· A judge on Monday approved the $60 million deal that would let Sony release This Is It, the film cobbled together from hundreds of hours of footage and backstage material from Michael Jackson's final concert rehearsals. It's currently set for an Oct. 30 opening. Under the terms of the contract, the Jackson estate would have final approval of the film's content and can block anything it perceives shows the singer in a "negative light." Like anything featuring a Propofol smoothie? That's probably a DVD extra, if anything. [THR]
A Hollywood landmark is on the market, a mini-Arrested Development reunion is planned, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
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· "Bear-Jay! I've been looking all over for you. We gotta go down to the bears-only cafe and talk bearsness. Listen. You know that 'Bears Necessity' contest? We've got problems. So listen: We'll go down. We'll talk business. And hey. Everything will be OK."
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An inexpensive Ben Stiller/Jason Schwartzman comedy sounds like a perfectly fine candidate for release, but when Paramount inherited The Marc Pease Experience from its shuttered Vantage division, the studio decided to bury it in favor of its Vantage sibling The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard. Director Todd Louiso talked to The Playlist about his film's fate; no word yet on whether Ben Stiller will figure out how to address the issue on Twitter. [The Playlist]
It's inevitable: Every summer, some conservative asshat ventures out of his office to see his one allotted movie of the season, then boasts that this blockbuster entertainment actually hides a hidden conservative message! Last year, we learned that Batman (you know, from The Dark Knight) is actually George W. Bush, which probably accounts for how popular that movie was. This year, claims NYT columnist Ross Douthat, our Republican message movie is Funny People. I'm afraid I'm gonna have to do a line-by-line rebuttal on this one, folks.
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Fresh off a resounding box-office win in which his critically savaged G.I. Joe trounced all better-reviewed comers and further established his place in the upper echelon of directors of lowbrow, but cash-generating, late-summer fare, Stephen Sommers sat down with Variety to bask in the kind of vindication only a big opening weekend can provide. But rather than flip a defiant bird to each and every critic who cravenly lobbed a rotten tomato at his latest film, Sommers instead invited the world to watch as he sullenly applied a poultice of mashed-up hundred-dollar bills to the still-fresh scars his tormentors inflicted upon him over the past few weeks. Movieline has selected the ten choicest, most self-pitying examples from Sommers' limping victory lap, so that we can all share in the lesson that money does not, in fact, heal all wounds.
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· Catherine Hardwicke has revealed that she actually tried to cast Bryce Dallas Howard as Victoria in the very first Twilight movie, but the actress resisted, holding out for a bigger part and a much messier recasting debacle. Old No. 7 totally called it!
· Alexander Payne is set to shoot The Descendants about a man undergoing a midlife crisis who decides to take a road trip. Alexander's not exactly afraid of that sort of plot, is he?
· Paul Giamatti will sub in for Sean Penn in The Three Stooges, but Jim Carrey might now be out as Curly.
· We already told you that Josh Hutcherson would be joining the remake of Red Dawn; now, EW brings word that Transformers fembot Isabel Lucas and, uh, Tom Cruise's son Connor have been added to the cast.
· Jeremy Piven had a kerfuffle with Chris Kattan at MTV the other day; says Kattan's publicist: "Chris mistakenly asked Jeremy if he was there to promote his play and Piven fired back with 'What are you here to promote, Mango?'" That is shocking, guys. Chris Kattan has a publicist.
Look, I don't mean to diminish the hard work of well-meaning people who appear to think they are funny and want to share their self-perceived gifts for comedy with the world, but seeing as Mystery Team has already premiered at Sundance -- where it was hailed by various film bloggers as "the most hilarious movie since Caddyshack. Actually, screw Caddyshack. If The 40-Year-Old Virgin lost its virginity to Ghostbusters, the uproarious product of that ungodly sexual union would be Mystery Team!!!" -- then one could be forgiven for believing the movie might end up being funny. I said as much after watching the very unfunny, sort of actively annoying, trailer. But that was a trailer, and trailers can be botched.
