Blog Posts by Mark Deming

Jennifer Lopez (Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)Jennifer Lopez landed one of her career-first leading roles as a real-life character who got entangled in tragic circumstances. Now Lopez will be following suit in her next film.

The 43-year-old actress and pop star, who played late tejano singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez in the 1997 biopic, "Selena," has just been cast in the retelling of the Chilean Miners story that captivated the world in 2010. "The 33" is based on the the men who were trapped in a copper and gold mine in Chile when it collapsed, forcing them to spend 69 days stranded over a half mile underground before they were rescued.

Lopez is the latest to be cast in "The 33," which stars Antonio Banderas as Mario Sepulveda, aka "Super Mario" — the man who became the spokesmen for the miners in video messages that surfaced as their plight dominated global media coverage. An international

Watch out everyone! $50 movie tickets are coming! (Photo: Paramount Pictures)

How much would you pay to be the first person on your block to see "World War Z"? Paramount Pictures and Regal Cinemas are betting that zombie and/or Brad Pitt fans are willing to dig deep for the chance to see the big budget zombie epic a few days ahead of schedule, to the tune of $50.

A limited number of "mega tickets" have been devised for mega fans. Early screenings of "World War Z" will be held in five cities on June 19, two days before the movie opens wide. Ordinary early tickets for the pre-release screenings will be available for $16.50 ($14.00 for children), already a bit steep for a mid-week showing, but Paramount is also offering their super-sized version for the princely sum of $48.75, which tops off at an even $50 when the $1.25 service fee is included.

So what does that $50 get you? Well, the screening is in RealD 3D, and you'll receive a pair of special collectable custom 3D glasses (which you presumably won't be asked to recycle after the show). You'll also get a full-size copy of a limited edition "World War Z" poster and a HD digital download of the film the day it

Melissa McCarthy (From E.T. Online)

Actress Melissa McCarthy is finally going on record about how she felt about an especially damning review that described her as "tractor sized." Though McCarthy is taking the high road, she's not leaving any room for us to wonder just how she feels.

In February, "Identity Thief," in which the "Bridesmaids" and "Mike & Molly" star took the lead for the first time on the big screen (opposite Jason Bateman), opened in theaters, and the reviews were tepid at best. But veteran critic Rex Reed decided to make it personal, calling McCarthy "cacophonous," "tractor-sized," and a "female hippo."

As if "Transformers 4" isn't enough of a thrill ride, the cast and crew for the upcoming action blockbuster – including star Mark Wahlberg and director Michael Bay – faced some real life danger while shooting on Tuesday evening.

Firefighters were rushed to a house in Pflugerville, Texas at 7:25 pm after fire broke out in a home where the "Transformers 4" company was shooting a scene in an attic. A crew member told reporters that the company was shooting a "controlled explosion" when the fire took hold. However, a photographer at the scene believed the fire was caused by faulty wiring.

[Related: 'Transformers 4' Movie Stills]

While extensive damage was done to the attic, the rest of the structure, said to be over a hundred years old, was saved.

"There was one injury to a civilian who was transported to the hospital by Austin Travis County EMS,” a Pflugerville Fire Department representative told reporters. (Pflugerville is a small town less than twenty miles from Austin, Texas.) “We have no

Eddie Redmayne, left, is set to play Stephen Hawking (Photo: Getty Images/AP Photo - circa 1986)

After impressing critics and film fans with his performances in "Les Miserables" and "My Week with Marilyn," British actor Eddie Redmayne will soon be tacking his most challenging role to date in the true-life story of one of the world's most influential scientists.

Redmayne will be playing famed physicist Stephen Hawking in the upcoming biopic "The Theory of Everything," which is expected to focus on Hawking's life in the mid-1960s, according to Deadline. Working Title, the British production company that also brought "Les Miserables" to the big screen, are behind the project.

Beyond his skills as an actor, Redmayne seems an ideal choice to play Hawking – he looks youthful enough to be convincing as a young man of college age, and pictures of Hawking in his days at Oxford and Cambridge prove the actor bears a genuine resemblance to the physicist in his youth.

[Watch Weekend Picks!: This week covers 'Man of Steel' and 'This is the End']

"The Theory of Everything" will examine an especially tumultuous period in Hawking's life. In 1963, during his first year of graduate studies at Cambridge,

Jonah Hill, during less serious times (Photo: Columbia Pictures)Jonah Hill is a serious man. Just ask him, he'll tell you.

Or better yet, check out the new issue of Rolling Stone and read the interview with Hill and his co-stars in the new stoner-apocalypse comedy "This Is The End."

"I've done one of the biggest challenges you can do in Hollywood, which is transition from being a comedic actor to being a serious actor, and I'm really prideful of that," Hill tells reporter Erik Hedegaard. "I could have made a billion dollars doing every big comedy of the last 10 years and didn't, in order to form a whole other life for myself. Now I have fulfillment doing both."

All well and good, and Hill did earn an Oscar nomination for his work in "Moneyball," and appears in Martin Scorsese's upcoming "The Wolf of Wall Street." But along the way, prideful Hill seems to have lost a bit of his sense of humor. It certainly wasn't on display the day he sat down for his interview.

In the story, Hedegaard chats with Hill, James Franco, Seth Rogan, and Danny McBride about their general manliness, survival skills, and enthusiasm for marijuana, which fits the funny-guys-face-the-end-of-the-world theme of "This Is The End." However, while the other actors are game to talk about their various misadventures (even the often tight-lipped Franco, who speaks enthusiastically about breaking wind on airplanes), Hill comes off as stiff and uninterested in talking at all, though the fact Hedegaard initially greeted him as "Seth!" probably didn't help. ("No, I'm Jonah," Hill replied. "That's a great way to start.")

Naomi Watts in 'Diana' (Photo: Entertainment One)

The late Princess Diana was one of the most famous, admired, and recognizable women of the 20th century, and any actress who agrees to play her on screen has set herself up for a tremendous challenge.

Naomi Watts was willing to take on the task of playing Diana in an eagerly awaited biopic, and now the first trailer for the aptly-named "Diana" has been released (see below). It offers our first look at a what's certain to be one of the most talked-about movies of the year, as well as allows us to see Watts in action as Diana.

M. Night Shyamalan, Rachael Leigh Cook & Freddie Prinze Jr. Photos courtesy of Rex USA & Getty.

So the plain arty girl takes off her glasses, puts on a slinky black dress, and OMG she's gorgeous! Who ever could have seen that plot twist coming?

Turns out that "She's All That," the 1999 teen comedy that re-wrote "Pygmalion" for the millennial generation and gave Rachael Leigh Cook her breakthrough role, was secretly written by M. Night Shyamalan, the guy who built a career (for now) out of clever plot twists.

While one R. Lee Fleming Jr. got the official screenplay credit for "She's All That," in a recent interview the man behind "The Sixth Sense," "Unbreakable," and "Signs" admitted that he was the uncredited scriptwriter on the project.

[Related: M. Night Shyamalan's Biography & Filmography]

In an interview with Movies.com, Shyamalan was asked what audiences have come