Saturday, February 19, 2011
Cameron Diaz to Star Opposite Colin Firth in the Coen Brothers' 'Gambit'
Glen Basner's FilmNation will launch the project to foreign buyers at the European Film Market in Berlin.
Cameron Diaz is attached to star opposite Colin Firth in the Joel andEthan Coen-scripted Gambit, a remake of the 1966 British caper starringMichael Caine and Shirley MacLaine.
Gambit is one of the first projects financed by Crime Scene Pictures,launched in May by writer/director/producer Adam Rippand agent-turned-producer Rob Paris.
Glen Basner’s FilmNation will launch Gambit to foreign buyers at the upcoming European Film Market in Berlin. FilmNation and Crime Scene announced Diaz’s casting on Tuesday. Firth, a frontrunner for the Oscar for his performance in The King’s Speech, was previously attached to Gambit.
Michael Hoffman (The Last Station) is directing the remake. Mike Lobbell is producing alongside Ripp and Paris.
Hoffman begins shooting in London in May.
Storyline revolves around a London art curator (Firth) who plots an elaborate scheme to con a wealthy collector into buying a fake Monet painting. As part of the ruse, he recruits a Texas steer roper (Diaz) to play the part of a woman whose grandfather liberated the painting at the end of WWII.
Diaz, who is currently in theaters with The Green Hornet, recently wrapped Bad Teacher.She’s repped by CAA.
Kat Dennings to Costar in Whitney Cummings CBS Pilot
Co-executive produced by Michael Patrick King, "Two Broke Girls" centers on two under-employed New Yorkers trying to make it in the big city.
Kat Dennings has closed a deal to co-star in comedian Whitney Cummings’ CBS pilot Two Broke Girls.
The single-camera comedy from Warner Bros. revolves around two under-employed New Yorkers trying to make it in the big city. Cummings wrote the pilot and will executive produce with Sex and the City alum Michael Patrick King.
It’s not the first time Dennings has worked with King; the actress broke out when she landed a part on a 2000 episode of Sex and the City playing a precocious 13-year-old who hires Samantha to do publicity for her bat mitzvah. She went on to land supporting roles in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Big Momma’s House 2 and Kenneth Branagh’s upcoming Thor.
Stalwart comedy director James Burrows will direct the Two Broke Girls pilot, which should give Girls a fighting chance if past experience is any guide. Burrows -- a co-creator ofCheers – has directed myriad pilots including Will & Grace, The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men. Last year, he directed the pilots for CBS’ Mike & Molly, $#*! My Dad Saysand Better with You.
Oscars Nixing Montages, Elaborate Nominee Tributes From Telecast (Exclusive)
Producers Bruce Cohen and Don Mischer have booted a number of familiar elements from the Feb 27 show.
As preparations for the 83rd annual Academy Awards move into high gear, producers Bruce Cohen and Don Mischer have booted a number of familiar elements from the Feb 27 show.
Gone will be the movie montages -- like last year’s salute to horror movies -- that often contribute to the broadcast’s unwieldy running time. While there will be film clips from the ten best picture nominees and brief filmed introductions to different segments of the show, “Within the body of the show, we are not doing any film montage sequences,” Cohen tells The Hollywood Reporter in an interview.
Gone too will be the relatively new tradition, established just two years ago, of using five presenters to offer tribute testimonials about each of the best actor and actress nominees. “We’re not going to do that this year,” Cohen says. “What we did love about it was that it was a moment where each of the nominees really gets their due. [But] we found a version of that, without using the five people on stage, from the 1970 Oscars, and we stole it.”
The producers also have enlisted the nominees’ mothers to participate in promotion and pre-show activities, and some of them will be in the audience for the telecast.
This year’s producing team is restoring individual performances of the four nominated songs, which were eliminated last year. Producers were upset that Cher, a major audience draw, was not nominated for her Burlesque ballad, “You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me.”
“We were surprised, and we were disappointed,” Cohen says when of the song, which won its composer and lyricist Diane Warren a Golden Globe but failed to earn an Academy nom.
They have lined up most of the other names associated with the songs that were nominated, though: Randy Newman will perform his “We Belong Together” from Toy Story 3; Mandy Moore and Zachary Levy, who sang the duet “I See The Light” on the Tangled soundtrack will reteam with composer Alan Menkin; and Gwyneth Paltrow, who sings “Coming Home” in Country Strong will reprise that tune on the broadcast.
Because Dido, who was nominated along with Rollo Armstrong and A.R. Rahman for the song “If I Rise,” from 127 Hours was not available, the producers have drafted Florence Welch from Florence and the Machine to appear with Rahman.
“We feel we really lucked out, and this is a good year to bring the best song performances back,” Cohen says.
Britney Spears' 'Hold It Against Me' Video
Twitter users react to the singer's latest video, which premiered Thursday night on MTV.
Britney Spears debuted the new video for her single "Hold It Against Me" on Thursday night.
The video debuted at 9:55 p.m. ET/PT on MTV, and the singer also tweeted a link to it.
"Without further adieu, I present my video for Hold It Against Me, directed by the wonderfulJonas Akerlund," she wrote, then added: "Hope you guys love it as much as I do. If you didn't I'll kung fu kick you like I did to that chick in the video."
