No 2013 release for 'Dragon Tattoo' sequel

Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig will both appear in "The Girl Who Played With Fire.""The Girl Who Played With Fire" will not be in theaters late next year"Dragon Tattoo" screenwriter Steven Zaillian is still working on the scriptRooney Mara and Daniel Craig are both locked in for the sequel

(EW.com) -- "The Girl Who Played With Fire," the sequel to last year's David Fincher-directed "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," will not be in theaters late next year as had originally been hoped, a source close to the production tells EW.

"Dragon Tattoo" screenwriter Steven Zaillian is still working on the script, and nothing will move forward until the screenplay is nailed down.

While there's still no director attached, Fincher remains the first choice and hasn't ruled out returning. And despite the uncertain timetable, the film is still definitely moving forward, although the source says that they are not in a rush and at this point there is no information about when it might be released.

In November, Sony Pictures Entertainment Co-Chairman Amy Pascal told us that stars Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig were both locked in for the sequel.

See the full article at EW.com.

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Romney slams Obama’s attacks, won't release tax returns

(Evan Vucci/AP)Mitt Romney accused President Barack Obama of running a campaign based on "falsehood and dishonesty" and brushed aside suggestions—including from some Republicans—that he should release more years of tax returns.

In a Monday interview with "Fox & Friends," the presumptive Republican nominee rejected a claim from Chicago Mayor and former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel who accused him over the weekend of  "whining" about attacks on his record at Bain Capital.

"I think when people accuse you of a crime you have a reason to go after them pretty hard, and I'm going to continue going after him," Romney said, arguing that Obama's attacks are "misdirected" and "dishonest." "What does it say about a president whose record is poor that all he can do in his campaign is attack me?"

Romney slammed Obama for running a "campaign based on falsehood and dishonesty," insisting it won't have "long legs" this fall. Asked if he should have been more aggressive in pushing back against Democratic attacks on his record at Bain, the ex-governor argued that the "best offense is to look at the president's record."

"Wouldn't it be interesting, Mr. President, if you spent some time looking at your record," Romney said.

Obama's attacks "may work in Chicago," Romney added, "but it won't work across America."

Romney ignored suggestions, including from a growing number of conservatives, that he should release more than two years of his tax returns, arguing it would only give more ammunition to the Obama campaign.

"John McCain ran for president and released two years of tax returns. John Kerry ran for president and his wife, who has hundreds of millions of dollars, she never released her tax returns. Somehow this wasn't an issue," Romney told Fox News. "The Obama people keep on wanting more and more and more, more things to pick through, more things for their opposition research to try and make a mountain out of and distort and to be dishonest about."

Romney insisted Americans care more about the economy and jobs than "attacks."

"The issue people care about is who can get the economy going again to help people have a brighter future," the presumptive GOP nominee said.

Romney's interview came as his campaign signaled a stronger pushback against the Obama campaign this week. On Monday, the campaign launched an attack on what it called Obama's "political payoff," accusing the president of working on behalf of campaign donors instead of the middle class.

In a statement to reporters, the Romney campaign accused Obama of "rewarding wealthy donors and administration insiders with taxpayer dollars." Among the examples they cited were federal loans to the failed energy company Solyndra, an example Romney has emphasized on the trail for months, and the Westly Group, a venture capital firm headed up by a major Obama donor whose portfolio of companies reportedly received tens of millions in economic stimulus money.

"Do you want to have an economy where political appointees in Washington, D.C. are making decisions about where investments go and where… taxpayer dollars is spent based on people's connections and how much money they raised in the last campaign cycle?" Ed Gillespie, a senior adviser to Romney said on a conference call with reporters. "Or do you want an economy that is driven by private sector investment decisions in allowing people to spend more of their hard earned money and make decisions for themselves?"

After days of blistering attacks from Democrats, Romney aides also aimed to counter perception that Obama's offensive is hurting Romney with voters. The campaign circulated a memo from Romney pollster Neil Newhouse that argued the race is closer than ever in spite of the Obama campaign outspending the Romney camp by millions of dollars in advertising. (The memo did not acknowledge the millions conservative groups supporting Romney's campaign have spent on the Republican candidate's behalf.)

