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Cameron: 'Avatar expectations help me'

James Cameron has admitted that he feels under pressure from fans.

The director told MTV News that he knows audiences have "high expectations" for his latest film Avatar.

He explained: "I think there is obviously a lot of expectation whenever a filmmaker that people know - through films like Titanic or Aliens or Terminator or whatever - there's always an expectation.

"There's a lot of expectation around this film, and I guess I knew that would happen unless I made a romantic comedy or something."

However, Cameron insisted that he enjoys the pressure to make a good film.

"I think it makes you a better filmmaker when you know you've got a lot of fans to please and that their expectations are high," he said. "So you try pretty hard and you get the best people in the movie."

He also claimed that he isn't expecting Avatar to be as successful as Titanic.

"I don't think it's realistic to try to topple Titanic off its perch," he said. "Some pretty good movies have come out in the last few years, and Titanic just struck some sort of chord. Obviously, we're hoping that Avatar is successful at some level."

Avatar will be released in cinemas worldwide on December 17.

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Barrymore 'was tactile with De Niro'

Drew Barrymore has revealed that she connected to Robert De Niro.

Access Hollywood reports that Barrymore, who plays De Niro's daughter in upcoming film Everybody's Fine, worked hard to make their characters' relationship believable.

She joked that she had nicknamed him "Daddy D" and explained that they had spent a lot of time together.

"I was very tactile with him," she said. "We had meals together... I was always grabbing his hand or his arm, just being silly with him. I just thought that gave us a connection."

Barrymore added that she is proud that the film provokes such a strong reaction in the audience.

"I'm so glad to be part of something that's such an emotional journey," she said. "All my friends, they're crying at the end."

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Farmiga: 'Clooney is a very silly boy'

Vera Farmiga has praised George Clooney's sense of humour.

Farmiga, who stars alongside Clooney in Up In The Air, told Parade that he was great fun to work with.

"He makes you feel like you are both ten years old and you've got a great costume box that you can dip into and play games," she said. "His sense of humour is amazing. He's such a silly boy and he creates a very frivolous and frolicsome tone on set.

"I never witnessed one moment of him being jaded or taking anything for granted."

However, Farmiga, who gave birth to her son Flynn just before filming, added that kissing Clooney could be awkward.

"I'll tell you what it was like when we locked lips," she joked. "We'd do it and then I'd say, 'OK, George, now I've got to go breastfeed'. Then I'd come back and be trying to find sort of clever positions to hide the wet spots on my silk blouse."

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Worthington to play Captain America?

Actor Sam Worthington has sparked a rumour that he could be playing Captain America after wearing an Avengers T-shirt during an interview.

Worthington's clothing, spotted by fans during an Avatar question-and-answer session on MTV, has prompted speculation that he might be considered for the part of Steve Rogers in The First Avenger: Captain America.

Other suggestions as to which Marvel character the Australian actor could play include Hawkeye - a role to which Jeremy Renner has also been linked.

The First Avenger: Captain America, to which Joe Johnston is attached to direct, is due to be released on July 22, 2011.

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Firth 'enjoys playing mean characters'

Colin Firth has revealed that he enjoys playing horrible characters.

In an interview with the New York Times, Firth spoke about his new film A Single Man. In the movie, he plays George Falconer, a man who despairs about his life and plans to commit suicide.

"He's seeing things for the first time because he knows he's seeing them for the last time," Firth explained.

He added that it is "fun" to play "nasty, mean characters" but explained that George is more complex than that.

"We're talking about one day in the life of a man, in which he experiences despair, lust, hilarity, frivolousness, indignation and anger - just about every experience a human being can have," he explained.

"One of the things I've always been taught as a drama student was not to play the emotion. That doesn't mean to say you don't express it, you don't have it, you don't find it. The emotion is the obstacle. The person doesn't want to be unhappy, and the unhappiness is the obstacle that gets in the way."

However, Firth suggested that people can never communicate properly.

"I like what happens as a result of communication problems because I don't think people communicate truly in any way," he explained. "Communication is always imperfect.

