Editorial Staff
Bruce does Oliver Stone, the Beek does Betty..
Kirby here,
I see that there’s a few juicy little news nuggets online at the moment, and I see that Clint hasn’t mentioned many of them today (he’s either changing a diaper, producing a film or singing Bryan Ferry tunes at a Karaoke bar – – I’m guessing), so lets try and get a few of them ‘out there’ in one.
– John Ridley (“Three Kings”) will write “Red Tails”, a new WWII action adventure about the Tuskegee Airmen based on a story by Lucas (also the executive producer and financier). The film, says Variety, charts a group of young pilots as they overcame racism to form the Tuskegee Airmen, a distinguished group of fliers who broke the aviation color barrier to become the first African-American fighter pilots in U.S. military history.
– E Online reports that James Van Der Beek (Clint, weren’t you sinkin’ beers with the Dawson in Malibu last year? where’s the fuckin’ stories, bro?!) will do a guest spot on the stinkiest show on TV, “Ugly Betty”. Kristin over at E! says she “was told that James Van Der Beek is playing the owner of Atlantic Attire. Apparently, he’s scheduled to do business with Mode, but he has problems with Alexis being a transsexual.”
– United Artists are looking to finance Oliver Stone’s next film “Pinkville”, says Variety. The Vietnam War movie will star Bruce Willis and Channing Tatum (“Step Up”). Willis will play Army Gen. William R. Peers, who supervised the investigation into the massacre by U.S. soldiers of as many as 500 My Lai villagers, most of them unarmed women, children and elderly. Tatum will play Hugh Thompson, a helicopter pilot who, upon realizing what was happening below, put a stop to the killing by placing his craft between gunmen and the few villagers who were left, and telling his two shipmates to fire on the soldiers if they shot any more people. They airlifted the survivors and reported the carnage to superiors.
– Robert Downey Jr will join Jamie Foxx for “The Soloist”, a drama about a violin prodigy, says Variety. Downey will play Steve Lopez, the Los Angeles Times columnist who discovered Nathaniel Ayers, a downtown L.A. homeless man who was a skillful violinist. After learning that Ayers was a prodigy until schizophrenia made it impossible to continue, Lopez wrote columns about the musician and developed a relationship that changed both their lives.
– The long-gestating “Mortal Kombat 3” has had a name change. Apparently the film – which will be directed by Mink (“Into the Sun”) – will now simply be known as “Mortal Kombat” signalling a possible Hulk/Batman-esque reboot for the series.
– Jim Piddock (“The Seeker : The Dark is Rising”) will play a small role in “Endless Bummer”, a comedy about a surf shop owner (Matthew Lillard) whose trying to get his board back.
– Jesse Metcalfe will star in “The Other End of the Line”, an Indian-American cross cultural rom-com from Hyde Park Entertainment. The pic centers around an Indian call-center operative who travels to San Francisco to be with a man she has only met over the phone. Lensing begins mid October in Mumbai before moving to the U.S.
– Jennifer Lopez’s Nuyorican Prods. has teamed with Jane Startz Prods. to develop “The Amigas Sweet 15 Club,” a TV series about five entrepreneurial Miami teens running a Quinceanera party-planning business, says The Hollywood Reporter. Fuck that.
– “High School Musical” fave Ashley Tisdale will star in “Picture This” for MGM’s DVD Premiere unit, says The Hollywood Reporter. Tisdale will play Mandy, a high schooler who has caught the eye of the most popular boy in school. In the story, he invites her to his party, causing a dilemma as she has just been grounded. Stephen Herek (“The Mighty Ducks”) will direct.
– Cinematical reports that a fourth “Fast and the Furious” is in development over at Universal and that – lets see how this goes – they’re chasing Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and Tyrese Gibson to star in it.
– The Lawnmower man himself, Jeff Fahey (recently seen in “Grindhouse”), has joined the cast of TV’s “Lost”, according to Entertainment Weekly. Fahey, whose character has yet to be revealed, joins previously announced newcomers Jeremy Davies (‘’Saving Private Ryan’’), Lance Reddick (‘’The Wire’’), Ken Leung (‘’The Sopranos’’), and British actress Rebecca Mader (‘’The Devil Wears Prada’’, ‘’Love Monkey’’).
