Now that Vampires are all the rage these days, it appears that someone got the bright idea to delve back into The Vampire Chronicles series written by the amazing Anne Rice in order to remake the movie Interview with the Vampire. As some of you may be well aware, Interview (which was written in 1976) was made into a movie in 1994 and starred Tom Cruise as Lestat de Lioncourt, Brad Pitt as Louis de Pointe du Lac and Kirsten Dunst as Claudia. In the wake of the success of Twilight, True Blood and (presumably) The Vampire Diaries, the plan is to bring Anne Rice’s vampires back to the big screen. And get this … Robert Downey, Jr. is rumored to star as Lestat:

We’ve been scrambling all week to confirm the following report, especially since it came from a very reliable source and is insanely logical considering the popularity of vampires these days. I guess something good has come from the success of Twilight as Bloody Disgusting has learned exclusively that Universal Pictures is looking to restart Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles, which tells the tale of the vampire Lestat Du Lioncort (through his narration), a nobleman-turned-vampire in the late 18th century. No word yet on how they plan on unrolling this franchise, but we did find out who they are talking with to replace Tom Cruise and Stuart Townsend. We have confirmed this afternoon that ROBERT DOWNEY JR. is in close talks to play the vampire Lestat in Universal Pictures’ The Vampire Chronicles, a newly rebooted franchise based on Anne Rice’s popular novels. Lestat appears as a major character in both motion picture adaptations of The Vampire Chronicles novels. In Neil Jordan’s 1994 film adaptation of Interview with the Vampire, he is portrayed by Tom Cruise. In the 2002 film adaptation of Queen of the Damned, he is played by Stuart Townsend. The Vampire Chronicles is a series of novels by Anne Rice that revolves around the fictional character Lestat de Lioncourt, a French nobleman made into a vampire in the 18th century.

OOOOOOH I’m so on the fence about this. On the one hand, I love Anne Rice and pretty much all of her books. I’m a big fan of The Vampire Chronicles and have loved Interview with the Vampire for many, many years. When it was made into a movie, I was quite surprised at how much I liked the film. Mind you, it was made in the days before Tom Cruise went crazy and was still a respectable actor. Interview is one of my fave Brad Pitt films. The sequel, Queen of the Damned (starring Stuart Townsend as Lestat) was laughable. That it was Aaliyah’s final film role is so tragic … mainly because the movie is not good at all. I kinda don’t want Hollywood to eff up Anne Rice’s characters again … but the thought of RDJ as Lestat is VERY intriguing. I guess we should hold off on getting too excited until things are confirmed all around but … I dunno. I’d hate for Interview with the Vampire to be exploited just to cash in on the fervent vampire craze that is going on these days (after all, let’s not forget the TERRRRRRIBLE Broadway musical titled Lestat that seemingly opened and closed in the same week). If they do it, I hope they do it right.

UPDATE: In response to an inquiry made by a fan, Anne Rice herself has issued a statement on the rumors of this Interview remake:

I cannot confirm this story. The negotiations are entirely in the hands of my agents. I know they are always working on setting up my books with good motion picture prospects. But I do not have anything specific to say on the matter right now. I am optimistic that we will see good movies in the future based on the Vampire Chronicles. When I do have news to report, I will post it on my website. I thank you for your interest. I can certainly confirm that the film of Queen of the Damned was a terrible disappointment to me and to many of the readers. Thank you for your letter. Anne Rice.

No surprise here. Rice admitted back in the 90’s that she had no say in the casting of Tom Cruise as Lestat in the original film (tho, she did love his performance after the fact). I wonder if RDJ will speak on this matter in the days to come.

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Speaking at the panel discussion for his upcoming film Sherlock Holmes at 2009 San Diego Comic-Con this weekend, Robert Downey, Jr. revealed to fans that there may be some overt man-on-man “love” (ie. affection) going on in the film. While he didn’t go so far as to say that Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Dr. John H. Watson would be lovers, he did reveal that the men are very, very close in the film … as a result of, what he calls, “circumstantial homosexuality”. Shoot, whatever he calls it … I’m all for it!

