It’s hard to believe that the gentle and grandfatherly Gunnar Hansen was at one time the most fearsome screen icon around. In 1974, the Iceland native starred in Tobe Hooper’s super-efficient and now-legendary horror film, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, as the hulking killer Leatherface, a homicidal simpleton who dispatched his victims with a motorized blade and wore a mask made from human skin. It’s also hard to believe that someone would be so bold as to impersonate the 61-year-old actor in such a big way – by creating a Myspace page and pretending to be the actor.

“If any of you have seen the MySpace ‘Gunner Hansen’ page,” the actor noted in an email to friends last week, “please know that this site is a fraud. I do not have a MySpace page. I never have had one and never will. If you contacted me through that site, you were not talking to me.”

The fake page looked credible enough, with a headshot and bio (pilfered from Hansen’s legitimate site, GunnarHansen.com), and enabled the perpetrator of the fraud – who actually spelled Hansen’s first name wrong – access to some of Hansen’s real-world contacts. The chicanery has since been stopped by Myspace, with visitors to the phony profile getting the “Invalid Friend ID” page that is the shame of all Myspace cast-outs.••• –Robert Newton

Just when you thought you’d seen the last new Star Wars movie in theaters, along comes this week’s announcement from LucasFilm that come August 15, fans all over North America can check out the feature-length CGI feature, Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

“I felt there were a lot more Star Wars stories left to tell,” said George Lucas, executive producer of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. “I was eager to start telling some of them through animation and, at the same time, push the art of animation forward.”

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Now that final casting of “Lost” and “Alias” creator J.J. Abrams’ Christmas 2008 Star Trek prequel has been announced, one former “Trek” star is none too pleased that he is not included in the mix.

Emmy-winning “Boston Legal” actor William Shatner, who played Captain of the Starship Enterprise James Tiberius Kirk on the Original Series from 1966 to 1969 and in seven feature films between 1979 and 1994, told TV’s “Extra” last week, “How could you not put one of the founding figures into a movie that was being resurrected? That doesn’t make good business sense to me! I’ve become even more popular than I was playing Captain Kirk. I’m good box office and I get publicity… But, they are going in a different direction and it’ll be a wonderful film.”

The only original “Trek” star who is due to appear in the new film, which will hit theatres on December 25, 2008, is Boston native Leonard Nimoy, who played the iconic Vulcan, Mr. Spock. The rest of the cast is as follows:

•James T. Kirk - Chris Pine [age 27] (Smokin’ Aces)
•Mr. Spock (the younger) - Zachary Quinto [age 30] (Sylar on “Heroes”)
•Montgomery “Scotty” Scott - Simon Pegg [age 37] (Hot Fuzz)
•Leonard “Bones” McCoy - Karl Urban [age 35] (Pathfinder)
•Hikaru Sulu - John Cho [age 35] (Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle)
•Pavel Chekov - Anton Yelchin [age 18] (Alpha Dog)
•Nyota Uhura - Zoe Saldana [age 29] (Drumline)

Also starring are Bruce Greenwood (Deja Vu) as the Enterprise’s previous captain, Jeffrey Pike, Winona Ryder (The Ten) as Spock’s mother, Amanda Grayson and Eric Bana (Lucky You) as the villain, Nero.

Let our readers know what you think of the casting by clicking on “Comments” below.

[READ OUR MEATY COVERAGE OF THE RECENT
‘STAR TREK: NEW VOYAGES’ PREMIERE.]

Here’s some irony for you: Last Thursday, Cinecitta, the Italian film studio that survived its creator Benito Mussolini, the Fiat, the shame of Nintendo’s Super Mario Brothers and Ilona “Cicciolina” Staller (the porn star who got elected to Parliament) has been gutted by a fire [insert joke about Nero, fiddle and Rome ablaze here.] The famous studio, which celebrated its 70th anniversary in April, was home to classic productions like Ben-Hur and La Dolce Vita, as well as more recent affairs like Gangs Of New York and The Passion Of The Christ. The fire broke out in a warehouse that stored old film prints (which are notoriously flammable), though studio honchos speculate that it was a short circuit which started the blaze, the destructive effect of which was limited to the warehouse in which sets for the late, big-budget HBO series “Rome” were stored.

Even if the Chinese government was intending to protect their people from another bad movie by banning national hero Jackie Chan’s latest, Rush Hour 3, the move only gives studio New Line more publicity for the action-comedy during its essential first week of release. For the extra cash in Monday’s deposits, studio execs and shareholders can thank Xiao Ping, a VP at the China Film Group’s import and export division, who told Daily Variety last week, “We think it will not be popular in China.” With movie piracy as rampant as it is in China, the ban should only make pocket-change cam-shot DVD’s more appealing to Chinese movie fans who don’t live in Hong Kong (where the movie opens in theatres on August 16). China only allows 20 foreign-made films into the country every year, and the ones that they do let in, like Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, are subject to government censorship, evidenced by the severely whittled-down role of Chinese pirate Sao Feng, played by Chinese cool guy Chow Yun-Fat. –Robert Newton

