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Paramount has confirmed to me exclusively that it’s hired 8-pack-abs Taylor Lautner for the lead in Max Steel, instantly creating perhaps the next young big action star. (The Twilight Saga phenom is only 17 years old, and the Summit Entertainment folks predicted to me a year ago that he’d end up in demand for this kind of role after he bulked up for New Moon.) This is the Joe Roth-produced project based on the hugely successful Mattel property that’s an international bestseller. The movie will receive a major push planned as Mattel raises its stateside presence with the Paramount release. I’m told Max Steel will be a four-quadrant popcorn movie in the spirit of Iron Man about a 19-year-old extreme sports junkie recruited by a secret agency after an accident infects his body, leaving him with superhuman powers. The screenwriters are also young, Chad Damiani & JP Lavin, who started getting attention around town with their action-comedy script Kamikaza Love as well as Sons Of The Hammer and Capeshooters. This is yet another big young action star for the studio under Paramount Film Group president Adam Goodman along with the recent announcement that Chris Pine is attached to the Jack Ryan franchise from Tom Clancy. Then there’s Shia LaBeouf, whom then DreamWorks exec Goodman put in Disturbia which he was overseeing, and Paramount cast in the Transformers franchise. Smart to start the youth movement (Sony Pics did that with Tobey Maguire and Spider-Man), not just because the young-uns can play the part for years, but even better they won’t break a hip doing it.
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When will they stop sending boys in to do a man’s job?
maybe when the character they’re supposed to be playing is a man and not a boy? Max Steel is a boy of 19, not a man of 35.
Seriously, aiming to be the next Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt isn’t aiming all that high. This ridiculously buffed up chipmunk seems to be Hollywood product of the most demented order – a twinkinator, a repressed, programmable, golly gosh anachronism for the impossible to predict new Aquarian age
Is this a joke ? Becoming the next Pitt and Cruise isn’t that high ? Those guys are two of the biggest movie stars of the last 50 years. What’s your biggest accomplishment ? Burping the alphabet ? You just sound bitter. The kid has potential, seems to be humble and is well liked. Get over it.
Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise are not that talented. Who cares about fame? I want a great movie with great talent, so when it comes to movies, I suppose I am bitter. You can continue swallowing happily the bilge that the entertainment industry serves you, however.
well they will not have to CGI his abs… only his acting… as he has no talent and they had to cut around him in New Moon… And these writers suck butt (quite literally)… just look who is buying their scripts to know I am not fibbing there
ok first of all mr. or mrs. bitter, you have no taste in good actors you loser!!Taylor is just starting out he has talent and he can be the best. what other young actor do you know that worked that hard to be in a movie!!!?? he has the potiental to be great. in new moon he was awsome better than rob or kristen. and the script writers…have a good sense of the story line i bet you couldnt make a movie script!honestly you need to stop hating nobody likes a grunch!!!and also taylor would be a good action star! he could kick your butt if he wanted to and you say hes not mainly i bet he has more balls than you do so stop hating!!!!!
And no one seems to mind that watching this poor sweet boy act is about as enjoyable as watching someone wash their feet?
If you’re Quentin Tarantino, you enjoy all things feet-related
Seriously, though, did anybody find any real numbers as to how “successful” that Max Steel really is? I mean, outside of Latin America? Revenue numbers for the toys? Anything? I didn’t. What I did find was that apparently the toys are only available in the US in “select cities”, and that the TV show went belly-up in 2002.
So, comparatively, this ain’t even G.I. Joe, this is G.I. Joe Decaf. And the movie based on that was a dud (before somebody yells, “but it made 300 million world-wide”, yeah, it did, but the production costs not counting marketing were 175 million, and you have to subtract the theatre chain’s points, so the movie just barely broke even, if you count DVD sales… and if I am being nice about it).
So, let me think about it.
1) G.I. Joe was a stronger “pre-awareness” property and sank like a stone.
2) G.I. Teen, uh, Max Steel has been out of the loop for the past seven years in the US, at least.
