Director Kathryn Bigelow has had a unique career in her twenty-odd years in Hollywood, but she always manages to keep working and get some pretty interesting projects to the big screen. Now according to Production Weekly, she's helm her newly announced film, The Hurt Locker. This movie in which she co-wrote with war reporter Mark Boal, follows the story an elite bomb disposal unit and its exploits during the gulf war. Bigelow isn't new to testosterone heavy projects like Point Break, K-19: The Widowmaker and Near Dark, which should give her a pretty good handle on what's needed for her next upcoming flick. The Hurt Locker has already begun pre-production with shooting scheduled to start in March. There isn't a cast or release date yet set for this film. Thanks Cinematical

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According to ProductionWeekly.com, Charlize Theron, Colin Farrell, Ralph Fiennes and Willem Dafoe will reportedly star in Director Kathryn Bigelow's film The Hurt Locker which is an action drama set in Iraq. The movie is based on following the exploits of an elite bomb disposal unit. Forced to play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse in the chaos of war, an elite Army bomb squad unit must come together in a city where everyone is a potential enemy and every object could be a deadly bomb,". Bigelow co-wrote the screenplay with war reporter Mark Boal, who also co-wrote another Iraq war drama, The Valley of Elah which stars Theron. Farrell and Fiennes are currently starring together in the thriller, In Bruges. Filming is set to begin later this spring. Thanks IGN

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Jeremy Renner is interviewed by Marijke Rowland from the Modesta Bee and spoke about his upcoming movie, 28 Weeks Later and other films he's been in. He also mentions that he'll be in The Hurt Locker and talks a little bit about it, here's the excerpt. Thanks Modesta Bee

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Renner has signed on to star in the Iraq War drama "The Hurt Locker," about an elite unit that dismantles bombs. Also attached is Oscar-nominated actor Ralph Fiennes and director Kathryn Bigelow ("Point Break," "K-19: The Widowmaker," "Strange Days,").

"The war is the backdrop, but it's about these three guys and this journey of new warfare. It's about these roadside bombs, what (these men) risk and their willingness to risk their lives," he said. "It doesn't take a political stance, it's just about these three guys."

But before he jets off to Jordan, Renner's back in Modesto today for the premire of "28 Weeks Later." The actor is having another autograph session at Brenden Theatres just as he did for "S.W.A.T." and "North Country."

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Equinoxe Films has acquired the rights to distribute The Hurt Locker in Canada. Here's the excerpt from the New Aquisitions section from their Press Release. Thanks Equinoxe Films

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The Hurt Locker starring Ralph Fiennes and Willem Defoe – A film by Kathryn Bigelow (Point Break Production has just started on this movie.

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At Cannes, Phoenix Pictures announced its plans for a female-driven horror thriller called Mile Zero. The producers and director were announced for this mid-budget horror flick, along with a quick blurb of what it's about. (Check out the link, film actually sounds interesting.) Also mentioned in this article is The Hurt Locker, here's the small excerpt. Thanks Variety

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Launched in 2005 as a partnership between Nicolas Chartier and producer Dean Devlin, Voltage Pictures is co-financing its first in-house production, the Kathryn Bigelow Iraqi-set psychological actioner "The Hurt Locker," which is lensing shortly after Cannes.

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Jordan's Royal Film Commission has confirmed that Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker will lense in Jordan this summer. "Jordan is a safe, professional environment in which to work and a very welcoming place." said Producer and Scribe Mark Boal, "The assistance of the government and the personal support of His Royal Highness Prince Ali has made it ideal for filmakers." RFC Execs were also in Cannes to drum up awareness of filming in the country and they've announced that Costa Gavras will chair the Arab-Franco film week in June. The events will include seminars, workshops, screenings and a local preem of Laurent Herbiert's Mon colonel. Gallic promotional film body will be sending Salem Brahimi and a delegation of producers to take part and meet aspiring Jordanian helmers. RFC's project manager, Pernilla Frykholm said, "We hope it will be an inspiration to young filmmakers". Thanks Variety

