Gina Carano to be honored at ActionFest
By Sean O’Connell
TrendPK.com: ActionFest has grown in size and stature over the years, attracting action-movie junkies to Asheville, N.C. to celebrate cinema’s general bad-assedness. This year’s event is scheduled for April 12-15, and they’ve just announced a very special guest that will help lure new attendees.
“Haywire” star Gina Carano will be the recipient of the inaugural Chick Norris Award at the 2012 festival. The prize, according to a release, honors the Best Female Action Star of the year, in a play off the attitude, spirit, athleticism and grit of Hollywood legend Chuck Norris, who was awarded ActionFest’s inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010.
“It is an incredible honor to be included in this event,” said Carano, a fixture of the MMA world who made a successful transition to action movies earlier this year.
“Chuck Norris has always been someone I respect and look up to. Being able to represent martial arts as a woman has been a blessing in my life and I am so intensely grateful to the people who have supported and shared this passion with me,” she continued.
Said ActionFest co-founder Aaron Norris: “An award to honor the work of women in action films is long overdue, and we’re honored to present the first Chick Norris Award to the astonishing Gina Carano, who I am a huge fan of. She has exploded on the movie scene with the magnificent Haywire. We know from very bruised and reliable sources that she’s as tough as they come—making her the perfect honoree for ActionFest.”
Even Chuck Norris weighed in, saying, “I am honored to have Gina Carano receive this award. My entire career has been blessed because martial arts allowed me to do what I love — make action movies. I cannot think of a better person than Gina for this honor, and I am proud that she is the first to receive this award. I highly respect her martial arts ability and she deserves all her accolades for Haywire. Watch out world, a star is born. A proven fighter and very tough action star is here to stay.”
The 2012 film line up, information about celebrity attendees, and badge sales are upcoming at www.actionfest.com.
And here’s a link to our interview with Carano, which we conducted back when “Haywire” opened in theaters. Norris is right. She’s an action star on the rise, and ActionFest is very smart to honor her and her unique skills.
Hollywood News on Twitter for up-to-date news information.
Hollywood News, Hollywood Awards, Awards, Movies, News, Award News, Breaking News, Entertainment News, Movie News, Music News
‘Underworld: Awakening’ tops domestic box office
January 23, 2012 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
LOS ANGELES: Vampires and werewolves lured moviegoers to theaters this weekend as the fourth “Underworld” film topped domestic box office charts and brought in an estimated $38.8 million around the world.
“Underworld: Awakening” stars Kate Beckinsale as a vampire leading the charge in a battle against humans trying to drive her species and the werewolves to extinction.
The fourth movie opened stronger than two of the three earlier films in the franchise, which opened in 2003. “Awakening” pulled in $25.4 million at North American (U.S. and Canadian) theaters from Friday through Sunday, plus $13.4 million from 36 international markets, distributor Sony said on Sunday.
Playing in 3,078 domestic locations, the film’s weekend sales finished “at the high end of where we hoped,” said Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribution for Sony Pictures. Audiences were eager to see Beckinsale return to the lead role, he said. She had starred in the first two films but skipped the third.
“Awakening” is the first “Underworld” movie in 3D and cost about $70 million to produce. The movie fell flat with critics as just 24 percent gave a positive review on aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes. But audiences polled by survey firm CinemaScore awarded the movie an A-.
In second place, World War Two story “Red Tails” far exceeded studio forecasts with $19.1 million domestically.
“Red Tails” stars Terrence Howard and Cuba Gooding Jr. in a drama about Tuskegee Airmen — a black pilot group in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War Two. Producer George Lucas paid the film’s $58 million production cost plus marketing expenses, and distributor 20th Century Fox had forecast $8 million to $10 million in domestic ticket sales for weekend.
“Never in our wildest dreams did we think we could pull off a number like this,” said Chris Aronson, senior vice president for domestic distribution at 20th Century Fox. He said audiences clearly enjoyed the film, giving it an A grade in polling by CinemaScore. Critics’ reviews on Rotten Tomatoes came in at 34 percent positive.
WAHLBERG MOVIE DROPS TO THIRD
Last weekend’s winner, thriller “Contraband” starring Mark Wahlberg, finished its second weekend in theaters in third place, grabbing $12.2 million domestically.
“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close,” a drama about a boy trying to make sense of his father’s death on 9/11, landed in fourth place with $10.5 million. The movie had opened in a small number of theaters on Christmas but expanded nationwide this weekend. The film stars Thomas Horn as the boy and Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock as his parents.
