The Big Picture

Claire Danes has a strange, ethereal quality to her that's plainly evident in Shopgirl, and I imagine so in Stardust, which I've yet to catch. There's no telling yet how or if that quality will be utilized in the cast of Me and Orson Welles, an adaptation of Robert Kaplow novel from the Dazed and Confused team of director Richard Linklater and Holly Gent Palmo, making her screenwriting debut. THR has the story.

They join Zac Efron and Ben Chaplin in the cast for the 1937-set movie, which centers on a high school student (Efron) who, while strolling the streets of New York, happens upon the yet-to-open Mercury Theatre and is noticed by its mercurial founder, Orson Welles.

He lands a bit part in "Julius Caesar," the production that catapulted Welles to the top, and spends the next week learning about life and love.

James Gandolfini has that feeling. So he's stepped into Sexual Healing as a star and producer, says THR. Jesse L. Martin, who has a striking resemblance to Marvin Gaye already, is playing the lead in this story about the last years of Gaye's life, which ended when his own father shot him dead after a bitter argument. Gandolfini's going to be playing Gaye's manager, Freddy Cousaert, the promoter who led Gaye through the release of his biggest hit, the Midnight Love album.

I'm sure Marvin Gaye would have just loved to have his downward spiral of suffering from depression and health problems trumpeted out by Hollywood, not to mention the sensationalizing of his grisly end prompted in part by his father's brain tumor. This could easily be a tabloidy mess. Let's hope director/writer Lauren Goodman's script treats the subject matter well.

Over Hear Dead Body: I've already registered my complaints. It's a cute premise with very little execution beyond what Paul Rudd decides to toss out here and there.

The Eye: Jessica Alba was blind, but now she sees. But she also sees ghosts and scary things because eyes are the windows to the soul and if you have somebody else's eyes you see stuff they used to see because eyes are magical and not just gooey sacs of retinal fluid.

Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert: People are spending thousands of dollars for tickets for this Disney Channel perk-a-thon. Now you can see it for a Hamilton.

Strange Wilderness: If Allen Covert is in the film and Adam Sandler is not, the prospects don't look promising. At least Grandma's Boy had Linda Cardellini being hot..

Yes, you read that right, The Greatest American Hero is set to start shooting a movie adaptation in July, with Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure director Stephen Herek at the helm. So speaks the Moviehole.

Any of you remembering the days of 80s white-boy afros, as pictured above, will recall the TV show with the big-hit theme song (Believe it or not, I'm walking on air, I never thought I could feel so free-hee-heeeeee! Flyin' away on a wing and a prayer, who could it be? Believe it or not, it's just meeee... Just like the light of a new day, it hit me from out of the blue, breakin' me out of the spell I was in, makin' all of my wishes come truuuuuuuue! Okay I'll stop now) that captured imaginations around the globe before being cancelled three seasons later. It was the story of a high school teacher who was chosen by aliens to save the human race, and he was given a superhero costume that granted amazing superhuman powers. Trouble is, he lost the instruction manual (doh!) and thus finds much in the way of comedy by flying into walls and discovering new powers accidentally. The great Robert Culp played FBI agent Bill Maxwell, who was roped into trying to guide the stumbling Ralph Hinkley (William Katt) through his superhero career.

So, yes, a comedy about a bumbling hero might just do well in this, the Spider-Man age. So it falls to us to figure out what "names" they should get that fit the casting description: “29-39, an all-around good guy, with boyish handsome good looks, smart, decent, honorable and resilient," I like that they're not looking for guys like Paul Walker, the antithesis to acting.

I'll start the campaign right now. Alex Winter. Bill S. Preston, Esquire. He could use the work, Herek's worked with him before, he's far more talented than Keanu Reeves, and chances are he's the right age and could easily have a blonde afro by now.

Hell, he had the afro back then! Get crackin' on this, Herek! Remember your roots!