3) The Twilight series so far hasn’t produced any cross-over “stars”, in other words, they line up for Bella and Edward, but they ain’t going to necessarily follow them to watch Pattison and Stewart. Stephenie Meyer is the draw, not the “stars” that much.
4) Taylor Lautner ain’t Robert Downey Jr., who with one line “uh, yeah… I can fly” in the Iron Man trailer had most people go, yeah, it sounds silly, but it could be fun.
5) As opposed to Transformers, no giant robot battles, but instead silly small jet-ski-fighting things
Unless Lautner comes up with a seriously high profile before, that movie will not… do so well, I am afraid to say.
If they put the plastic doll on the screen and Taylor on the shelves would anybody notice?
it will be funny if Lautner will be the Harrison ford of Twilight. While other two will remain Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher… I hate the Twilight but i respect Lautner for the fat that he fight for his role. When they wanted to replace him he had to “eat the ground” and work every day for those abs. While other were only working on their hair. It will be very funny if in 5-7 years Pattinson will appear only on Twilight reunions while wolf boy will star in major movie francaise every two years. I don’t see the talent to act in Pattinson. And that boring trailer for Remember Me proved it.
i second that.
He doesn’t complain, cause he’s not surrounded by fens everywhere he goes …. yet
im so happy for him he deserves all the success and more
he worked so hard on his body and deserves action roles
Thanks for the picture! Yummy!
(let me stop, I don’t want to get arrested for child molestation)
just curious if all the people claiming Lautner is not a good actor, as though that is undisputed, have actually seen his work? I didn’t see Shark Boy and Lava Girl although he was just a child at that point, and in Twilight his acting seemed natural, which is quite an accomplishment given how melodramatic the material was (I like the series but it is pure melodrama). maybe he’s been in something else that indicates he can’t act, but regardless, I don’t know that being an action star requires shakespearian level acting anyway.
cookmeyer, he’s good looking, has a nice body, is loved by the ladies, is becoming a huge star… so of coarse there will be bitter guys saying he looks gay or cannot act, etc.
i totally agree with you i mean even my boyfriend gets jelouse i mean taylor is a talented actor he just needs to incorporate it more he has the potiental to be great
He looks like Wilmer Valderamas stronger, gayer brother…
…and nicer. I guess.
Maybe it’ll be a kick ass action movie, but Max Steel is hardly what I’d call a premiere comic book property.
I think Taylor is the new “Shia” since Shia has kind of graduated up to more drama filled thriller roles. Taylor does an amazing job in New Moon and totally carries the film. His acting surpasses the rest of the cast in the Twilight Saga, including Robert Pattinson. I’m glad he’s going the action route in his career, I think he will fit in very nicely with the likes of Shia, Channing, etc.
ok i will love this most likely and so will Taylor because he loves doing stunts and i know this because he said so in a interview but i will definitely go to see it
How is this a four quadrant movie?? You can’t just say something will be a four quadrant movie and it becomes one. Will grandmothers go see this the way they did Titanic. It sounds more like “XXX” and that’s not good.
He’s just not attractive. Good body, but that’s not difficult when you’re 17. He’s not good looking…don’t get it?
sally, this may come as a shock to you but your opinion is not fact. Most women find him attractive, get over it. And getting abs like that is hard at any age.
So sad to see good old fashioned action movies, formerly a Hollywood staple, fall on such hard times. This kid is not going to make it as an action star.
Unfortunately there isn’t anyone younger than Russell Crowe who is believable or looks the part of somebody who could kick my ass (and unless I believe an action star is capable of kicking MY ass, I ain’t buying them as an action hero).
Where are the next Charles Bronsons, Clint Eastwoods, and Steve McQueens? Hollywood is giving us this poofter?
Why would any self respecting actor want to be an action star ? It means you can’t act so they will draw the attention of the audience away from that fact by using horrible plots and tons of explosions and CGI.
I’m so tired of people saying they deserve fame because they’re nice. So? I don’t pay for personality at the movie plex. I pay for talent.
