Posted Oct 10th 2008 8:03PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Animation, Comedy, Music & Musicals, Casting
She may have been
Lost, but it looks like the redheaded
Rebecca Mader has found a path and a sexy on-screen husband.
The Hollywood Reporter posts that Mader is in final negotiations to play the lead female role in the super-wacky sounding
Men Who Stare at Goats. That means she gets to play wife to Ewan McGregor's Bob Wilton -- a reporter in Iraq who meets a man (
George Clooney) who says he's a "former secret U.S. military psychic soldier who was reactivated after 9/11." The plot is so very strange, and most likely destined to be awesome. But that's not all -- the film is also getting
Stephen Lang, fresh off
Avatar and
Public Enemies.
In the what-if area of cinematic news: With a
Ghostbusters sequel on the way,
Bill Murray told
MTV that he thinks a woman should be in on the action. That's not a bad idea at all, so the big question is: What funny woman out there can bring on the laughs AND kick ghostly ass? (
Editor's interjection: Jenna Fischer.)
Meanwhile, the
Fame cast has now come together, according to
THR. Unlike star Thomas Dekker, who has made a name for himself through Terminators and Heroes, this is a big cast of unknowns -- Kristy Flores, Paul Iacono, Paul McGill, Naturi Naughton, Kay Panabaker, Kherington Payne, Collins Pennie, Walter Perez and Anna Maria Perez de Tagle. You can hit the link to find out who they're going to play, and in the meantime, wonder who Debbie Allen will be this time around. Rumor has it that she'll pop up in the film, but not as Lydia.
And
Danny Glover is getting rusty.
THR posts that he's headed to the future and lending his voice to
Agent Crush, which you can learn all about at
the film's website. He'll be Major Rusty Gibbons. And finally, a last bit of little fluff: Jude Law is
growing his 'stache in preparation for Sherlock Holmes!
Posted Oct 10th 2008 1:03PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Comedy, Independent, Casting, Deals, Scripts, Newsstand
I predict that the news you are about to read will result in many people shocked,
shocked! that someone would make a
comedy about
cancer. Even
The Hollywood Reporter sounds a little uncertain about the news. But once you read the film's plot, I think you're going to see exactly what kind of movie this is.
Mandate Pictures has bought
I'm With Cancer, an autobiographical comedy by
Will Reiser.
Seth Rogen, the busiest man in Hollywood, is set to costar and produce the film alongside his writing-producing partner
Evan Goldberg and
The Daily Show's Ben Karlin.
Reiser's script is based on his own battle with cancer, and is centered around an up-and-coming 25-year-old who discovers he has the disease. I think you know where this is going. This isn't going to be some spoof of serious illness, or run with the idea that coming down with cancer is funny.
Cancer is going to be about a young man trying to deal with something that could kill him, finding the humor in hospital situations, and using it to stay sane. Laughter is the best medicine, and all that. Given that Reiser obviously conquered his disease to co-produce this movie, I bet it will even have a happy ending. You know what I'm also willing to bet on? Medicinal marijuana jokes. If there isn't at least one, I will eat this post.
Posted Oct 9th 2008 6:02PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Classics, Drama, Casting
News like this is what I wait for when writing about movie news -- announcements that merge so many good things that you can't help but get the tingle of excitement.
The Hollywood Reporter posts that Julie Taymor is taking on William Shakespeare yet again, and with one starry-eyed and stellar cast. Strike that ... THE stellar cast.
This time around, we get
The Tempest, but with a spin -- there's a bit of gender bending. Prospero, the deposed Duke of Milan who became a sorcerer, is getting a sex change so that
Helen Mirren can play the part. The lovely Mirren will be joined by
Jeremy Irons, who will play Prospera's brother Alonso,
Djimon Hounsou, who will tackle Caliban,
Russell Brand as the jester Trinculo,
Alfred Molina, who will be the drunken Stephano,
Ben Wishaw as the spirit Ariel, and
Felicity Jones as Prospera's daughter, Miranda. Oh, but that's not all --
Geoffrey Rush is in negotiations to play Prospera's ol' ally and adviser, Gonzalo. Since things are being changed up a bit, here's how THR describes it: "Shakespeare's play mixes romance with fraternal politics and the supernatural. As revised for the screen, it will center around Prospera, her daughter Miranda (Jones) and a shipwrecked crew full of Prospera's enemies."