So the Achy Breaky Spawn did her Disney Princess thing and more than doubled the box office take of the No. 2 movie, Jessica Alba's horror flick The Eye. A movie version of a thousand-dollar concert is apparently a big draw. Also of note is the freefall of Cloverfield - two weeks after a boffo box office opening, it's down to ninth place, both weeks losing over 60% of it's audience. Goes to show just how much the opening weekend means these days, because a sequel to the big bug-fish-thing movie is already in the works.

1. Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert - $29m
2. The Eye - $13m
3. 27 Dresses - $8.4m
4. Juno $7.4m
5. Meet the Spartans - $7.1m
6. Rambo - $7m
7. The Bucket List - $6.8m
8. Untraceable - $5.4m
9. Cloverfield - $4.9m
10. There Will Be Blood - $4.7m

Informal talks between the Writers Guild of America and the Association of Motion Picture & Television Producers have been going on for a while now, and they seem to have yielded some big results. This, of course, suggests that writers bristle at formality, which sounds about right. Hollywood Wiretap has a good summation of all the various articles.

Apparently, the two sides are down to the legalese of drawing up the contracts, which is apparently differeint from the Directors Guild deal but still amenable. Still, the WGA is full of denials so far and they still want people picketing until it's a done deal, which is understandable because there's always shenanigan potential. There's also the chance that the WGA board will balk at the compromises being made here, so just cross your fingers and hope they don't ruin the final season of Scrubs.

Michael Ealy has been selected by The Fresh Prince Will Smith to co-star in his upcoming drama Seven Pounds, to be helmed by The Pursuit of Happyness director Gabriele Muccino, says THR.

The story by Grant Nieporte follows a suicidal IRS agent (Smith) who sets out to make amends by assuming the identity of his younger brother. His plans get complicated when he inadvertently falls in love. Rosario Dawson and Woody Harrelson are in the cast as well.

Sounds like Big Willie Style is taking another swing at an Oscar.

So Universal's attempted relaunch of their classic monster franchise The Wolf Man had hit a big snag when Mark Romanek suddenly dropped out of directing the $100 million thriller due to creative differences. Replacement suggestions varied wildly, from the incomparable Frank Darabont to the infamous Brett Ratner, but they've finally settled on Joe Johnston, director of Hidalgo and Jurassic Park III, to fill the empty slot, Variety says. Not the best pedigree, but I believe that Benicio Del Toro as the Wolfman is more than enough to buoy the picture, especially with Anthony Hopkins playing his father, in the great tradition of Teen Wolf Dad.

Also Horace from The Monster Squad would like to remind you that "Wolf Man's got nards." I think this proves that Benicio Del Toro also has nards.

So there's a rumor that Marvel Studios is going to try to make a Venom movie. You know, the big bag of goo that Topher Grace became at the end of Spider-Man 3. At least that's what IESB is saying.

IESB is also heaping a lot more praise onto the character of Venom and a lot more derision onto Spider-Man 3 than either of them deserve. Lots of comic nerds love Venom, and they tend to overlook the fact that the character in the comics is essentially an Alien riff, all drooling ridiculous tongue and a head full of teeth threatening to eat your brain. It was an unfortunate symptom of a lot of the early-1990s awfulness that pervaded the medium at the time. His origin is ridiculously convoluted, and I think Sam Raimi did the best he could with it. Seriously, there were about thirty characters with absurd prehensile tongues and fang-filled mouths like this. Thankfully, they left the tongue out of the movie.

Raimi likely had to cave from the pressure Avi Arad was putting on him to shoehorn Venom into Spider-Man 3, when the original villains were going to be the Sandman and the Vulture (a character Ben Kingsley was in talks to play at one time, which makes me all the angrier that we got Venom instead). Venom in his own movie would hopefully free up Raimi to get back to the business of making classic Spider-Man movies (although I really hope he amps up Spidey's dialog at some point, because the character is supposed to be a really funny guy). My kingdom for Mysterio, the crazy fish-bowl-headed hallucinogenic criminal.

