Looking for cred he just can't seem to earn through Tom Hanks, Russell Crowe, or Cocoon, Ron Howard is teaming up with Jay-Z to make a film about the hip hop entrepreneur's upcoming Made in America music festival.
Ron Howard's on-again-off-again adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower series may be back on thanks to Warner Brothers' need to fill the empty spot in their fantasy league left by the departing Glasses Wizard.
- To yesterday's rundown of all known Jack & Jill gags, also add that Jill apparently finds her way onto the Price Is Right stage--so prepare to bid closest to the LAUGHTER price without going over! (The actual laughter price is the cost of a ticket to see Jack & Jill, in theaters Friday.)
- Dep Sport Endurance Gel-loving producer Brian Grazer has accepted an offer to take over Brett Ratner's position as producer of the 84th Academy Awards. Academy heads are said to hope the Tower Heist producer can bring Eddie Murphy back on, but Grazer is reportedly already calling other talent--though it's probably hard to hear anything over Billy Crystal so loudly demonstrating that he could tap dance to a bit about Transformers 3.
- Contrary to prior rumors otherwise, Bradley Cooper is apparently not going to star in Steven Soderbergh's The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Lest you think that part was somehow below him, he will still play an action film Lucifer in a 3D, aerial combat-based adaptation of Paradise Lost.
- Because Django Unchained casting is the pumping heart that keeps movie news going, Quentin Tarantino actor Todd Allen to the slave revenge film. Jonah Hill was reportedly also offered a part, but had to turn it down due to scheduling difficulties. He's going to regret that if 21 Jump Street somehow becomes to him what the Look Who's Talking series was to Travolta.
While doing press duties to convince the world that Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, and tower robbery is a winning combination, a freshly gelled and blow-dried Brian Grazer this weekend claimed he and Ron Howard's epic Dark Tower is still a go, and on the television side, it will be paid for and aired by HBO.
The Stephen King adaptation had originally been planned as an NBC-Universal project, with a string of Universal films being supported by a limited-run NBC series. It would have been heavily reference in your textbook's chapter on synergy. Unfortunately, the suits at General Electric got pretty skittish about making a huge fantasy western once they heard how much all these shadowy spires would cost them, and they abandoned the project.
But according to Grazer, he and Howard have now managed to chop the budget down by a cool $45 million, allowing the deal with HBO and, they figure, making a movie deal with some a film studio all but inevitable. He also seems to think Javier Bardem won't mind these delays, and will still be up for the lead role of Roland Deschain just as soon as some lucky studio will fund a vast, elaborate, still-very-expensive fantasy western. What is the hold up, guys?
I hope no one was really looking forward to Ron Howard and Akiva Goldsman's adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower, because, sorry, we aren't doing that anymore. The ginger director and his lamentable screenwriter had been hoping to stretch King's seven-plus books across a trilogy of films and multiple NBC Miniseries Television Events, and even had Javier Bardem ready to star as the series' gunslinging lead. Now, though, after delaying the film back in May, Universal has canned the whole thing, having suddenly come to the realization that it will cost a lot of money to make so many Dark Towers. Howard, Goldsman, and producing partners Brian Grazer and Steve King are now free to take the project to another studio, but seeing that Howard--seemingly aware that no one was going to want to make all these Dark Towers--already set up a Spy Vs. Spy film and a movie about vrooms vrooms for himself to direct, I wouldn't count on that happening. Those hoping for an epic, multi-film Stephen King story on screens are just going to have to wait until CBS gets their act together and does that The Stand adaptation they've been talking about. Or, hey, maybe this is a sign it's time someone gets to work on some Stand By Me sequels. "We found another dead body, guys! Ut oh, Kiefer Sutherland is older!" Think about it.
Seeing that none of Mitchell Hurwitz's more recent television ventures to reach broadcast--Sit Down, Shut Up and Running Wilde--ever managed to capture the acclaim, or even the meager longevity, of his cherished modern classic, the Arrested Development creator has decided to go down a new entertainment career path: the Lars von Trier remake path. Yes, to the consternation of all, instead of--or at least in addition to--getting some work done on the forever-supposedly-in-development Arrested Development film, Hurwitz will be following the diesel trail left by von Trier's motor home, remaking the Danish filmmaker's 2006 comedy Direktøren for det hele.
The film, called The Boss of It All in the English-speaking world, is about the owner of an IT company who fakes the existence of a distant American superior above him, such that he doesn't have to take the blame for lay-offs, firings, no more complimentary Diet Pepsi in the fridge (which is bullshit), etc.; when he decides to sell the company, he's forced to finally produce this fictional boss, and hires a failed actor to fill the role. Then shit gets so wacky.
Arrested Development executive producers Brian Grazer and Ron Howard are reportedly signed to reprise that position here, and while no cast is yet in place, I'm going to assume it's a Running Wilde reunion, with Will Arnett as the boss and Peter Serafinowicz as the actor, because that is Right. Isn't it?
King of Queens fans rejoice: your borough monarch is still on his way to becoming an unlikely, terrible star. Deadline Hollywood has news the portly Hitch protégé will soon be on movie screens again, this time playing a friend of that guy you used to like in Swingers until he filled his curriculum vitae with various poor husband roles:
Ron Howard is setting Kevin James to play Vince Vaughn’s best friend in the untitled Universal Pictures comedy about infidelity. The film is Howard’s next directing vehicle from a screenplay by Allan Loeb.Kevin and Vince will play best friends and business partners, and Vaughn is tortured when he observes his pal’s wife getting intimate with another man. Should he tell?
What an interesting concept: Should a human tell his best friend that his wife cheats on him? Or should he be the worst best friend ever? Tell me, Ron Howard!
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I Watch Stuff is a movie and video blog dedicated to bringing you the best and worst that Hollywood and the Internet have to offer and then, more often than not, making fun of it because it sucks.