After seeing Taymor's
Titus, I never dreamed another Shakespeare adaptation could compare, until now. I say this having seen every single one of Will's plays performed at least once, and thinking that
Patrick Stewart's Prospero was practically untouchable. But now, with this cast? I'm in love.
But still, Taymor is changing things up, so sound off below: Taymor, gender-bending, and
The Tempest -- yay or nay?
Posted Oct 9th 2008 4:36PM by Jessica Barnes
Filed under: Action, Casting, Warner Brothers, RumorMonger, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Western
I've been burned by
Jonah Hex rumors before, so this time I'm going to tread carefully ...
very carefully.
Hollywood Elsewhere reports they have reliable information that
Josh Brolin (
W.) has signed to star in WB's
feature film version of DC Comics'
Jonah Hex. According to Wells' "friend", it's a done deal -- but a top secret one. So in spite of protestations to the contrary from both Warner Bros. and Brolin's reps,
Elsewhere believes they have the
real dirt on the comic book adaptation
Hex was created by John Albano and Tony DeZuniga, and it centers on a disfigured bounty hunter who wanders the plains in a tattered confederate uniform.
Hex had a rotating cast of villains, and the series was known for its rough-and-tumble plot lines and copious amounts of gore.
Mark Neveldine and
Brian Taylor (
Crank) have already been hired to write and direct the flick, and not much is known about the story other than the fact that Jonah's "quest in the film is tracking down a voodoo practitioner." According to
Elsewhere, there will be plenty of CGI and sci-fi overtones, and even though the earlier incarnations of
Hex were strictly in the setting of the Wild West, as the series carried on Hex came up against plenty of supernatural bad guys – making the fantasy element of the flick not as far out as you may think.
I guess we'll have to wait and see if Brolin is really donning the six-shooters for
Hex, or whether we'll just have to settle for the actor playing a different '
cowboy with a bad reputation'. So what do you think? Is Brolin a good match for Hex on the big screen? Sound off below....
Posted Oct 9th 2008 1:02PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Drama, Independent, Thrillers, Casting, Scripts, Newsstand
Gerard Butler's RocknRolla week has gone rather sour, poor lad. (And I do mean that.) But maybe he can keep cheerful at the idea that
Law Abiding Citizen is finally moving forward again. If you remember, this is the first film Butler will be producing under his
Evil Twins shingle, and he snagged
Frank Darabont for the director's chair.
Now, according to
The Hollywood Reporter, Mr. Butler has snagged himself a pretty big costar:
Jamie Foxx. Butler will play a successful assistant D.A., who finds himself in the middle of a vigilante plot hatched by Foxx, who has been screwed over by the legal system and discovers that one of the men responsible for killing his wife and daughter is about to be set free. All who participated in the deal and the killings are fair game for his revenge. It's going to be a lot of fun watching Butler and Foxx square off.
Possibly better than Foxx's casting is that they seem to be keeping the original plot. When Darabont became attached to the film, the press release suggested that the story was revamped to center around a criminal mastermind rather than vigilante justice. Who wants to see a Hannibal Lecter knockoff over a Harvey Dent clone? Not I, I like my moral ambiguity and Batman style justice. No word on when this starts shooting, but let's hope it's soon. I think Butler could use some good news -- and a safer outlet for his own vigilante justice.
Posted Oct 9th 2008 12:03PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Casting, RumorMonger, Comic/Superhero/Geek
Last month, Elisabeth shared some
concept art for the upcoming
Green Lantern movie, and she mentioned the possibility of it being on par with
Iron Man. For that to happen, there would have to be a pretty dynamic star in the driver's seat. So how about Ryan Gosling?
A
Latino Review source at Warner Brothers has said that the studio wants the
Lars and the Real Girl actor to wear that glowing green ring. Now, the concept art I referenced might look a little bit beefy for the thin star, but Hal Jordan was modeled after Paul Newman, at least partially, so Gosling would be a pretty good match for that (should the green dude be Jordan). But even more importantly -- Gosling knows how to make the strange seem natural -- he made a heartfelt and funny film where he was in love with a flipping Real Doll. If he can do that, he can make the green look just as cool as RDJ made
Iron Man, and give the same excellent depth to the portrayal.
