Oscilloscope Laboratories has never done things especially by the book, so its April 1 announcement that it had acquired Woody Allen's 1971 comedy Frederick Gertten's activist documentary Bananas!* is suitably nuts on the only day they can really get away with it. To wit: The press release after the jump, complete with comment from O-Scope founder Adam Yauch, an ambivalent Gertten and the one and only Wood Man himself. Sort of.
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· Well hey, some Resident Evil: Afterlife pictures! Ali Larter just can't get away from terribly scripted projects that drench her in water.
· Is Anthony Hopkins getting fed up with Thor's Chris Hemsworth? No, say his reps. Glad that's settled!
· Add Joss Whedon to the list of contenders who may direct The Avengers.
· The suddenly single Susan Sarandon has no problem with being dubbed a cougar. "No, I love that!" she told EW.
Look out, Luke Wilson: Dreamgirls Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson is encroaching on your embarrassing ad campaign turf. Hudson announced during today's Good Morning America that she will star in the weight loss program's national ad campaign: "No one recognizes me anymore. I wanted to go in a different direction and find a better lifestyle." [E!]
Who is Alex Pettyfer? All of the following: a 19-year-old British actor whose biggest credit is the British flop Stormbreaker, the ex-boyfriend of actress Emma Roberts, the lead in the upcoming "Mary-Kate Olsen is a witch" fantasy Beastly, the muse to photographer Greg Gorman (NSFW!), and this week, the man cast in the coveted title role of the DJ Caruso-directed sci-fi epic I Am Number Four. And now you know! [Variety]
As if it wasn't enough that Anna Paquin has every creature in Bon Temps throwing himself at her, she's decided to expand her horizons even further. In a new PSA for the Give a Damn campaign, an LGBT rights project started by Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Fund, the True Blood actress comes out as bisexual. Inspired today in the writers room, Alan Ball is asking, "What do we think about a Sookie/Tara fling?" Luckily, a story editor is there to sensibly reply, "Only if we can make Tara a rabid were-fairy first." Video, after the jump:
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Hey, so what's new with Roman Polanski? For starters, he's still under house arrest in Gstaad, where he awaits a ruling on extradition to the U.S. But the Swiss justice ministry announced Wednesday that it won't make a ruling until an L.A. judge rules on whether Polanski's judicial-misconduct appeal can be heard without the filmmaker present. That decision is forthcoming eventually; no hearing date is scheduled yet. No rush, gang. [NYT]
In the past couple weeks, Avatar's been like that bad pizza from last night's drunken bender: You loved it at the time, but now it just won't stay down. Last week we found out that its DVD/Blu-ray release was going to help save the Earth, but even that pales in comparison to what we're hearing this morning about Avatar: Home. It's the sequel you're having when you're not having a sequel -- the "added value" theatrical re-release that'll cut back on the war scenes, play up supporting characters, and ensure James Cameron and Fox clean up every one of those hundreds of millions of dollars left on the table by moviegoers around the globe.
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For years now, the world has exploited Australians' affinity with ye olde-time/alternate-universe swords and/or sorcery. Just hand them a big blade -- and possibly a dress -- and you're ready for the greenlight. Russell Crowe rocked the Maximus in Gladiator. Geoffrey Rush wielded the foil in the Pirates franchise. And now Sam Worthington is a one-man toga war-party as Perseus in Clash Of The Titans. (Don't forget Eric Bana in Troy, Mel Gibson in Braveheart, Hugh Jackman in The Fountain and dozens more going back to Errol Flynn in The Adventures Of Robin Hood. You get the idea.) Now -- finally! -- the world is repaying the kindness by bestowing upon Sydney a production of Ben-Hur that's bigger than Ben-Hur -- and so kitsch looking it might've come from an alternate reality where Showgirls is Citizen Kane. And the best part: It's on tour! Click through for details and the thrilling-ish trailer.
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· Leonardo DiCaprio's calendar looks messier and messier by the hour. Literally: Not long after the actor was reported to be playing J. Edgar Hoover in Clint Eastwood's biopic of the FBI founder, along comes Oliver Stone to toss his adaptation of the Travis McGee detective novels -- with DiCaprio supposedly attached -- on top of the pile. Add to this Mel Gibson's Viking epic to end all Viking epics, and it might be time to add "VACATION" in the datebook somewhere in mid-2011. [THR]
A Harry Crowne rumor confirmed, Paul Greengrass mulls Fantastic Voyage (!), and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
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A landmark day for the computer that 9 out 10 movie and TV characters (okay, and some Founding Fathers) will end up using. Plus, a horror legend who has to perform from birth and Day One of a soap whose recap now runs longer than Remembrance Of Things Past.
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Trailer voice: It started like any other teen movie but just when these horny adolescents were about to get busy... WAR! This year's shaping up to be a battle between competing Aussie kids-as-guerilla warriors projects. The American-lensed Red Dawn -- which features antipodeans Chris Hemsworth and Isabel Lucas in its ensemble -- is the higher-profile project thanks to it being a remake of the cult-y 1984 flick. But judging by the number of fan-made trailers out there, the Aussie-shot Tomorrow, When The War Began might be a formidable foe. Also on its side: It blasts into cinemas in September, while Red Dawn's not parachuting in until November. Now Tomorrow has fired the first shot with a teaser trailer. How's it shape up? And while Red Dawn team will be fighting Russian and Chinese Commies, who are the Aussie kids resisting anyway?
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· Jay Leno sat down with Joy Behar on her HLN talk show to discuss Conan O'Brien's new life with squirrels, and the bedenimed comedian's verdict is: We're all screwed -- together! Watch as the Tonight Show host gives Behar an answer worthy of his very own "Battle of the Jaywalk All-Stars." [New York Post]
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Looks like Leonardo DiCaprio's going to venture back to the period setting that worked so well for him in Shutter Island, though this time, he'll going to slip into something a little more comfortable. Deadline says the actor will be playing J. Edgar Hoover in Clint Eastwood's upcoming biopic (which the director discussed with Movieline recently). We can only assume that there were no more open roles in Scorsese's next picture for him. [Deadline]
Three days into filming the dramedy series Scoundrels, ABC replaced its lead actor Neal McDonough with David James Elliott. The casting change seemed strange since ABC had a history working with McDonough, who had co-starred on over 20 episodes of Desperate Housewives as Edie's deranged husband, but no other insight was offered into the network's decision. Until a production insider revealed that the actor had duped ABC into hiring him only to refuse filming intimate scenes with the project's beautiful, Oscar-nominated lead.
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