There were several instant, mixed reactions from Twitter users.
"FINALLY. Thank you BritneySpears for FINALLY actually doing a lot of choreo in a video! This is the BritneyI LOVE!" wrote JorBae, while JordannLewis added: "Killed it!!! PS her body looks AMAZING !"
Another Twitterer called glamloverx wasn't as enthusiastic: "Just watched BritneySpears's Hold it against me video.... doesn't interest me. She is too the same as everyone else."
Spears had posted a 30-second sneak peek Thursday ahead of the full video's release after her managed tweeted that its debut would be delayed.
Watch the full video below (please be patient; the video takes a moment to load).
Inside Lady Gaga's Late-Night 'Born This Way' Session With Clarence Clemons
What Lady Gaga wants, Lady Gaga gets -- just ask Clarence Clemons, longtime saxophonist for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band.
Clemons told Rolling Stone, "She said, 'We'll put the tape on and you just play. Play from your heart. Play what you feel.' It was all very pure."On a Friday afternoon three weeks ago, the musician was putting together an exercise machine at his home in Florida when a call came that Gaga wanted him in her recording studio stat. He dropped what he was doing, flew to New York, met Gaga at midnight and had a track recorded three hours later.
Clemons' sax can be heard throughout the "Hair" single, including a solo.
He says he was a Gaga fan prior to working with her and is an even bigger supporter now, "She's the real deal. All the craziness and stuff, there's a purpose to all of it. She has no boundaries. It's a day I'll never forget."
Lady Gaga's Born This Way album will be released in May.
Prince William-Kate Middleton Wedding Sends Cable Networks Into Programming Frenzy
A slew of shows and specials about the royal family will precede the couple's April 29 nuptials.
Royal fever is catching on in the U.S., and cable networks plan to capitalize on the frenzy with a series of specials leading up to the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
In addition to Lifetime, which plans to air a biopic about the couple titledWilliam and Kate, other networks such as BBC, TLC and Wedding Central will bombard U.S. audiences with programming to generate excitement about the event, which will take place April 29 at Westminster Abbey.
BBC Worldwide America, the American branch of the U.K.-based public broadcaster, leads the pack with the most extensive pre-wedding coverage. The network has already aired two specials, William & Kate: Modern Monarchy and Modern Monarchy: Here and There, and intends broadcast up to half a dozen others about the royal family before the event.
The network’s aggressive wedding drive will culminate with Royally Mad, a two-part series that takes four American royal wedding fanatics to London for their first time to visit the people and locations that feature into William and Kate’s story. So You Think You Can Dance's Cat Deeley will host the show, set to premiere April 12.
"We wanted to do a combination of programming that took an affectionate look at the wedding but could also have a sense of humor," Perry Simon, general manager of BBC Americas, told the Associated Press. He added, "It's wedding fever here. All wedding, all the time."
TLC also has a number of royals-themed programs on its slate, including specials on Princess Diana’s bridesmaid India Hicks and hoarders of royal memorabilia. Meanwhile, Wedding Central, a relatively new offshoot of women’s network WE TV, is working on its first original program, a documentary called William and Kate: The Wedding of the Century that will feature interviews with the people involved in making the big day happen.
The wedding itself will receive extensive coverage on most major news programs, but will not be broadcast in 3D as previously rumored.
'Unknown' Edges 'Number Four' for No. 1 Spot at Friday Box Office
The Liam Neeson action-thriller Unknown overtook the Alex Pettyfer sci-fi adventure I Am Number Four at the Friday box office, grossing $6.7 million from 3,043 theaters for Warner Bros. and Joel Silver’s Dark Castle.
I Am Number Four, from DreamWorks and Touchstone, grossed an estimated $6.2 million from 3,154 theaters. Pic is the first DreamWorks title to be distributed by Touchstone under Disney’s output deal with Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider’s company.
Box office observers aren’t ready to call the weekend race between Unknown and Number Four, since bad weather on the West Coast affected Friday’s grosses, although some are now betting onUnknown, which should open in the mid $20 millions over the four day President’s Day weekend.
Heading into the holiday, tracking showed Number Four in the lead. Unknown’s strong showing is similar to Neeson’s Taken, which was a sleeper box office hit.
Elsewhere at the box office on Friday, Sony’s Adam Sandler-Jennifer Aniston romantic comedy Just Go With It came in No. 3, falling only 44% from the previous Friday to an estimated $5.3 million for a cume of $47.9 million.
Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son, from 20th Century Fox and New Regency, opened at No. 4, grossing an estimated $4.8 million from 2,821 theaters.
Disney’s Gnomeo & Juliet beat Paramount’s Justin Bieber: Never Say Never to come in No. 5, grossing an estimated $4.3 million from 3,014 theaters for a cume of $35.3 million.
Never Say Never had a big fall in its second week, as expected. The movie fell 69% to an estimated $3.8 million from 3,118 theaters for a cume of $38.7 million.
The Weinstein Co.’s The King’s Speech will jump the $100 million mark at the domestic box office this weekend. The awards contender grossed an estimated $1.5 million on Friday for a cume of $98.2 million.
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