The actor is now readying The Expendables, for which he has co-authored the script.

Sylvestor Stallone is cast as Barney ‘The Schizo’ Ross, leader of a group of mercenaries on a rebel mission in South America. The Expendables opens with Barney Ross and his band rescuing hostages from Somali pirates. After that, the mercenaries head to a South American country. Their mission? To overthrow the bloody dictator who’s running amok. As the mission begins, the group finds itself ensnared in a lethal game of deception – one among them is a traitor.

The Expendables features the big three of action movies of the 1980s- Sylvestor Stallone, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger – and promises a lot of adrenaline-pumping action.

The Last Action Hero, 63-year-old California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, is making a comeback to the big screen after more than six years in a cameo in The Expendables.

Arnold Schwarzenegger utters a crisp one-liner referring to Sylvester Stallone. “Give this job to my friend here – he loves playing in the jungle,” he drawls in his inimitable style.

Speaking about the shooting schedule of The Expendables, Sylvestor Stallone said it took eight months of planning. On the scene between the three action icons, he said it sets the tone for

the movie.

Bruce Willis plays a tycoon who hires Sylvestor Stallone’s bunch of guys (Jason Statham, Jet Li, mixed-martial-arts champion Randy Couture and former NFL player Terry Crews) — to overthrow a Latin American dictator. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Stallone’s longtime rival.

Sylvestone Stallone said the film is “the three of us going nose-to-nose, like meeting a fellow athlete in the ring.”

Action stars Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme were also reportedly approached, but did not sign up. Steven Seagal had his hands tied with a TV show while Jean-Claude Van

Damme reportedly was not convinced by the character he would play in The Expendables. It’s a pity, for had they joined the crew, this would have been a once-in-a-lifetime casting!

Meanwhile, Sylvestor Stallone has said he’s 99 percent sure he won’t work on another Rambo film and stated that the series ended with the fourth movie.

Stating that he had planned Rambo 5, he said that he realized that another movie was not necessary.

Sylvestor Stallone will also star as the voice of a lion in Kevin James’s comedy The Zookeeper in which animals at a zoo break their code of silence to help their zookeeper win the attention of a woman. The film is slated for a July 2011 release.

Chitrangada Singh

In Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, the story of three youngsters in the 1970s, Chitrangada Singh’s Geeta Rao – torn between the love of a revolutionary and a power fixer amid the backdrop of the Indian Emergency – won applause from critics as well as audiences.

But since then, she hasn’t been seen much- she appeared in the 2005 film , went on to take a break from her acting career from 2005 to 2008, then returned opposite Sanjay Suri and Sharman Joshi in Onir’s  Both films didn’t do well at the box office.

Married to ace golfer Jyoti Randhawa, Chitrangada Singh says she took a break from the industry after Ruchi Narain’s Kal: Yesterday and Tomorrow, because of personal reasons. Clarifying, she says, some magazines indicated that she was being assaulted and ill-treated by her husband and in-laws. Unable to deal with the yellow journalism, Chitrangada says she gave up and retreated to Gurgaon – a move she now says was “the dumbest thing” she ever did.

2010 promises to be different. Chitrangada Singh, currently the face of Garnier cosmetics and Aliva biscuits, is sitting pretty with three films up for release – Navdeep Singh’s Basra (with Abhay Deol) and Sudhir Mishra’s Dhruv (with Farhan Akhtar and Kareena Kapoor), and Dil Dar Badar (directed by Sudhir Mishra; co-starring Irrfan and Arunoday Singh).

Navdeep Singh’s Basra, which is produced by Abhay Deol and distributed by PVR Pictures, stars Abhay Deol, Nikhil Dwivedi, Shahana Goswami, Chitrangada Singh and Soniya Mehra. Set for a 2010 release, the movie is set in the Iraqi town of Basra and tells the story of drug runners from Mumbai and Delhi. Basra also spotlights Krav Maga, an Israeli form of self defense.

Abhay Deol reportedly spent weeks practicing the hand-to-hand deadly combat tactics that the Israeli martial arts form involves.

Dhruv is reportedly based on the life of Dwarka Prasad Mishra, former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh. Produced by Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar, Dhruv will have Kareena Kapoor (an ordinary girl, the daughter of a police commissioner, and her journey to the top echelons of power) and Farhan Akhtar playing politicians while Chitrangada Singh plays an escort and
power broker.