It's also miles above Seth Green, Justin Long, and
David Boreanaz. Agreed?
Posted Oct 8th 2008 6:45PM by Jessica Barnes
Filed under: Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Casting
If the current financial crisis is getting you down, how about a post-apocalyptic vision of poverty and murder to cheer you right up? Or, then again, maybe not. The Hollywood Reporter
announced that
Dominic Monaghan (
LOTR) and
Freddy Rodriguez (
Planet Terror) have signed to star in the horror-thriller,
Fortuna.
The flick is set in a future of extreme wealth and poverty. The world's elites have devised a way to reduce poverty by offering citizens the chance to compete in a mysterious game known as Fortuna, in which one person will be whisked away to life of riches and luxury -- what could go wrong? Well, if you have ever seen a movie before you can probably guess that maybe the prize isn't all it is cracked up to be.
Writer-director
Barthélémy Grossmann will appear alongside Rodriguez and Monaghan as one of the contestants, and the film is expected to start shooting on location in Bulgaria. According to THR the production is already underway, and, "ghetto like sets are being built for a film Zilber compares to 1973's post apocalyptic thriller "Soylent Green."
Grossmann is a relative unknown to most of us in North America, and this appears to his first foray into English film making (but the recognizable faces of Monaghan and Rodriguez should help the project earn a little attention). Even though it might not be the most original idea for a film (I like to think of it as
Running Man meets
Regannomics) but I guess everyone has financial collapse on the brain anyway, why not turn it into big-screen entertainment?
Posted Oct 8th 2008 4:32PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Drama, Music & Musicals, Casting, Scripts
Just a
few weeks ago, there was word that Charles S. Dutton was working on a Louis Armstrong miniseries with Quincy Jones, and John Sayles -- one heck of a dream team. But of course, this is Hollywood and one project can never be enough -- especially when we're talking about a recognizable icon. Now word comes that we're getting a feature film as well.
Variety reports that
Forest Whitaker is not only going to star as Louis in an upcoming biopic called
What a Wonderful World, but also direct it. (This is the second music icon Whitaker is becoming -- he already played Charlie Parker in
Bird.) Now, while Sayles is the powerhouse behind Dutton's project,
Ron Bass (
Rain Man) will be writing this feature with the help of Armstrong's estate. They're allowing the Oscar-winning scribe exclusive access to personal accounts, letters, and other archive material, which should give the film some interesting depth as it starts "during the musician's impoverished early years in New Orleans and [will] primarily chronicle his career as a trumpet virtuoso and improvisational singer."
The dueling projects certainly won't completely overlap since the miniseries is taking on Armstrong's whole life, and the feature will add exclusive insight into the man. But still, I can't help but wish they were all working together. Sayles and Whitaker? That'd be magic.
Posted Oct 7th 2008 9:03PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Drama, Sports, Casting, Deals, Celebrities and Controversy, Scripts
Celebrity interviews can be pretty nerve-wracking. The ante is upped even more when the interviewee doesn't give many interviews. You hope for the best, but sometimes that's not what you get. Xan Brooks got a chance to interview
Faye Dunaway for
The Guardian, and things didn't go so well. It started with a list of ixnayed topics, but one was left off the list -- Roman Polanski and rumors about
Chinatown. He asked if it was true that she once threw a cup of urine at the famed director and well, she didn't take too kindly to that line of questioning. Follow the link to see what happened and then comment below: Was it okay for Brooks to ask her about that? Did she overreact?
And then there's a little bit of tennis.
Variety reports that Frank Deford's adaptation of his novel
Big Bill: The Triumphs and the Tragedy, which focuses on tennis legend Bill Tilden, has been optioned by Baldwin Entertainment. This is a pretty old-school story -- Tilden won six straight U.S. Open singles titles in the 1920s, and was the first American to win Wimbledon. The plus about this feature: there's a lot more to the man than just rackets and balls. "He was also a contract bridge champ, musicologist, novelist, playwright and actor. On the other side of the ledger, Tilden was famously self-destructive, going to jail twice for sexual misbehavior with teenage boys and dying penniless." That should prove interesting.
