Acclaimed actor, humanitarian, and race car enthusiast Paul Newman has died of cancer in his home in Westport, Connecticut. He was 83. I did a remembrance of the actor for NPR News. Listen for the clip from Our Town, I think it provides a perfect cap to his career (and it made me cry). The feature closes with the song Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid but I wish I had reminded them to play Newman himself singing Plastic Jesus from Cool Hand Luke. But then I would have started to cry all over again. He'll be missed.

Actor Paul Newman had a career that successfully spanned five decades. He won an Oscar in 1986 for his role in The Color of Money, and received Emmy and Tony nominations for his stage and television work. He also won acclaim behind the camera having directed films such as Rachel, Rachel and Sometimes a Great Notion. Newman also leaves behind a legacy of philanthropy. Since 1982 his Newman's Own food products have donated more than $220 million dollars to charity. Although Newman was an internationally recognizable Hollywood icon, he chose to live a quiet life in Connecticut with his wife actress Joanne Woodward. Newman was also a race car enthusiast who once finished second in the grueling Le Mans 24-hour race.

Stephen Chow (left) directs Kung Fu Hustle and will be directing the new Green Hornet (Sony)

According to VarietyAsiaOnline.com Hong Kong superstar and Kung Fu Hustle director Stephen Chow has just signed on to direct and co-star in Columbia Pictures' big screen adaptation of The Green Hornet. Originally created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker as a 1930s radio program, The Green Hornet also appeared as a film serial in the 1940s; as a network TV show in the 1960s; and as comic books from the 1940s to the 1990s. Bringing the story of Britt Reid -- newspaper publisher by day and masked vigilante by night -- to the big screen has been in the works since the 1990s. Kevin Smith was writing a script at one point, and George Clooney and Jake Gyllenhaal were both mentioned for Reid. At the moment, Knocked Up star Seth Rogen is on board to star as Reid and to co-write the script with SuperBad partner Evan Goldberg. Chow will also take on the role of Reid's sidekick Kato, a role originated on TV by Bruce Lee. This combo of talent makes me think the film with be more jokey than gritty and hard-edged, and I'm not yet convinced that Rogen is the right choice for REid or for writing the screenplay. But I think Chow is up to the task of directing and playing Kato. It will be interesting to see if this combination of talent holds since so many people have come and gone in the past. Green Hornet is scheduled to open on June 25, 2010.

In case you haven't heard, the latest Harry Potter film (The Half-Blood Prince) has been postponed until 2009. Since Harry vacated the highly coveted just-before-Thanksgiving November 21 open date, the eagerly anticipated vampire film Twilight moved up and so too has Bond 22. The latest Bond film will now bow on November 14. So with the change of release dates, I thought that was a perfect excuse to post up the trailer for Quantum of Solace. I can't tell you how excited I am about Quantum of Solace. I have been a Bond fan since I was a little kid. I played the Goldfinger soundtrack so many times that I drove my parents insane! But after Sean Connery left the franchise I have been sorely disappointed with the actors playing Bond -- until Daniel Craig. The 2006 Casino Royale kicked ass and Craig was a hot, sexy new Bond. Quantum of Solace supposedly picks up right where Casino Royale left off, and based on the trailer it looks to maintain the same high level of gritty action and intensity.  It's so great to once again eagerly look forward to 007's next adventure, something I couldn't do for the four decades when Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan were playing the role. So here's to Bond 22, may it be as good as it's predeccessor... or maybe even better. The only bummer is that I now have to wait an extra week to see it. The release date change also means they can't do the clever trick with the O's and 7 in the title at the end of the trailer for the release daye. Trailer is courtesy of Sony Pictures.

This week's trailer highlight is Righteous Kill starring Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino as two veteran New York City cops. The two friends starred in 1974's The Godfather Part II for Francis Coppola but shared no onscreen time since DeNiro played the young Vito Corleone in flashbacks, and Pacino played his grown son Michael. The two did share screen time in Michael Mann's Heat (1995) but their onscreen interaction was limited to one scene. Now along comes Russell Gewirtz (writer of Inside Man) to hopefully satisfy our curiosity about what these two acting powerhouses could do together with more shared time onscreen. Gewirtz wrote  Righteous Kill with De Niro and Pacino in mind and on screen together for nearly the entire film. Let's see if they can generate even more heat this time around. Trailer courtesy of Overture Films.