"President Obama's campaign will never have a more substantial advertising advantage than it has had over the past few weeks, yet there is no evidence to suggest that the ballot has moved," Newhouse wrote. " If throwing the kitchen sink at Gov. Romney while leveraging a two-to-one ad-spending advantage doesn't move numbers for the president, that's got to tell you something about the state of the electorate."

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Republican governors to Romney: release tax returns

WILLIAMSBURG, Va.—The nation’s governors have a host of their own problems to worry about—that pesky Medicaid expansion for example—but that doesn’t mean they’re not keeping a close eye on 2012’s biggest ticket: the presidential election.

Asked on the sidelines of the National Governor’s Association annual meeting about their diagnosis of Mitt Romney’s campaign, the Republican governors had all kinds of advice for the candidate who comes from their ranks, from release-those-tax-returns-already to give-us-more-specifics.  

Despite the Beltway buzz and grumbling from some conservatives that the former Massachusetts governor has not been nimble or aggressive enough in responding to the Obama team’s attacks, many of the Republican governors here said Romney had hit on an economic message that voters in their states wanted to hear, and lauded his progress.

“I believe he’s moving down the right road, going in the right direction. Is he where he needs to be? No. But can he get there? Yes,” said Utah Gov. Gary Richard Herbert, referring to Romney’s numbers in several swing states, where he is trailing President Obama. “He’s come a long way since when he first ran four years ago and right now, in a dead heat with a current incumbent president who has all the powers of incumbency.” 

Herbert added, indignantly, “”I was in Utah when he was running the Olympics! He wasn't running Bain Capital.”

Despite another mediocre jobs report released this month, the political debate of the past week has been consumed with the question of how involved Romney was in the investment firm from 1999 to 2002, when Bain was investing in firms that outsourced jobs. Romney was on at least a partial leave of absence to run the Salt Lake City Olympics during that time. Filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission show that he was still the owner, chairman, CEO and president of Bain, but he says he wasn't managing the firm’s investments.

A series of media reports about Romney’s role and withering, relentless attacks by the Obama campaign prompted Romney to respond more forcefully than he has against past charges. He went on a media blitz Friday, doing a series of interviews on network television and demanding an apology from the Obama campaign for saying he had lied about his Bain involvement. Instead, the Obama campaign upped the ante Saturday with a potentially powerful new ad focused on outsourcing and the offshore tax shelters Romney listed on his 2010 tax return, the only one he has released so far.

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley found himself in hot water for perhaps a little too much candor when he said Romney would do well to release more tax returns, as Democrats have demanded  in recent weeks. “I think he ought to release everything. I believe in total transparency,” Bentley told reporters.  “You know if you have things to hide, then you may be doing things wrong.”

Bentley added, however, that the Obama campaign's focus on outsourcing was a diversionary tactic that voters would see through. “I do believe the Obama campaign is trying to cloud the issue by talking about Bain Capital because they don’t want to talk about 8.4 percent unemployment and I wouldn’t either!” Bentley said (slightly inflating the June jobless rate, which was 8.2 percent).  “If I were them, I’d be talking about all the other things too.”

At NGA—no surprise here--there was a blanket condemnation of the Democratic attacks from the Republican governors. “At the end of the day, people are going to reject that kind of nasty, negative campaign coming from the president of the United States,” said Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad.

The GOP governors said the sniping between the campaigns is irrelevant to people who are hurting for jobs, looking for a speedier recovery, and worried about the nation’s debt. “This fuss we see over this is just not the headline it apparently is inside the Beltway,” said Wyoming Gov. Matthew Mead. “If you ask people what they’re concerned about, they’re concerned about the future of our kids and our grandkids, they’re concerned about the national debt.”

Mead added that Romney had been quick to respond to the Bain attacks, a promising development. “Gov. Romney has made clear when he did these things and when he was in charge of Bain Capital and when he was not,” Mead said. “It’s a bit of a red herring in the sense that you’re talking about somebody that was in the private sector creating jobs and if you want to bring up that contrast, I think he compares quite well with President Obama.”

