Eminem Given Gun
For all these rapper-turned-actors, Eminem does possess that certain charismatic star quality on the big screen. I mean, he’s already got an Oscar and everything (he won best song from 8 Mile) So, it’s nice to see him going for it again. Eminem is attached to star in a contemporary feature adaptation of the CBS series Have Gun–Will Travel for Paramount Pictures. Debuting in September 1957, the TV Western starred Richard Boone as Paladin, a gunfighter-for-hire. According to Variety, the concept will be updated to contemporary times in which Eminem will play a bounty hunter. The setting could also be Eminem‘s hometown of Detroit, but those details have yet to be worked out. Can’t take the boy out of his crib! The rapper is also developing a soundtrack. Since Eminem’s stellar debut in 8 Mile, studios have been looking to be in business with him. The rapper, whose real name is Marshall Mathers, and his reps had a hard time finding the right follow-up, however. Par co-prexy of production Brad Weston told Variety, “(This) allows Eminem to go beyond what he did in 8 Mile. ” We’re in.
Burton and Depp, Together AGAIN
Switching out one big-budget Tim Burton movie project for another, Paramount Pictures Chairman Brad Grey has sent Believe It or Not, based on exploits of adventurer and oddities collector Robert Ripley and was to star Jim Carrey, back into development while Stacey Snider, chief of Paramount’s DreamWorks studio, is putting a film version of the hit Stephen Sondheim musical Sweeney Todd on the fast track with Burton at the helm, Variety reports. The quirky director is already talking to his muse Johnny Depp about taking the lead role as the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, who cannibalistic behavior is just the stuff musicals are made of. Should be fun.
Thurman Blooms
My goodness, Uma Thurman is a busy bee these days. Along with a few other projects with titles like Accidental Husband and Man’s Fate, she is now attached to In Bloom, an adaptation of Laura Kasischke novel The Life Before Her Eyes that Vadim Perelman will direct. The thriller revolves about a woman whose idyllic life crumbles when she survives a shooting spree at a school. Yikes. The project marks Perelman‘s second novel-based film, after directing House of Sand and Fog, perhaps one of the most depressing movies I’ve ever seen. Wonderful acting, but man, I cried my eyes out. So, this new one sounds right up Perelman’s alley.
McGuigan Tackles Knights
The Weinstein Co. has hired Scottish director Paul McGuigan, the filmmaker behind the crime thriller Lucky Number Slevin, to take the helm of an upcoming medieval drama titled Four Knights. Set in 12th-century England, the film follows a quartet of foul-mouthed knights sent by King Henry II to negotiate the peace with the troublesome but hugely popular Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Beckett. The knights’ mission goes awry when they end up murdering Beckett and are forced to flee to a remote castle with the whole country baying for their blood. The loosely historical adaptation is based on the play Four Knights in Knaresboro, written by Paul Webb, who was commissioned to pen the screenplay for the Weinstein Co. Gotta love those knight movies.
Let’s Hear It for the New Girl!
New Line has tapped an unknown to star in the feature film version of the hit Broadway musical Hairspray, which in turn is based on the cult movie. Nicole Blonsky, a 17-year-old New Yorker, will play Tracy Turnblad, after winning the role in a nationwide search. The 4-foot-10 Blonsky–who’s been working at a Coldstone Creamery in Great Neck, N.Y.–has performed in Sweeney Todd, Carmen, Kiss Me Kate and Les Miserables in Great Neck and has sung the National Anthem and “God Bless America” at a variety of events. So I guess she’s got the pipes. She’ll join cast members John Travolta, Queen Latifah and Amanda Bynes, directed by Adam Shankman. What a great story–going from working at one of the better ice cream parlors ever to starring in a major motion picture. She must be pinching herself.
Until next week…