Zhang Yimou directing Gong Li in Curse of the Golden Flower (Sony Pictures)

Zhang Yimou is a survivor. He survived China's Cultural Revolution, when he was sent off to the countryside to work. He survived battles with Chinese censors. And he has survived the criticism of a new generation of Chinese filmmakers. Some of them accuse Zhang of pandering to western tastes. Zhang Yimou has survived by recreating himself every few years.

Zhang, the acclaimed director of the recent Hero and House of Flying Daggers, recreates himself yet again as he takes on the task of overseeing the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games. An enormous undertaking both in terms of the scale of the work and the tricky politics involved in presenting his Communist host country to the rest of the world amidst criticism of human rights abuses. On Friday, he dazzled audiences with a eye-popping mix of Chinese cultural traditions and high tech flamboyance. And even though a bit of that sheen is wearing off with accusations of "fakery" in the telecast, Zhang still put on one helluva show.

I realize that this does not qualify as film yet I mention because Zhang Yimou is a fascinating person who has reinvented himself a few times during his career. In 1966, the Cultural Revolution caused the Chinese film industry to fall dormant and the film school to close down. People like Zhang Yimou were sent to the countryside as part of a nationwide movement to have China's urban youth educated by peasants. When the Cultural Revolution ended a decade later, Zhang gained admittance to the newly reopened Beijing Film Institute. The Institute's first graduating class rejuvenated the industry and became known as ‘the Fifth Generation.' but the Cultural Revolution left its mark on these new filmmakers. Zhang's first film, Red Sorghum, focused on a peasant girl sent off on an arranged marriage and later dealing with Japanese invaders in World War II.

Because of strict government censorship, Zhang and his fellow filmmakers had to learn the subtle art of allegory-- making films that questioned the status quo without seeming to. Zhang has had his share of censorship problems but as Christian Gaines, then director of the Hawaii International Film Festival, said in 2000, "He's very smart. Not only in terms of his filmmaking technique but also in terms of the politics he has to deal with."

So as the Olympics wind down and we head into the closing ceremonies, I hope you consider the surprisingly successful and varied career of Zhang Yimou not only in terms of the brilliant films he has created but also in terms of the difficulties he has had to face and triumph over. There should be a gold medal for a clever survivor like him.

Guillermo Del Toro (here directing Picturehouse' Pan's Labyrinth) is set to direct The Hobbit.

This isn't exactly breaking news (sorry I was a little slow to catch this one) but... The upcoming film version of The Hobbit has stirred a lot of buzz and debate as rumors have been circulating about exactly who would be involved. Since Peter Jackson did such a kick ass job bringing J.R.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings to the screen, fans were hoping that the New Zealand director would take on The Hobbit, the novel that precedes the storyline of the LOTR Trilogy. But negotiations, scheduling issues, and what not made it seem like Jackson would not be at the helm. A few days ago that was confirmed. But the good news is that Mexico's Guillermo Del Toro (director of Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth) has been signed on with Jackson producing. So the idea of Jackson and Del Toro collaborating should make fans happy. If anyone doubts Del Toro's ability to tackle this fantasy classic, just check out any of his films: Cronos, Mimic, The Devil's Backbone, Blade II, Hellboy or Pan's Labyrinth. Del Toro definitely has a flair for the fantastical and for finding the humanity in any story -- even if it involves bizarre monsters and creatures. The only down side of this is that Del Toro will aparently be moving to New Zealand where it will take four years to make two films back-to-back. The first film is slated to be a straight adaptation of The Hobbit. But the second is reported to be  "an entirely original film, set between the end of The Hobbit and the beginning of The Lord of the Rings trilogy." That means Del Toro will be focused on Hobbits for the next four years. Not terrible news, but I always liked the way Del Toro alternated between big productions and small personal works (Cronos, The Devil's Backbone). So this means we're unlikely to see a personal film from Del Toro for a few years. Oh well. But here's looking forward to what the fertile imaginations of Del Toro and Jackson can come up with. This is a creative marriage made in heaven... or at the very least in the Shire. I can't wait.

