After an extraordinary awards season when Kathryn Bigelow could do no wrong, she ran into a little bit more trouble during a brief stint this week at L.A. Superior Court. There, the first woman to win an Oscar for Best Director could not break through the jury pool for a drunk-driving case.
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A new site called MovieClips.com has launched on the back of a lot of press attention at South by Southwest and a few posts from Jeff Wells, and it's intended "to give movie lovers, movie bloggers, and everyone else a place to easily find and embed licensed movie clips," says cofounder Richard Raddon, who formerly ran the Los Angeles Film Festival (until his controversial donation in support of Prop 8 led to his resignation). Raddon says the site is still a work in progress, but that the quality and interface is better than YouTube. I decided to take it for a test drive.
· Shia LaBeouf talks around his relationship with Carey Mulligan to GQ: "She's an unbelievably thought-provoking actress, the most talented actress I've ever met in my life, by leaps and bounds. Neither one of us are fame whores. It works out. It's not like we're the premiere couple; we're not the red-carpet king and queen."
· Paul Bettany and Rufus Sewell have joined The Tourist, starring Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie.
· "I'd like to be Philip Seymour Hoffman's boyfriend," volunteers Ewan McGregor. "I think we'd make a good couple. We'd look good, we'd look slightly odd and we'd go to interesting parties and people would be interested in us."
· The Bachelor creator Mike Fleiss has revealed that Bob Guiney was the sluttiest bachelor, estimating his bachelorette-defiling at "5 1/2 women." Was there a double amputee that season?
· What did you miss if you didn't catch A Serbian Film at South by Southwest this week? "Newborn porn," incest, and "the unique magic of rigor mortis," say the WSJ. Sounds appetizing!
The farther we get from microbudget horror phenomenon Paranormal Activity, the more its sequel seems doomed. Were there any dangling threads in the first that really required revisiting? Vacation photos left undiscovered in an attic? Scrabble boards yet to erupt into flames? And yet all it takes is a look at the hard numbers -- an initial investment of $1.78 and three sunflower seeds has yielded earnings for Paramount of $183 million, plus one funny-enough Oscars parody and a new specialty division -- to quickly realize that Paranormal Activity 2 is coming whether we want it or not. And its search for a director may finally be over.
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How seriously is Summit treating its two-film adaptation of the Twilight series' insane final book, Breaking Dawn? This seriously: The studio is approaching some heavy hitters to direct, including Gus Van Sant, Sofia Coppola, and Bill Condon. Oh, I really did need that laugh this morning! Complicating matters is that, uh, Coppola only directs things she writes, Condon intends to make a Richard Pryor biopic next, and we all know that Van Sant hates filming shirtless boys in the Pacific Northwest. Better luck next time, Summit! [EW]
You know it's going to be a slow news day when material that's been rumored and recycled and regurgitated for the better part of two years sends the Web into paroxysms of buzz. Take the new Muppet movie that Disney has planned, with the most recently reported title The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made and a script co-written by Jason Segel. The actor-writer has made little secret about it being his dream project, which is awesome for him because now -- shock of shocks -- he's starring in it.
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Country-music legend Willie Nelson has lent his imprimatur to a film-production company called Luck Films. Based in Luck, Texas, Nelson and his partners will produce three to five projects per year -- most below the $3 million range. The 76-year-old himself will appear in the first pair of movies, including Shootout of Luck and The Dry Gulch Kid. And who can blame him? If you had Surfer, Dude, Beer For My Horses and The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning littering the most recent section of your CV, you'd probably seek some legacy redemption, too. [Variety]
· I lost track a while ago of who was still in the running to play Captain America, but I'm pretty sure Channing Tatum is a relatively new suggestion? Which could mean anything in terms of his actual legitimacy as a contender -- everyone but Cedric the Entertainer has been suggested at this point -- but as one observer notes: Can Tatum even reasonably approximate the hero's weakling alter-ego Steve Rogers? Also, Marvel reportedly approached Keira Knightley to play the Captain's love interest Betsy Ross. As in: "Tatum. Knightley. Captain America. Coming in 2011." Nahh. [THR]
The witch business picks up for Summit, Kristen Stewart is linked to the end of the world, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
· In TV news, this ChatRoulette recording is better than 99% of reality programming. And Gastineau Girls isn't even on anymore, so that's probably an understatement.
Now that Sacha Baron Cohen's exhausted most of the recurring characters in his reperotire, it's time to expand his horizons, and what better person to do that with than Martin Scorsese? The director has entered discussions for Baron Cohen and Ben Kingsley to join his next project, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, where Baron Cohen would play a train station inspector and Kingsley would play filmmaker George Melies. Very nice. [Deadline]
Is "fighting cyber crime" the new "ordered into anger management?" After learning from Spencer Pratt himself that he'd be taking a suspicious break from his duties on MTV's The Hills to pursue a career in "maintaining the technological superiority of the U.S. military" -- don't you feel safer already? -- a new report from Us says the real reason Pratt left the show was because he was ordered off by its producers. He'll be attending a six-week seminar in controlling his temper, after he threatened to kill a female staffer who asked him to do something he objected to. [Us]
Jim Carrey hasn't shot a new film in over a year, though he has several potential projects in the mix for 2010. One of those probably won't be Butter, Movieline hears. Vulture claims the actor is in talks to star in the Black List-vetted script about a term-limited butter-sculpting champion, his beleaguered wife (Jennifer Garner), and the young black upstart who threatens their family's dominance in the sport. However, our sources say Carrey has already passed on the lead role.
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In what will likely remain one of the most bizarre announcements this week, the New York Post is reporting that Mike Tyson -- former heavyweight champion, convicted felon, notorious ear-biter, documentary subject and Hangover actor -- will star in an Animal Planet reality show that showcases his first true love: pigeons. The boxer and the birds go way back, apparently to when Tyson, at the tender age of 10, stole milk cartons to shelter pigeons being kept in his Brownsville neighborhood as pets. But the relationship goes deeper. For instance, would you believe that the birds influenced Tyson to start fighting?
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· Want to see one of the stars from Mad Men naked? It's Rich Sommer. Still game?
· Anakin Skywalker also-ran Ryan Phillippe is crossing his fingers that Captain America tryouts go better for him.
· Ron Perlman will play the paterfamilias once earmarked for Mickey Rourke in Conan.
· Corey Feldman will be skipping Corey Haim's funeral: "Instead, I will remain in Los Angeles quietly mourning and planning his memorial."
· Amy Pietz is joining The Office, but as what? Therein lies the mystery...
Kate Winslet and Sam Mendes have separated, they announced today. An attorney for the couple released this statement: "Kate and Sam are saddened to announce that they separated earlier this year. The split is entirely amicable and is by mutual agreement. Both parties are fully committed to the future joint parenting of their children. hey ask that the media respect the privacy of the family." The two have one child together, a son named Joe Alfie, as well one daughter from Winslet's previous marriage to Jim Threapleton, whom she divorced in 2001. [CBS]
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