Longoria Gets to the Heart of Things
Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria is returning to her Lone Star roots, headlining Disney’s fish-out-of-water romantic comedy Deep in the Heart of Texas. She will play a spoiled Beverly Hills diva who is relocated to San Antonio to run the new Latin division of an ad agency. Being completely out of touch with her Mexican roots and speaking not a word of Spanish, she has to win over her new boss, a gringo urban cowboy who speaks fluent Spanish and is more in touch with her heritage than she is. And I suppose–just taking a WILD guess here–they fall in love. Oy. At least this role sounds a little more suited for the TV vixen than playing a buttoned-up Secret Service agent in The Sentinel. She really had so very little to do with that movie.
Beam Me Up!…
And set your phasers to stun, boys–there’s a new Star Trek sheriff in town. J.J. Abrams, the mastermind behind TV’s Lost and the upcoming Mission: Impossible 3, is set to try to revive the Star Trek franchise. Variety reported last Friday that the as-yet-titled Star Trek feature, the 11th since 1979, would aim for a fall 2008 and be centered on the early days of Star Trek characters James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock, including their first meeting at Starfleet Academy and first outer-space mission. Abrams has since come out to say the story was leaked prematurely and that the premise hasn’t been worked out yet. It may not revolve around those characters at all. Well, whatever the film is about, it could be a tough sell. Although Variety reports the Star Trek franchise is one of Hollywood’s most durable performers, spawning 10 features that have grossed more than $1 billion and 726 TV episodes from six series, the last film, Star Trek: Nemesis, bombed at the box office on its December 2002 release, earning just $43 million in North America. And last year, Viacom-owned broadcast network UPN pulled the plug on the low-rated series Star Trek: Enterprise following a four-season run. This may be Abrams’ impossible mission, should he choose to accept it.
Fraser Puts on His Hard Hat; Pacino Joins Ocean’s Gang
Brendan Fraser has boarded Journey to the Center of the Earth, a contemporary, 3-D update of the Jules Verne classic. The story revolves around a scientist who is stuck with his nephew as they embark on a trip to Iceland to check on a volcanic sensor. During a storm, they get trapped in a cave and the only way out is through the center of Earth. Sounds pretty cool but 3-D? Honestly, when has that ever really worked in a feature film? Meanwhile, Al Pacino has been added to Steven Soderbergh‘s Ocean’s Thirteen gang. He joins George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Don Cheadle and Bernie Mac, as well as their franchise’s new leading lady, Ellen Barkin. Still don’t know the film’s plot, but I bet Pacino gets to yell in a few scenes. It’s what he does best.
Howard Hopes to Team Up with His Daughter
Ron Howard is attached to direct The Look of Real, a Winnie Holzman-scripted ensemble that follows a group of young women in the garment industry. Howard is also hoping it will star his daughter, Bryce Dallas Howard, who’ll be seen in M. Night Shyamalan’s upcoming film Lady in the Water. Holzman, who created the series My So Called Life and wrote the book for the smash hit Broadway tuner Wicked, has already received notes from Howard and producer Brian Grazer on her first draft. Howard plans to get back behind the camera before year’s end but first he has to get through his next juggernaut, The Da Vinci Code.
From Emily Rose to Paradise Lost
Scott Derrickson, the director of surprise fall hit The Exorcism of Emily Rose, is bringing John Milton’s immortal work Paradise Lost to the big screen. Written in 1667, Milton’s epic poem revolves around the fall of man and the classic battle of good vs. evil, telling along the way the story of Satan/Lucifer, the angel who tries to overthrow God, and the temptation of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. “This is the war that started all wars, and it will certainly have an epic feel to it,” producer Thomas Tull told the Hollywood Reporter. “If you want to get biblical, when God needed something done, He sent in angels. And these can be pretty fierce creatures. So if you think about what that epic battle looked like and try to realize visually what it would have looked like, it can potentially be pretty incredible.” Well, that’s true. But I’m still having a tough time trying to visualize how they are going to fit Milton’s epic poem into a two to three hour film.
Faris in Mama’s Boy; DeVito Gets Some Sugar; Denton, Kattan Are Undead
Fresh off a successful turn in Scary Movie 4, Anna Faris is joining Napoleon Dynamite star Jon Heder in the comedy Mama’s Boy. Heder plays the title character, a thirtysomething slacker who still lives with his mom (Diane Keaton). When she falls for a motivational speaker (Jeff Daniels), the slacker’s way of life is threatened. Faris plays Heder‘s love interest, a singer-songwriter. Should be fun. In more casting news: Danny DeVito, Dylan Walsh and Justin Long are starring in the indie comedy One Part Sugar. Walsh (TV’s Nip/Tuck) will play Ray Tuckby, a man who clings to hopes of reuniting with an unrequited love from his childhood by staying in his rundown hometown. When a stranger (DeVito) arrives with hopes of revitalizing the town, Tuckby and others team up to fight the local hooligans–including Long as a young drug lord and real estate mogul–and help in the mission. Sounds boring. But it might be interesting to see Long, who usually plays sweet geeks in films such as Herbie: Fully Loaded and Dodgeball, as a bad guy. And finally, Desperate Housewives hunk James Denton and Saturday Night Live alumnus Chris Kattan have signed on to star as cowboys in the indie zombie comedy Wanted: Undead or Alive. Their characters, along with an Indian girl, must try to outrun a sheriff and his posse of zombies intent on catching the trio. Nice.
Until next week…
