True Blood came back to HBO with its biggest season premiere yet, although its 5.1 million viewer tally -- up 38% from last year's opener -- isn't the show's highest-rated episode ever. Still, if True Blood can continue its unlikely trend of growing from episode to episode, as it did last season, this is a great place to start. How soon until they add some (literal) bloodsuckers to Tilda? [EW]
Hey New Yorkers! Clear your calendar next Monday, June 21, because Movieline is bringing you the social and cultural event of the early summer: A preview screening of the instaclassic Australian crime drama Animal Kingdom, featuring co-stars Jacki Weaver and James Frecheville (UPDATE: And now filmmaker David Michôd) in attendance. They're coming all the the way from Down Under to join us, so do not be shy. Show them some love. Read on for details.
In what has to be one of the most predictable "just kidding!" moments of 2010, Chris Martin and his Coldplay bandmates have gone back on their initial rejection of Glee. The band was one of two major holdouts -- the other being, hilariously, Bryan Adams -- that refused to have their catalog performed by New Directions when the series began last year. But according to creator Ryan Murphy, they called him recently and apologized: "We're sorry, you can have our catalog," said the band through gritted teeth. Have you always wanted to hear Lea Michele and Cory Monteith sing "Fix You"? Yeah, me too. What, you thought that was sarcasm? Lights will guide you home... [Yahoo!]
There is a parallel universe where confetti and balloons and marching bands will arrive out of nowhere to celebrate the millionth filmmaker to rip on Harvey Weinstein. Here, however, all I can really do is offer a solo womp-womp fanfare and a couple sympathy pats to Cory Edwards, the writer/director who is ticked off that the Weinstein Company would go behind his back to solicit a rewrite of Fraggle Rock. How do we know? He blogged about it.
The AMC marketing department is nothing if not creative. To wit: They premiered the pilot episode of Rubicon on Sunday with nary a bit of promotion -- it wasn't even mentioned on the cable guide! -- and were able to create a modicum of buzz by doing so. Such parlor tricks aren't needed to goose interest in the return of Mad Men (July 25th -- you're welcome!), but a trip to the multiplex will make you wonder: Did those sneaky bastards use the summer movie season as a guerilla marketing campaign to promote the denizens of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce? After the jump, Movieline investigates the cast members of Mad Men and their summer movies. Warning, spoilers ahead.
Hooray! Finally, your impulse to short sell every crappy remake, reboot and sequel has received official approval in Washington. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has given its blessing to the Trend Exchange, which could commence betting on box-office futures by the end on July. (The first movie named as a possible subject is Takers, which opens Aug. 20.) The MPAA remains furious about the whole thing, but once they get the hang of flop insurance, there's no doubt they'll come around. [THR]
· After a weekend of speculation, Sam Raimi has reportedly struck a deal with Disney to direct Robert Downey Jr. in Oz: The Great And Powerfu_l. That would presumably establish yet _another franchise for Downey and an unusual scenario for Raimi, who has the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp/Alice in Wonderland model to live up to for the studio. Whatever -- with Ted Raimi probable as the Tin Man, nothing can go wrong. [Deadline]
Zach Galiafinakis may be Incredible, Peter Jackson is still wanted for The Hobbit, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
· The bloody new trailer for Centurion leaves little to the imagination. And a lot to your digestive system. Mine's working in reverse now, personally. And it wants more! [Hulu]
When Guillermo del Toro left The Hobbit, Hollywood wondered if there was any director who could step in and guide such a massive, effects-laden series while remaining in the stylistic shadow of the auteurs who'd come before. Duh, of course: David Yates, who fulfilled that exact function on the last few installments of the Harry Potter series! Slashfilm notes that his involvement with The Hobbit is just a rumor, but that sound you hear is eight thousand bloggers slapping themselves on the forehead, wondering how they didn't think of this first. [Slashfilm]
Part of the fun of the Scream series has always been guessing which up-and-comers would meet their maker, and which might be unmasked as a suddenly chatty psychopath in the last ten minutes of the film. Now that Scream 4 has started adding actors -- and the rest of the roles have been revealed -- we thought it was time to speculate about the newbies. Let's go through the casting descriptions one-by-one and decide: victim or villain?
· Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead is being remade. Don't confuse that with Adventures in Babysitting -- which is also being remade.
· Robert Rodriguez was offered to direct the Marvel Comic movie Deadpool. And he's considering it. Rose McGowan's visited six different spandex stores since this morning.
· American Idol musicians are suing the show for releasing some of their work as downloads and ringtones without permission. Can they please also sue to prohibit any future release of Tim Urban's reggae-fied "Under My Thumb"?
· All of Gary Coleman's ugly secrets are coming out in the dispute over his will -- like alleged mistresses and train set collections.
· Hope you found a way to digest the insane third season finale, because Breaking Bad's renewed for a fourth now.
Though the cast of Jersey Shore appears in a new Enrique Iglesias video, that apparently isn't enough to satisfy Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino's musical muscle: He just released his own dance single called "The Situation" with Missy Elliott's old co-hollerer Fatman Scoop. Spoiler: The Auto-Tune hits you like a vagabond gym teacher in a Seaside Heights bar. I'd be on board if it were called "Money Can't Buy You Abs." A little class, namean? [TMZ]
Radio silence be damned! While his fellow co-executive producer Carlton Cuse travels around Europe like some post-college English major, Damon Lindelof has put pen to paper -- or fingers to keyboard -- on what could be the greatest piece of writing he's ever done. And yes, I am including Crossing Jordan in that statement. The Lost showrunner took time out from his busy schedule of tweaking the Star Trek 2 screenplay -- I'm assuming -- to offer up advice on how to stop the disastrous BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Because, if it's good enough for Kevin Costner and James Cameron, it's good enough for Damon. What does he have in mind? Well, it all starts with Billy Bob Thornton.
Another day, another celebrity stalker faces jail time. Today, 26-year-old Chidi Uzomah was sentenced to two years in prison for following Ryan Seacrest while armed with a knife. After the two years is up, Uzomah must stay away from the multi-hyphenate for an entire decade. Last September, the felon approached Seacrest outside of an Orange County hospital and then again one month later at an E! building. [TMZ]
We can all agree that the recent Ghostbusters and Glee flash mobs were a little bit adorable, but is the fad played out? Not if Tilda Swinton has anything to say about it. She's planning a flash dance on June 26 to The Avalon Boy's "At the Ball" in order to promote her new 8 1/2 Foundation, explaining, "It's a song from Laurel and Hardy's funniest film Way Out West. In the film, Stan and Ollie do a wee dance, which is rubbish compared to Cyd Charisse or Gene Kelly, or any trained dancer, and yet it's one of the most charming, amusing, gentle, child-like musical numbers in the whole of cinema history." Book your trip to Edinburgh now! [Indiewire]
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