That was fast! Latino Review's sources claimed that Tobey Maguire was in talks to play Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, but Maguire's camp refutes the rumor. "This is false!" Maguire's publicist Kelly Bush emphatically (and exclusively) told Movieline, eschewing the potential wiggle room of a simple "no comment at this time." Perhaps Maguire won't get to wander Middle Earth next summer, but on the bright side, at least he won't have to cut short his flight time with John Malkovich. [PREVIOUSLY: Tobey Maguire May Make Hobbit a Habit]
For months now, J.R.R. Tolkien fans have been itching for some casting announcements to come out of Guillermo del Toro's adaptation of The Hobbit. Sure, Ian McKellen's coming back, but who's going to play the young version of Bilbo Baggins, the character Ian Holm inhabited in Peter Jackson's first trilogy? Official word is due soon, but a strong rumor's begun making the rounds.
more »
NBC has announced premiere dates for two new shows: NBC's delayed series Parenthood, which replaced Maura Tierney with Lauren Graham after Tierney announced she was battling cancer, will debut Sunday, March 1. The Seinfeld-backed The Marriage Ref will premiere March 14 with the new season of Celebrity Apprentice. I look forward to Parenthood more, as the show has garnered good press and originally seemed poised to win the following Modern Family has now. Plus, there's a distinct possibility Graham will read Kafka to her kids, and I cannot wait to see how she inserts speedy pop culture references into that. [THR]
Pajiba is reporting that David O. Russell is near a deal to direct and adapt Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the flesh-eating take on Jane Austen's classic that just landed Natalie Portman. For those of you counting at home, Zombies would be the second project (after the Christian Bale/Mark Wahlberg drama The Fighter) that the mercurial director has picked up since the apparently abandoned Jessica Biel comedy Nailed. Zombies may be fun and all, but if Nailed comes back to life, that'd be the real shock. [Pajiba]
Congratulations to anonymous screenwriting collective The Robotard 8000 (now outed), who you'll recall having inaugurated the very first edition of Movieline's One-Page Screenplay project, and who find their screenplay Balls Out at #28 on The Black List. We like to think we contributed in our little way. Now somebody make it, already! [RT8K]
· EW has the first look at Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifiankis in Due Date. Is that French bulldog in the back the new BluBlocker baby?
· Tyler Posey, Tyler Hoechlin, Crystal Reed and Dylan O'Brien have been cast in MTV's Teen Wolf. Fun fact: lead lycanthrope Posey is who Twilight author Stephenie Meyer originally wanted to play Jacob.
· Entourage's Kevin Connolly has a hard time believing that Rex Lee is the butt of anti-gay humor on the set. In front of the camera is another story!
· Gordon Ramsay has added Cedric the Entertainer, Alyson Hannigan, and LeAnn Rimes to his Fox special CookAlong Live.
· PopEater wonders whether older Alec Baldwin is sexier than younger Alec Baldwin. What, no votes for CG Alec Baldwin?
After lying low for a few years, suddenly Mel Gibson is the busiest actor/director this side of Shutters on the Beach. Mel the Director's got plans to stuff Leonardo DiCaprio in a Viking's helmet, while Mel the Actor is busy with upcoming projects The Beaver and Edge of Darkness, but today a brand-new Mel Gibson mystery project was officially announced on Production Weekly's Twitter. What is it?
more »
Kevin Smith blamed Zack & Miri Make a Porno's failure on both the title and Harvey Weinstein, so it was always a little odd that his next film, a buddy cop movie starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan, would have the similarly Walmart-unfriendly title A Couple of Dicks. Last week, Smith teased a title change that "makes me smile on a bunch of different levels," and now the new title has been revealed: Cop Out. Because, you see, the movie is about what happens when Willis's cop comes out of the closet to Morgan. No, just kidding, it's a generic buddy cop movie. Changes! [The Film Stage]
The Daily Beast's Kim Masters dropped by James Cameron's office a couple of weeks ago for a techy 30-minute show-and-tell, from which a few things were quickly apparent. First, "Cameron's genius is this: He makes movies for women disguised as movies for men." And if you don't believe that, here's the latest photograph to emerge from behind the scenes -- cannily timed to early chatter that Zoe Saldana's entirely performance-capture turn is not only real acting, but might also be Oscar-worthy.
more »
· For those of us who like to complain about Hollywood being out of ideas, I guess this is what we get: Mel Gibson will direct Leonardo DiCaprio in an untitled action-drama about vikings. Little else is known about the project, though DiCaprio's Departed braintrust of producer Graham King and screenwriter William Monahan are also on board the stars' furry, formidable vessel. Presumably this means Gibson won't be using that Mexican prison after all, unless of course the story covers the infamous, ill-conceived Viking Spring Break in Veracruz back in 944 AD. [Variety]
Disney spikes yet another A-lister, Rabbit adds another name, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
more »
Welcome back to another edition of Weekend Receipts, where we drag out a Volkswagen-sized abacus, and have an intern slide bowling-ball-sized beads back and forth, all in an effort to bring you the most accurate and up-to-date box office calculations possible. Today, Disney's frog-leg gumbo and Matt Damon in a pair thigh-baring rugby shorts prove to be two spicy dishes America just couldn't resist.
more »
The Princess and the Frog gone done expanded 'self into a tidy lil' firs'-place, ooooohh-eeee! Or something. Disney's oppressively Creole-soaked return to hand-drawn animation added 3,400 screens and pulled down $7 million on Friday, comfortably outpacing The Blind Side, which tumbled to a still-impressive second ahead of the underachieving Invictus. Other Oscar-season darlings A Single Man and The Lovely Bones bowed to good if not dazzling numbers in limited release, each shaping up for per-screen-averages below $35,000 by the close of business Sunday. Yesterday's top 10 after the jump.
more »
Despite the deep chill of winter outside, Movieline HQ kept its hearts, minds and eyes open for another stirring week of action. Think of it as Chicken Soup of the Cultural Soul -- or at the very least, think of it as we do after the jump. Have a terrific weekend!
more »
· Happy Hanukkah, everyone! Live long and latke. [The Daily What]
more »
Forget Anne Hathaway's trip to the Sam Raimi aviary, Movieline's got your red-hot Vulturess right here. Her name is Martina, and she's an Old World Vulture with an ostensibly New World sense of sexual freedom. She's the hottest organism alive to use reeking, corrosive vomit when threatened. John Malkovich is not much different. So who wins this hard-drinkin' bird of prey?
more »