In fifth place, Steven Soderbergh-directed spy tale “Haywire” took in $9 million domestically, just beating distributor Relativity Media’s projection of about $8 million.
“Haywire” features mixed martial arts fighter Gina Carano as an operative who is double-crossed and becomes the target of assassins. While critics praised the film with an 82 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, audiences were not impressed. The film earned a D+ rating from CinemaScore.
Elsewhere this weekend, two movies that won Golden Globe awards last week expanded to more theaters.
Silent film “The Artist,” winner for best musical or comedy film, doubled last weekend’s sales with $2.4 million after moving into in 662 theaters from 446 last week.
“The Iron Lady,” which won Meryl Streep best actress at the Globes for her role as Margaret Thatcher, dropped 32 percent from a week ago despite expanding by more than 800 theaters to 1,076 locations. The movie took in $3.7 million over the weekend.
The movie division of Sony Corp distributed “Underworld.” Time Warner Inc unit Warner Bros. released “Extremely Loud.” News Corp unit 20th Century Fox distributed “Red Tails.” The privately held Weinstein Co. released “The Artist” and “The Iron Lady.” Privately held Relativity Media released “Haywire” in the United States, and Alliance Films distributed the movie in Canada. AGENCIES
Chinese-American actor Tom Wu to star in Ra.One
Apart from Shah Rukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Rampal, Anubhav Sinha’s sci-fi extravaganza Ra.One will also star Chinese-American actor Tom Wu. SRK even tweeted recently about Tom joining the cast of his home production. Said the superstar, “a big welcome to Tom Wu in the film cast. He is so humble & such a sport…really nice to have him on board.”
For the uninitiated, Tom Wu is a martial arts expert who has starred in films like Revolver, Shanghai Knights and Batman Begins. Considering that Ra.One also has its fair share of heavy duty action, one can be rest assured of seeing Tom Wu kick some butt in this flick too.
Salman Khan doing ‘Kick’ with Deepika Padukone
December 10, 2009 by Trend PK
Filed under Entertainment
Deepika Padukone has worked with some of the top stars including Shahrukh Khan, Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan. Now, she’s reportedly paired up with Salman Khan for Ghajini director A R Murugadoss’s next Hindi film titled ‘Kick’. To be produced by Sajid Nadiadwala, the film will be a remake of this year’s namesake Telugu hit starring Ravi Teja.
An action-packed thriller, it will have Salman doing breath-taking stunts. The star will reportedly undergo martial arts training and will also learn kickboxing for his role. Nadiadwala says he wants the action and stunts in ‘Kick’ to be much better than what’s been seen previously in Salman’s films, including Wanted. The film’s action scenes will reportedly be shot in Tokyo.
Salman Khan doing ‘Kick’ with Deepika Padukone was first posted on December 10, 2009 at 1:20 pm.
Watch Wec 43 Live Stream
Wec 43 Live Stream, WEC 43: Cerrone vs. Henderson is an upcoming mixed martial arts event held by World Extreme Cagefighting scheduled to take place on Saturday October 10, 2009 at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas.
WEC 43 will be featuring Donald Cerrone vs Ben Henderson for the WEC interim lightweight Championship. The main event was expected to be WEC Lightweight Championship bout between Jamie Varner and challenger Donald Cerrone. However, Varner was deemed medically unable to return to competition. So Cerrone will be facing Henderson for the WEC interim lightweight title.
Watch Wec 43 Live Stream was first posted on October 11, 2009 at 12:31 pm.
Espn Body Issue Pictures
Espn Body Issue Pictures, For many of us aching to see Gina Carano in Playboy, this may be the closest we will get. The sexy mixed martial arts star has always denied that she will ever pose for Playboy magazine but she sure displayed the goods for the ESPN Body issue, sort of.
In full mixed martial arts stance, Gina Carano poses with one arm discreetly covering her top. Another female athlete, professional tennis player and the new number one in the world, Serena Williams, meanwhile, is without a stitch on. However, strategically placed arms and legs cover the sensitive areas.
Another, triathlete Sarah Reinertsen, appears with arms and legs crossed to shield herself from the camera. On the men’s side, NASCAR driver Carl Edwards, Minnesota Vikings’ running back Adrian Peterson, and Dwight Howard of the NBA’s Orlando Magic, all pose without anything on for the ESPN Body issue.
These are the six athletes selected for the special issue where their photographs appears in a section called Bodies We Want. Eager to see the ESPN Body issue pictures? Take a look at the pictures from ESPN’s special body issue featuring Gina Carano, Serena and the others featured at Celebrity Mania.
