Bryan Cranston Eyes 'The Great Wall'; Anthony Hopkins will 'Go with Me'; John Travolta Puts 'Life on the Line'

 Now that Matt Damon is said to be considering a role in Zhang Yimou's Chinese epic, The Great Wall, the latest to give it a look is Bryan Cranston. The Breaking Bad star and multiple Emmy-winner may join the film which examines the mysterious origins of China's wondrous landmark. Cranson was last seen (for a few minutes, anyway) in Godzilla, and will soon star in a Dalton Trumbo biopic opposite Helen Mirren. [Deadline]

Anthony Hopkins is reteaming with his Kidnapping Freddy Heineken director Daniel Alfredson for another thriller, Go with Me. Greg Jacobs (Magic Mike XXL director) and Joe Gangemi adapted the script from Castle Freeman Jr.'s book about "a young woman who returns to her hometown in the Pacific Northwest only to be harassed by an ex-cop turned crimelord named Blackway. Forsaken by the locals and advised to leave town by the local sheriff, she instead turns to an ex-logger (Hopkins) and his sidekick to help her fight back against her sociopathic stalker."

John Travolta, Kate Bosworth, and Devon Sawa (where's he been?) will star in Life on the Line, an action thriller directed by Saw V's David Hackl.  The disaster drama follows a crew of eccentric electrical grid linemen who do the dangerous high-wire job while trying to hold on to the women they love and survive a massive storm that threatens to rip their lives apart.

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Karen Gillan, John Travolta, Ethan Hawke, and Taissa Farmiga Join 'In A Valley of Violence'

One of the keys to the small-budget success of Blumhouse Productions, beyond just selecting genre films that are inexpensive and have wide appeal, is their penchant for perfect casting. We've seen the success they've had with Ethan Hawke on The Purge and Sinister, doing well enough that both have sequels on the way. And now as horror maven Ti West prepares his next film, In A Valley of Violence, Blumhouse is again turning to Hawke and another repeat castmember to fill out the cast.

Hawke is set to lead In A Valley of Violence and he'll be joined by Karen Gillan, who recently starred in Blumhouse horror, Oculus. Also coming aboard are John Travolta and Taissa Farmiga (The Bling Ring) in what is being described as a revenge Western. Hawke will play a drifter with nothing to lose by seeking revenge on the thugs who killed his friend. Farmiga and Gillan are sisters running the town hotel and help Hawke's character with his plan. Nothing on Travolta's character yet but we have to assume he's one of the villains, right?

West's latest film, The Sacrament, opens in June which is when In A Valley of Violence begins shooting. Gillan will be seen next in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy as Nebula. [Deadline]

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Jackie Earle Haley to Direct John Travolta and Michael Pitt in 'Criminal Activities'

Todd Field's Little Children put Jackie Earle Haley back on the Hollywood map after years of obscurity, and he's followed-up on that with a string of great supporting roles. And now that he's considered one of today's top character actors, Haley is switching gears and prepping his directorial debut, Criminal Activities.

Haley has landed John Travolta, Michael Pitt, Rebecca Da Costa (The Bag Man) and Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) for the crime drama, which he will also have a role in.  It's unclear who wrote the screenplay, but the story concerns four best friends who decide to invest in a stock that will supposedly make them millions, only to end up broke and indebted to the mob.

If Haley can apply the same skill behind the cameras as he does in front, this could be a solid little thriller. Filming begins in June.

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Ethan Hawke and John Travolta Join Ti West's ''In a Valley of Violence'

When was the last time John Travolta starred in a horror? Was it Carrie way back in 1976? Whenever it was, it's not a genre we typically see him in, while Ethan Hawke has become a veteran after starring in Sinister and The Purge. Now the two will team up to star in the next film from horror director, Ti West.

Travolta and Hawke will lead In a Valley of Violence, a revenge Western which West will write and direct. Plot details are being kept under wraps but it will be set in the 1980s. Blumhouse Pictures, the studio behind Paranormal Activity and Hawke's aforementioned hits is on board for this one, and it's kind of cool to have Travolta in the fold. It'll be a good way for him to get beyond the whole "Adele Dazeem" thing.

