.

And speaking of Knox and Vivienne, they turned 1 on July 12th.
Yes it's really been a little over a year since they were born.

And it looks like there will be a "Wanted 2" and that James McAvoy (Wesley Gibson) and Angelina (Fox) will both be in it.
But Fox died in the first one.
Ahhhh...but in movie sequels (like comic books and Wanted was loosely based on a comic book) people rarely stay dead.
At the San Diego Comic Con, director Timur Bekmambetov said that even though Fox was seriously wounded (yep) she was put in the "wax bath" from the first movie.
Can that heal her?
If Angelina Jolie signs on, trust me, they will find a way to get Fox back up and running.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Mr and Mrs Smith 2?

There's a rumor floating around that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt want to make a sequel to their hit movie "Mr and Mrs Smith".
I say rumor because the only place I could find any info about it was the National Enquirer.
At least it didn't say Angelina and Brad were looking at an apartment on the Moon.
You may recall they met and fell in love on the set while they were filming back in 2005.
Brad was still married to Jennifer Aniston at the time.

Allegedly the sequel will have the couple....with kids.
Kids?
Mr and Mrs Smith with children?
Are we getting into Disney territory here?

I really liked the original.
And it grossed over $458 million world wide so it did pretty well.
Except in Colombia where they got a tad upset about the movie.
There was even talk of a spin off TV series.
Though not with Angelina and Brad.

Angelina Joile and Tomb Raider 3

Tomb Raider 3 is going ahead with production.
But it will be going ahead without Angelina Joile.
The producer Dan Lin has said that he wants the new movie to be a re-boot (here we go again) and that the new movie will focus on a younger Lara Croft and her origin story.
He also said he wants the film to be more character-driven.
He also wants to make the movie more realistic than the past Lara Croft movies.
You can see the video interview with Dan Lin here:
http://video.about.com/movies/Dan-Lin-Interview.htm

Tomb Raider
Character-driven?
More realistic?

Lofty goals.
But isn't this a movie about a video game?
Don't get me wrong, I like story as much as anybody.
And action films can have a good storyline.
But isn't Tomb Raider supposed to be escapism?
A gorgeous, smart, athletic woman running around blasting the bad guys?
I just can't see a Tomb Raider movie winning an Oscar for best picture.
And I suppose since it's a reboot, Tomb Raider 3 is out as a title.
Let me guess..."Tomb Raider: A New Beginning".

Here's my idea.....
Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie) runs into trouble in the present day, finds a mystic artifact that transports her back in time and meets her younger self (Megan Fox).
The two Tomb Raiders team up and save the world (while of course causing massive destruction) and look really good doing it.

There, you can thank me for the 95 million dollar opening weekend later.