· Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes has reportedly agreed to finally release Katherine Heigl from Seattle Grace. The actress, who has taken public swipes at the ABC drama for keeping her on set for 17-hour days and giving her material that she did not deem Emmy-worthy, took maternity leave earlier this year after adopting a daughter. The actress was scheduled to return to set March 1 to finish episodes for the sixth season, but both Heigl and ABC reportedly came to a mutual decision that she not tape anymore episodes, meaning that viewers have already seen the last of Izzie Stevens. [EW]
Jon Voight channels a Texan for television, VH1 designs its most demeaning dating show yet, and more TV Bites after the jump.
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Welcome back to Movieline Attractions, your regular guide to everything new, noteworthy and/or squeal-inducing at the movies. This week it's (mostly) all about the leading men, with A-list heavyweights holding down a packed mulitplex while the art house gives it up for a few ladies. Read on and let's sort out where the parties should land.
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· For those of you wish Jabba the Hutt would take all his pie-in-the-sky ideas and join local politics, this overhaul of Parks & Recreation's opening credits will rejuvenate your faith in democracy. Behold: Hutts and Recreation. [YouTube]
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Welcome back to Moment of Truth, Movieline's new weekly spotlight on the best in nonfiction cinema. This week, we hear from the director of Believe: The Eddie Izzard Story, which was released this week on DVD.
The cross-dressing comic and actor Eddie Izzard wasn't always the "cross-dressing comic and actor Eddie Izzard." Sarah Townsend knew him back when he was just another struggling performer desperate for a break, working round the clock and riding a unicycle for whatever spare change passers-by on the street might have in their pockets. And since 2003, Townsend has been piecing those days -- and the rest in between -- together for her debut feature documentary Believe: The Eddie Izzard Story. I know, I know: "Why does Eddie Izzard need his own documentary?" You'd be surprised. It's quite the inspiration, really -- motivational substance for people who hate that kind of stuff. It's also a fascinating glimpse at just how comedy is conceived and delivered. Townsend talked to Movieline about this and much more for this week's Moment of Truth.
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Pop quiz: What do Elizabeth Banks, Gerard Butler, Kieran Culkin, Hugh Jackman, Johnny Knoxville, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloe Moretz, Liev Schreiber, Sean William Scott, Tony Shalhoub, Emma Stone, Matt Walsh, Patrick Warburton, Naomi Watts and Kate Winslet have in common? If you said, "They all secretly hit and killed a homeless person," you're wrong! The correct answer is: "They are all part of the growing cast of Untitled Farrelly Brothers Sketch Comedy project," a Kentucky Fried Movie-esque group effort spearheaded by the scatalogically bent siblings that already boasts segments directed by Brett Ratner, Bob Odenkirk, Griffin Dunne and even one from Banks herself. Relativity is financing the project, "We all sat down and came up with what we think is a hilarious through-line for the movie," producer Charles Wessler said. "Given the amount of pot I had smoked, at least I think it is hilarious." We'll be the judge of cough that. [Relativity]
We all have an idea of what an "Oscar-winning film" is supposed to look like, but after last Sunday's awards show, it may be time to throw the old paradigm out the window. The Hurt Locker is only the latest Best Picture winner to flout the conventions of what kind of film takes home the top prize; in fact, it closed out a decade that was full of such wins. Here are six Best Picture winners of recent vintage that prove there's no such thing as a typical Oscar movie anymore:
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Look at dapper Ryan Reynolds and Bradley Cooper at a post-Oscars party. Aren't they an adorable couple? Wouldn't they be just great together paired on screen in some sort of buddy comedy with a simmering homoerotic undercurrent, perhaps one in which they get to explore each other's bodies intimately without having to actually go all the way and have sex? Of course they would. But they won't -- at least not yet. But Ryan and another charming actor will! Details follow.
