Archive for Christian Bale

Christian Bale’s Run-In With Chinese Police Would Make Bruce Wayne Proud

In another amazing example of actors emulating their superhero roles, Christian Bale attempted to take a stand against the Chinese government yesterday. In Beijing to promote his Chinese state-produced movie, The Flowers of War, the Dark Knight star took an eight-hour drive to visit blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng, an activist who’s represented women claiming the government forced them to have abortions or undergo sterilizations. Chen, 40, and his family under house arrest since September 2010, on charges of damaging property and disrupting traffic in a protest.

With a CNN crew in tow, Bale walked up to the lawyer’s house in Dongshigu Village, and was confronted by plainclothes police who shouted, pushed and punched the star in an attempt to get him to stop filming on his Flipcam. “When the dust settled, we counted a broken car, a damaged camera — and a Hollywood star disappointed at — but not shocked by — his failure to see a personal hero,” CNN Steven Jiang reported.
“I’m not brave doing this,” Bale said on the ride back to Beijing, as a police van followed them out of the village for 40 minutes. “The local people who are standing up to the authorities, who are visiting Chen and his family and getting beaten or detained, I want to support them.” Watch the video below.
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Will We See Lady Gaga, Other Star Cameos In The Muppets DVD Extras?

After years of rumors and vague responses about Lady Gaga‘s appearance in The Muppets, the cameo sadly wound up on the cutting room floor due to time constraints. Moviehole.net reports that it involved Gaga and her entourage — Ed Helms, John Krasinski and possibly Eric Stonestreet — in a showdown with Miss Piggy. And they may or may not have done a version of Madonna‘s “Vogue.” We fail to see how ANY OTHER plot point could have been more important than this. But we are still crossing our fingers that this makes it to the DVD extras.

Moviehole has a whole list of cameos cut from the original script. Elmo, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, Rachael Ray, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Christian Bale, Kathy Griffin, Anne Hathaway, Katy Perry and George Clooney were all on the wish list. Of course, many of those stars happen to be very busy and couldn’t squeeze a Muppet shoot into their schedules (Elmo). But a couple of other big names shot scenes that we’re hoping to see one day: Jason Segel‘s Forgetting Sarah Marshall co-star Mila Kunis and Ben Stiller.

Given the movie’s strong performance at the box office over the holiday weekend (natch, it couldn’t beat Breaking Dawn Part 1, but it was a respectable second place), maybe some of those clever cameos will make it into another Muppets movie?

[Photos: Getty Images, Disney]

Sorry, Dark Knight Rises Fans: Ellen Page Is Not Your New Batgirl

Prepare to be excited … then immediately crushed: Rumors were swirling earlier today that Ellen Page would be playing Barbara Gordon in The Dark Knight Rises. For those of you who had actual lives during high school, Barbara is both the daughter of Gary Oldman‘s Commissioner Gordon and, eventually, Batgirl. Squee, right? The Dark Knight Rises Rumors reported this morning that one of their readers had spotted a tell-tale sign of Ellen’s involvement on the film’s set earlier this month. No, literally, it was a sign that allegedly read “E. Page ‘B. Gordon.’” If that already sounds fishy to you, clearly you are not seeing things through the eyes of a true Page fan. She would look so adorkable with bat ears! Can’t you let us dream for a few more hours?

Of course, Batman-News had to go ruin everything by, you know, talking to people who actually worked on the movie; they denied Page’s involvement and said the alleged sign was a fake. Then again, it’s not totally improbable that the Juno star would get to rock the cape and cowl; her Inception co-stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard made it into the movie, and director Christopher Nolan is known for using actors he’s worked with before. So, now we just need another Dark Knight movie after this one with more Ellen Page, as opposed to moving on to the next Batman reboot. That’s the ticket! Haha, wheeee! Don’t try to tell us facts when we’re in our happy place!

