· Hey, look at that: Doug Liman wasn't lying when he said he had buyers on the hook for Fair Game, which Summit Entertainment bought ahead of its Cannes Film Festival premiere in a couple weeks. The pick-up no doubt gives the Naomi Watts/Sean Penn thriller/drama some early awards-season juice; it also takes the pressure off wondering who's going to pay for the yacht rental for the Cannes afterparty. What a relief. [Deadline]
Uncanny whale impressions, a new Stephen King adaptation, and much more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
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Welcome back to Movieline Attractions, your regular guide to everything new, noteworthy and/or past its sell-by date at the movies. This week, an iconic franchise receives an underwhelming reboot, Brendan Fraser battles nature, and after all these years, the horror genre finally goes ass-to-mouth. Read on for the weekend's projected winners and losers.
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· Scarlett Johansson's press junket for Iron Man 2 gleefully devolved into a scene worthy of Project Runway's L'Oreal Paris makeup room. Here, Scarlett applies eye shadow and lipstick to a Metacafe reporter. Just because! [Metacafe]
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While we wait for Bill Carter to finish writing the The Late Shift sequel, producers Basil Iwanyk (Clash of the Titans) of Thunder Road and Kevin J. Cleary of Content House are developing a miniseries about the drama between the Tonight Show's first three hosts: Steve Allen, Jack Paar and Johnny Carson. The miniseries, called The King of Late Night, will be based on Robert Metz's 1980 book The Tonight Show and will explore the behind-the-scenes drama that plagued the show's hosts long before Jay Leno butted his chin in. [Deadline]
As though Kristen Wiig doesn't already have enough to do every week on Saturday Night Live, she's now pulling double duty for the MacGruber soundtrack, contributing three songs. Stereogum has the premiere of her 80's inspirational dirge "Champion," and it's every bit as intentionally bad as you would expect. Which is good, right? [Stereogum]
Stick a trident in Anchorman 2, because it's done. Director Adam McKay tweeted today that he did everything he could to interest Paramount in a sequel to the Will Ferrell comedy -- even luring back stars Steve Carell and Paul Rudd at reduced salaries -- but the studio still passed. Tonight's top story: The sewers of 5555 Melrose Ave. run red with Burgundy's blood. [Twitter via /film]
Megan Mullally's first performance on Party Down last Friday went over in the ratings about as well as it went over at Movieline: terribly. The Starz comedy pulled in 126,000 viewers, only 10,000 more than its first season premiere. Maybe as Mullally arrived, all those other cast members left just in time. But fear not -- it's still too early to slap Party Down with the nickname In the Motherhood 2: Just Desserts. [THR]
Now Mercedes will never get those solos! Time has released its list of the 100 most influential people in the entire world, and among the world leaders and philanthropists is Glee star Lea Michele, because why not? (Sadly, her apparent global influence couldn't get her more than ten seconds of screen time this week.) What other entertainment figures made the list?
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James Cameron, whose fearless exploits have taken him everywhere from the Amazon rain forest to the brink of war with Glenn Beck, has a new proving ground in mind for his 3-D adventures. And I'm not talking about the high seas of Pandora, which even he knows is for chumps. The man is going to Mars.
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· There's a new Inception poster! And it's just a little bit less Dark Knight-y than the first one.
· Do you want to see a picture of the Destroyer from Thor? Spoiler alert: It looks like the cover of Earthbound from Super Nintendo.
· Simon West (Con Air) will direct Dwayne Johnson in the relatively inexpensive thriller Protection.
· Mickey Rourke's instruction to Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau: play Amy Winehouse on set, at full volume. "In that scene when he's walking down the [Monaco] racetrack with the whips out and people are running and screaming and there's tires on fire, 'Rehab' was blasting," said Favreau.
· Tyra Banks is paying her audience members fifty dollars to eat dog food. Honey, Wendy Williams would eat a whole bag herself if there was a new wig in it for her.
Do you lose a little piece of your soul every time John Cusack tweets a misspelled word like "breakfasy," "lysten," or "hippocrite"? "I'm pretty new to it, and if there's a spell check on an iPhone, I can't find it," the actor told the NYT. "So I basically get in the general ballpark and tweet it." Still, he can't understand why grammarians bust his chops: "The vitriol was so intense that at first I didn't think they were serious. Because, like, who would care?" [NYT]
What is it with the Iron Man villains? After Jeff Bridges famously said that there was "no script" for the first Iron Man -- and actually compared it to a student film -- here's Mickey Rourke claiming he didn't even bother reading whatever script there was for the sequel. Says Rourke: "I've only read my part. I had no idea what was going on in the movie, really." Dear Paramount: Get that in the marketing materials, stat! [MTV/Splash Page]
Because a new Nightmare on Elm Street isn't enough to satiate your nostalgic horror needs, here comes Scream 4. And, if you're lucky, Scream 5 and Scream 6. But lest you think this series reboot is just some desperate money grab for Bob Weinstein in the same way the Star Wars prequels were for George Lucas, Scream 4 plans to reinvent the genre... by slavishly sticking to the genre. Just don't tell director Wes Craven.
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· If you're keeping score of this whole The Hobbit release-date snafu at home, get your White-Out again: Wednesday's press release noting a December 2013 release date for the two-part film's first installment was inaccurate. It's really December 2012. The second film opens in December 2013. This doesn't change the fact that it'll never happen in your lifetime, but it's always important to have goals. [THR]
That Richard Gere/Topher Grace combo you've been waiting for has materialized, as has a Commando sequel and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
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· Apparently, someone controlling the marquee at this NYC cineplex believes Date Night and Death at a Funeral are best summarized using only key nouns. That, or this is a very hostile cry for help. [The Film Experience]
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