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Still suffering Olympics withdrawal? Jack and Meg White's great cross-Canada filmed adventure, The White Stripes Under the Great White Northern Lights, is getting special midnight screenings in 12 cities tonight. Ironically, none of those are Canadian cities (though fret not, Edmontonians and Saskatoon...ites? Your screenings are coming later this week). It promises to be more than your run-of-the-mill concert tour doc, as the band was captured playing in everything from traditional venues to bowling alleys, a boat and a city bus. See if your city made the cut at the link. And if not, it will be available in most cable markets via On-Demand tomorrow, March 12. [whitestripes]
As if the buzz around the final season of Lost didn't give Emilie de Ravin enough to contend with, the Australian actress enters a whole other realm of hype this weekend starring opposite Robert Pattinson in the film Remember Me. De Ravin plays Ally, a saucy New York University student with a tragic past and a protective NYPD-veteran father (Chris Cooper); she's the type of girl who eats dessert before her entree to get the most out of life, which she knows from experience could end unexpectedly at any minute. She takes up with Tyler (Pattinson), another saucy NYU student with a tragic past and an estranged, big-shot lawyer father (Pierce Brosnan). They're all headed for a collision (literally and figuratively) in which Ally may be the toughest party -- or at least that's how de Ravin plays her, the keeper of a certain wry grace that slices through the thick machismo and urbane cynicism around her.
De Ravin talked to Movieline recently about doubling up on her Cultural Moment, how to build a back story, and her small problem with dreadlocks.
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· Here's the poster for James Ivory's The City of Your Final Destination, starring Anthony Hopkins and Laura Linney. No, this one doesn't involve elaborate, Rube Goldberg-esque deaths. Click for bigger.
· Hugh Jackman has revealed that he will play segregation-enforcing sheriff Jim Clark in Selma, the next film from Lee Daniels.
· Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess may soon be locked down to star as the leads in the upcoming romcom One Day from director Lone Scherfig (An Education).
· Who are the top 10 female directors in Hollywood?
· It's the fantasy of every director who's had a film sit on Harvey Weinstein's shelves: Andrew Jarecki has bought back the rights of his long-delayed Ryan Gosling/Kirsten Dunst film All Good Things.
Tonight's Project Runway features a very special "elemental" challenge, and we can only guess that means Mila will embrace the "fire" in her humorless stare, Ben will "water" down another dress with bland finishing, and Anthony will knock the "wind" out of Seth Aaron with just one hoarse bellow. If element puns aren't your thing, we recommend more after the jump.
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Hey you! Have a good, gimmicky idea for the next Paranormal Activity? Paramount is about to announce a new specialty division entitled Insurge Pictures, which has plans to make 10 films a year at a micro-budget of $100,000 each. It'll be headed by Amy Powell, the Paramount Interactive Marketing SVP who shepherded Paranormal to success. LA's struggling actor contingent may have hit the SAG card motherlode with this one. [Indiewire]
Late into Green Zone, Paul Greengrass's gratifying if slightly garbled Hollywood treatment of the first months of the Iraq war, George Bush makes his inevitable appearance, in a clip pulled from the "Mission Accomplished" debacle. The only actual player to appear in a film filled with coy doppelgangers, Bush's visage caused a strange response to roll through the audience -- not boos or hisses but a low, mortified, neck-rolling groan. It was the kind of reaction provoked, perhaps, by the far away memory of an ill-advised seafood buffet: major buzz-kill.
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The inevitable box-office futures racket will finally launch next week, with Cantor Fitzgerald making good on the long-awaited promise to let you bet real money on the prospects of Hollywood films. Regulators have approved, and Cantor is counting on a healthy share of players at the Hollywood Stock Exchange (which Cantor owns) to bite at the opportunity to gamble their cash on Avatar, Valentine's Day and the like. But the real value is for studios: Finally, flop insurance has arrived!
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As hard as this is to believe, we're just one month away from our first birthday here at the new Movieline. It's been a whirlwind year of revealing interviews, gonzo festival coverage, zingy cultural criticism and penetrating insights into the power of Taylor Lautner's abs, and we all sincerely hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoy bringing it you every day. But as we graduate into toddlerhood, we're beginning to feel growing pains: The time has come to expand our family and coverage. We're looking to fill several positions on the Movieline masthead.
What are we looking for?
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