Filed under: Comedy, Romance, Casting

It’s almost Friday! …and here are some casting nibblets courtesy of Variety:

• After having to stare at Isla Fisher’s god-awful get-ups in Confessions of a Shopaholic, Krysten Ritter is now getting a starring role — and hopefully without the eye-sore fashions. (If you haven’t seen them, consider yourself lucky.) Ms. Ritter, who has had stints on Veronica Mars, Gilmore Girls, and 27 Dresses is now starring in She’s Out of My League with Jay Baruchel — as the perfect woman, no less. The flick is about a normal guy who finds the perfect girl, but then begins to sabotage the relationship with his own insecurities and the influence of his friends and family.
• Meanwhile, College Hill’s Willie Macc has nabbed a part in Chicago Pulaski Jones, that Cedric the Entertainer movie about a young dancer who is looking for money and fame, but must avenge the death of his uncle. While we don’t know how this puppy will turn out, it will, hopefully, at least be better than Macc’s last gig — Meet the Spartans.
• Finally, there’s Rob Huebel. After getting the distinctive role of “MILF Island Host” on 30 Rock, he has scored a role in I Love You, Man, the upcoming comedy that has Paul Rudd hunting around and finding a best friend and best man in Jason Segel. Huebel will play “a handsome but cheesy co-worker” of Rudd’s, and I guess a dude who doesn’t make the cut.

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Filed under: Comedy, Independent, Casting, Cinematical Indie

In the last few years, Sophie Monk has starred in Date Movie (ick), had a part in Click (eh), and then Sex and Death 101 (Waters/Ryder reunion…yay!). She’s also finished filming three new films — Spring Break ‘83, which has her starring with Jamie Kennedy in a retro high school bullying story that sounds like a Dazed and Confused wannabe, Pearblossom, which has her being a reawakened dead lesbian, and Spring Breakdown, a Rachel Dratch story about thirtysomethings partying with co-eds.

Now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Monk is also going to get her date on in new writer/director Leah Sturgis’ upcoming film. She has signed on to star in Hardbreakers, an indie comedy that focuses on a few “hot single girls” dating in Los Angeles. Her character will be Lindsay Greene, “an outgoing, fun, and crazy 25-year-old who has been with a lot of guys.” Uh, okay.

I imagine the thing to note in this flick is that it’s called “Hard”breakers, rather than “Heart”breakers. Is it safe to assume that these two young women, one of whom has racked up a lot of practice, have a habit of inducing a certain colored genital condition? And who will be Lindsay’s partner in crime? Stay tuned!

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Jennifer Aniston may be set to adopt a son this Christmas after she reportedly installed a new nursery in her Beverly Hills home.

A close friend of the actress told a UK magazine that the Friends star had chosen a baby boy from an adoption agency in LA.

They said: “She’s now decided to find a baby in LA and she likes the name Alexander, which means ‘defender of men’ in Greek.

“It’s a family name – her younger half brother is called Alex.”

The luxury £150,000 nursery was installed into Jennifer’s £7.5million mansion and is said to include two children’s bedrooms a play room and a suite for a nanny to stay in.

Jennifer, who started looking at adoption procedures last January, may also be looking to adopt a girl in the future.

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Filed under: Horror, Casting

So much for Henry Lee Hopper’s acting debut. While Dennis’ offspring had signed on for a part in Wes Craven’s 25/8 at the end of March, not even a month later, he’s unfortunately out. In a really crappy bit of luck, Hopper has been brought down by mononucleosis. Poor dude. With that looming actors strike, Craven can’t wait, so The Hollywood Reporter posts that they’ve got a more recognizable replacement for the would-be actor — Max Thieriot.

The young actor is definitely doing a decent job finding roles to balance out his family fare gigs. While he’s had parts in The Pacifier and The Astronaut Farmer, played Ned Nickerson in Nancy Drew, and has a place in the upcoming Kit Kittredge flick, he’s just popped on the big screen in Jumper, has a part in Driving Lessons, and now may meet his death on the big screen. Thieriot will play one of seven fifteen-year-old kids who are haunted by a serial killer who was said to have died on the day they were born.

Continue reading Mono Bumps Young Hopper from Wes Craven’s ‘25/8′

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After Indian football captain Baichung Bhutia and India’s first woman IPS Kiran Bedi, Bollywood actress Soha Ali Khan has opted out of the Olympic torch relay in New Delhi on Thursday.

Soha Ali Khan announced her decision here on Tuesday saying she was pulling out of the event citing “very strong personal reasons.”

Significantly, Soha’s decision came on a day when the new Sports Minister M S Gill said he was not in favor of stars or politicians to be associated with the relay on Thursday and those only real athletes should carry the torch.

“I fully support the Olympic relay and am saddened at the disruptions in its path in various parts of the world as well as the violence in Tibet. But I can’t run due to very strong personal reasons,” Soha told reporters.

On suggestions from Sports fraternity that only sportspersons should run the Olympic torch relay, Soha said representatives from various fields belonging to the country through which torch relay passes, should be welcomed to run.

