Ben Stiller
Stiller Took Time Off To Battle Workaholism
Ben Stiller took a five month hiatus last year (09) in an effort to beat his workaholism.
The funnyman admits he came to the realisation he was hooked on work after a busy period, which culminated with the filming of his latest movie Greenberg.
And he decided it was time to do nothing but spend time as a husband and father.
He tells Rolling Stone magazine, "The first part of getting rid of an addiction is acknowledging that you have it, and I acknowledge that I enjoy working. Anyone that's kicked heroin will tell you they enjoyed it until they realised it was screwing up their life. I haven't hit bottom yet, but I've gotten to a place where I realised it's out of balance, and I've adjusted.
Last summer, I took five months off... and went away with my family, and it was great."
Atonement: The Opera
Atonement Author Ian McEwan is turning the bestselling book into an opera following the success of its 2007 film adaptation starring Keira Knightley.
The book, which was released in 2001, follows a love affair doomed by a child's misunderstanding.
Director Joe Wright's movie, also starring James McAvoy, landed seven Oscar nominations and won the Academy Award for Best Original Score.
Now writer McEwan is working on an operatic version with composer Michael Berkeley and poet Craig Raine - and he promises the finished show will be a grand affair.
He says, "It's not a chamber piece, that's for sure."
Theatre owners in the U.K. Germany and the U.S. are reportedly interested in staging the Atonement opera and are eyeing a 2013 premiere.
Christoph Waltz To Direct
Oscar winner Christoph Waltz is to make his directorial debut with a German-language movie.
The Austrian star of Inglourious Basterds will direct Up and Away from his own screenplay - and is considering taking on a supporting role in the film, which chronicles the love life of a dating game show's host.
Waltz has adapted Meike Winnemuth and Peter Praschl’s novel Auf und Davon for the movie.
Archivist's Hunt For Demille's 'Lost City' Back On
A Hollywood archivist's decade-long dream of excavating movie legend Cecil B Demille's The Ten Commandments set in a remote California town is about to be realised thanks to funding from locals.
Peter Brosnan started searching for the Hollywood holy grail, created for the 1923 epic and then buried among the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes on California's Central Coast, 10 years ago and was thrilled when he unveiled statues created for DeMille after a day-long dig.
But he couldn't raise the funds to excavate the set and movie bosses were far from interested in funding a dig as part of a documentary.
Brosnan temporarily abandoned the idea, but now the New York University film school graduate is hoping a grant to make a film about the area's links to Hollywood's great early films and stars will help him start the excavation.
Brosnan tells the Los Angeles Times newspaper, "I didn't realise when I started this project that it was going to become an epic of it's own."
The publication reports DeMille's 'lost city' was bulldozed into a trench and covered with sand when filming wrapped - because the legendary moviemaker feared rivals would steal his statues and it was too expensive to haul away and store.
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