This is a change of pace for West, who last directed The Sacrament, a horror opening in May and starring Joe Swanberg, Amy Seimetz, and AJ Bowen.[THR]

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First Looks: Jason Clarke in 'Everest'; Pierce Brosnan's 'November Man'; 'The Forger' with John Travolta

Dudes, take note: three straight-up macho flicks are in production right now and headed our way real soon, and now we've got new images from all of them.

Right off the bat is the first image of Jason Clarke (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) in Everest, which has him scaling the mountain alongside Jake Gyllenhaal, John Hawkes, and Josh Brolin. That's a lot of testosterone for one set, isn't it? Insurance must have been sky high. Anyway, the 3D flick is directed by Baltasar Kormakur (The Deep) and is based in part on Jon Krakauer's book, Into Thin Air, about a doomed 1996 climbing expedition.  Everest is set to open February 27th 2015.

Forget Liam Neeson and Kevin Costner, Pierce Brosnan used to be James friggin' Bond, so he's automatically cooler than both of them. Just check out this first image from November Man which has him walking away from an explosion, no doubt in slow-motion. Directed by Roger Donaldson (The Bank Job) and co-starring Dominic Cooper, the action thriller has Brosnan as an ex-CIA operative brought back in on a very personal mission, and finds himself going against his former pupil in a deadly game involving high-level CIA officials and the Russian president-elect

And finally it's three tough guys in the first photo from heist flick, The Forger, starring John Travolta, Christopher Plummer, and Tye Sheridan. Travolta and that ridiculous facial hair star as petty thief and former child art prodigy who negotiates his release from prison to spend time with his ailing son. But upon getting out he's forced into one last job by the same people who brokered the deal. Philip Martin (Prime Suspect) is directing and a release date has yet to be secured.

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Review: 'From Paris With Love'

They should consider taking Paris out of the title. It's misleading. False advertising. There is one line where Travolta, doing his usual trying too hard to be crazy routine, blurts out a line of bravado, "Welcome to Paris, baby." He's carrying a rocket launcher at the time. Too bad by then I had forgotten the story took place there. It could've been Calcutta for all I knew. Might've been more interesting if it was.

John Travolta, doing that bald-headed crazy guy overacting thing he's so well versed at, plays Charlie Wax. Charlie is one of those movie cliche government badasses. The ones with no real leash to speak of, kept off the books by beaurocrats so that he can operate freely. I never could buy Travolta in this type of role. Anytime he needs to be portrayed as a little kooky, he shaves his head and grows a ridiculous furry goatee. He looks like a q-tip that's been dropped on a barbershop floor.

Wax has been dropped into Paris on a vague, horribly defined mission. It's either drugs or terrorism. Whoever wrote this thing seems unsure which direction to take it. Wax is teamed up with James Reese(Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), a low level assistant working at the American Embassy. He wants desperately to be a part of The Club, which I guess is a cool way of saying he gets to shoot people for the FBI. In order to do so, he needs to play chauffeur as Wax does his thing.  Reese has a sexy girlfriend who worries about him. Think she likes this new dangerous mission? Of course not. If I knew what the mission was, I probably wouldn't have liked it myself.

Since this is a purely cookie cutter action film, little actually takes place other than Wax shooting a roomful of poorly identified stereotypes. Mostly Asians. The action sequences are bland and uninspired, but what's worse is that they are virtually impossible to track. Every quick cut shows another bad guy blown backwards full of holes, or crumpling to the ground in a heap. I think that's Travolta there shooting them, but since the camera is so impossibly shaky it's hard to tell. I expected a more guided, steady hand from director Pierre Morel, who brought us the intense action thriller, Taken, just last year. Even before that, Morel directed the best action film in years in District B13. Does the weight of expectation cause one to lose the balance in his camera hand? Or was he riding an electric bull during shooting?

