"Looking like Harry Potter means people discard every convention of social interaction to inform you that you look like Harry Potter. [...] One time, in a bar in Philadelphia, an overweight bald man announced to the room, 'Everybody, look! It's Harry Potter! He looks like Harry Potter!' I said to him, 'You look like a fat asshole.' It came to blows. I removed my glasses first. (Presumably, I looked less like Harry Potter as a result.)" New York Observer writer Michael H. Miller might want to invest in contact lenses. [NYO]
More than 20 years after noted show-tune geniuses Bono and The Edge botched their own adaptation of A Clockwork Orange, a new musical based on Anthony Burgess's dystopian masterwork is headed to the stage in the UK. Which would be awesome-enough news without the added bonus that it apparently draws from... West Side Story?
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Also in this Wednesday edition of The Broadsheet: Ben Stiller could direct a Secret Life... Mo'Nique is acting again... Lone Ranger finds some supporting players... and more ahead.
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Stomp the Yard fans, please assemble yourselves and field this life-affirming announcement: Chris Brown, who was good in Stomp the Yard (Jen Yamato assures me), is reportedly starring in a romantic-comedic adaptation of Steve Harvey's bestselling advice manual Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man. Is this exciting? Problematic? Should we try and sink him with Rihanna's aircraft carrier from Battleship? More details follow.
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Indie auteur Paul Thomas Anderson and Bridesmaids star Maya Rudolph welcomed son Jack on July 3, Rudolph's rep confirmed today to People. Baby Jack makes three kids for Anderson and Rudolph, joining daughters Pearl and Lucille in the brood of one of Hollywood's most unlikely-sounding (but awesome) pairings. Congrats, parents! [People]
This morning, while interviewing the cast of Entourage about their final season on HBO (premiering Sunday), Matt Lauer begged to know whether they would consider adapting their series into a film. "We're going to try really hard to make that happen," Kevin Connolly promised the Today host and fans. But are you even interested in an Entourage film?
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Variety has it that Shia LaBeouf, who may or may not be the new Michael J. Fox, is set to co-star with Robert Redford in The Company You Keep, a political action thriller adapted from Neil Gordon's novel that Redford will direct. LaBeouf will play a young journalist out to expose an ex-Weather Underground radical in hiding (Redford) and make a name for himself. If this combines the journalistic cred of All the President's Men and the sinister air of Disturbia, I'll be pleased. Hopefully it doesn't combine the length of Out of Africa with the senselessness of Eagle Eye. [Variety]
Yanks can't have all the fun this week with the pending opening of Captain America: The First Avenger. Enter the creators of Captain Canuck, the Canadian comic-book hero whose own time has come for a big-screen adaptation. No, seriously.
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And now, some Harry Potter news that will refresh even the weariest of Muggles -- and probably outrage conservatives even more: Emma Watson met the oiled-up mensch who plays "Himmione Grainghim" in the gay pornographic motion picture Whorrey Potter and the Sorcerer's Balls. When she found out who he was, it reportedly "made her night." If true, I dance at her nerve. Go, you vagabond child star, go! Plus, the picture is soulfully edifying.
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Captain Planet and the Planeteers, among the cheesiest children's properties that the '90s birthed, was a cartoon very earnestly devoted to encouraging environmental awareness among youngsters built around the multi-colored titular superhero. Now, thanks to the folks who brought us Transformers, that mulleted, blue-skinned emblem of early-'90s morning TV will be updated with a live-action film. Has retro rebirthing gone too far?
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By now you've likely heard about the pie flung at media emperor Rupert Murdoch, Laurel & Hardy-style, during a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday. Disappointingly, the fight did not escalate into a full-blown Battle of the Century affair on live TV because Murdoch's wife, Wendi Deng, shut the assailant down with a sharp right hook before he was quickly escorted out of the room by police. In light of this attack -- which failed to meet our own lofty pastry battle standards, mainly because it was actually just shaving cream foam -- Movieline has compiled five pro-pieing tips from cinema.
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If you haven't read Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games books yet, the blazing new motion poster Lionsgate debuted today for the 2012 Hunger Games film won't make much sense. Suffice to say, once you begin reading the novels, the sight of a flaming gold bird-shaped pin will stir your senses into action, the symbol of rebellion and of the series' young heroine, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence).
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· Ken Jeong may have jumped the shark some time around the time his Community character pretended to be Gollum during the season two premiere back in September of last year, but a funny thing happened: the ubiquitous comedy presence was actually pretty funny in The Hangover Part II, stole his ten minutes in Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and now will likely make you giggle in this latest GQ pictorial with model Kate Upton. Click through for a laugh, then stick around for more Buzz Break.
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Tired of routinely beating your Facebook friends in Bejeweled, FarmVille and Mafia Wars, and looking for a challenge that better suits your movie-fan bona fides? Movieline sister site Deadline.com has just the thing you need: the Deadline Hollywood Game, a new Facebook destination that combines real-time news with digital gameplay to place you at the heart of Hollywood. Do you have what it takes to make it in Tinseltown? Click through for sign-up details and the full press release.
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Twitter users, those punny minxes, are taking a jab at Rupert Murdoch with a new hashtag meme entitled #MurdochFilms. You take a film title, make a Murdochian joke of it, and send it through Twitter like a cat in the dark. Then we at Movieline pick the best uses of the hashtag, add a few of our own, and you comment with your best additions. Sound good? Let's play.
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