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Put yourself, for a moment, in the mind of an Us Weekly editor. (I know. Just for a moment!) How long, then, do you think the magazine sat on these pictures of Channing Tatum as an 18-year-old male stripper performing for $50 nightly at a Florida club called "Male Encounter"?
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At Comic-Con, security was equipped with night-vision goggles that helped them crack down on anyone illegally taping the preview footage. Transgressors would then be plucked from their seats and sequestered in a special interrogation room, where, rumor had it, controversial nerdboarding techniques were employed. Still, that didn't stop all illicit pirating activity, as a certain hotly anticipated sequel's teaser footage -- let's just call it Shmiron Man 2, for keyword-search-evading purposes -- has leaked online. Apparently the film's director is aware of this, as he tweeted his appreciation for the feedback and promised to let his followers "know if/when official clean version goes up." All of this is likely to come down at any moment, but in the meantime, enjoy its varied, giant-donut pleasures.
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Like the Kids in the Hall? Wish they'd reunite and make some more TV? Well, they are and they will! At least according to Scott Thompson, who told a Toronto radio show they're making an eight-episode series -- called Death Comes To Town, it's a horror-comedy set in a town where the Kids play all the townsfolk. Foley explained, "Probably the closest thing to it would be something like [British cult comedy classic] The League of Gentlemen, which I think was brilliant. So I hope it will be close to that." [Twitchfilm via The Awl]
By most accounts the late John Hughes was a challenging, imposing figure to deal with on a studio lot, but at least one professional acquaintance remembers things differently. You probably would, too, if your recollection of the single time you met Hughes involved the writer-director performing the entirety of perhaps his greatest film in one burst from beginning to end -- by himself.
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The Teen Choice Awards -- that annual, audience-voted kudosfest that falls somewhere between the Kids' Choice Awards and the People's Choice Awards in prestige and influence (Kids' being the most) -- has once again heeded the will of America's hormonal, drivers' permit-holding underclass. It should come as no surprise then that Twilight dominated the evening, taking 11 trophies (a gold-plated statuette of a winged, nubile female wearing what appears to be a headgear) including movie drama, romance, liplock, rumble, villain, fresh faces (male and female) and soundtrack. But overshadowing that triumph was Kathy Griffin, who brought Levi Johnston as her evening's arm-candy, instantly making her the envy of nobody every Gay in America.
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· At the TCA Press Tour's big wind-down on Saturday, ABC entertainment boss Stephen McPherson eagerly tossed the network into the mix of Paula Abdul's post-Idol suitors. "We would love to have her on [Dancing With the Stars] whether it's as a contestant, or a participant, judge, etc.," McPherson told the assembled critics, adding his shock that Fox would let go of such a talent. A nervous Carrie Ann Inaba is no doubt looking both ways before she crosses the street this morning -- possibly en route to the pharmacy, where she'll inquire into Paula's secret behind her ABC-coveted levels of "sensitivity and emotion." [The Live Feed]
The Hurt Locker brain trust regroups at Paramount, Tara Reid stays late at the local bar, and more Hollywood ink after the jump.
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That this weekend's showing of sheer, shock-and-awe-inducing might from the U.S. Armed Ninja Forces should fall on the 64th anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki is probably worth noting -- but seeing as we're just Hollywood numbers guys, we'll stick to what we know and leave the "man is apt to repeat himself" analysis to the action-figure-military historians. The weekend results are after the jump.
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Despite the vehement protestations of young Dylan Dakota Banana Murphy, America made G.I. Joe a fairly staggering opening-day success. Paramount's daring "Fertilize Mid-America" plan clearly paid off with $22.3 million on Friday; if that pace holds through Sunday, it would give Joe the highest grossing August opening for a non-sequel. You're witnessing history, folks! Perhaps Sony might have thought to try a similar strategy with Julie and Julia, which performed just about in line with its modest expectations. And shed a tear for Funny People, which appears to be setting up for a slide of nearly 70 percent from last weekend.
G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA: $22,300,000
JULIE AND JULIA: $6,500,000
G-FORCE: $3,000,000
FUNNY PEOPLE: $2,600,000
HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE: $2,550,000
[Source: Variety]