Sudhir Mishra has said that he is using several elements of his grandfather Dwarka Prasad Mishra’s character in Dhruv. He also said the plot has derived inspiration from Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

In Dil Dar Badar, also directed by Sudhir Mishra, Chitrangada Singh plays a struggling rock star. Dil Dar Badar will hit the cinemas in October 2010.

The old Magoo can also be seen in a re-release of Mr. Magoo in Sherwood Forest (Magoo plays Friar Tuck).

Classic Media, which recently released the two DVDs, said the purpose was to introduce Magoo (and his trademark catchphrase “Oh Magoo, you’ve done it again!”) to a new generation of viewers, and include something for the generation that grew up loving him.

Magoo’s first appearance (voiced by Jim Backus) was in 1949 in the theatrical short The Ragtime Bear, which was scripted by Millard Kaufman. Columbia was reportedly disinclined to release the short, but did so, only because the cast included a bear. However, Magoo one of the few “human” cartoon characters produced in Hollywood at the time – became the star.

Magoo went on to win two Academy Awards for the studio with When Magoo Flew (1955) and Magoo’s Puddle Jumper (1956).

In 1959, Mr. Magoo was seen in 1001 Arabian Nights, UPA’s first feature-length production.

After theatrical shorts, Magoo made his way to television in the 1960s.

The first animated Christmas special on American TV involved Magoo. Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol (1962), a musical adaption of Charles Dickens’ story, went on to become a huge hit and set the tradition of animated holiday specials.

The special inspired an animated TV series titled The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo, in which Magoo blundered his way through classic literature and fairy tales. After an introduction in Magoo’s backstage dressing room, he played roles like The Count of Monte Cristo, Merlin in a retelling of King Arthur, Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Friar Tuck in Robin Hood.

In the 1970s, Magoo appeared in a new Saturday morning CBS television series called What’s New, Mr. Magoo?

In recent times, Mr. Magoo also made an appearance in a live-action film. In 1997, Leslie Nielsen portrayed Magoo in a live-action Mr. Magoo feature film. The film did not find much success.

Old pop culture seems to be the flavor of the season. Apart from Magoo, the iconic Looney Tunes characters are set for a comeback as well. Warner Bros. plans to revive the Looney Tunes gang with a new 26-episode half-hour series on Cartoon Network in the fall.

All the Looney Tunes regulars will be there – Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck will star and leave the woods to live as roommates in a modern cul-de-sac, while Tweety Bird, Sylvester, Yosemite Sam, Marvin the Martian and Porky Pig will be their neighbors.

The new TV series is likely to be broken into three six-minute stories, a two-minute Merrie Melodies component — and a two-minute Road Runner chase.

Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote will also return to theaters with a series of 3-D shorts. The first of these —  three have been approved and three are in development – will play before movie Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, which is slated for a July 30, 2010, release.

Photo: Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan in The Karate Kid

Starring Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith (son of Will Smith), The Karate Kid is the story of a 12-year-old boy who masters the martial arts to teach the bullies in his school a lesson and win the heart of the girl he likes.

The Karate Kid – produced by Will Smith – will be released in theaters in the United States on June 11, 2010.

The movie has been “refashioned as a star vehicle for Jaden Smith” and borrows “elements from the original plot, wherein a bullied youth learns to stand up for himself with the help of an eccentric mentor.” Principal photography for The Karate Kid took place in Beijing, China.

Dre Parker (Jaden Smith), 12, is a popular kid in Detroit, Michigan, where he lives with his single mother Sherry Parker (Taraji P. Henson). A career move by Sherry forces them to shift to Beijing, where Dre develops a crush on a school mate Mei Ying. Cultural differences and Ying’s father’s disapproval make friendship tough for Dre and Ying.

Dre’s attraction to Ying also brings forth attention from infamous bully leader, Cheng, who nicknames Dre “The Karate Kid” – since Dre’s knowledge of the martial arts form is severely limited.

The gang of bullies makes his life miserable, until he runs into Mr. Han (Jackie Chan). Mr. Han makes a deal with the bullies’ kung-fu master that if they let Dre train they can fight Dre in an upcoming tournament. Quirky Mr. Han, who is also a kung-fu master, teaches Dre kung-fu through unconventional yet effective techniques. The climax of The Karate Kid has Dre Parker battling Cheng and his friends in a grand martial arts tournament.

The official theme song of The Karate Kid is Never Say Never, performed by Justin Bieber and Jaden Smith.

