Movie News & Gossip

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - YouTube will begin testing an online movie rental service with independent films from the Sundance Film Festival on Friday.

The service will be initially limited to five Sundance titles, as well as a small collection of videos from partners in industries such as health and education, and will be available to web surfers through the end of the month, YouTube said in a post on its company blog on Wednesday.

- Just weeks after something dubbed a "squeakquel," we have a movie advertised with the tagline: "You can't handle the tooth." One quakes for the marketing that awaits us for "Marmaduke."

Just as Hollywood has been digging through the superhero archives, it has also been marauding the cupboard of mythical childhood creatures — they come with a "built-in" audience, after all. Yes, following the big-screen exploits of elves and bedroom monsters, the Tooth Fairy was inevitably ready for its close-up.

NEW ORLEANS - Wrestling star John Cena said he's enjoying the challenge of acting in his very first dramatic film.

The "WWE Monday Night RAW" star's only two previous movies — 2006's "The Marine" and last year's "12 Rounds" — were action films that involved "blowing things up" and "dodging bullets," Cena said Wednesday.

SAN FRANCISCO - Movie rentals are coming to the Internet's most popular video site.

YouTube is making its debut as a rental outlet Friday to help promote some of the movies that will be shown at the upcoming Sundance Film Festival.

LOS ANGELES - A former Thai tourism official and her daughter have been indicted on charges that they accepted bribes from a Los Angeles filmmaking couple in exchange for running the Bangkok International Film Festival.

An indictment unsealed Tuesday in Los Angeles charges Juthamas Siriwan, the ex-governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, and her daughter, Jittisopa Siriwan, with conspiracy and eight other counts. If convicted, they each face up to 20 years in prison.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Nine films, include recent Golden Globe winner "The White Ribbon," have made it to the next lap in the race for the best foreign-language film Oscar.

Sixty-five countries submitted movies for Oscar consideration, and on Wednesday that list was winnowed down to nine. In addition to Michael Haneke's "Ribbon," from Germany, they are:

John Mayer is letting it all hang out in a racy new interview with Rolling Stone, where the singer dishes on his slew of celebrity ex-girlfriends, sex life and rumors about his sexuality.

The singer said his multiple breakups with Jennifer Aniston (mostly recently in 2009) are still painful.

LOS ANGELES - Nine foreign-language films, including works from Bulgaria and Kazakhstan, are on the short list in this year's Oscar race.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences says a committee of "several hundred" members selected the nine films from 65 that qualified in the category. The number will be winnowed down to five by the time nominations in all categories are announced Feb. 2.