Will Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson be the latest bromance to hit Hollywood? Robert Downey Jr., who plays Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic fictional character opposite Jude Law’s Watson in Guy Ritchie’s remake of Sherlock Holmes thinks he and Law have some sexy chemistry together. “It’s called circumstantial homosexuality,” he jokingly told the press at Comic-Con Friday, after leading lady Rachel McAdams suggested the film’s central love story is really between the sleuth and his sidekick. The two actors took to each other even before Law signed on to the part. Downey was sent to meet his future costar and “sell” him on the role and “Jude walks down the hall and my assistant – who never cares about anything – is standing in the hall and she’s like, ‘Oh my God, there he is!’ He was dressed in that kind of fabulous, super expensive, under-dressed way. “I said, ‘Dude’ – and literally before he said he was going to do the movie, before he said that he was available, before he said that he either did or didn’t want to be courted, we just started talking like two serious actors about what would need to happen to make this work as a piece of straight drama. We just became really close really quickly, because we just rolled up our sleeves and started working from jump.” Downey said Law, who is currently performing Hamlet on stage in London, “is so the right arm of this movie.” But good thing for the ladies, the film isn’t just about male bonding. Downey shares some romantic moments with McAdams – but “not enough for my taste,” he said.

Oh man … how awesome is this. You gotta love actors that are secure enough in their manhood that they can willingly and believingly play male characters that show love and affection for one another without it necessarily being a gay lovestory. While I would have no problem with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson being lovers, that development doesn’t really jibe with the lore that we all know and love. That said, the men are very close and I’m happy to know that that closeness will be respected in the film version of the book series. I have full confidence that RDJ and Jude will do great justice to the beloved characters that they portray … and if they want to take the relationship to a bromantic level, who are we to argue?

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Last week we got our first look at Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow in the new film Iron Man 2 (due out in theaters next Spring) and today we get to check out another new photo of Scarlett as Romanoff along with new promo pics of the other characters in Iron Man 2 … including Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark, Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, Don Cheadle as Col. James Rhodey Rhodes and Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer. Here are the new promo pics along with some info on Iron Man 2’s presence at Comic-Con in San Diego, CA this weekend:

Mickey Rourke’s screams fill the empty basin of the Los Angeles River and spill into the midnight air. He’s having trouble with his Russian accent, which is turning the intended line from the Iron Man 2 script — “until you’ve lost everything” — into “Until you’ve lost every ting.” And the off-camera epithets are flying. After a half-dozen takes, he nails it. As he does after many scenes, Rourke beckons to his personal assistant — a round, unkempt guy known on set as “Superbad” because of his resemblance to actor Jonah Hill— who lights a smoke and puts it between Rourke’s lips. “Damn,” Rourke mutters, settling into a director’s chair. “That’s a tricky accent. But I wanted to be more than a one-note villain. That might have worked in the old comic-book movies, but not now. Not with these fans.” By “these” fans, Rourke means the 125,000 who will be awaiting him and dozens of other stars, filmmakers and TV producers who dare peddle their wares at Comic-Con, the nation’s largest convention of pop-culture junkies and self-proclaimed superhero nerds. The convention, which kicks off Wednesday night at the San Diego Convention Center, has become kind of an American Idol-style tryout for Hollywood. Since 2001, when 20th Century Fox trotted out its cast for X-Men, studios and networks have tried to dazzle the Twittering YouTube generation with celebrity glad-handing, sneak peeks and panel discussions. Of course, bringing your product to Comic-Con can be like singing for a room full of Simon Cowells. “This is about the toughest group there is to impress,” says Robert Downey Jr., reprising his role as playboy superhero Tony Stark. “They’re watching your footage, every one of them waiting to Twitter whether you suck.” … “You can’t underestimate how powerful this group is,” Favreau says. “It’s an unlimited press corps, all of them knowing how to communicate in a digital age. The geeks have inherited the Earth, and that’s good news for us.”

The raucous festivities at Comic-Con get underway tonight and will carry forth into the weekend. I have to say, as much fun as the superhero/sci-fi lovefest sounds I cannot, for the life of me, imagine that I would not have my head explode if I indulged. I never had the chance to attend Comic-Con when it wasn’t such a big deal … now that it’s the biggest deal ever, I can’t say that I have any interest in throwing myself into the fray. I’m sure that the legions of fans who are making their way to SD right now (and over the coming days) will have a blast … I will be just happy to watch from afar … and by “afar” I mean right here at home ;)

