· O, but for the good old days when studios simply shelved their Oscar hopefuls for six months or a year rather than smother them in their crib. Soloist director Joe Wright knows the feeling from last year, and this year it's his period drama Indian Summer -- which has Cate Blanchett attached to play the wife of Britain's last colonial overseer of India -- that is a casualty of belt-tightening at Universal. The film's producers at Working Title contemplated doing it for a budget under $30 million, but Wright reportedly wants to hold off for "more favorable market conditions." Fair enough. Enjoy retirement, Joe! [Variety]
Adam Shankman picks up a new musical -- as does Run-DMC (with an unlikely partner) -- when Hollywood Ink continues after the jump.
· Also on hold: Hairspray 2. Director/choreographer Adam Shankman will first tackle a big-screen adaptation of Broadway's hit Rock of Ages, an '80s love story set to the music of Journey, Pat Benatar, Twisted Sister and other massively coiffed icons of the era. It'll be ready for summer 2011, or right around the time Joe Wright starts selling his DVD collection for gas money, whichever comes first. [Variety]
· Elsewhere in the show tunes genre, you tell me what's the strangest part of this story: Liz Smith reports that Tom Cruise's former producing ally Paula Wagner will meet with Run-DMC this week in New York, where they will undertake development of a rap musical. [Variety]
· Harvey Weinstein, who has sworn to get back to his core film business and has laid off more staff this year than anyone even knew he had, has entered a joint publishing venture with the New York imprint Perseus Books. Because that industry is flourishing right now. [DHD]
· For anyone who thought Peter Chernin was just going spend the rest of his post-News Corp days producing Moses biopics on the Fox lot, he might back in mogul overdrive with Comcast. [NYT]
· New Line is putting together the teen comedy What Boys Want for star Selena Gomez, who would play a girl who can hear what men think. That might be a tough one to get a PG-13 for, and anyway, listen close and you might hear What Women Want writer/director Nancy Meyers making a mental note to call her lawyer. [Variety]