More sad passings: Sci-fi and horror screenwriting maestro Dan O'Bannon died in L.A. at age 63. Best known for scripting the Star Beast screenplay that went on to become Alien, he was also the guy who turned Philip K. Dick's We Can Remember It For You Wholesale into Total Recall and wrote and directed 2005's The Return of the Living Dead. His last credited project (for characters he created) is for the Ridley Scott-directed Alien prequel set for a 2011 release. Hatches to hatches, dust to dust. [Empire]
The mercurial Hollywood leading lady Jennifer Jones died Thursday of natural causes at her home in Malibu; she was 90. An Oscar-winner for 1944's The Song of Bernadette as well as the wife and muse of legendary producer David O. Selznick, Jones had not acted on-screen since 1974's Towering Inferno. Her life was radically turbulent, peppered with breakdowns, family crises (her and Selznick's daughter committed suicide in 1976) and memorable performances in classics including Duel in the Sun. A terrific critical profile of her career is here; TCM plans a four-film retrospective on Jan. 7. [NYT]
· Amid talk that Taylor Lautner might follow his New Moon/Eclipse tandem with the franchise kick-starter Max Steel, Summit Entertainment and the star's manager/father have gone ahead and pinned him to the action-thriller Cancun. Lautner would star as a college student on spring break in the titular Mexican city, where it's all fun and games until a drug cartel kidnaps your love interest and friends. Shirtlessness ensues, etc. etc. This movie's still in development and it probably made $10 million in the time it took to write this bullet. [THR]
Warner Bros. treats Steve Carell to a $2 million holiday gift, Carell's Get Smart director tries to stay busy, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
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Welcome back to Movieline Attractions, your regular guide to everything new, noteworthy and Na'vilicious at the movies. This week, while I'd like to say it's a close, competitive holiday block of new releases at the box office, I'm afraid there really is only one story. You know the one I'm talking about. Tall? Blue? Cat noses? That's the one. Read on and help me parse it and its peers.
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· I hope you can carve 70 measly minutes out of your lives to watch this painstakingly researched, edited, argued and market-tested video review of why Star Wars: The Phantom Menace -- the Howard the Duck of the Star Wars series -- well and truly sucks Tauntaun balls. Well done, Mike of Milwaukee -- and have you ever considered a career change to Christmas special narrator? Your lilting tones comfort us. (We've embedded part one after the jump; click through to access the next six chapters.) [YouTube via /Film]
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Veteran anchor-Barbie Nancy O'Dell has announced she will be stepping down from her 13-year perch at syndicated showbiz news magazine The One with Billy Bush, and her last episode will be this week. Her publicist Annie Jeeves says she is "pursuing a new opportunity" but would not elaborate further. Maybe a surprise addition to sex up the new, post-Diane era of GMA? Ohhhhh myyyyy gaaaaaaaaaaad.* (*Kristen Wiig Sue Voice) [AP]
Jersey Shore's reigning guidette Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi learned last week that reality infamy comes at a price. Like that cushy job back home: "I was a receptionist at a corporation...I was getting good money, like $13 an hour. I got fired when I asked for time off to go to L.A." Look at the bright side though, Snooks: You met Mike Tyson, pitched a dating show on Conan and learned some valuable advice from that new clubbing buddy of yours, Kristin Cavallari of The Hills: "She told the girls not to read the stuff online...You're going to have haters and you're going to have lovers." [E!]
· RuPaul is getting her Palin on to promote the second season of RuPaul's Drag Race. Drag Race and Project Runway on at the same time? How good of Ru to provide fierceness supplements. Click for bigger.
· What does Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner think of actors who come out of the closet? "I think it can be a commercially devastating thing." Sadly, he's not talking about Sal in the sixties.
· Carey Mulligan's Best Actress campaign has reached the "leak Shia stories to People" phase.
· What will Idina Menzel be doing on Glee? Producer Ryan Murphy has no clue.
· If you've ever wanted to get shirtless and hug Jon Hamm...well, it's been done.
This week's new Clash of the Titans trailer sparked intense interest in some of the creatures and critters revealed ahead of the film's March release date. But while Liam Neeson's malformed beaver-beard struck fear into the fragile hearts of young viewers everywhere with its order, "Release the Kraken!", a more seasoned, observant reader noted to Movieline the uncanny resemblance between the massive Kraken and its slobbering, befanged progenitor of 27 years ago, Return of the Jedi's Rancor Monster. An investigation was launched, and soon, our Dept. of Monster Geneology had traced a few of the other offshoots in this handsome family line. Do you see the resemblance?
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It's no wonder that graphic novels -- essentially pre-drawn storyboards featuring ultra-violent, supernatural plotlines -- are such an appealing sell. But caveat emptor, Hollywood-types: many come with fanatical fanbases that will make your lives living hells if you so much as get a single inkblot wrong on your anti-hero's mask. Even worse -- some are simply unfilmable. We round up for you now some of this decade's best, and worst, examples of graphic novel adaptations.
And a note for purists: The term graphic novel is being used here to also encompass limited comic book series that have later been published in volumes. OK! Let's begin...
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Likely the last time LAT film critic Kenneth Turan was on your radar came in 1998, when Turan's pan of Titanic was so against the grain that James Cameron himself wrote a letter to the newspaper calling for Turan's "impeachment." (This, of course, was before a decade of critical backlash against the film set in.) It may surprise you, then, that Cameron's bête noire just gave Avatar a rave, writing, "Think of Avatar as The Jazz Singer of 3-D filmmaking." Impeachment off! Four more years! [LAT]
Bryan Singer dropped a fanboy X-bomb on the Avatar red carpet last night, revealing to IGN that his first project after completing big-budget fairy tale Jack the Giant Killer will be a return the X-Men franchise he launched. X-Men: First Class -- what he calls an "origins picture" -- was written by Chuck/The O.C./Gossip Girl creator Josh Schwartz. Could X-Men: Dangerous Minds, about a sexy teacher breaking through to her remedial class of mutant thugs be far behind? Mmmprobably. [IGN]
Surprise! The Weinstein Company announced late Wednesday it would delay the release of Hoodwinked Too -- the sequel to their 2006 animated hit -- until February at the earliest. It had originally been set for Jan. 15, one week after its Michael Cera comedy Youth in Revolt (which had also been delayed back in September.) What gives? Do we really have to ask?
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· The Date Night duo of Steve Carell and Tina Fey are "loosely attached" to Mail-Order Groom, about a lonely career woman's acquisition of a husband from Eastern Europe. Screenwriters Glenn Ficarra and John Requa have undertaken a rewrite of an original idea by Fey's real-life husband Jeff Richmond, whose little-known time growing up as a radish farmer's boy in Soviet-era Kyrgyzstan will no doubt inform this sweet odd-couple romance. [THR]
Another franchise mercy killing at Disney, Summit reteams with Nicolas Cage, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
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· Pictured, Jersey Shore breakout guido Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino in his Manalapan High School Class of 1999 yearbook photo. We got a bit of a situation with the situation on top of his situation. [Oh No They Didn't]
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