More than six years passed between the releases of I Heart Huckabees and The Fighter, and it appears that David O. Russell is planning to make up for that lost time... with extreme prejudice. Since last October, the Oscar-nominated director has seen his name attached to no less than five projects, and the likelihood of them all happening with Russell in the director's chair seems remote. However! Which has the best chance of going through as planned? Movieline investigates after the jump.
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Pixar watchers and action fans alike were waiting to see what Oscar-winning animation veteran Brad Bird might do with the reins to the Mission: Impossible franchise, and the first wave of promo materials offers an answer: Pretty much what anyone would do with a slick, globe-trotting, high-octane Tom Cruise vehicle. Can we find greater detail in the first batch of stills from Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol?
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Will Ferrell and Adam McKay may not be able to coax that Anchorman sequel into development any time soon, but the pair could be collaborating on another comedy starring Ferrell as a narcissistic professional. Deadline reports that Warner Bros. has just picked up Swear to God, a pitch from Due Date writers Alan Cohen and Alan Freedland. Ferrell is attached to star as a self-involved "hedge fund manager who thinks he has seen God." McKay would produce and possibly direct the feature under the pair's production shingle Gary Sanchez Productions. [Deadline]
We all saw this coming a few weeks ago when Harvey Weinstein announced his acquisition of Madonna's latest directorial effort W.E., but now it's official: The Weinstein Company thinks it has an Oscar contender in the era-hopping, King's Speech-echoing tale starring Abbie Cornish, Andrea Riseborough, James D'Arcy and others.
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· You know Jason Bateman must hate having to answer questions about the status of the Arrested Development movie every single time he leaves the house (and you know he gets those questions every single time he leaves the house). So, it was kind of Jimmy Kimmel to give Bateman a wearable perma-answer on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Tuesday night -- even if it happened after a question about Arrested Development. (It's happening, yada, yada, yada.) Click through to watch the funny clip, then stick around for more Buzz Break.
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Transformers: Dark of the Moon opened to a solid $13.5 million from its late Tuesday /early Wednesday screenings, including $5.5 million from the 3-D-only presentations leading the way Tuesday night. The figures exceed the early grosses from the series' 2007 original but fall short of the $16 million that Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen pulled down at midnight in 2009. Paramount currently anticipates a six-day holiday weekend tally above $160 million; drop back by Movieline tomorrow for our own Weekend Forecast predictions, which will be significantly higher. [Deadline]
Coen brother stock actor John Turturro told the AV Club that not only would he love to make a big screen spin-off for his Big Lebowski bowler Jesus Quintana, but he has already written up some notes. "Joel and Ethan don't really want to do it, but if I can get them to approve my outline, which I think they liked [...] there's a very good chance of making it." Until then, you're just going to have to settle for those DirecTV commercials for your Lebowski reunion fix. [AV Club]
Thanks to a couple of new stills in Empire magazine, the latest pictures of Ian McKellen and Martin Freeman's sepia-hued prestige in The Hobbit are upon us! And they look... so shadowy. Like a Middle-earth version of There Will Be Blood, where Martin Freeman plays H.W. and McKellen plays a post-apocalyptic version of Daniel Plainview (whose Pringles mustache is replaced with a fibrous beard). Get a load of "young" Gandalf and a new quote from Peter Jackson.
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In an new interview with Sports Illustrated for the magazine's "Where Are They Now?" issue, embattled warlock lover Charlie Sheen admits to using steroids before shooting Major League. "Let's just say that I was enhancing my performance a little bit," said Sheen. "It was the only time I ever did steroids. I did them for like six or eight weeks. You can print this, I don't give a fuck. My fastball went from 79, to like, 85." Contenders looking for bullpen help down the stretch might want to check-in on Sheen; dude's got some free time. [Sports Illustrated]
Before you watch Tom Hanks cling to Julia Roberts and a deplorable moped in Larry Crowne this weekend, please take a moment to remember when he clung to Sally Field and a mic stand in the 1988 riot of confusion called Punchline. It's about standup comedy. Which is funny! When it is funny. And Punchline? Is not that word, which is repeated repeatedly in Punchline. That's what qualifies it as a lovably bad movie, not to mention the most appropriately titled one of all time. Because it is not funny. But it is a joke. And I doubt you've heard this one before.
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Also in this Wednesday edition of The Broadsheet: Scarlett Johansson may sing for her supper... Allison Janney gets Struck By Lightning... a Twilight cast member joins the ranks of Savages... and more ahead.
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Notorious Boston gangster Whitey Bulger, who partially influenced Jack Nicholson's character in The Departed, will get his first post-arrest big screen close-up courtesy of Twilight star Peter Facinelli. The actor is producing an adaptation of Street Soldier: My Life as an Enforcer for Whitey Bulger and the Boston Irish Mob, written by former kickboxing champ and Bulger enforcer Edward MacKenzie, AKA Eddie Mac.
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Now that he's done filming the Disney Channel's Wizards of Waverly Place, star Jake T. Austin can move onto the next logical step: playing one of the greatest literary protagonists of the past 200 years. Austin will play Huck Finn to Super 8 newcomer Joel Courtney's Tom Sawyer in Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn, which will start shooting in -- wait for it -- Bulgaria this August. I suppose the material is ready for Disney alum treatment now that its pesky slurs have been eradicated. Should "Nickelodeon" also join the list of banned words? [Variety]
As evidenced by Jon Favreau's old talk show Dinner for Five, the guy likes to shoot the shit with people, and he's pretty good at it. So as a means of promoting his upcoming Cowboys and Aliens, he sat down to do a series of behind-the-scenes interviews with his cast himself. After the jump, watch Favreau and star Harrison Ford talk costuming, Star Wars ad-libs, Ford's Han Solo audition, and more in the first interviews of the series.
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It has been a complete year since Starz pulled the plug on Party Down, and creator Rob Thomas refuses to give up hope on reuniting Adam Scott, Ken Marino, Lizzy Caplan and Martin Starr for a big screen adaptation. "People are talking to us about doing a Party Down movie," he said. "We are pretty far down the deal-making process with that, so we're hopeful that there will be a Party Down movie. Ideally, if it works out we could be shooting in television hiatus time next spring." Are we having fun yet? [SlashFilm]