[Photo: WENN]

New Dark Knight Rises Details Make Next Summer Seem Even Further Away

The Dark Knight Rises is only 8 months away, which in the grand scheme of the universe is really only the blink of an eye ARGH WE CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE! We need the Batman back immediately. Not helping matters are all the new, exceedingly awesome details Tom Hardy and the gang have revealed about the third film in director Christopher Nolan‘s trilogy in the new issue of Empire magazine. A few facts that will make the seconds seem like minutes, and the minutes seem like hours, include:

We’re getting an older, grouchier superhero: “Perhaps surprisingly for some people, our story picks up quite a bit later, eight years after The Dark Knight. So he’s an older Bruce Wayne; he’s not in a great state,” Nolan explained. So you know Christian Bale is going to nail it.
Spinal columns will be ripped out: “He’s brutal. Brutal,” Hardy says about his villain Bane. “He’s a big dude who’s incredibly clinical, in the fact that he has a result-based and oriented fighting style. It’s not about fighting. It’s about carnage. The style is heavy-handed, heavy-footed, it’s nasty. Anything from small-joint manipulation to crushing skulls, crushing rib cages, stamping on shins and knees and necks and collarbones and snapping heads off and tearing his fists through chests, ripping out spinal columns.”
Bane is like Darth Vader, except worse and possibly cooler: “He was injured early in his story. He’s suffering from pain and needs gas to survive. He can’t survive the pain without the mask,” costume designer Lindy Hemming reveals about Bane’s look. “The pipes from the mask go back along his jawline and feed into the thing at his back, where there are two canisters.”
Expect The Dark Knight levels of intensity: “With Bane, we’re looking to give Batman a challenge he hasn’t had before,” Nolan says. “With our choice of villain and with our choice of story we’re testing Batman both physically as well as mentally.”
We won’t have to wait until July to get a sneak peak: “The Prologue is basically the first six, seven minutes of the film. It’s the introduction to Bane and a taste of the rest of the film. With Bane we are looking to give Batman a physical challenge that he hasn’t had before. In terms of finishing our story and increasing its scope, we were trying to craft an epic,” says Nolan. Luckily for us, the short prologue will play before the IMAX version of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, which comes out December 21. Excited yet horrified squee!

[Photo: WENN]

Anne Hathaway Is A Sex Kitten As Catwoman

Anne Hathaway has officially squashed any worries that she wouldn’t measure up to the sexiness of previous Catladies Michelle Pfeiffer or Halle Berry. Fully-costumed Hathaway pranced around The Dark Knight Rises set this weekend looking toned and tiny-waisted in the legendary skin-tight latex. Ruby red lips completed her purr-fectly (sorry) amazing look.

Might we add that Christian Bale looks even beefier this go-around? Here’s hoping Batman’s laying off the juice. [Photo: Splash News Online]

Here’s The Dark Knight Rises Fight Scene Of Your Dreams

If the Dark Knight Rises teaser trailer had you amped up for apocalyptic Gotham-wide chaos, then you are going to really enjoy the Dark Knight Rises footage shot by Pittsbugh’s WPXI. Following the sneak peek of Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman we got last week, the station managed to film a snowy street brawl between GCPD and what are reportedly inmates from Arkham Asylum. As you can see, there are multiple Batmans taking on Tom Hardy‘s Bane, though it’s not clear which one is Christian Bale and which are the stuntmen. Unless, for some reason, there are actual multiple Batmans in the film, but seeing as how we don’t want to scream until we lose consciousness, we’ll hold off on making that assumption.

The shoot allegedly also included an explosion at the Steeler’s Heinz Field, subbing in as home of the Gotham Rogues. “Right after the football scene ended, they did one explosion,” extra Erin Giambelluca told the Forest Hills-Regent Square Patch. “It looked like pieces of grass all over the field to make it look like it was blown up while the players were on it, and we had to wear ear plugs for that. We had to rehearse and make sure we weren’t smiling during that part.” We don’t know how managed to keep her joy on lock-down. We’re smiling at the idea of it right…now.

