Larry Ratliff

Tom in Cruise control for 'Mission: Impossible IV'

Tom Cruise on the run in "M:I:III"

(Paramount Pictures)

Have you missed toothy Tom Cruise?

Well, apparently he's been missing you.

The often-outspoken movie star hasn't been on screen for two years.  That's when Cruise had one eye wide shut behind the eye-patch in the historical "kill Hitler" drama "Valkyrie."

According to The Hollywood Reporter and other sources, however, the little guy with the big grin is prepping for a fourth run as super spy Ethan Hunt in the "Mission:  Impossible" series.

If the Hollywood Reporter article is accurate, the next action-thriller will hit theaters on Memorial Day weekend next year.

"The reunion between Cruise and the studio once looked unlikely after Cruise's production deal there was cut loose in 2006, the year 'Mission: Impossible III' was released. But both parties have recognized the promise in continuing a franchise that has grossed $1.4 billion worldwide," says the Hollywood Reporter on-line post by Jay A. Fernandez.

Welcome back, Tom, I guess.  Just please resist the temptation to use Oprah Winfrey's couch as a cheesy self-promotional trampoline.

Weitz up: Taking a 'Twilight New Moon' walk

 

(Left to right) Kristen Stewart, Chris Weitz, 1st  AD Mike Topoozian and make-up artist Robin Matthews on the "New Moon" set.  (Summit Entertainment)

Tween screams won't be limited to Halloween this year.

The Nov. 20 release date of "The Twilight Saga:  New Moon" looms ever closer.  There's some good news for frenzied fans waiting with baited breath for the second installment of Stephenie Meyer's young vampire romancer.

Director Chris Weitz, who took over the "Twilight" sequel when Texan Catherine Hardwicke was removed from the project, is finally speaking out about taking over the popular novel-to-big screen franchise.

As Borys Kit points out in the Q&A interview posted on the Hollywood Reporter Web site, "The man behind 'American Pie' and 'About a Boy' wasn't the obvious choice to take on 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon.'"

Weitz likes to genre hop, however.  That probably had more than a little to do with the writer-director of "The Golden Compass," a lackluster fantasy at best, hopping in the director's chair for the "Twilight" sequel.

Click here to read Kit's Chris Weitz interview. 

EW's wild Friday night in 'Zombieland'

 
Woody Harrelson gunning down the undead in "Zombieland."  (Columbia Pictures)

What a great idea.

Entertainment Weekly's Nicole Sperling spent last Friday night (Oct. 2) hanging out with the stars, director and screenwriters of the monster action-comedy "Zombieland" as they cruised Los Angeles movie houses checking out the flick's attendance on opening night.

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't expect "zombie slayer" Harrelson, who dispatches the walking dead with a banjo at least once, to go along for the ride.

Harrelson did, though, at least until they encountered an almost empty auditorium with "Zombieland" lighting up the screen.  Co-star Jesse Eisenberg stuck it out the entire evening, though.

Nicole Sperling's innovative and insightful tag-along story begins at one of Hollywood's largest movie houses:

"8:30 pm Mann Grauman’s Chinese Theater

"The cavernous 1,400 seat theater is about halfway full. Eisenberg leans up against the back wall of theater watching his character Columbus explain that one of their crazy plans wasn’t his but belonged to his traveling companion Tallahassee (Harrelson). 'I’m just kind of a Sancho Panza character,' says Columbus. The line gets a couple of chuckles. Eisenberg shrugs his shoulders in (director Ruben) Fleischer’s direction."

Click here to check out the entire EW article. 

Tarantino going for the triple 'Kill'

 
Uma Thurman might return as "The Bride" 10 years down the road in a third "Kill Bill" film. 

(Miramax Films)

It's more or less official.  Writer-director Quentin Tarantino is returning to the "Kill Bill" franchise one more time.

According to an article by James Young posted on the Variety Web site, Tarantino confirmed he was returning for more "Kill Bill" action Saturday in Morelia, Mex., where he was attending Morelia Film Festival.

 

It's two "Kill Bill" actioners down and probably at least one more to go for Quentin Tarantino.

(Courtesy:  WireImage.com)

"There to promote 'Inglourious Basterds' -- the festival opener -- the filmmaker said he wanted to give Uma Thurman's central character and her daughter Beebe 10 years of peace before the next bloody installment, which would push the project to 2014," the article said. 

Tarantino faced the attending press alongside old film-making pal Eli Roth, who co-stars in "Inglourious Basterds."

Since he isn't planning to get to "Bill" again until 2014, Tarantino is apparently exploring which genre he'll put his signature stamp on in between.  He's "wide open," according to Young's report:

"Tarantino added that he would like to do a 're-imagining' of a number of genres including a Western or a 1920s to '30s 'Pretty Boy Floyd' type gangster movie."

How about this for a working title:  "Kill, Kill, Kill Pretty Boy"?

What really scares the girls of 'Sorority Row'?

 

The "Girls," from left to right, are Audrina Patridge (on bed), Leah Pipes, Jamie Chung, Briana Evigan, Rumer Willis and Margo Harshman.  (Summit Entertainment)

The actresses of "Sorority Row," including "Hollywood royalty" Rumer Willis, endure -- or don't -- endless mayhem at the hands of a tire-tool wielding killer in the loose remake of the 1983 horror-thriller "House on Sorority Row."

During interviews with the spirited young ensemble cast in Hollywood recently, each of the key female characters revealed the thing that spooks them most in real life. 

"Sorority Row" opens Friday (Sept. 11) at a cinematic house of horror near you.

RUMER WILLIS (She plays Ellie, the bookish, easy-to-spook, screamer sister).  The acting daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore recently appeared in "The House Bunny" --  "I'm honestly not a girly-girl about a lot of things.  But I see bugs and I flip out.  I hate bugs so much.  I don't know why.

"Anything for me where I have to be trapped under water.  That's one of my worst fears.  Not of drowning, but being trapped in something underwater."

AUDRINA PATRIDGE (Megan, the cheated-on sorority sister), star of the MTV "reality" series "The Hills" -- "The supernatural."

MARGO HARSHMAN (Chugs, the party-'til-she-drops sister), TV actress, "College Road Trip") -- "I have one thing that scares me.  I'm going to say it and you guys can't talk about it anymore.  I'll start crying and run out of the room. . . . Clowns.  OK, that's the end of that."

JAMIE CHUNG (Claire, the crazy/beautiful one), a budding TV actress ("Samurai Girl," "Castle") -- "Other than death and being under a flock of birds, it's (being in) labor, labor pains.  Or, being a bone marrow donor."

BRIANA EVIGAN (Cassidy, the confident, thoughtful sorority sister), Andie in "Step Up 2:  The Streets" -- "Insects."

LEAH PIPES (Jessica, the queen bee who'll let nothing stand in the way of success).  Pipes played Jody on TV's "Terminator:  The Sarah Connor Chronicles" -- "For me, it's squirrels.  How funny is that? I just don't like them."