Eight seasons, 96 episodes, and roughly 10,000 Jeremy Piven foam-at-the-mouths; some might say this Earth has gotten all the Entourage it ever needed. And some might be wrong, bro. The Entourage movie that's been halfheartedly rumored since the show ended its run in 2011? The one that, seeing as Entourage had a hard enough time coming up with conflict on an episode-to-episode basis, was presumed wholly unnecessary? It's actually happening. Vince can do the movie!
Deadline reports, "The film will be directed by series creator Doug Ellin, who wrote the screenplay and who exec produced the series with Mark Wahlberg and Stephen Levinson. Deals are starting to be made with" Adrian Grenier, Kevin Connolly, Kevin Dillon, Jerry Ferrara, and Jeremy Piven. I guess they're all available? Huh.
Kiefer Sutherland will make a dramatic return to television with Touch, which was just given a 13-episode order from Fox. Created by Heroes’ Tim Kring, it stars Sutherland as the father of a mute 11 year old who communicates through numbers. Along with his social worker pal Gugu Mbatha-Raw and gifted-children expert Danny Glover, Kiefer attempts to figure out the meaning of his son’s coded messages. Presumably, those messages are more insightful than your standard 11-year old’s “I want Burger King”? Grade: B+ [HR]
Alex Proyas’s adaptation of Milton’s Paradise Lost is adding a few names: Casey Affleck, who’ll star as Gabriel, the six-winged angel who teams up with the angel Michael (Ben Walker) to fight Lucifer (Bradley Cooper); and Camilla Belle, who’ll star as Eve, of Adam and Eve fame. Hopefully this movie is a massive success, if only to see easily swayed Hollywood execs attempt other poetry adaptations. Grade: B+ [HR, Deadline]
HBO has given a pilot order to Da Brick, a drama about a young boxer growing up in Newark, New Jersey (a.k.a. “Brick City”). Loosely based on Mike Tyson’s life story, it’ll be co-produced by Tyson and Entourage’s Doug Ellin; John Ridley is writing the screenplay, and Spike Lee will direct the pilot. Doug Ellin describes the project as ‘‘Entourage meets The Wire," which might have just made some people very angry. Grade: B+ [Deadline]
James Franco has dropped out of his upcoming Broadway debut Sweet Bird of Youth, Tennessee Williams’s play about a gigolo who seduces an older actress to get his show biz break (Nicole Kidman remains in the cast). “From now on, it’s only projects with monkeys for me,” Franco did not add. Grade: D [EW]
Following talk that renewal negotiations had turned tense and Sony was shopping Breaking Bad to other channels, it now looks like TV's Best Show will stay put at AMC. The network has an offer on the table for one more 13-episode season, but indications are that the final deal will include 13 to 20 more episodes, possibly spread over two seasons. Are there even 20 more awful things left for Walter White to do? Pressure's on, Vince Gilligan. Grade: A [Deadline]
Yesterday, Universal heroically backed out of plans for a movie version of board game Clue, one of seven Hasbro properties it once planned to adapt (the studio previously dropped Monopoly and Magic: The Gathering, but will still make Stretch Armstrong, Candy Land, Ouija, and next year's Battleship). But worry not! Work on the movie will continue, with Hasbro paying development costs and director Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) still attached. Grade: B- [Deadline]
He flirted with villainhood as a robber in A River Runs Through ItThe River Wild and a dancing miscreant in Footloose, but now Kevin Bacon seems to have fully embraced unlikability: He'll follow his roles as a Nazi in X-Men: First Class and the guy who wrecks Steve Carell's marriage in Crazy, Stupid, Love. with one as the bad guy in Robert Schwentke's (Flightplan, Red) comic-adapted supernatural actioner R.I.P.D., about a murdered cop (Ryan Reynolds) who joins other undead officers in the Rest In Peace Department, then tries to catch the guy who killed him (Bacon, presumably). Grade: B+ [Variety]
Terry Gilliam is developing another movie, this one an adaptation of Paul Auster's highly Gilliam-y novel Mr. Vertigo, about a levitating sideshow performer and the mentor who teaches him to fly. Even Gilliam sounds doubtful that this project will ever advance beyond the screenplay he's writing, but just to be safe, everybody should probably buy more insurance. Grade: B+ [Playlist]
