Fantastic news from that eerie dimension of sound and mind called Hollywood: a Rod Serling biopic is in the works! Andrew Meieran and his Bureau of Moving Pictures have acquired the life rights to the man who created The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery (as well as the staggering boxing 1962 film Requiem for a Heavyweight, which began as a Playhouse 90 live TV drama in the '50s), and now we'll get to see Rod's haunting mug reinvented for the millennial crowd. But who should play the TV legend? Movieline offers five perfect choices ahead.
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Warner Bros. has a March 30, 2012, release date and 3-D conversion ready to go for its sequel to Clash of the Titans, the Jonathan Liebesman-directed picture that has heretofore been known simply as Clash of the Titans 2. But signs found online this morning suggest that that latter detail may soon change.
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· The lovely Emma Stone graces the cover of Vanity Fair next month, and in the accompanying interview she reveals that perhaps staying in school isn't all its cracked up to be: "I did Superbad in what would've been my senior year," she said about dropping out of high school to pursue her career. "I was playing a senior, and had I graduated I would've missed that opportunity, and had I missed that opportunity I wouldn't be here right now." That's some Sliding Doors stuff right there! Click through to take a look at Stone's cover photo, then stick around for more Buzz Break.
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As reported on Wednesday night, Disney is moving full-steam ahead on a film adaptation of the famed Matterhorn ride at Disneyland. Tentatively called The Hill, the new project will focus on five young adventurers who wind up tangling with some fairly upset Yetis atop a large mountain. Spooky, scary, etc. Instead of getting on your soapbox to complain about yet another Disney ride being co-opted for big screen doubloons, though, why not embrace the obvious and help Movieline suggest some other Disney rides that should become movies.
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Despite massive hype, 3-D surcharges, and an actual good movie, it seems audiences were a bit gun-shy about running out to see Transformers: Dark of the Moon on opening day. The Wednesday grosses for the threequel tallied $37.2 million (plus an additional $5.5 million from Tuesday night), down dramatically from the $62 million Revenge of the Fallen earned on its opening Wednesday in 2009. Not that Paramount is too disappointed; the studio is expecting Dark of the Moon to have the highest worldwide gross in the franchise before it explodes out of theaters later this summer. Still, shouldn't this have opened bigger? [Deadline]
A hearty, happy birthday this week to legendary animator Ray Harryhausen, who turned 91 on Wednesday and remains one of Hollywood's greatest living effects icons. His work in stop-motion animation brought believable larger-than-life effects to live-action cinema for decades before the ascendancy of CGI, and in a career spanning four decades, he brought movie magic to films like The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Jason and the Argonauts, and Clash of the Titans. Which of his landmark sequences take the cake?
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It's been a while since we saw Rachel Weisz onscreen, what with the endless hold-ups on Dream House (co-starring her new husband Daniel Craig), her commitment to a Terrence Malick film that's in the can but will probably not be edited before, oh, 2018 or so, the limited release of Agora and the unwatchability of The Lovely Bones. Finally, though, Weisz's acclaimed 2010 Toronto Film Festival entry The Whistleblower is en route to theaters this summer. To commemorate the momentous occasion, Movieline has your first look at the film's poster.
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Also in this Thursday edition of The Broadsheet: Bryan Cranston keeps getting offers... two huge awards contenders get official 2011 release timeframes... Chris Hemsworth is the Shadow Runner... and more ahead.
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Oscar-winning Juno scribe Diablo Cody will make her directorial debut with Lamb of God, about a conservative woman who loses her faith and goes to Las Vegas to sin it up -- which kind of sounds like Kristen Wiig's character from Paul, only (let's hope!) even naughtier. Cody also wrote the script and will re-team with producer Mason Novick, who produced Cody-penned films Juno, Jennifer's Body, and the forthcoming Jason Reitman-directed comedy Young Adult. [THR]
When your last three movies combined cost nearly $550 million to make, a $20 million budget suddenly sounds... reasonable. Modest, even. So give Transformers auteur Michael Bay some credit for restraint with Pain & Gain, a real-life crime pic about bodybuilders-turned-criminals that he says he'll direct next.
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Swedish actress Noomi Rapace was first introduced to American audiences as the vengeful, goth-like titular character in the European Girl With the Dragon Tattoo film franchise, and now, Rapace will switch modes entirely to play a '60s Swedish pop singer in Catherine Hardwicke's upcoming Anita Lindblom biopic. More details on the project, which co-stars Rapace's real-life ex-husband, ahead.
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Further proof that Hollywood is not necessarily beholden to movie stars for guaranteed gargantuan grosses at the box office? For three Transformers: Dark of the Moon co-stars, the Michael Bay-directed film will be their second this summer to crack the $200 million plateau in worldwide earnings. Can you guess which three? Hint: not Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley or Optimus Prime.
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Michelle Yeoh, the star of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Tomorrow Never Dies, was booted from Burma last week for working on director Luc Besson's biopic The Lady, about Nobel Prize winner and Burmese government protester Suu Kyi. Burmese authorities blacklisted Yeoh for her "presumed support" of Kyi, who spent almost 15 years in house arrest. If Yeoh should fight for her right to visit Burma, I hope she storms the shores with Sheryl Crow's defiant Bond theme. [Moviefone]
Skids and Mudflap don't actually appear in Transformers: Dark of the Moon, but you'd be forgiven if you thought they did. That's not because Dark of the Moon is as hard to follow as the derisible Revenge of the Fallen, but rather because Skids and Mudflap are no less ridiculous as character names than Wheeljack and Ratchet -- two Transformers who actually appear in the new film. In honor of this nonsense, Movieline has compiled a collection of 25 possible names for the Autobots and Decepticons in Dark of the Moon. Can you guess which are real? Take the quiz ahead!
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Life handed us a traumatizing poster for Final Destination 5, and we're left to figure out why it's so dumb and scary. Remember that horrifying Green Lantern poster featuring a yellow-eyed Peter Sarsgaard? This is easily worse than that. Here's our list of 10 images that the new poster conjures; please contribute your own and help paint a word picture with us.
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