Keanu Reeves' Directorial Debut 'Man of Tai Chi' Gets Greenlight

Madonna has signed with Interscope, a source close to the situation confirmed to Billboard.biz Wednesday morning (Dec. 14).our editor recommendsMadonna Performing at Super Bowl: What the Pundits are SayingIt's Official: Madonna Will Perform During Super Bowl XLVI Halftime Show (Video)New Movie Reviews: 'New Year's Eve,' 'Young Adult,' Madonna's 'W.E.' Hitting Theaters Official: Van Halen Signs With Interscope Records According to a report in the NY Post, the singer will continue the 10-year multi-rights deal with Live Nation -- said to be worth as much as $100 million -- that she signed in 2007, but has inked a three-album pact with Interscope at a base of $1 million per album. Billboard.biz's source could not confirm the terms of the deal at press time but said the report sounded right. Sources indicated to Billboard early last month that Madonna was likely to ink with Interscope. Madonna left Warner Bros., her label home of 25 years, after the release of her 2008 album Hard Candy. Her subsequent Live Nation-produced "Sticky & Sweet" tour grossed $408 million worldwide, according to Billboard Boxscore, highest ever for a female artist. While she is signed with Live Nation, the company's CEO Irving Azoff reiterated to Billboard in February that it would partner with some other entity in releasing Madonna's next album. Executives at the firm have stated repeatedly that they don't intend to enter the record business full-tilt. "Live Nation, prior to the merger, entered into some of these all-rights deals, so there are certain artists, Madonna being one of them, that there is a recorded music strategy," Azoff said. "Once she gets the album recorded, we'll sit down with her and her manager Guy Oseary and figure out what's best for the record. It has to start with the music." Azoff said Madonna would begin recording the album as soon as she finished work on her directing debut, W.E, a look at the scandalous love affair between Wallis Simpson and Britain's King Edward VIII, which is out early next year. A rough version of a ballad called "Masterpiece," reportedly from the film and her forthcoming album, leaked last week. Also last week, it was confirmed that Madonna will be performing during halftime at the Super Bowl on February 5 in Indianapolis. A different song, "Give Me All Your Love," leaked last month and Madonna teased the crowd about it during a Smirnoff event in NY last month, but stopped short of playing it. Last week, M.I.A. let it slip that she, Madonna and Nicki Minaj were working on a new song together. With reporting by Billboard'sRay Wadell PHOTO GALLERY: View Gallery Portraits of Amy Winehouse by Bryan Adams Related Topics Interscope Madonna Live Nation Entertainment Irving Azoff

Theron Reveals Monstrously Funny Side in 'Adult'

NY (AP) Jason Reitman was under the same impression many are of Charlize Theron. He knew she was a fiercely talented actress, prone to burying her stunning beauty behind gritty, intense performances like her Academy Award-winning one as a murderous prostitute in 2003's "Monster."Then she told him a dirty joke.Theron approached Reitman at last year's Oscars to tell him how much she liked his then recent film "Up in the Air" and that she'd love to work with him."I got a tap on the shoulder and I turn around and it's all 6'6" of Charlize Theron," recalls Reitman, intentionally exaggerating Theron's height by eight inches. "I was really understandably intimated."But when Theron, already a few drinks into the night, revealed a more depraved sense of humor than her image would suggest, Reitman realized they had more in common than he expected: "I was like, 'Oh! I like you.'" (Theron, for her part, doesn't recall the joke, but, with a glimmer in her eye, acknowledged, "That sounds about correct.")The meeting was both fortuitous, in that it directly led to Theron staring in Reitman's new film "Young Adult," and an early hint to the tone of their collaboration. In "Young Adult" (which was penned by Diablo Cody of "Juno"), Theron plays Mavis Gary, a teen fiction ghost writer who returns to her hometown in rural Minnesota to lure her now-married former boyfriend. As a woman whose nostalgia has swelled to demented proportions, Theron is bitingly caustic and hilariously candid.The performance not only reveals Theron's comedic side, but shows more of her true nature than her previous work. Not that Theron is anything like Mavis' more deplorable aspects, but she shares Mavis' sharp elbows and sharper wit."Most people who know me who have seen the film are not that shocked," Theron said in a recent interview during which