Maybe Jeff Bridges should charge for his awards-campaign time after all: The IRS hit the Oscar-winner last month with a lien for $23,997 of unpaid employment taxes from 2002 and 2004. No further information (including Bridges' expected nine-minute response) is available at the moment, but here's hoping those Tron Legacy checks are in the mail right about now. [Detroit News]
· As Universal's Despicable Me draws closer to release, I still get it confused for the other 3D animated film about a supervillain, Megamind. Can't say this new poster helps any.
· Do the splits! Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren will be returning for a 3D sequel to Universal Soldier.
· Which is worse: Don Cheadle almost getting thrown out of first class by a racist flight attendant, or being mistaken for Tim Meadows?
· "I'm a textbook average guy," Thomas Jane tells Men's Fitness. "I'm 5'10", I wear a model suit size -- 40 regular, 32-inch waist pant -- and a size 10 shoe. Everything about me is prototypical. Everything. I even have a right-down-the middle-exactly-average dick."
· Dave Annable has replaced Matthew Bomer in the Anna Faris romcom What's Your Number, and Timothy Olyphant has replaced Sharlto Copley in I Am Number Four. Upgrades/downgrades?
Much has been made of Lost star Evangeline Lilly's intention to quit acting after the series finishes -- she even recently told Vulture, "It's true, I'm definitely planning on taking a break for a little while." Apparently, Lilly got an offer she couldn't refuse, because she just signed up for the part of "Hugh Jackman's friend" in the robot boxing movie Real Steel, directed by Shawn Levy (Date Night). Anthony Mackie is joining the cast as well, though that doesn't violate any self-imposed one-week career sabbaticals. [Variety]
And this is what it has come to apparently. While promoting Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, star Jake Gyllenhaal has taken to begging for the approval of the finicky gamer audience to see his new, video game-based, movie. Because the only thing that can sink the box office potential of a movie faster than negative reviews is negative reviews from a niche audience of demographically friendly fans who will see the movie anyway. You tell 'em, Jake!
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Add Glee creator Ryan Murphy to the laundry list of people offended by Ramin Setoodeh's Newsweek editorial, in which the author proclaimed that gay actors cannot convincingly portray straight characters. Murphy released a scathing open letter to Newsweek last night, in which he scolded the publication for not issuing an apology to readers, suggested a full-on Newsweek boycott and invited Setoodeh to the set of Glee for a sing-along of Madonna's "Open Your Heart." Click through for the full letter.
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· Jennifer Aniston may have a busier summer than usual, first negotiating to star opposite Jason Bateman, Colin Farrell and Charlie Day as one of the title characters in the workplace comedy Horrible Bosses. Then it's off to Wanderlust, in which she'd appear with Paul Rudd as half of a couple who takes off to a commune. Judd Apatow will produce, David Wain will direct, and Tracy Anderson will no doubt be on hand to carefully monitor Aniston's baby-food intake. [THR, Variety]
As expected, Brad Pitt is here to usurp some of the trade headlines as well, David Cronenberg finds his Cosmopolis duo, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
· The official, non-bootlegged trailer for Super 8 finally hit, and let me confirm: Trucks get so explodey sometimes. You've got a year before actual film's release, but J.J. Abrams knows how to tide you over with shots of twisted metal and train tracks. [ONTD]
Focus Features still has a strong 2010 release slate to unspool, but was one movie sacrificed to make room? The Playlist noticed that Sofia Coppola's Somewhere just got dated for December 22 and the ensembler It's Kind of a Funny Story has been moved up from November to September 24...the same day the studio's Channing Tatum vehicle Eagle of the Ninth was scheduled to hit theaters, which would square with rumors we've heard that the film's been pushed back to 2011. Developing... [Box Office Mojo via The Playlist]
Starz has announced the start of production on the six-part prequel to Spartacus: Blood and Sand, which will air in January 2011. The miniseries will have a brief appearance from Andy Whitfield, who plays Spartacus and is still recovering from Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, but it will focus mainly on the characters played by Lucy Lawless and John Hannah. This is refreshing for two reasons: 1) I love Lucy Lawless. 2) That is all.
Last week, Kristin Chenoweth spectacularly took to task Newsweek's Ramin Setoodeh for his editorial about how openly gay actors aren't convincing when they play straight (and before that, how openly gay actors aren't even helpful when they play gay). Today, Setoodeh has emerged to explain himself. "Over the weekend, I became the subject of a lot of vicious attacks," he wrote. "I received e-mails that said I will be fired, anonymous phone calls on my cell phone and a creepy letter at my home." So what's his defense?
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When it comes to playing sitcom hardball, Charlie Sheen is a pro. Just today, "a source close" to the Two and a Half Men star (translation: his manager) told TMZ, "Charlie is really into his sobriety now. He likes the show but it brings back bad memories. If [the contract renegotiation] doesn't happen it literally wouldn't faze him." Meanwhile, Jon Cryer's poker face has already crumbled. Sources close to Duckie reveal that he will do almost anything for that $20 million he could net from two more seasons. [TMZ]
After installing Betty White as the host of Saturday Night Live (where she could finally live out her lifelong dream of saying things that are shocking because they are coming from an old lady), the users of Facebook are drunk with power! Their latest mission: getting gay couple Cameron and Mitchell to kiss on Modern Family. As the Facebook petitioning reaches a fevered pitch (and if you listen closely, it sounds like a bunch of insistent guests clinking their glasses at a gay wedding and looking up expectantly at the dais), producers issued a statement today in hopes of calming down the ravenously romantic masses:
· Here's your first look at a gender-bending Helen Mirren as Prospera in Julie Taymor's long-shelved adaptation of The Tempest.
· Kristin Chenoweth had a lot to say about that recent Newsweek editorial bashing openly gay actors, and now Cheyenne Jackson and Michael Urie have added their two cents.
· Could you see John Grisham's The Firm working as a TV series? Sure, if they stripped out the plot and just made it a legal drama. Which they will!
· Matthew Vaughn's frequent collaborator Jane Goldman is going to rewrite the screenplay for X-Men: First Class.
· Tyra Banks has announced her first book. Oh, Tyra. You had me at "It's my novel called Modelland (pronounced 'Model Land')."
My heart can't take all this bad news today! First, Jeff Fahey attempted to drag me out of denial, forcing me to finally acknowledge that Lost's Frank Lapidus was really, truly dead. (But we didn't see a body, Jeff!) Now, Michael Bay has revealed that the racist, gold-toothed Autobots named Mudflaps and Skids will not be returning to Transformers 3 after their jaw-dropping introduction in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Though I have no doubt that Bay will replace them with something equally mind-boggling, I think we need to pay those two their due first.
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Among the hundreds of titles available to distributors at this year's Cannes Film Festival marketplace, only one wields the cachet of being a verite glimpse at an American actor's performance-art public meltdown. But despite everything promised by the Casey Affleck-directed mock-doc I'm Still Here: The Lost Year of Joaquin Phoenix, prospective buyers remain hesitant to gamble on the project. That doesn't mean it won't sell, though. After the jump, let's have a look at five adventurous-enough distributors who might be in the running for Phoenix's pholly.
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