Burt Reynolds on Cloud 9 with Burn Notice

At 74 and months after quintuple bypass surgery, Hollywood superstar Burt Reynolds was putting in 17- and 18-hour days as a guest star on the hit TV show “Burn Notice.” The episode airs tonight at 8 pm on the USA Network. Reynolds tells TCPalm he was glad to reunite with old pals on the set, like veteran stuntman Glenn Wilder-- whom he knocked through a window while performing his own stunts.

Reynolds performed-- and directed-- his fight scene with Wilder's son, Scott Wilder, in the 2006 beach volleyball comedy smash, Cloud 9, which was written and produced by our pals Burt Kearns and Brett Hudson from Frozen Pictures, along with their Academy-Award®-winning (The Godfather, Million Dollar Baby) producer pal, Albert S. Ruddy.

The Winnick Ticket: Vanity Fair's starlet of the month is Olga from Cloud 9!

The latest issue of Vanity Fair is notable and collectable because of the dual Farrah/Jacko cover and the sad article on Ryan O'Neal, but there's an even more noteworthy feature on page 257. The Vanities section opens, as it does, with a glam portrait of the Hollywood starlet of the moment, and this moment belongs to Katheryn Winnick.

Katheryn in Cold Souls:
Katheryn in Cloud 9:

Canadian Katheryn's feature is billed as The Winnick Ticket because of her breakthrough role in the new Paul Giamatti movie, Cold Souls, in which she plays a Russian actress.

A Russian actress?

We know where she got her practice! You might recognize Katheryn from her role as Ivana Trump in the TV movie or her outstanding roles on the Law & Order franchises, but her real breakthrough Russian-accent role was in Cloud 9, the classic 2006 sports comedy written and produced by Brett Hudson and Burt Kearns, our Golden Ace Award-winning (The Seventh Python) pals at Frozen Pictures, along with their, pal two-time Academy Award®-winning producer (The Godfather, Million Dollar Baby) Albert S. Ruddy, and starring Burt Reynolds.


In Cloud 9, Katheryn played a Russian stripper turned beach volleyball star named Olga. Here's a Hollywood fun fact: The role was originally written as Inga, a Swede, but Katheryn's take was so strong she beat out the Amazonian stunner Victoria Silvstedt and made the role her own (she even inspired a drinking game). After the filming, the producers predicted she'd be the new Sharon Stone. Who'd expect she'd turn out to be the next Meryl Streep? But it's evident that Emmys® and Oscars® await Katheryn Winnick!


This is just another amazing one-degree of separation for Cloud 9, which has proven to be one of the most influential and memorable sexy comedies in years!

The dead Taco Bell chihuahua was NOT the dog from the classic sports comedy, Cloud 9

Fans of the classic beach volleyball motion picture comedy Cloud 9 can rest easy: the Taco Bell chihuahua who died tragically at 15 was not the little dog who co-starred in the hilarious cameo scene in which Gary Busey just about stole the movie from stars Burt Reynolds, D.L. Hughley, Paul Rodriguez, Angie Everhart, Gabrielle Reece, Katheryn Winnick, Kenya Moore, Bruce Bruce, Rick Overton, Pat Finn, Jeff Altman, John Caponera, Tony Danza and Tom Arnold!


Gidget was the name of the Taco Bell pup who succumbed to a stroke Tuesday. Moonie was the dog who appeared in Cloud 9. Gary Busey plays her owner, who grumbles and grouses while picking up Moonie's droppings. Busey's adlibs were so hilarious that the outtakes were compiled for the DVD extra, "Being Gary Busey."

Moonie also starred alongside Reese Witherspoon as Bruiser in Legally Blonde. Coincidentally, Gidget played Bruiser's mom in Legally Blonde 2.

Moonie and Gidget were best friends, and sometime roommates.


Cloud 9, the 2006 Frozen Pictures co-production written and produced by Brett Hudson and Burt Kearns along with two-time Academy Award® winner (The Godfather, Million Dollar Baby) Albert S. Ruddy, has incredible connections to Oscar® winners remains a pay-per-view and rental favorite in the States while its fame spreads around the world.


And mid-July is a great time to check it out!

Garotas Show de Bola! Cloud 9 a hit in sexy Brazil!

Garotas Show de Bola!

Congratulations to our pals at Frozen Pictures! A little more than a week before they bring their acclaimed nonfiction musical film The Seventh Python to the New York audience at the New York Metro Fest for Beatles Fans comes word that their classic Oscar®-connected motion picture comedy Cloud 9 has conquered yet another international territory!

Brazil is the latest nation to embrace the sexy beach volleyball stripper comedy starring Burt Reynolds, D.L. Hughley, Paul Rodriguez, Angie Everhart, Kathryn Winnick, Tony Danza, Tom Arnold Jeff Altman, Rick Overton and Gary Busey and written and produced by Frozen's Brett Hudson and Burt Kearns along with Academy Award® winner Albert S. Ruddy.

And the Brazilians wax enthusiastic, describing Garotas Show de Bola like this:

Sinopse: Quando o fracassado Billy Cole vai almoçar em um lugar nada convencional - um clube de strippers- ele não vai apenas pelo show e sim para se divertir com as belas e sensuais garotas! Mas ele acerta em cheio quando resolve montar um time de vôlei com essas meninas! Conforme a popularidade delas vai crescendo, Billy quer atrair a multidão não pela beleza e sim pelas suas habilidades. Ele concorda que as beldades também merecem um momento de gloria e respeito, enquanto ele enche o bolso de dinheiro!!! As super estrelas Burt Reynolds e D.L. Hughley estão hilariantes nesta comédia.

