Brett Ratner Wants to Make a Guitar Hero Movie

Photo-illustration: Everett Bogue; Photos: Getty Images

Through the Fire and Flames: In an interview with MTV News about his Best Director nomination (for Miley Cyrus's "7 Things"!), Brett Ratner revealed that he'd "love to do a Guitar Hero movie, if Activision would ever let [him]." Don't worry, it's not like he wants to tell some lame story about "a kid from a small town who dreams of being a rock star and he wins the Guitar Hero competition." (We're pretty sure those bases have been covered, both in real life and cartoons.) Either way, could somebody please put this on Ratner's IMDb memorable quotes page: "I'm trying to convince them, but why would you have a movie screw up such a huge franchise? Not that I would make a bad movie." [MTV]

Fox and WB Become Millionaires: Fox Searchlight and Warner Bros. will join forces to release Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, written by The Full Monty's Simon Beaufoy, based on Q&A by Vikas Swarup. Story follows Jamal Malik, an 18-year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai who's one question away from winning 20 million rupees on India's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, until the police arrest him for cheating because they're like, "WTF? How could an orphan know this stuff?" The kid tells them his life story, and each chapter of the novel reveals the key to the answer to one of the game show's questions. His travels explains how he knew the first answer, for 100 rupees, when Indian Regis Philbin asked, "Which country shares a border with India: (a) Nepal, (b) Thailand, (c) Greenland , or (d) Disneyland."

[ComingSoon]

Portrait of the Artist As a Young Lennon: First-time feature director and visual artist Sam Taylor Wood will direct Nowhere Boy, a biopic of young John Lennon to be written by Matt Greenhalgh (Control) and filmed on the streets of Liverpool. In 1886, Lennon's father, Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov, died of a cerebral hemorrhage, and, in May 1887, when Lennon was 17 years old, his eldest brother Alexander was arrested and hanged for participating in a terrorist bomb plot threatening the life of Czar Alexander III. Later, he met Paul McCartney, and history was changed forever. [HR]

Perelman Heads Toward the Light?: Maybe, just maybe, House of Sand and Fog's Vadim Perelman is in talks to direct MGM's Poltergeist remake, according to an unconfirmed story at Bloody Disgusting. Verified or not, the movie's mere existence constitutes a major victory in Hollywood's War Against Original Ideas, one that makes us proud to be Americans. [Bloody Disgusting]

Some Guy to Direct Voltron: First, put on some lovesick music, then read our love letter out loud: "Dearest Voltron, Our love for you overflows like sexy rainwater from some kind of love bucket. Even though New Regency put you into turnaround, even though Relativity wants to cut your budget, and even now that you've got a random TV guy attached to direct you. Oh, Voltron, please oh please, tell us you don't really love director Max Makowski, a man who thinks he can tame your five robot lions just because he tamed five gay guys directing Queer Eye for the Straight Guy? Our heart weeps like a million baby seals with shampoo in their eyes. Love always, Vulture." [Latino Review]

More information

• Jackyl | Download mp3
• Mp3 music: Sarah Vaughan
• Thou Art Lord | Download mp3
• Enigma | Download mp3
• Download Beastie Man

Britney Appears In VMAs Video With Russell Brand & LL Cool J

Britney Spears has recorded a new video to promote her two nominations at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) this year.

The video sees the singer joined by VMAs host Russell Brand, as well as rapper LL Cool J and Pete Wentz - bassist with Fall Out Boy.

Spears is nominated for Best Female and Best Pop Video for her single 'Piece Of Me'. It's not known if the 'Toxic' star will perform at the event, as held on September 7.

More information

• Son-Dha
• H.H. The 17th Gyalwang Karmapa
• Ian Henderson
• Blt
• Willie Morales

Washington Post Series Examines Experiences Of U.S. Low-Wage Workers

�
The Washington Post on Sunday launched a serial publication of reports examining the "lives of low-wage workers" based on a survey by the Post, the Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University. "Many struggle to pay off for life's basics -- housing, food and health care -- and well-nigh report having virtually no financial shock should they stumble," the Post reports.

For the telephony survey, 1,350 at random selected low-wage workers were polled betwixt June 18 and July 7. Low-wage workers were defined as adults ages 18 to 64 working at least 30 hours per week, not freelance and earning $27,000 or less in 2007. According to the Post, nearly twenty-five percent of all U.S. adults meet the survey's conditions.

The survey plant that most low-wage workers have difficulties affording health care and housing. According to the survey, trey in 10 low-wage workers are employed by companies that do not offer health policy, and about four in 10 low-wage workers ar employed by companies that do non offer sick days. More than half of low-wage workers aforementioned they take postponed necessary medical or dental care to trim back expenses, the survey launch. About half of low-wage workers aforementioned they took the Earned Income Tax Credit utmost year, and about half of those with children said they received health care for their children through Medicaid or SCHIP (Fletcher/Cohen, Washington Post, 8/3).

While many express no ruling about whether presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) or presumptive Republican campaigner Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) would do more to improve the economy or health care, "Obama has the pass edge among those wHO picked a favorite on these center issues," the Post reports. Overall, Obama holds a 2 to 1 bound over McCain in the poll among low-wage workers.

Seven in 10 low-wage workers said the federal government should focus on serving them get more affordable health maintenance coverage, a "core component of Obama's campaign," according to the Post (Shear/Cohen, Washington Post, 8/4).

The survey is available online.


Reprinted with kind permission from hypertext transfer protocol://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email saving at hypertext transfer protocol://www.kaisernetwork.