No word on whether Topher Grace would return for the role. I really thought his prying to God to kill Peter Parker was a great broken moment. But the gooey black symbiote can really be on just about anybody, so there's no limit to who they can bring in for this movie. Maybe even Tim Conway.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford: Casey Affleck got the Best Supporting Actor nod as the titular Coward in this underrated western derided for its slow pace. I'd have given Sam Rockwell that particular shout-out, but I'm just glad it got some attention outside of the San Francisco Film Critics naming it their best picture..

Elizabeth: The Golden Age: Cate Blanchett has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for this role in a movie widely panned by just about everyone who's seen it. This makes me think that not many Academy members actually saw the thing, they just assumed that the first one got an Oscar nod, this should, too. Still, it's Cate Blanchett. It's hard to argue with giving her awards.

The Brave One: Jodie Foster had gotten some Best Actress consideration for her role as a wronged woman out to do more wrongs to make it right, but she was boxed out by Blanchett.

Across the Universe: Likely destined to become a Broadway musical, Julie Taymor has crafted a musical about the 60s out of Beatles songs. I missed it, but my mother is a big Beatles fan, and she thought it was fantastic. So there you go.

Feast of Love: Morgan Freeman, Greg Kinnear, Radha Mitchell, and Jane Alexander all star in this much-praised "meditation on love" surrounding a group of folks in Oregon.

Enchantress Amy Adams, dare I say the "New Hollywood It Girl," is looking to join the cast of Night at the Museum 2: Night at the Museumer, says the big V. Both Ben Stiller and director Shawn Levy are back for the second go-around in this story about a museum whose exhibits all come to life and monkey around at night.

Pic kicks off when the artifacts from the Museum of Natural History are boxed up and sent to the archives at the Smithsonian in Washington. Adams will play an undetermined historical figure who has a crush on security guard Larry (Stiller).

The first Night at the Museum was a surprise hit, but sequels are rarely a surprise.

Unless, of course, you count taking up a role Lindsay Lohan dropped out of 'foolish.'

I'd wondered what the big-eyed and slightly trashy Brittany Murphy had been up to lately, and THR says she's got two projects on the horizon.

There's an indie flick called Across the Hall she's about to start filming, which is described thusly:

In "Hall," Murphy is starring opposite Mike Vogel ("Cloverfield") and Danny Pino ("The Burning Plain") in a thriller about a brutal standoff between a young man (Vogel), his fiancee and his best friend (Pino).

Doesn't sound particularly interesting yet, but there's time. The second project isn't official yet, but since Lindsay Lohan dropped out of Poor Things, Murphy's eyeballing the role.

"Poor" revolves around two female con artists who befriend and then murder homeless men in order to collect on their insurance policies.

Lohan and Murphy, I think, would bring entirely different sensibilities to a film like that. Lohan's presence would automatically make it a comment on the insensitivity of the youth of today, whereas Murphy could believably play the kind of desperate low-life that would do something like this, if her 8 Mile performance is any indication. I'm not sure what it means when I think Brittany Murphy can play a better bit of gutter trash than a boozy rehab case on the nose candy (allegedly).

Is that too harsh?

Let's watch the trailer for Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show, shall we? It's coming out this weekend, so we might as well prep for it. Take a look at the trailer linked above and come back, then we'll discuss.

Vince Vaughn is a funny guy - he steals scenes in movies all the time, often making them worth watching with his particular brand of energetic smartass snark. But these are films with honed and polished scripts, so he doesn't have to come up with the comedy himself. He just needs to put his own spin on the delivery, which he does exceedingly well.

Now, he's gathered up a gang of comedians and toured America with them. True, he's the emcee, so he doesn't have to be all that funny. He's there for marquee value to bring attention to the other comics. However, this trailer doesn't show you anything ABOUT those other comics. It opens with a very lame 'Girls Gone Wild' joke. Seriously - THAT is supposed to be the kick-off line to make people want to see this? Maybe they were hoping the woman yelling to see man-boobs was titillating enough to make folks perk up and take notice, but you really need a better rejoinder if that's what they're noticing. Or maybe they're just trying to create the subliminal hope that maybe they'll somehow show boobs in a stand-up comedy show.