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Entertainment Weekly magazine scored a bit of a coup this week as they are able to feature the principal stars of the much-anticipated sequel Iron Man 2 on their cover this week. Additionally, EW is also giving us the exclusive first look at Scarlett Johansson in the role of Black Widow! Here is the cover of this week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly that features Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Ivan Vanko/Whiplash (Mickey Rourke):

Entertainment Weekly’s second annual Comic-Con preview issue features Iron Man 2 on the cover, and inside it’s packed with exclusive first looks at highly anticipated TV shows, comic books, and movies. The first Iron Man blasted Robert Downey Jr. back to stardom, and the superhero franchise is readying to return to the big screen on May 7, 2010. Iron Man will battle new villain Mickey Rourke, size up Scarlett Johansson (exclusive photo of ScarJo as Black Widow, after the jump!), and, hopefully, prove that the success of the first movie wasn’t a fluke. Downey knows the movie isn’t an underdog this time around. “There are a lot more invisible eyes on us now,” he says. When Marvel Studios first announced the sequel, no one was sure what the movie would be about. Downey, director Jon Favreau, screenwriter Justin Theroux, and the rest of the creative team struck upon the idea of introducing two very different foes for Stark. On one side is Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), a fast-talking weapons manufacturer who fancies himself the next Tony Stark; on the other, Vanko, who, while incarcerated in a Russian prison, creates his own battle-suit, which shoots devastating, whip-like beams. Hammer and Whiplash join forces to take down Downey’s character, Tony Stark. Rourke, for his part, wanted to instill some lightness into the role of the heavy. “I told Favreau, ‘I don’t want to just play him as a one-dimensional p—-,’” he says. “He let me have a cockatoo, who I talk to and get drunk with while I’m making my suit.” Just as the deals were being hammered out, Terrence Howard — who had played Stark’s best friend — fell out of the sequel in a public salary dispute. The role was re-cast, with Don Cheadle stepping in. “We had to make some tough deals,” says Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige. “When they got public, you go, ‘That sucks. Okay, you want a peek behind the curtain? Here you are!’” Says Cheadle, “Terrence and I couldn’t be more different. We address it head-on in the movie in one exchange. We’re not trying to fool people.” (Cheadle admits he didn’t know much about Marvel’s superhero before the first movie came out: “I always thought Iron Man was a robot.”)

It may seem a bit early to be featuring characters from Iron Man 2 on a magazine cover, especially since the film doesn’t open in theaters until Spring of next year, but with Comic-Con taking place in San Diego, CA next week it makes sense that EW would want to put a big name attraction on the cover. After the jump, check out the first promo pic of Scarlett as Black Widow that has been released to the media …

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Reese Witherspoon and her beau Jake Gyllenhaal joined Robert Downey, Jr. his son Indio Falconer and others for a private beach party in Malibu, CA yesterday afternoon. While GyllenSpoon did everything they could not to be photographed together (which makes absolutely no sense to me at all considering the many, many times we’ve seen them together), RDJ gave a very friendly wave and a hearty hello to the assembled photogs:

I really love the cut of Downey, Jr.’s jib. The man is always pretty easy-going about his fame and tends to be very friendly towards the attention that his celebrity gets him. You gotta love a celeb that embraces their fame rather than those that seem annoyed that they’re famous. While I’m sure the party was very fun, I bet I’d like hanging out with the very friendly RDJ rather than the usually crabby GyllenSpoon.

[Photo credit: Splash News]

Robert Downey, Jr., who is currently in production for the sequel to the wildly successful Iron Man in Hollywood, CA, was spotted doing a bit of fight training with a professional on the set of Iron Man 2 earlier today. Here are a couple of pics:

It’s so hard for me to see RDJ as a tough guy. I know he does some fighting in Sherlock Holmes (which we got a peek at in the new just-released movie trailer) and it looks like he’ll be kickin’ butt in Iron Man 2 but … he’s a lover, not a fighter.

[Photo credit: X17]

Last Friday we got our first look at a new promo pic from the film Iron Man 2 (which just went into production a few weeks ago) which showed Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark in his superhero secret lair. Today we get to see photos of RDJ filming out in public as director Jon Favreau puts the comic hero in a funny situation. Earlier this week, Favreau posted a fun photo on his official Twitter profile of the comic hero filming a funny scene for the film … here it is:

It looks as if someone (Iron Man perhaps?) is taking a respite from the trials of crime fighting in order to indulge his sweet tooth. After the jump, check out a more zoomed in photo for a closer look …

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