"Language is an imperfect instrument - so is sex, so is shouting at each other - and although you get the occasional moments when you feel truly connected, as George says in the film, they're pretty hard to keep hold of."

A Single Man goes on limited release in the US on December 11, and will be in UK cinemas on February 12, 2010.

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Freeman 'always knew he'd play Mandela'

Morgan Freeman has said that he spent his life preparing to play Nelson Mandela.

Freeman, who stars as the leader in Clint Eastwood's Invictus, told Parade that he felt comfortable repeating Mandela's lines.

"This may sound stupid, but as an actor you embody the role, and whatever you say is from total conviction," he explained.

Freeman revealed that he first met Mandela in the 1990s, adding: "He told me he wanted me to play him in a movie someday. I said, 'Then I need access to you, and I need to be able to hold your hand'. And he said, 'We'll do that'. So anytime we were anywhere in proximity after that, we'd schmooze."

He concluded: "I've always been preparing for the time I stepped in front of the camera as him. The luckiest part of my entire existence is finding this script and sending it to Clint, and then he said, 'Yes'."

Invictus is released in the US on December 11 and in the UK on February 5, 2010.

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Eastwood: 'Damon does a terrific job'

Clint Eastwood has praised Matt Damon, who he directed in Invictus.

Speaking to Parade, Eastwood explained that Damon is a better actor than he was.

"It's fun working with young Matt," he said. "He's great and does a terrific job. I'd look at him often and think, 'I wonder if I was that good when I was his age'.

"Chances are I wasn't. But it was fun to be vicarious and think, 'Yes, that's a role I might have done'."

Eastwood added that he works on instinct but is always prepared to learn.

"I work from the gut," he said. "You can tell any story 20 different ways. The trick is to pick one and go with it.

"I don't think anybody begins that way - otherwise it feels like arrogance. The reason I still work at this stage of life is because I enjoy learning something new every day. When you accept that it's a constant learning process, it's fun."

Damon recently said that he loved working with Eastwood.

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Brad Pitt to produce vampire film 'Vlad'

Brad Pitt will produce vampire film Vlad for Twilight studio Summit Entertainment, says The Hollywood Reporter.

Actor Charlie Hunnam (Queer As Folk) has penned the script for the movie, which is an action-based take on a young Dracula, known throughout history as Vlad the Impaler.

Pitt and his Plan B Entertainment partner Dede Gardner will produce the project, which Rihanna music video helmer Anthony Mandler is in talks to direct.

Pitt's firm recently picked up the big screen rights to video game Dark Void.

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'Blind Side' overtakes 'New Moon' at US BO

Sandra Bullock's The Blind Side has overtaken New Moon at the US box office.

The sports drama, which sees Bullock play a conservative housewife who helps a homeless man become an NFL star, took in $20 million on its third weekend on release to knock vampire romance New Moon into second place.

Blind Side has already grossed $129 million at the US box office on a modest $29 million budget. It is Bullock's second big hit of the year following rom-com The Proposal.

Elsewhere, Tobey Maguire drama Brothers, action-thriller Armoured and comedy Everybody's Fine are new entries in the top ten, while George Clooney's Up In The Air hovers just outside at number 13 on a limited release.

The US box office top ten in full:

1. (2) The Blind Side - $20,440,000
2. (1) The Twilight Saga: New Moon - $15,704,000
3. (-) Brothers - $9,700,000
4. (5) A Christmas Carol - $7,520,000
5. (4) Old Dogs - $6,901,000
6. (-) Armoured - $6,600,000
7. (3) 2012 - $6,600,000
8. (6) Ninja Assassin - $5,030,000
9. (7) Planet 51 - $4,300,000
10. (-) Everybody's Fine - $4,027,000

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Cruz: 'I nearly fainted at Oscars'

Penelope Cruz has revealed that she almost fainted after winning an Oscar for Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

The 35-year-old, who took home the 'Best Supporting Actress' gong for her role in the Woody Allen film, told The Times that she struggles to recall what happened on the night of her victory.

