Off The Record...
Hanson
This Time Around
Hanson took their time making a follow-up to the debut Middle of Nowhere, and they didn't spend their vacation buying matching white suits, dance lessons or wind machines. Instead, they matured into a bang-up rock & roll band, singing and playing the high-energy gems on This Time Around with a surprisingly adult confidence. The sound still includes scratching and dance beats, but there's more emphasis on raging guitar hooks, leaving the rest of the teen pack eating their Oklahoma dust.  The Hanson brothers play exactly what they want to play, making records that they themselves might actually want to listen to, and it shows.
 

At The Movies...
Gladiator
Russell Crowe plays Roman General Maximus, completing a final military campaign in the provinces of Germany before a well-earned retirement. Maximus' mentor is Roman Emperor Aurelius. Aurelius makes the momentous decision to pass over his rightful heir and put Maximus in charge of Rome in order to prevent his beloved Republic from mutating into an Imperial dictatorship. Before he can take the position, Maximus is sold into slavery and gladiatorial combat. The climactic gladiator fights are dizzying, action set pieces that echo everything from Ben Hur to Excalibur while setting new visual standards of their own.

On Video...
The World Is Not Enough
This non-stop James Bond thriller starts out with a typical 007 bang of an opening and keeps its momentum until the very last second. Bond (Pierce Brosnan) must stop a maniacal mastermind out to steal a nuclear warhead in a wild scheme to destroy oil pipelines and control the world's oil supply, along the way getting involved with the scheming heiress to an oil fortune. This outing gives Bond plenty of new toys to play with and cranks the franchise up at least several notches. Great entertainment.

The Buzz...

Jean Reno, best known for his roles in The Professional and Mission: Impossible, is in final talks with MGM to star as the villain in director John McTiernan's remake of Rollerball. If he signs on, Reno will join Chris Klein and LL Cool J in the near-future story about the world's most popular, and violent, spectator sport.

The Fox Network has picked up Mad TV for a sixth season. According to the Nielsen ratings, the sketch comedy series averaged 5.4 million weekly viewers this year. That's up six per cent from last year.

Robert Zemeckis has committed to direct a remake of William Castle's 1958 horror flick Macabre. The $15 million-$20 million budgeted feature is the second in Zemeckis' and producer Joel Silver's three-picture Dark Castle Entertainment deal with Warner Brothers.

James Franco (Freaks and Geeks) has been cast as the ultimate teen rebel in TNT's James Dean: An Invented Life biopic. Director and executive producer Mark Rydell will also star in the movie as studio chief Jack Warner. Shooting is scheduled to begin in the Los Angeles area in June.

Steven Spielberg has loaned his name to a toy designed by The Lego Company that will allow kids to make and edit their own digital movies. The Steven Spielberg MovieMaker set contains a digital movie camera that has Lego pieces on the outside. That way, children can build a stand to mount the camera on. They can then plug the camera into a computer port in order to edit their homemade movie.

Hayden Christensen will be filling the roll of Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode II. The 19-year-old actor is best known for his role on Fox Family's Higher Ground where he played a troubled teenager who is seduced by his stepmother.

Tom Green, whose first movie Road Trip will be hitting theaters May 19, has already lined up his second film project. Freddy Got Fingered sees the MTV star appearing as a slacker who is forced to move back in with his parents.
 
TNT announced today that they are rescheduling the Witchblade two-hour television film to August 27th at 8 PM. It was originally planned for a mid-October release.

Marvel.com has a new Flash site up that promises games, contests and movie news. The site is sponsored by the Coalition for the Eradication of the Mutant Species. Many of the features have yet to be posted but the beginning looks promising. Check it out!

Nickelodeon and Mattel Inc. announced that they have signed a multiyear licensing deal that will allow the manufacturer to make toys based on the cable network's TV and film properties. The agreement covers action figures, dolls, games, plush toys, and preschool toys based on Nick's programming.

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