He plays a young guy who beats up Mark Wahlberg with a baseball bat. [ for the movie The Lovely Bones ] As if this weren't enough, Jake is featured in a fashion layout in the September issue of Teen Vogue magazine, which touts him as a rising star.

"We're very, very excited," Kim says, understandably. "He works really hard at it. He takes acting lessons. He puts everything into it."

- - -

High Profile Roles: You may not be familiar with Jake Abel yet, but in the few months or so, you will be. The young actor just recently grabbed two high-profile roles: As the older son of Greg Kinnear in the drama Flash of Genius. The movie is:

Based on the true story of college professor and part-time inventor Robert Kearns' (Greg Kinnear) long battle with the U.S. automobile industry, Flash of Genius tells the tale of one man whose fight to receive recognition for his ingenuity would come at a heavy price. But this determined engineer refused to be silenced, and he took on the corporate titans in a battle that nobody thought he could win.

The other role is for the upcoming Peter Jackson film, The Lovely Bones, a movie Jake is sharing billings with Susan Sarandon, Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz and Saoirse Ronan. Here's the film summary:

The Lovely Bones is based on the best selling book by Alice Sebold and tells the story of a 14-year-old girl from suburban Pennsylvania who is murdered by her neighbor. She tells the story from Heaven, showing the lives of the people around her and how they have changed all while attempting to get someone to find her lost body.

Jake has been known to portray young, appealing teens, but with a rather dark, even, devilish qualities. But these two roles would definitely enhance his reputation as an up and coming talent.

I have a huge passion for acting but I'm interested in variety, both in the characters I play and the kinds of films I'm involved with," says the 18-year-old British actor, Aaaron Johnson.

Aaron recently appeared as Robbie 'the hottie' in Gurinder Chadha's movie Angus, Thongs And Perfect Snogging and at 18 has buckets of potential. Indeed, when I was on the set of Angus... Ms Chadha declared that Aaron, from Buckinghamshire, but now residing in London, had star quality. She was right: he does have a winning screen style about him.

What's more impressive is that Screen Daily's UK Stars of Tommorow has selected him as one of their top bets:

Aaron Johnson had an early taste of Hollywood, featuring as the younger version of Edward Norton's character in The Illusionist in 2006 and as a sidekick to Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson in 2003's Shanghai Knights. This year he graduates to leading man status with two very different films. The first is Gurinder Chadha's Angus, Thongs And Perfect Snogging in which he plays the school heart-throb alongside fellow Star of Tomorrow Georgia Groome (see opposite). The second is Dummy, directed by Matthew Thompson (a 2004 Star of Tomorrow), which has just screened at Edinburgh and sees him as a teenager coping with his mother's death with the help of drugs and sex.

Critical Acclaim Already? tMF regulars have been curious about Matthew Thompson's film, Dummy. I would think one of the main reasons is Aaron's awesome performance.

Savage Grace is the true story of the beautiful and charismatic Barbara Daly, who married above her class to Brooks Baekeland, heir to the Bakelite plastics fortune. Their only child is a failure in his father's eyes, and as he matures and becomes increasingly close to his lonely mother, the seeds for tragedy are sown.

*** Spoilers Ahead ***

Barbara Daly (played by Julianne Moore) is a lonely, selfish human being who married one of the richest men, Brooks Baekeland (Stephen Dillane). It was not a happy marriage, and in due course, they both began to hate each other. They had a son, Tony (Eddie Redmayne) who remains Barbara’s only happiness. Tony also happens to be Brooks’ major disappointment. You see, as Tony gets older, he shows signs that he’s gay.

About Zac and C.R.A.Z.Y.: The movie C.R.A.Z.Y. is about a young boy named Zac who grew up in a close-knit Catholic family in Quebec, Canada in the late 1960s. He is also gay. But there is more to it than just the personal journey of one young man trying to find his own identity. It is also about the other members of the family. If you've noticed about the title, it actually has something to do with the names of the boys- the children in the family. Says the filmmaker:

It's a story of two love affairs. A father's love for his five sons. And one son's love for his father, a love so strong it compels him to live a lie. That son is Zac Beaulieu, born on the 25th of December 1960, different from all his brothers, but desperate to fit in. During the next 20 years, life takes Zac on a surprising and unexpected journey that ultimately leads him to accept his true nature and, even more importantly, leads his father to love him for who he really is. A mystical fable about a modern-day Christ-like figure, "C.R.A.Z.Y" exudes the beauty, the poetry and the madness of the human spirit in all its contradictions.

