Hey you! Have a good, gimmicky idea for the next Paranormal Activity? Paramount is about to announce a new specialty division entitled Insurge Pictures, which has plans to make 10 films a year at a micro-budget of $100,000 each. It'll be headed by Amy Powell, the Paramount Interactive Marketing SVP who shepherded Paranormal to success. LA's struggling actor contingent may have hit the SAG card motherlode with this one. [Indiewire]
The inevitable box-office futures racket will finally launch next week, with Cantor Fitzgerald making good on the long-awaited promise to let you bet real money on the prospects of Hollywood films. Regulators have approved, and Cantor is counting on a healthy share of players at the Hollywood Stock Exchange (which Cantor owns) to bite at the opportunity to gamble their cash on Avatar, Valentine's Day and the like. But the real value is for studios: Finally, flop insurance has arrived!
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As hard as this is to believe, we're just one month away from our first birthday here at the new Movieline. It's been a whirlwind year of revealing interviews, gonzo festival coverage, zingy cultural criticism and penetrating insights into the power of Taylor Lautner's abs, and we all sincerely hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoy bringing it you every day. But as we graduate into toddlerhood, we're beginning to feel growing pains: The time has come to expand our family and coverage. We're looking to fill several positions on the Movieline masthead.
What are we looking for?
After weeks of speculation surrounding Conan O'Brien's plans to circulate the country on a comedy tour (and no less than two false starts by eager distributor Ticketmaster), the former Tonight Show host officially announced his Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour this morning. In a statement provided to TheWrap, O'Brien revealed that NBC's ironclad exit deal didn't leave him many options: "It was either a massive 30-city tour or start helping out around the house."
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Buried in Anne Thompson's survey of the wreckage at Variety, find this startling revelation about the paper's former editor-in-chief and all-around Hollywood insider Peter Bart: "Bart [...] has lost his phone-answering, email-printing assistant and corporate BlackBerry. He used to type his correspondence, columns and blog entries (which he abandoned after Michael Fleming defected to Deadline.com) on a typewriter and have someone else put them on the computer. Now he files from home." Typewritten blog entries! What will he think of next? Anyway, Peter, welcome to the club. Let me know if you need help finding your way around that mouse. [TOH]
Heidi Montag has fired her manager -- who just happened to be her husband and Hills co-star, Spencer Pratt -- and replaced him with...(wait for it)...a psychic. Montag told People Magazine last night, "After the incredible experiences I have had healing my life and truly connecting to my dreams with healer intuitive Aiden Chase, I have officially asked him to become my manager. Having an intuitive psychic leading my team gives me an edge no one else has." Pratt has been Heidi's manager since the couple met five years ago. The pair will remain married. [People]
· Ed Helms and Jason Segel have signed on to Jeff Who Lives at Home, a stoner comedy set up at Paramount by filmmaking siblings Mark and Jay Duplass (Cyrus, Baghead). Segel is set to play the titular slacker while Helms will appear as his slightly better-adjusted brother, and really, can't you see the resemblance? The Duplasses are still looking for someone to portray the film's mother; hell, why not Mo'Nique? [THR]
Clint Eastwood takes on Hoover, Steve Martin rounds out a nifty comic trio, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
· We're not trying to post Funny or Die videos every day, but this one's chock full of Oscar winners, nominees, and boobs, so the fourth estate calls. Here, Marion Cotillard effectively sells you plastic forehead boobs. She's accompanied by Taraji P. Henson and our eternal Miss Scarlet, Lesley Ann Warren. [Funny or Die]
Howard Stern railed on Monday with concerns for Gabourey Sidibe's weight "crisis" and her potential in show business. Those doubts were allayed -- with spectacular timing -- by news that Sidibe had landed roles in the Showtime drama The Big C and the film Yelling at the Sky. But today, Stern elaborated on his diatribe by comparing Sidibe to the show's troubled team member Artie Lange. "I kinda don't see a difference between what our Artie [Lange] did -- Artie tried to kill himself -- and I feel like this girl, in a slower way, but nevertheless the same outcome will be that she's going to kill herself." Full audio is embedded after the break.
This week's corrosive meltdown between critic Armond White and Team Greenberg -- including filmmaker Noah Baumbach, his publicist Leslee Dart, and distributor Focus Features -- was thought to have wound down with White's admission to a screening of the film this Friday. You'll remember Dart "banned" him from the first NYC critic's preview occurring tonight, in part because of an old review where White allegedly said the filmmaker's "parents should have aborted him." White hinted to Movieline and several other publications that he never wrote any such thing. And he's right -- kind of. Now that someone's dug up the smoking-ish gun, you be the judge.
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You sampled the inert chemistry between Jerry Seinfeld and Kelly Ripa during last week's disappointing premiere of The Marriage Ref and tomorrow morning you can relive it all over again. On Live! with Regis and Kelly, Ripa and Seinfeld will joke about the morning news, throw a few plugs towards Ref and end the hourlong show by interviewing guest Donald Trump. Other stars filling in for the Reege this week include Ludacris and Ted Danson. [THR]
Fox announced today that it's moving Oliver Stone's Wall Street sequel Money Never Sleeps from an April 23 release to Sept. 24. The bump pretty much squelches the momentum accrued this month with a Vanity Fair cover, Carey Mulligan's Oscar nomination and trailer play around the country, while it opens the possibility of festival play at both Cannes and Toronto and perhaps even an awards-season push of its own. Anyway, you've already waited 23 years; what's another five months? [Deadline]
· Benicio Del Toro has taken over spokesmodel duties for the Magnum ice cream campaign, replacing Eva Longoria and Eva Mendes. Let's just enjoy that key art over there. Very nice.
· Forest Whitaker will not be starring alongside 50 Cent in a remake of Jekyll and Hyde. Let's just have 50 play all the roles, hm?
· Dina Lohan says Lindsay cried to her after watching the E*TRADE ad with the milkaholic baby that resembles her, reportedly pleading, "Mommy, help me." Well, she's definitely making her case!
· Is Vera Farmiga really going to star for Madonna in W.E.? "She approached me," Farmiga confirmed to E! "We sat for a cup of tea and again for a cup of tea. Hopefully, it will all come together."
· Katy Perry will be playing Smurfette in the upcoming Smurfs film. Oh, no.
Now that Hollywood is done with that yucky business of the Oscars, it can go back to honoring what it really does best: superhero movies! Here are all the latest updates on some of the biggest franchises over the last 24 hours:
Captain America: Though Fox 411 reported a few days ago that John Krasinski was the frontrunner for the title role, both Deadline and Heat Vision say he's out of the running (which could explain why he just picked up another hiatus project), as are the bulk of the other contenders rumored. Still in the mix: Garrett Hedlund and Mike Vogel, plus new names Chris Evans and Wilson Bethel (The Young and the Restless).
On the third day of the Music by Prudence Oscar speech fallout, Elinor Burkett, a.k.a. the "Kanye of the Oscars," spoke to Joy Behar. Unlike the previous night's humiliating CNN segment, in which Larry King pulled a one-two-re-interrupt-punch on Prudence director Roger Ross Williams, Burkett immediately asserted good will among viewers and host by heartily agreeing that "yes, the Oscars were so dull that I spent most of the ceremony chain-smoking outside." Charmed, Behar leaned in as her Academy Award-winning doppleganger lurched ahead with a tale of Sunday's events which would pit the raspy documentary producer as the first victim of acceptance speech "bigfooting" in the Academy's history.
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