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 Michael Douglas found out about three weeks ago that he has stage four throat cancer, and he has already undergone the first of eight weeks of radiation and chemotherapy treatments. Douglas appeared on the David Letterman Show in the US last night and talked about his chances and his intention to beat the adversary.
Douglas told the audience that he thinks his odds are good, probably 80 percent, since the cancer has apparently not spread anywhere else. He also said the cause was long-term habits of smoking and drinking, and the late diagnosis was not the fault of his doctors, though his wife, British actress Catherine Zeta-Jones has been reported as wondering why physicians did not notice anything earlier.
The Oscar-winning actor is 65 years old and said he went to the doctor for what he thought was just a sore throat. He was shocked when he heard the diagnosis, but says he feels positive about the outcome.
His wife and their two children, Carys and Dylan are temporarily staying in Bermuda, and Douglas said they have been very supportive. Catherine told interviewers that the worst part was Michael’s uncharacteristic fatigue, and Michael said that he is often in considerable pain.
When Letterman mentioned that Michael didn’t look or sound like he had cancer, and asked how that could be, the actor told him, “I’m on stage”, and got a laugh from the audience. Douglas will be back on the big screen again soon with the release of his new film. His role as Gordon Gekko in “Wall Street” won him an Oscar, and “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” is the sequel, set to open on September 24th.
Three nuclear devices have been placed in separate cities across the US, the terrorist responsible, Arthur Younger, played by Michael Sheen, has been captured. The only problem is the authorities have no idea which cities are bombs have been placed in, and all efforts to locate them have been fruitless, and the terrorist refuses to speak.
This is when the government become desperate and give the terrorist into the hands of Samuel L. Jackson’s character “H”, a well practised and very thorough torturer, who knows his craft very well and is not in the least bit afraid to use it in the extreme.
The difference with Unthinkable is that as the movie progresses we become less concerned about the increasingly nasty torture practices used my Jackson, and become more concerned about the moral rights and wrongs of whether or not this man should be tortured in order to save perhaps many hundreds of thousands of lives.
The question becomes is this one man’s human rights worth more or less than the lives of three cities full of people. It is this angle that separates this high-quality movie from others that concentrate on shoot-em-up American heroes versus bad guy in Islamic extremists.
In this case we are torn between the seemingly more evil American antihero, and the increasingly tortured terrorist. But the real issues come to light as Younger simply refuses to give in no matter how far H pushes his torture techniques.
As the clock ticks, more and more freedom is given to the torturer in order to get the information out of him before time runs out. As H says Younger “needs to know that there is no limit to how far I will go” and as the film progresses we realise that there really is no limit to what he will do to get the information he needs. Yet somehow we do not turn away from the horror but instead get sucked into the moral maze of this excellent movie.
 MGM, the major studio film distributor, may be a in a load of financial trouble at the moment, but they still made time to sign a contract with Lovefilm allowing their film archive to become part of the live streaming service.
Lovefilm has spent the last few months building its film collection for the online streaming rental service by making deals with Sony and Samsung so that consumers can stream their on-demand movie selection straight through home televisions.
The MGM deal proves that Lovefilm is working on building up its VoD library with 4,100 movies available currently for viewers to instantly demand and view.
This should help out MGM, which is in the middle of a financial jungle that has forced the major studio to place indefinite halts on The Hobbit and James Bond franchise films.
MGM also signed a new deal with ITV HD earlier in August that will allow ITV to show the entire James Bond franchise on their channel in HD.
For Lovefilm, this is one of their largest partnerships yet over its six year life. Its last great deal happened two years ago when it partnered up with Amazon so that it could win its DVD rental service within the UK borders.
CEO of Lovefilm, Simon Calver, stated that the company is delighted that MGM has agreed to make its content available to the rental service and stated that their library will be a great addition to what the company has to offer consumers.
 The successful iPhone game Angry Birds could soon become a feature film. The games company Rovio is in talks with Hollywood studios to discuss developing a film based on the game.
In the game, a group of angry birds set off to kill pigs that have stolen their eggs. Rovio is currently looking at forming the company into a franchise that could work with television and film as well as toys and comic books. Mikael Hed, the company’s chief executive, states that Rovio has been talking with various studios to see if the game could indeed be turned into a film.
Hed says that the company has begun to experiment with different methods of storytelling for the franchise. Rovio has started to tell the Angry Birds story with cartoons, and the company has hopes that the unique characters will become successful toys. A trailer on YouTube for Angry Birds has over five million views.
Still, Hed also knows that a film could take years to produce, and interest in the game may fade over time. He says that it will be very challenging to ensure that the game is “relevant when the movie comes out”. Currently, the game has a price of 59 pence in the UK, with the U.S. version costing 99 cents. Rovio has also released a free version with less features which has been download over 10 million times. As one of the most popular apps on the iTunes store, Angry Birds could soon be seen in a theatre near you.
 It certainly feels like Mel Gibson has gone from Braveheart hero to zero over the last few years. His never-ending bad publicity has been following him around including allegations by his ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva that he abused her.
Apparently there is now a new twist story as investigators had to look into the possibility that she attempted to extort money from the New York born Australian actor. It seems that the Los Angeles County sheriff’s department are considering the possibility of attempted extortion with regard to leaked tapes featuring the Mad Max star and his ex-girlfriend.