Insights from Grondin: The young actor was asked about his role and here's an excerpt of the interview conducted by Film Focus:

- - -

- - -

Zac's journey is so universal, did you feel a connection to him?

Yeah. Well, I was born in the eighties and I come from a really small family - I have just one older brother - and I'm straight, but when I read the script I felt really close to the character. It is universal, and I've even spoken to women who felt close to the character. He goes through what every teenager goes through; trying to find himself and trying to be different but feeling like he has to be someone else. In normal life I think we've all wanted to feel like someone else; the captain of the football team or the prom-queen. So yeah, I think everybody can relate to that.

And I think the music helps a lot for people internationally to get the movie too. Whether you're in Spain or Italy or London, everybody knows David Bowie and Pink Floyd.

Right this minute, these guys are two of the hottest young actors making a lot of buzz in Hollywood - Zac Efron and Aaron Johnson - and they're from both sides of the Atlantic!

- - -

- - -

One of Zac Efron's latest flick, Me and Orson Welles, will soon hit the festival circuit with scheduled early screenings for Toronto International Film Festival. Directed by Richard Linklater, Zac plays a teenager cast in the Orson Welles directed play "Julius Ceasar" in 1937 who starts a torrid affair with the character played by Claire Danes. Says ScreenDaily:

Teen heart-throb Zac Efron gets to prove his acting chops alongside Claire Danes, Ben Chaplin and newcomer Christian McKay.

Not to be outdone, British teen actor Aaron Johnson, is making girls scream, as one of the leads in the British teen flick, Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging. He is also slated to play lead as Dave Lizewski in Kick-Ass, with Nicholas Cage. Here's more info about the movie:

Dave Lizewski is an unnoticed high school student and comic book fan with a few friends and who lives alone with his father. His life is not very difficult and his personal trials not that overwhelming. However, one day he makes the simple decision to become a super-hero even though he has no powers or training.

"I'm a sexual object," the tall, pale, dark-eyed Garrel said with a smile, taking a drag on his fifth Marlboro at a café in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. "It's true that for me there's something very sexual about the cinema. Not in the sense of the act, but of creating desire." says Louis Garrel in an interview conducted by Kristin Hohenadel.

- - -

- - -

Unlike his American counterparts, the award-winning French actor is not afraid to do nude scenes or play unconventional characters. The same applies to another talented actor, the very popular Gaspard Ulliel. Says Karen Durbin (in one of our favorite quotes):

Gaspard Ulliel is French cinema's rising star, repeatedly honored in the category of most promising actor. But playing his first leading role, opposite Emmanuelle Béart in André Téchiné's ''Strayed,'' he seems fully arrived, showing us the facets of a complex and mercurial character like a blackjack dealer shuffling a deck of cards.

In our continuing series featuring some of the actors that maybe big winners in the updated Top 50 hottest young actors, we feature two from France!

August 20, 2008: HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR. BEN BARNES! tMF salutes you and may you have more birthdays to come! Here's our small tribute to the young and promising actor!

- - -

While you might have enjoyed watching Ben Barnes in the recent The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian or in the much earlier Stardust (where he had a fairly small role), you would be more impressed if you happened to watch Bigga than Ben.

- - -

- - -

They have the acting chops – that's the No 1 thing – and then they have physical appeal. Handsome young men who can act? Wow, what a concept!" says Steven Gaydos, executive editor of Variety....

- - -

- - -

That's part of Alice Jones' report called The Britpack, where she describes the new wave of British actors making a huge impact in Hollywood. While she mentions Ben Barnes and Jim Sturgess among those making waves in Tinseltown right now, she apparently fails to mention one particular name - Robert Pattinson. The Twilight lead star seems to have the most ardent fan following and while I might be construed as being biased - and why not? He's the one winning our poll with thousands of votes! - there is certainly lots of evidence all over the web that he is very popular. Not that Jim Sturgess or Ben Barnes don't have their share of fans to speak about! Of course they do!

In this special sneak peak into the upcoming Top 50 Hottest Young Actors list, we're taking a closer look at three hot young British actors, who may be part of the new tMF rankings...

In a street called Blue in a very poor neighborhood in Paris, Monsieur Ibrahim (Omar Shariff) is an old Muslin Turkish owner of a small market. He becomes friend of the teenager Jewish Moises, tenderly nicknamed Momo (Pierre Boulanger), who lives with his father in a small apartment on the other side of the street. Monsieur Ibrahim gives paternal love and teaches the knowledge of the Koran to the boy, receiving in return love and respect.