[IMG:L]Young Victoria Gets Top-Notch Cast
Jim Broadbent and Miranda Richardson have joined Emily Blunt in a Martin Scorsese-produced drama about Queen Victoria. And why shouldn’t we see a movie about the The Young Victoria? Movies about royalty are all the rage these days. Victoria focuses on the early turbulent years of her reign, and her romance and marriage to Prince Albert. Broadbent will play King William IV, whose 1837 death paved the way for his niece Victoria (Blunt) to accede to the throne. Richardson will play Victoria’s mother, the Duchess of Kent. Rupert Friend will play Prince Albert. French-Canadian filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallee will direct from a script by Julian Fellowes, the Oscar-winning writer of Gosford Park. More Oscars possibly to follow.
[IMG:R]Reynolds, Bullock Get Hitched; Mulroney, Kinnear Prove Genius
Ryan Reynolds is in final negotiations to star opposite Sandra Bullock in the romantic comedy The Proposal. Bullock plays a demanding boss who suddenly faces deportation to Canada. Hey, it could happen. She makes a deal with her young assistant (Reynolds) to agree to a sham engagement and marriage. Hmmm, a Green Card this is NOT. Meanwhile, Dermot Mulroney will pal around with Greg Kinnear in the drama Flash of Genius. Mulroney will play Gil Privick, best friend of Robert Kearns (Kinnear) and owner of a chain of auto-parts stores. Kearns invented the intermittent windshield wiper and sued Detroit automakers over patent infringement. And then?
[IMG:L]Watch Out!
Warner Bros. has landed its Watchmen: Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson and Matthew Goode have gotten their hooks into Zack Snyder‘s adaptation of the iconic Watchmen comic book. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jackie Earle Haley and Malin Akerman have also landed key roles in the ensemble project, Snyder‘s follow-up to 300. Based on Alan Moore’s 1980s comic book series, the adaptation will be set in an alternate 1985 with plenty of Cold War overtones. Crudup (Stage Beauty) will play the fatalistic Dr. Manhattan, while Wilson (Little Children) will portray Night Owl, a rich kid interested in birds. Goode (Match Point) nabbed the part of the glamorous Ozymandias, and Morgan (TV’s Grey’s Anatomy) has been cast as the Comedian, a Vietnam vet who’s a member of the Minutemen. Haley (also Little Children) and Akerman (Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle) round out the cast as Rorschach, a vigilante, and Silk Spectre, the key femme role. The cast is intriguing enough, let’s see what Snyder does with them.
[IMG:R]Jack and the Beanstalk Gets a Big-Screen Treatment
Katey Sagal, Wallace Shawn, Gilbert Gottfried and Chevy Chase are starring in a live-action feature version of Jack and the Beanstalk. James Earl Jones is in negotiations to voice the role of the Giant in the family-friendly tale. Sagal will play the concerned mother of Jack (Colin Ford), Shawn will play the pawnbroker who sells Jack his magic beans and Gottfried will play a goose that lays golden eggs (now that’s something I HAVE to see). Chase has a cameo as the keeper of a labyrinth Jack must traverse to meet the giant. Veteran character actor Daniel Roebuck will play the mayor of Jack’s hometown, while Christopher Lloyd will play a stern headmaster. Beanstalk is the first of 10 low-budget family features being produced by indie firm Avalon Family Films, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The film is being directed by Gary J. Tunnicliffe, who rose through the ranks as a makeup effects artists on dozens of horror films. “It’s good not to have blood on the set,” Tunnicliffe joked to the Reporter. “The big fight is a pillow fight.” Ha. Ha.
[IMG:L]Little Miss Hairspray Breaks Out
In her first role since her breakthrough performance in the hit movie musical Hairspray, newcomer Nikki Blonsky has joined the cast of the teen comedy Harold. Blonsky plays Rhonda, the nerdy best friend of prematurely aging teen Harold (Spencer Breslin). Ally Sheedy returns to the high school comedy genre as Maureen, a mother who helps her balding son cope with incessant teasing. Saturday Night Live veteran Colin Quinn plays Reedy, a drunken barfly who’s a regular at a strip club Harold frequents. Cuba Gooding Jr., one of the film’s producers, plays a school janitor who befriends the troubled title character. Uh-oh. Maybe Gooding can finally score a hit. Doubtful, but you never know.
[IMG:R]Gervais Opts for Early Retirement
Ricky Gervais is set to star in Early Retirement, a feature based on Mark Perez‘s (Accepted) comedy pitch about an work-obsessed man who quits his demanding job to spend more time with his family. Perez told Variety he wanted to do a movie that picks up where other family comedies leave off–with the husband quitting his job to spend more time with his family–and then watch what happens. “It was fun to get to do the opposite of most family comedies,” Perez said, “because I’ve written my share of those.” I’ll be the judge of that later.
Until next week…