Hollywood's new haven for filmmaking in an unlikely region is Jordan. Surrounded by all sides by conflict and political turmoil, Jordan is drawing a record number of productions with large budgets and now having entire projects being lensed in this country. The lure of Jordan has been it's authenticity, it shares the borders and similar landscapes with Iraq, where it's nearly impossible to film in because of it's lack of security. Hollywood features aren't an unknown to make films in this country, with features like, 1962's Lawrence of Arabia to the likes of The Mummy Returns, Missions to Mars and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. Helmers Broomfield and De Palma have both wrapped shooting in Jordan on their Iraq projects, Battle for Haditha and Redacted, within weeks of each other in May. Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, another Iraq drama, is set for June and has skedded a 45-day shoot. The Hurt Locker producer and screenwriter Mark Boal said, "The assistance of the government and the personal support of His Royal Highness Prince Ali has made Jordan ideal for filmmakers,". The article continues on how Jordan is now accomplishing their own feature film productions and with creating it's first middle eastern film school, Red Sea Institute of Cinematic Arts which opens September 2008. Also said is how the Jordan's RFC is helpful to filmmakers, in areas of production, scouting, permits, locations and providing Jordanian army assistance and necessary gear for production companies needs. Please, read the rest of the article, it is very interesting and quite insightful of how Jordan is becoming a player for filmmakers and Hollywood. Thanks Variety

Scotty Mac is currently in Jordan filming The Hurt Locker. In his blog, he talks about the production schedule, filming locations and how long they'll be filming in Jordan, plus how he's been spending his time in Jordan. Scotty Mac seems to be enjoying his time there, check out his page, it's a very good read on what's happening. Thanks Scotty Mac

At The Hurt Locker IMDb page, there are updates with new cast members for the film with one rumored as being in the movie. By the looks of it, Charlize Theron, Colin Farrell and Willem Dafoe are no longer in this film. Now listed are: Ralph Fiennes (rumored), Jeremy Renner, Brian Geraghty, and Anthony Mackie. About 2 weeks ago, it was announced that Willem Dafoe had joined the cast of Ethan Hawke's The Daybreakers (comingsoon.net), which will start filming this month in North Queensland in Oz on location and studio. Charlize Theron is currently filming John Hancock (formerly known as Tonight He Comes) with Will Smith and Colin Farrell will be filming Dirt Music with Rachel Weitz this August in Western Australia. Hopefully more news on this movie will be forthcoming soon. Thanks IMDb

Earlier this week, a close source to the film, has informed me that the Cast and Crew has left for Jordan on July 7th. Along with this great news, we got the first look at The Hurt Locker's Teaser Poster! It's very nice, cool colors and looks to be quite action packed, the movie is already starting to look good. :) More updates on this film should be coming soon. Thank you Source! for the news and Teaser Poster!

Director Kathryn Bigelow's Iraqi drama film, The Hurt Locker, now has a cast. Actors Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty will be toplining with Ralph Fiennes and Guy Pierce both making a cameo appearance in this movie. The Hurt Locker is written by Mark Boal and is inspired by true events of recently declassified information. The story revolves around following an elite Army Explosive Ordinance Disposal team in present-day Baghdad that fights an onslaught of bombs and snipers. Renner will be the leader of the team with Mackie and Geraghty members, Fiennes will be a mercenary and Pearce another member. Filming is scheduled to begin next week and is a Voltage Picture/First Light/Kingsgate Films production. Voltage Pictures will be handling sales and is financed with Grosvenor Park. Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicholas Chartier and Greg Shapiro are producing. Boal is a journalist who was previously a writer-at-large at Playboy and was embedded with a bomb squad several years ago. He extrapolated his experiences into a fictional story grounded on real events. Boal said this from Jordan, "The idea is that it's the first movie about the Iraq War that purports to show the experiences of the soldiers, we want to show the kinds of things that soldiers go through that you can't see on CNN and I don't mean that in a censorship-conspiracy way. I just mean the news doesn't actually put photographers in with units that are this elite." He also said the idea of doing a topical movie is one factor that lead him into the movie business and discusses a bit about how the history of filming war movies and his enthusiasm for this project. Renner, who recently starred in Fox's 28 Weeks Later and will be seen opposite Brad Pitt in The Assassination of Jesse James. He is repped by CAA, Untitled Entertainment and Nelson Felker Toczek Davis. Mackie who recently wrapped shooting Kimberly Peirce's Iraq war drama Stop Loss is repped by Endeavor, Inspire Entertainment and Loeb & Loeb. Geraghty appeared with Mackie in We Are Marshall and has been seen in films Jarhead and Bobby and is repped by Endeavor and Roklin Management. Fiennes who has worked bith Kathryn Bigelow in Strange Days is repped by CAA, Dalzell & Beresford (UK) and Lichter, Grossman, Nichols and Adler. Pierce is repped by CAA, Shanahan Management (Oz) and attorney David Webber. Thanks Hollywood Reporter

Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty will topline Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker with Ralph Fiennes and Guy Pearce having cameos in the film. This Iraq War drama film written by Mark Boal and is inspired by true events and recently declassified information, Locker follows an elite Army Explosive Ordinance Disposal Team in present-day Baghdad that fights an onslaught of bombs and snipers. Renner will play the leader of the team with Mackie and Geraghty members, Fiennes will be a mercenary and Pearce another member. Bigelow and Boal along with Nicolas Chartier and Greg Shapiro are producing and is a Voltage Picture/First Light/Kingsgate Films production. Filming is scheduled to begin filming next week in Jordan and Kuwait. Thanks Coming Soon

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Filming is set to begin next week on a Hollywood Drama The Hurt Locker reports US entertainment media on Tuesday. This movie will star actors, Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty and will be helmed by Kathryn Bigelow. The story revolves around an elite army explosive ordinance disposal team in present-day Baghdad. According to The Hollywood Reporter, filming is set to take place in Jordan and Kuwait and is based on recently declassified information and actual events. Scriptwriter Mark Boal, who spoke with THR from Jordan said, "It's the first movie about the Iraq War that purports to show the experience of soldiers. We wanted to show the kinds of things that soldiers go through that you can't see on CNN, and I don't mean that in a censorship-conspiracy way. I just mean the news doesn't actually put photographers in with units that are this elite." Boal also goes on to say, "Most war movies don't come out until the war was over. It's really exciting for me, coming out of the world of journalism, to have a movie come out about a conflict while the conflict is still going on." Thanks Middle East Online

Hollywood Elsewhere has written a quite interesting blog about upcoming Iraqi-Afghanistan narrative movies which comes to eight films. Nine if you count Peter Berg's The Kingdom which is set in Riyahad. Some of these films may have 'possible hit' or 'potential award quality' due to the dramatic raw material of which's it's coming from. With the great rivers of hurt flowing through these two countries, he's wondering what the general attitude is among paying movie goers are. This very interesting blog goes on with what his expectations of these films will be, of his interest in seeing these movies and the failure of A Mighty Heart. Jeffrey speaks a little bit on four of the films based on the Iraq War. Paul Haggis's In The Valley of Elah, Brian De Palma's Redacted, Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker and Paul Greengrass's Imperial Life in the Emerald City. The other four films are about past or present Afghanistan, Marc Forster's The Kite Runner, Robert Redford's Lions for Lambs, Mike Nichol's Charlie Wilson's War and Oliver's Stone's Jawbreaker. Jeffrey asks some interesting questions, read his blog, he has a unique way with words. Thanks Hollywood Elsewhere

Another Hollywood Elsewhere blog and this time it's about NY Times Reporter Michael Cieply's piece that appeared on the front page of today's Times. It's an interesting article, and HE shares an interesting short blog on some upcoming movies that are mentioned in the article and offers a few film names that weren't on that list of upcoming related Hollywood films. Here's what was said about The Hurt Locker. Have to admit, both the blog and article are an interesting read. Thanks Hollywood Elsewhere

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Cieply doesn't mention Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, a film about an elite bomb squad unit in Iraq that's either rolling right now or fiarly close to that status. And he doesn't mention the Americans-in-Afghanistan films --...

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A quick blog on a two casting call for The Hurt Locker. One is for UN Type Men for extras and the other one is for western looking men and women to be in non/speaking extra roles. It also states that the Amman shoot will run until September 12, 2007. Thanks Amman Softball League

Kate Mines has joined the cast of The Hurt Locker. In her blog, she gives a brief history of how she joined the cast and says she's flying out to Jordan on August 21st to start filming. Check out her blog, it's a very interesting story of how she got her part. Thanks Kate Mines Blogspot

Once again, source has updates on the latest news to come from The Hurt Locker set. Filming is now in full swing for The Hurt Locker and currently they're still filming in Amman, Jordan and will be until the end of the first week of September. From there, the set will be moving on to Kuwait. Another actor, David Morse, has just finished filming on 'Hurt' yesterday he'll be playing Col. Reed. Morse, who's previous work has been on Disturbia, 16 Blocks and will be seen in the upcoming mini-series John Adams and feature film Passengers. Along with these news items, there are some pictures of the cast and training sessions, which by the way is pretty cool. :) Thanks source! for these updates

In this article from the Guardian Unlimited, there's a discussion about upcoming Hollywood war related films and how Hollywood's is presenting these films on screen. It's a quite interesting article, they discuss upcoming films like Robert Redford's Lions for Lambs, Grace is Gone and Rendition as well as others as well as past Hollywood movies. Of the number of films that were mentioned in the article, one of them is Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker. Here's the excerpt from the article. BTW, this article to is an interesting read. Thanks Guardian Unlimited

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The Hurt Locker, on which filming is due to begin this week in Jordan and Kuwait, is written by Mark Boal, who also worked on In the Valley of Elah. The Hurt Locker concentrates on a US army explosives disposal unit in Iraq.

