Filed under: Comedy, Casting

Maybe someone should tell newcomer Paul Rust that Hayden Panettiere is into older men — the power-sucking sort that are 12 years her teen senior. But, well, geekboys can dream. However, in the upcoming comedy I Love You, Beth Cooper, the dude does a little more than just dreaming. Also, mimicking reality, Hayden plays a gal with an older guy.

Erik blogged about the movie last month when Chris Columbus was in talks to direct, and the whale saver was looking into starring. With their deals now set, Variety reports that they’ve cast Rust as the guy who gets to long for Beth Cooper. He’ll play Denis Cooverman, the geeky valedictorian who decides that it will be a good idea to profess his love for Beth during his speech. Oh yes, there’s nothing more romantic than the smart geek professing his love in front of the whole graduating senior class, their parents, the girl, and her parents. He might be book smart, but it seems like he’s missing some rational smarts. Still, Erik said some great things about it, so maybe this could be fun.

That is, if they don’t make HP be too love-gushy at any point. Man, I hated her romantic scenes with West in Heroes. Ick. Anyway, according to his blog, Rust heads for Vancouver next Monday to shoot the film through the end of May.

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Filed under: Casting, Family Films

No, it isn’t April Fools Day yet. Now hearing this news, that The Rock was going to be the Tooth Fairy, led me to Bad Santa visions. Or, maybe a bit role in some weird dream sequence — all the fairy tale people played by muscle-rippling ex-wrestlers. Then again, The Rock is pretty big on his feel-good roles, so it could just be straight up tooth saving — and that’s just what it seems to be. Variety reports that Dwayne Johnson is going to star in an upcoming project called The Tooth Fairy for 20th Century Fox. And these are the pens behind it — Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandel, plus Joshua Sternin & Jeffrey Ventimilia. Ganz and Mandel wrote Splash (Oscar nom), Spies Like Us, Parenthood, City Slickers…

If you’re wondering how on earth The Rock could play the dainty, tooth-sneaking fairy, I have two words for you: Michael Lembeck. That not enough? He’s the director behind the second and third sequels of The Santa Clause. To top that off, the Variety description goes right along with any logical assumptions made, based on Lembeck: “Johnson will play an ordinary man who’s brought in to try to save the tooth fairy kingdom.”

Does that mean he won’t become the fairy and just help the fairy keep her kingdom, or are they about to get really progressive and slowly morph the beefy star into the petite dental icon of our youth? Production will begin this August.

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Filed under: Action, Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek

With the writer’s strike over, Warner Bros. believes they have a winner in this Justice League movie, and they’re once again plowing ahead to try to get the film up and running for a debut in 2009. Variety tells us that writers Kieran and Michele Mulroney are currently re-tooling the script, while George Miller remains in pre-production in Australia. Additionally, the cast have been told to keep training for their roles. As previously reported, JLA will feature Adam Brody (the Flash), Common (Green Lantern), Armie Hammer Jr. (Batman) and Megan Gale (Wonder Woman). Other actors are rumored to have landed roles, but nothing seems to be official yet.

By mentioning Armie Hammer Jr., we assume this means Batman and Superman will play key roles in the film. Just recently, there was a rumor going around that had both characters scrapped from the new flick. Then again, since the script is still being re-tooled, we really don’t know what the final outcome will look like. Assuming all goes right, Warners will use Justice League to launch solo films for a few of these other characters, like the Flash and Wonder Woman. Marvel, on the other hand, is taking the exact opposite approach: They’re launching solo films — and cross-promoting characters within each solo film — before stepping up to the plate with an Avengers film. Which do you think will be the more successful route?

Also of note: Warners has set a October 16, 2009 release date for Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are.

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Filed under: Action, Fandom, Movie Marketing, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, Images

Something tells me you won’t like Edward Norton when he’s angry. Oh yes, Empire grabbed two new photos from this summer’s The Incredible Hulk; one of which shows Bruce Banner (Ed Norton) all kinds of pissed off. I think it’s safe to say you wouldn’t want to be around that guy when sh*t hits the fan. These are the first images to hit in quite some time, as marketing for the new Hulk flick has been limited. The first trailer is supposed to hit early next month, but in the meantime feast your eyes on the new image above. Empire also has a second image featuring a first look at William Hurt as General Ross, which you can view to the right of your screen.

Director Louis Letterier also talked about this version will differ from the previous Ang Lee film: “We didn’t want to make a cerebral movie. We wanted full action, Hulk smashing stuff up. But Ed Norton’s script has given Bruce’s story real gravitas - Marvel has always made their superhero movies with great actors to make it tangible and Ed has nailed it here. Admittedly, I’m not the most adult director, but just because we’re making a superhero movie, it doesn’t just have to appeal to 13-year-old boys. Ed and I both see superheroes as the new Greek gods, so there’s a classical undercurrent to Bruce’s psycho-drama. It’s Prometheus, Pandora’s Box, Hercules…but with explosions.” (Notice how he says “Ed Norton’s script.” Way to give Zak Penn the shaft on that one.)

The Incredible Hulk hits theaters on June 13.

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Filed under: Cellphones

Garmin probably thought getting into the mobile phone game would just be smooth sailing, but it looks like they’ve made a deadly miscalculation. Okay, that might be over-dramatizing the situation, but the PND-maker is facing a new lawsuit over its upcoming 3G wonder-device, the Nuvifone. Apparently, internet telephone provider Nuvio Corp. feels that Garmin has crossed trademark boundaries just a smidge, alleging the nav company is stepping all over its good name. “Our customers commonly refer to our service as the Nuvio phone,” said Jason P. Talley, the company’s CEO. Not only is the provider calling for a cease-and-desist on the use of “Nuvifone,” but it also wants kickbacks for past infringement, and termination of the word “Nuvi” on any device made by Garmin. Garmin spokesman Ted Gartner says the company has been using the Nuvi name since early 2006 in North America, and earlier in Europe. He went on to add that they don’t discuss pending litigation — though we understand to friends and family he was like, “Pfft, whatever.”

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