Nick Swardson to Work Again, and 5 Other Stories You'll Be Talking About Today

Happy Wednesday! Also in today's edition of The Broadsheet: The man who helped make cinema safe for the counterculture has died... Kenneth Branagh's back-up plan... Apologies worth considering... and more.

· Watch out! Nick Swardson and TJ Miller have been cast in the stop-motion animated Hell & Back, "a comedy about two best friends who must rescue their pal when he is accidentally dragged to hell." Which is to say, it's about retrieving Rob Schneider from a screening of Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star. [Deadline]

· Bert Schneider, the Oscar-winning producer whose astounding film credits include Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, The Last Picture Show, Hearts and Minds and Days of Heaven (not to mention creating The Monkees), has passed away at age 78. [NYT]

· "I've always quite fancied owning a bookstore, or working in one." So! If this acting/directing thing doesn't work out for him, at least Kenneth Branagh has a Plan B. Good to know. [The New Yorker, subscription required]

· In a remarkable act of guts and magnanimity, Big Hollywood editor John Nolte has publicly apologized for churlishly dismissing me as "one of left-wing Hollywood's chief Palace Guards and water carriers" writing off the critical and commercial hit Rise of the Planet of the Apes before having seen it: "I was wrong. And I'm sorry." Ahem. You're still getting coal for Christmas, John. [Big Hollywood]

· Stephen Daldry also issued regrets about the Daldry not screening in time for critics awards, telling Variety in an interview conducted on Dec. 1: "I'm sorry that critics didn't get to see it in time, but I literally finished the final mix at 6 a.m. this morning. You have to make a choice about whether you're going to compromise the film to make deadlines or finish it the best way you know how." [Variety]

· "Yeah, I'm like this is stupid, why am I wearing a mask?" Paris Jackson speaks! But does she say anything? [Reuters via Yahoo!]