Finally,
Michael Pena told
MTV that he'd definitely be in if a feature version of
The Shield, if one was schemed up. In fact, he thinks there could be a prequel and that it would be "awesome." Me, I caught some old-school
Felicity eps recently, and now I can't see him as anything other than the wanna-be ladies man who lived in the dorm. He's come a long way in 8 years.
Posted Oct 7th 2008 7:33PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Comedy, Casting
If you think back to the warmer days of summer, you might remember that
Jessica posted about an upcoming Internet porn flick called
Middle Men. Set to be a comedy, the film was said to follow some normal dude who ends up in the center of that biz we call adult entertainment during the early days of Internet porn (mid-90s, I guess?).
And now we have our men of porn.
Variety reports that
James Caan,
Gabriel Macht,
Peter Stormare, and
Rachael Taylor have signed on for the film, which will star
Luke Wilson and
Giovanni Ribisi -- all in yet-to-be-disclosed parts. The film is also sounding a wee bit different these days. Yes, it's still about some regular guy -- a "straight-and-narrow businessman who builds the first online billing company dealing exclusively with adult entertainment." But then there's a bit of an insane twist. He finds "himseld in the middle of a whirlwind filled with starlets, conmen, Russian mobsters, federal agents, and international terrorists."
Well, this is nothing like I expected -- dudes spending late nights on Stile Project's old cam pages while girls contort themselves while basking in the glow of their monitors. Maybe writers George Gallo (who will direct) and Andy Weiss were hanging out with Guy Ritchie. How terrorists, conmen, and Russian mobsters all get involved is anyone's guess, but it's kind of hard not to be intrigued with that cast.
Posted Oct 7th 2008 4:30PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Drama, Sports, Casting
Sports. Aside from being a Huey Lewis and the News album, it's a slice of life that has lived for a long time in contradiction. On the one hand, there's the cud-chewing, testosterone-laden toughness of actual sporting events. On the other, there's the ever-rampant tears pouring out of sports dramas and biopics -- and now we're getting one more ...
But unlike pics that raise you up to a teary conclusion, this new feature looks like it will be a heart-tugger from the get-go.
The Hollywood Reporter posts that
Ryan Merriman and
Aidan Quinn have signed on, with
Andie MacDowell in final negotiations, for a new sports drama called
The 5th Quarter. Based on a true story, the film centers on the way a young man deals with his brother's death. Basically, after 15-year-old Luke Abbate died in a car crash, his organs were donated to five people. In the wake of this tragedy, his brother (Merriman) got his football jersey changed to his brother's number (5) and then held up five fingers before the fourth quarter of each game, while his parents (Quinn and MacDowell) sat in section 5. See? Tear jerker -- one that might even require more than five tissues.
5th Quarter will also be a film that blends real life with fiction, not in the script, but in the cast and scenes -- the family's pastor is playing himself in the film, and real footage of the games will be edited into the film. Whether this will help or distract from the final product remains to be seen. Production begins this month.
Posted Oct 7th 2008 2:32PM by Jessica Barnes
Filed under: Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Casting
When it comes to 'Zombie comedy', (if that is even such a thing), you have to admit that it is going to pretty difficult to top
Shaun of The Dead -- but you can't blame someone for trying. The Hollywood Reporter
announced that
Jesse Eisenberg (
The Squid and the Whale) has signed to star
opposite Woody Harrelson in the horror-comedy,
Zombieland. According to THR, "Eisenberg is in negotiations to play Flagstaff, a terrified shut-in whose cowardice makes him an expert at surviving the zombies but who is forced out of his shell to join the band of survivors, which includes Harrelson."
Zombieland was written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, and is about a "mismatched pair of survivors who find friendship and redemption in a world overrun by zombies." So I guess that makes
Zombieland a comedy, a horror, and a 'feel-good' buddy flick? Ruben Fleischer has already signed to direct, and is a relative newcomer to the world of feature films. Fleischer might only have a few credits to his name, but he can include the dubious distinction of being one of the people responsible for unleashing
Rob & Big onto the world.
Zombieland could be a gamble for Columbia. 'R rated' comedy has yet to prove that it can
compete at the box-office, so it was only a matter of time before studios started
tacking on a body count. Personally, I think I'll just hold out for
Seth and Jay vs. The Apocalypse instead. How about you?
