It seems like only yesterday that we first sat in a movie theater and marveled at all the female shirtlessness they managed to squeeze into that one early montage in Wedding Crashers. It’s actually been seven years, and a lot’s changed since for Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, the movie’s two charmingly reluctant romantics. Mostly, what’s changed is that they haven’t stuck to their bread and butter and made a worthwhile bro-comedy. Vaughn had himself a hit with the lackluster Couples Retreat, and has a possibly enticing Ben Stiller team-up in Neighborhood Watch coming next; Owen Wilson slayed in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, but his raunchy Hall Pass whiffed. But now they’re back, and together, and maybe making a hilarious, big comedy.
Lindsay Lohan is in talks for Elizabeth & Richard: A Love Story, a Lifetime movie about the famed relationship between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. As Slate has pointed out in the past, Lohan and Taylor have some things in common, including "substance abuse issues, public emotional outpourings, and copious amounts of tabloid drama. The key difference, though, is that Elizabeth Taylor had a true record of achievement before she became the most notorious movie star in America." To which I say: Um, excuse me, but the last time I checked Elizabeth Taylor wasn’t in Mean Girls. Grade: B+ [Deadline]
Jessica Chastain is in talks to join The Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow's hunt-for-Bin Laden movie, along with Mark Strong and Edgar Ramirez. Already cast are Joel Edgerton and Chris Pratt; Hurt Locker writer Mark Boal is on board as well. Also: “Reports today assert that the Pentagon will investigate charges made by Rep. Peter King that Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker tandem Bigelow and Boal somehow got inside information about the mission from the Obama Administration in preparing the script.” Whatttt?!!! That is insanely awesome. Has Peter King been covertly hired by this movie’s marketing team? Grade: A [Deadline]
Following up his collection of short stories, Palo Alto, James Franco has sold his first novel, Actors Anonymous, directly to Amazon. Only appropriately, it’s a fictionalized version of Franco’s real life as an actor. It's a pretty big departure, though: In the book version, the fake Franco sells his novel to Barnesandnoble.com. Grade: C [Observer via Vulture]
Demi Moore has joined the biopic Lovelace as Gloria Steinem, whose involvement in the story came through a profile she wrote of Linda Lovelace for Ms. describing how the porn actress was forced into shooting the infamous Deep Throat. Also newly onboard are Adam Brody, as Deep Throat co-star Harry Reems, and Eric Roberts, as lie-detector expert Nat Laurendi. Wait, hold up, sorry: Seth Cohen is playing a porn star? Probably should have led with that information. Grade: B [HR]
Seth Rogen will produce, and possibly star, in spy comedy The B Team. The plot revolves around the kidnapping of a secret agent, which leaves his crew of non-suave-gadget-inventor-types to rescue him. Unrelated, Rogen has just recently joined Twitter. His last tweet, as of publication: “Is there an episode of saved by the bell where screech pretends to be an alien. I vaguely remember one. Why the fuck was he doing that?” Grade: B [Showblitz]
Aaron Sorkin’s HBO drama has an official name: The Newsroom. Originally known as More As The Story Develops, then as 'TBA,' the show’s title was debuted via HBO’s 2012 teaser reel and confirmed by Deadline. Other titles rumored to be in contention: On the Hour, This Just In, Extra! Extra!, [60 Minutes Ticking Noise], The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer, and Tyler Perry Presents Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom. Grade: A [Deadline]
At least two more Fast and the Furious movies are in the works, says star Vin Diesel, and the screenplays for those projects are currently being written simultaneously. Says Vin: “We have to pay off this story, we have to service all of these character relationships, and when we started mapping all that out it just went beyond 110 pages.” What? Look, with all due respect to the venerable franchise -- which has given us hours of mind-blowing entertainment over the years -- here’s the plot of both the sixth and seventh F&F movies: Car chase, betrayal, good guys on the run, introduction of plan, secondary betrayal, reunion, car chase, we out. There. I just “serviced the story.” Grade: A [HR]
It had already been reported that MTV was bringing back Punk’d, its seminal hidden-camera celebrity prank show, but now it’s confirmed. With original puppetmasters, producers Jason Goldberg and Ashton Kutcher, on board, Punk’d 2.0 will launch sometime next year. A sneak peek will air during MTV’s New Year’s Eve special, in which the new host will be revealed. Originally, Justin Bieber was attached as said host, but there’s no official word on that. Is it possible our dude has gotten too famous to host a dumb T.V. show since this plan was hatched? If so: Cody Simpson, this is your big chance! Grade: D [Deadline]
James Bond franchise producer Michael G. Wilson says he’s hoping to sign Daniel Craig up for five more movies as 007. Craig is currently shooting the next Bond flick, Skyfall, with director Sam Mendes. Says Wilson, “Filming has gone very well, and I'd love Daniel to surpass Roger's [Moore] record and do eight pictures.” If Craig balks at such a long-term commitment, though, Wilson and the other producers have a plan to goad him into it: Threaten to hire George Lazenby instead. Grade: A- [HR]
Reese Witherspoon is attached to Atom Egoyan’s movie on the West Memphis Three, adapted from Mara Leveritt's Devil’s Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three. She will play the mother of one of the victims, who eventually doubts the guilt of the wrongly convicted Jessie Misskelley Jr., Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin. As something of an expert in the legal considerations and financial remunerations conventionally involved in adaptations of true life stories, I would like to officially state that if Misskelley, Echols, and Baldwin don’t make mad bucks off this movie, it’d be some bullshit. Grade: A [HR]
Keanu Reeves will make his directorial debut with Man Of Tai Chi. The action drama is set in modern-day Beijing and stars Tiger Chen -- who taught Reeves kung fu for The Matrix -- as a young martial artist navigating the opportunities his skill set provides (Reeves will co-star). That sounds pretty dope and everything but, look, it’s the directorial debut of secret genius Keanu Reeves: It could have been a feature-length telling of the story of the Yoplait Yogurt “this is good” ladies, and I’d have been just as emotionally invested right now. Grade: A [Deadline]
Saoirse Ronan (Hanna, Atonement) will star in the adaptation of Meg Rosoff ’s 2006’s young adult book How I Live Now, which will be directed by Kevin McDonald (Last King of Scotland). In the book, a young American girl named Daisy is sent to live with extended family on a farm in England; then, when her aunt is stuck in Norway and England is invaded by an unnamed force, Daisy and her cousins are left to fend for themselves. According to the Hollywood Reporter, “The part of Daisy was highly-coveted amongst the teen-thespian set.” Which means: As we speak, Justin Bieber is somewhere attempting to comfort an inconsolable Selena Gomez. Grade: B+ [HR]
Winona Ryder has signed up for The Iceman as the wife of Richard Kuklinski (played by Michael Shannon), a mafia assassin who managed to keep his gruesome day job from his family. This is unrelated, but it just dawned on me that Winona Ryder should have gotten name-checked in way more rap lyrics over the years, via the "rider like Winona" construction. What is going on here? Is the hip-hop community not a fan of Mermaids? Grade: B [Deadline]
A Jackie Robinson movie is in development at Legendary Pictures, with Chadwick Boseman playing the man himself; Harrison Ford playing Branch Rickey, the Dodgers exec that signed Robinson; and Brian Helgeland, who wrote L.A. Confidential and Mystic River, writing and directing. This is a big break for Boseman, who was previously best known for a bunch of TV cameos and the football movie The Express. It also should do wonders for Ford, who is still, sadly, best known, of course, for marrying Ally McBeal. Grade: A- [Deadline]
