Filed under: Thrillers, Casting, Scripts

Sometimes there’s nothing scarier than a real location. It could be the dingy air of Detroit, or hop a little bit east for the so-called armpit of America — Buffalo. There’s all sorts of thrilling stories that could take place there. Thrills can be had amongst the fires of Cheektowaga, or the daily dumping of snow each winter. Unfortunately, “Whiteout” is being used for that Kate Beckinsale movie, so this upcoming Buffalo thriller will have to take place inside. The Hollywood Reporter has posted that John Cusack has signed on to star in The Factory – a psychological thriller set in the good city of Buffalo.

Once again, like his thriller stint in 1408, Cusack will play the sad dad on a mission. But this time around, he’s “an obsessed cop who, with his partner, is on the trail of a serial killer prowling the streets of Buffalo, NY. When his teenage daughter disappears, the cop drops any professional restraint and goes all out to get the killer.” The script comes from Aussie Project Greenlight winner Morgan O’Neill, who will also direct, and reportedly he co-wrote the script with someone else, but they weren’t named in the news piece. The film will begin shooting this January, which is pretty adventurous of the filmmakers, unless Buffalo will be built on a backlot somewhere in Hollywood. Hopefully it’s the former. We don’t get too many cop thrillers set in blizzards.

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Filed under: Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Casting, Deals, United Artists, RumorMonger, Tom Cruise, Remakes and Sequels

On behalf of fans of vampire movies everywhere, I certainly hope we can chalk this one up to just a silly rumor. Bloody Disgusting is reporting that United Artists is pushing to snap up the rights to the fourth novel in Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, The Tale of The Body Thief. According to BD’s sources, “here’s speculation on my behalf, but UA = Tom Cruise, right? Might we be seeing Tom Cruise back as the Vampire Lestat?” The casting of Tom Cruise as the Vampire Lestat in Neil Jordan’s 1994 adaptation of Rice’s bestselling novel, Interview with The Vampire, caused an uproar among fans (and the author for that matter). Rice had been quoted as saying that Cruise was, “no more my Vampire Lestat than Edward G. Robinson is Rhett Butler”.**

The story of Body Thief picks up with Lestat who has made a deal with a “body thief” to get the chance to switch bodies and to live like a mortal again. This would be the third attempt to make an Anne Rice book into a film, the last being the disastrous Queen of the Damned with Aaliyah and Stuart Townsend as Lestat. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Townsend’s Lestat wasn’t too bad all things considered. He definitely had the Lestat pout down pat, something that Cruise could just never quite pull off in Interview. Not to mention Cruise’s avoidance of the obvious homoerotic content to the original story — although kudos to Antonio Banderas and Brad Pitt for being the only two actors in that film to even hint at a little vampire on vampire action.

As we all know, Cruise’s relationship with Paramount ended badly back in ‘06. Now that Cruise is calling shots at UA, could Tom be planning to “ruin” yet another Anne Rice property? Until we get some kind of official word on the project, lets just keep our fingers crossed that Cruise is going to leave the fangs to someone else this time.

**Rice did eventually back-track and reverse her statements once she actually saw the film and Cruise’s performance.

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Filed under: Action, Casting, RumorMonger, Fandom, Comic/Superhero/Geek

I’m already convinced we’ll continually circle the same names over and over and over … until, eventually, this whole thing will just go away. Yup, we’re in Justice League limbo — not quite development hell or greenlight heaven; we’re here to just wait and speculate. It would appear that Warner Bros. has this film cast already. Then why are we hearing (yet again) from sites like AICN and IESB when it comes to casting confirmations? These names should’ve hit the trades a week or two ago, when we first reported on them. But no. So here we are. Again.

AICN claims they can confirm 100% with all sorts of inside studio sources, their siblings and their siblings’ children that Megan Gale has officially landed the part of Wonder Woman in the new live-action Justice League Film. She’s from Australia, used to be a fashion model, appeared in the movie Stealth and, well, that’s all there is to know at this time. Additionally, and with the same certainty, IESB claims that dude Armie Hammer has landed the role of Batman. He played Barrett on one episode of Desperate Housewives. Kurt on one episode of Veronica Mars. And Student #2 on one episode of Arrested Development. And now he’ll play Batman in the long-awaited Justice League flick. Don’t try to find the logic people; I’ve been searching for months now and nada. Will an official announcement come soon? Maybe. Maybe not. So you’ll have to make do with this for now.

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Filed under: Late Night, TV Royalty, Programming, Celebrities, Talk Show

Here’s who’s sitting down on the couch on the late night shows.

• Charlie Rose: John Edwards
• The Daily Show: Sienna Miller (repeat)
• The Colbert Report: Naomi Wolff (repeat)
• The Late Show with David Letterman: Adam Sandler, Mike Golic, Mike Greenberg, and Mute Math (repeat)
• Jay Leno: Jennifer Aniston, Peter Jacobsen, Anita Baker, and James Ingram (repeat)
• Jimmy Kimmel Live: TBA (repeat)
• Tavis Smiley: Mary J. Blige and Rev. Peter Gomes
• Late Night with Conan O’Brien: Ted Koppel, Jason Schwartzman, and Dana Gould (repeat)
• The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson: Julia Stiles and Carl Bernstein (repeat)
• Last Call with Carson Daly: TBA (repeat)

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Filed under: Video, Commercials, Celebrities

It’s rather comforting, if a little scary, to see that even computerized icons can age a lot.

Britain’s Channel 4 has brought back Max Headroom, the 80s TV character that everyone thought was just a computer creation but was actually actor Matt Frewer, for a series of TV commercials. The ads (or are they called adverts or something over there?) will show Max insulting Channel 4 for ignoring his idea of a digital TV world.

