Elvis & Nixon is the story of a visit by Presley to the White House in 1970, where he met President Richard M. Nixon.

Danny Huston (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, John Adams) is in final negotiations for the role of Nixon. Bana will executive produce through his Pick Up Truck Pictures (Love the Beast) company, as well as take on the role of Elvis.

The 1970 meeting between Elvis and President Nixon was the result of a letter from Elvis to the President, requesting a visit. Elvis wanted to be named a “Federal Agent-at-Large” in the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. “I am Elvis Presley,” wrote Presley, and admire you and have great respect for your office.”

Presley went on to offer his services to his country, saying that “the drug culture, the hippie elements, the SDS, Black Panthers, etc. do not consider me as their enemy or as they call it the establishment.”

In a post-script to his letter, Presley told Nixon that “I believe that you, Sir, were one of the Top Ten Outstanding Men of America Also.”

Presley, who wanted to be an agent in the Bureau of Narcotics of Dangerous Drugs, was addicted to prescription drugs.

No date has yet been set for the start of production on Elvis & Nixon, which will be shot in Shreveport, Louisiana and L.A.

The role in Brilliant in question would be that of a “small-time criminal who joins accomplished thieves in a diamond heist.”

Directed by Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde), Brilliant will be penned by Gillian Gorfil (Blood Diamond). Gorfil, Gary Lucchesi and Tom Rosenberg will produce Brilliant.

Brilliant will arrive in theaters next year.

If all goes well with his meeting with director Timur Bekmambetov, Bana would play Abraham Lincoln in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, the film version of Seth Graham-Smith‘s novel.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was written as a “biography of Lincoln based on ‘secret diaries’ he kept.” The diaries were given to the author by a vampire who taught Lincoln how to hunt and kill vampires after saving Lincoln’s life as a teen when the young Abe battled a vampire.

Bana’s height works in his favor as a potential Lincoln. He is a rare tall leading actor; at 6’3″ he is only an inch shorter than Lincoln was.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is scheduled to be released on June 22, 2012.

Eric Bana is seen in a short clip shown below discussing his transformation into the Romulan Nero. When first provided an image showing how Nero would look, Bana liked what he saw. “As bizarre-looking as it was,” he said, “I also found it to be quite beautiful.”

Bana’s make-up process can be seen, beginning with application of the Romulan pointed ears and ending with Nero’s unique facial tattoos.

This clip is just one of the special extras included with the DVD or Blu-ray set. There will be three different DVD releases of Star Trek XI. A single-disc set includes the movie, commentary, gag reel and “A New Vision.” The two-disc special edition DVD set includes the above, plus deleted scenes and four featurettes (To Boldly Go, Casting, Aliens, Score.) The three-disc Blu-ray set includes all of the above plus Starships, Planets, Props and Costumes, Ben Burtt and the Sounds of Star Trek, Score, Gene Roddenberry’s Vision,  and the Starfleet Vessel Simulator.

Star Trek XI will be available for purchase beginning on November 16. The trailer for the movie can be seen here.

In the clip, Nero is threatened with the use of a Centaurian slug (in Star Trek XI, he threatens Captain Pike with one of the slugs,) but no one can keep a bad Romulan down for long.

The bonus clip isn’t the only treat for Star Trek fans. Another clip on the site features William Shatner on stage during the Scream Awards teasing J.J. Abrams about Shatner not being in Star Trek XI. Just prior to the events in the clip, Shatner had gone onstage to accept The Ultimate Scream award (“best in show”) for Star Trek XI.

Star Trek – DVD Bonus Footage

The Fourth Annual Scream awards, honoring the best in science-fiction, fantasy, horror and comics, will be taped in Los Angeles on October 17 and will air on Spike TV on Tuesday, October 27 at 10 P.M.

Star Trek XI‘s seventeen nominations include:
-The Ultimate Scream
-Best Science Fiction Movie
-Best Director (J.J. Abrams)
-Best Villain (Eric Bana)
-Best Ensemble
-Holy Sh-t Scene of the Year (the space dive onto the orbital drill)
-Best Actor (Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto)
-Best Actress (Zoe Saldana)
-Best Supporting Actor (Simon Pegg, Leonard Nimoy)
-Breakout Performance – Female (Saldana)
-Breakout Performance – Male (Pine)
-Best Cameo (Winona Ryder)
-Best F/X
-Fight-to-the-Death Scene of the Year
-Best Screenplay (Alex Kurtzman/Roberto Orci)

“Getting nominated for kissing a Vulcan is a better fate than logic,” said  Saldana, nominated for Best Breakout Performance: Female and Best Science Fiction Actress.

As reported by Sci Fi Wire, Bana will be seen next month in The Time Traveler’s Wife, a film based on Audrey Niffenegger‘s novel of the same name.
In The Time Traveler’s Wife, Bana plays Time traveler Henry DeTamble, a man with a genetic anomaly that causes him to become “unstuck in time,” disappearing from his wife’s life while she waits for him to return.

“With all those things, it’s so tricky, because you’re just trying to make it yours,” said Bana of his role as the time-traveler. “You’ve got to honor where it’s come from, but, at the same time, you have to be careful not to treat them with too much reverence and try to make them your own at the same time. So I guess that’s always the tricky thing in the balance.”

