Now that he's done filming the Disney Channel's Wizards of Waverly Place, star Jake T. Austin can move onto the next logical step: playing one of the greatest literary protagonists of the past 200 years. Austin will play Huck Finn to Super 8 newcomer Joel Courtney's Tom Sawyer in Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn, which will start shooting in -- wait for it -- Bulgaria this August. I suppose the material is ready for Disney alum treatment now that its pesky slurs have been eradicated. Should "Nickelodeon" also join the list of banned words? [Variety]
It has been a complete year since Starz pulled the plug on Party Down, and creator Rob Thomas refuses to give up hope on reuniting Adam Scott, Ken Marino, Lizzy Caplan and Martin Starr for a big screen adaptation. "People are talking to us about doing a Party Down movie," he said. "We are pretty far down the deal-making process with that, so we're hopeful that there will be a Party Down movie. Ideally, if it works out we could be shooting in television hiatus time next spring." Are we having fun yet? [SlashFilm]
In a new interview with Seventeen, Emma Watson reveals that she once had a crush on Harry Potter co-star Tom Felton. That's right: Hermione had the hots for Draco. "For the first two movies, I had a huge crush on Tom Felton," Watson said. "He was my first crush. He totally knows. We talked about it - we still laugh about it. We are really good friends now, and that's cool." Guess that dose of Amortentia had worn off by the time Watson hit Felton in Prisoner of Azaban. [Hollywood Life]
Now this is a short list: Deadline reports that Noam Murro and Jaume Collet-Serra are competing to direct 300: Battle of Artemisia, the 300 spin-off formerly known as Xerxes. Murro only has one feature credit to his name (Smart People), but he's set to direct Die Hard 5, should that ever get moving; Collet-Serra directed Unknown, and has the Dracula hunter thriller Harker on deck. Not exactly Joss Whedon vs. Louis Leterrier, but it will have to do. [Deadline]
· As the latest trailer for Captain America: First Avenger helpfully reminds everyone, heroes are made in America. And if you're a hero living under Ol' Glory, there's only one thing you need to vanquish evil: Dunkin' Donuts! Er. Click ahead to check out some Dunkin-enhanced Captain America promo art, then stick around for more Buzz Break.
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With another weekend of disappointing 3-D grosses in the books -- Cars 2 was a hit, but mostly just in two dimensions -- the pressure on Transformers: Dark of the Moon is mounting. Not that Michael Bay minds. The director is so sure of his work on Dark of the Moon that he's telling fans to see it on the biggest screen possible. Really, he wrote a letter and everything.
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From a man of constant sorrow to the Mayor of Macdougal Street? For Joel and Ethan Coen, perhaps. The Oscar-winning siblings are potentially headed downtown for their next big-screen feature, a story about famed musician Dave Van Ronk and the dawn of the '60s folk music scene in New York's Greenwich Village that helped make Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Phil Ochs famous.
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What are you doing two years from now? For Universal's sake, hopefully pre-ordering tickets to see Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds in R.I.P.D., from director Robert Schwentke (Schwentke!). The supernatural comic adaptation will arrive in theaters on June 28, 2013. Also slotted for 2013: the sixth film in the Fast & Furious franchise, which will hit theaters over Memorial Day weekend of that year. Shaquille O'Neal, get your "movie agents" back on the phone! [Deadline]
Earlier this year, your friendly editors at Movieline wondered whether the cast of The Big Bang (with Snoop Dogg, Antonio Banderas, Sam Elliott, James Van Der Beek and Autumn Reeser) was more random than the cast of the animated film Dorothy of Oz (Lea Michele, Kelsey Grammer, Patrick Stewart, Dan Aykroyd, Hugh Dancy, Oliver Platt, Megan Hilty and Martin Short). Well, it looks like the cast of Fire With Fire trumps them both. Put together.
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In case you didn't get the memo, Hollywood really wants Liam Hemsworth to be a movie star. Which is why the potential latest acting choice for Hunger Games' Gale is a bit of a curveball: Thor's little brother in talks to star in the indie film AWOL, a Vietnam-era romance about a solider (Austin Stowell) who goes AWOL with his buddy (Hemsworth) to win back the heart of the girl who dumped him in America (Aimee Teegarden). Hemsworth playing the guy who doesn't hook-up with the leading actress? Who does he think he is, John Krasinski? [Variety]
When rumor becomes fact: Lionsgate has announced that Jennifer Lopez will join Cameron Diaz in the studio's big screen adaptation of the nonfiction pregnancy guide What to Expect When You're Expecting. Lopez is set to play "a woman who adopts a baby from abroad with her husband after difficulty conceiving." This is a bold casting choice considering how well Lopez's last conception-related project The Back-up Plan fared at the box office. Regardless, look for this one to hit theaters Mother's Day weekend next year. [Deadline]
We haven't seen a look of hapless protagonism this blatant since the preview for The 40 Year Old Virgin. Recently, the first poster for Paul Rudd's Sundance hit Our Idiot Brother (formerly My Idiot Brother) was released, and I'm glad to say the newer poster is a bit funnier and weirder. How can you resist that precious, imbecilic mug?
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· If you thought every working British actor had already appeared in the Harry Potter franchise by now, you're not totally correct. Just almost every British actor. The latest newcomer to the franchise is Kelly Macdonald, who shows up in the final portion of The Deathly Hallows as The Grey Lady. Fun! And judging from this new TV spot for the film: ferocious! Click through for a look, then stick around for more Buzz Break.
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A press release just over the Movieline transom announces a revolutionary development around this summer's Spy Kids: All the Time in the World: The film will transcend the tired 3-D ranks and break into a whole new dimension entirely. Indeed, Dimension Films is bringing director Robert Rodriguez's latest family-friendly adventure to you in nothing less than 4-D Aromascope! Meanwhile, scratch your computer screen; do you smell Harvey Weinstein?
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If you watched Black Swan and thought that it needed more Facebook, a leading man, and a stalker subplot, then XOXO could be the movie for you! About a twentysomething male who gets into an iffy relationship with a girl he met on Facebook, the script comes from Swan writer Mark Heyman, and apparently owes a debt to the Darren Aronofsky-directed ballet film because it's an "upscale genre story about a complicated relationship." OK, then! Sounds a little like Swimfan, though. XOXO. [LAT/24 Frames]
