Country-music legend Willie Nelson has lent his imprimatur to a film-production company called Luck Films. Based in Luck, Texas, Nelson and his partners will produce three to five projects per year -- most below the $3 million range. The 76-year-old himself will appear in the first pair of movies, including Shootout of Luck and The Dry Gulch Kid. And who can blame him? If you had Surfer, Dude, Beer For My Horses and The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning littering the most recent section of your CV, you'd probably seek some legacy redemption, too. [Variety]
· I lost track a while ago of who was still in the running to play Captain America, but I'm pretty sure Channing Tatum is a relatively new suggestion? Which could mean anything in terms of his actual legitimacy as a contender -- everyone but Cedric the Entertainer has been suggested at this point -- but as one observer notes: Can Tatum even reasonably approximate the hero's weakling alter-ego Steve Rogers? Also, Marvel reportedly approached Keira Knightley to play the Captain's love interest Betsy Ross. As in: "Tatum. Knightley. Captain America. Coming in 2011." Nahh. [THR]
The witch business picks up for Summit, Kristen Stewart is linked to the end of the world, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
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· In TV news, this ChatRoulette recording is better than 99% of reality programming. And Gastineau Girls isn't even on anymore, so that's probably an understatement.
[Growling at the Moon]
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EW.com just broke the news that Paula Abdul will return to network TV as host and a possible judge of a second Star Search reboot, this one for ABC. This is both wonderful news for Paula fans who are missing her patented brand of enthusiastic incoherence on the current season of American Idol, and for Paula herself, who thrives like Tinkerbell at the sound of America's applause. Tweeted Abdul just an hour ago, "I'm headed to the airport....guess where I'm off to now?!?! 😉 xoxo" We know, we know! To Ed McMahon's grave, in search of his blessing. [EW]
Now that Sacha Baron Cohen's exhausted most of the recurring characters in his reperotire, it's time to expand his horizons, and what better person to do that with than Martin Scorsese? The director has entered discussions for Baron Cohen and Ben Kingsley to join his next project, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, where Baron Cohen would play a train station inspector and Kingsley would play filmmaker George Melies. Very nice. [Deadline]
Is "fighting cyber crime" the new "ordered into anger management?" After learning from Spencer Pratt himself that he'd be taking a suspicious break from his duties on MTV's The Hills to pursue a career in "maintaining the technological superiority of the U.S. military" -- don't you feel safer already? -- a new report from Us says the real reason Pratt left the show was because he was ordered off by its producers. He'll be attending a six-week seminar in controlling his temper, after he threatened to kill a female staffer who asked him to do something he objected to. [Us]
Putting cameos and homophobic Cuba Gooding Jr. movies aside, Chris Parnell and Horatio Sanz haven't expanded much beyond their creepy SNL roles. Luckily, they'll widen their repertoire on a new Will Ferrell-produced sitcom starring Jon Heder as a dream-chasing optimist who ends up moving back in with his parents. But are their roles enough to make the two wayward SNL players/30 Rock visitors small-screen stars?
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The second half of the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival slate was announced today (see the first, including competition selections, here), and things are looking up. Or at least kind of up: There are some promising world premieres from folks including Murderball co-director Dana Adam Shapiro, another new one from Alex Gibney (his second film in the fest), the Andy Serkis-as-Ian Dury biopic sex & drugs & rock & roll, documentaries about subjects ranging from Rush to the New York Mets, and a midnight movie called Ticked-Off Trannies With Knives. And then there's The Killer Inside Me, making its New York debut as the crowd-tweaking, Alba-destroying festival sensation of the spring.
And so much more. The new announcements follow the jump; the fest gets underway April 21.
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As far as character names go, there is no cooler moniker on television than Captain Awesome. And Ryan McPartlin is still listing the credit on his IMDB page three seasons after winning the role on NBC's cult-favorite Chuck, which fans have famously refused to let be canceled. Believe it or not, Captain Awesome started out as a peripheral character -- the all-too-perfect boyfriend of Chuck's sister -- and now three years later, McPartlin's character has become the first person in Chuck's inner circle to infiltrate the spy world. To McPartlin, a modest former Abercrombie model from Chicago, the character's growing arc was more a result of luck than talent -- but there are a few Captain Awesome fans out there who might disagree.
Movieline caught up with the Chuck star recently to discuss a huge upcoming twist on the series, what it was like to pull down Betty Draper's panties and the embarrassing role he passed up while nearly $20,000 in debt.
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Two of this year's most anticipated movies have already finished their EPKs, and now you get to watch a little bit of 'em. Sound good? First up, we have Predators, the Robert Rodriguez-produced reboot of the series that essentially tries to get away from the Alien vs. Predator franchise by simply ripping off Aliens, not featuring them. It's a small but crucial difference! In the other corner, we've got some making-of footage from the next Twilight installment, Eclipse, and it's actually way more involving than the film's teaser trailer. Green-screen shenanigans, Bryce Dallas Howard's terrible wig, people being flung all over the place, brand-new shirtless jailbait...what's not to like?
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Jim Carrey hasn't shot a new film in over a year, though he has several potential projects in the mix for 2010. One of those probably won't be Butter, Movieline hears. Vulture claims the actor is in talks to star in the Black List-vetted script about a term-limited butter-sculpting champion, his beleaguered wife (Jennifer Garner), and the young black upstart who threatens their family's dominance in the sport. However, our sources say Carrey has already passed on the lead role.
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Things are getting weird, guys! Hot on the heels of Heidi Montag's announcement that she has fired husband Spencer Pratt as her manager and replaced him with a psychic, Pratt has announced that he has fired himself from The Hills (because that is how it works in TV) in order to...fight cyber crime. I know, I'm rolling my eyes at this one too, but according to People, he's been studying software engineering with a focus on encryption all this time at USC. So maybe this is a real thing? I'm not sure what to believe until I see the staged paparazzi photoshoot with Spencer (dressed in sensible grays) gesticulating wildly at a copy of Norton Antivirus that Heidi is clutching to her enhanced bosom.
Here's the full, wild statement from Spencer:
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In what will likely remain one of the most bizarre announcements this week, the New York Post is reporting that Mike Tyson -- former heavyweight champion, convicted felon, notorious ear-biter, documentary subject and Hangover actor -- will star in an Animal Planet reality show that showcases his first true love: pigeons. The boxer and the birds go way back, apparently to when Tyson, at the tender age of 10, stole milk cartons to shelter pigeons being kept in his Brownsville neighborhood as pets. But the relationship goes deeper. For instance, would you believe that the birds influenced Tyson to start fighting?
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· Want to see one of the stars from Mad Men naked? It's Rich Sommer. Still game?
· Anakin Skywalker also-ran Ryan Phillippe is crossing his fingers that Captain America tryouts go better for him.
· Ron Perlman will play the paterfamilias once earmarked for Mickey Rourke in Conan.
· Corey Feldman will be skipping Corey Haim's funeral: "Instead, I will remain in Los Angeles quietly mourning and planning his memorial."
· Amy Pietz is joining The Office, but as what? Therein lies the mystery...
Capitalism: A Love Story is typical Michael Moore fare: polarizing, manipulative, and an attempt to inspire people to get mad as hell and not take it anymore. Moore makes the film a lesson in presidential culpability, claiming that our current economic crisis is a direct result of Ronald Reagan's presidency, which blissfully shunned Jimmy Carter's pleas for a reduction in consumption. Reagan's sympathy for the rich was then aided later by the Clinton and Bush administrations' push for deregulation in banking, and now Obama is portrayed as the messiah who will make or break us as a nation.
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