Mike Myers stars in The Love Guru, which is trying to generate some Internet buzz with the launch of multple sites. (Paramount)

With Harold and Kumar soliciting for campaign managers on FaceBook, the recent Cloverfield going viral, and Martin Scorsese getting a MySpace page, Hollywood is really looking to tap into the potential of the Internet. The Blair Witch Project is probably the first film that got attention for its use of the web but since then the web has proved a fickle beast for Hollywood. Snakes on a Plane generated a ton of buzz on the Internet but then fizzled at the box office. Even Cloverfield, which developed a rabid fan base on the web failed to pull in as large a crowd as hoped for and saw something like a 67% drop in attendance after opening weekend. But undaunted, Hollywood continues to see what the Internet can do for upcoming releases. Take Mike Myers' new film The Love Guru. Paramount Pictures has launched no less than five sites promoting the comedy in the hopes of building audience interest and getting folks out to the theater. The studios are now establishing departments - some called new media, some interactive media - but all trying to figure out how to tap into the millions of people using the web everyday.

Amy Powell, Senior Vice President of Interactive Marketing at Paramount Pictures, made herself available via email to answer a few questions about how the studios are trying to make the Internet work for them. You can link to all the sites at the end of her interview.

Heath Ledger's role in The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus will be completed with the help of Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell.

When Heath Ledger passed away on January 22, he left behind a pair of unfinished films. Shooting was essentially done on Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight with Ledger's work as the Joker pretty much in the can. That film is holding firm to its July 18 release. But Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, Ledger's second collaboration with the director after The Brothers Grimm, was in the midst of filming and had to shut down when Ledger died. But Gilliam has vowed to complete the film and to keep Ledger's final performance intact. Although Gilliam has never faced a tragedy like this on a film before, he's no stranger to production setbacks. On Brazil, the studio took the film away from him and tried to release their cut with a "happy ending." More recently, he had to scrap his dream project of bringing Don Quixote to the screen when his star Jean Rochefort got ill, and severe weather damaged sets and prevented shooting. (A chronicle of the Quixote debacle is recorded in the documentary Lost in La Mancha.) But Gilliam is ever inventive and the solution he has apparently come to is to have a trio of actors -- Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell -- complete Ledger's role. Their rumored participation has been confirmed.

The Hollywood Reporter today published this from a public statement released by the film's producers: "Since the format of the story allows for the preservation of his entire performance, at no point will Heath's work be modified or altered through the use of digital technology. Each of the parts played by Johnny, Colin and Jude is representative of the many aspects of the character that Heath was playing." Well that definitely sounds intriguing. Depp previously worked with Gilliam on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and was shooting with Gilliam on the Quixote project when it shut down. But neither Law nor Farrell have worked with Gilliam before. I hope the film will be a fitting cap to Ledger's brief but brilliant career. And for Gilliam's sake, I hope that it does get finished. He's one of the most imaginative directors working today and it's a shame he hasn't been able to make more films.

Ethan Coen, Martin Scorsese and Joel Coen at this year's Oscars (Matt Petit / A.M.P.A.S.)

The 80th Academy Awards -- which almost didn't happen because of the Writers' Strike -- has now come and gone. I can breath a sigh of relief that Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and Enchanted both got shut out, and that the Coen Brothers took home an armload of golden statues. All in all it wasn't a bad night. I only wanted to throw things at my TV a few times rather than continuously all night. There were no Forrest Gump or Chicago outrages this year.

