"lovelies! Chaz is Being Viciously Attacked on Blogs & Message boards about being on DWTS!This is Still America right ? It took guts 2 do it. Can u guys check out sites & give him your support? BTW ...Mothers don't stop Getting angry with stupid bigots who fk with their children!" Now you know. [@cher via WSJ, AP]
Happy September! Also in this edition of The Broadsheet: The Hunger Games has a Web site! (Sort of?) ... Hollywood eyes a summer box-office record ... The Church of Scientology goes to all-out war with The New Yorker ... A fest favorite is coming to theaters ... and more...
Every month at Movieline, we collect the best interviews, smartest features, and most compelling reviews we've produced, and curate them in one easy-to-use table of contents called the Virtual Newsstand, which pays tribute to our print magazine history. Here's the Virtual Newsstand for August 2011.
I admit, I can tolerate remakes. Everything from Fame and Footloose to Dirty Dancing and that globetrotting version of Clue are fine by me, even if they're terribly executed. I just don't have to see some of them! But something about the news of NBC's planned TV series adaptation of Romancing the Stone just hurts. Romancing the Stone, of course, is the 1984 action/adventure romantic comedy starring Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas. Could you stand to watch a Romancing the Stone series?
20th Century Fox and star Bruce Willis have settled on a director for Die Hard 5: John Moore (Behind Enemy Lines, The Omen), who most recently helmed the 2008 shooter pic Max Payne. The John McClane five-quel will film in Russia with a rumored $100 million budget, according to Deadline, which reports that Moore is currently in negotiations. The real question is, with the 56-year-old Willis still going strong in action hero mode 23 years after he first cracked wise in the inaugural Die Hard, will these film ever truly die, hard or otherwise? [Deadline]
Don't pretend like a new American Pie movie couldn't work. You sit through the sequels when they're on Encore or TeenNICK, or whatever. Horniness is a watchable thing! In this new photo, we see the class of '99 crowd the photo booth for old times' sake. Don't deny the cuteness.
I Melt With You, Mark Pellington's dark -- and I mean way dark -- meditation on midlife crises and male bonding, proved to be decidedly difficult stuff for many critics Sundance Film Festival debut last January. Back then I wrote in favor of giving its existential punk romanticism a chance to make its case (especially if you're a fan of folks like Jeremy Piven, who turns in a great face-melting performance). You'll finally get your chance to weigh in on the IMWY debate this fall as the film makes its way to VOD and limited theatrical release; get in the spirit with three new stills that highlight the trajectory of Thomas Jane, Rob Lowe, Christian McKay, and Piven's bromantic weekend of horrors.
It appears Steven Soderbergh has taken a break from casting calendar-worthy leading men in his stripper drama Magic Mike and is focusing on some pin-up women. Deadline reports that Olivia Munn is in talks to join the film, as a possible love interest for Channing Tatum. Va-va-vooom, said everyone. In addition to Tatum, and possibly Munn, Mike stars Matthew McConaughey, Alex Pettyfer, Matt Bomer and Joe Manganiello. Wipe up that drool; your Wednesday Buzz Break has arrived.
Remember that folk music movie Joel and Ethan Coen were working on back in June? It has co-financing and a title. Variety reports that StudioCanal will co-finance the film, now titled Inside Llewyn Davis, with Scott Rudin set to produce. The film -- which will reportedly feature "live music" -- is inspired, in part, by the life of famed musician Dave Van Ronk, an important figure in the growth of the folk music scene in New York's Greenwich Village in the 1960s. [Variety]
Happy belated birthday to Michael Jackson, who would've turned 53 on Tuesday like his Oscars date Madonna did a couple weeks ago. May Michael thrive in heaven's Neverland where the PYTs go on forever. Since we haven't toasted MJ yet, why not revisit the Baddest Movie We Love of 1978, The Wiz? Wait, I know why: Because we hate dancing and fun. Wait. No. Reverse that! Let's strap on our flyest ruby slippers and ease on down the road!
On Tuesday, Star Wars fans became outraged upon learning that George Lucas had apparently digitally inserted a Darth Vader scream in the Blu-ray version of Return of the Jedi, available as part of the remastered HD trilogy out in September. It's a possible change which raises the question: Is a two-second "Noooo" really worth getting that worked up over?
Also in this Wednesday edition of The Broadsheet: The Thin Man gets a screenwriter... more info on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea... Paul Dano could become a College Republican... and more ahead.
An update in the curious saga of that one time Matthew Fox allegedly got too drunk while in Cleveland (where he's filming I, Alex Cross with Tyler Perry) and punched a party bus driver in the... well, he allegedly punched her in multiple parts of the body. Let's leave it at that. The 29-year-old woman has now officially filed assault charges against the actor, who was not arrested by police following the Sunday night incident. (Incidentally, Fox plays a mob killer opposite Perry's titular hero in Alex Cross.) Developing... [CNN]
In Steven Soderbergh's panic-inducing epidemic thriller Contagion, the world is paralyzed by a fast-spreading virus that scientists, including Laurence Fishburne, can't get a bead on. "Someone doesn't have to weaponize the bird flu," he intones in the trailer. "The birds are doing that." As if Contagion wasn't already a hypochondriac's nightmare, a U.N. report this week reveals that the deadly bird flu, or H5N1, has mutated and is spreading overseas.
Sad news, theater fans: James Franco will not be making his Broadway debut this fall in David Cromer's production of the Tennessee Williams drama Sweet Bird of Youth. Monday, the actor's publicist confirmed that Franco was no longer attached to the play, where he was set to star as the gigolo paramour to Nicole Kidman's voracious movie star. As of now, Cromer is not sure if or when the Scott Rudin-produced Sweet Bird will take the stage. [NYT/ArtsBeat]
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