They are still considering allegations that he struck his girlfriend at a time when she had there infant daughter in her arms. It is understood that LA detectives have had the least one meeting with Gibson’s army of lawyers, and they have stated that there is absolutely no foundation to any abuse allegations with regard to domestic violence.
 Troubled actress Lindsay Lohan is due to find out today if she will be released early from rehab or be forced to spend the next two months in the court ordered program.
The court hearing in Beverly Hills supposedly has been ordered given reports from her treating doctors that they do not believe she actually has psychiatric or drug problems as previously diagnosed.
Lohan already has had the luck to get out of her solitary jail cell Paris Hilton style after only 13 days as part of an agreement to enter a 90 day rehab program in Los Angeles. She was serving the sentence for violating terms of her probation related to a cocaine possession and DUI charge in 2007.
Two weeks ago the prosecutor in her case stated that it is likely that she will recommended for early release with outpatient treatment after determining that she does not have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder despite the fact that she has been medicated for it over the last few years.
Other rumors state that she also does not suffer to bipolar disorder.
Rehab is familiar territory for Lohan as she has already been to rehab three times since 2007
 The girl with the dragon tattoo now has a follow up movie, actually the second of a trilogy entitled “The girl who played with fire”, this second outing for our heroin Lisbeth Salander. The story from the late Stieg Larsson is certainly a rollercoaster of action from beginning to end.
The main character Noomi Rapace is being hunted as the suspect of a triple homicide revolving around international sex traffickers. The pace of this movie is certainly relentless as the social misfit cyberpunk avoids not only Mikael Blomquist, a journalist and old friend of hers, but also the secret police, but she never stays still long enough for anyone to track her down.
It has been a year since the end of the first chapter, and Lisbeth has returned to her home town after a year out of the country complete with jet black hair and the infamous tattoo. But she quickly becomes the prime suspect in a string of murders for which she has apparently been framed, so now not only must she hide and run she needs to exact retribution on those that are trying to harm her. Watch this trailer for just a hint of what this high-speed crime thriller has to offer.
 Mel Gibson is not having a nice summer. Now he’s got a five-figure repair bill for his $110,000 Maseratti, which had to be towed from the scene of an accident on Malibu Canyon Road on Sunday night.
California Highway Patrol officers said that there was no indication of alcohol, drugs or other impairment such as cell phone use at the time of the accident. Mr. Gibson lost control and the car veered into the hillside, and one theory is that he may have nodded off. Gibson says he just doesn’t know how it happened, and no charges were filed.
Mel Gibson’s illustrious career as actor, director and producer has been virtually destroyed by his raucously abusive behaviour towards James Mee, an LA county deputy sheriff, and his attacks on Oksana Grigorieva, the ex-mistress who may or may not have lost some teeth to his unleashed temper. Gibson has avoided court appearances pertaining to his assault on Grigorieva, and the chief witness in that episode, a babysitter, passed away this weekend.
The once admired and respected celebrity has succeeded in turning almost everyone against him, and he’s not getting much sympathy for his damaged Maseratti.
 Madonna has been rumoured to be playing a major prima donna on her new film set, ‘W.E’ annoying the crew and cast as she antagonizes over every scene she shoots.
The popular singer, aged 52, is the director of the new film that follows King Edward VIII’s relationship with the American Wallis Simpson.
A source from the set said that the singer is irritating the crew because after every scene she overanalyzes how it went, going as far as taking three hours to shoot a simple ten second scene of Abbie Cornish in the bath as Wally Simpson.
Also revealed was the fact that Lourdes will make her acting debut in the film in a small cameo role. Production on the film started in June in London, with Madonna not only directing the film, but also having a hand in writing the screenplay.
 Steven Spielberg’s film studio today placed its backing behind the move to save the UK Film Council.
Spielberg’s, DreamWorks, has seen the production of a great number of Academy award winning films including Saving Private Ryan, War of the Worlds, and Gladiator. The studio wrote a letter to Chancellor George Osborne, in which Spielberg expressed concern about the decision to abolish the quango.
The letter was signed by the studio’s president of production, Steven Molen.
DreamWorks has shot a number of films within the UK including Sweeney Todd, which starred Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp.
The letter comes at a time when the future of the council is uncertain. The quango is responsible for disturbing lottery cash and overseeing a £60m budget.
Stephen Frears, the well known director, accused the Government today of putting the British film industry in jeopardy by destroying the Council without announcing any plans for what will replace it.
Frears and director Danny Boyle along with many top producers claim that negotiations to get large ticket films into Britain are being hurt by the looming uncertainty.
Boyle known for directing Slumdog Millionaire stated that if you want to build a strong film industry there needs to be continuity so that people are aware of how to go about developing a film because without that they are too worried to proceed given the high cost of filming.
Frears added that a system has to be in place and should have been developed and announced before the Film Council was abolished.
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Michael Douglas found out about three weeks ago that he has stage four throat cancer, and he has already undergone the first of eight weeks of radiation and chemotherapy treatments. Douglas appeared on the David Letterman Show in the US last night and talked about his chances and his intention to beat the adversary.
