R.I.P. Gil Cates, and More...

- Speaking to Collider, Albert Brooks revealed that he turned down Burt Reynolds' part in Boogie Nights due to scheduling issues with his own film--and also turned down leads in Big, Dead Poets Society, and Pretty Woman. Women who've spent their whole life looking for a man with the swagger of Burt Reynolds, the looks of Richard Gere, everyman charisma of Tom Hanks, and humor of Robin Williams now know that what they wanted was Albert Brooks.

- Michelle Williams' My Week with Marilyn co-star Eddie Redmayne has joined the cast of Tom Hooper's Les Misérables. He'll play Marius Pontmercy, starring with Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, and I'm assuming someone from Glee, probably.

- James Franco work with Harmony Korine and street breasts has led to him taking a part in Korine's next, Spring Breakers. In what sounds like slightly more mainstream plot from the director of Trash Humpers, Franco will play a drug dealer who bails out some fast food restaurant-robbing girls in exchange for their murdering his rival. After being forced to buy Franco as a scientist this year, nice to see him back pushing what those bloodshot eyes are meant to sell.

- Finally, sad news: Fourteen-time Oscar telecast producer and former DGA president Gil Cates died Monday at 77. Now he'll mercifully never see how Brett Ratner does his job.

'Drive' Trailer: Ryan Gosling Is the Best Driver, and He's Got a Hammer

A Drive that's better than The Cars' Drive? Yes, impossible, I know, but Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive looks like it comes pret-ty close. Reverting back from ab-flashing, rom-com Ryan Gosling to classic, indie Ryan Gosling, Ryan Gosling plays the kind of stoic bad-ass usually reserved for video games--a stunt driver by day, for-hire getaway driver by night who, in a Playing God-like twist, ends up using his skills for a crime boss. And, in what's probably the most unlikely-but-great neurotic-Jewish-comedian-playing-a-kingpin casting since Scorsese had Larry David throwing cash at his underlings, Albert Brooks plays that crime boss. In another bit of inspired casting, Christina Hendricks' boobs are in this. Carey Mulligan, meanwhile, plays our hero's damsel in distress, a neighbor who's dating a recently-incarcerated a-hole who is no Ryan Gosling, that's for sure. It may sound a bit corny in writing, but it plays, and it speaks well for that Refn/Gosling Logan's Run remake that once seemed so dubious. Have a look.

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