Looks like Jane Fonda followed our advice exactly and plans to revive the news-hungry character she played in The China Syndrome in what will mark her first major TV foray: Fonda has signed on for a recurring role in Aaron Sorkin's upcoming HBO drama as Leona Lansing, the CEO of a cable news network's parent company. Sounds like a pretty close match to her third husband Ted Turner, no? If Leona Lansing starts colorizing old news reels, we'll know the parallel is intentional. [TVLine]
Ridley Scott has settled on a tagline for his pseudo-prequel to Alien, the star-studded June 2013 release Prometheus: "The Search For Our Beginning Could Lead To Our End." Does that sound a little too much like the Breaking Dawn: Part I tag "Forever is Only the Beginning" to anyone? Both are Hallmarkian takes on mortality, which is a shame considering Prometheus should be one of the most original thrillers of next year. Its new poster, along with our musings thereon, follow.
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"There are three reasons to watch a Christmas film. [...] I have the perfect culmination to all three of those scenarios, and it not only involves a shit-ton of novelty songs, but also Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. So here's the truest thing I'll ever tell you: Holiday Inn is the Classic Hollywood Christmas Movie to rule them all, and the $2.99 you'll spend renting it on iTunes is a third of what you'd spend on a glass of wine at a respectable establishment. (That is how I judge expenses: that sparkly Christmas dress costs five G.O.W [glasses of wine]; a ticket to see The Fassbender in the theater costs two.)" [The Hairpin]
First came the real talk from Eric Idle revealing why he recently canned fellow Monty Python mate John Cleese from the touring production of Spamalot, the stage musical adapted from their 1974 comedy Monty Python and the Holy Grail. "I fired John Cleese -- surgically removed him," Idle told the Telegraph. "It wasn't mean -- he's had millions of dollars from it. He charges people a fortune for using his voice. He's always been in financial crisis." A miffed Cleese took to Twitter to strike back at "Yoko Idle."
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For once in Bad Movies We Love history, I'm both speechless and teary-eyed. The holiday season is here, and as far as I'm concerned, that means it's time to wheel out the movies that are fucking dependable -- the ones that enrich our families, provide nourishment for our newborns, and encourage Jesus to be more of a hilarious character actress. For me, this means one movie -- my favorite movie -- and one that could be considered bad if you are a heartless, freakish, braindead moviegoer who thinks that skittish ensemble comedies based on board games might be stupid. I would strangle those people in a poorly lit billiard room. The movie is Clue, it's the one thing on Earth I'm positive I love, and I want to hug you as I write this. Girl, let's hold our candlesticks high, our dignities low, and bludgeon the daylights out of Mr. Boddy.
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Did you know Diane Keaton and Steve Jobs were neighbors once? That could have gone better: "And he starts talking and all he's talking about is the computer thing. How the computer was going to take over the world. And I'm sitting there like, 'OK, right.' And he keeps talking about how everyone is going to have a computer in their life, in their world, in their home. And I'm going, 'Right, Right.' And I never saw him again ever, because obviously I just wasn't prepared for that. I thought, 'Is he nuts?' [...] Can you imagine? What an idiot I was." [Ellen DeGeneres Show via THR]
Happy Wednesday! Also in today's edition of The Broadsheet: The man who helped make cinema safe for the counterculture has died... Kenneth Branagh's back-up plan... Apologies worth considering... and more.
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I guess the new Nicolas Cage fire urination epic Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance did not soar like a blazing motorcycle across the night sky at Buttnumbathon recently. In fact, it tanked. There's a flamin' new poster for the film - one that would look impressive on a Hot Topic t-shirt or a bitchin' Trapper Keeper - but we've got three definitely stanky tweets about the movie after the jump. We threw in a dollop of hope at the end, though.
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Don't let singer-songwriter Johnny Nash anywhere near the new trailer for the Ewan McGregor movie The Perfect Sense, because it's a Contagion-style disaster film where everyone loses their senses one by one until they can't see, hear, smell, taste or -- I guess -- touch anything. It's a little hokey and a little hilarious, but with Eva Green (the best Bond girl of all time, period) in tow, there may be some genuine hope for this one. If only I could see or hear it!
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"I don't blame Tony for taking a boatload of money and handing in what he handed in," Matt Damon told GQ recently about Gilroy's script for the third Jason Bourne film, The Bourne Ultimatum -- a script Gilroy agreed to write for "an exorbitant amount of money" as long as he only had to provide one draft and pay no regard to studio notes. "It's just that it was unreadable. This is a career-ender. I mean, I could put this thing up on eBay and it would be game over for that dude. It's terrible. It's really embarrassing. He was having a go, basically, and he took his money and left." Gilroy wrote and directed the latest Bourne film The Bourne Legacy, due in theaters this August with Jeremy Renner starring. [GQ via indieWire]
This past week, Tom Cruise has circled the globe in celebration of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol's international premieres. Along the way, he has sparked one insane rumor (about how the people of Indian will only scream for him if a free buffet lunch is provided) and has been forced to pose with a smattering of random overseas notables like the Duchess of Alba Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart in Madrid last night. What resulted on the red carpet is one of the most awkwardly staged premiere photos of Cruise's career, and in honor of this, Movieline is asking you for a fitting caption.
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So Baz Luhrmann beats on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into 3-D. In the first photos from his splashy new The Great Gatsby adaptation, stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire, and Joel Edgerton vamp it up like humorlessly obsessed guests at a murder mystery dinner party. Anybody else find the casting here a bit too pat and obvious? Leonardo DiCaprio is a... a moneyed and aloofly self-interested man! Tobey Maguire is... a nervous, kowtowing outsider! Carey Mulligan is... the new Mia Farrow again! Well. Check out the images for yourself and see if I'm too cynical.
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What do you get for the cinephile who has everything? Start with a six-figure loan, I guess, and then check out the ongoing auction for "[t]he finest and most desirable item in Hollywood collecting -- the original Oscar awarded to Orson Welles for best 'Original Screenplay' for Citizen Kane. This Oscar statue, awarded by The American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, is the very same statue presented to Orson Welles on 26 February 1942 at the Biltmore Hotel. [... F]or years it had gone missing and the Academy issued a replacement to Beatrice Welles, Orson's youngest daughter and sole heir. The original had all along been in the possession of cinematographer Gary Graver, who tried to sell it in 1994." [Nate D. Sanders via THR]
When it rains it pours. Ask David Denby, the embattled, embargo-flouting New Yorker critic who, over the course of one week, has drawn the wrath of both Scott Rudin and Shame's unsung co-stars Calamity Chang and DeeDee Luxe -- a.k.a. Late Night Lover #1 and #2. Tough crowd!
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's safe to say that Steve Buscemi is one of the most universally liked actors of this generation. He vivified Fargo, gave Ghost World a soul, lent Big Fish some quirky sincerity, ruled on 30 Rock (and Boardwalk Empire, I suppose), and even proved himself a viable proxy for Paul Lynde as the voice of Templeton in the Charlotte's Web remake. That's not an easy sneer to fill. But today we're talking about Buscemi's underrated work, the stuff that doesn't percolate with the grim vigor of a Coen Brothers classic. What's your pick?
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