From smear-mailing to blackballing to suspiciously timed LAT investigative pieces to that ugly incident in which The Blind Side's campaign headquarters were pelted with dozens of prune hamentashen launched from the window of an unmarked white van, 2010's Oscar season has been by all accounts one of the ugliest in recent history. And yet these kind of tactics are certainly nothing new, as Matt Damon reminded The Carpetbagger at The Green Zone's New York premiere:
"My first experience with that was 'Good Will Hunting,'" Mr. Damon said. "The week of the voting there was a story that came out in Variety that [Silence of the Lambs writer] Ted Tally had written 'Good Will Hunting." [...]
more »
If there's one thing Patrick Wilson specializes in playing on screen, it's the good-looking wimp. Whether it's Little Children, Phantom of the Opera, or Watchmen, his characters might seem like attractive, decent guys on paper, but when it comes down to it, they lack that decisive, manly je ne sais quoi. Now, Wilson's SXSW entry Barry Munday has made that manifest: This time, Wilson has literally been de-balled.
more »
Woody Allen's completed film, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, has been picked up by Sony Pictures Classics for a fall release. Shot in London last year and financed by Mediapro, the Spanish company that also funded Vicky Cristina Barcelona, not much is known about the film beyond its strong cast -- Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Freida Pinto, and Naomi Watts -- and a vague logline: "The film revolves around the members of a family, their tangled love lives and their attempts to solve their problems." Translation: Either Watts or Pinto won't be able to keep their paws off a nebbish, hypochondriacal Hopkins. [Sony Classics]
And on the second day of the encore iteration of the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Sarah Palin made her stand-up debut. A "big get" booking by Leno's talent department that was rivaled on CBS by David Letterman's interview with another Republican expected to run for presidential consideration in 2012, Mitt Romney. Both potential candidates were charming, both took swipes at themselves (Palin explained the writing-on-her-hand incident, Romney explained scuffle he had on a flight home from Vancouver) and both stayed on air for two lengthy segments. Click through for those clips, as well as the other highlights you missed while searching the Jackson compound for a stash of stun guns.
more »
Some stories have more staying power than others in this lightning-fast news cycle of ours, and Tuesday's "Sumner Redstone is Dating Tom Cruise" is one of them. Behind-the-curve apologies are due to you and to its writer Roger "Scoopy" Friedman, who has the stunning inner workings of a deal that was begun, oh, last June and consummated almost a month ago. To wit, "Cruise and Katie Holmes, mother of Suri, were seen once again dining with Redstone over the weekend." Wha-wha-whaaat? Insert urgent Morse Code sound effects here -- and keep it going, because there's more!
more »
· This morning, Matt LeBlanc welcomes a trio of actors to his Showtime/BBC comedy series Episodes. Brit thesps Claire Forlani and Stephen Mangan have been cast as a successful English husband-and-wife comedy team set on taking their hit series to America, until a smart head of programming in Hollywood (Kathleen Rose Perkins of Trust Me ) forces them to replace the British male lead with U.S. comedy star, Matt LeBlanc, who is playing a version of himself. The series, from Friends co-creator David Crane and Jeffrey Klarik (Mad About You) will start production in May. [THR]
A Sopranos star moves to Detroit, Comedy Central invests in Workaholics, and more TV Bites after the jump.
more »
Nicolas Chartier will not be made an example of! Despite being disinvited and banned from Sunday's Oscars ceremony, the aggressive-campaigning Hurt Locker producer will be the guest of honor at a party thrown by a WME boss, his wife, and producer Lynette Howell (whose Blue Valentine just sold to Harvey Weinstein at Sundance. Awkward!). Guests can expect a red carpet, French cuisine, about 100 fellow partygoers and, of course, an impassioned, hastily written, Avatar-bashing invitation via e-mail. [Deadline]
· Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov quickly optioned the novel Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Killer upon its publication Tuesday, bringing the latest revisionist-historical horror novel by Seth Grahame-Smith (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) into the larval stage of the development cycle. Neither filmmaker is expected to direct -- yet -- Grahame-Smith's tale of a president whose mother was killed by bloodthirsty creatures of the night (abetted by their slave-owning accomplices, natch) and who will stop at nothing to eradicate the savages while saving the Union. And yet they'll still probably get this made before Steven Spielberg ever gets his Lincoln biopic off the ground. [Deadline]
More vampires (of course), Space Invaders to be adapted for the screen (obviously), and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
more »
· From @ConanOBrien: "This is how many people it took to write today's tweet: 'Jumbo' shrimp? WTF!!" Hey, don't sweat it, Coco. This is how many it took to write Leno's "Cheney-O's" joke.
more »
Hurt Locker co-producer and ill-advised e-mail campaigner Nicolas Chartier was banned this afternoon from attending the 82nd Academy Awards. His revoked invitation was the result of a note sent to friends and peers in the Academy urging them to vote for his tiny indie Locker and avoid the "$500M film" better known as Avatar. If the Academy wanted to make an example, mission accomplished; a few of its official comments follow the jump.
more »
If it's Oscar spoilers you want, the internet abounds -- but why rely on rumor and hearsay, when you can go directly to the Psychic Source for your 2010 Academy Awards predictions? An e-mail from the friendly, telepathic tarot readers at "the nation's most respected psychic service" arrived in the Movieline inbox today, and its longshot picks raised more than a few eyebrows around HQ. Among them: Morgan Freeman for Best Actor, Woody Harrelson for Best Supporting Actor, and Harvey Weinstein's best Purim-hijacking efforts would be richly rewarded, as Inglourious Basterds was pegged to take the top trophy. We were intrigued, and immediately arranged for a consultation with Maxine, their resident Oscars expert. Come now as we gaze into her crystal ball and the near, Shankman-colored future comes into focus.
more »
When Lost premiered in 2004, there was a chance that the series could change television forever. In a certain sense, it did -- the show ushered in several more dramas that emulated Lost's winning formula of flashbacks, mythology, and diverse casting -- and yet many of the would-be heirs to Lost's throne didn't last a season, and the few that are still around today are struggling as Lost barrels toward its conclusion. Here are five that tried and failed to unseat the big daddy of serialized storytelling:
more »
Parenthood is strange and familiar thanks to its utterly traditional format. Based on the disarming 1989 film comedy with Steve Martin and Rick Moranis (and exec-produced by the film's director Ron Howard), Parenthood takes the family melodrama of Brothers & Sisters and ratchets up the funny moments, allowing actors who've pleased us in similar roles to gently overstep their archetypes with warm, self-effacing sympathy. If we can catch up with all the pilot's proposed story lines, we may have a Pottery Barn-scented Modern Family on our hands.
more »
The Seth Rogen tragicomedy I'm with Cancer keeps having to import new blood to stay alive. First, original director Nicole Holofcener dropped out in January due to "locations differences"; she was replaced by Jonathan Levine. Now, lead actor James McAvoy has left production after the first week of shooting for "personal reasons," says MTV. He'll be replaced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Check your parking spot, Rogen. It may already be painted over. [MTV]
To build anticipation for Friday's debut of the first Tron: Legacy trailer, Disney has made available to the film's Facebook fans this incredibly exciting image, suitable for framing, using as wallpaper, or just squinting at and going, "Huh?" And yet, amazingly enough, it's not even close to being the lamest film still ever released. What is? Here are some leading candidates:
more »