Continue reading Welcome back, Max Headroom - VIDEO

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Filed under: Late Night, Celebrities, Talk Show, WGA Strike

Interesting news on Howard Stern’s SIRIUS radio show this morning (I didn’t listen to the show, but I have been listening to the satellite station’s holiday music channels!). The King of All Media says that the people over at CBS’ Late Show with David Letterman approached him about being the first guest when the show returns with new episodes…on December 3, which is next week! Stern says he thought about it but doesn’t really want to go against the writers that are on strike.

Continue reading Is Letterman planning on coming back next week?

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Filed under: Celebrities

I’m disappointed by this list (I’m disappointed by most lists these days) because they’re aren’t many TV people on it. Oh, there are some TV execs and producers (J.J. Abrams) and plenty of former TV stars (George Clooney, Will Smith, Will Ferrell), but there’s no Tina Fey? She’s the first name that popped into my head, TV-wise. I know there are others (readers, that’s your cue to comment!). Freaks and Geeks creator Judd Apatow is on the list, as is Tyler Perry. Sacha Baron Cohen is there too.

Continue reading Entertainment Weekly picks the 50 smartest people in Hollywood

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Filed under: Drama, Foreign Language, Casting, Deals, Cinematical Indie

I’ve tried to get into chess, and I’ll probably try again. However, it’s a bit challenging for those of us who like fast-paced games free of long lulls of silent thought, or who fire up Chessmaster just to get beat by 6-year-old beginner competitors. (I’m convinced that the makers of that game made the easy players kids to mock those of us who get into it late in the game.) Anyhow, you chess fans out there are about to get sexy, foreign chess on the big screen courtesy of writer Caroline Bottaro (C’est la vie).

Variety reports that she’s going to make her directorial debut with a film called Joueuse, otherwise known as The Chess Player. Sandrine Bonnaire (Vagabond) who also starred in C’est la vie, and Bruno Ganz (Youth Without Youth) will star in the French-German co-production, which is about “a hotel chambermaid who develops an obsession for chess.” Oh, the possibilities! This could be a racy tale of chess and hotels, since Ganz’s role isn’t mentioned. Instead of some bad guys, chases, and intrigue, they could bond over the smooth finish of the pawn before taking the queen, or king, so to speak. It could be about a crazy lady who leaves chess pieces throughout the hotel. Or, maybe something more Twin Peaksish.

The production got a nice bit of money, $700,000, from the German-French Film Funding Commission, but this is the only film that’s received help. The same amount is going to Gaspar Noe’s Enter the Void, and some money is also going to Ludi Boeken’s Among Peasants.

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Filed under: Action, Comedy, Drama, Casting, Newsstand

Bites for your Thursday:

• Tony Hale hasn’t gone anywhere, but I’m sure that I’m not the only one who misses his work as Buster Bluth on Arrested Development. Frankly, I miss all their work, although I’m still glad George Michael Cera has been unleashed into the world of film. Anyway, according to Variety, Hale has signed on to co-star with Jeremy Piven in his car salesman movie — The Goods: The Don Ready Story. The film also boasts the likes of Ving Rhames and Kathryn Hahn. The film will slip into high gear this Monday in Los Angeles.
• He co-starred as Memnon in The Scorpion King, his name is floating around James Bond rumors, and now Steven Brand has found himself more presumably action-infused work. Variety reports that he’s not only got himself a regular role on a television series (Samurai Girl), but he’s also got a part as “Boyd” in Jada Pinkett Smith’s upcoming film, The Human Contract. As IMDb describes it, the drama is about a businessman with a dark secret who gets caught up with a stranger who convinced him to dump his life for another lived with “reckless abandon.” I wonder if the stranger wears a red suit, horns, and a tail, carries a pitchfork, and is small enough to sit on his shoulder as well…
• Ah, Alan Blumenfeld. To some, he’s the good-natured rabbi from Gilmore Girls. To others, he’s the super bad guy Molly didn’t want to find on Heroes — the man otherwise known as Parkman’s dad. (Bit of trivia: He also played Greg Grunberg’s dad on Felicity.) Now Variety reports that the actor has a part in Righteous Kill — that 2008 action flick with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. Will he be a good guy, or a bad guy? I’m guessing on the latter, since the cast is already full of cops. We’ll be able to find out some time in 2008.

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Filed under: Comedy, Casting, Deals, New Line, Scripts, Family Films

Very often when I’m watching a movie trailer these days, I’ll be thinking to myself “What is this crapola? Who agreed to be in this nonsense?” And then Samuel L. Jackson comes walking into frame all solemn-like and says something about how “we only have 48 hours to return the diamond to the magic factory,” or some such hoo-ha. I know Jackson came from humble beginnings, and if someone was offering me millions of dollars to travel to exotic locales and be treated like a king, I’d take it too. But with each dud project, the guy becomes a lot less exciting as an actor. Remember how thrilling he was in Pulp Fiction all those years ago? I certainly don’t get that same feeling watching, say, The Man. It’s starting to seem like Jackson accepts every project that is placed in front of him.

Which brings me to today’s announcement. Variety reports that Jackson has signed to star in Man That Rocks the Cradle. The comedy “revolves around an overworked husband and father of four who decides the solution to all his problems is a live-in nanny.” Jackson will naturally play the “manny,” Marion Delacroix, a highly respected “kid whisperer” from down South. Josh Cagan wrote the script, which is based on a story by Cagan and Rob McKittrick (the decent comedy Waiting…). Don’t get me wrong, Sam Jackson screaming and cussing at little children could be hilarious. But I have to suspect this is going to be a warmhearted family comedy that hits the exact same tired bases as Three Men and a Baby, Mrs. Doubtfire, The Pacifier, etc, etc. We shall see. Until then, you can see Jackson in…every third movie released.

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