Yahoo just posted this embedded movie trailer about Book of Eli starring Denzel Washington. He plays Eli who carries a book that, most likely, is the salvation of the world that is on the brink of total decay. It’s a special book and he teaches from it. If you mess with Eli and try to take the book away from him, he’ll cut off your arms with a special machete. Of course, some wicked dudes mess with him and get their arms cut off. Gary Oldman stars as the BIG wicked dude who wants Eli’s book real bad. He gets his extra-wicked dudes to go after Eli to get the book. All this happens in post-atomic war, wasteland of planet Earth.
Here is a tale we can all learn from as actors, directors, writers and ilk. Hold out for the best deal you can get, talk it 
over with your client, then you will get the deal you want and the client will get the deal he wants. Everybody will be happy.
Washington attached himself to Unstoppable last April to reteam with Tony Scott and play a veteran engineer who jumps into a locomotive with a young conductor (Chris Pine of Star Trek) to stop an unmanned runaway train loaded with toxic cargo, apparently this story is based on true events.
As the tale goes, Fox insisted that the budget be brought close to $90 million, which required special salary considerations from the director and star. Rumor mill said the studio asked Scott and Washington to shave $3 million and $4 million off their respective salaries. Washington declined and his WME agent Ed Limato began looking for other film jobs for his star’s fall slot.
As the journey goes Washington went with Scott to promote The Taking of Pelham 123 in Europe, the actor took a fresh draft of the script with him. As he and Scott kept talking, Fox and Washington’s WME reps found some common ground to make a deal. Both parties found ways to be accommodating.
As a result, Fox has salvaged the fall start date on a priority film that the studio has invested years developing and, obviously, Washington likes the script and wants to do the film. Pre-production is under way in Pittsburgh and by fall the cameras will be rolling on the train track. – a happy ending for all.
(Source)
Denzel Washington simply said, no thanks, after waiting 3 months for 20th Century Fox to set a budget and a start date for the now ill-fated Unstoppable train movie to be directed by Tony Scott.
Scott and Washington had planned since April to work together again on Unstoppable. This time Washington playing a veteran engineer who jumps into a locomotive with a young conductor (Star Trek’s Chris Pine) to halt an unmanned runaway train filled with a toxic chemical.
The powers that be asked Scott to cut his salary from $9 million to $6 million and wanted Washington to trim $4 million off his $20 million fee. Washington said no thanks.
In the film business, timing and money is everything. The Scott-Washington-John Travolta train tale The Taking of Pelham 123 so far has posted an unglamorous $60 million gross, which doesn’t give Washington much backbone to pull his usual salary. Studios are trying to cut costs wherever they can and films that are not branded as a summer blockbuster are experiencing a tight budget pinch from the studios. Some actors and directors are willing to take pay cuts or defer. Washington declined to take a pay cut and is seeing what else is out there.
(Source)
I’ll preface my remarks today by saying that I’ve never actually ridden in a subway car before. It’s one of the consequences of not spending a lot of time in big cities, or as I like to call them, giant urban death mazes. But I DO know at least a little something about how they work, which is why I can easily describe The Taking of Pelham 123, featuring Denzel Washington and, from literally out of nowhere, John Travolta (I was not aware he still had either a. a functioning career or b. sufficient bribe money left to get INTO a movie).
Despite my astonishment at the revelation that Travolta still has a functioning career as an actor, I have to admit that I did like The Taking of Pelham 123, which has only just opened about three hours ago, or may be just barely opening if you’re on the west coast.
Anyway, this one’s about a dastardly plot to hijack a subway car in New York City, car number 123 on the Pelham Bay route. After a series of careful and well-executed maneuvers, car 123, now jam-packed full of hostages, is parked in a tunnel in the middle of the subway system. A cadre of gunmen, aided by a former New York City motorman, is holding onto the train until a sizable ransom is paid for the hostages’ safe release. A train dispatcher is trying valiantly to keep the hostage takers talking, until something can be done for the hostages, but there are plenty of plots at work here, and the one the police are actively trying to unravel may not even be the MAIN plot. So can the train dispatcher and New York’s finest manage to save a subway car full of hostages? And if they do, will it even matter in the long run?
I compare The Taking of Pelham 123 to a subway car for a very good reason. Both start very slow and take a good long while to fully escalate. In fact, for about the first hour or so, all I could think was: “When are these two putzes going to stop TALKING so something interesting can actually, you know, HAPPEN??” I’m not just being facetious there, either–most of the first hour of The Taking of Pelham 123 is going to be Denzel Washington talking into a microphone from his dispatch center while John Travolta responds into what looks like a CB radio from the train. Just talk, talk, talk–let me take a moment here to address the writers. You’ve GOT to break up your exposition a little more. Otherwise you get this thick infosludge that everyone’s got to choke down before they can get to the good stuff.
