Zoe Saldana, the next big action star?

After Avatar, it was only a matter of time before Zoe Salanda got to headline her own movie. Little did we know she would be playing a stone-cold and, might I add, smoking hot, assassin out for revenge.

Ever since I saw her in Center Stage, I knew there was something special about her. Granted, that movie is a total C-level film, but a total cult-classic that anyone who has seen the movie can attest to.

Today, Sony Pictures released the first trailer (embedded below) for the Zoe's new film, Columbiana, and all things considered it looks absolutely ridiculous. The intensity and pacing for the film is exactly what you expect from this type of film, and I'm hoping it delivers. The film could go either way though--it will either be absolutely ridiculous in the most amazing way possible, or it will just be a total snoozefest. I'm clearly hoping for the former, and no doubt it could do wonders for Saldana's career. We've seen her do comedy (Guess Who, Death at a Funeral), Sci-Fi (Star Trek), and Drama (The Terminal), and it will be interesting to see what Saldana does with her newfound rise to the next level.

Hollywood surely won't be complaining if the film is a hit. There aren't too many female actresses these days that can carry an action film, besides Angelina Jolie and.....ummm....ughhhhhh.....yea. Shall we add Zoe Saldana to that list?

The film comes from the creators behind Taken, and is directed by Olivier Megaton, best known for helming Transporter 3 (and reportedly directing Taken 2, with Liam Neeson). The trailer has a very distinctive feel that elicits memory of past Luc Besson films, a la The Professional, as well as the first Taken.

Colombiana comes out on September 2, 2011 in the United States, the same weekend as another film that I am excited for, the much-delayed The Debt (more about that in a later post).

[Side note: Where on earth has Michael Vartan been? I feel like he hasn't done a film sinceNever Been Kissed. (OK fine- he made Monster-in-Law, but even that was 6 years ago.)]

"The Book of Mormon" leads Tony Award nominees

The Tony Award nominees were announced this morning via past winners Anika Noni Rose and Matthew Broderick. Not too many surprises, "The Book of Mormon" leads the pack with 14 nominations, followed by "The Scottsboro Boys," with 12 (which was quite the surprise, considering it closed months ago).

I was shocked, however, to find that Daniel Radcliffe was NOT nominated for Best Actor in a Musical for "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" (do you think Voldermort is on the nominating committee? he..he....he). I assumed everyone would eat him up on Broadway, in addition to the fact that he actually got positive reviews for his performance. Better luck next time, Harry Potter.

Anyways, I got to blog about this morning's announcement for CNN.com's Marquee Blog. Check it out!

http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/03/book-of-mormon-leads-tony-award-nominations/

(Photo above is of Radcliffe and my BFF, Anderson Cooper, who actually does the narration for the musical. For an interesting write of how Andy got the Broadway gig, check out Dave Itzkoff's article for the New York Times here.)

Can friends fall in love for "One Day?"

So it's already May? Wow, that sure came out of nowhere. Well, with the summer creeping up on us, we also welcome the start of the summer movie season (YAY for some people, NAY for others). With a lot of films coming up, I will be looking at the ones that I am most excited about.

And just released today was the trailer (or see below) for the film One Day, starring Jim Sturgess and Anne Hathaway. They star as a would be couple who sleep together on the night of their college graduation. Their relationship is then revisited once a year for the next twenty years. To me it sounds like When Harry Met Sally meets A Lot Like Love- pretty much any film that deals with people in love pretending that they can just be "friends," which we all know as not being true.

The trailer looks cute, although nothing too extraordinary. Jim Sturgess has always been on my radar, ever since Across the Universe, and he made quite the impression after the "just okay" 21. I see him as a lower grade James McAvoy, and it seems like Hollywood has been treating him quite the same.

It will also be interesting to see whether Anne can truly pull off the accent. She supposedly handled it well in Becoming Jane, which I never got around seeing (and probably never will), but that film lost all the buzz it ever had soon after its release. Will audiences buy it this time around?

One Day is Lone Scherfig's follow up to the amazing An Education, which brought us the beginning of what looks like a great career from current "It" girl Carey Mulligan.

Speaking of "it" girls, Anne Hathaway has already had her "it" girl moment (many times over it feels), and with her role as Selina Kyle coming up in the near future (who knows when the new Batman will actually be ready, though I am already peeing my pants excited about what Nolan will do with this one), she seems to have some exciting projects coming up.

Sturgess, on the other hand, already had the epic The Way Back released last year (which I loved), and has another film with Kirsten Dunst called Upside Down that has already been completed (though I know nothing about it, only having first learned about it after taking a look at his IMDB page.)

The truth is, these type of films are usually cute, and usually one that women always fall in love with. And with Lone Scherfig at the helm, I definitely am eager to see if she can pull it off.

PS--Anne Hathaway as butch? Not quite sure how I feel about that. But I do think these two looks good together--anyone smell off-camera romance?