The Hollywood Reporter reports that “Transporter” star Jason Statham will join Universal Pictures’ remake of the Roger Corman cult classic, “Death Race 2000.” The new film will simply be titled “Death Race.” Paul W.S. Anderson (“Alien vs. Predator”) will write and direct the film, with Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner producing via their Cruise/Wagner Productions banner.

David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone starred in the original 1975 film which is set in the future and told of a violent road race that spans from New York to Los Angeles. The president presides over the race and one of the ways drivers earn points is by running down innocent bystanders.

Roger Corman is exec producing the remake. (Source: Cinema Confidential)

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Hi everybody!

Wanna watch some old interviews of Tom? Then click here to watch an very young Tom being interviewed by Rona Barrett in 1984. Here Tom talks about his childhood, his parents’ divorce and more.
Click here to watch Tom being interviewed by Barbara Walters in 1993. Both with nice personal photos!

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July 29, 2007 — Tom Cruise’s United Artists movie studio and investment bank Merrill Lynch have essentially wrapped up negotiations over roughly $500 million in film financing, The Post has learned.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which owns UA, and Merrill are combing through final deal points and should be ready to go public with the financing by mid-August, according to four sources involved with or close to the deal.

Around Hollywood, however, the actor and his producing partner, Paula Wagner, are already on cruise control, making the rounds and being very open while taking meetings and closing deals as if the money was securely in place, one source added.

“They are really out there talking to producers, directors and actors at a level like never before,” this source said.

The appetite for film-financing deals among investors has curbed considerably since MGM and Merrill first entered into talks about a deal and, as a result, sources said the bulk of the equity in the UA financing is being put up by MGM.

The equity component is considered the riskiest part in film-financing deals since the senior and mezzanine debt, as well as any other obligations, get repaid before the equity partner does.

Consider that the equity investors in the Gun Hill I and Gun Hill II deals with Universal Studios and Sony Pictures were completely wiped out, one source noted.

That MGM had to put up equity to get the deal done speaks to the poor returns the money guys have been reaping from these deals, sources said. After all, the idea behind a film-financing deal is to diversify risk away from the studio.

MGM has publicly stated that it would fund UA until the label got its own bank and credit lines and became a standalone company. And while finalizing the deal with Merrill will go a long way toward establishing UA’s independence, getting access to the entire $500 million will depend on the performance of the films Cruise and Wagner produce.

According to one film-financing source who passed on investing in the Merrill-UA deal, about $300 million of the package is comprised of a revolving senior debt facility, which means that access to the entire amount is dependent on how well the movies perform.

If, for instance, UA’s first few movies bomb, then bank covenants could be tripped that would prevent further borrowing from the senior debt facility until the amount already withdrawn was repaid, sources said. (NY Post)

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More details on the second arrest by the LA Times

2nd arrest in Tom Cruise extortion probe
FBI officials announced Friday that a second man has been arrested in connection with an alleged attempt to extort $1 million from actor Tom Cruise in exchange for returning thousands of stolen photographs of Cruise’s private wedding in November to actress Katie Holmes.

The arrest of computer expert Marc Lewis Gittleman, 33, of Los Angeles came one day after authorities confirmed the arrest of David Hans Schmidt, 47, of Arizona for allegedly seeking money for the photographs from Cruise’s representatives.

According to an FBI affidavit, Gittleman took possession of the pictures when he worked on a computer belonging to the wedding’s authorized photographer.

Gittleman made a copy of the hard drive after discovering that it included some 7,600 photographs of the wedding, the affidavit states, and later contacted Schmidt through an Internet search to see what he could do with the photos.

Schmidt, who is known to be a broker of celebrity photographs, contacted Cruise’s representatives in late May. He was arrested Tuesday after an undercover agent met with him and representatives of Cruise, allegedly to discuss payment for the photos, authorities said.

Gittleman was taken into custody Thursday.

Cruise’s attorney, Bert Fields, said in an interview that his client was in Germany filming a movie and had not been contacted directly in the alleged extortion.

“What happened was this man contacted us with all these photographs and asked for a huge sum of money,” Fields said. “We turned it over to the FBI immediately … and did whatever they told us to do.”

Fields said the actor “was not happy with the fact that these [wedding] photographs were being shopped around, because who ever took them stole them.”

and AOL News:

(…) The photographer, identified as Joshua Bobrove, reportedly had taken a damaged computer hard drive containing the wedding photos to Gittleman to employ his services as a data recovery expert.

Gittleman then made copies of photos on the drive and kept them for himself, authorities said. He contacted Schmidt after finding a Web site touting his abilities to broker celebrity photos.

In the past two months, Schmidt had repeated contact with Cruise representatives and threatened to shop the photos around if he didn’t receive $1.25 million to $1.35 million, officials said. At one point, he allegedly e-mailed the actor’s representatives about 7,600 wedding photos as proof he had them.

