Nicolas Cage Explains His 'Ridiculous' Voice In 'G-Force'

On the final day of filming for the second "National Treasure" movie, producer Jerry Bruckheimer approached star Nicolas Cage with a question: Do you want to be a guinea pig? An odd query, no doubt, especially since "Treasure" keeps its focus on American history-spanning adventures rather than portly rodents.

But Bruckheimer was already in the midst of gearing up for another project — a 3-D Disney saga involving an elite team of animal secret agents called "G-Force" — and he wanted Cage to lend his voice to one of the characters.

"I wasn't going to play a guinea pig," Cage told MTV. "That wasn't going to happen."

Bruckheimer said he could play whichever creature most appealed to him. Cage, who was feeling the strain of the intense "Treasure" shoot, asked if could use a humorous, high-pitched voice he often employed to relieve tension — a voice he was actually trying out on the "Treasure" set.

"The voice was what I call my frustrated, stressed voice," Cage explained. "This is a voice that I sometimes resort to if I'm feeling just that. And it's an octave or two higher than my normal voice — this way I don't resort to profanity or yelling. And I start talking in that voice, I just immediately start laughing because it's so stupid and so ridiculous that I can't help but not take anything too seriously."

The producer gave Cage the OK, and that's how the actor came to voice Speckles, a star-nosed mole who happens to be a computer and information specialist.

"G-Force" is a live-action and CG-animation hybrid — the humans and the settings are real, while the furry little creatures are computer-generated bundles of wacky, world-saving fun. The story follows the U.S. government-trained animal-agents as their unit is shuttered, they're shunted off to a pet store and then must escape so they can stop an evil gazillionaire from conquering the planet. American history it ain't.

Joining Cage are the voice talents of Sam Rockwell, Penйlope Cruz, Jon Favreau and Tracy Morgan. To prepare for the role, Morgan joked that he studied Luke Skywalker and the movie adaptation of the children's book, "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH."

Why? Dedication to his craft and a commitment to honoring the mighty, roly-poly rodents of the animal kingdom.

"Guinea pigs have made great contributions to the world!" Morgan declared. "They invented the straightening comb! And corn on the cob!"

Check out everything we've got on "G-Force."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

‘Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince’ Takes Box-Office Crown

'New Moon' Stars Still Find Comic-Con 'Terrifying'

SAN DIEGO — Appropriately enough for a movie series about a vampire clan that never sleeps, "Twilight" day at Comic-Con began bright and early. Gathered together at 9:30 a.m. Thursday (July 23) for an invite-only press conference, a small group of reporters took up about a third of the massive ballroom at the Hilton Bayfront hotel, eager to talk fame, fiction and fanpires with Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner.

"This year, I have something to say," Pattinson laughed, remembering that he was overwhelmed to the point of near speechlessness last year. "It's much more terrifying."

"This is a severely emotional movie. ... There are high points for Bella, but she's a manic-depressive basically," Stewart said of her "New Moon" performance. "There was more to think about. It's a more mature part."

Speaking with other reporters before the event, none of us Comic-Con veterans could recall a movie having an event like this before. Summit Entertainment claimed an entire ballroom for media only, no Twilighters allowed. Not "Lord of the Rings," not "Iron Man" or anything else had ever needed its own press event — a testament to the enormous growth of both "Twilight" and Comic-Con in general.

"It's crazy," Lautner said when the trio were asked about how they've been dealing with the fame. "None of us saw it coming, and this past year has been a ride for us."

Kristen Stewart, who currently has short black locks to play Joan Jett in "The Runaways," laughed, "I cut my hair off."

"It's still so young to me, I can't claim anything as a low," Pattinson said when asked about his avalanche of fame. "I live a nearly identical life, except for being recognized. It's not the worst thing in the world. I never did anything 'normal' before — and now, I get other people to do that for me."

Pattinson confirmed that Thursday afternoon's massive fan event in Hall H will screen a clip featuring him. The line outside the convention center is arguably the longest in Comic-Con history.

Speaking specifically about Stephenie Meyer's franchise, Stewart said, "You're so much inside [Bella's] head, it feels like home."

