Category: LotR Cast News
“Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing and Charm School” has a clunky title but an elegant concept: that the fantasy of the fresh start is attainable for all of us. It’s as easy as one, two, cha-cha-cha. Yes, this is another one of those movies about finding your own soul, and perhaps a soul mate, on the dance floor. But “Marilyn Hotchkiss” demonstrates that the same old construct can be made thrillingly fresh with the right components. In fact, this film does other power-of-dance movies one better by downplaying the dancing — it’s in there, but doled out carefully — and underscoring what its brethren often lack: a compelling, wrenching and wonderfully inspiring story. [More]
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Hot off his stint as a counter-terrorist operative on “24,” Sean Astin is in negotiations to star in ABC’s comedy pilot “The Guys,” about five dads who become friends when their kids have a playdate at the home of one of them. Astin, famed for playing a hobbit in the “Lord of the Rings” movies, is in theaters with “Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing & Charm School.” He next appears opposite Adam Sandler in “Click,” which opens June 23. [More]
He had the biggest role in the movies last year, but Andy Serkis doesn’t have to worry about fans and paparazzi. Serkis, as you well know, created the title character in King Kong, Peter Jackson’s giant movie. Before that, Serkis — wearing a motion-capture suit, as he did for Kong — played and voiced Gollum, the twisted creature in Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. But Serkis isn’t entirely unrecognizable. “It’s funny — with Gollum and now Kong, I always thought that I’d be completely anonymous,” says the 41-year-old British actor, “but because of DVDs and behind-the-scenes stuff and Kong Diaries, yeah, people do recognize me, not to an unhealthy extent. I have a certain amount of anonymity, and certainly professionally I’m not typecast. Well, it’s not that you can be typecast, because there aren’t that many roles for 25-foot gorillas.” [More]
Rex Reed from observer.com writes: At the movies, there isn’t much to write home about, but compared with the violence and filth of today’s Hollywood action epics and the creeping deadliness of all the independent productions that look like they were made for $100, a sweet, unpretentious and heartfelt little movie like Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing and Charm School begins to look like a wayward valentine from the dead-letter office, lost in transit and delivered late. [More]
SILVER SPRING, Md., March 29 /PRNewswire/ — Best known for playing “Sam” in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, and “Lynn McGill” in “24” Sean Astin has embodied everything from loyalty and bravery to arrogance and redemption. Now, Astin tries to embody two new character traits — small and furry — as he lends his considerable talents to narrate MEERKAT MANOR, Animal Planet’s new 13-part docu-drama that’s All My Children meets Wild Kingdom. With all the love, squabbling, self-sacrifice and rivalry found in any family, a group of Meerkats struggles to survive in Africa’s Kalahari Desert. MEERKAT MANOR premieres Friday, June 9, at 8 PM. [More]