The new movie “American Gangster” has gotten great reviews and attracted the attention of cinema patrons since its release, proving to be another hit in the career of everyone involved with it. Unfortunately not everyone is happy with the movie.

A retired Drug Enforcement Agency has sent off a cease and desist letter to Universal Pictures, the movie company that released the picture. According to Gregory Korniloff the movie made multiple errors including its portrayal of the New York DEA agents portrayed in the film. Korniloff alleges that the movie also took liberties in how much money was stolen from the home of heroin dealer Frank Lucas (played by Denzel Washington in the film) as well as how the illegal drug entered the city (it wasn’t in the coffins of Vietnam veterans coffins as the movie shows.)

Korniloff was there on the day that the Drug Enforcement Agency arrested Lucas and worked on the case against the drug kingpin. Korniloff’s attorney claims that the depiction of law enforcement officers in “American Gangster” “destroys the reputation of honest and courageous public servants by deliberately misrepresenting the facts.”

Martial arts superstar Jet Li is going to be super wealthy after his next movie. The “Romeo Must Die” and “Lethal Weapon 4” star will earn a reported $13 million dollars for working in “The Warlords”, a Chinese-language picture about to begin filming shortly. The $13 million payday is the biggest ever paycheck for an actor appearing in a Chinese movie. Li also held the record previously for starring in “Hero” for which he was paid $9 million dollars.

“The Warlords” is set furing the Qing Dynasty in ancient China. Almost half of the movie’s $40 million dollar budget went to pay for the film’s actors including Li, Hong Kong pop star Andy Lau and actress/director Xu Jinglei. The movie will be released throughout Asia next December and then in America in March 2009. Li will next be seen playing the evil shapeshifting Emperor Han in the third chapter of Universal’s “Mummy” franchise, “Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” which opens in August 2008.

The creators of Walt Disney’s “Enchanted” are hoping to entice the nostalgic memories of those who loved such films as “Snow White” and “Aladdin” while also wishing upon a star to capture the audience’s laughter by poking fun at these beloved fairy tales. It is a formula that worked with great success for Disney’s rival DreamWorks with their three “Shrek” films but whereas the green ogre’s tale is told from the point-of-view of not your stereotypical Prince Charming, the premise of “Enchanted” turns the dreams of a happily ever after on their head for the film’s red-haired princess, Giselle (Amy Adams).

To bring to life this adventure of an animated princess that is trapped in modern day Manhattan the “Enchanted” production team decided to pay homage to the glory of earlier Disney princess movies by placing dozens cameos and subtle nods to these movies. Three actresses who provided the voices for the princesses from “Beauty and the Beast”, “The Little Mermaid” and “Pocahontas” all make cameos in “Enchanted”. The narrator of the movie is none other than Julie Andrews who starred in Disney’s much beloved English nanny “Mary Poppins” 40 years ago. A restaurant named “Bella Notte” is a tribute to another dining establishing from “Lady and the Tramp”. A newscaster is named Mary Ilene Caselotti after the names of the actresses who were used for the voices of the classic heroines Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, and the law firm that Patrick Dempsey’s character works for is named after the songwriters to “Snow White”. You may even spot some trinkets and bits of clothing that the troll in Giselle’s kingdom wears including the seashell earrings worn by “Little Mermaid”’s Ariel!

One little known fact that Disney won’t be advertising much is that while Giselle is a princess she isn’t an official part of the company’s immensely popular Princess Adventures line. The reason for this is that if Disney had decided to include Giselle amongst Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and the rest of the royal maidens the company would have to pay for likeness royalties to Amy Adams for the rest of her life!

Nicolas Cage will provide his voice for a talkative mole named Speckles in a family adventure movie called “G-Force” being made by “Pirates of the Caribbean” producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Speckles is one member of a highly intelligent group of trained and talking animals that work for the government to protect the world from the plans of an evil billionaire that wants to rule everything.

Also joining Cage as members of G-Force are Steve Buscemi (“Armageddon”) as Bucky, a hamster and comedian Tracy Morgan (“Saturday Night Live”) as Blaster, a guinea pig. The animals will be created using computer animation and then placed in with the live action (which was the case with the “Garfield” movies). Bill Nighy (“Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3”) and Will Arnett (“Blades of Glory”) also have parts in the movie but as an industrialist and FBI agent respectively.

The movie is filming in Los Angeles and will be released in May of 2009.

