The Veronica Mars feature may have never gotten off the ground but Lizzy Caplan is hoping that she and the Party Down crew can continue their catering careers for the big screen (even if that means that they'll literally have to cater their own movie). "We want it so bad," she told Hitfix last week about the latest Rob Thomas series to be killed before its time. "We could do it for no money, no time. We would do it for free. I just don't know if we're legally allowed to do it." Chris Albrecht, do you have a problem with that? [Hitfix]
Unless you're pundit David Poland -- who took such umbrage to the near unanimous critical praise bestowed upon Inception this weekend that he wrote an entire blog post skeptical of it -- great reviews for Christopher Nolan's latest only stoke the flames of interest. Based on all the fawning, Inception is -- without a doubt -- the best movie of the summer! Or, at least since Toy Story 3. But with west coast critics pulling muscles trying to out-praise each other -- east coast critics, like Movieline's Stephanie Zacharek, who will have to wait to see Inception this week -- it seems like a perfect time to dust off the hyperbole quiz and take it for a ride. Click ahead to see some reviews and answer the age old question: Real or fake?
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The new Conan movie is a funny thing. When blurry, faraway pictures leaked of star Jason Momoa in costume, the general reaction was, "Hey, not so bad." Since then, though, the production has released some iffy official photos that seem designed to take a massive broadsword to that small reserve of potential goodwill. What happened this weekend?
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An unidentified 23-year-old New Zealand man was found dead Sunday night following a screening of Eclipse. Police in Wellington say the man had attended alone and was discovered slumped over in his seat when the lights came up; paramedics' attempts to revive him were unsuccessful. This is the first reported Twilight-related death since the movie franchise launched a little less than two years ago, but it shouldn't be the last; fans are expected to die in two parts as well as in 3-D when Breaking Dawn emerges a year from now. [NZ Herald via THR]
Considering The Hobbit doesn't really have a studio or a director at this point -- though Brett Ratner is still available -- it does seem a bit silly that there are actually actors still attached to this thing -- a fact Sir Ian McKellan surely realized. Speaking with New Zealand's Good Morning, the acclaimed thespian -- who would appear as Gandolf the Grey in the Lord of the Rings two-part prequel -- pretty much threw cold water onto the heads of OneRing.net message board posters throughout Middle Earth.
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If your Fourth of July gatherings were anything like mine, the conversation went kind of like this:
"Man, these hot dogs are great."
"Thanks! I also appreciate you bringing potato salad, it's delicious."
"Radical. It sure is hot out."
"Yeah, it is."
"I wonder what's going on with Roman Polanski right now."
[Awkward silence]
Thankfully now there's news.
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If you have an Oscar, you probably don't have to wait in the long audition lines to be on Glee. Case in point: Academy Award-winner Javier Bardem, who, after watching the entire first season of the Fox series in a week, pitched Ryan Murphy the role of a successful rocker who becomes friends with Artie (Kevin McHale). "We're going to rock the house," anticipated Bardem. "We're going to do some heavy metal -- Spanish heavy metal, which is the worst." The No Country for Old Men star just worked with Glee creator Murphy on the set of Eat, Pray, Love. [EW]
If breaking records is all you care about when it comes to box office, then Eclipse isn't the movie for you. Despite owning three -- opening on more screens than any other film in history and breaking the records for midnight screenings and Wednesday gross -- the third Twilight film didn't have enough gas in its tank to surpass Spider-Man 2 over Fourth of July weekend. What a failure! Of course, there is the matter of the millions and millions of dollars that Eclipse has earned thus far, which makes that pedantic record seem kinda moot.
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· Movies! He's taking the year off movies! The NBA superstar and Hottest Free Agent in the World will not make his screen debut in Ballers after all -- at least not this summer. Universal bumped the hoops comedy back after the script polish it sought didn't quite come through in time for the August shoot it planned; producer Brian Grazer and director Malcolm D. Lee will revisit the project in 2011 after James's contractmania has died down and he has a season under his belt -- wherever he plays. As if there's any doubt now that Betty White has weighed in. [Variety]
This year's Cannes winner is coming to America, Taylor Lautner and Amanda Seyfried get new moms, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
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Sheesh, you go away for a few days and you come back and legendary ICM and WME agent Ed Limato is dead. He was 73 and had been battling lung disease. His longtime clients included Richard Gere, Denzel Washington, Robert Downey Jr., Steve Martin and Mel Gibson, the latter of whom dug deep to issue a wholesome, non-controversial statement: "It's said of agents, 'They have no hearts.' Ed was all heart! He was there for me 30 years. I will miss him." Hear hear. [Deadline]
Great Scott! Has it really been 25 years since audiences first fell in love with a souped-up DeLorean powered by a flux capacitor? Since Michael J. Fox showed that he could play more than a young Republican? Since the jigawatt earned its way into the Real-Sounding Fake-Science Hall of Fame, right next to the dilithium crystals? Man, that's heavy. Yes, Robert Zemeckis' best film (bugger off, Forrest Gump, you were always too sweetly paternalistic for my tastes) came out a quarter of a century ago today and just might be the most entertaining "Mom Almost Porks Her Son" movie ever made. And in just three short months, Universal is releasing the whole trilogy on BluRay in October. I know what I'm asking the Great Pumpkin for. After the jump, enjoy the original theatrical trailer and the scene that I made my parents rewind again and again.
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I know I previously begged for a little pity on behalf of poor, beleaguered Robert Pattinson, but consider my mercy at an end. Vulture is reporting that all three Twilight stars -- that's Pattinson, Kristin Stewart, and passionate wolfboy Taylor Lautner for those of you just returning from a cave on Mars -- are set to pull in a record payday for the bifurcated last chapter of the Twilight saga.
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The Sparkly Vampire Clan of Forks, WA easily topped the De-Asianed Trio of Heroes on Friday, as Eclipse pulled in more than $28 million on Friday night to add to their already sizeable $68 million opening day. That's an impressive chunk of change that'll buy plenty of promise rings and pre-torn jean cut-offs for the whole cast. Meanwhile, the Worst Reviewed Movie in the History of the World managed to sucker in more than $16 million its opening day, but look for that number to plummet as the weekend continues and the toxic word of mouth travels. The stalwart Toy Story 3, the urine-soaked Grown-Ups, and the failure-flavored Knight and Day made up the rest of the Top 5. Check out the complete numbers after the jump.
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Happy birthday to you... Happy birthday to you... Happy birrrrrthdaaayyy dear Americaaaaa... Happy birthday to youuuuuuu. Sigh. They grow up so fast. Anyway, have some cake after the jump, then break up your three-day bender tomorrow with a visit to weekend editor Dixon Gaines. The rest of us will see you Tuesday!
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· Flashback Friday! What's more amusing: this clip of a teenaged Russell Brand from the 1994 British TV series Mud, or the impenetrable British narration over the clip that has words and phrases like "having a bunk," "C-Beebies," and "his dinkle was just a winkle"? Take a look (after the jump) and judge for yourself! [WoW]
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