Gary Oldman Confirms Roles in Robert Zemeckis’ A Christmas Carol
Gary Oldman not only confirmed that he is in Robert Zemeckis’ upcoming performance capture adaptation of A Christmas Carol, but revealed that he is playing three characters in the film.
“I play [the ghost of] Marley, Bob Cratchit, and Tiny Tim,” Oldman told at the Dark Knight junket. “I saw the designs, and the realizations of London and the characters. The design of it, and the look of it, is beautiful. It’s quite stunning. It should be quite magical.”
Oldman isnt the only one playing multiple roles. The film stars Jim Carrey as Ebenezer Scrooge, the Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Present, and the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come. At one point Michael J. Fox was rumored to be Tiny Tim, and Christopher Lloyd as Marley’s ghost. Both Zemeckis regulars are even inaccurately listed as such on imdb. Oldman talks about the unusual performance capture process for Tiny Tim:
“They put you in a trench. They’re on platforms that they wheel in and wheel out. So you’ve got all this crew moving floor around. And when I’m walking on my crutches, the actors are much higher than me, so the eyelines work. And later they will animate little legs on me,” Oldman said. “It would be so expensive to do it [live action]. And you can do things with the ghosts that you couldn’t do in the more conventional way. Much like [Batman Begins and The Dark Knight], [Zemeckis] has sort of reinvented The Christmas Carol. It’s probably closer to how Dickens saw it.”
Oldman insists that while the process is different than a normal movie, it isn’t that different.
“It’s kind of like shooting a regular movie I think. Alot of people say ‘working in that motion capture with Bob Zemeckis, it’s like theater, isn’t it?’ And often the people who have never done theater say that. I don’t think it’s like theater, but I feel it’s like doing a regular movie, but without the breaks abd the costumes. You just keep going, and there is no lighting, so you don’t have to wait for two hours while they turn the set around. You actually keep filming.”
Oldman can be seen next in The Dark Knight, which hits theaters on July 18th 2008.
Justine Bateman tries her hand at sitcom writing
Give Justine Bateman credit: She could have been typecast after playing the dippy, fashion-obsessed Mallory Keaton on Family Ties, but she’s been able to build a nice career for herself over the last twenty years by playing interesting supporting roles in movies like The TV Set and series like Desperate Housewives. But she’s also been — just like 75% of the people in Hollywood — an aspiring writer, struggling to get her scripts produced (and you think having connections helps … she knows Michael J. Fox and her brother is Jason Bateman, and she still couldn’t get her scripts produced).
But now she can add “sitcom writer” to her credits; she just wrote an episode of The Disney Channel’s hit Wizards of Waverly Place, according to the New York Daily News. Apparently, she’s a friend of executive producer Peter Murrieta, and she got to know some of the show’s writers during the writers’ strike. So, when the strike ended, she was invited to write an episode for the show.
The most interesting part of the article is Bateman’s analysis of the paltry sitcom market these days: “Television used to have an awful lot of sitcoms. It’s interesting to see Disney is really a place where there are sitcoms,” she said. “Going back 15 years, there were a fair amount of sitcoms families could watch. I absolutely love 30 Rock and The Office, but I don’t know how many 13-year-olds are watching that stuff.”
She’s right; the big “hit” sitcoms are ones like Wizards and Hanna Montana, which are written by adults for teens and pre-teens. Maybe the networks should take note of that; another “TGIF” lineup might end up making more money than an entire season of The Office.
Stump the King - Tales from the Crypt
You guys did awesome last week coming up with Action. See if you can help out on this one…
Debbie Knight asks.
“Hi, I’m hoping someone will be able to help me. I’m a huge fan of horror TV Sitcoms…ie Tales from the Darkside, Tales from the Crypt etc…However I’m remembering an episode and can’t think where it’s from. I’ll describe it and hopefully someone here can give me a title and hopefully somewhere where i can watch it. The episode a female Dr. received a severed hand from the police that was from a serial killer who strangled his victims. It was explained to her that the hand seems to still move. As the episode continues murders are being committed in the same fashion as the serial killer. However the end of the episode, her and her boyfriend/husband Dr. are at home he goes in the tub she’s waiting for him in bed reading. Well the hand reattaches itself to this decomposing body and the boyfriend Dr. is killed .”
While I am not a huge fan of the type of show Debbie is asking about, I did always enjoy Tales from the Crypt.
What made Crypt so great is that the stories were taken directly from the old comic books, so they were especially creepy. The other important part was, of course, the casting. Brett Cullen, Lance Henriksen, Teri Hatcher, Don Rickles, Bruno Kirby, Michael J. Fox and Tim Roth are just a few of the familiar faces from the show.
Here is this week’s question…
On what TV show did I, Paul Goebel, work with the Crypt Keeper, John Kassir?
Congratulations Joe! Boston Common is the correct answer.
Whitney and Ray J’s Night in Vegas
Just how close are Whitney Houston and the much younger Ray J?
Close enough that they flew to Las Vegas together.
But it's unlikely that Houston, 44, and Ray J, 27, qualified for a mile-high membership, because they weren’t alone when they hopped on a private jet this weekend.
Also on board were Houston’s daughter, Bobbi Kristina, and some of Ray J’s family, including big sister Brandy.
Once in Sin City, the two hit the Thomas & Mack Center Saturday for the Bernard Hopkins-Joe Calzaghe fight. After the boxing match, Houston and Ray J were spotted at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino trying their luck at a roulette table. But while they spent the night in Vegas, I'm told they were booked into different suites.
Looks like family time trumped their maybe romance on this trip.
Meanwhile, other celebs spotted at the fight that night include Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jay-Z, Bruce Willis, Simon Cowell, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael J. Fox, Chris Tucker, Pete Sampras and upcoming American Idol celebrity guest, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber.