Cloud 9, the wild and wildly influential sports comedy starring Burt Reynolds, DL Hughley, Angie Everhart and Gary Busey-- and written produced by Brett Hudson and Burt Kearns of Frozen Pictures along with Academy Award®-winning producer (The Godfather, Million Dollar Baby) Albert S. Ruddy-- has become a big hit in India!

Bollywood giants Shemaroo Entertainment released deluxe DVD and VCD versions of the hilarious beach volleyball comedy a few weeks ago. The launch was accompanied by high-profile giveaways, contests and other promotions, and the movie was praised as a sexy, funny and insightful comedy that stands up for women.

It's also it's been compared favorably to a recent Bollywood hit starring one of the biggest stars in Indian cinema, Shahrukh Khan (also known as "King Khan"), as a disgraced captain of the Indian hockey team who decides to coach a female hockey team:

"The story is much akin to our Bollywood 'Chak De'. A washed out former star, who is in need of money and an ambition to be fulfilled works towards a get rich plan and starts a volleyball team whose players consist of a group of beautiful athletic strippers. Burt Reynolds efforts in forming the world's sexiest beach volleyball team with the strippers, is seen as a rib tickling comedy. Eventually though as the girls' popularity swells, they want to win the crowds with their abilities, and not their bodies where these girls team up and play a match against actual volley ball players."

"We were talking about doing a sequel in Australia called 'Cloud 9 Down Under,'" says producer-writer Kearns. "Maybe we'll take the team to India and do 'Bolly-ball'!"

"I love Indian food," adds Hudson, trying to curry favor with the new audience.

Sez Shemaroo:

"Shemaroo Entertainment has had a superb experience with their first English title release. The wonderful packaging of Cloud 9 drew a lot of attention from the retail shops. Further, Cloud 9 went ahead with exciting activities that were conducted for the first time in Shemaroo. The movie was released on the Friendship Day wherein Café Coffee Day had a special Cloud 9 Combo in their menu card. Anybody on the friendship day who would order a Cloud 9 Combo would get the exclusive movie Merchandise. On that special day all the Coffee Day outlets had a Cloud 9 Table Mat which contained a SMS contest with Phoney Tunes and the winner would stand a chance a win a Gift hamper.


"The movie Cloud 9 has Burt Reynolds as the lead cast and along with other stars like Ex-Miss USA, Kenya Moore and the internationally acclaimed volleyball star–turned-supermodel Gabrielle Reece and supermodel and the former Playboy Playmate, Angie Everhart, the movie Cloud 9 is worth keeping your eyes glued onto."

Cloud 9, the hilarious sports comedy motion picture starring Burt Reynolds, is exhibiting all the qualities of a cult classic and campus craze-- thanks, in part, to the performance of its breakout star.

Not only are kids photoshopping the well-known Cloud 9 DVD cover to put themselves in place of Burt Reynolds as the king of beach volleyball strippers-- but Cloud 9 viewing parties in rec rooms and dorms feature a new drinking game centered on Katheryn Winnick, who plays the world-weary Russian dancer named Olga.

"Every time her character speaks, we drink until she's finished," a campus source tells us. "Olga rocks!"

Maybe it's because she of the way she says "wodka." But whatever the reason, it's Katheryn whose star has been on the rise since Frozen Pictures' movie about a man's dream to turn a group of strippers into a beach volleyball powerhouse was released last year by 20th Century Fox. And she did it among an impressive, legendary cast that includes Reynolds, D.L. Hughley, Paul Rodriguez, Angie Everhart, Gabrielle Reece, Tom Arnold, Tony Danza, Gary Busey and a host of young talent.

First it was her performance as Ivana Trump in ABC's biopic, Trump Unauthorized, then well-received roles in films like Failure To Launch and TV dramas like CSI: NY and House.

And last month, after she was replaced in the pilot for a Fox comedy series called Nurses, Fox turned around and signed her to a new, six-figure talent deal-- for a new dramatic series.

"Olga was originally written as 'Inga,' the stereotypical Swedish bombshell," says Brett Hudson, who wrote and produced Cloud 9 with his Frozen Pictures partner Burt Kearns and Academy Award winner (The Godfather, Million Dollar Baby) Albert S. Ruddy. "It was a tribute to the dumb blondes of the Sixties. We were looking at Victoria Silvstedt to take the role when Katheryn showed up and played it Russian. The director convinced the rest of us to make the change.

"Katheryn's no dumb blonde. She's an actress," Kearns adds. "And I think it's a combination of our comedic writing and her intense delivery that resulted in comic gold. We knew when we were filming on the beach in Malibu that she had real star power.

"She reminded us of a young Sharon Stone."

When Hudson and Kearns wrote the script for their upcoming film, Psych House, they had Winnick in mind for a major role in the psychological horror.

"No announcements yet," Hudson cautioned. "But Katheryn's a horror fan. And we're fans of hers."

"And we don't encourage underage drinking," Kearns adds.

Slide over, Kevin Bacon! Cloud 9 is the new hub of Hollywood connections. And who needs Six Degrees? With Cloud 9, it's two degrees— at the most!

Hollywood has been buzzing this week about the eerie similarities between Cloud 9 and Oscar-nominated picture, Crash. But there are even closer connections to each nominated director and every actor and actress nominated for starring and supporting roles!

When it comes to Cloud 9 and the 78th Annual Academy Awards Nominations, the links go far beyond The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, the popular parlor game in which the actor is connected to other actors he worked with in six steps or less.

Kevin is left in the dust by Cloud 9, the ensemble comedy motion picture written and produced by Brett Hudson and Burt Kearns of Frozen Pictures and Oscar winner Albert S. Ruddy (for Million Dollar Baby, directed by Clint Eastwood, director of Mystic River, which starred—Kevin Bacon).

Take any of nominee. Take two steps or less—and you land on Cloud 9!

The smart, raucous comedy premiered on Fox Home Entertainment DVD in January, thereby missing the Oscar qualification by only days and format. But a quick look at this year's crop of talented nominees shows that Cloud 9, its actors and producers, had a great influence on getting them there!

And by the way, Oscar host Jon Stewart is in the book, Tabloid Baby!

What follows is a quick run through of the more obvious Cloud 9 connections:

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) worked with Burt Reynolds in Boogie Nights.

Terrence Howard (Hustle & Flow) worked with Cloud 9's Ken Garito and Tony Danza in Crash.

Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain) co-starred in Four Feathers with Kate Hudson, the niece of Cloud 9 co-writer and producer Brett Hudson.

Joaquin Phoenix (Walk The Line) showed up at the publication party for the book, Tabloid Baby (written by Cloud 9 writer and producer Burt Kearns), at the Diaghilev Bar in the Bel Age Hotel in November 1999.

David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck) worked with Cloud 9 movie-stealer Gary Busey in The Firm.

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Judi Dench (Mrs. Henderson Presents) starred with Anthony Hopkins in 84 Charing Cross Road. Hopkins is not actually in Cloud 9, but plays a pivotal role, as Burt Reynolds' character breaks into "Anthony Hopkins' house" and borrows his clothes for a wild Cabo Wabo party after DL Hughley, playing a chauffeur, drives Hopkins to the airport.

Felicity Huffman (Transamerica) is married to William H. Macy, who appeared in Boogie Nights with Burt Reynolds.

Keira Knightley (Pride & Prejudice) played a former stripper and performs a lap dance in Domino. Cloud 9 features strippers and a lap dance by Angie Everhart as a stripper who becomes a beach volleyball star.

Charlize Theron (North Country) appears with Mel Gibson (whose ficus tree is a key element in Cloud 9) and Anthony Hopkins in the documentary, Cinema Mil. In 2002, she was nominated for a Razzie award for her performance in Sweet November, the same year Burt Reynolds and Sylvester Stallone were nominated as Worst Screen Couple in Driven.

Reese Witherspoon (Walk The Line) starred in Legally Blonde with a small dog named Moonie. Moonie appears as Gary Busey's dog in Cloud 9.

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

George Clooney (Syriana) appeared with Cloud 9 costar Paul Rodriguez on the 2003 TV special, Playboy's 50th Anniversary Celebration. He also appeared in the TV series Baby Talk, in which Tony Danza supplied the voice of a baby.

Matt Dillon (Crash) appeared in Crash with Tony Danza and Ken Garito from Cloud 9.

Paul Giamatti (Cinderella Man) played Pig Vomit in the Howard Stern movie, Private Parts. Cloud 9 star Angie Everhart dated Howard Stern.

Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain) starred in Day After Tomorrow, which featured Ross King in the role of a TV reporter. Ross, now a weatherman and show biz correspondent for KTLA News in LA, was in the running for the role of Tommy Z in Cloud 9.

William Hurt (A History of Violence) was featured along with Burt Reynolds in the video documentary, Sex at 24 Frames Per Second, The Ultimate Journey Through Sex in Cinema.

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Amy Adams (Junebug) has wrapped a new movie, Standing Still, which also stars Cloud 9 starlet Marne Patterson.

Catherine Keener (Capote) starred with the late Vincent Schiavelli in Death To Smoochy. Schiavelli, of course, starred in Cloud 9 director Harry Basil's notorious Rodney Dangerfield flick, The 4th Tenor.

Frances McDormand (North Country) appeared with Barbra Streisand and Mel Gibson at the 69th Academy Awards, when she won an Oscar for Fargo. Streisand and Gibson are referred to and the subject of important plot points in Cloud 9.

Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener) appeared with Cloud 9 star Tom Arnold on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on February 22, 2005.

Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain) and Cloud 9 actor Jeff Altman, appeared as guest stars on the series Baywatch in the early 1990s.

ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING

Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain) co-wrote the screenplay for Tortilla Soup, which starred Paul Rodriguez, who coincidentally plays an Asian character, Wong, in Cloud 9.

Bennett Miller (Capote) attended NYU Film School. It was at NYU, where he became captivated by a poster of Gabrielle Reece on the wall of his son's dorm room, that Albert S. Ruddy got the idea of a movie about beach volleyball. His partners Brett Hudson and Burt Kearns added the stripper element when they developed the treatment.

Paul Haggis (Crash) wrote the screenplay for Million Dollar Baby, the film that won Albert S. Ruddy his second Best Picture Oscar. He also worked with Ruddy on the TV series, Walker, Texas Ranger.

George Clooney (Good Night, and Good Luck) appeared with Gary Busey in the 2002 television special, Inside The Playboy Mansion.

Steven Spielberg (Munich) directed Minority Report, which featured Paul Wesley, who plays Jackson Fargo in Cloud 9, in an uncredited role as "Nathan with bicycle." And Cloud 9's Oscar-winning executive producer Gray Frederickson appeared as Lt. Bressler in Spielberg's 1941.

Cloud 9, the new ensemble motion picture comedy written and produced by Burt Kearns and Brett Hudson of Frozen Pictures and Academy Award winner Albert S. Ruddy, has lots in common with the ensemble drama, Crash, nominated today for the Best Picture Oscar.

Crash's director and co-writer is Paul Haggis, who wrote Million Dollar Baby, which gave Ruddy his second Best Picture Oscar (The Godfather was the first). Ruddy signed the Million Dollar Baby deal with director Clint Eastwood on the Cloud 9 set in Pacific Palisades. (Before Eastwood came on board, Crash star Sandra Bullock was the original choice for the Hilary Swank role in Baby. She lost out because the studio wouldn't accept her demand that Haggis to direct. Though she denied the story, her role in Crash supports it).

Ken Garito, who has a role in Crash, stars as bartender Tommy Z in Cloud 9.

Tony Danza has cameo roles in Crash and Cloud 9.

Both Crash and Cloud 9 are set in Los Angeles.

Crash tackles racism and classism.

Cloud 9 satirizes racism and classism.

Crash and Cloud 9 both have fight scenes.

Crash actor Daniel Dae Kim and Cloud 9 writer/producer Burt Kearns had kids in the same preschool class.

Both films were shot in 2004.

Cloud 9 was released by 20th Century Fox on DVD January 3rd, hitting the Top 5 of premiere releases, but skipping domestic theatres and missing out on Oscar consideration.

Tale of the Tape:
Cloud 9 vs Crash Cast Comparisons
Burt Reynolds... Matt Dillon
DL Hughley... Don Cheadle
Paul Rodriguez... Daniel Dae Kim
Paul Wesley... Ryan Philippe
Angie Everhart... Sandra Bullock
Gabrielle Reese... Jennifer Esposito
Kenya Moore... Thandie Newton
Rick Overton... Brendan Fraser
Pat Finn... Terrence Howard
Ken Garito... Ken Garito
Tony Danza... Tony Danza
Tom Arnold... Keith David
Bruce Bruce... Larenz Tate
Gary Busey... Ludacris