Did the Ray Romano series Men of a Certain Age prompt anyone else but me to ask, "Shouldn't Tom Arnold be in this?" Well, that dream deferred is ostensibly occurring: Arnold is set to star in CMT's untitled David Litt comedy about a hardware store owner and family man who is a "salt-of-the-earth kind of guy, good-hearted, eager-to-please, optimistic, but sometimes overwhelmed by the chaos around him." Sounds dependably Arnoldian from here. [Deadline]
After fans, critics and co-star Shia LaBeouf trashed Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull -- pop quiz: Can you remember anything about that film besides the nuked fridge and swinging monkeys? -- it seemed likely that the threatened fifth film in the once-iconic series would need some serious readjustments. And apparently, that's happening! Maybe. Call it Indiana Jones and the Giant Grain of Salt.
more »
You know you've made it as a really interesting actor in Hollywood when you're offered a comic book villain, and so it is that Michael Fassbender must make a choice: according to Fox 411, he's been hotly pursued to play both Magneto in X-Men: First Class and the yet-unnamed villain in Marc Webb's Spider-Man reboot. Of course, Fassbender does have a bad guy role on the books already in Jonah Hex, but let's just forget about that for now -- after all, Warner Bros. has. [Fox 411]
The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, hasn't forgiven Warner Bros. for building its "Wizarding World of Harry Potter" theme park in Orlando, taking to his weekly newspaper column to urge reform in all matters of unholy pagan leisure time. Opening June 18 in Florida, the 20-acre facility is the world's first dedicated to the boy-wizard institution -- and, if Johnson and his angry British constituency have anything to say about it, certainly not the last.
more »
Hoping August's Emmy Awards are a bit more awkward than usual this year? So is TBS. In an act that can only be described as full-on taunting, the network has taken out a series of "For Your Consideration" ads for The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien with the hopes of landing O'Brien an Emmy nomination and placement on the NBC telecast. "Conan's great work in 2009 and 2010 deserves Emmy consideration. We're very excited to have him join TBS later this year," said Turner Entertainment Networks president Steve Koonin, presumably with a massive, sh*t-eating grin. The ads make no mention of NBC -- or Jay Leno -- but they do make jokes about Coco's skin and Twitter following. So there's that. Take a look after the jump.
more »
Last anyone heard, this year's Best Documentary Feature Oscar-winner The Cove was headed for limited release in Japan, where audiences would finally be given the chance to make up their own minds about their country's brutal, controversial dolphin-slaughtering pastime. That was in February. Here it is the second week in June, and thanks to some nationalist outrage, the film still hasn't made its way to screens. What gives?
more »
Just what the world needs -- another sex tape. The video, which features 47-year old Real Housewives of New Jersey cast member Danielle Staub and a "mystery man," will be distributed by Hustler Inc. The tape was allegedly shot last fall after Staub started work on the Bravo series. [TMZ]
Were it not for their previous, successful collaborations on the 1996 biopic Basquiat and 2008's Lou Reed's Berlin, I would pay top freaking dollar for a ringside seat to watch Julian Schnabel and Harvey Weinstein battle over Miral, the Schnabel drama acquired Monday by the Weinstein Company. Never mind the likely editing-suite drama or the marketing meltdowns sure to follow Harvey's modest entreaty, "Frieda Pinto. Wild Wild Girls. Think about it." This time it's allll about the Holy Land.
more »
Hey-ohhh, the economy is back! For evidence, look no further than the offices of Freestyle Releasing, whose responsibility for laying the single biggest wide-release egg in history is but a distant memory today: The organization will turn over a new leaf with some slightly more (OK, much more) esteemed company.
more »
· You're either wondering who Stephen Moyer is or what took him so long to hit the big screen. Either way, the True Blood star has taken his first two movie roles -- and there isn't a vampire to be found. In The Double, he'll co-star alongside Richard Gere and Topher Grace as a retired Russian spy (accent!) -- Wanted co-screenwriter Michael Brandt directs. And in The Big Valley, he'll play a family lawyer for the Barkley clan, a family of ranchers in 19th century California led by Jessica Lange's matriarch. Note: if you are worried about Hollywood planning two original-ish movies, don't be: Valley is an adaptation of the 1960s ABC series that starred Barbara Stanwyck. [THR/Heat Vision]
Danny Boyle goes to the Olympics, Mark Wahlberg pitches the Entourage movie and the rest of Hollywood Ink after the jump.
more »
· Sam Mendes has finally found a way to combat the suburban bleakness of his biggest films with the iPhone's new FaceTime application! In a new ad, the Oscar-winning director of American Beauty and Revolutionary Road shows off the video-chat capabilities and delights us with a Louis Armstrong soundtrack. If only this had been around in the early '50s -- April Wheeler could've flashed her straying husband "I Love You" in sign language before giving herself a fatal abortion in the living room. [Vulture]
more »
Stanley Tucci had a great 2009, but how can he follow up the one-two Streep-loving/child-raping punch that was Julie & Julia and The Lovely Bones? With a superhero movie, of course. Today, Marvel announced that Tucci will play Dr. Abraham Erskine, the scientist whose secret experiment creates the title character of Captain America. Oh good: nerdy, tortoiseshell-glasses-wearing Stanely is the best kind of Stanley. [Coming Soon]
Let's check in with Rampage Jackson, shall we? The Ultimate-Fighter-turned-actor ruffled a few feathers recently when, during an LA Times visit to the set of The A-Team (where Jackson is slipping into Mr. T's jewelry to play B.A. Baracus), he said things like "Vancouver strikes me as a San Francisco-kind of place," and "Acting is kind of gay. It makes you soft." Now, Jackson hopes to explain himself in an extensive new blog entry where he says that he actually prefers gays to straights, because straights act so gay sometimes. Someone's angling for a Newsweek think piece!
more »
You've spent years combing through tabloid pictures of Matthew McConaughey running in Malibu, surfing in Malibu, skateboarding in Malibu, and practicing yoga in Malibu, but pretty soon, you'll be able to flip on the television and see Matthew McConaughey's own comedy series set in Malibu. And the description is pretty wild.
more »
Katherine Heigl's self-submission for a Best Supporting Actress Emmy has her Grey's Anatomy co-star Eric Dane confused: "For what?" he asked E! Oh, snap. When they replied, "Um, for Grey's Anatomy," he backpedaled and said, "Oh! It's great! Fantastic! I love it! Why?" If this is Dane's way of ribbing Heigl for not appearing in much of Grey's this season (and hating what little she did), he's done a pretty good job. That said, Dane himself only has a chance of winning if the Emmys finally open the controversial "Best Naked Cavorting with Rebecca Gayheart" category. [E!]