"I feel frustrated that I can't remember, because it was beautiful how your family and your people can feel so happy for you," she said. "I felt I was on the border of passing out from tension. That I can remember very well."

Cruz added that she could remember eating "300 canapes" and sobbing for half and hour at the ceremony.

"I remember thinking, 'What am I doing here? How did this happen?'" she said.

The Spanish actress can next be seen in musical Nine, which opens in UK cinemas nationwide on Boxing Day.

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Weaver 'wept after watching Avatar'

Sigourney Weaver has admitted that she cried after watching upcoming science fiction epic Avatar for the first time.

Weaver plays scientist Grace Augustine in the 3D film, which marks James Cameron's return to feature films 12 years after Titanic broke box office records.

"It will pick you up and shake you like a little rag doll," Weaver told The Guardian. "I'm not too much of an emotional creature, but I was weeping by the end. I remember reading the script and thinking, 'I love this but how can he ever do this?'. Nothing like this has been done before - floating mountains!"

Weaver suggested that the movie will break new technological ground and added: "I think for a certain generation it will change what they want to happen in the cinema.

"It is as big as sound. I hope it won't impact every movie, but for the big movies it raises the bar - it throws the bar away."

Avatar opens worldwide on December 17.

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'Avatar' runs more than 2.5 hours

James Cameron's eagerly-awaited blockbuster Avatar has a running time of more than two and a half hours.

The big-budget science fiction epic is 161 minutes long, according to the British Board Of Film Classification (BBFC).

The film has also been granted a 12A certificate for "moderate violence and intense battle scenes". It carries a PG-13 rating in the US.

The running time is still half an hour less than Cameron's last movie Titanic, which clocked in at a lengthy 194 minutes.

Avatar, starring Sam Worthington and Sigourney Weaver, debuts on IMAX screens and in conventional cinemas on December 17.

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Nude Radcliffe scenes for last 'Potter'?

David Yates has reportedly revealed that Daniel Radcliffe will appear naked twice in the upcoming Harry Potter finale.

Despite recent denials of such scenes by Radcliffe's representative, the director has since told La Vibra that the movies will also feature scenes not present in the original J.K. Rowling novel, SnitchSeeker translates.

"Well, Dan has appeared nude in the past, but there are a couple of scenes in the new film in which he will undress, but we're still thinking about how we present it.

"It's a fascinating scene in which Harry and Ron are trying to destroy a Horcrux. It tries to defend itself and creates an image of Voldemort's soul, that has a series of images where Harry and Hermione are kissing and embracing."

He added: "We will create something that feels very sexy and very intriguing to bring about a reaction in Rupert [Grint].

"There is another scene in Kings Cross Station, where Harry almost dies and sees Dumbledore. In that scene he will also be naked."

Yates explained to Video Business: "A Horcrux defends itself by producing nightmarish visions, and one shows Hermione and Harry embracing and kissing. It's something intriguing and sensual for Rupert to react to, and Dan will be bare for that."

The first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is due for release in November 2010. The second instalment is planned for July 2011.

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Jennifer Hudson casting angers Africans?

Jennifer Hudson's casting as the wife of Nelson Mandela has reportedly upset South African actors.

Agence France Presse reports that the Creative Workers' Union of South Africa believes that casting the American singer and actress as Winnie Mandela in upcoming biopic Winnie undermines the development of a film industry in the country.

"It can't happen that we want to develop our own Hollywood and yet bring in imports," the union's president Mabutho Sithole said.

The group now plans to advocate for a meeting with the departments of arts and culture, the trade industry and home affairs.

"This decision must be reversed, it must be stopped now. If the matter doesn't come up for discussion, we will push for a moratorium to be placed on the film being cast in South Africa. We are being undermined, there is no respect at all," union secretary general Oupa Lebogo added.

The criticism precedes the opening of Clint Eastwood's Invictus, another film centred on Nelson Mandela's role in South Africa's Rugby World Cup victory in 1995.