Posted Oct 7th 2008 11:02AM by Eugene Novikov
Filed under: Comedy, Casting, Deals, Remakes and Sequels
This summer's
Get Smart reboot, with Steve Carell as Maxwell, was far from brilliant, but sweet Jebus,
Carell is funny. His improvised dance with a bewildered-but-willing overweight partygoer is one of this year's comic highlights -- a perfect blend of good-natured mockery and non sequitur. So the
official announcement of the inevitable sequel strikes me as a good thing. I doubt they'll ever come up with any sort of finely tuned masterwork, but I figure it's guaranteed to have a bunch of great moments. Big budget comedies are often so dire that "uneven with flashes of inspiration" is music to my ears.
Even better, the success of
Get Smart has earned Carell a three-year deal with Warner Bros., giving him a chance to develop both starring vehicles and projects for others. It's good to see the right people take off like this, y'know? On the other hand, it's kind of unfair: why do today's teenagers get to inhabit a comedic landscape dominated by the likes of Carell, Judd Apatow, Michael Cera, Seth Rogen, etc., while I got Adam Sandler and Mike Myers? Kids these days, they don't know how good they got it.
I guess I liked Mike Myers back when; I was 13 when the first
Austin Powers came out. I still kind of like him. But he's certainly overshadowed by the crop of comics in today's mainstream.
Posted Oct 7th 2008 10:02AM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Casting, Remakes and Sequels
Once word hit that Tim Burton was taking on the world of
Alice in Wonderland, two things were so very inevitable. One: Johnny Depp would get a role, and he nabbed a perfect one at that -- Mad Hatter. Two:
Helena Bonham Carter would get one as well. I am not sure why it took so long to release the info, but here it is:
The Hollywood Reporter posts that Burton's main squeeze will become the Red Queen, the woman who loves to screech "Off with their heads," while
Anne Hathaway will balance her radical redness as the benevolent White Queen, who gets deposed and banished.
Taking a cue from the
initial images of
Mia Wasikowska as Alice, I'm dying to see what Burton does. Johnny and Helena,
Michael Sheen, Matt Lucas, and Ms. Hathaway -- it's one of those mixtures that should thrive under the eye of Burton. Now we just need to get Burton to cast Danny Huston as the Chesire Cat. (He's made for that role!)
What do you think of the cast so far? Is it time for Johnny and Helena to
not be in a film together, or are these the perfect roles? How about Helena and Anne as sisters? Weigh in below!
Continue reading Hathaway and Bonham Carter Join 'Alice in Wonderland'
Posted Oct 6th 2008 11:02AM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Comedy, Horror, Casting, Comic/Superhero/Geek
We've had superheroes who actually hold some sort of power, and we've had normal folks pretending their super, but how about possible delusion, or secret superhero traits that lead you to spell poorly? As
The Hollywood Reporter posts,
Woody Harrelson and
Sandra Oh are starring in a new film called
Defendor, and
Playlist-loving
Kat Dennings is looking to join in on the fun. Woody will play a man who thinks he has a secret superhero identity, while Oh plays his shrink and Dennings would play a teen he becomes friends with. As a superhero, what sort of powers would suit Woody best? Leaping over buildings in a single bound? Tingling Spider sense? Stay tuned!
In the rumor realm, we've got buzz bubbling about a third Coco Chanel project (like two aren't enough). Beyond the TV movie with Shirley MacLaine and the feature with Audrey Tatou,
The Guardian posts that there might be a third starring, believe it or not,
Demi Moore. I guess the look is right, but could Mrs. Kutcher pull off a period piece -- one focused on an icon no less? (And just in case Coco isn't enough for you, the report also states that there are rumors about Vivienne Westwood and Kate Moss heading to the big screen.) *UPDATE: Westwood is on her way, with
Kate Winslet signed to play the icon.
Now this next bit isn't exactly casting news, but it could become that --
Variety reports that
Kevin Bacon is executive producing a new series for Showtime that dips into the life of Honest Abe's infamous assassin, John Wilkes Booth. Considering how well
John Adams did, I wouldn't be surprised if Bacon grabs Booth's role for himself. There's a
fair likeness.
Plus: Ex-
Boston Legal star
Rhona Mitra is
heading to Separation City, and the ever lovely
Beth Grant is
dabbing in Extract.
Next Page >