"When I play it, I try to eliminate the vampire element as much as I can," Pattinson said of playing Edward Cullen. "I only see it as a tool to make things more fraught."

 

 

 

 

 

 "New Moon" Cast At 2009 Comic-Con 

 

"I did a lot of the apparition scenes, which were me doing one line a week," Pattinson remembered of the ghost-like appearances he filmed at the beginning of the "New Moon" shoot. "I had a stress-free three months. All the pressure was on Taylor."

Asked for the one "Twilight" question they hope to never answer again, Lautner knew his answer immediately. "To growl. I'm asked that by a lot by fans, and I don't like doing that," he said. "So, fans, please don't ask me that. Wait for the movie."

Pattinson's least favorite question? "What's it like kissing Taylor Lautner?" he grinned.

MTV News is on the scene with live coverage of the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con all weekend long. Visit MTVNews.com, Splash Page, the MTV Movies Blog and Hollywood Crush for videos, interviews and the latest news on "New Moon," "Iron Man 2" and everything in between.

Robbie distracted by Jay Kay‘Harry Potter’ Stars Aren’t Surprised By Robert Pattinson’s Success

Tim Burton Assembles 'Mysterious Puzzle' For 'Alice In Wonderland'

First-look photos of the newest, nuttiest "Alice in Wonderland" movie — Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter with squiggles of orange hair leaping like flames from his head, Anne Hathaway's White Queen sealing shut her blood-red lips — popped out of the rabbit hole that is Tim Burton's wacked-out mind in June.

Actual footage of the big-screen version of Lewis Carroll's famed children's story, though, has not yet surfaced. But at San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday, Alice and her troupe of wackadoodle creatures will move among us — albeit on Disney Digital 3-D.

Before heading to that altar of movie geekdom, Burton spoke with MTV News about the flaws of earlier "Alice" adaptations, what it takes to make an unforgettable Mad Hatter, and the technological challenges inherent in a boundary-pushing cinematic adventure.

"There's pure [motion-capture] stuff, and then there's stuff that has mixed animation and live-action — it kind of blurs the lines," Burton said. "It's a strange process we're dealing with. We're using a mix of techniques. If you picked them apart, each technique has been done before. We're mixing them up, in a way. ... It's a real mysterious puzzle that's frightening and exciting at the same time."

Burton's version picks up with Alice (Mia Wasikowska) as a 17-year-old, after she's forgotten her maiden Wonderland voyage and accidentally falls, once again, down the rabbit hole. For Burton, the decision to update the story stemmed from the disjointed storytelling in previous "Alice" movies.

"It's a series of stories," he explained. "For me, that's always been a problem with the movie versions of it. It's always been a girl going from one weird adventure to another, and for me it didn't have much of an impact in the versions I'd seen before. Everyone's crazy. We tried to take the 'Alice' mythology and characters and make a story out of it and be true to the spirit of what 'Alice' is about. The other versions for me suffer because there's no movement to it. It's just one weird event after another. We're trying to ground it a little a bit."

That emphasis on grounding the story extended to Depp's take on the Hatter. "When you look at most interpretations, everything is pretty one-note," Burton said. "With him, we are always trying to find a subtext and layer to it, so it's rooted in humanity to some degree — something deeper than just being nuts."

While the film isn't scheduled for release until early next year, Burton is working night and day sorting out the various technological obstacles of seamlessly integrating motion-capture, animation and live-action. It's an undertaking that has become all-consuming.

"I have to spend every waking moment on it. There's a lot to be done in a very short period of time," he admitted, just days before he'll travel to the Con to show off some of what he's accomplished thus far.

Check out everything we've got on "Alice in Wonderland."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

Will ‘New Moon’ Soundtrack Include Thom Yorke And Kings Of Leon?

'Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince' Takes Box-Office Crown

The Box-Office Top Five

#1 "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" ($79.5 million)
#2 "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" ($17.7 million)
#3 "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" ($13.8 million)
#4 "Brьno" ($8.4 million)
#5 "The Hangover" ($8.3 million)

Moviegoing Muggles were positively enchanted this weekend, falling under the spell of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." The sixth installment in the Potter franchise deposited a tidy $79.5 million in its Gringotts vault, which now contains a five-day total of $160 million, $22.2 million of it from Wednesday's midnight showings alone. While the boy wizard fell short of "Transformers" or "The Dark Knight" numbers, it's the biggest-opening "Harry Potter" film to date, and its overseas tally of $396.7 million is the biggest international debut ever.

