Does your family need to lose 30 or more pounds? Do you want the country watching as you lose it? Jillian Michaels was the health expert on NBC’s The Biggest Loser–and now, she’s looking for Michigan families to whip into shape for her new show, Losing it With Jillian.

There a casting call today and tomorrow from 3-8 p.m. at the Gardner White store at 45300 Hayes Road in Macomb Township.

In the series, Michaels invades a different family every week to give them tough love. She will get to the bottom of the issues each family member faces – ones that affect their health and happiness – and will arm them with the tools necessary to make life-altering changes.

“When your health is out of balance everything else suffers – finances, relationships, work and family dynamics. I’m moving in with families across the country, getting down and dirty and rooting out bad habits in every corner of their lives that are preventing them from health and happiness,” says Michaels.

For more, click here or send an email to jodicasting@gmail.com.

What’s on the minds of students in Michigan and across the country?  C-SPAN is in Metro Detroit this week, letting middle and high school students know about The network’s Student Cam Documentary Competition. Rebecca Stewart is C-Span’s Community Representative.

“We ask them to film documentaries that are five to eight minutes long about an issue of their choice. And, we want them to show multiple perspectives and multiple points of view,” Stewart told WWJ’s Greg Bowman. “They’ll send those into us, along with some C-Span footage, and we’ll judge them,” she said.

This year’s theme is either one of the country’s greatest strengths, or a challenge that the country is currently facing.

What is Stewart expecting to see  from students who enter the competition? 

“Last year we got almost a thousand entries from across the country, and even some international entries. The topics spanned from health care and the economy, to colony collapse disorder. As a matter of fact, one of our winners was about water conservation, and another was the honey beer and what’s going on with them in the United States,” she said.

A total of $50 thousand dollars will be awarded in cash prizes, including 75 student awards and 11 teacher awards .  The best overall entry will be awarded the $5,000 grand prize. 

The deadline for entries is January 20, 2010.

Get details on how you can enter the competition at this link.

© MMIX WWJ Radio, All Rights Reserved.

Thursday, December 3 through Saturday, December 5, 2009

Arab American National Museum, 13624 Michigan Ave., Dearborn, MI 48126

Tickets required – Buy Tickets

This popular annual event presents short and feature-length films made by Arab American and Arab World filmmakers, and films focusing on topics of interest to Arab Americans – all of which are accessible to mainstream audiences of all backgrounds. Many of these films are rarely screened in commercially in U.S. theaters; some are in English while others are in Arabic or French with English subtitles. Director Q&A sessions and panel discussions are part of the lineup.

ATTEND THE 2009 ARAB FILM FESTIVAL

All screenings take place in the intimate 156-seat Auditorium on the Lower Level of the Arab American National Museum (AANM), 13624 Michigan Avenue, Dearborn, Michigan.

The Thursday, December 3 Opening Night Reception takes place in the AANM Community Courtyard.

Free, lighted parking is available in the municipal lot behind the Museum; enter lot by turning north from Michigan Avenue onto Neckel Street, immediately west of the AANM.

For driving directions, visit www.arabamericanmuseum.org/Directions.id.12.htm or call 313.582.2266.

Film crews have been busy in Michigan over the past year and a half.

The Michigan Film Office says 82 projects have been filmed in the state since April 2008, when it introduced tax incentives that are among the nation’s most generous.

Spokesman Ken Droz from the film office says that 47 of those projects are from 2009. The TV pilots, documentaries, reality projects and feature films and represent a total expenditure of $216 million so far this year.
That amount includes all the money spent in the state on the productions such as crew, talent, extras, production offices, meals and the like.

The state hosted 35 projects and total expenditures of $125 million last year.

Read more at WWJ.com.

AnnArbor.com is reporting “Cedar Rapids,” that the movie — starring Ed Helms of “The Office” and “The Hangover” — has recently started preproduction in Ann Arbor.

According to IMDB.com, the film will also star John C. Reilly… star of films including “Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant” , “Step Brothers” and “Chicago”.

Shooting was expected to begin in November, according to Kay Seaser of the Ann Arbor Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. Some are saying filming moved to Michigan, from Iowa, because of the Iowa film tax-credit suspension. (Apparently, the city of ‘Cedar Rapids’ in which the film is set is actually in Iowa).

“Cedar Rapids” director Miguel Arteta also directed “Youth in Revolt,” which was filmed in downtown Ann Arbor in the summer of 2008, as well as other parts of Michigan.

From pills to films! The former Pfizer site in Ann Arbor will be used for a movie called “Trust” staring Clive Owen. 
The University of Michigan, which owns the property, says filming will take place in November. 

The movie’s director is former “Friends” star David Schwimmer. 

“Trust” is a suspense-drama dealing with cyber stalking, rape and a father’s rage over his daughter’s trauma.  In the film, Owen and Catherine Keener play the parents of a 14-year-old girl who are stunned to discover she has been vicitimized by an adult who gained her trust posing as a teenager on a chat room. Viola Davis plays a sexual assault counselor.

“I have heard countless stories and met many victims of rape and sexual assault (men, women and children), and know well the devastation of this trauma—to both the victim and his or her loved ones,” Schwimmer wrote about the project. 

The research and development facilities currently are vacant.  U of M plans to turn it into a center for innovative research and education.  “Of all the scripts I’ve read in reviewing proposals for use of campus space for films, “Trust” is the most meaningful and important,” said Lee Doyle, director of the University of Michigan Film Office.

“We are delighted to be able to accommodate the project and are eager for the opportunity it presents for our students and to stimulate the economy of our state.”

Filming began Thursday morning on the new HBO movie about the life of Jack Kevorkian.

Oakland County Courthouse workers and visitors are being advised to use the north entrance to the building Thursday — because the south side will be closed off.

In addition, the building’s entrance, 150 parking spaces and the commissioners’ auditorium have all been reserved for the film crew.

The movie stars Al Pacino as Kevorkian and also features Susan Sarandon, John Goodman and Brenda Vaccaro. 

© MMIX WWJ Radio, All Rights Reserved.

There will be a lot of activity on the streets of Detroit this week as the filming of the Red Dawn movie moves to the downtown area. 

The production will close Griswold between State and Michigan and Michigan from Woodward to Shelby today (Tuesday, Oct. 13)  and everyday through Friday. 

The movie has been filming in various spots throughout the metro area this fall, including Royal Oak.

Murder, corruption, drug trafficking and sports gambling — all packed into one film. The documentary “Detroit Mob Confidential” is now available on DVD.

See true stories behind the Jimmy Hoffa case, the bootlegging days, Denny McLains’s baseball suspension, the numbers racket and the trail of bodies that lead from 1912 to the new millennium.

It’s packed with hundreds of never-before-seen FBI photos and interviews with FBI agents, Mob associates and prosecutors. You can find out more and order the DVD at: www.detroitmob.com.

The Detroit News reports that downtown Detroit’s streets were brimming with excitement on Monday, Oct. 5, when camera crews and movie extras filled Griswold and Clifford to shoot scenes for the upcoming movie “Red Dawn,” set to come out in theatres in the Fall of 2010.

Scenes of the movie (which is a re-make of a 1984 film) have been shot throughout Metro Detroit during the last couple of months.

To see a photo of the special effects explosion and read more in an article from The Detroit News, visit this link.