Tom Cruise will attempt to assassinate Hitler in an upcoming movie about German-born Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, member of the plot to bomb a meeting the Furher attended in 1944. The film, titled “Valkyrie,” is being made by Cruise’s movie studio, United Artists. But the family of the deceased aristocrat is unhappy, fearing that the movie will be used by the Church of Scientology to promote its “propoganda.”
Is Ashton Kutcher being punked by MTV? The cable channel announced that the eighth season of the show is its last. To mark the passing of the hidden camera gag show, MTV will air all eight episodes from the upcoming season in a special “sneak peek marathon” on April 7. The show’s final episodes will feature victims including Magic Johnson, Hilary Swank, Jewel and Nelly Furtado, according to MTV. But we wonder if this isn’t just the ultimate gag of the all, with Kutcher being the one punked. Now that would be funny.
The DaVinci Code was not plagiarized, according to the High Court in Great Britain. The American writer was cleared of infringing on the copyright of ideas set out in another book, “The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail” by historians Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh. This decision upholds that earlier decision. The loss is all the bigger for the historians because of the way the British legal system works. They not only have to pay their own legal costs but also 85 percent of Brown’s publisher Random House costs estimated at nearly $2.6 million. It’s just like the craps tables in Vegas: if you’re gonna lose, make it big.
The former president of the Motion Picture Association of America, Jack Valenti, has had a stroke at age 85. He was taken to Johns Hopkins Medical Center, where his condition is being kept under wraps. During his 38-year tenure, Valenti helped created the movie-rating system, which still does nothing to keep kids from seeing R-rated movies.
Banned Chinese Filmmaker to make movie in Palestinian Territory. Lou Ye, whose sexually charged film Summer Palace earned him a five-year ban from making movies in China, is currently raising money to make The Last Hour, based on a play by Palestinian writer Mazen Saadeh. The movie will be about a Palestinian man whose wife abandons him while he languishes in Israeli prison. Ye’s latest ban comes on top of a previous two-year ban, which he received for screening his 2000 movie, Suzhou River, in Rotterdam without official approval.
Ray Winstone will join Harrison Ford and Cate Blanchett in making the much-anticipated installment of the Indiana Jones chronicles, coming in 2008 from Lucasfilms. Winstone recently starred opposite Jack Nicholson in “The Departed.” The Hollywood Reporter reports that Winstone will play Harrison Ford’s sidekick in Indy 4. Filming on the adventure starts this June in Los Angeles and other undisclosed locations. Steven Spielberg has signed on to direct.