HOLLYWOOD

By Tony Rizzo
HOLLYWOOD — Now that the Oscars have been handed out, everyone is going back to the films they were making before they were hit by the tornado that is the Academy Awards!

George Clooney will be stranded on a space station in outer space in “Gravity” with Sandra Bullock, due out Nov. 29. Best actor nominee Gary Oldman made “Guns, Girls and Gambling” with Christian Slater, Dane Cook, SNL’s Chris Kattan and Powers Boothe. They play a band of criminals hunting for a priceless Native American artifact. No release date yet.

On July 20, the $250 million Batman sequel, “The Dark Knight Rises,” hits theaters with repeat stars Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman. Also added to the mix are Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gordon-Levett, which spells MUST SEE! On Aug. 31, Oldman’s “The Wettest County” with Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Guy Pearce and “The Help’s” Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain arrives.

Chastain, who starred opposite Brad Pitt in “The Tree of Life,” has “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted” out June 8 and currently is before the cameras in “Hurt Locker” Oscar-winner Kathryn Bigelow’s film, “The Hunt for Osama Bin Laden.” The film also stars Kyle Chandler of “Friday Night Lights,” Jennifer Ehle (Clooney’s wife in “The Ides of March”), plus Joel and Nash Edgerton. It’s due out Dec. 19. Chastain also has two companion films, with Joel Edgerton, “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: His” and “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Hers.” She’s also slated to star in a Broadway revival of “The Heiress” this fall.

Ironically, the Pasadena Playhouse is staging “The Heiress” with Richard Chamberlain (of “Dr. Kildare” and “The Thornbirds”), three-time “The Young and The Restless” Emmy winner Heather Thom and “Newhart”/”Designing Women” star Julia Duffy. Imagine, two productions about heiresses, and not a Kardashian or Hilton in sight!
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Oscar-winner Olivia Spencer (Best Supporting Actress for “The Help”) has “Smashed” on deck (not to be confused with the NBC series “Smash”). It’s about a hard-drinking woman who decides to get sober. It stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who was in “The Thing” last year and will be Mary Todd Lincoln (to Benjamin Walker’s Lincoln) in “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Killer.” She’s also in “A Glimpse into the Mind of Charles Swan III,” written and directed by Roman Coppola, with Charlie Sheen, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, “Parks and Recreation’s” Aubrey Plaza and “Medium’s” Patricia Arquette.

The Coppola family is truly showbiz. There’s family head Francis Ford Coppola (Oscar-winning director of the “Godfather Saga”); his daughter, Sofia, and son, Roman, both directors; his sister, “Rocky’s” Talia Shire, her son Jason Schwartzman, as well as cousin Nicolas Cage. Their family motto must be: “If there has to be such a thing as nepotism … keep it in the family!”

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