The Latest in Latino Entertainment News

Johnny Depp confirmed for Burton’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’

After it was announced that Tim Burton would direct “Alice in Wonderland 3-D,” a take on the classic Lewis Carroll fairy tale, fans assumed that Johnny Depp would somehow have to be involved. Burton and Depp have previously collaborated on six previous films, including “Sweeney Todd,” “Sleepy Hollow,” “Edward Scissorhands” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”

Now, Entertainment Weekly is reporting that fans’ suspicions are absolutely true. But whether he will play the rumored Mad Hatter is still unknown.

A source revealed that the film will be live-action until Alice (Mia Wasikowska) jumps down the rabbit hole and meets the loopy tea party host. Even if Depp does take on the Mad Hatter, there is still the question of whether he will have to do any acting or simply lend his voice for the computer-generated part of the film.

At this point, the new movie is set to begin filming early next year for a 2010 release. Linda Woolverton (Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King) penned the script.

Lethal Weapon 5?

Hollywood tracking board TrackingB.com reports that Shane Black, who wrote the first Lethal Weapon movie, has written a spec script for Lethal Weapon 5 without telling anyone. The site adds that he contacted franchise producer Joel Silver and said that he wanted to continue the story.

This time, homicidal Riggs (Mel Gibson) is about to retire, but pulls Murtaugh (Danny Glover) out of retirement to solve one final case, before they both officially head off into the sunset.

TrackingB.com says that Gibson and Glover are down to return, but no deals have been signed.

The first film was released in 1987, the second in 1989, the third in 1992 and the fourth in 1998.

Tarantino to cast Britney Spears

Britney Spears has accepted a role as a psychotic lesbian stripper in Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming remake of the 1965 cult classic Faster Pussycat! Kill Kill!

The Pulp Fiction director has cast 26-year-old Britney as “Varla,” an adult entertainer who leads a trio of exotic dancers is murdering a young couple trapped alone in the desert.

According to The Daily Telegraph, Brit’s character murders the boyfriend with her bare hands before taking the girlfriend hostage, with whom she will engage in a number of sex scenes.

“Quentin is convinced Britney will be brilliant.”

“Britney is delighted, she thinks it could turn her career and her life around. A successful film could help her get out of her current nightmare,” an excited insider confirms to The Daily Telegraph.

“It is perfect Tarantino material. He wanted to get Britney first. She’s playing the most important character.”

Quentin is still on the hunt for a pair of Hollywood starlets to take on the roles of the remaining two strippers.

Jason Statham to play Daredevil?

Death Race and Crank star Jason Statham wants to be in a big screen reboot of the popular Marvel character Daredevil. But Statham doesn’t want to play the baddie Bullseye, he wants to take over as the blind man behind the red mask – Daredevil, who was played by Ben Affleck in Mark Steven Johnson’s 2003 film.

Frank Miller, who is credited for adding new depths to the comic book series in the 1970’s, has also given his approval: “I think he should be Daredevil too,” Miller told the LA Times.

The Green Lantern in development

Production Weekly’s current issue has updated Warner Bros’ adaptation of DC Comic’s The Green Lantern as being in active development.

As the story goes, each sector of space is protected by a Green Lantern, possessing a power ring that uses a powerful green energy to do anything within the limits of the user’s imagination and will power. When the Green Lantern assigned to this sector of space finds himself dying on planet Earth, he tells the ring to find a suitable successor. The chosen replacement, hot-shot test pilot Hal Jordan, finds himself with a new job he never expected.

No director is mentioned in the above update, although Greg Berlanti (Everwood, Eli Stone) was attached to the project last year.

Justin Timberlake will host the Oscars?

Say those six words when you get to the gates of hell and you’ll immediately be ushered to the VIP section.

I think it’s pretty effin’ disgusting that the producers are even considering allowing this douche bag host the Oscars. How long are the Oscars? Like 15 hours? Imagine sitting through 15 hours of Justin Timberlake. There isn’t enough booze and drugs on the planet to get you through that.

