Carrey and Burton Believe
Director Tim Burton and actor Jim Carrey are in early negotiations to collaborate on an action-adventure loosely based on the life of Robert Ripley. The movie, believe it or not, will be called Believe It or Not! and will follow the exploits of Ripley, a sports cartoonist who ran out of ideas and turned to the world of the strange and unusual. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Ripley became a larger-than-life personality in the ’30s and ’40s, well-known for going around the world looking for oddities and getting into adventures while doing so. Hmmm, sounds a little bit like Burton himself, doesn’t it? I mean. have you seen Big Fish? And with Carrey by his side, it could be hilariously refreshing. The script, by Larry Karaszewski and Scott Alexander, who worked together on Burton‘s Ed Wood and Carrey‘s Man on the Moon, picks up with Ripley already well-established and searching globally for oddities with his friends, each of whom has a special ability. If the first film catches on, it the producers hope it could spark an adventure franchise. Believe it or not.
Clooney and the Coens, together again
George Clooney is reuniting with the Coen brothers–and all is right in the world again. The trio, who worked together on O Brother Where Art Thou? and Intolerable Cruelty, will collaborate on Suburbicon, a dark comedy with a sketchy plot–something about a killer robot in suburbia. I like the sound of it already. Actor/director Clooney is set to direct the film, after convincing the brothers to dust off an idea they conceived years earlier. The actor tells Empireonline.com, “I’m going to do a comedy with Joel and Ethan in around a year. I really like working with them and I like doing comedy with them. They offered me a part in Suburbicon a long time ago, and since then decided they have other projects they want to work on. So I called them up and said, ‘How about me taking a spin at it?’ Because it’s a really interesting, really funny, very dark comedy.” I’m sure that it is. Coming from the furtively twisted minds of Ethan and Joel Coen, it’d have to be.
Julia gets on stage
You know, she got the Oscar, had the twins and now, Julia Roberts wants to spread her wings a little and try her hand at stage acting. She’ll make her Broadway debut with co-stars Paul Rudd (The 40 Year-Old Virgin) and Bradley Cooper (TV’s Kitchen Confidential) in a revival of Richard Greenberg’s Three Days of Rain. The play, which features three actors portraying multiple characters, originally was done by Manhattan Theatre Club in 1997. It concerns two interlocking stories taking place in different decades and how parents can affect the lives of their children. While I give Roberts kudos for trying something different, I’m still a little dubious the film actress can pull off live theater as effectively. But maybe I’ll be proven wrong.
Malkovich does Kubrick
John Malkovich is playing the con man who convinced Britain he was reclusive movie mogul Stanley Kubrick in the upcoming film Colour Me Kubrick, starring alongside British comedian Jim Davidson, Honor Blackman and Richard E. Grant. Based on true events, the story is of a man who bluffed his way into London’s high society by pretending to be legendary director Stanley Kubrick during the shooting of Eyes Wide Shut in 1998 and 1999. He reportedly died from cardiac thrombosis just months before Kubrick‘s death in 1999. Colour Me curious.
Twin Peaks rises again
David Lynch’s cult TV series Twin Peaks could be making a triumphant return with Kyle MacLachlan planning a comeback as Agent Dale Cooper. You mean we get more coffee and cherry pie? More weird dancing dwarfs who talk backwards? Tell us, tell us! Twin Peaks co-creator Mark Frost reveals he has been in talks with MacLachlan in the hopes of making a follow-up to the quirky show. He tells Moviehole.net, “We’ve talked a little and it’s (the project) a possibility down the road. I think it would be hard to re-create the world of Twin Peaks at this point, but Kyle is still there and still a terrific actor, and that’s a character we could possibly take other places.” It’s not clear at the moment if mastermind Lynch will be involved. On the one hand, it seems inconceivable doing anything Peaks without him. But then again, he did do the feature film sequel Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me–and that giant mess of a movie didn’t turn out so well. Hmmm.
Bob Saget and the penguins
Now that Bob Saget has shed his goody-two shoes, Full House dad image and has emerged as one of the more delightfully foulmouthed comics around, he’s decided to head to Antarctica to do a show for the penguins. Well, not literally, but he is writing, directing and producing Farce of the Penguins, a spoof on the hugely popular documentary about the aquatic birds. According to Entertainment Weekly, Saget cracked himself up doing ad-libs while watching the summer success. “I did more sounds of old Jews than you’ve ever heard, because it looked like the movie Exodus,” he told EW. Working with 70 hours of penguin lovin’, the comedian is compiling the gems into a “love story.” And it’s not going to be G-rated this time around. “We use the F-bomb,” said Saget. “We’re planning an R-rated movie. And all my friends want to do voice-overs–every person on Full House wants to do it. And Adam Duritz wants to be a cursing, singing penguin.” Can’t wait.
Until next week…