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'The Hunter' for big screen adaptation

Scarlet Fire Entertainment is to produce a feature adaptation of Dare Comics series The Hunter.

The comic, created by British scribe Adam Hamdy in 2007, centres on a CIA agent who uses superpowers to battle terrorists and organised crime.

Hamdy is producing the adaptation along with Scarlet Fire's Allan Loeb and Steven Pearl.

"Not only is Adam an accomplished writer, he is an innovative entrepreneur," said Pearl.

He added: "He's succeeded in building a new superhero brand virtually single-handed in a market that is dominated by big companies with very deep pockets."

Hamdy is to create an original Hunter story for the film.

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Mel Gibson to shoot in Mexican prison

Mel Gibson will shoot scenes for his next movie in a Mexican prison, says The Hollywood Reporter.

The Oscar-winning director-actor will return to eastern Mexico, where he shot Apocalypto, for his new film, according to Veracruz governor Fidel Herrera.

Herrera said that part of a Veracruz prison is to be emptied in January "because a grand production will be filmed there with our friend, the actor and producer Mel Gibson".

Prisoners will be transferred from the Ignacio Allende prison to other state facilities to make way for filming, the governor added.

Gibson visited the detention centre in 2008. Herrera did not offer details about the film project.

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Burton's 'Dark Shadows' to film in 2010

Tim Burton's forthcoming Dark Shadows revamp will reportedly start production in 2010.

Speaking to Sci Fi Wire, producer Graham King confirmed that the movie, starring Johnny Depp, will begin filming next fall.

"We're actually going to shoot that film next September/October with Tim Burton and Johnny," King said.

King also stated that a script for the vampire drama is being finalised.

"We've been given a script. John August wrote the first screenplay. We're making some changes, but the film's going to be in production, as I say, September or October of next year."

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Stan Lee confirms 'Thor' cameo

Stan Lee has confirmed that he will have a cameo in Marvel Studios' upcoming Thor adaptation.

The comic book creator revealed the news via his Twitter account earlier this week.

"Kenneth Branagh (of course I call him 'Ken!') said my cameo's set for the upcoming Thor movie. - To him, it's a cameo, to me - it's a ROLE!" Lee posted.

He added: "Can't tweet anymore. Due to Thor, I must start rehearsing my thee's and thou's. So, if thou objecteth not, I wish thee well! 'Nuff saideth'."

Lee has appeared in a number of Marvel comic book adaptations, including Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk.

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Mirren: 'I put my awards in the attic'

Dame Helen Mirren has revealed that she has stopped displaying her acting awards at home.

The 64-year-old actress, who has won many prizes throughout her film, television and stage career, said that she now puts all her awards in the attic.

Mirren told The Telegraph: "I have had so many funny [awards] over the years. I won Best Actress at the Rio Film Festival which doesn't exist anymore so it's probably a collector's item.

"But now I have put them in the attic to be discovered when I'm gone."

As well as various BAFTAs and Emmys, Mirren won an Oscar for her performance in 2007 movie The Queen.

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Dyer: 'I'm tired of being typecast'

Danny Dyer has revealed that he is tired of being cast as a London hardman in films.

The actor, who was recently asked to appear in a film called Cockneys Vs Zombies, said that he didn't even bother reading the script because he was insulted by the typecasting.

Dyer told Bang Showbiz: "I turned down a movie recently called Cockneys Vs Zombies. I thought 'F**k me, for f**k's sake'. That's the final nail in the coffin for me. The fact they even had the front to use that title. I didn't even turn the first page of the script.

"I'm learning, like I said, when you struggle as an actor for so long, and being an actor is about rejection, being told no all the time, so when you get on a run, and people start writing parts for you, you can get a bit carried away with that and say yes to everything."

Dyer added: "I've had a bit of a spell of going, 'Yeah, OK, I feel privileged that you want me in your film'. You've got to rein that in and say 'No, it's not going to test me, it's not going to challenge me, it's nothing new."

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