A source told The National Enquirer (via CM) that the producers were impressed with Justin after watching him host the ESPY Awards. They thought he was “naturally funny.” And me thinks the producers are “naturally high.”

They also think Justin could bring in a younger audience. The source went on to say, “Justin is more than a singer, he’s a song-and-dance man – and turned in a performance (at the ESPY Awards) any comedian would envy. Our first question was, ‘Can we get him?’ Justin does it all, and knows how to work a star-studded audience.” Song-and-dance man? Since when is this douche Gene Kelly?

This may be the perfect time to end the Oscars awards show. It’s been a good run, but it’s time to call it a day the minute you start to consider Justin Timberfake as a host. Instead, they can hand out the awards in the parking lot of Bob’s Big Boy after Sunday buffet brunch.

Bardem says no to ‘Killing Pablo’

An interesting development at today’s press junket for Woody Allen’s romantic comedy Vicky Christina Barcelona when ComingSoon.net spoke to the film’s star Javier Bardem and asked him about Joe Carnahan’s Killing Pablo, for which the Oscar-winning actor was attached to play the title role of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar.

It was reported by Variety last October that the Yari Film Group was fast-tracking the film with Bardem playing the lead role and Christian Bale to co-star. When ComingSoon.net spoke to Carnahan earlier this summer, he was already talking about his trip down to Colombia to start preparing in order to shoot the movie in the fall. (At the time, he said nothing about the casting.)

In February, the National Ledger cast some doubt on whether Bardem would play the role, but it seemed more like Bardem hadn’t decided what he wanted to do yet, saying “Those credits are up in the air” even though Bardem was still listed to play the role on IMDb.com, having presumably been Carnahan’s first choice for Escobar.

With that in mind, ComingSoon.net asked Bardem today how he was preparing for the role, to which we were informed that it was “a mistake” and that it “wasn’t true” he was going to play the part in Carnahan’s movie. Since we presumed everything was in place for casting with the Variety report and Carnahan’s own progress on moving into production, we’ll have to wait and see who Carnahan gets to fill the role if Bardem is out. There’s been no word from Bale on his own part in the movie despite having spent the past few weeks doing press for The Dark Knight.

Morgan Freeman in serious condition after accident

Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman is in a hospital in Memphis, Tenn., on Monday after being seriously injured in a car accident near his home in Mississippi.

Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Kathy Stringer said Freeman, 71, is in serious condition. The hospital is about 90 miles north of the accident scene in rural Tallahatchie County in the Mississippi Delta.

Mississippi Highway Patrol spokesman Sgt. Ben Williams said Freeman was driving a 1997 Nissan Maxima belonging to Demaris Meyer of Memphis when the car left a rural highway and flipped several times shortly before midnight Sunday.

“There’s no indication that either alcohol or drugs were involved,” Williams said. He said both Freeman and Meyer were wearing seat belts. The woman’s condition was not immediately available.

Freeman was airlifted to the hospital in Tennessee.

Clay McFerrin, editor of Sun Sentinel in Charleston, said he arrived at the accident scene on Mississippi Highway 32 soon after it happened about 5 miles west of Charleston, not far from where Freeman owns a home with his wife.

McFerrin said it appeared that Freeman’s car was airborne when it left the highway and landed in a ditch.

“They had to use the jaws of life to extract him from the vehicle,” McFerrin said. “He was lucid, conscious. He was talking, joking with some of the rescue workers at one point.”

McFerrin said bystanders converged on the scene trying to get a glimpse of the actor.

When one person tried to snap a photo with a cell phone camera, Freeman joked, “no freebies, no freebies,” McFerrin said.

Freeman won an Oscar for his role in “Million Dollar Baby.” His screen credits also include “The Shawshank Redemption,” “Driving Miss Daisy” and “The Dark Knight,” now in theaters.

He was born in Memphis, Tenn., but spent much of his childhood in the Mississippi Delta. He is a co-owner of the Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale.

The hospital where Freeman is being treated is commonly known as The Med, and is an acute-care teaching facility that serves patients within 150 miles of Memphis.