· President Barack Obama has reportedly taken a very public swing at Rupert Murdoch and Fox News, telling Rolling Stone in an interview, "I think Fox is part of that [press] tradition -- it is part of the tradition that has a very clear, undeniable point of view. It's a point of view that I disagree with. It's a point of view that I think is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth of a country that has a vibrant middle class and is competitive in the world." But it's not all about politics! "I suspect that if you ask Mr. Murdoch what his No. 1 concern is," the president continued, "it's that Fox is very successful." At least he has a No. 1 concern. [NYT]
· Related: Glenn Beck gets the NYT Magazine treatment. [NYT Magazine]
· Paul Haggis in considering reuniting with his Next Three Days star Russell Crowe in that previously reported screen adaptation of the CBS series The Equalizer. [THR]
· Brett Ratner has another project in line to direct and/or produce, this time picking up the rights to the memoir The Reluctant Communist, about a U.S. deserter's bizarre, propaganda-filled 40-year imprisonment in North Korea. [Variety]
· The D-movie Sharktopus pulled in 2.5 million viewers during its premiere Saturday night -- not a bad number for SyFy, especially for a movie about a... sharktopus. [Live Feed]
· Steve Carell's Carousel Films has acquired feature remake rights to Of All The Things, a 2008 documentary about former songwriter/producer Dennis Lambert, who discovers on a tour of the Philippines that his solo album from decades earlier is a hit. Carell is likely to star if/when the project is developed. [Variety]
· As suggested by that insane breach-of-contract lawsuit of theirs, the Hillstrand brothers are dunzo with Deadliest Catch. Exiting with them is Capt. Sig Hansen. "We have been through a lot over the past year and unfortunately given the current situation with Discovery we are unable to continue participating in Deadliest Catch," they said in a joint statement. Womp womp. [THR, Esq.]