In case you haven’t been following the news, it’s been a rough week out there for TV shows.
Late last week and into the weekend, the broadcast and cable cancellation ax fell — and it fell hard, leaving a bevy of talented actors without a place to call a home this fall. That’s where we come in.
After a scientific brainstorm (aka: this morning over a bowl of Cheerios) we’ve thought up a few humble suggestions for TV’s now-homeless talent.
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With so many talk show hosts elbowing for our late night TV viewing attention — Jay and Dave and Jimmy and Jimmy and Craig and Conan and Jon and Stephen and Chelsea and Carson — it’s hard to remember that there was a time when there was just Johnny. For 30 years on The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson dominated the late night landscape along with his stalwart sidekick Ed McMahon, putting the nation to bed with a formula of monologue, celebrity interview, occasional skit, and musical guest that remains more-or-less intact to this day.
But while Johnny was a fixture of American culture, part of his legend is that he remained essentially a mystery — an intensely private man who granted few interviews and all but disappeared from public view from when he retired in 1992 to when he died in 2005. That may soon change. Deadline is reporting that a biopic about Carson is currently in the works, with screenwriter John McLaughlin (Black Swan, this month’s Hitchcock) adapting journalist Bill Zehme’s forthcoming biography Carson the Magnificent: An Intimate Portrait. There is no studio or director yet attached to the project — and since the book has yet to be released, everything remains in the embryonic stages. But with a subject who looms so large in American pop culture, all producer Tom Thayer (Hitchcock) would likely need to do is hook an A-list star to play Carson — and perhaps another A-lister as McMahon — and he could be well on his way to a greenlight.
So who could play Carson and McMahon? We held several envelopes to our heads and came up with a list of prospective actors, some more obvious than others. Check out our list below: READ FULL STORY »
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Tucked inside the news that Shailene Woodley is in talks to play Mary Jane Watson in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was the news that director Marc Webb is also on the hunt for an actor to play Peter Parker’s best friend, roommate, and eventual arch enemy Harry Osborn.
The role of the troubled only son of mysterious and distant mega-conglomerate mogul Norman Osborn was, of course, played by James Franco in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies. Franco was cast as the rakishly handsome counterpart to Tobey Maguire’s nerdy everyman, but with the new Peter Parker played by the rather rakishly handsome Andrew Garfield, who should fill the shoes of his monied compatriot? Not surprisingly, we have some ideas.
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If franchises were baseball teams, then The Fast and the Furious would be the Oakland Athletics. As recounted in last year’s Moneyball, the A’s could never afford to pay superstar salaries. So, using a system known as sabermetrics, they put together a ragtag band of players: aging players who could make base hits, rookies who could read pitches, journeyman has-beens with the uncanny ability to just keep getting on base. None of these dudes was a star. But together, they made a franchise. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: David Redfern/Redferns Exile on Main St.
But who will play Mick and Keith in Branson’s proposed biopic? READ FULL STORY »
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Before the movie version of mega-best-selling erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey was officially announced, we named our picks to play the two amorous leads, Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele. Now that we know that the film is really under way, we’ve cast the net wider to imagine actors in a bunch of the smaller roles. Author E L James drove a hard bargain when it came to fielding offers from movie studios — she and her agent, Valerie Hoskins, insisted on script, director, and main cast approval.
It’s apparent that James and Hoskins are doing what they can to ensure that the screen version of Fifty Shades is something deeper than a tawdry sex romp. They sold movie rights to Focus Features, the art house division of Universal Pictures; analogously, they gave mainstream publishing rights to Vintage, a prestigious imprint of Random House. “The pairing of Universal and Focus reflects the Random House and Vintage pairing that we have,” Hoskins told EW. “We love our publishers we think they’re wonderful. You have the same elements in Universal and Focus.”
The filmmakers and James are looking for more than pretty faces — they’ll look for actors to elevate the material. Here are some of our picks! READ FULL STORY »
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Regardless of what the public thinks, Ashton Kutcher has a stamp of approval to portray late Apple founder Steve Jobs from at least one inside source. According to TMZ, Steve Wozniak, Jobs’ partner in founding the computer dynasty, is A-OK with the casting news.
“The fear that many might have is that Ashton was selected because he’s ‘hot’ right now,” said Wozniak, “but I feel that his selection was done in the most professional manner. And I’m glad that he’s on board. I think he’ll put a lot into it and that he cares about this particular subject.”
The indie biopic, from Swing Vote director Joshua Michael Stern, goes simply by the name Jobs and will reportedly follow the tech impresario’s transition “from wayward hippie to co-founder of Apple.” It’s set to begin filming next month. READ FULL STORY »
The executives and filmmakers behind the movie adaptation of The Hunger Games are currently busy devouring bucketfuls of beluga caviar, wiping their mouths with $100 bills, and exercising by swimming through bins filled with all the currency that flowed in from movie theaters last weekend. One would imagine that — between swims — they’re also in the midst of a heated debate regarding the Hunger Games sequels. “Should Catching Fire be split into a trilogy?” asks producer Nina Jacobson. “I got a better idea,” replies director Gary Ross. “Why don’t we do a trilogy, but then make it a five-part trilogy, like Douglas Adams and Robert Caro?” “Love your thinking, Gare-bear!” says Lionsgate co-chairman Jon Feltheimer, “but the big question is: Should we make Mockingjay into five movies…or five movies and a prequel and a reboot?” It’s fun making movies.
Soon, though, the filmmakers will be faced with an even bigger question: Who is going to star in the 20 Hunger Games sequels? READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Frank Ockenfels/AMC
We’ve had some fun here this week casting Catching Fire, the sequel to the smash hit kid-killing thriller The Hunger Games. Ryan Kwanten currently holds a significant lead in the informal race to play trident-carrying man-candy Finnick Odair, although the comment boards lit up with the notion of casting Armie Hammer, a.k.a. evolution’s proof of concept. Meanwhile, a majority of voters think the beloved Glee uber-bitch Naya Rivera would make a great axe-murdering Johanna Mason. But another character introduced in Catching Fire plays a small but pivotal role in the franchise. Who should play Plutarch Heavensbee, the boisterous Capitol citizen who takes over Gamemaker duties from Seneca Crane? (Warning: A few SPOILERS follow, so maybe you should just read the books already. Or, if you’re one of our younger readers, tell your parents to work Suzanne Collins into the nightly bedtime-story rotation. That way, they can put the story into the proper meta-sociopolitical context.) READ FULL STORY »
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Now that we’re finished waiting for The Hunger Games to arrive in theaters, we can begin the important work: waiting for Catching Fire to arrive in theaters. The sequel is slated for a Thanksgiving 2013 release — although there remains the outside possibility that Lionsgate will split the book into two movies for artistic reasons, and let’s theoretically call those movies Catching Fire Part 1: Love Takes a Victory Tour and Catching Fire Part 2: Back 2 the Arena. You can bet that casting updates for the sequel aren’t too far away, since the book introduces a few fan-fave characters. Yesterday, we asked you who should play tortured golden boy Finnick, and you responded with a resounding cry of “Ryan Kwanten!” along with a slightly-less-resounding-but-nevertheless-impressive-for-his-weight-class cry of “Grant Gustin!” Today, though, we’re going to ask the really tricky question: Who should play Johanna Mason, the cunning, nihilistic victor from District 7? (Warning: A few SPOILERS from Catching Fire follow.) READ FULL STORY »