Not that there’s anything wrong with both class and talent, Rachel McAdams for example.
In my day we didn’t have hot young action stars we had John Wayne and Bob Mitchum and Greg Peck we were stuck watching black and white movies and we loved it! We was happy any time we got to see Jimmy Cagney as a gangster or Humphrey Bogart we didn’t know any better we was stupid and young and we loved it! This young kid can’t act his way out of a paper bag so don’t tell me he’s another Caesar Romero. He looks like a gay porn star one of those twinks I hear so much about these days. I don’t like anything about these new movie stars they ain’t real men they’re all school boys. Bleh.-
did you walk uphill both ways to get to school, too? with newspapers for shoes? christ, i hate it when oldtimers reminisce about the halcyon days of their long-gone youths.
oldtimer, you clearly have not even seen this kid act so why bash his acting ? At least watch his new movie before you make up your mind about his acting.
oldtimer, only a gay man would care about movie stars being “real men”. A straight man would not care if they are not manly enough, they would care about their talent and range, etc. Wayne and Robert M were huge stars but not great actors, they made careers out of playing themselves.
Yeah, in “your day” you had Rock Hudson too. Get my point?
Gosh, these comments are ugly. This kid is a real guy and proved he can act in New Moon. If you haven’t read the book, you may not realize just how accurately he played the part and got across all the nuances of the character. I have no idea who gay guys like, but every woman I know loves Taylor from teens to grandmothers.
Meh, B- at best, show me him in something real with a shirt on first.
this seemed quite obvious. the industry really needs a consistently bankable action star like arnold and bruce were in the 80s and 90s.
not sure why tobey macguire was mentioned here. he can only play spiderman. and could easily be replaced. he’s got zero presence.
In a few years, the conflicts will begin – Taylor would want to be known as a serious actor and would like to win an Oscar. However, he will not get those parts because he has been branded as an action star. In a decade or so, he will be replaced by a younger version of himself. When he’s 40, he’ll reflect on a career gone by and wished that he took om more diverse roles.
I like Taylor. He’s got that charisma thing going. I hope he saves his money. If he does, then he’ll have a wonderful life, long after the parts stop coming.
Hes gonna be dead from steroids in how many years?
stevegee, grow up. Having abs and a good body doesn’t mean you are on steroids. I have 6 pack abs and have never touched any kind of steroid. Why is it that out of shape guys always say buff guys are on roids.
He’s not on steriods (injections), he doesn’t have a body builders body, he put on the weight and worked out twice a day. If you want to argue he took protien and suplements to help him out that might be baned in some professional sports such as Creatine Mark McGuire took unknowingly then by all means. But they are not illigal and readily available at any GNC. He was already in physical shape, He was only 17, who already had an 8 pack, he took weight gainer and put in the hours at the gym. I give him all the credit in the world.
But my advice to him would be read those labels carefully. Don’t just take a brand without knowing what’s in there. I would stear clear of Creatine too.
i get amazed at a lot of the acidic comments directed at a young kid whose only crime was to pursue his dreams of acting! he got a lucky break why do people say he’s gay,ugly he can’t act etc. its pointless and sounds like a lot of frustrated envious people who wish they had a little more magic in their lives. and stevegee you are awful for implying that he’ll be dead from steroids that is someones kid have you no thought for others? anyway good luck taylor lautner with your burgeoning career you seem like a great kid
you are soooo right like 100% right!!! he seems like a good brought up kid who knows how to present himself. people who say these things are just jelouse he did potray jacob black very well and you’ll know if you read the book and wat ever your name is that said taylor will die out of steroids you’re an ASS WHOLE!!!! he worked long and hard and no one should judge. hes a kid who is following his dreams and hes quite good at it. im sorry that you are so bitter and just b/c your dreams were destroyed doesnt give you the right to critisize anyone. he will be very successful GOOD LUCK TO YOU TAYLOR!!!!!
That kid definitely got hot. Is it okay for me to say that?