The 1984 film, The Karate Kid, was directed by John G. Avildsen and starred Ralph Macchio, Pat Morita, and Elisabeth Shue. The story of an underdog who emerges triumphant, The Karate Kid told the story of high school senior Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) who moves with his mother (Randee Heller) from Newark, New Jersey, to Reseda, a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Their apartment’s handyman is an eccentric Okinawan immigrant, Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita).

Daniel falls for a high school cheerleader (Elisabeth Shue), but faces trouble in the form of her ex-boyfriend (William Zabka), a karate student. Johnny is the best student at the Cobra Kai dojo, where he learns a vicious form of martial arts.

After repeated beatings from Johnny and his friends, Daniel is rescued by Miyagi who defeats all five Cobra Kai easily. Miyagi agrees to teach Daniel the martial arts form, and a close bond develops between the two.

The Karate Kid spawned a franchise of related items and memorabilia. Three sequels also followed – The Karate Kid, Part II (1986); The Karate Kid, Part III (1989); and 1994’s The Next Karate Kid (in which Hilary Swank played as Mr. Miyagi’s new student).

Will Smith’s The Karate Kid does not feature the modern interpretation of karate; the new film has the protagonist learning kung fu.

It is likely that the film will be called The Karate Kid in the United States and The Kung Fu Kid in Asia.

Photo: Despicable Me movie poster

The story is set in a suburban neighborhood which has a whole lot of houses with gardens abloom with rose bushes and surrounded by white picket fences. In the midst of this pretty area is a black house with a dead lawn.

The residents don’t know it, but the black house shelters beneath it a huge secret hideout. The vast network of underground domelike rooms is where the evil-minded Gru (Steve Carell) is raising a small battalion of minions to pull off the biggest heist the world has ever seen.

Armed with an arsenal of shrink rays, freeze rays, and battle-ready vehicles for land and air, Gru has his eye on the moon, yes, the moon! Keen to outsmart his arch enemy Vector (Jason Segel, who’s the No. 1 super villain), wicked Gru hopes to become the biggest villain the world has ever seen after pulling off his robbery.

But in his house and outside, Gru continues to live a normal life. He goes to the stores and coffee shop; and sometimes – just sometimes – uses his freeze-ray to shorten the line a bit.

The stage is set for him to pull off the biggest heist of all when he runs into his biggest challenge –  three orphaned children who show up at his doorstep looking for a father. He fails in all his attempts to send the three kids – Margo, Edith and Agnes – packing or to discipline them, but ultimately lets them stay with him. Will Superbad Gru turn Superdad Gru? Wait till July 9, 2010, to watch Despicable Me and find out.

Steve Carell, who has voiced Gru, is known for his roles in the TV series The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (1999 to 2004) and The Office from 2005 onward. He has also starred in Anchorman, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Little Miss Sunshine, Evan Almighty, Dan in Real Life, Get Smart, and Date Night; and provided voiceovers in animated films Over the Hedge and Horton Hears a Who!

Jason Segel (the voice of Vector, Gru’s nemesis) is known for his work in TV (Freaks, Geeks, Undeclared), and movies such as Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Knocked Up, and I Love You, Man. Segel also played Marshall Erikson in CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother.

Photo: The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader poster

In The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the two younger Pevensies, Edmund (Skandar Keynes) and Lucy (Georgie Henley), are visiting cousin Eustace Scrubb (Will Poulter) when they find themselves drawn into a painting of an old ship. They surface on the Dawn Treader, where the new King of Narnia, Caspian X (Ben Barnes), is heading off on a quest.

Michael Apted signed on to direct The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (taking over from Andrew Adamson) in June 2007. The film was then slated to release in May 2009. However, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures delayed the release date to May 2010 citing “challenging schedules for [its] young actors.”

Later, a budget dispute between Walden Media and Disney -  Disney wanted to limit the budget to $100 million, while Walden wanted $140 million – delayed filming. In January 2009, 20th Century Fox stepped in as distributor instead of Disney.

Filming of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader has been completed now, and post-production work is on. Click here to see pictures from the sets of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

The third part of The Chronicles of Narnia film series has been scripted by Steven Knight. Richard Taylor, Isis Mussenden and Howard Berger have worked on the production design and practical effects. Visual effects supervisor Jim Rygiel, composer David Arnold and cinematographer Dante Spinotti joined the Narnia team with The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

A series of fantasy novels for children written by C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia details the adventures of children who find themselves in the fictional land of Narnia, a place where animals talk, magic is common, and good battles evil. The books feature children from this world who are transported to Narnia, where they help the Lion Aslan save Narnia.

The first two movies in the series were The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008).