she was self-deprecating, unguardedly foul-mouthed and thoughtful. "The film is way more my personality and closer to anything that I've done."It's also Theron's first film in nearly three years. In between, she prepared to star in an ambitious "Mad Max" sequel, "Fury Road," which was repeatedly delayed and still hasn't been shot. She worked on developing projects with her production company, including a drama series for HBO with David Fincher. She also split with the Irish actor Stuart Townsend after nearly a decade together."I'll be very honest: I wasn't missing it," Theron says of acting. "It's hard to miss something when nothing was kind of sparking that instrument to get excited about."That period, though, appears to be over. Following "Young Adult" which is earning Theron her best reviews since "Monster" she'll be seen in Ridley Scott's "Prometheus" and the fantasy "Snow White & the Huntsman," which also stars Kristen Stewart.Theron, 36, grew up on a farm outside Johannesburg, South Africa. While she was a teenager, her mother shot and killed Theron's alcoholic and abusive father. When she was 16, she became a model in Milan. She later moved to NY to train as a ballet dancer, but a knee injury pushed her out of dance and toward acting.After a number of small roles as girlfriend types in films such as "The Devil's Advocate" and "The Cider House Rules," her performance in "Monster" changed her trajectory considerably. When she won best actress at the Oscars, Nelson Mandela hailed her for putting South Africa "on the map."Since then, Theron, who lives in Los Angeles, received a second Oscar nomination for her performance as a miner in "North Country." Though the science fiction "Aeon Flux" bombed, Theron drew acclaim again for a supporting role in the somber anti-war film "In the Valley of Elah" and for the atypical superhero film "Hancock."But all the while, there were hints in her filmography of comedic leanings. In 2005, she had a memorable arc on "Arrested Development" as the love interest of Jason Bateman's character. Her character was mentally disabled, but the joke was on those around her, who didn't notice because of her British accent.The opportunity arose when "Monster" director Patty Jenkins directed an episode of the series, and Theron asked her to relay to creator Mitch Hurwitz her pleading to be on the show. She calls the experience a "great, great learning experience" in how comedy needn't be played for comedy, but rather portrayed realistically.Theron also appeared on an early episode of Zach Galifianakis' faux-interview Web series "Between Two Ferns," as revered of a comedy calling-card as there is. On it, Theron flirted with Galifianakis before pulling the rug out from him, cackling at the idea of her being attracted to a "fat garden gnome.""The bizarre thing is that I've always had kind of a sick, twisted sense of humor," says Theron. "But my work, for some reason, has always veered to the dramatic stuff. I think that's because I've never really been that driven by genre, but I find that I want to play people that feel real. I do think in comedy it's harder to find non-caricatures. I always said that I would love to do something like that kind of comedy that the Coen brothers do, that more character study stuff. And that stuff is hard to come by, and I feel like my career was setting itself up to be another thing."The comedian-actor Patton Oswalt, who plays an old high school acquaintance of Mavis' who turns into a drinking buddy in "Young Adult," said at the Gotham Awards that Theron "has the kind of humor that someone who looks like me has."The two found an unlikely chemistry in "Young Adult" right from the start. Before ever meeting, they did a table read in Reitman's dining room and immediately connected."I realized I was going to be working with a really great actor," says Oswalt. "It made me work even harder so that I could be on her playing field. She is so instinctual and already ready to go every shot."Whether it's "Monster" or "Hancock" or "Young Adult," Theron typically commits fully to a character. Asked how she manages that, she doesn't miss a beat: "Alcohol."But thinking a little more about it, she says that ballet instilled in her a relish for performance. Though she acknowledges she's not a trained actor, she says she learned from other actors as her career unfolded."It was amazing to watch Al Pacino at 3 in the morning and suck ... and then be brilliant," says Theron, recalling "The Devil's Advocate." ''It was one of the greatest teachings that I could have been given. He taught me that in order to be great, you have to be willing to fall on your face. You don't get to that place unless you go balls out."Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. By Jake Coyle December 13, 2011 PHOTO CREDIT AP Photo/Carlo Allegri NY (AP) Jason Reitman was under the same impression many are of Charlize Theron. He knew she was a fiercely talented actress, prone to burying her stunning beauty behind gritty, intense performances like her Academy Award-winning one as a murderous prostitute in 2003's "Monster."Then she told him a dirty joke.Theron approached Reitman at last year's Oscars to tell him how much she liked his then recent film "Up in the Air" and that she'd love to work with him."I got a tap on the shoulder and I turn around and it's all 6'6" of Charlize Theron," recalls Reitman, intentionally exaggerating Theron's height by eight inches. "I was really understandably intimated."But when Theron, already a few drinks into the night, revealed a more depraved sense of humor than her image would suggest, Reitman realized they had more in common than he expected: "I was like, 'Oh! I like you.'" (Theron, for her part, doesn't recall the joke, but, with a glimmer in her eye, acknowledged, "That sounds about correct.")The meeting was both fortuitous, in that it directly led to Theron staring in Reitman's new film "Young Adult," and an early hint to the tone of their collaboration. In "Young Adult" (which was penned by Diablo Cody of "Juno"), Theron plays Mavis Gary, a teen fiction ghost writer who returns to her hometown in rural Minnesota to lure her now-married former boyfriend. As a woman whose nostalgia has swelled to demented proportions, Theron is bitingly caustic and hilariously candid.The performance not only reveals Theron's comedic side, but shows more of her true nature than her previous work. Not that Theron is anything like Mavis' more deplorable aspects, but she shares Mavis' sharp elbows and sharper wit."Most people who know me who have seen the film are not that shocked," Theron said in a recent interview during which she was self-deprecating, unguardedly foul-mouthed and thoughtful. "The film is way more my personality and closer to anything that I've done."It's also Theron's first film in nearly three years. In between, she prepared to star in an ambitious "Mad Max" sequel, "Fury Road," which was repeatedly delayed and still hasn't been shot. She worked on developing projects with her production company, including a drama series for HBO with David Fincher. She also split with the Irish actor Stuart Townsend after nearly a decade together."I'll be very honest: I wasn't missing it," Theron says of acting. "It's hard to miss something when nothing was kind of sparking that instrument to get excited about."That period, though, appears to be over. Following "Young Adult" which is earning Theron her best reviews since "Monster" she'll be seen in Ridley Scott's "Prometheus" and the fantasy "Snow White & the Huntsman," which also stars Kristen Stewart.Theron, 36, grew up on a farm outside Johannesburg, South Africa. While she was a teenager, her mother shot and killed Theron's alcoholic and abusive father. When she was 16, she became a model in Milan. She later moved to NY to train as a ballet dancer, but a knee injury pushed her out of dance and toward acting.After a number of small roles as girlfriend types in films such as "The Devil's Advocate" and "The Cider House Rules," her performance in "Monster" changed her trajectory considerably. When she won best actress at the Oscars, Nelson Mandela hailed her for putting South Africa "on the map."Since then, Theron, who lives in Los Angeles, received a second Oscar nomination for her performance as a miner in "North Country." Though the science fiction "Aeon Flux" bombed, Theron drew acclaim again for a supporting role in the somber anti-war film "In the Valley of Elah" and for the atypical superhero film "Hancock."But all the while, there were hints in her filmography of comedic leanings. In 2005, she had a memorable arc on "Arrested Development" as the love interest of Jason Bateman's character. Her character was mentally disabled, but the joke was on those around her, who didn't notice because of her British accent.The opportunity arose when "Monster" director Patty Jenkins directed an episode of the series, and Theron asked her to relay to creator Mitch Hurwitz her pleading to be on the show. She calls the experience a "great, great learning experience" in how comedy needn't be played for comedy, but rather portrayed realistically.Theron also appeared on an early episode of Zach Galifianakis' faux-interview Web series "Between Two Ferns," as revered of a comedy calling-card as there is. On it, Theron flirted with