Young moviegoers were clearly where the money was this weekend, as #2 belonged to "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs." Though in its third weekend, the animated adventure made another $17.7 million, and is enjoying a cool total of $152 million. "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" also stayed right where it was last week, bringing in another $13.8 million. Its $364 million haul makes it the box-office behemoth of the summer.

"Brьno" took a bruising fall off the catwalk, dropping all the way to #4 in its sophomore week, just barely beating "The Hangover." Sacha Baron Cohen's latest mockumentary only made $8.4 million at the box office, for a 10-day total of a mere $49.6 million. Cohen's gay Austrian fashionista probably won't have the legs of his outrageous predecessor "Borat," which earned $67.1 million in the same time frame and $128.5 million overall.

Though "500 Days of Summer" had too few screenings to place in the top five, it had the biggest opening of the year for a limited release — it earned $838,000 from only 27 sites. Summit Entertainment's "The Hurt Locker" also had a successful expansion from 34 theaters to 93, grossing $764,000 for the weekend and $2.2 million total. Despite such a wide variety of releases, the box office was down 39 percent from last year, when "The Dark Knight" stormed into theaters with a record-breaking $158.4 million.

Upcoming Releases

Warner Bros. offers R-rated horror with "The Orphan," Sony offers R-rated comedy with "The Ugly Truth," and Disney offers G-rated action with the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced "G-Force."

Check out everything we've got on "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,""Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" and"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

Guinness celebrate 250 years with Tom Jones‘Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince’ Breaks Midnight Records

50 Cent Says 'Streets Of Blood' Film Comes From 'A Rebellious Place'

Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson (as he's billed in Hollywood) has found fame and fortune as the real-life embodiment of everything your typical policeman would be interested in arresting you for. Now, the former drug dealer and street thug is playing a cop for the first time in this month's "Streets of Blood" — and yes, he is fully aware of the irony.

"It's absolutely a huge difference," 50 Cent said of his character Stan Green, a family-oriented cop teamed with Val Kilmer's Andy Devereaux to solve a series of murders in a post-Katrina New Orleans. "But then, it wasn't."

"[Both] are from a more rebellious place, dealing with the harsh realities in a city," he said of the similarity between his gangsta persona and playing a policeman onscreen. "I could see where you'd say there's a huge difference between what I do in music and the actual character I'm playing in the film ... but that's what I was looking forward to in film projects — telling stories that have way more depth than music."

Although he began his acting career with "Get Rich or Die Tryin'," a movie in which he played, well, basically himself ... Fif has spent the past four years selecting some challenging roles, from the emotionally scarred Iraq veteran in "Home of the Brave" to a violent club owner in "Righteous Kill" to upcoming roles as a boxer ("The Champ"), a loan shark ("Dead Man Running") and even a monster ("Jekyll and Hyde"). "Streets of Blood" gave him a chance to stretch out behind a badge — and to film in a part of the country that needs all the attention it can get.

"We shot on location in Shreveport, Louisiana," he said of the flick, which also co-stars Sharon Stone and will premiere on DVD July 28. "I felt good about the actual project ... it's crazy down there. The news shows things, but when you're looking at it, you see what's really going on out there. Anybody who's socially conscious has to be aware of Hurricane Katrina."

And with his Hollywood career taking off — 50 has a new production company and nearly 10 films in various stages of development — the rapper/actor is eager to keep flexing his sizable muscles by not only releasing the album Before I Self Destruct in late September, but also by building a movie career that has him telling stories as a cop, a thug or whatever else may come up.

"You see, a song only has two minutes and 50 seconds, maximum of three minutes, before you start reaching an overkill point," 50 Cent explained of the two different storytelling mediums. "There's not time for you to create like there is in these scripts, because [movies can] create cause and effect, reasoning for those actual behaviors. So, going into these projects, it allows me to pick things that I have a personal investment in."