Bana was asked if there was a chance that he would be involved in a sequel to Star Trek XI. “Unfortunately, no, I don’t think so,” he said. “It was a one-shot deal. I had a great time. The whole Star Trek thing has been nothing but a blast and a great, fun ride. Right from the get-go, the shooting, the junket was fun, the touring with a really great cast, great group of people. We had a great time traveling together.”

The Time Traveler’s Wife opens Aug 14.

To read more, head to the article located here.

Collins admitted that Star Trek XI has been the biggest film on which he has done thus far, but it was a great experience. “Yes sir, it totally is,” said Collins. “Obviously, I was just on with J.J. He’s a big commercial guy, as you can tell, but when you get to work with people like J.J. and be surrounded by the producers and get the support of a beautiful, great studio like Paramount, you know, these aren’t the horror stories I’ve heard of at all.”

“It was quite the opposite of the tales I had been told, not by my grandpa, who was a contract player for Warner Bros. [Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez, who was best known for his work in several John Wayne movies] and I’ve heard nothing but great stories from when he was under the contract system. I’d follow J.J. anywhere. He’s always been a guy who’s supported me in the best of ways, giving me opportunities to prove myself, which I’m always more than happy to do.”

Collins also enjoyed working with Eric Bana. “I loved working with Bana,” he said. “Bana’s hilarious, he’s talented, he’s a cool cat. He’s a cat you just want to hang out with, shoot the shit and have a beer. He was in Chopper, you know. I’ve watched that back-to-back, it was such a dope-ass movie. It put him on the map, but what people don’t know is he had his own comedy show in Australia.”

It is proving to be a busy year for Clifton, who has eight more films coming out this year, as well as several videos.

To read more, head to the article located here.

As reported by Titan Magazines,Bana was attracted to Nero’s tragic history. “Essentially, I was trying to draw on an incredibly tragic and brutal past,” he said. “For me, that was the most important thing about him. I felt like Nero had this incredibly tragic back story, and had become a villain as a result of the things that had happened to him.

That was more interesting than just him being born as the villain. To me, he was just a Romulan who had had a lot of amazingly treacherous things done to him, so whilst he wasn’t human, I felt there was some sort of characteristics there that humans could definitely relate to, and I wanted to draw on that.”Another attraction for Bana was Nero’s imprisonment, which didn’t make the final cut of the film. “I was fascinated by the notion of Nero being in jail on Rura Penthe for so many years, him biding his time, and being unbelievably patient in enacting his vengeance,” explained Bana. “Some of that is not played out in the film, because it’s not in the final cut, but it’ll be out on the DVD.”

Co-writers Kurtzman and Orci spoke about writing for Star Trek XI, beginning with how they felt about being asked. “When we were first asked in the broadest sense if we would ever consider doing Star Trek, it was like someone had just punched us in the solar plexus,” said Kurtzman, “just the idea that we would be able to inherit something like that. Before we even had any specific conversations, the idea of joining the legacy was so intense, and frightening, frankly, because it meant so much to us as kids. The fear of messing it up was the first feeling that we had.”

But the appeal of doing a story about Kirk and Spock overcame any doubts. “The immediate answer for all of us was that the only way we were interested in this was to do Kirk and Spock, going back to the genesis of the ship,” explained Kurtzman. “We weren’t interested in The Next Generation. This is where we wanted to live in it. But we faced an immediate problem: we knew the fate of all the characters”

That problem was solved by going back to the beginning, where the characters first met. “It occurred to us very early on that the show began on the five-year mission, and we realized that we hadn’t actually seen all these characters meet and go on their first adventure,” said Orci. “That became an obvious place to explore because the goal was to make sure that we had a Star Trek that made new audiences learn why fans like Star Trek. It couldn’t rely on a previous knowledge of Star Trek. The fact that the origin story had not been covered, and that’s what you

As reported by Inside Film, some years are lean for an actor, but 2009 has proven to be a very busy one for Eric Bana, with five films out this year, including: Star Trek XI, Mary and Max, The Time Traveler’s Wife, Funny People and his own Love the Beast. Bana explained why he accepted the Star Trek XI role. “I’m a big fan of J.J. [Abrams] and I always wanted a chance to work with him,” said Bana. “I just think he’s got incredible taste and amazing skill and eye as a director. My agent told me about [Star Trek XI] and I was like ‘Mate, I really don’t think that’s going to be for me,’ and he said, ‘Trust me. Just read it.” And I read it and immediately fell in love with it. Thirty pages in I knew I was going to see the film regardless. I knew that whoever would play Kirk and Spock would have two of the greatest introductory roles of all time, and then Nero appeared and I saw that it was going to be a hell of a lot of fun.”

It was not the thought of playing a villain that attracted Bana to the role of Nero though. “I just thought it was a great supporting character in a great film and had that sense of fun on the page that was there when I saw the film for the first time.”

Another benefit was that Nero was new and unknown. “It was a rare case of playing a character where you really have to invent most of it,” said Bana. “We haven’t seen him before. Its not like you’re playing an historical figure. There’s a freedom which comes with that which I love.”

To read more, head to the article located here.