Salma Hayek, Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem will all be honoured at next month’s Alma Awards.

The show, which takes place in Los Angeles in September 17, will be hosted by comedian George Lopez and Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria Parker, who also serves as executive producer.

Other honourees at the ceremony, which celebrates Latino achievement in entertainment, will include John Leguizamo and Rosario Dawson.

Salma will be given the Anthony Quinn Award for Industry Excellence.

Performers on the night will include David Archuleta, Nelly Furtado, Selena Gomez, Sean Kingston, Pitbull and Luis Fonsi.

Adam Rodriguez, Benjamin Bratt, Michelle Rodriguez, Oscar Nunez and Rey Mysterio are among the show’s presenters.

The Alma Awards were created in 1995 by the National Council of La Raza, a national Latino civil rights and advocacy organisation, as part of its effort to promote diverse and fair portrayals of Latinos in the media.

Alma stands for American Latino Media Arts and also means “soul” in Spanish.

From the Press Association

Rosario Dawson will star alongside Denzel Washington and Chris Pine in Fox’s runaway train drama “Unstoppable,” directed by Tony Scott.

Dawson just wrapped Chris Columbus film “Percy Jackson” and is currently shooting “Zookeeper” opposite Kevin James for MGM and Sony. She was last seen in “Seven Pounds” with Will Smith.

Washington formally withdrew from “Unstoppable” in early July, then came to terms two weeks later to put the pic back on track for a fall start. He’s playing a veteran engineer who jumps into a locomotive with a young conductor (Pine) to stop an unmanned runaway train loaded with toxic cargo.

Julie Yorn is producing with Scott and Mimi Rogers, and Chris Ciaffa is exec producer. The script, penned by Mark Bomback, is loosely inspired by true events.

Dawson is repped by ICM and Untitled Entertainment.

From Variety

Stalled for years due to studio shuffles, Rob Zombie’s adult-oriented, animated adaptation of his “Haunted World of El Superbeasto” comic book was originally tagged for straight-to-DVD release, but now could enjoy a run in theaters, according to the musician/filmmaker.

“It started as a really cheap direct-to-video project, and then it kept ballooning over the years and the budget kept getting bigger and bigger, and the project kept getting bigger and bigger, and bigger names kept coming on to it,” Zombie told MTV News. “And then it seemed like, ‘Well, now it seems theatrical.’”

Featuring the voices of Paul Giamatti, Brian Posehn, Danny Trejo and Rosario Dawson, “El Superbeasto” follows a super-powered Mexican luchador (voiced by Tom Papa) and his sultry sidekick/sister Suzi-X (Sheri Moon Zombie) as they battle the evil Dr. Satan (Paul Giamatti).

The adults-only film has had a troubled path to the screen—big or small—as Zombie explained, “the company kept changing hands. We started with one company, they got sold to another, and they got sold to another company…”

“I’m actually glad it happened that way,” explained Zombie. “The movie went from costing $1 million dollars to $8 million, and we got to make an awesome movie, so I don’t really care how it gets out there. Theatrical would be great, and I think they’re talking now about doing a limited theatrical run, so that would be cool.”

“El Superbeasto” is currently scheduled to arrive on DVD and Blu-Ray September 22.

From MTV

The History Channel, where old soldiers never die — they just air in repeats — is getting help from some contemporary stars. Morgan Freeman, Benjamin Bratt, Danny Glover and Rosario Dawson are among the A-list celebrities reading letters, speeches and text from famous and not-so famous Americans in “The People Speak,” a documentary coming this fall that celebrates America’s interpretation of democracy.

Matt Damon and Marisa Tomei, above, two of the contributors, were on hand Wednesday to talk with critics about their love affair with a project that was rejected by Fox TV 10 years ago and later died during development at HBO.

“I’m an actor. I’m used to being rejected,” said Damon, who also serves as an executive producer. The film also features intimate musical performances by Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan of some Woody Guthrie classics.

From Star Tribune

Shortly after his mammoth graphic novel “The Haunted World Of El Superbeasto” was released by Image Comics in 2007, Scream Award-nominated director Rob Zombie told MTV News that the animated version of his “superhero monster sex comedy” was finished as well. The comics-friendly music maestro and White Zombie founder who recently contributed to the “Punisher: War Zone” soundtrack now says that the feature film’s release date is still up in the air and has no problem throwing down some harsh words to express his frustrations behind the scenes.

“The movie is f—ing awesome,” Zombie told SlashFilm. “[T]he f—ing behind-the-scenes stuff on that movie has been so f—ed up. You would not believe the sh– that has been going on.”

Though the horror film — featuring such stars as Paul Giamatti, Rosario Dawson, and Danny Trejo — had been tagged for a 2009 release, the “H2″ and “Devil’s Rejects” director sounded skeptical that his cartoon gore-fest would make it out to theaters by this fall.