The start of filming for the highly anticipated sequel to “The Da Vinci Code” has been postponed until the strike by the Writers Guild of America is resolved. “Da Vinci” star Tom Hanks and director Ron Howard were ready to start filming on “Angels & Demons” early next year and Sony Pictures had wanted to release the film one year from now during the holiday season in 2008 . Unfortunately the screenplay for the film is not yet up to everyone’s satisfaction and Akiva Goldsman, the film’s screenwriter, cannot work on revisions until the strike is concluded. That has forced Sony to pull the plug on the start of filming and reshuffle the movie’s release date to May 2009. It might have to be changed again if the WGA strike goes on longer. The three week old strike has crippled Hollywood productions and only those movies which have screenplays that don’t need any major changes can be filmed at this time. “Angels & Demons” is the first big budget production that has had to curtain its schedule due to the strike.

When you see Angelina Jolie’s character in the film “Beowulf” rise nude from out of a pool of water the first thing that your eyes might look at might not be what you would expect. For her role as the mother of Beowulf the world’s most beautiful woman was scanned into a computer and then turned into a hybrid of a seductive woman and a lizard creature complete with a roving tail.

“I got a little shy. I really wasn’t expecting it to feel as real or for as much of me to come out as it did, especially with the type of character I play,” explains the 32-year-old actress. “It was funny at first, but then there were moments where I felt actually shy and called home to explain that the kind of fun movie that I did with digital animation was … a little different than expected. I was really surprised that I felt that exposed.”

And the digital wizards did more than just give Angelina a tail: they also took away a baby bump. “I was actually three months pregnant at the time,” she says. “You wouldn’t know it because we did the mapping of my body before.”

Animated movies are about to become bigger and bolder than ever before as theaters start to upgrade their projectors to project digital 3-D features. There have already been a few movies that have been shown this way including “Monster House”, “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and the latest picture “Beowulf” but in the next few years we can expect that number to go up. “Titanic” director James Cameron is working on an expensive sci-fi movie called “Avatar” that will render a fully realized alien world and DreamWorks Animation has a new movie called “Monsters vs. Aliens” that will also be shown in the same 3-D format. Both of those movies are scheduled to be released in May of 2009.

Further cementing that this new technology is the wave of the future DreamWorks has just pacted with the IMAX Corporation to release its next three animated films in both 3-D and the IMAX format. “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Monsters vs. Aliens” will both arrive in the specially equipped IMAX theaters in 2009 and then in 2010 “Shrek Goes Forth” will make its debut in the new format. The company has plans to release at least two 3-D movies each year beginning in 2009.

Has Mexican soap star Maryin Villanueva been cast as the next Bond girl in the untitled 22^nd James Bond movie? According to an unconfirmed report that aired on a Mexican news channel the husband of Maryin told a reporter that his wife had been asked by the 007 producers to be a part of the new movie. The 32-year-old certainly has the curvy looks to become the next Bond woman and play opposite Daniel Craig’s superspy.

The new James Bond movie continues moments after the finish of “Casino Royale” making it the first 007 movie to do so. Actors Giancarlo Giannini and Jesper Christensen will both reprise their roles as two villains and Bond will continue to pursue the organization that funds worldwide terrorists and that murdered his lover Vesper Lynd. While there doesn’t appear to be any room for seeing characters like Bond’s gadget-maker Q or Miss Moneypenny Judi Dench will return as Bond’s boss, Q. The Aston Martin company has also secured a $100 million dollar deal that will have James behind the wheel of the company’s new DBS V12 luxury automobile. The new Bond movie is set to come out in November 2008.

Pierce Brosnan will star and produce a sequel to his 1999 hit “The Thomas Crown Affair”. The 54-year-old Irish actor will begin making the “The Topkari Affair” beginning in January under the direction of Paul Verhoeven (“Black Book”, “Total Recall”). Brosnan reprises the part of the wealthy and charismatic businessman who enjoys stealing priceless paintings for his personal enjoyment. In the follow-up Thomas Crown ventures to Istanbul to steal a diamond from the royal palace while also falling for another beautiful woman. Rene Russo starred opposite Brosnan in the first film but will not be returning for the sequel.

Brosnan is finishing up working on a movie version of “Mamma Mia!”, the popular stage play that uses the music of ABBA. That film will be released in July of 2008.

Academy Award winning actress Jennifer Connelly will star an out-of-this-world Keanu Reeves in the remake of “The Day the Earth Stood Still”. Connelly, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her work in “A Beautiful Mind”, will play a character called Helen Benson who befriends a space alien (to be played by Reeves) named Klaatu. The alien has a dire message for mankind: learn to live in peace together or be destroyed by the militaries of other worlds. Patricia Neal played the character of Helen in the original 1951 movie opposite Michael Rennie’s Klaatu.

The movie will be directed by Scott Derrickson (“The Exorcism of Emily Rose”) and begins filming next month. Kathy Bates (“Misery”) is in negotiations to play another role in the movie.