“He said that the client would turn to the black market and find a buyer for the photos,” said Peter Brust, a special agent in charge in the FBI’s Los Angeles office.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Schmidt or Gittleman had retained attorneys. Schmidt, who lives in Phoenix, was released on $100,000 bond.

Schmidt, 47, was arrested after an undercover FBI agent attended a meeting in West Hollywood between Schmidt and Cruise’s representatives. Federal agents were led to Gittleman, 33, by a license plate number they discovered on a slip of paper in Schmidt’s car.
(…)
Schmidt was charged with sending communications for purposes of extortion, the criminal complaint said. Gittleman was charged with conspiracy to commit extortion. If convicted, Schmidt faces as many as two years in prison and Gittleman as many as five years.

A message left with Cruise’s publicist was not immediately returned.

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By JACOB ADELMAN, Associated Press Writer Fri Jul 27, 7:50 PM ET

LOS ANGELES – Two men were charged with plotting to extort more than $1 million from Tom Cruise for the actor’s stolen wedding photographs, federal authorities announced Friday.

David Hans Schmidt, known for brokering deals involving compromising celebrity photos and videos, was charged with sending communications for purposes of extortion, according to a criminal complaint.

Marc Lewis Gittleman, who authorities say helped recover photos from a computer disk, was charged with conspiracy to commit extortion, the complaint said.

Schmidt, 47, was arrested by federal agents Tuesday, while Gittleman, 33, was taken into custody Thursday night, the FBI said.

Schmidt allegedly approached Cruise’s representatives about six weeks ago with photos from the actor’s Italian wedding last year to Katie Holmes, the actor’s attorney, Bertram Fields, has said.

The FBI was then contacted.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Schmidt or Gittleman had retained attorneys. (Source: Yahoo)

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Tom Cruise is under a spell — and her name is Katie Holmes. During the welcome-to-America party TomKat co-hosted for David and Victoria Beckham at the Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown Los Angeles, Tom couldn’t take his eyes off his wife. “Tom looked completely in awe of Katie,” a guest tells OK!. Hollywood insiders say that Tom, often characterized as a control freak, has learned to let go a little, thanks to his wife and baby daughter, Suri. “It is clear that Tom looks to Katie for praise and inspiration, and he gets it in spades,” says an insider. There’s even talk that Tom, a devout Scientologist, is now open to exploring other faiths.

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The Sultan of Sleaze has messed with the wrong superstar.

David Hans Schmidt, who earned his dubious reputation trafficking X-rated footage of Paris Hilton, Colin Farrell and Dustin “Screech” Diamond, among many others, has been arrested for allegedly attempting to extort arguably the biggest star of all: Tom Cruise.

According to Cruise’s lawyer, Bert Fields, the 47-year-old porn peddler was nabbed by FBI agents in Los Angeles Tuesday, after reportedly trying to sell back photos of Cruise’s November 2006 wedding to Katie Holmes. Schmidt allegedly demanded upwards of $1 million for the snaps, which purportedly had been stolen from Cruise’s private collection.

Cruise and Holmes had no official comment. The actor is currently in Germany shooting the WWII-era film Valkyrie.

When E! News contacted Schmidt’s office for comment, one of his assistants said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” before hanging up.

Despite Schmidt’s penchant for more salacious celeb material, the photos do not appear to be anything more than photos of the just-married coupled. It is not known when or from where the pictures were stolen.

Per Fields, Schmidt first approached the actor’s camp earlier this year, announcing he had the photos and wanted to make a deal. Fields said Cruise immediately turned to federal authorities.

Both the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles confirmed David Hans Schmidt was arrested and then arraigned on Wednesday. However, the criminal complaint is under seal, and the government is prohibited from giving out further information.

According to The Smoking Gun, which first reported the alleged extortion plot, once Cruise’s camp informed the feds, private investigators were called in to work undercover to collar Schmidt.

The sting apparently worked. Schmidt, who is based in Phoenix, disclosed to the sleuthing Website last week that he was in the midst of the biggest deal of his career and was rushing to Los Angeles for business.

Over the past several years, Schmidt has become wealthy acquiring and distributing sex tapes of the rich and famous. In the wake of Britney Spears’ split from Kevin Federline, Schmidt offered $100 million to anyone who could produce a sex tape of the couple. No such tape ever surfaced.

The self-professed “CAA of Smarm” was behind last year’s sale of a storage warehouse full of Paris Hilton’s personal belongings, the bulk of which found a home online. He also represented a catering company late last year that claimed to have found more than 200 topless photos of Marcia Cross in a trash can outside the actress’ home. (E! Online)

Entertainment Online adds:
[Tom's attorney Bert] Fields tells ET: “Tom Cruise is in Germany making a film so he is not actively involved in this situation at all. We were approached by Mr. Schmidt approximately a month and a half ago regarding some stolen wedding photos that he wanted to sell to Mr. Cruise for a very large price. We immediately contacted the FBI and after that the FBI and US Attorney’s office has handled the situation. We have cooperated with them and followed their direction.”

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