And since he's already one of the world's biggest musical stars (and that Vitamin Water thing worked out pretty well too), 50 Cent has a rare financial freedom that allows him to choose movies that he cares about.

"It's not so much a financial draw for me," he explained of his Hollywood side gig. "If I read the script and I'm passionate about being a part of the actual project — from an artistic standpoint — then I'll commit to it."

‘Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince’ Stars Answer Fan Questions

Will 'New Moon' Soundtrack Include Thom Yorke And Kings Of Leon?

"New Moon" director Chris Weitz recently gave an interview to movie site RottenTomatoes.com in which he talked about the status of the film — it's due in theaters November 20 — and spoke at length about the music he's lining up for the soundtrack.

Now, normally, soundtrack stories aren't that interesting ... but two things were different here. First, the "New Moon" album follows the mega-successful "Twilight" soundtrack (which featured a pair of new songs from Paramore and has sold more than 2.1 million copies to date) and second, Weitz mentioned that none other than Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke and the Kings of Leon were interested in contributing songs.

For real.

"I am surprised at some of the bands that have said they're interested. It's kind of great," Weitz told the site. "The criterion will still always be what's right for the movie at that given moment, but Thom Yorke is interested; we might, if we're very lucky, get Kings of Leon to do something ... it's exciting to be able to have access to this kind of talent."

Speculation about just who would appear on the "New Moon" soundtrack has run rampant for months, with names like Kelly Clarkson and Coldplay being tossed about, but Yorke and the Kings of Leon?! They just seemed, well, different ... and yes, we know that Radiohead's "15 Step" featured prominently in the "Twilight" film (though was noticeably absent from the soundtrack album), but still ...

So we decided to find out for ourselves if Weitz was being serious. First, we reached out to Atlantic Records, who — along with music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas's Chop Shop Records — released the "Twilight" soundtrack, and will be doing the same for "New Moon." A spokesperson for the label told MTV News that he could not confirm the story, since the track list for the "New Moon" soundtrack was still being worked out.

We then reached out to reps for Yorke and the Kings of Leon, hoping they could shed some light on the "New Moon" situation. Turns out, they couldn't really.

Yorke's spokesperson told MTV News "not denying [the story], but there's nothing confirmed as yet." When reached for comment, a spokesperson for the Kings of Leon told us "They like the film a lot, but it's a little too early to tell if they can be involved."

So, while we now know that the Kings of Leon like "New Moon," we're not any closer to figuring out if they — or Yorke — will appear on the soundtrack to the film. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Check out everything we've got on "The Twilight Saga: New Moon."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

‘Harry Potter’ Stars Aren’t Surprised By Robert Pattinson’s Success

'Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince' Breaks Midnight Records

Record-breaking midnight releases are expected from summer blockbusters such as of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" and "The Dark Knight." But no one expects them from a "Harry Potter" film.

Sure, it's a massive franchise, with analysts expecting this week's release — "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" — to push the series' gross over the $5 billion mark. At the end of the day, though, these are movies with family appeal, and midnight turnouts for kid wizards can't possibly compete with giant robots and bat men. Can they?

Yes, they sure can. "Half-Blood Prince" took home somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 million in its midnight opening, according to a report in Variety . The sixth "Potter" flick now sits at #1 for all-time midnight openings, beating out "The Dark Knight" ($18 million) and "Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith" ($17 million).

The $20 million figure is an impressive jump after the previous film's — "Order of the Phoenix" — not-shabby $12 million opening in 2007. Perhaps the nearly doubled "Half-Blood" take is a result of the two-year vacuum of new "Potter" content. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the final book in the series, hit bookshelves in 2007. The "Half-Blood" movie adaptation was originally set for a fall 2008 release, and fans were driven into a frenzy when the studio pushed it back to this summer.

The decision to change the release date was questioned at the time, but if last night's box-office performance is any indication, Warner Bros. made the right choice. Now we're all left to wonder how the two-part adaptation of "Deathly Hallows" will fare.

Check out everything we've got on "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

‘Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince’ Reviews Are In!