I've stated that I can't buy into Travolta when he's playing this type of character. It's essentially the same one he played in last year's The Taking of Pelham 123. Travolta's played plenty of bad guys and tough guys, but he's best when he accentuates his coolness and charm along with it. These generic brutes don't suit him at all. Jonathan Rhys-Meyers is another story. The guy has a likable face and some genuine charisma, most notably on his Showtime series, The Tudors. Here he gives a performance that's best described as uninspired. Not that he really has anything to work with. Nobody does. The script is lazy. The story so badly laid out that I think they jettisoned it completely about halfway through(you'll know the scene where it happens) and decided to take a different path to nowhere.

I'm not going to blame Luc Besson for this. Maybe that's me being biased towards one of my favorite writers/directors ever. The guy made The Professonal and La Femme Nikita for pete's sake. From Paris with Love is going for a Kiss Kiss Bang Bang vibe, a riff that relies on pinpoint comedic timing and chemistry between the two leads. None of which are evident here.

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Top Shelf at the Box Office: 6/15/09

Turns out the battle between The Hangover and Pixar's Up wasn't just a one-rounder. The two evenly matched but completely different flicks decided to extend this fight into the next round. Unfortunately for Pixar, the result remained the same as the the unexpected powerhouse comedy reigned supreme yet again.

1. The Hangover- $33.4M/$105M

Nobody could've seen it coming just how huge of a hit this film would be. Thanks to a remarkable ad campaign that highlighted just a few of the eye catching moments without giving away the joke, The Hangover has far exceeded expectations and typical returns for a comedy of this sort. In fact it only slipped in estimated 26% from last week, best of the top 10. Personally I'm just glad it's doing well enough that maybe people will stop talking about Wedding Crashers and Knocked Up as the best comedies of the last few years.

2. Up- $30.5M/$187M

Pixar's Up is well on it's way to taking the top spot as highest grossing film, rapidly gaining on both Monsters vs. Aliens and Star Trek. By comparison to last year's hit, Wall-E, Up is actually performing better by the tune of some $20M. Not too shabby.

3. The Taking of Pelham 123- $25M

Yet another mediocre Denzel Washington film doing middling business at the box office. I'm sure this is probably about what the studio expected, but that alone tells me that there aren't a ton of expectations for Denzel films anymore. This opening is about what all of his films make, which is average. Pelham's advertising was bland and uninspiring. The only real reason to see this thing is if you want to see Washington vs. Travolta, otherwise there were better options elsewhere.

4. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian- $9.6M/$143M

It won't go away. In fact it's pulling ahead of more recent films, a testament to this film's staying power and continued popularity.

5. Land of the Lost- $9.15M/$35M

On the other hand, this turkey is fading fast. It dropped 51% from last week and fell behind Museum 2, which has been out seemingly forever at this point.

6. Imagine That- $5.7M

I got somethin' you can imagine: an Eddie Murphy family film that's actually good. Both critically and commercially. What was the last one? Meet Dave? Crashed 'n burned. This one, which had an awful ad campaign featuring imaginary faeries from CNBC or something, was dying on the vine the instant it was announced. At this point, Murphy can't buy a hit film and I'm starting to wonder how much longer studios will invest in him.

7. Star Trek- $5.6M/$232M

8. Terminator Salvation- $4.7M/$114M

Continues to kick much robot ass overseas, where it was the numero uno film for a second straight week. That alone might be reason enough to continue the franchise.

9. Angels & Demons- $4.2M/$123M

10. Drag Me to Hell- $3.86M/$35.1M

Also: One of the most anticipated films for me is Moon, a sci-fi film starring Sam Rockwell and directed by Duncan Jones(David Bowie's son). At only 8 sites, it clocked in at a hefty $145,000. Moon will be expanding to more theaters over the course of the next month and I can hardly wait.

Francis Ford Coppola's new film, Tetro, starring Vincent Gallo as part of a family of contentious artists, opened well at only 2 sites for a total of $38,000. Tetro will be expanding to more markets in the coming weeks.

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