“There are rumors about releasing it in the fall,” he said. “But the company that owns ‘El Superbeasto,’ the problem is, that company has changed hands, like, at least five times since I started. So, every time we’re near release, it gets sold, new executives come in, and it derails the project.”

Zombie still sounds as enthusiastic as ever about getting the project out in the public, however, reiterating earlier claims that his Adult Swim style take on classic looking animation meshed with blood-splattering madness will break new ground.

“It’s really unlike any movie,” Zombie described. “It’s very adult. I don’t know. I like to say that it’s Scooby-Doo meets NC-17.”

From MTV

Rosario Dawson and Steve Coogan will run the underworld in the Greek mythology-infused adventure film “Percy Jackson.”

Chris Columbus is directing the adaptation of Rick Riordan’s best-selling fantasy-adventure book series, which involves the world-saving quest of Poseidon’s half-human son, Percy, in modern America.

Catherine Keener, Pierce Brosnan, Uma Thurman, Sean Bean, Kevin McKidd, Melina Kanakaredes, Logan Lerman, Alexandra Daddario and Brandon T. Jackson already have been cast.

Coogan will play the nefarious Hades, and Dawson will play his imprisoned wife, Persephone, who has a flirtation with Jackson’s character, Grover, Percy’s best friend. Only the role of Ares, God of War, is yet to be cast.

The Fox 2000 film, which Columbus and Craig Titley adapted from the first book in the series, “The Lightning Thief,” is scheduled for a February 12 release.

Dawson most recently starred in “Seven Pounds” and “Eagle Eye.”

Coogan most recently appeared in “Tropic Thunder” and “Hamlet 2.” He returns as Octavius in the comedy-adventure “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian,” which hits theaters May 22.

From Reuters

Robert Rodriguez has dropped a few more hints about ‘Sin City 2′, including some storyline details and a confirmation it will definitely be made.

Rumors have been swirling for quite some time about whether or not “Sin City 2″ would ever be made – the questions were mostly about whether anyone wanted to finance it, but it always seemed to me that a sequel was inevitable – surely strong and repeat DVD and Blu-ray sales worldwide make the franchise attractive still. But nonetheless, it would not be the easiest sequel to bring about considering the number of popular actors involved, the production challenges, and licensing costs/terms. Not to worry though, because Director Robert Rodriguez recently spoke very positively about the film to IGN:

“People have been talking about Sin City 2 since the first one came out,” Rodriguez said. “Whenever I’m out and about, people say, ‘When’s Sin City 2 coming? When’s Sin City 2 coming?’ They’ve been asking that for years. So this probably will add to that, certainly.”

He mentioned that there are a few other commitments he has to meet before getting to work on the film but added, “I actually had a phone call with some of the players in it today, but I was on a plane so I missed it,” he said. “So next week we’re going to talk about it some more and get a timing on when we’d be doing it. But there’s a lot of people who are interested in it. … We are definitely going to do that one“

Rodriguez also said in the interview that he hoped the film could start filming as early as next year. Regarding the plot of the sequel, Rodriguez said that it will include “A Dame to Kill For”, to feature Rosario Dawson heavily in one of the original Sin City stories, as well as new additional material written by Frank Miller. More of Rosario and new material from Frank? We’re already sold.

Rodriguez continued “There’s a lot of stories. That was sort of the approach I took to it. That’s why there’s three stories in the [first] movie, because I thought, ‘I love this material, but gosh, what happens if it’s not successful and I don’t get to make a part two and part three. I still want to see “The Big Fat Kill” and “That Yellow Bastard.”‘ So I wanted to put them all in one movie so I could at least get some of these stories out of my system. But there’s still so many books and so many stories to do.”

From The Cinema Post

This week, the Environmental Media Association’s Young Hollywood Board is putting on the gloves and digging deep in support of organic gardening in Los Angeles-area schools. Celebs on the Board, including Nicole Richie, Lance Bass, Rosario Dawson, members of Maroon 5, Amy Smart, Matthew Rhys, Emily VanCamp and Emmanuelle Chriqui, will each adopt an area school, help with the planting, and check in with their gardens during the school year, explains People.

The project is the product of a newly-formed partnership between the EMA and the Los Angeles Unified School District’s School Gardens program, and personal care brand Yes To Inc. The launch event is scheduled for tomorrow morning at Hollywood’s Helen Bernstein High School, and the program will take root over the next several months.

Just how much dirt Richie et al will actually get under their fingernails remains to be seen, but Bass for one is pretty stoked: “Organic gardens are so important, especially in urban areas where many students would otherwise never see any greenery. I hope that the support will help them to grow and flourish in Los Angeles.”

From LAist