When asked about her forthcoming films, Soha said she was excited about Nishikant Kamat’s Mumbai Meri Jaan based on the July 2006 train blasts in Mumbai.

“I play a television journalist and the film takes a hard-hitting look at the media It is a very intense film,” she said. Kamat’s earlier Marathi movie Dombivili Fast was critically acclaimed and is being remade in many languages.

Soha said at present she was shooting for Dhoondte Reh Jaoge in which she plays a wannabe actress. She said she is also working in UTV’s untitled film.

When asked about brother Saif’s career and relationship with Kareena Kapoor, Soha said, “If my brother wants to marry her, I am all for it.”

On the couple’s forthcoming film Tashan, Soha said she liked the promos of the film and was looking forward to see it.

To a question on the ‘Kareena’ tattoo on her brother’s hand, Soha said, “it was a wonderful sign of love and commitment on his behalf.”

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Britney Spears is in talks with Bally Total Fitness to be their new spokesperson.

The out-of-shape singer will supposedly re-sculpt her once stunning figure through an endorsement deal with the health club chain.

What’s next? A deal to be the next anti-smoking spokesperson?

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Robert Downey Jr: ‘I remember certain colleagues having a lot of fun with me on set in the past. Every second star goes to bed with his co-star because they spend so much time together. But I’m not going to start reeling off the names.’

Downey currently co-stars with Gwyneth Paltrow in his current movie “Iron Man”. Let the rumors start flying.

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Filed under: Comedy, Casting, Deals, Family Films, Remakes and Sequels

Do any of you remember Teen Witch? I definitely didn’t until I looked up the cover and remembered that it was that, well, teen witch story — a girl finds out she’s a Salem witch descendant and has special powers. It starred Robyn Lively, it came at the end of the ’80s, and it pretty much tanked. Heck, remember Lively? She got to star in The Karate Kid, Part III, and be an extremely seductive and enticing old man chaser in Twin Peaks, before taking on a number of short television stints and low/no buzz movies.

But now she can say that she’s paved the way for Ashley Tisdale. The Hollywood Reporter posts that Teen Witch is getting remade by United Artists, and Ms. High School Musical Sharpay Evans is in negotiations to star. I’ve got to wonder: who on earth picked that movie out of the rubble to remake?! Did someone at UA have a guilty pleasure, and always dream of remaking it into something a little bit more successful? At the very least, it’s a potential remake that shouldn’t ruffle too many feathers… unless there is a huge Teen Witch contingent out there lurking in the shadows?

No writer has been tapped to update this puppy yet, but in the meantime, Tisdale is still busy. Aside from HSM, she’s been talking to the Disney Channel about making a new show about Tisdale’s early life, pre-stardom, when she worked at a mall. (Sweet! Maybe we’ll get Forever 21: The Musical. And it’d be about damn time.)

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‘Sex and the City’ leading lady Cynthia Nixon has revealed that she was diagnosed with breast cancer two years, ago after she’d gone for a “completely routine mammogram”.

The actress, who is reprising her role as Miranda Hobbes for the movie version of SaTC, told ‘Good Morning America’ that she was informed she had breast cancer by her gynaecologist in 2006.

“She says, ‘Well I have some, it’s not great news,’” Nixon explained, admitting that she immediately felt scared.

“[She said] If it’s going to happen, this is the best way for it to happen - that it’s found so early, and we can just get right on it.”

According to the 42-year-old, the lump was very small and was caught very early. She is “going to have an operation, they’re going to take it out and then we’re going to have six-and-a-half weeks of radiation, every weekday.”

Nixon also explained that breast cancer is hereditary in her family saying, “This is what grandma went through, and I’m going to be fine… As the daughter of a breast cancer survivor, knowing my personal risk made me more aware and more empowered when I faced my own diagnosis.”

She added that she chose to keep the news private, because she “didn’t want paparazzi at the hospital.”

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Filed under: Casting, Noir, Scripts

Having pioneered tech-noir with Blade Runner, Ridley Scott is trying his hand at classical noir with The Kind One. Variety reports that Scott will direct and produce an adaptation of the Tom Epperson book, with Epperson himself writing the screenplay. The novel is about an amnesiac in 1930s Los Angeles who is informed that before he lost his memory, he was a ruthless gangster named “Two-Gun Danny,” and that he works for a fearsome gangland boss. Epperson is a screenwriter by trade, best known for co-writing The Gift with Billy Bob Thornton; The Kind One is his first novel.

The other person to sign on to the project is Casey Affleck, who is clearly enjoying his new lease on life following The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Gone Baby Gone. He’s really the perfect noir hero, scrappy, jaded and intelligent; we saw some of that on display in his brother’s film, where he practically disappeared into the tough working-class Boston milieu. He and Scott should be able to hit this one out of the park, if the source material is any good. As always, I’d love to hear from commenters who are familiar with the book.

Continue reading Ridley Scott to Direct Casey Affleck in ‘The Kind One’

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