Bruce Willis Is Gonna Die Hard…Again
And he’s going to take a few people along with him: Accepted’s Justin Long and Mission: Impossible III’s Maggie Q. Live Free or Die Hard (a really bad title, by the way) is the fourth installment of the Die Hard series and centers on an attack on the U.S.’ computer infrastructure that begins to shut the country down. Digital terrorism is the wave of the future, I tell ya. As well it should be. We are all way too connected to our telecommunications technology—BlackBerrys, cell phones, blue teeth, whatever. Anyway, the mysterious figure behind the scheme has figured out every digital angle but never counts on an old-fashioned “analog” named John McClane (Willis). No one ever does. Long will play a smart, younger guy who assists McClane, while Maggie Q will play a world-class hacker at odds with McClane.
Clooney Passes the Pigskin
Not sure what ol’ George is thinking on this one, but Clooney has been tapped to helm and star in football drama Leatherheads, a film Universal has labored to get made for a decade, according to Variety. The romantic comedy is set against the backdrop of pro-football’s formation in the 1920s. Renee Zellweger is in negotiations to co-star. Wonder why a story like this would take so long to make? Maybe because the film has had many incarnations, including being done as a drama, revolving around an aging football player who coaxes a college star to drop out and try his luck in a new professional league. OK, well, that explains it. A comedy does sound better.
Jolie Tackles Ayn Rand Opus
It’s official. I reported awhile back that Angelina Jolie was interested in starring in the film adaptation of Rand’s iconic tome Atlas Shrugged. But now she has signed on, giving the movie its long-awaited green light. Jolie, a longtime fan of Rand’s, has been eager to play the role of cold, calculating Dagney Taggart, the most powerful female character in any of Rand’s books, a part Jolie could probably play in her sleep. Still, getting Rand’s novel, which runs more than 1,100 pages, to the big screen has been a long and arduous process. According to Variety, producer Al Ruddy tried to get Atlas Shrugged made for years, attracting the interest of Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway along the way. It’s good thing it took so long cause none of those people sound right to me. Angie’s got a lock.
Theron, Jones May Join Haggis
Oscar winners Charlize Theron and Tommy Lee Jones are in discussions to star in an untitled mystery thriller that will mark Paul Haggis‘ directing follow-up to his Academy Award-winning hit Crash. The project follows a veteran father in search of his son, an exemplary soldier who recently returned from Iraq and has mysteriously gone AWOL. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the story is based on an investigative article by Mark Boal titled “Death and Dishonor,” which ran in Playboy. It told the true story about an officer-father who rejected the Army’s claim of AWOL status for his son and discovered a murder. Haggis fictionalized the elements and will direct from his original screenplay based on a story he wrote with Boal. If deals are made, Jones would play the father, while Theron would play a police detective. Anything Haggis writes these days turns to gold, so this could be intense.
Deschanel Channels Joplin
Quirky actress Zooey Deschanel (Failure to Launch) will replace pop singer Pink in The Gospel According to Janis, the Penelope Spheeris-directed drama. Spheeris also wrote the script with David Dalton, a former freelance journalist, who, back in the ‘70s, was assigned by Rolling Stone magazine to write a cover story comparing the troubled Joplin to Judy Garland. He accompanied the singer on a long tour, and his adventure has become the central plot of the film. Deschanel will sing all of Joplin’s tunes and has spent the past four months working with a vocal coach to hone her pipes to approximate Joplin’s gritty vocals. I think it’s a perfect match.
Kingsley Kills for a Good Part
Ben Kingsley is set to play an alcoholic hit man in the dark comedy You Kill Me , playing a character who heads to California to take a break from his bad habits. He lands a job at a mortuary, where he meets and becomes romantically involved with the wild stepdaughter (Tea Leoni) of a corpse he’s embalming. After making a friend (Luke Wilson) at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, he soon finds himself caught up in his old profession. Well, at least it doesn’t sound like Kingsley is just doing this one for the paycheck. I mean, Ben, really. Thunderbirds and Bloodrayne? You’re better than that.
Disney Tries Luck with Jungle Cruise Flick
No, I’m not kidding. The whole Pirates of the Caribbean-making-a-jillion-dollars thing has definitely gone to the Mouse House’s head. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Walt Disney Pictures is giving high-priority status to the latest potential adventure franchise based on the Disneyland ride, on which park-goers travel the jungle river guided by a riverboat skipper, encountering such wild creatures as piranhas and gorillas during their tour. Now, come on, in what way can this be a movie? What, are they going to make it a Crocodile Hunter meets The African Queen? The reason Pirates has done so well is because it’s about pirates! It’s sort of a no-brainer. And we all might recall the OTHER Disneyland rides-turned-movies that weren’t nearly as successful as Pirates, such as The Haunted Mansion and Country Bears. Ugh.
Until next week…
