You may have thought you'd heard everything from the Annals of Moviegoing Violence after that 2008 incident involving a chatty moviegoer and the man who shot him. Then along comes this: A man was stabbed in the neck with a meat thermometer at a recent screening of Shutter Island in Lancaster, Calif.
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· It's kind of surprising it took this long, but Warner Bros. is reportedly contemplating a remake/updating of The Wizard of Oz. The studio is said to have its choice of two projects that would revive the 1939 classic: The first, simply titled Oz, is set up at New Line by the production company behind Twilight, while the other -- with a screenplay by Josh Olson (A History of Violence) -- is an untitled, modern-day story about a clash between Dorothy's granddaughter and evil forces that have overtaken Oz. Which one can only assume means vampires. In 3D. Neither apparently has the development edge at this point, but considering what we saw last weekend from Alice in Wonderland, expect a breakthrough soon. [LAT]
John Krasinski gets Borrowed, Ralph Fiennes recruits a veteran pair for Coriolanus, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
Oy. Sad news this morning out of Burbank: Corey Haim has died of what appears to be an accidental overdose. He was 38. KTLA reports that Haim was found unresponsive in his apartment around 3:30 a.m. PST; his mother was home at the time. Haim was pronounced dead at St. Joseph's Medical Center shortly thereafter. That's about all anyone knows right now about the Lost Boys and Two Coreys star's demise; expect more to follow here throughout the day as details and condolences trickle forth. Feel free to leave yours in the comments. [KTLA via LAT]
· Ron Howard's getting started on the 2011 Best Documentary Short race with this Funny or Die clip starring concerned citizen Heidi Montag. In the video, Montag pokes fun at herself, stopping short of literally poking her own frozen epidermis. At any rate, Opie has a trenchant message about the economy, I think, and he's using reality stars to drive it home. I'm a little worried, too. [FunnyOrDie]
Starz has been anxious to get underway on the second season of Spartacus: Blood and Sand (even renewing the series before it premiered), but the network may have to wait a little longer. Star Andy Whitfield has been diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and will begin treatment immediately, pushing back the start of production, which was set to begin in just a few weeks. Between Whitfield's diagnosis and the Hodgkin's lymphoma that Michael C. Hall has battled, it's a scary season for pay-cable leads. Get well soon, guys! [EW]
Though most of the contenders for the title role in Captain America are buff pretty boys, producers have signaled an interest in offbeat casting choices -- just look at rumored frontrunner John Krasinski, for example. However, no one had any idea how horrifyingly far afield the casting net had gone until last night, when stand-up comedian and enthusiasm monger Dane Cook tweeted that he had auditioned for the role.
· If Caprica didn't burnish Patton Oswalt's cult sci-fi bona fides enough, he's now penning a Firefly comic book. Click to expand the cover art, nerrrrds.
· Nooo! Newly minted Oscar winner has dropped out of David Cronenberg's The Talking Cure, where we was to play Sigmund Freud. Now, Viggo Mortensen will be filling in opposite Michael Fassbender and Keira Knightley.
· One of the Rhode Island cops on this season of The Amazing Race has been put on desk duty "in the wake of an internal investigation into a major cop-operated cocaine ring." That's never good.
· Columbia is trying to bring Sacha Baron Cohen or Jemaine Clement on board the entirely unnecessary Men in Black 3.
· Does Sherri Shepherd know why the Oscarcast cut to her when Precious screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher won? "Sure, 'cause I'm another black person, but I didn't care," she told Vulture. "I wanted them to cut to me for everything."
Robert "Joe" Haldeman, the Emmy-winning CBS producer who sought $2 million from David Letterman in exchange for suppressing details of his romantic staff liaisons, is expected to pleaded guilty today to attempted extortion. As part of a plea agreement, Halderman will serve six months in prison, four and a half years' probation and perform 1,000 hours of community service. Suggestions for that are welcome in the comments, though keep in mind he probably won't be teaching any underprivileged aspiring screenwriters. Anything else though... sky's the limit. [NYT]
Get ready for White vs. Baumbach III: Word got out Monday night that famously irascible NY Press critic Armond White was barred from seeing a press screening of the forthcoming Ben Stiller/Noah Baumbach collaboration Greenberg, and that Baumbach himself joined Scott Rudin in issuing the lockdown."I was told this rescinded invite was ordered by director Noah Baumbach, producer Scott Rudin and their publicist," White wrote in an e-mail to his peers, citing distributor Focus Features' initial call on Monday. "They objected to my previous reviews of The Squid and the Whale and Margot at the Wedding. I objected that they were infringing upon my First Amendment rights as a journalist."
While neither Baumbach nor Rudin are commenting, their representative Leslee Dart begged to differ this morning -- sort of -- when she spoke with Movieline.
When I first heard that Lindsay Lohan had filed suit against E*TRADE for featuring a "milkaholic" baby named Lindsay in one of its commercials -- and that Lohan's rep shrugged off the fact that the name "Lohan" was never uttered in the ad by saying, "Do you know the name Oprah? Do you know the name Madonna? Same thing" -- I thought to myself, "Here we go again. People are linking to one of HuffPo's 'Borowitz Reports' and not realizing that those are satire." But no! This is a real thing! The question is, does Lohan have a case?
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Disney raised more than a few eyebrows recently when its upcoming animated film Rapunzel was renamed the comparatively gender-neutral Tangled. "We did not want to be put in a box," said Pixar and Disney Animation Studios president Ed Catmull, still bruised from the underperforming The Princess and the Frog. "Some people might assume it's a fairy tale for girls when it's not." That's the same rationale that got Disney's in-development project The Snow Queen canned (on account of the difficulty of renaming it Snow: Monster Truck Explosion, we presume). [LAT]
What better way to start a bright, sunny spring morning than by hearing the minute-by-minute details of Harry Smith's colonscopy? The Early Show anchor will one-up his intrepid colleague Katie Couric by undergoing the procedure live on Wednesday's episode; Couric reported on her own colonoscopy during an Evening News segment back in 2000. You know, kind of like the Census? But with colonoscopies. Use the bathroom before you come to work tomorrow, Early Show staff. [AP]
· Sopranos creator David Chase is back at work on his feature-film debut, an untitled and essentially undefined coming-of-age drama about a young rock group in the '60s. Boomer nostalgia! Can you dig it? You'd better: Paramount has dibs, though the studio will reportedly release Chase's film for some revived version of its Paramount Vantage label -- the Oscar-friendly boutique that courted such awards-season favor with the likes of Babel, Into the Wild and, with its now-defunct partner Miramax, There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men. It's an interesting move for a studio that went 0-fer on Sunday outside the Make-Up category; it'll probably be at least a couple years before we see if it pays off, so don't go radically tweaking your preliminary 2011 Oscar ballot just yet. [Deadline]
Liv Tyler and Patrick Wilson step on to a Ledge, MGM inches closer to a deal, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
· In our zeal to cover the Oscars, we neglected to address Zach Galifianakis's admirable turn as SNL host. The most gripping (and funniest) moment occurred offstage after Vampire Weekend's second performance, when the Hangover star shaved his signature beard. Something is less compelling about a clean-shaven man playing the piano and making wry That's So Raven jokes, but I suspect his foray into peach fuzz is only temporary. [USA Today]
Startling news over at Variety today, as it's been announced that longtime film critic Todd McCarthy is among several employees being let go from the trade. McCarthy, who worked at Variety for over thirty years and often proved an industry pace-setter with his early reviews, will join chief theater critic David Rooney and six others on the unemployment line. [The Wrap]
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