Moviehole.net:

Caught up with the always quietly reserved Harrison Ford this morning for a quick chat in sun-drenched Melbourne.

First bit of news, the science-fiction film he was going to do, “Godspeed”, has been canned.

“Godspeed is gone, that was a space project with James Cameron”, he says of the project, which would have told of a crisis on an international space station.

Rumoured to be his next project is “Manhunt”, which is “about the capture of John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln.” So is it?

“That would seem to be next”, smiles Ford. Um. Seem to be next? Why so tight-lipped…

“[There’s] a bunch of other things that have come to fruition...recently", he added.

Sounds like ‘The Man in the Hat’ – um, that’s Indiana Jones for the three up the back – could be ready to go.

Our full interview with Harrison Ford will be online in the next few days.

Moviehole.net (Australia), posted by Clint Morris on February 22, 2006. ©1998-2005 Moviehole.net

HE may have played Han Solo and the President of the US, but it was another of Harrison Ford's characters that sent the crowd into a frenzy in Sydney last night.

"Hopefully we'll be doing another Indiana Jones very soon," the Hollywood sex symbol said as hundreds of fans roared with joy.

Ford -- best known for playing the fedora-wearing, whip-cracking adventurer in the Indiana Jones trilogy and the galaxy-saving Solo in the Star Wars series -- was in Sydney with his girlfriend, former Ally McBeal star Calista Flockhart, for the Australian premiere of his new movie Firewall.

And despite getting on -- he turns 64 this year -- Ford still appeals to women of all ages, many who grinned broadly and fanned themselves as he passed them on the red carpet.

After an earlier trip to Taronga Zoo with Flockhart's five-year-old son, Liam, Ford -- accompanied by his 41-year-old partner -- faced the Australian media for the first time in more than a decade.

"It's been a while, it's good to be back," he said.

In Firewall, which opens nationally on March 2, Ford plays a computer specialist who is forced into robbing the bank he works for in order to save his family.

It is the first role in three years for Ford, one of Hollywood's most prolific actors, who has more than 50 credits to his name.

He said he took the role in the hope of making "good entertainment".

"I just thought it would be a good movie for an audience, I thought it would be a good ride for them," Ford said.

Similarities have been drawn between Ford's Firewall character and Jack Ryan, the CIA analyst he played in Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994) -- the action thrillers based on the Tom Clancy novels -- in which he tries to save his family while saving the world.

Ford shrugged off the idea that he was attracted to playing the more family-orientated, thinking man's action hero.

"I like to play a real person who's got a real life, and that often includes a family," he said.

"And then something (often) happens that an audience might enjoy watching."

With fans waving Indiana Jones album and DVD covers for Ford to sign, it was clear which of the actor's roles was their favourite.

But Ford was less forthcoming about whether he had any sentimental favourites over his 40-year career.

"I don't have a favourite, I'm afraid; I just work," he said, shrugging his shoulders and smiling that famous crooked smile.

Sophie Tedmanson, The Australian, 2/20/06, © The Australian

The Associated Press:

LOS ANGELES - Inspector Clouseau bumbled his way to the top of the box office as Steve Martin's "The Pink Panther" debuted with $21.7 million to lead a rush of new releases.

New Line's horror sequel "Final Destination 3" ran a close second with $20.1 million, followed by Universal's animated "Curious George" at No. 3 with $15.3 million and the Warner Bros. thriller "Firewall" starring Harrison Ford in fourth with $13.8 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

(Check out the blog for our analysis.)

Los Angeles Times:

Who will be Booth?

That’s the burning question as Walden Media and producer Lawrence Bender searches for an actor charismatic enough to play actor/assassin John Wilkes Booth in “Manhunt.”

Whoever is chosen will co-star with Oscar-winner Harrison Ford (“Witness”), who recently presented at the Golden Globes and the People’s Choice awards. Ford has already signed on to play Col. Everton Conger, who led the hunt for Booth, captured hiding in a Maryland barn. But that George Lucas-like silver goatee Ford’s been sporting may have to grow a bit to portray the heavily bearded Conger.

The period film will be based on Lincoln scholar James Swanson’s just-released, already critically-hailed gripping book “Manhunt: The 12-day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer”  about Honest Abe’s death, the search for the missing murderer and his henchmen in April, 1865.

“I just heard a report that they’ve made an offer to someone but I haven’t heard who it is,” said Swanson, from his Washington, DC home. “Johnny Depp would be perfect. But Will Kemp, Orlando Bloom or Christian Bale would also be good. So would Matthew McConaughey. He actually looks very much like Booth around the eyes.” 

The actor who will play Booth would also have to grow and then shave off his moustache, which Booth did to avoid capture during his days hiding in swamps.

“The problem with casting someone to play John Wilkes Booth is that you really need to find another John Wilkes Booth,” says Swanson. “Theatrical, incredibly handsome, seductive, an incorrigible ladies man. When he was captured, he was carrying photos of five girlfriends.” Sounds right up that Depp's swaggering pirate dark alley.

New Ecuadorian filmmaker Sebastian Cordero is set to direct Andrew W. Marlowe and Mike Rich’s “Manhunt” screenplay. But seriously, wouldn’t Oliver Stone be a better choice to direct a movie about a conspiracy to shoot the President? Just a thought.

