Ledger's Last Role: Decent But Unspectacular

Andrew Garfield will play Peter Parker in 2012 reboot

(NEWSER) - Andrew Garfield has been chosen to play Spider-Man in the sequel that will reboot the franchise in 2012, Zap2it reports. Garfield, 26, who appeared most recently in Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, beat out actors like Jamie Bell, Logan Lerman, and Josh Hutcherson in a grueling casting process. Director Marc Webb said Garfield has "a rare combination of intelligence, wit, and humanity. Mark my words, you will love Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker." More»

Singer's turn as Satan causes trouble at home

(NEWSER) - Tom Waits is 60 years old, but his mom can still get to him. The gravelly-voiced singer plays Satan in Terry Gilliam's latest trippy film, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, and that isn't going over well with his mother. She's religious, you see. "She's really upset," he says. "Pretty pissed off about the whole thing." More»

Actor worked with Australian singer, a childhood friend

(NEWSER) - A music video, one of a few directed by Heath Ledger for little-known artists he liked, made its online debut yesterday. Australian rapper N'fa Forster-Jones, a childhood friend of the late actor's, posted the video along with a behind-the-scenes look at the project, the AP reports. "Every day I count my blessings that I got to have him direct this piece of art," says Forster-Jones, who showed the video at the Rome Film Festival. More»

Reviewers mostly positive on biopic of French designer

(NEWSER) - Coco Before Chanel gets mostly positive reviews for its portrayal of the legendary designer in the days before her rise to fame.

• “The most obvious credit goes to the strong, sure performance of Audrey Tautou,” writes Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times. “Tautou not only resembles Chanel, she inhabits the role completely."

(NEWSER) - The aliens are despised outsiders stranded in post-apartheid South Africa in District 9, a film whose mix of social commentary and blood-spattered B-movie standards makes it the sci-fi movie of the year, say critics.

• Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: The movie is "a scathing social satire hidden inside a terrific action thriller teeming with gross aliens and regrettable inter-species conflict. And it's a blast."