When asked about whether the Bain attacks had the potential to be damaging in his swing state, full of the white, blue-collar voters among whom they might have the most resonance, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett deflected. “I’m not doing surveys of the people of Pennsylvania,” he said. “You’re doing that. I’m much too busy to be doing those surveys.”

Some of the governors did say they would like to see more specificity from the Romney campaign as the election cycle moves toward the conventions. “It is not just enough to say repeal Obamacare, it’s repeal and replace it with what?” Herbert said. “I know governors are talking about that on the Republican side of the aisle, and we’re talking about it in Utah.”

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who last month survived a recall election provoked by his moves against public employee unions, encouraged Romney to follow in his mold and campaign as a bold, budget-balancing crusader. Voters were just beginning to receive a clearer economic message from him, Walker said. Now, they need more details on the budgetary end. 

“For him to do well, the R next to his name has to stand for more than just for Republican, it has to stand for reformer,” Walker said.  “We got significant swing votes, independents, even some discerning Democrats voting for me because they like someone who’s willing to take on the tough issues facing our state.”

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story omitted the Utah governor's first name. He is Gary Richard Herbert.

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Kidnapper in Chowchilla case wins prison release

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — After more than 35 years in prison, one of three men who kidnapped a busload of California schoolchildren in a ransom attempt that captured the nation's attention will soon be released.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced Friday that it would release Richard Schoenfeld later this month at an undetermined location.

The announcement comes after an appeals court earlier this year ordered Schoenfeld's immediate release, ruling that the Board of Parole Hearings unfairly set his release date for 2021 even though it concluded he wasn't a threat to society.

But Schoenfeld has remained locked up while CDCR appealed to the California Supreme Court. On Thursday, the high court notified CDCR that it was refusing to take the case.

"As such, CDCR does not have any legal option other than to release inmate Shoenfeld and will do so," CDCR spokesman Luis Patino said Friday.

The cases of Schoenfeld and his accomplices — his brother John Schoenfeld and their friend Fred Woods — has become something of a cause celebre among lawyers, judges and others lobbying for reforms in the California parole system they view as too harsh. All three have good prison records and became eligible for release years ago, which has been opposed by many of the victims and some residents of Chowchilla. Chowchilla Mayor Janan Hebert and Mayor pro tem Jim Kopshever did not return messages sent to their government email accounts.

John Schoenfeld and Woods have parole hearings later this year.

Richard Schoenfeld's attorney Scott Handleman didn't return a phone call.

"After some 36 years, Richard Schoenfeld's parole release is long, long overdue," said Gary Dubcoff, John Schoenfeld's attorney. "He worked extremely hard to rehabilitate himself, and my great hope is that his two codefendants, his older brother James Schoenfeld and Fred Woods, will soon follow him as they have worked equally hard and are equally worthy."

Schoenfeld and his brother John Schoenfeld, who grew up as the sons of a podiatrist in the tony San Francisco suburb of Atherton, along with friend Fred Woods hatched their kidnap-for-ransom plan in 1976 after falling into debt because of a real estate deal gone sour. They spent 18 months working on the plan.

On July 16, 1976, they pretended their van had engine problems along Avenue 21 about 35 miles south of Fresno, prompting bus driver Ed Ray to pull over and park his bus of 26 summer school students.

The trio, who were wearing pantyhose on their heads, forced the victims into two vans and hid the bus in a creek bed. They drove about 100 miles to a Livermore quarry owned by Woods' father and sealed the children and Ray in a trailer in a cave. They then left to make their $5 million ransom demand.

The Chowchilla Police Department was swamped with so many calls that the kidnappers couldn't get through so they decided to take a nap before calling in their demand.

When they awoke, Ray and the two oldest children had managed to stack mattresses high enough to escape through the roof. Eventually, all the abductees staggered to safety.

Richard Schoenfeld turned himself in eight days later. His brother and Woods were arrested the next week.

The case was turned into a 1993 made-for-television movie titled "They've Taken Our Children: The Chowchilla Kidnapping," starring Karl Malden as Ray.

Ray, 91, died last month.

CDCR spokesman Patino, speaking generally about parole, said parolees are generally sent to the county of their last address before they entered prison, "but sometimes there are other considerations, such as the location of the victims."

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