Then we see a bunch of inside jokes about Swingers, a movie that's almost 12 years old now, to show off celebrity guests Jon Favreau and Justin Long. We don't get anything but the briefest nonsensical blurbs from any of the actual comedians. Yes, no one really knows these guys, but for pete's sake, they have to be saying something funny enough to put in the promotional material, even if Vaughn is the main draw. There's always the chance that all the material is too filthy for trailer purposes, I suppose, but even bleeped-out naughty words can create that 'taboo' feeling the earlier boobie reference seems to be going for.

I'm a fan of stand-up comedy, and I know you really can't get a sense of a comic's worth by taking one or two jokes out of context, and sometimes knowing what a comedian is going to say spoils the humor, sure. But this trailer makes me wonder just how much of this film is made up of Vaughn's ego rolling around, judging by that last moment of bragging about how many towns they've rocked. I don't know the guy, I can't say. I just have my suspicions.

Robocop is a great movie, one of the best sci-fi flicks of the 80s, and still holds up as a biting satire. Robocop is also a great word. Thus, I invite you all to play The Robocop Game with me. It's simple, but it's addicting.

All you have to do is take any movie title you can think of and try to wedge Robocop into it. This kills a lot of office drudgery time, I've found. There are a few different categories of responses here.

The "Yeah, I'd Watch That Movie" Category:

Alien vs. Robocop (or alternately, Alien vs. Predator: Robocop)
Robocop vs. Jason
Robocop 2: Robocops United
Robocop and a Half
Beverly Hills Robocop

The "Glorious Mouthful" Category:

The Unbearable Lightness of Robocop
Children of a Lesser Robocop (or alternately, Robocops of a Lesser God)
Four Weddings and a Robocop (or alternately, Four Robocops and a Funeral)
The Chronicles of Old Detroit: The Lion, The Witch and The Robocop
The Assassination of Robocop by the Coward Clarence Boddicker

Then, there's the "Insanity" Category.

2 Robo 2 Cop
Robocopjuice
New Jack Robocop
Robocop 2: Electric Boogaloo
It's a Robocop, Robocop, Robocop, Robocop World

The best part is that when you burn yourself out of playing the game with classic movies, just wait a few months, and there will be a whole new batch of movies to Robocopolize.

Por ejemplo:
No Country for Old Robocops
27 Robocops
Charlie Wilson's Robocop
Robocop and the Chipmunks
Hannah Montana and Robocop: The Best of Both Worlds Concert

Endless hours of fun! So I'll either say "you're welcome" or "I'm sorry," depending on just how much your brain starts to run with this concept. Enjoy!

One of these things just doesn't belong.

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee is already starring Robin Wright Penn (or is she un-Penned now that they're splitting? Much like Rebecca Romijn is un-Stamosed, you see), Winona Ryder and Julianne Moore. Four more people just joined the cast, but they don't all quite fit. We've got three good actresses, so let's add Maggie Gyllenhaal and Monica Bellucci, sure, that works. Then Alan Arkin as the spurning husband, bonus, yes, he's fantastic all the time. So who, then, should fill this other slot, of the younger man that the freshly betrayed Pippa Lee will go for?

Put yourself in Rebecca Miller's shoes - you're the writer, you're adapting your own novel, and you've directed the great film The Ballad of Jack and Rose, not to mention the fact that you're married to Daniel Day-Lewis and thus you should have a good sense of what quality acting entails. The rest of the cast of your film so far proves that much. So how the hell does Keanu Reeves fit into this?

The man makes interesting project choices and I'm sure he's a cool guy to hang around with, but why hasn't everyone snapped out of his blank-eyed hypno-toad spell by now and realized that the man is a black hole of acting.? He hasn't had a believable facial expression since Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, for the love o' pete! What is wrong with you people?