The film struck gold domestically when it was released 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment in early 2006, became a massive hit in India and, under the name Mell Bedobás, warmed up Eastern Europe.

"Thanks for the news! You guys are fast! You reached me before our production partners did!" said writer-producer Brett Hudson when reached tonight.

"But I must say I'm not surprised that Cloud 9 continues to bring money in from all over the world on a continual basis. It's a testament to the international starpower of Burt Reynolds, one of the last of the classic movie stars and heroes-- and I must say, the script.

"The story of aspiration and triumph over prejudice and adversity, speaks to peoples the world over. And it's really funny, too!"

Cloud 9 fleshing out to be a movie comedy classic!

Pop culture phenomenon alert: with a MySpace tribute page, constant exposure on pay cable television and a slobbering Internet-ogler fanbase Cloud 9, the beach volleyball sex comedy written and produced by our pals at Frozen Pictures along with Academy-Award winning producer Albert S. Ruddy is becoming a modern-day comedy classic.

Seriously.

The movie starring Burt Reynolds and featuring an all-star ensemble cast including D.L. Hughley, Paul Rodriguez, Angie Everhart, Gabrielle Reece, Gary Busey, Bruce Bruce, former Miss USA Kenya Moore, prime time TV star Katheryn Winnick, Tom Arnold and current Maxim en Espanol covergirl Patrica de Leon, among others, made a splash when it was released on DVD two years by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (a release held up by Ruddy’s successful Oscar® campaign for Million Dollar Baby), but its longevity and sleeper status is a surprise to everyone but its creators.

We stumbled upon the “Mr.Skin” factor to Cloud 9 when researching de Leon earlier this week. A Google search leads to a screen grab from Cloud 9 and a CelebVid site featuring sexy and naked stills of famous actresses. The Cloud 9 posting focuses on bikini’ed butts!

Other sites like SuperiorPics Celebrity Forums, Celebrity Movie Archive and HotFlick.net freeze the action from the flick, download the stills, polish and color them up and fetishize the beautiful actresses and, and we’re embarrassed to say—their individual body parts!

But even wilder is the new MySpace page that pays tribute to the film!


”Cloud 9 Movie Tribute” pays respects to "the sexiest, most hilarious and socially insightful beach volleyball motion picture comedy ever!" It includes video, stills and reviews, good and bad—including one that reads:

"...The definition of the phrase, "cloud nine", means a state of elation or happiness, but that's obviously a bad title for this movie. There's no one that should be happy about seeing Burt Reynolds and company at the nadir of their careers doing what they can to peddle T&A for not-even-worthy-of-Skinemax straight-to-video entertainment..."

Cloud 9’s script, that has Reynolds in a familiar rascal role, as a conman who strikes gold with a scheme to sell a beach volleyball team comprised of strippers, does have its “social insights,” with its Malibu location and characters like Tenspot the limo driver and Juan Gonzalez, a Chicano nursery owner who masquerades as Asian because "In this town, you're Mexican, you’re just an ordinary gardener-- you're Asian, you’re a landscape designer."

And it's clear that for a number of reasons (not the least being Reynolds’ charming central performance), the movie has struck a chord among moviegoers. It's become a staple on pay cable television in the States (it’s running on a number of systems this month), and has struck gold internationally. Cloud 9 is a hit in India, thanks to its kinship to a popular field hockey film starring Bollywood legend Shahrukh “King” Khan.

In an interview with journalist Yasmin Brennan coinciding with the film’s release by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, writer-producers Hudson and Kearns seemed to realize their film's potential as a sleeper hit:

HUDSON: Early on, we had this budgeted and scheduled to get Cloud 9 out for the Olympics. This was going to be a real 21st Century production. We were going to shoot this on Hi Def. We had a top DP who knew Hi Def in and out, and we had Panavision ready to do tests. But (Director) Harry (Basil) and his crew wouldn’t hear of it. They pleaded for film. And Al’s old school instincts won out.

KEARNS: Of course, it’s the best of the old school. In the end, all our experience and styles produced one hilarious, exciting picture. Harry goes for straight, lowbrow comedy. Al has the classic Hollywood sensibility. He knows how to tug at the heartstrings. (Executive producer) Gray (Frederickson) is from the Easy Riders, Raging Bulls era. He was in Big Wednesday! Burt Reynolds, what can you say? He’s an all-out legend and a true artist. And us?

HUDSON: Well, we made it happen. And we brought the contemporary vibe.

KEARNS: We kept reminding these guys to keep it more Ben Stiller and less Jerry Stiller.

HUDSON: More Vince Vaughn and less Robert Vaughn.

KEARNS: More Dodgeball, less bocci ball--

HUDSON: We get the picture.

KEARNS: Because of all that, because of the mix, Cloud 9 works.

HUDSON: We’re going straight to DVD, of course... But Harry is a direct-to-DVD director. That’s the kind of picture he makes and everyone knew that going in. And that’s not negative. It’s a whole new business and DVD and direct demand are the way of the future. Cloud 9 is going to be a great seller and a perennial rental.

At least check out that MySpace page.