#464. Movie Buzz
1. Hayden Christensen to gesture hypnotically as Mandrake
Mister Pre-Darth Vader, Hayden Christensen, will star in director Mimi Leder's (Deep Impact) upcoming movie based on the vintage Lee Falk Mandrake the Magician comic strip, Comingsoon.net reports.Jackson Mandrake, an underground magician and escape artist, is forced by the CIA to break an undercover operative out of maximum security containment.He succeeds, only to find that the agent has gone rogue and offers Mandrake a spot in his criminal operations ... or else.Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond, Push) has also been cast, most likely as Mandrake's buddy Lothar.
2. Chace Crawford to step into Kevin Bacon's Footloose shoes
Gossip Girl star Chace Crawford will replace Zac Efron in the upcoming Footloose remake, says The Hollywood Reporter.Crawford will take the Kevin Bacon role in the movie, to be directed by High School Musical helmer Kenny Ortega for a likely 2010 release.In the 1984 original, Bacon played a free-spirited city lad who came to a small town where dancing and rock 'n' roll had been banned.
3. SHADO on the big screen
UFO, Gerry Anderson's fondly remembered 1970s show about a covert organisation battling alien invaders, is headed for the big screen, says Variety.Producer Robert Evans is working with ITV Global to make a movie from the series.UFO focused on the efforts of SHADO (Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organization) to combat an invading alien race, which had been kidnapping and dismembering humans for years to use the body parts (ick!).The original series was set in 1984 (hah) while the new one will show a bit more vision and fast-forward us to 2020.