Anyway, here's how THR describes the assorted roles:

Arkin is the husband who leaves Wright Penn for Ryder. Bellucci will play his first wife. Reeves will play Wright Penn's younger lover, while Gyllenhaal plays Wright Penn's diet pill-addicted mother in flashback sequences. Moore is a lesbian novelist.

Moore is a lesbian novelist who never had time for a wife
And she's talkin' with Davy, who's still in the Navy, and probably will be for life...

As usual, the still untitled Woody Allen project has no details about plot readily available, according to EW, but the casting of Curb Your Enthusiasm's Larry David in any Woody Allen movie is absolutely perfect and it's almost startling that it hasn't happened before. The only thing more neurotic than Larry David dialog is Woody Allen dialog.

The addition of Evan Rachel Wood, a talented and notably weird (see Marilyn Manson) actress, certainly fits Allen's M.O. of casting the new hot starlets of today, as well.

Heroes (although I just accidentally typed "Hereos," and now I want chocolate sandwich cookies with Hiro's face on them) star Hayden Panettiere, everyone's favorite quick-healing cheerleader, is now apparently going to be in Daydream Nation, the first of the inevitable freight-train of Juno knock-offs - er, sorry, "a reinvention of the coming-of-age story for the 21st century," "an intellectual comedy a la Juno and Election" according to THR.

Does Panettiere have the same chops to be an "acerbic teen" in the style of Ellen Page? Igby Goes Down's Kieran Culkin might be able to help her out as her clueless boyfriend and, with any luck, she'll get a better script than Heroes usually gives her, but still, I'm not quite seeing this yet.

Sam Rockwell is a fantastic actor who doesn't get nearly enough press. This may or may not change when he plays a guy trapped on the moon for three years. It's hard to get attention in the Sea of Tranquility.

He told MTV that he's starring in the movie appropriately entitled Moon, and that's why he's got the big beard at the moment. .Even more appropriate is a movie called Moon being directed by David Bowie's son Duncan Jones.

Seriously, go watch Confessions of a Dangerous Mind again and remember Sam Rockwell is awesome.

Keep your fingers crossed. It looks like the drafting of a workable proposal to end the writers' strike might be finished by tomorrow.

It still has to jump through a few more hoops - lawyer review, getting ratified by the guild members themselves, which will be the biggest potential stumbling block. But the informal talks that have been going on behind closed doors seem to finally be yielding some results, or at least some good vibes.

The business is expecting a script boom the second the war is over, in a strained allegory to the end of World War II. Let's not get bogged down in figuring out which side is the Nazis, though. We don't need any more vitriolic rhetoric here. It's time for hand-holding and skipping through meadows together so we can get the last season of Scrubs done right.

Fool's Gold: Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson, both perennially lovable people, team up again for sexy treasure-hunting shenanigans. At the premiere for this movie, some of the press openly drooled over McConaughey's tuchus, and he was handing out green M&Ms to us. There's no way this isn't winning the weekend.

Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show: As I've said, Vaughn is a funny guy. The trailer, however, gives us no sense of whether his road crew matches that. I'm sensing a lot of guy humor. Let the testosterone flow - a perfect counter to Fool's Gold.

Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins: Martin Lawrence is a big-shot returning to his small-town family. You lost me with Martin Lawrence.

If you can, check out In Bruges, opening in limited release. I caught it at Sundance, and it's a darkly fun movie. There's also The Band's Visit, a film that Michael Keaton cited as a big influence on his Sundance film, The Merry Gentleman.

So, here's some titillating news. See how this grabs you.

Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz in a lesbian sex scene directed by Woody Allen.

According to the New York Post, it's the real deal in his upcoming film Vicky Christina Barcelona.

"It is also extremely erotic. People will be blown away and even shocked. Penelope and Scarlett go at it in a red-tinted photography dark room, and it will leave the audience gasping."

Then, apparently, there's a threesome with Javier Bardem, to boot.

This seems a bit surreal, but Allen is a well-known perv, so here's hoping it's true. I'm not above a little cinematic salivation, although the idea of Allen being in the room may dampen any hotness he manages to elicit. The man is many things, but sexy isn't one of them.