Just what she needs -- and what Movieline HQ needs to supplement its increasing file of apocalyptic evidence: a fashion designer is suing Courtney Love for posting a stream of slanderous Tweets about her. This seemingly ridiculous lawsuit marks the first high-profile defamation trial over a celebrity's Twitter feed. Ahead, the gritty details of this legal war waged over a series of 140 character messages, including Love's inventive insults about a designer you have probably never heard of.
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Like a lamb to the slaughter, the long-delayed Season of the Witch hits theaters on Friday as the first wide release of 2011. In the film, Nicolas Cage stars as a knight who must grapple with the after-effects of the Black Plague and a young girl (Verge designee Claire Foy) who may or may not be a witch. Did the famously unhinged Cage do anything out of the ordinary to prepare for his knightly role? "Well, actually I don't own a castle." Good to know, Nic!
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Attention, Marvel fans: January Jones is in tune with your lofty expectations of her performance as telepathic superhero Emma Frost in Matthew Vaughn's upcoming X-Men prequel First Class and is doing her best to prepare. She flew to London the day after Mad Men wrapped, researched her character at length and lifted weights to attain that taut superhero body. Still, Jones knows what she is up against: "Fans of the X-Men comics have a very set idea of these characters in their heads," Jones told the LA Times recently. "I wanted to know as much as I could about her so I wasn't disappointing anyone. I'm sure I will still disappoint someone." Probably Betty Draper. That one isn't happy with anything. [LA Times]
Maybe everyone in Movieline HQ's luxury apocalypse bunker is just paranoid, but there have been an awful lot of bizarre signs that could mean that the end of time is near. Like the 2,000 dead birds falling from thy sky in Arkansas, or the hundreds of thousands of dead fish that washed onshore just miles away, or the Australian flooding. And now, in another eerie coincidence that seems to have been designed by God -- or Jacob -- Himself, Hurley's winning numbers on Lost have gone on to win an actual mega millions lottery.
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The new Spider-Man reboot finds Peter Parker back in high school, and the first set photo of Andrew Garfield as Parker answers the burning question that's been on everyone's mind since the project was announced: Where does Petey hang out? The bleachers, of course! The same place all the cool kids and soon-to-be superheros hang out. He brought Gwen Stacy along too, though he seems more interested in something else. Maybe it's a really good football practice. Anyway, click ahead to guess Garfield's thoughts or just to reassess Stone's new blond look one more time.
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News that Paul Greengrass might direct Cleopatra for producer Scott Rudin is the type that seems instinctively earmarked for Movieline's 2011 list of ridiculous casting/development rumors. (Hey, it's never too early to start planning those year-end lists!) Still, from the looks of things, this 3-D adaptation of Stacey Schiff's book -- with Angelina Jolie in the lead role no less -- is probably happening sooner rather than later. How did we get to this point? Ahead, Movieline tracks the development of the Greek queen's return to the big screen.
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Also in today's edition of The Broadsheet: A low-budget winner gets a big-budget break... George Clooney may get to work from home again... A Catholics vs. Doritos TV commercial holy war... and more...
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More proof that we live in a post-sellout culture: LG is planning to offer ten film songs from legendary composer Ennio Morricone as cell phone ringtones along with fifteen tracks that he is composing exclusively for LG. So, soon we'll have to get used to the fact that his legendary wahhh wahhh wahhhhh from The Good the Bad and the Ugly doesn't necessarily signal a showdown, and might in fact just be someone's mother calling. Apparently they are choosing 10 of his "best known" themes to convert into ringtones. Sadly though, "best known" is the just tip of the iceberg with Morricone, so take a second to listen to five amazing tracks from his more overlooked film scores that would all make killer ringtones. Then petition LG!
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Forget Al Pacino or even Bill Murray dressed as a clown, the bank robbery team in Henry's Crime seems like the perfect crew to pull off a huge score. First, you've got Keanu Reeves, who still gets underestimated and dismissed as goofy years after Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Then there's Vera Farmiga, who has proven both sexy and legitimately tough in films like Up in the Air and Running Scared. And finally, there's James Caan, who's...well, he's James Caan! Unstoppable! That is, unless Reeves turns out to be working undercover, Point Break-style. There are no hints of that in the trailer though.
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We told you that TVLine was about to come into its own, and now you can finally check it out for yourself. Michael Ausiello's new site has launched, so head over to see all of the scoops and features from Ausiello, editor-at-large Matt Webb Mitovich, Megan Masters and Michael Slezak. In just the last few days alone, we've seen exclusive news about Fringe and NCIS as well as the return of the renowned column "Ask Ausiello." Check out TVLine out for yourself here!
· Affable balladeer Josh Groban did the unthinkable on Jimmy Kimmel Live: He sang Kanye West's tweets about conference tables and "motherf*cking douchebags" and made them endearing. Give it up for this throaty chanticleer! [YouTube]
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Passionate kisses! Passionate Italians! Passionate... toupee yanking? It's all here in the teaser trailer for the Italian multi-strand romance Ages of Love, also known as That Movie in Which Bob De Niro Gets It On with Monica Bellucci, which is actually a serendipitously-timed companion piece to the first nude De Niro sexy time video we passed around this week here at Movieline. And if it'll help you forget the violence done unto Bobby D's stiffy at the hands of Ben Stiller in Little Fockers, jump right over to the 0:50 mark to see that it all balanced out in the end for the veteran Oscar-winning actor.
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Back in September, Mark Millar told reporters that a sequel to Kick-Ass -- the Matthew Vaughn-directed adaptation of his comic book which only performed lukewarmly at the box office -- had been greenlit. Since then, Movieline has not thought much about Lionsgate appending the film until today, when I stumbled upon a local news story about an actual guy who patrols the streets of Seattle -- and stops real crime -- while wearing a superhero costume. I present you with the only Kick-Ass sequel Movieline HQ needs: Phoenix Jones.
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At this time last year, you probably didn't yet realize the nostalgia switch would be thrown for the anniversaries of films like The Empire Strikes Back and Back to the Future. But now that we've crossed into 2011 (admittedly, not a fun round number like 2010), what 10 films are celebrating their own notable 25th or 30th anniversaries and/or likely to get the "Special Edition Megamix Birthday Spectacular!" in 2011?
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When he isn't crafting brilliant pieces of pop music -- or refusing to talk about the meaning of his films -- director David Lynch is quite the established Tweeter. (Twitterer? Tweeterer?) With that in mind, let's all take a moment before punching out for the day to revel in his advice to people for 2011 -- written in a scant 117 characters: "Dear Twitter Friends, Happy New Year 2011. Have a great year, everyone. And keep your eye on the donut, not the hole." Got it. [@DAVID_LYNCH]
