The Natasha Lyonne Comeback Tour rolls onward! Per Variety, Lyonne has been added to the cast of Imogen, the Kristen Wiig passion project that Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini are directing later this summer. Lyonne will play a "Jersey Shore girl who works on the Boardwalk," which sounds delightful. Imogen follows a playwright (Wiig) who fakes a suicide attempt to win back her boyfriend, and is then forced to move by to New Jersey to live with her flamboyant mother (Annette Bening). [Variety]
Tom Hardy has a message for all Batman fans -- his Bane is different from the Bane that appeared in Batman & Robin. Hopefully that isn't a problem. "I think Bane's fucking cool so I'm really excited to play him," he told TotalFilm. "It's not the guy in Joel Schumacher's film, but it shouldn't disappoint fanboys." He's not the guy in the Joel Schumacher film that everyone hates with the fire of 1000 suns? Oh, Tom; that's a good thing! You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling. [TotalFilm]
Party like it's 2005! According to a Facebook posting from Exhibitor Relations, Margaret -- Kenneth Lonergan's long, long, long, long, long delayed follow-up to You Can Count on Me -- will arrive in theaters on Sept. 30 via Fox Searchlight. The film stars Matt Damon, Mark Ruffalo, Matthew Broderick, Allison Janney, and Anna Paquin, and deals with the aftermath of a tragic school bus accident. [Facebook]
First it was Wrath of the Titans. Then it had the more on-the-nose working title Clash of the Titans 2. Then came hints that Warner Bros. might be going with Revenge of the Titans. Never mind! The Titans sequel will reportedly arrive next March with the studio's original Wrath title. Maybe they can save that Revenge URL for a video game? Or the [gulp] third Titans installment? [Exhibitor Relations via Cinema Blend]
Today in slow news, a tree was injured. But not just any tree -- the picturesque oak featured at the end of the Oscar-nominated drama The Shawshank Redemption, as the location where Red (Morgan Freeman) uncovers money and a note from his beloved inmate buddy Andy (Tim Robbins) after 40 years of imprisonment. No word yet on whether the tree, damaged by high-speed winds and now rotted in the middle, will be cut down. It sits on private property in Mansfield-Richland County, Ohio. [Mansfield News Journal]
"I feel badly about thinking that Dogville, which in my eyes is one of my most successful films, should have been a kind of script for him. It's horrific," director Lars von Trier said about the fact that Dogville was revealed to be one of Norwegian camp killer Anders Behring Breivik's favorite films. "[I]f it was an inspiration, I'm sorry that I made it. But of course I have educational purposes with my films, even if I hesitate to admit it, and my views are the complete opposite of Breivik and his deeds." Dogville ends with Nicole Kidman's character ordering the massacre of the village that abused her. [Hollywood-Elsewhere]
Hollywood veteran Jerry Lewis dropped this bit of real talk on assembled television journalists during the Encore portion of the TCA press tour on Friday: "The industry has destroyed themselves. It's no longer relevant because it puts out all of its product on a stupid phone. You're going to put Lawrence of Arabia on that goddamned stupid son of a bitch? [Twitter and Facebook are] wonderful technical advances, but once people see how much it's cluttering their life, they'll figure it out for themselves. We're not going to have human beings in 20 years. People won't be talking to other human beings." Happy Friday? [Deadline]
Harrison Ford turns 40 this weekend! Well, his filmography anyway. Cowboys & Aliens marks Ford's fortieth feature credit, and the National Post has decided to celebrate this milestone with an illustrated guide to the many characters he has played over the last six decades. If you can tell the difference between the roles Ford played in Hollywood Homicide and Firewall, you're already ahead of the game. [National Post]
I've been known to land a little hard on Gwyneth Paltrow from time to time, so in the spirit of fairness, here's this. Happy Friday.
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The troubled, George Lucas-produced historical action drama Red Tails finally has a release date: January 20, 2012. Lucasfilm announced the news this morning; it comes more than 20 years after Lucas first hatched his tale of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen and a little more than a year after Lucas ordered significant reshoots on director Anthony Hemingway's film. Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrence Howard star.
Having revealed his inner thespian in 2008's JCVD, Belgian martial artist Jean-Claude Van Damme wants to be taken more seriously as an actor. Speaking with Box Office Magazine -- ironically, to promote his latest actioner, the hit man thriller Assassination Games (in limited release July 29) -- the Muscles from Brussels cited Clint Eastwood as a career role model: "I love action films, and my fans expect action films, but I can act! And I really want a chance to show what I can do." Note to Jean-Claude: The first step in being taken more seriously? Stop making movies with titles like Assassination Games. [Box Office Magazine]
On Thursday, Dark Knight Rises director Christopher Nolan and Steel City first-timer Christian Bale held a Pittsburgh press conference to thank the city for hosting production on the final installment in the Batman trilogy. Nolan said that they chose Pittsburgh because "it is a very beautiful city on a very impressive scale and yet one which has a community that hasn't lost its human scale." So, not because of the Wiz Khalifa song "Black and Yellow"? Go figure. Filming begins tomorrow. Principal photography started in May. [Post-Gazette]
Big news for Paz de la Huerta fans: the frequently naked Boardwalk Empire siren and upcoming Nurse 3D lead is currently directing her first film. She told the Observer, "It's my version of The Red Shoes...[It's] about a woman who's unique, and lives in a small village, and is ostracized for being different, for being talented, and then she makes a horrible mistake and because the people in the village are so -- you know -- jealous of her, they don't forgive her...and we are all human, you know. And we all suffer." Preach, Paz, preach. Little else is known about the project, in which de la Huerta also stars. [Observer via Vulture]
Though the full schedule for the Venice Film Festival comes out Thursday, we already know what will close the gondolier-friendly celebration: Whit Stillman's Damsels in Distress, which concerns "young women at an East Coast university, the transfer student that joins their group and the young men they become entangled with." The comedy -- which stars Movieline heroine Greta Gerwig and Adam Brody -- premieres Sept. 10, after the awards ceremony. George Clooney's The Ides of March opens the fest on Aug. 31. [Deadline]
During a 2008 interview, Kristen Stewart revealed that she'd be starring in K-11, a movie her mother Jules wrote and would direct. About that. Casting has been announced and the Twilight star won't actually appear in her mom's directorial debut, though another Stewart will. Kristen's older brother Cameron will co-star in the "dark character ensemble" alongside Goran Visnjic, D.B. Sweeney, Portia Doubleday and Jason Mewes. Nothing scandalous here -- unless busy schedules are scandalous -- though you just know Jules Stewart is going to start every phone call to her daughter with, "Well, your brother..." [Variety]
