In a further attempt to ridicule the misleading title of X-Men: The Last Stand, franchise producer Lauren Shuler Donner hinted to the LA Daily News that X-Men 4 is at least being considered, with the renegotiating of contracts proving to be the greatest stumbling block: “The newer cast members are signed, and the older cast members are not”. Read this to mean a big question mark over the availability of the likes of Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen and Anna Paquin. Shuler Donner also mentioned the two upcoming spinoffs centering on Wolverine and Magneto: “Next, we’re going to do Wolverine, but not before the end of the year because he’s [Hugh Jackman] in the Baz Luhrmann film. We have the script and are working on it. We also have Young Magneto in development.”
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A photograph taken at the set of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, currently filming under the direction of David Yates, reveals actress Natalia Tena in full costume and make-up as the character Nymphadora Tonks. Not only is Tonks a cousin of Sirius Black and a member of the Order of the Phoenix, she is also an auror (a dark wizard catcher, like Mad-Eye Moody used to be) and a metamorphmagus, which means she can change her appearance at will. In the book, her favorite form seems to be that of a young witch with a heart shaped face and purple hair. The image from the set seems to show Tena in an approximation of that. Judge for yourselves by viewing it on 
Warner has provided us with the first official image from Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming new film, The Good German. Soderbergh, who has directed fan favourites and critically-acclaimed films such as Out of Sight, Erin Brockovich, Traffic, Ocean’s Eleven and Twelve and Solaris, reteams with actor and collaborator George Clooney who’s been in loads of movies Soderbergh’s directed or produced - the two men share an artistic partnership that led to their founding of Section 8, their own production company, which they have closed again as of August 1.
Entertainment Weekly offers an indepth look at Casino Royale in this week’s issue. The latest film in the successful James Bond franchise was filmed at half a dozen locations all over the world over a span of six months, and now the new Bond himself, Daniel Craig (Layer Cake, Munich), along with producer Barbara Broccoli, talked about taking the franchise back to its roots and the challenges coming with it, aswell as the reasoning behind the decision.
Many a moviegoer appears to have been disappointed with 2006’s output of quality movies, but it’s not exactly a secret that most studios hold back their darling projects until the end of the year, hoping to build up attention in the looming award season. November and December are usually packed with new releases, but this year it seems October and even September are just as busy. This seems to have lead some studios to delay some of their early autumn releases.
According to the 
I prefer Obama to McCain. Now, McCain’s better than average for a Republican. And though his ads are intellectually offensive, he’s just bowing to his campaign masters and would calm down and be more sane once in office and not campaigning. But I have a few concerns with McCain on foreign policy. He’s not a full-fledged Neocon. That’s good. He opposed Reagan on Lebanon. Good. He was critical of Bush’s initial strategy in Iraq. That’s good. But there’s a problem. He thinks the Vietnam war was winnable and that the US shouldn’t have withdrawn. He’s also eager to spread democracy with force. This just isn’t a good set of beliefs for inheriting Iraq.