And there will be good stuff in this movie too–lots of chases and gunplay and plans going wrong and plans going right and twists and turns and chicanery and everything else you want in a good old fashioned suspense / thriller movie. It’s all here and it’s all nicely done.
Of course, there’s not a whole lot of specific reason to see this one in theatres. There are a couple of really choice car crashes but nothing so spectacular that your home theatre won’t deliver a satisfying experience. If you’re not in the mood to hit the theatre, rest assured that you won’t miss much by letting it go to video. But if you DO go to the theatre, you should have a nice time of it.
The Taking of Pelham 123 will deliver the goods, but expect delays.
Tony Scott’s Unstoppable might sign Chris Pine to star opposite Denzel Washington. If Pine signs on his role as a 
newbie conductor will be his first since starring in Star Trek.
According to THR, the story revolves around an experienced train engineer (Washington) about to be laid off as part of company cutbacks and the newbie conductor (Pine) hired to replace him. They find themselves in a race against time to stop an unmanned, half-mile-long freight train carrying enough combustible liquids and poisonous gas to wipe out a nearby city.
The Book of Elinotable Internet coverage consisted of an early poster, video featurette and pictures from the set. Today we have a photo gallery and an article from USA Today. I recommend you head over there and take a look, the co-directors talk a bunch about working on the film. Just click on Denzel and you’ll get to the article.
Variety reports that Denzel Washington is in negotiations to star in the upcoming Tony Scott-directed drama Unstoppable.
Loosely inspired by a true event, the film will have Washington playing an experienced engineer who jumps in a locomotive with a young conductor to chase down a runaway train carrying a cargo of toxic chemicals.
Washington and Scott have worked before four times. They have teamed up on Man on Fire, Deja Vu, Crimson Tide and the upcoming remake The Taking of Pelham 123.
Filming starts this fall.
Denzel Washington is in talks to work with Tony Scott for the fifth time in Unstoppable. Production is on track to start in the fall.
As far as Variety reports, Washington might play an experienced engineer who jumps in a locomotive with a young conductor to chase down a runaway train carrying a cargo of toxic chemicals. Mark Bomback wrote the script, which is loosely inspired by a true event.
The drama would reunite Washington and Scott, once again. The most recent film they worked on together is Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 scheduled for release June 12.
Columbia Pictures (Sony) offers viewers another movie worth watching in “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3” The film carries a star-studded cast led by Denzel Washington and John Travolta. The upcoming movie set to be released on June 12, 2009 also stars James Gandolfini, the main star who plays mob boss Tony Soprano on HBO’s The Sopranos.
In the film, Washington plays New York City subway dispatcher Walter Garber, whose ordinary day is thrown into chaos by an audacious crime: the hijacking of a subway train. Travolta stars as Ryder, the criminal mastermind who, as leader of a highly-armed gang of four, threatens to execute the train’s passengers unless a large ransom is paid within one hour. As the tension mounts beneath his feet, Garber employs his vast knowledge of the subway system in a battle to outwit Ryder and save the hostages. But there’s one riddle Garber can’t solve: even if the thieves get the money, how can they possibly escape?
I have a handful of actors whom I know if I go to the movie theaters to see their movies, I will be entertained. I never feel cheated. Tom Cruise is one of those actors and for good reason. He puts integrity into his work. It shows through the way he promotes his films. Even in his interviews with talk show hosts he’s there 200%, making sure the interviewer is engaged in the interview just as much as Cruise is. One example is Oprah’s interview at Cruise’s home in Colorado. He was genuine and very honest and open.
It is no wonder that at least five producers are vying to get Cruise to say yes to their projects.
The trades are reporting a strong courtship of Cruise comes at a time when studios are thinking long and hard about which actors deserve to be paid superstar gross deals. I agree, Cruise deserves it like Denzel Washington, Tom Hanks, Will Smith and Ben Stiller.
There are those who might say otherwise but producers are enthusiastic for the actor after the success of Valkyrie. The Bryan Singer film did better than expected around the world, and that no major star except Will Smith works to promote a movie as hard as Cruise.
Variety reports the top three candidates for Cruise’s next opportunity:
Matarese, which also has Denzel Washington attached, and will soon get a rewrite by Cronenberg.
The Tourist, the Spyglass remake that would co-star Charlize Theron. A rewrite was turned in this week by Christopher McQuarrie, who co-wrote and produced “Valkyrie” with Cruise, and whose script work was informed by long talks with Cruise as they barnstormed publicity on the UA WWII film.
Motorcade, the Len Wiseman-directed DreamWorks thriller that pits the U.S. president against terrorists who commandeer his motorcade on the streets of Los Angeles. Billy Ray is racing to complete a rewrite of the script, with Cruise’s input.
Personally, I hope it’s with David Cronenberg and Denzel Washington in Matarese. I’d love to see these three work together.