Galifianakis before pulling the rug out from him, cackling at the idea of her being attracted to a "fat garden gnome.""The bizarre thing is that I've always had kind of a sick, twisted sense of humor," says Theron. "But my work, for some reason, has always veered to the dramatic stuff. I think that's because I've never really been that driven by genre, but I find that I want to play people that feel real. I do think in comedy it's harder to find non-caricatures. I always said that I would love to do something like that kind of comedy that the Coen brothers do, that more character study stuff. And that stuff is hard to come by, and I feel like my career was setting itself up to be another thing."The comedian-actor Patton Oswalt, who plays an old high school acquaintance of Mavis' who turns into a drinking buddy in "Young Adult," said at the Gotham Awards that Theron "has the kind of humor that someone who looks like me has."The two found an unlikely chemistry in "Young Adult" right from the start. Before ever meeting, they did a table read in Reitman's dining room and immediately connected."I realized I was going to be working with a really great actor," says Oswalt. "It made me work even harder so that I could be on her playing field. She is so instinctual and already ready to go every shot."Whether it's "Monster" or "Hancock" or "Young Adult," Theron typically commits fully to a character. Asked how she manages that, she doesn't miss a beat: "Alcohol."But thinking a little more about it, she says that ballet instilled in her a relish for performance. Though she acknowledges she's not a trained actor, she says she learned from other actors as her career unfolded."It was amazing to watch Al Pacino at 3 in the morning and suck ... and then be brilliant," says Theron, recalling "The Devil's Advocate." ''It was one of the greatest teachings that I could have been given. He taught me that in order to be great, you have to be willing to fall on your face. You don't get to that place unless you go balls out."Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Nakashima preps 'Advancing Titans'

Tokyo, japan -- Helmer Tetsuya Nakashima, along with producers Genki Kawamura and Yuji Ishida, can make "Shingeki no Kyojin" (Evolving Leaders), an sci-fi actioner with different hit comicbook, they introduced Thursday. Nakashima, Kawamura and Ishida last teamed for "Confessions," a psycho-drama that gained $50 million this past year, while being selected as Japan's entry for any foreign-language pic Oscar. The storyline focuses on a race of leaders taking within the earth and eat a persons population, forcing the children to reside behind gigantic walled enclosures. Then your leaders attack. The comicbook by Hajime Isayama has offered 6.six million copies of six paperback models since its launch within the Bessatsu Shonen Magazine last year. Nakashima continues to be along the way of casting the pic, but intends to begin shooting early in the year of the coming year. Release is skedded for 2013, with Toho delivering. Nakashima stated the pic, that will require extensive CGI, is going to be "probably the most costly Japanese film ever," but didn't title a figure. "This really is my first experience (using this type of project), however it might be the final Nakashima film ever," the helmer added. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com

Kris Jenner: Kourtney Kardashian & Scott Disick Wedding Gossips Totally False

First Launched: December 1, 2011 11:56 AM EST Credit: Getty Images Caption Kris Jenner, Scott Disick, Kourtney KardashianLOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Kris Jenner has spoken out undertaking a study by Entertainment Tonight on Wednesday which mentioned a married relationship between her pregnant earliest daughter, Kourtney Kardashian, and longtime love Scott Disick is imminent. Inside an exclusive statement to get into Hollywoods Billy Rose rose bush on Thursday, the reality mother declared the wedding report is false! The marriage gossips began to swirl on Wednesday morning after Kourtney and Scott introduced they are expecting their second child together. Kourtney, 32, revealed to Us Weekly they needed conceiving a child test roughly 5 days ago and awoke Scott around 7 AM to discuss the exciting news. Now Im nine days along, the Kourtney & Kim Take NY star told the mag. Youre made to wait 12 days to see people, however feel confident. Kourtney and Scott are actually parents to boy Mason, who'll turn 2 on December 14. Copyright 2011 by NBC Universal, Corporation. All rights reserved. These elements is probably not launched, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.