Steven Spielberg's not available. He's already got his own Lincoln movie, "The Uniter," based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's book, a film rumored to star Liam Neeson as Abe. Last time Spielberg worked with Neeson was in that little Oscar-winning ditty called "Schindler's List."

hich Lincoln movie will hit theatres first? My money's on "Manhunt" if only to take advantage of the book's big buzz.  Also, according to producer Kathleen Kennedy, Spielberg  has another movie ahead of "Uniter." "We're definitely going ahead with the project  but the Lincoln film won't be the next film Steven does," Kennedy said at the BAFTA/LA Tea Party last month.

Photo Credits: Can Harrison Ford find Lincoln's assassin in "Manhunt," after his recent David Letterman Show appearance? (James Devaney, source: Los Angeles Times) Depp: Is this the face of John Wilkes Bpoth, worn by Johnny Depp at the Golden Globes? (Steve Granitz, source: Los Angeles Times)

Elizabeth Snead: Styles & Scenes, Los Angeles Times, 2/9/06, Copyright © 2005, Los Angeles Times. Direct link to article here.

From Ad Week:

February 03, 2006
By Gregory Solman

LOS ANGELES While some companies advertising in the Super Bowl are counting seconds, MRB Productions is counting minutes.

This Sunday the Hollywood production company boasts both a show opener and a game opener, each with embedded marketing, according to a company principal.

"This is most likely the final opening ever featuring Hank Williams Jr. singing," said Matt Brady, MRB's executive producer, filling in for MRB director Mark Teitelman, who typically shot the Williams pieces, but was shooting his own open. "I think it's one of the best openings ever, amazing pyro[technics], dancers, good spirits."

Brady's opener includes a GMC Yukon in a background of singers, dancers, confetti and fireworks, and Williams lip-syncing to lyrics tailored to the game itself. GMC was a major sponsor of ABC's Monday Night Football this past season.

Teitelman traveled to five cities in the last two weeks to shoot an opener based on a Dr. Seuss verse featuring former National Football League stars Roger Staubach, Bart Starr, Jerry Rice, Franco Harris and Joe Montana. Each of the players will recite stanzas from "Oh, the Places You'll Go," written by Theodore Geisel as a commencement address. The poem includes incidental allusions to football such as "And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winningest winner of all," said Teitelman.

The open also features Harrison Ford, whose movie Firewall premieres Feb. 10 and is a likely candidate for Warner Bros. to advertise during the game. Ford and the players were shot on green screen and composited into a virtual Suess-like computer-generated environment by Eric DeHaven at the effects shop Rhythm & Hues in Marina del Rey, Calif.

"If he had to be dressed as a character from the movie, for instance, we would have to say no," said Teitelman, who shot the controversial promo for Desperate Housewives in which Nicolette Sheridan disrobes in front of NFL player Terrell Owens in a locker room. "The idea or conceit of the piece is the most important. It has universal appeal. I'm optimistic that it will look different than everything else that will air on Sunday."

Teitelman came up with the concept of the poem read by athletes. "Somebody gave me the book when I graduated high school, and then I thought it was stupid present," he said. "I was cleaning up years later and came across it, read it and was blown away. It's wonderful."

Brady said his roster of six directors has become a "boutique in sports-themed commercials" for clients like Upper Deck and DirecTV because MRB directors (which include former NFL player Rico Labbe) have a touch with athletes. "With a few exceptions, it's hard to get a good performance out of them," said Brady. "Rico and Mark specialize in that."

As reported by the Associated Press:

By Michael Cidoni
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - Two superstar couples hit the red carpet Thursday night for the Hollywood premiere of "Firewall": Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart, and Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly.

A thriller set in the world of computer hackers, the film casts Bettany as a terrorist who holds bank-security expert Ford's family for ransom.

The film, which opens Feb. 10, eventually segues from cerebral thriller to out-and-out action film, with hero and villain literally slugging it out in the final scenes. By all accounts Ford, 64, more than held his own against Bettany, 34.

"He's tough," Bettany said. "I threw him through a window seven times, and he broke his fall - with his face. And he stood up each time, and he helped rebuild the window and then let me throw him through the window again. He was a good sport about it."

Ford shrugged off such praise, simply noting, "Oh, it's work. It's like the kind of work you get sweat from. And I enjoy that."

Ford's character is a computer mastermind, but in real life the actor is far from that. "I preferred it when we could write things out on a piece of paper," he noted, smiling.

"I don't even do e-mails," admitted co-star Robert Forster. "I tried e-mail one time and the first day I was fine, and the second day I was OK with it and then, the third day, I think I forgot to look and then the fourth day there was a pile of them and then I didn't do them and then the fifth or sixth day there were 70 or 80 of them and I said, 'Never again.'"

Added Bettany, "I'm a computer imbecile, really, so no. I'm not brilliant at computers."

Bettany's wife, the Oscar-winning Connelly, darted past reporters in a deep-red satin, kimono-like dress, stopping just long enough to mention her new film, "The Blood Diamond," which is expected to begin shooting soon in Africa.

Virginia Madsen, who plays the Ford character's wife, gave the carpet a touch of conservative style, evoking the 1940s with a blue-grey number and attached scarf. And Flockhart, in a navy, low-cut, beaded A-line dress, put a glamorous new spin on old underwear.

"(This dress is) by The Alabama Project," Flockhart explained. "It's a charity in Alabama where these women recycle T-shirts and they make a dress out of T-shirts and then they give all the money away to charities in the district."

Ford also said that he had seen a script of the new "Indiana Jones" film, and that a start date for filming was in sight. (Photo: Rex Features.)

(Check out The Fame Game for another take on the evening.)