Photo: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian poster

In The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, set three years after the Pevensie children helped Caspian win back the throne from his evil uncle Miraz, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie – along with cousin Eustace Scrubb – find themselves on a Narnian ship headed for the end of the world.

Peter and Susan do not return because, as Aslan (Liam Neeson’s magical voiceover of the mighty, much-loved lion) said, they have learned all they needed to in Narnia. The younger Pevensies find King Caspian on a mission to find the seven lost Lords of Narnia.

Lucy and Edmund are elated to return to Narnia, but Eustace – who never believed in the existence of Narnia – isn’t quite sure of how he should react.

Caspian, Lucy, Edmund, Eustace and the warrior mouse Reepicheep (Bill Nighy lends his voice) try to find Aslan and his country beyond the seas of the “utter East” in a journey that turns out to be a voyage of a lifetime.

Walden Media is hoping that The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader will be as successful as the first Narnia film – The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (in which the Pevensie children ally with Aslan to defeat the forces of the evil White Witch) was released in December 2005, and grossed over US$700 million worldwide.

In The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, also directed by Andrew Adamson, the Pevensies are summoned to Narnia to help Prince Caspian, the rightful heir to the throne of Narnia. The four – along with Aslan – help Caspian overthrow his uncle, King Miraz, before the evil king’s plot to exterminate all Narnians succeeds. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian grossed US$141 million in the United States and $278 million in the rest of the world.

Admitting to some mistakes with The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, producer Mark Johnson said The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader has shaped up to be a wonderful Narnia movie.

Photo: Ranbir Kapoor with Katrina Kaif in Ajab Prem Ki Gazab Kahani

Ranbir Kapoor’s on a roll. After a rocking 2009 – he had the coming-of-age Wake Up, Sid, love caper Ajab Prem ki Ghazab Kahaani, and the acclaimed Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year, the Kapoor scion is hoping to repeat the magic with his line-up this year. What’s on his list? Prakash Jha’s Rajneeti, Siddharth Anand’s Anjaana Anjaani and Imitiaz Ali’s Rockstar.

Born into a family of film stars, stardom didn’t come very easy to Ranbir Kapoor. After a stint at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York, Ranbir Kapoor returned to India and worked as an assistant to director Sanjay Leela Bhansali on the 2005 film Black. He made his debut in 2007 with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Saawariya opposite Sonam Kapoor. The film tanked, and for a long time, Ranbir – though appreciated by critics – found that the big roles weren’t coming his way. All that changed with his 2008 film, Siddharth Anand’s Bachna Ae Haseeno which cast him opposite Bipasha Basu, Deepika Padukone and Minissha Lamba as a playboy who falls in love.

Then came 2009 – his turn as spoiled, selfish and rich Mumbai brat Sid opposite Konkona Sen Sharma’s Aisha in Wake Up, Sid earned him rave reviews. His chemistry with Katrina Kaif in Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani lit up the screens and the box office. In Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year, as the truthful, caught-in-the-wrong-job salesman Harpreet, he shone through with a quiet, sensitive performance of the underdog who triumphs. His performances in Wake Up, Sid and Rocket Singh also earned him the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Performance in 2009.

This year promises to set him on the road to stardom, big time. Coming up first is Prakash Jha’s Rajneeti, a family drama that focuses on the politics that members of families play. One of the most awaited films of the year, Rajneeti features an impressive ensemble cast with actors such as Katrina Kaif, Nana Patekar, Manoj Bajpai, Arjun Rampal, Naseeruddin Shah and Ajay Devgn. Rajneeti, courting controversy because of a reported similarity between the character that Katrina Kaif plays and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, is scheduled for a June 4, 2010, release.

Prakash Jha, who last directed Apharan in 2005 and Gangajal in 2003, says Rajneeti is his most complete film. “This is a film about politics and tries to cover most aspects involved in politics – personal, family, social, state, national. Basically, the film tries to showcase what happens in politics. And I would say this is my most complete film,” he has said.

Ranbir Kapoor, who plays a suave politico, seems quite kicked about his part and said he was not apprehensive in the least about the fact that he was working with actors who had for so long been part of realistic cinema. Rajneeti, he says, was a huge learning experience.

Slated for a Sept. 4, 2010, release is Siddharth Anand’s Anjaana Anjaani. Ranbir Kapoor is cast opposite Priyanka Chopra (who is currently also working on Vishal Bhardwaj’s Saat Khoon Maaf) for the first time in this romcom. Siddharth Anand, who has films like Bachna Ae Haseeno and Salaam Namaste to his credit, was reportedly keen to cast Katrina Kaif, but chose Priyanka Chopra. Anjaana Anjaani, which also stars Zayed Khan, will be shot in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. Anjaana Anjaani is being produced by Sajid Nadiadwala’s Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, and will have music by Vishal-Shekhar.