"It's the first movie about the Iraq war that purports to show the experience of the soldiers," Boal, a former journalist, told the Hollywood Reporter from location in Jordan. "We wanted to show the kinds of things that soldiers go through that you can't see on CNN."

He added: "Most war movies don't come out until after the war is over. It's really exciting for me, coming out of the world of journalism, to have a movie come out about a conflict while the conflict is still going on."

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In this article from Hollywood Buzz, they talk about films from Jennifer Aniston's short film to the upcoming Hollywood Iraq films like Robert Redford's Lions for Lambs to Katherine Bigelow's The Hurt Locker. Here's the excerpt from the article about 'Hurt'. Thanks Hollywood Buzz

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Being released this week in Jordan and Kuwait is The Hurt Locker, a film written by Mark Boal (In the Valley of Elah), which concentrates on a US army explosives disposal unit in Iraq.

"It's the first movie about the Iraq war that purports to show the experience of the soldiers," said Boal to the Hollywood Reporter. "We wanted to show the kinds of things that soldiers go through that you can't see on CNN."

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Christian Camargo Fans at Live Journal reports that actor Christian Camargo has landed a role in two upcoming feature films. The first film is Nicolas Cage's National Treasure: The Book of Secrets, Camargo's role in this feature is that he'll be potraying John Wilkes Booth and he just completed his work on this set a couple of weeks ago. Immediately after filming National Treasure 2, Christian then flew straight to Jordan where he'll be appearing in Kathryn Bigelow's upcoming film, The Hurt Locker. Currently it's unknown what type of role he'll have or who'll he be playing, but this isn't the first time he's worked with Kathryn Bigelow. They've both worked together on K-19: The Widow Maker in which Harrison Ford starred in. Camargo will next be seen in The Cry and Henry May Long. Thanks Christian Camargo Fans Live Journal

John Cusack's film, Grace is Gone, is just one of a few films about the Iraq war that will be hitting the theatres in the next while. In this article John talks about this movie and why he decided to film it, also mentioned are a number of different films and one is Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker. Here's the excerpts from the article. Thanks Herald Sun

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The spate of films will continue through next year, with Kimberly Peirce's Stop Loss, about a veteran who refuses to return to Iraq, as well as The Hurt Locker, which began filming recently in Jordan and Iraq.

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Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker scriptwriter, says films can present a view of the war not found in other mainstream media.

"We wanted to show the kinds of things that soldiers go through that you can't see on CNN, and I don't mean that in a censorship-conspiracy way," he told The Hollywood Reporter.

"I just mean the news doesn't actually put photographers in with units that are this elite.

"Most war movies don't come out until the war is over. It's really exciting for me, coming out of the world of journalism, to have a movie come out about a conflict while the conflict is still going on."

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Voltage Pictures is at the TIFF 2007 Film Market to sell the foreign rights to a variety of different films and one of them is Kathryn Bigelow's upcoming feature The Hurt Locker which is currently being filming in Jordan. The story follows the daily struggle of three soldiers in an elite bomb disposal unit and is based on a screenplay co-wrote by Bigelow and war correspondent Mark Boal (In The Valey Of Elah). Starring in this feature are Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pearce, Jeremy Renner, David Morse, Brian Geraghty and Anthony Mackie. This is Kathryn Bigelow's first feature since her 2002 film K-19: The Widowmaker. "Being on the bomb squad is just about the most dangerous job in the world these days," said Bigelow, "The mortality rate is significantly higher than any other combat arms branch, yet every man who does it is a volunteer." "It's an extremely realistic, suspenseful script about this elite bomb squad," Chartier added. "Kathryn is an amazing action director and Mark's script is just so intense. We're extremely excited to handle this film." Bigelow, Boal, and Shapiro are represented by CAA. Thanks Screen Daily