It may not be the resurrection that “Futurama” fans had hoped for, but it is certainly better than nothing. On November 27, 20th Century Fox Home entertainment will release Bender’s Big Score, the first of four planned feature-length releases based on “Simpsons” creator Matt Groening’s animated series, which ran on Fox from 1999-2003 (and only when the network didn’t preempt it for football). According to Video Business Magazine, the story concerns surly robot Bender, 1000-year old Frye, one-eyed hot chick Leela and crew “fighting nudist alien Internet scammers in order to save planet Earth.” Guest voices include Al Gore, Coolio and Sarah Silverman. Groening’s The Simpsons Movie was released on July 27, scoring huge in the U.S. and abroad, with rival back-from-the-dead Fox series “Family Guy” bowing their movie, Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story on DVD in 2005. Fox plans to release the remaining three Futurama films in 2008. –Klaus Hummersumpf

The computer game Castle Wolfenstein is nearly as old as personal computers themselves, and there has been talk of a movie based on a best-selling, multi-platform sequel called Return to Castle Wolfenstein for some time now. This time, though, it looks like it is really going to happen. Longtime fan of the game, Roger Avary, who co-wrote Pulp Fiction with Quentin Tarantino, is slated to write and direct. This brings some hope to fans who appreciated the rather decent job Avary did writing last year’s big-screen adaptation of the popular Silent Hill game series (a sequel is due next year). The plot, like the game, will focus on a secret mission to infiltrate Hitler’s 17th century castle bunker (after dispatching a host of mutant creatures) and learn its mysteries. The original Castle Wolfenstein game, which was first authored for the Apple ][ and then the Commodore 64, was released in 1981 by Muse Software. The movie has no firm release date; neither does Driver, another video game adaptation that Avary is slated to pen. –Klaus Hummersumpf

Ridley Scott’s latest re-presentation of his 1982 sci-fi classic, Blade Runner, will be a surprise midnight screening at this year’s Venice Film Festival (the oldest film festival in the world), though announcing it nearly a month ahead of its September 1 screening date hardly makes it a surprise. The film, about a cop (Harrison Ford) in 2019 L.A. who hunts “Replicants” (life-like artificial life forms created as slave labor on off-world colonies), will feature previously unreleased and extended scenes, improved special effects and a remastered soundtrack. It was based on late great sci-fi author Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, with elements of We Can Remember It For You Wholesale (which became Total Recall) fused to it. Scott, who has since directed other modern viewing staples such as Thelma & Louise and Gladiator, will be on hand at the screening. This new version of the film will have a limited release in the U.S. starting in October, with a 5-disc “Ultimate Collector’s Edition” (including this version and the original U.S. theatrical cut with Ford’s awkward voiceover narration) coming out on DVD, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD in December. –Robert Newton

On Friday, August 3, a caretaker at the Los Angeles home of Pulp Fiction star and Golden Globe winner Ving Rhames was mauled by the actor’s four dogs and was later found dead.

The man, identified as Jacob Adams, 40, “appears to have suffered a number of injuries as a result of the dog mauling,” said L.A. police officer Sandra Gonzalez.

“There were dogs loose on the property,” said LAPD Lieut. Ray Lombardo. “Those dogs have been captured by animal regulation (officers). We have four dogs that have been taken into custody for quarantine pending further investigation.”

At least two of the four dogs, which are 200-pound Fila Brasileiro mastiffs, are believed to have been involved in the attack.

“Normally we understand they are pretty friendly dogs,” Lombardo went on to say, “but, you know, there are occasions where dogs will turn on their owners or their caretakers, and this looks like a tragic accident.”

At a Friday press conference, an LAPD spokesman said that the victim could have died from a heart attack, as none of the wounds he sustained, which were only on his arms and legs, seem to have been life-threatening.

The four dogs are spending the weekend in quarantine at an unnamed shelter, and will be tested for rabies and the like. Rhames was not at home in his posh Brentwood neighborhood at the time of the attack, as he was on the set of The Tournament in Bulgaria.

WHERE THERE’S SMOKE:
THE MOUSE COMMITS TO ENDING SMOKING ON SCREEN
By David Meyer

You are free to put that in your pipe and smoke it, but don’t count on Disney to ever show it on screen again. Last Wednesday, July 25th, the Walt Disney Company, pledged to U.S. Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Chairman of the House Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee, that it will discourage depictions of cigarette smoking in its films. The company also said it will place an anti-smoking PSA on DVD’s of any future film that does depict smoking. Additionally, Disney will work with theater owners to encourage the exhibition of an anti-smoking PSA before the theatrical exhibition of any such film. In a letter to Markey, Disney President and CEO Robert A. Iger said, “The Walt Disney Company shares your concern regarding deaths due to cigarette smoking. We discourage depictions of cigarette smoking in Disney, Touchstone and Miramax films. In particular, we expect that depictions of cigarette smoking in future Disney branded films will be non-existent. In response to your suggestion, our Company will place an anti-smoking PSA on DVD’s of any future film that does depict cigarette smoking.” According to the American Lung Association, cigarette smoking has been identified as the most important source of “preventable morbidity” and premature mortality worldwide. Smoking-related diseases claim an estimated 438,000 American lives each year and approximately 90 percent of smokers begin smoking before the age of 21.•••