Late 2010 or early 2011 will see the release of Imitiaz Ali’s Rockstar. Shri Ashtavinayak Cine Vision and Eros International Media Ltd will jointly produce Rockstar. Imitiaz Ali, the director of Jab We Met and Love Aaj Kal, looked at the possibility of casting Katrina Kaif, Sonam Kapoor and Anushka Sharma as a Kashmiri girl opposite Ranbir Kapoor, but has finally zeroed in on model Diana Penty (she has appeared in the Maybelline, Garnier and Virgin Mobile ads) as his female lead.

Photo: 50 Cent's shocking photo of weight loss for Things Fall Apart movie

50 Cent’s pictures were posted first on his official website ThisIs50.com and are also featured in the latest issue of Us Magazine. The artist says that he went down from his earlier weight of 214 pounds to160 pounds for the movie. 50 Cent’s weight-loss process consisted of jogging on the treadmill for three hours per day for a period of nine weeks accompanied by a diet that comprised of liquids only. His efforts were praised by his friends and fellow rap artists including rapper Tony Yayo who revealed that 50 Cent had stayed away from parties and alcohol as well for losing weight.

The 34-year-old rapper underwent the weight-loss process for his role in “Things Fall Apart” in which he acts as a football star who is diagnosed with cancer. The movie is directed by Mario “Chip” Van Peebles who also co-stars with 50 Cent in the movie. 50 Cent was also involved in co-writing the script for the film, which is being co-produced by his own production house, Cheetah Vision Films, in association with Randall Emmett. Shooting for Things Fall Apart had begun in Michigan and was set to release in 2011.

50 Cent, whose actual name is Curtis Jackson, has admitted that he starving during the period of shooting and that he had also had the tattoos in arms removed for the role. He also revealed that he was required to shed 65 kilos for role and that the photos were taken when he had lost 54 pounds. 50 Cent had lost weight earlier in 2008 for a role in a movie titled “Microwave Park”, although he had only reduced his weight to 185 pounds for that role.

50 Cent has however, started to regain weight in preparation for his latest music tour called “The Invitation”, which is scheduled to start in Cleveland on Friday. A South Carolina-based local newspaper carried a picture of the rapper after he gained a few ponds, when he visited Edgefield county as part of the research for an episode of VH1’s “Rock Docs” series called “50’s Roots”.

Other actors have also lost their weight drastically in the past for certain roles in films. Some of the most remarkable among them include Tom Hanks who lost weight for the movie “Cast Away” and Christian Bale who consumed only coffee and apples to reduce weight for his role in the film “The Machinist”.

Post-shooting of Things Fall Apart, 50 Cent is now putting on weight. He wrote and financed the movie himself.

Photo: Leonardo Dicaprio in Christopher Nolan's Inception

Written, produced and directed by Christopher Nolan, the Inception movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Tom Berenger, Dileep Rao and Michael Caine. Inception will be released in both conventional and IMAX theaters. Related: Our older story about Christopher Nolan’s Inception

Photo: Leonardo DiCaprio and Marion Cotillard on the sets of Inception

Shot at a budget of US$160 million and shot in Morocco, France and four other countries, Inception is Christopher Nolan’s first foray into the realm of what can be called psychological fiction movies.

In Inception, Leonardo DiCaprio plays Dom Cobb, a skilled thief and a specialist in a new kind of corporate espionage. Cobb works in “subconscious security,” breaking into the minds of tycoons when they are asleep and extracting valuable secrets. How does he carry out this perfect, impossible-to-track heist? He drugs the business moguls, attaches them to a sci-fi contraption and steals secrets from deep within their subconscious during the dream state.

Photo: Leonardo DiCaprio in Inception

Cobb’s ability to catch dreams makes him a sought-after player for corporate espionage. No surprises then, that the spy games turn him into an international fugitive. Cobb has one shot at regaining his life – he needs to do his job in reverse: inception! Instead of a stealing an idea, Cobb and his team are hired to plant one. Can they do it? The world of dreams can be a dangerous and volatile one, they find.

Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures are selling Inception as a Matrix meets Mission Impossible kind of movie. This summer, your mind is the scene of the crime, says Inception’s tagline.