The Dark Knight Rises Teaser Trailer Makes You Wish It Was 2012 Already

The only problem with the new The Dark Knight Rises teaser trailer is a distinct and glaring lack of Anne Hathaway as Catwoman. How can we decided whether or not we should be excited for the next 11 months if we don’t even get a peek? The rest of the trailer will, of course, make you want to build a time machine and travel to July 2012, maybe a few days before it comes out so you can get tickets, and find parking for your extremely conspicuous time-traveling orb.

There are the crumbling skyscrapers a la the Dark Knight Rises poster, a clear shot of a creepy Tom Hardy as the villain Bane and a wheezing Gary Oldman, though no Joseph Gordon-Levitt or Marion Cotillard just yet either. Considering that the trailer declared the film the “epic conclusion” to the three-film series, we guess that means rumors of a Batman reboot are probably accurate. So….since you’re already in that time machine, would you mind stopping by 2013 and do whatever you can to prevent Arnold Schwarzenegger from getting re-cast as Mr. Freeze? Thanks a ton.

Darren Aronofsky Wants Christian Bale Aboard Noah’s Ark

If you want to go dark, there’s really only one brooding, bearded ball of dramatic angst you can call. Having proviously announced his edgy cinematic take on the fable of Noah’s ark, allegedly director Darren Aronofsky wants Christian Bale to brave the flood and wrangle giraffes in his planned $130 million epic. Vulture alleges that Aronofksy will likely take a prominent star like Bale in order to get the necessary funding from Paramount, Summit, and Fox, the studios that are currently considering providing funding. After all, ostriches are not cheap; we should know. The Dark Knight Rises star has one other film in production through 2013 entitled The Last Photograph before he would be available. You know, we never imagined Noah as having that Batman snarl in our heads, but we can definitely get on-board with that.

[Photo: WENN]

Batman To Get A Movie Reboot Only One Year After Dark Knight Rises

And you thought the Spider-Man reboot came a little fast. While Warner Bros. is going to let Christopher Nolan wrap up his special little trilogy of artful Batman movies with The Dark Knight Rises in 2012 (he did give them one the biggest movies ever, after all), they won’t be sitting on such a popular character for long. Warner Bros. prez Jeff Robinov says Batman will appear in a 2013 Justice League movie that will team him with Superman, The Flash, Green Lantern and other popular DC Comics characters—and this Batman probably won’t be a gravelly Christian Bale.

There were actually plans for a Justice League movie in 2008, but the writers’ strike, followed by massive success of The Dark Knight, got execs worried about messing with Nolan’s popular vision of the hero. While there’s no promise that Rubinov’s plans will come to fruition (Green Lantern and the Henry Cavill-starring Superman reboot could flop, after all), it’s surprising they’d be willing to switch gears on Batman so quickly. Sure, Nolan is set to “produce” the next Bat-movie after Rises, but don’t forget Tim Burton “produced” Batman Forever and we still wound up with Chris O’Donnell and bat-nipples. One good thing that could happen: Armie Hammer was cast as Bruce Wayne for the previous crack at the Justice League, and his rising fame can’t hurt his chances at reclaiming the cowl for this one.

[Photo: Warner Bros.]

Who Took Home Trophies At The 2011 Golden Globes (And What Was Up With Nat Port’s Laugh)?

Did you forget to watch the 2011 Golden Globes this evening? Well, aside from missing out on Ricky Gervais committing career hara kiri in front of an audience filled with Hollywood’s biggest power players, you missed a whole bunch of acceptance speeches with varying levels of grace and aplomb.

Before we get into the tonight’s full list of winners, we would be remiss if we didn’t call attention to Natalie Portman’s bizarre laugh. As TheFABLife buddy Molly Lambert over at This Recording noted on Twitter, Portman’s guttural guffaw sounded a lot like Charlene Yi in Knocked Up. Practice your laugh game before the Oscars, girl!

And now, for the winners…

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