Charlize Shrugged: Theron Eyes Atlas Miniseries
· It's only taken a half-century, but Hollywood is closer than ever to adapting Ayn Rand's colossal novel Atlas Shrugged for the screen -- the small screen. Charlize Theron is said to be in talks with Lionsgate about an Atlas miniseries for the new Epix network, the premium channel the studio is set to launch with partners MGM and Viacom. Theron replaces the slightly busier Angelina Jolie as the front-runner for the project, which needs to begin principal photography in 2010 to keep the producers' book option in effect. [THR]
Uma Thurman goes to Africa, Nicolas Cage goes Green (maybe), and much more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
· Distressed by the Western media's lack of coverage of child soldiers in Africa and elsewhere, and maybe wanting an Oscar or something, Uma Thurman plans to star in next year's indie drama Girl Soldier. She'll play a teacher at a Ugandan boarding school who attempts to rescue 140 girls kidnapped for the purposes of militia conscription and/or sex slavery. Shooting is set for first-quarter 2010, which should conveniently have it ready for an awards-season unveiling later in the year. [Variety]
· Nicolas Cage is in talks to play the gangster villain in Seth Rogen's forthcoming Green Hornet adaptation. Cameron Diaz, meanwhile, is negotiating to play Rogen's love interest. Naturally, the Entourage gang disapproves. [Variety]
· Jennifer Aniston has lent her name to Holler, Murderball co-director Dana Adam Shapiro's script about an African-American youth in the South who seeks to integrate his high-school prom. Screen Gems, whose tasteful handling of interracial relationships peaked with this year's Obsessed, has acquired the rights. [THR]
· More awards bait! Fox Searchlight has acquired worldwide rights to Crazy Heart, featuring Jeff Bridges as an aging country singer who "finds inspiration through his relationship with a reporter (Maggie Gyllenhaal) while dealing with the rise of his younger protege (Colin Farrell)." Robert Duvall, whose variation on Bridges's role 25 years ago in Tender Mercies won him an Oscar, will co-star. [Variety]
· Out-of-the-blue screenwriting phenom Brad Inglesby (The Low Dweller) has his next assignment: Sacred Prey, an adaptation of a novel about a hit man somehow transferred to his victim's body. And yes, before you ask: They are changing the title. [THR]
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Comments
1. Damn, I wanted to see Atlas Shrugged as a 90 minute musical with Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens.
2. Thank Xenu, Hollywood is making a movie where a white person saves Africa singlehandedly. It'll change the world, like Blood Diamond.
3. They're still making that movie?
4. The twist is that Jennifer Aniston will be playing the African American youth.
5. I'd scold for being Oscar bait, but Jeff Bridges is just too damn likable.
6. They're changing the title to The Green Hornet, so that it might actually have a chance of being made.
Cage's coiffure has already been playing the villain in all of his movies for years now.