After invoking our own FlashForward on Wednesday to visualize scenes from the rumored Jon - Kate + Octomom, we frantically searched for ways to stop the reality TV apocalypse from approaching. We considered powerful groups with whom we could align in our efforts to stop this explestival (exploit-festival): TLC, Kate Gosselin and child services. However, we completely overlooked Jon Gosselin's new Michael Jackson-sized entourage to step in on behalf of society's best interest.
more »
Since the tragic death of Heath Ledger 20 months ago, several music videos directed by the Australian actor have been released posthumously, including Modest Mouse's animated "King Rat" and Nick Drake's eerie visual representation for "Black Eyed Dog" (in which director Heath turns the camera on himself, and is pictured drowning in the bathtub). Yesterday, a new music video for the Oscar nominee's childhood friend, rapper N'Fa, surfaced. It is believed to be the final project over which Ledger had complete creative control.
more »
· Clearly Marvel Studios needed to ramp up the prestige level on Thor, which until Thursday had been slumming with the threadbare likes of Natalie Portman and director Kenneth Branagh. Enter Sir Anthony Hopkins, who joined the production as Odin, the father of the titular Norse god of thunder and his brother Loki. Still no word yet on if or when Dominic Cooper will join the proceedings, or if the emboldened Marvel will stick to its Oscar-pedigree prereqs for all of the supporting cast. [Variety]
Men in Black 3 nabs a script, Reese Witherspoon nabs a gig, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
more »
Welcome back to Movieline Attractions, your regular guide to everything new, noteworthy and/or Jackocentric at the movies. Which is all kind of redundant this week, as a single wide release takes over America's multiplexes in honor (or something) of the fallen King of Pop. Things aren't much more diverse at the art house, either. So what do you say we just get this over with quickly after the jump?
more »
Wracked with last-minute indecision over what you should be for Halloween this year? So am I! In fact, I've narrowed it down to three possibilities, which I've broken down to their most essential elements and laid out for all of you to see. Consider this the guys' companion piece to our Ladies' Guide -- but somebody please help me decide on which of these I should commit to, already.
more »
Roger Avary's first Tweet as an incarcerated man hit the Web this afternoon, four days after the writer-director checked into the Ventura County Jail to begin his one-year sentence for felony manslaughter. "The building is an imposing example of the Brutalist architectural movement," Avary wrote. "The windows are designed so as to not let too much light in." Not that he's necessarily tweeting from the jail yard, however. Avary's clean record prior to his DUI accident last year -- which killed a passenger in his vehicle -- made him eligible for work-furlough: He's out working on projects during the day, and back by curfew for a night in his cell. So for all we know he's just starting another one of his Twitterplays or describing Harvey Weinstein's office. [Twitter]
The Playlist has a first look at Never Let Me Go, the upcoming Mark Romanek adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel that's got a host of British talent attached, including including Keira Knightley, Andrew Garfield, Sally Hawkins, and screenwriter Alex Garland. And then there's white-hot An Education ingenue Carey Mulligan, who definitely appears to be working the "business up front, party in the back" look in the film. We're not sure who she's playing, but based on that hairstyle, we have a hunch:
more »
Fox proudly announced this morning that after years of scheduling conflicts, Zooey Deschanel will finally join her older sister, Emily, on an episode of Bones airing December 10. The 500 Days of Summer star will play a distant relative of her sister's character, Brennan, who is invited by Brennan's father to spend Christmas with the family. Aside from satisfying the Deschanel-on-Deschanel fantasies of many male American indie rock fans in time for all of the major winter holidays, the episode will mark the the sisters' first-ever on-screen pairing. [Futon Critic]
Sad news in the Coppola family tonight, as 75-year-old literature professor August Coppola -- the father of Nicolas Cage and brother to Francis Ford Coppola -- has passed away. Francis spoke at length about his brother in a June interview with Movieline: "You know, I had a very talented older brother, and I sort of modeled myself on him. It's not that he was competitive -- he was just older, so he was better at everything than I was. And I always thought, 'Oh, someday we could be Julian and Aldous Huxley!' In history, there are any number of brothers or sisters who were both acclaimed poets or stuff like that, and I always thought that would be really great." [HuffPo]
Nick Swardson, who was best known as Reno 911's recurring character Terry Bernardino (the rollerskating homosexual prostitute), just inked another deal with Comedy Central, this time for his own as-yet-untitled sketch series. I hope Swardson didn't think he could revolutionize the puppet-fronted minstrel show market. But really, what other ideas are there? So far, I can only come up with marionette-fronted blackface. That will have to do. To the copyright office, Jeeves. [Comedy Central]
· Keep your tickling fantasies to yourselves, people.
· True Blood has vampires and shapeshifters, but SyFy's remake of the BBC show Being Human will have those and a ghost, so there!
· 90210 thinks it's time to Kiss the Lesbian, and the show has enlisted Rumer Willis to get romantic with Jessica Lowndes's Adrianna.
· Adam Lambert's album cover may have been intentionally campy, but do other Idols have the same excuse?
· Taylor Lautner and Taylor Swift appear to have a relationship based on being each other's doppleganger. We'll have to get a gander at Swift's abs to be sure.
A few weeks ago, while sorting through the mess of projects Ridley Scott has attached himself to direct since 2006, Movieline's Oddsmaking Dept. placed the chances of him realizing his reported Alien prequel at a modest 45-1. His new, cryptic bit of illumination as to what that prequel might include doesn't change those odds much, but at least we can all have a little better idea of the movie he has in mind. Sort of.
more »
If you are bored with your Sudoku puzzles and those Mental Jumping Jacks e-mails your great-aunt forwards you so you don't end up in a nursing home like her Alzheimers-afflicted sister, try to identify a single race, religion or creed that Curb Your Enthuasiam has not insulted in the 66 episodes that have aired on HBO. Now midway through its Seinfeld-plated seventh season, one group has had enough, and is protesting Larry David's schtick.
more »
On the way to her inevitable Oscar nomination, you are going to read a lot of profiles of Precious actress Gabby Sidibe that note with some surprise how the effervescent young woman is nothing like her downtrodden movie character. Yesterday on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, though, Sidibe decided to get all that out of the way from the very start, namely by entering the studio to a dance number that she and a male friend ("And he's straight!") had choreographed in the hopes that someday, she'd have a chance to use the routine in front of DeGeneres. Guess it worked!
more »
If there's one disaster the Trauma team won't be able to recover from, it's the show's ratings underperformance. The Monday night series has just been canceled, making it NBC's first official fall termination (that is, if you don't count the network snuffing Southland in its crib). The expensive show never pulled in ratings to match its cost, and NBC has Chuck waiting in the wings to take its place. Sorry, guys! At least your outdoor ad campaign was kind of cool. [THR]