Inception promises a smorgasbord of special effects – think Matrix-style fly-fighting, Bond-style shooting, and a whole lot of chases.

The stylish Christopher Nolan has described Inception as being similar to films such as The Matrix, Dark City, The Thirteenth Floor, and his own Memento. The director rubbished the idea that Inception might make use of the “second-life” idea from movies like Avatar. He said writing Inception took him around 10 years and he relied on his experiences with lucid dreaming during moments between sleep and wakefulness.

Christopher Nolan plans to give 3D the go-by in favour of the combination of Imax footage and high-definition film – a combination he used successfully in The Dark Knight. Computer-generated imagery will also be used for a few sequences.

Altered states and untrusted perception are themes that persist in Christopher Nolan’s films. Memento (2000) was about an amnesia victim; Insomnia (2002) was the story of a corrupt cop addled by lack of sleep; The Prestige (2006) was about rival illusionists; and the two Batman films (Batman Begins in 2005 and The Dark Knight in 2008) dealt with mind tricks.

Leonardo DiCaprio feels Christopher Nolan is the perfect director to helm Inception.

Describing the story as complex and ambiguous, Leonardo DiCaprio says Christopher Nolan has been able to pull off the film, which has complex narratives that work on a multitude of different layers.

Ellen Page, who plays one of Leonardo DiCaprio’s team members, says Inception is like reading a Haruki Murakami novel – “it’s fantasy, but instead of feeling like some strange surreal world it feels very honest.” The storyline is complicated, she says, but not confusing.

Christopher Nolan, the man’s who redefining film noir, admits that he tends to be drawn to the analogy of a maze. He says he pictures the story as a maze – he doesn’t want to watch his characters make the wrong choices; he wants to be in the maze with them.

Photo: Jake Gyllenhaal as Dastan from Prince of Persia: Sands of Time movie

The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, is based on the popular video game of the same name.  This is the story of adventurous Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal), an urchin turned prince, who teams up with rival Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton) to stop an angry ruler (Ben Kingsley) from unleashing a sandstorm that could destroy the world. On the way, Dastan gets his hands on the Dagger of Time, a powerful weapon that allows a person to travel backwards in time.

Directed by Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Donnie Brasco, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) and scripted by Boaz Yakin and Jordan Mechner (the creator of the Prince of Persia video game), the Disney adventure will be released in the United States on May 28, 2010.

The Prince of Persia seems to be following in the footsteps of producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s wildly successful Pirates of the Caribbean series.

The predominantly British cast, foreign locales, the inclusion of a “wacky miscreant with a heart of gold”  (Alfred Molina’s Sheik Amar mirrors Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow) and the fact that the Prince of Persia will be just the fourth PG-13 film in Walt Disney Studios’ history (the first three were the Pirates movies) indicate that Disney is keen to create another franchise.

Jake Gyllenhaal, who won an Oscar nomination for Brokeback Mountain (2005), and was seen in Zodiac and Rendition (2007) and Brothers (2009), seems to be shifting from indie films to franchise zone.

The 29-year-old actor, who is raving about The Prince of Persia’s dazzle and vintage-movie soul, shows off an amazingly buff bod in the film.

Jake Gyllenhaal said that he “over-prepared, wildly” for the sword-fighting, horse-riding, fist-fighting and rope-climbing and that filming for the film was a rollicking ride. Jake Gyllenhaal also trained in parkour (the sport of running, jumping and climbing over obstacles) to bulk up for the “physical role.”

“I actually jump out of a window and land on the back of my horse, just like in the old movie, Zorro-style,” he said, adding that it was fun to get paid to get tanned and in shape.

Co-star Gemma Arterton, who was recently seen in the Clash of the Titans, thinks her Prince of Persia is a ”fit and funny” man. The British beauty said Jake Gyllenhaal is very serious when it comes to his work and is a perfectionist.

Director Mike Newell, said Jake Gyllenhaal was the perfect fit for the Prince of Persia because he has an aura of effortless charm and a boyish sense of wonder. Jake puts a human heart in the middle of a movie that will absolutely need one to connect with the audience, Mike Newell said.

Jake Gyllenhaal will appear in two offbeat comedies this year: David O. Russell’s Nailed and Edward Zwick’s Love and Other Drugs. Gemma Arterton will next be seen in Tamara Drewe, which is based on Posy Simmonds’ comic strip inspired by Far From The Madding Crowd, in 2011. Tamara Drewe is the story of a newspaper columnist who wakes up a small English village with her flirtatious ways.