Who's got the best beach body? The Huffington Post website has some ideas, recently naming the most iconic swimsuit scenes in movie history.
Among ladies, Phoebe Cates in 1982's iconic Fast Times at Ridgemont High comes out on top for doffing her top. She's followed by Jessica Alba in 2005's not-so-iconic Into the Blue; Jacqueline Bisset in 1977's wet T-shirt contest-inspiring The Deep; a cream-covered Ali Larter in 1999's otherwise forgettable Varsity Blues; and Neve Campbell and Denise Richards in 1998's Wild Things. It's difficult to disagree with any of these, although we wonder why Carrie Fisher in Return of the Jedi, Ursula Andress in Dr. No (so legendary a James Bond moment that Halle Berry paid homage to it in Die Another Day), Bo Derek in 1979's 10 and Raquel Welch in One Million Years B.C. failed to register among the final five.
Among male stars, the site named Daniel Craig in 2006's Casino Royale as tops, followed by Patrick Swayze in 1987's Dirty Dancing; Daniel Lapaine in 1994's Muriel's Wedding; Burt Lancaster in 1953's From Here to Eternity and Jude Law in 1999's The Talented Mr. Ripley.
WORLD WAR III: The gamer world still waits for a decent movie adaptation of one of their own interactive opuses. Meanwhile, this September sees the release of Gamer, a movie about when the games take over real-life.
Set in a near-future when game players virtually control actual prison inmates in death matches, it stars Gerard Butler as a champion con/fighter and John Leguizamo as his sidekick.
"The directors (Crank: High Voltage's Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor) have wanted me to be a villain in their last couple of movies, but I wasn't in a villain mood," says Leguizamo (Ice Age 3). "But I really wanted to work with them because I loved their point of view. It was nuts and they're such cool dudes.
"It was very interesting, very Twilight Zone, playing people trapped in a video game. We shot in some crazy locations in Albuquerque in a gypsum mine -- it was everywhere, the stuff they make chalk out of and drywall. huge carved-out mountains of it."
And though there's plenty of CG, as befits the subject matter, Leguizamo said one analog approach blew him away. (Taylor) did one chase scene on roller blades with a steadicam and a car. That's how he got his shot, on roller blades holding onto a car going 30 or 40 miles per hour. It's total analog dude. It goes to show, technology does not trump the human spirit. You can't replicate stuff like that."
IT'S STOPPABLE: Despite an overly confident title, the runaway train thriller Unstoppable is facing derailment as the studio and star Denzel Washington haggle over his $20-million salary. Earlier this week, Variety reported the Oscar winner bailed on the action flick, although the studio is said to still be trying to make a deal. Blame it on the belt-tightening that's prevailing among studios today, as they look to scale back production costs.
Sometimes, though, foregoing an upfront free in lieu of a piece of the profits can prove tremendously lucrative if your movie is a hit. Just ask director Todd Phillips, who didn't take any money upfront to make The Hangover and now stands to collect more than $30 million.
