Considering Megan Fox compared Michael Bay to Hitler, it should come as no surprise that the dissolution of their relationship isn't going very smoothly. After it was reported yesterday that Fox was fired from Transformers 3 -- presumably so Bay could have an excuse to "interview" some supermodels -- her reps took to People.com to set the record straight: "Megan Fox will not be starring in Transformers 3. It was her decision not to return. She wishes the franchise the best." And by "best," of course she means "worst." Skids and Mudflap could not be reached for comment. [People]
· Another day, another Star is Born casting rumor/production update. This time around Gerard Butler's name has been invoked as a replacement for Russell Crowe, who was only two weeks ago lamenting the departure of Beyoncé Knowles. And yet the latest report cites Butler's co-star in the latest remake of the musical drama as... Beyoncé Knowles. Jeez. Just cast Betty White and get it over with. [LAT]
Paul Greengrass backs out of a Voyage, Emma Watson eyes a Wallflower, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
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· In a video posted today on True/Slant, writer Brian Donovan takes on the Sex and the City 2 trailer as a representative from the viewer demographic more inclined to follow Terry Bradshaw than Carrie Bradshaw. For the record, this trailer provokes thoughts of self-destruction for men and women of all sexual orientations -- I don't believe Donovan means to leave anyone out here. [True/Slant]
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Life! That headline you're reading up there is literally something I IM'd to someone as a joke after learning this afternoon that Megan Fox had been fired from Transformers 3, freeing up a love interest role in one of the biggest movies of next year. Now, mere hours later, I am using my joke headline in a real story about what Michael Bay is really, actually doing. I mean, give it a day at least, Mike!
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First Skids and Mudflap were canned from Transformers 3, and now this! Our sister site Deadline is reporting that Megan Fox has essentially been fired from the franchise, since director Michael Bay and the studio won't be picking up her sequel option. Was it something she said? (Like, "[Michael Bay] wants to be like Hitler"? Or maybe "I don't know how you saw [Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen] in IMAX without having a brain aneurysm or at least a migraine headache"? And let's not forget about "You don't have to look like an airbrushed Cosmopolitan cover all the time to be attractive"?)
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About time! According to Anne Thompson, director/artist Miranda July has finally completed her second film (after winning the Camera d'Or for her first, Me and You and Everyone We Know). It's a relationship comedy costarring Hamish Linklater called The Future, and it's about a self-obsessed couple who can't stop Googling their own names. In honor of July's last effort, let's start pooping back and forth in anticipation. [Thompson on Hollywood]
Apparently, it is possible to defeat Superman. Smallville star Tom Welling accidentally told our sister site Hollywood Life a bit of pre-upfront gossip: the next season of the superhero drama will be its last after 10 years on the air. Perhaps the youth-obsessed CW could go even younger and give Latrell and Marquise a call for Smallville Elementary? [Hollywood Life]
· Man, that first Splice trailer was so discreet about showing the film's mutated baddie, and then here comes this poster. Click for bigger.
· Kyle MacLachlan is leaving Desperate Housewives, a few too many seasons after her should have.
· When Real Housewives of Atlanta comes back, you may not recognize the new-nosed Nene.
· PS3 game Heavy Rain already plays like a movie, and now it will be one.
· Tucked into his interview with actress Kim Dickens, AV Club writer Steve Heisler happens to mention, "I was an extra in The Lake House when Sandra Bullock was in it, and we were told that we were not allowed to make eye contact with her unless she initiated the eye contact." In all fairness, I wouldn't want people looking at me if I made that movie, either.
Kellan Lutz and some of the lesser Twilight actors have been holding out for a bigger paycheck to do the two-film finale Breaking Dawn, and now, Deadline reports, they've gotten (most of) it. Thank goodness -- if they'd had to recast even more roles after already replacing Rachelle Lefevre for Eclipse, this whole saga would have felt like Todd Solondz was directing it or something (and Breaking Dawn's werewolf-vampbaby love story is already icky enough). [Deadline]
As a Saturday Night Live property, MacGruber has always been at the bleeding of edge of synergy, brand integration, and maximal Pepsi ocularity, and on its way to the big screen, it should surprise no one that once again the marketing rules are being rewritten. Thus, we present for you star Will Forte's full frontal photoshoot to promote the film. Underneath the jump, you'll see something NSFW that you can't unsee, and you won't have the Photoshopped head-veil of MacGruber producer Lorne Michaels to protect you. Are you ready?
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If you're the kind of fan of bizarre pop culture minutiae who still smirks when you see pictures of Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly, you might remember that the original pilot script for Lost featured a Psycho-like twist where the ostensible lead character, Jack Shephard (who was supposed to be played by Michael Keaton), died halfway through. Naturally, that was changed -- everyone realized killing the hero was a bad idea -- but at the time of the initial casting, this was still a very real intention. As such, J.J. Abrams and company instead concentrated on casting Sawyer, who was then the actual male lead, and they brought in several of the actors who'd go on to other Lost roles to read specifically for that one. What would Lost have been like if Matthew Fox wound up playing Sawyer? Or Jorge Garcia? Movieline dusts off the audition tapes to find out.
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Garry Marshall has previously threatened not just to make New Year's Eve, a semi-sequel to the DEFCON romcom Valentine's Day, but to bring back a few choice cast members. Now, though, he'd junk them all for just one teen troubadour. "Already, they're mentioning Justin Bieber. I have no idea who that is, but I'm sure we'll meet," Marshall told MTV. "It's supposed to be a similar cast of a number of stars. It's written like that, but we hope to get all new stars except for Hector Elizondo, who has to be in all my movies." [MTV]
If you're going to get barred from accepting your Best Picture Oscar at the Academy Awards, then you'd better get your money's worth. That's the predicament facing Nicolas Chartier, the intrepid producer and e-mail wack job who has followed his ill-advised awards-season attacks on Avatar with a little better-advised (but still insane) on a defender of Hurt Locker pirates. Read on for the e-evidence.
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· From Eagle vs. Shark to Gentlemen Broncos, Jemaine Clement hasn't necessarily had a lot of success in his attempts to establish an identity outside Flight of the Conchords. For the sake of everyone involved, here's hoping he bucks that trend as the villain in Men in Black III, in which he's set to play the villain Yaz. Not much more is known about the character, but let's leave the horribly disfiguring prosthetics to Peter Sarsgaard for now, no? [Deadline]
Mothers gets the Mean Girls treatment, The Three Musketeers get their queen, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
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· L.A. improv star Drew Droege is officially a better Chloe Sevigny than Chloe Sevigny. Here, the new-and-improved Chloe tells us what she got for her birthday and who she's planning to dine with, then delivers a few jokes from her burgeoning stand-up career. [Vulture]
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