No Country for Old Men was the big winner taking home four of the night's top awards: Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, and Supporting Actor (Javier Bardem). The Bourne Ultimatum scored big in the tech awards taking Editing, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing, while There Will Be Blood nabbed Best Cinematography and Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis in the hands down best performance of last year). While the male acting awards were no surprise, the female acting awards were. France's Marion Cotillard won Best Actress for her performance as Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose, something of an upset since Julie Christie was a favorite for Away from Her. In the Supporting Actress category Cate Blanchett's gender-bending turn in I'm Not There stirred a lot of buzz but it was Hollywood outsider Tilda Swinton that took home the prize for her work in Michael Clayton. Swinton had by far the night's best acceptance speech, announcing that her American agent looked exactly like the golden Oscar, right down to the "buttocks." She said that he was the reason she was making films in America and she was going to give her Oscar to him. Maybe she was going to pass it on because she's the kind of artist who doesn't seem to place a whole lot of weight on awards. She also took time in her speech to make reference to her co-star George Clooney: "the seriousness and the dedication to your art, seeing you climb into that rubber bat suit from Batman & Robin, the one with the nipples, every morning under your costume, on the set, off the set, hanging upside-down at lunch, you rock, man." That was priceless!

Diablo Cody - loved her Juno script. The dress? Not so much. (Matt Petit / A.M.P.A.S.)

Diablo Cody may have penned the Best Original Screenplay for Juno but she looked like a cross between Cleopatra and The Flintstones in her leopard print dress. The dress also had a slit running up one side that former stripper Cody kept having to hold closed so that she didn't accidentally flash 100 million viewers. Her clothes might have been silly but she was -- as far as I remember -- the only winner to pay tribute to the writers and their battle on the picket line. She seemed genuinely excited and pleased by her award for the first screenplay she ever wrote. There was also a sweet victory in Glen Hansard's Falling Slowly (from the Irish indie film Once) winning Best Song over a trio of painful songs from Enchanted. Ratatouille -- a CGI animation that I would have been thrilled to see win Best Animated Film any other year -- took home the prize but beat out the far superior Persepolis. And in Best Foreign Film, The Counterfeiter won gold for Austria but the best foreign films from last year weren't even nominated (namely 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, Persepolis, Exiled, and The Orphanage).

The Bourne Ultimatum won the first ever Best Stunt Ensemble at the SAG Awards. (Universal)

Over the weekend, many industry guilds gave out their top awards. The Directors Guild of America honored the Coens for No Country for Old Men, and the American Society of Cinematographers bestowed its top prize on Robert Elswit for There Will Be Blood. With a waiver from the still striking Writers Guild, the Screen Actors Guild got to have an awards ceremony with a red carpet and celebrities. No real surprises as Daniel Day Lewis and Julie Christie racked up awards yet again for their respective work in There Will Be Blood and Away From Her. This looks like a preview of the upcoming Oscars. No Country for Old Men nabbed the best ensemble, which bodes well for it to grab the Best Picture Award come Oscar time. You can see the complete list of winners at the SAG website.

But there was one surprise at the otherwise predictable SAG awards, a new category for Best Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture. The nominees were 300, The Bourne Ultimatum, I am Legend, The Kingdom, and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. And the winner was The Bourne Ultimatum. Are you kidding me? I don't want to belittle the hard work that went into those films but what about Zoe Bell's phenomenal stunts in Grindhouse's Deathproof? Grindhouse deserved a nomination just for paying tribute to all the stuntmen of the industry's "all or nothing" days" as Kurt Russell's Stuntman Mike put it.

And what about the insanely over the top stunts in Shoot 'Em Up? And were all Asian films excluded? They must have been or there is no excuse for overlooking work from Hong Kong (Exiled and Flashpoint just to name two), South Korea (City of Violence had breathtaking stunts), Japan and even Thailand. Heck even Live Free or Die Hard had more impressive stunt work than Bourne. Only 300 brought anything new or fresh to the action genre among those films nominated. As an action film junkie, I just had to get that off my chest. On the plus side, it's cool that SAG created this award. In Hong Kong, they have a category for Action Choreography. So it's nice to see the U.S. begin to pay respect to this particular cinematic craft.

More awards to come. The Oscars -- if the writers' strike ends or they get a waiver from the WGA -- is scheduled for February 24.  You can get a printable ballot for your own Oscar event, or join Scott Marks and I at the Museum of Photographic Arts' Oscar Party. And the winner is...