Thursday, December 24, 2009

BUZZ: Carrell & Fey Re-Team, Gervais's Next Directing Project, Star of Step Up 3-D, and more

Sam Worthington's next film is a remake of the thriller The Debt with Helen Mirren, Ciaran Hinds, Tom Wilkinson, and Martin Csokas. "In 1965, three young Israeli Mossad agents on a secret mission capture and kill a notorious Nazi war criminal. Now, thirty years later, a man claiming to be the Nazi has surfaced in the Ukraine and one of the former agents must go back undercover to seek out the truth." At the moment, it doesn't have an American distributor, but after the success of Avatar, I'm sure something will get worked out soon. Either way, you'll be seeing the rugged Aussie soon enough. He has two back-to-back films slated for March. First is the much-awaited Louis Leterrier-directed Clash of the Titans, where he'll play the mortal son of Zeus who must stop the underworld from overtaking Earth. Then he'll face the perils of love in the indie drama Last Night, where he'll play a businessman who must fight temptation while on a trip with a colleague (Eva Mendes), and Keira Knightley will play his wife who runs into her past love.

• I'm super excited for the Steve Carrell-Tina Fey rom-com Date Night, and even more excited to discover that they've already signed on to do another rom-com together called Mail-Order Groom. "The story follows a naive single woman who can't find love and ends up with a husband from Eastern Europe, bringing him home to the States." I'm just picturing Carrell acting like Balki from that 80s series "Perfect Strangers," super foreign, thick accent, and socially retarded, because the chances that Carrell's going to play suave and debonair are as high as Fey playing a Victoria's Secret model.

• I'm a bit intrigued about one of Mark Ruffalo's upcoming projects, where he plays the sperm donor for a lesbian couple's (Annette Benning and Julianne Moore) two children. The Kids Are Alright is a comedy about two kids (Josh Hutcherson and Mia Wasikowska) who get to meet their biological father when the oldest turns 18, which leads to a little bit of chaos. I've always wondered how that works out.

Ricky Gervais and his "Office" buddy Stephen Merchant have co-directed and co-written the coming of age comedy Cemetery Junction, which takes place in the 70s. It's about "a young guy wants to escape his working-class world but his two best friends are happy with life as is. When the guy's job reintroduces him to an old sweetheart, the trio must make choices that will change their lives for ever."

Ellen Page is very good at being quirky. And one of her next films is pretty quirky. She'll star alongside Rainn Wilson (The Rocker), Liv Tyler, and Kevin Bacon in the action comedy Super, where an everyday guy decides to become a superhero, which he dubs the Crimson Bolt, in order to save his wife from a seductive drug dealer. I pray to God she's his scrappy sidekick. I could totally see that.

• I was wondering what Adam Sevani had been up to since busting a move in Step Up 2 the Streets (besides hanging out with Miley Cyrus on youtube), and it turns out he's been filming Step Up 3-D. He'll reprise his role as the nerdy break dancer Moose. MSA goes to Paris and when they're headed back to the states, he misses the flight. So he decides to team up with French dancers to win an international dance competition. Maybe to get enough money to go home? Who knows? The point is it's a new location, new faces, new dance moves, and the promise of cameos by former Step Up stars Briana Evigan, Robert Hoffman, and Channing Tatum.

Nick Swardson (I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry) will play the son of former 70s porn stars in the comedy Born to Be a Star. After he discovers his legacy, he decides to move to Hollywood and follow in his parents' footseps to become the biggest adult-film star in the world. Cue the laughs. Christina Ricci and Stephen Dorff (Blade) also star.

Zoe Saldana admitted that ET was her favorite alien character. Mine is Marvin the Martian, and apparently I'm not the only fan. Warner Bros. is bringing the adorable alien character to the big screen in CG/live action film, where he'll come to Earth and try to destroy Christmas, but has a little difficulty when he gets stuck in a gift box. Hmm, I don't remember him being that dumb, but I'll reserve my judgment until the trailer arrives.

• The British humorist/on-air personality Danny Wallace will star in his own ABC comedy series "Awkward Situations for Men." It'll be based on his upcoming book, which "follows him as he moves to the U.S. with his wife, only to discover that his everyday behavior clashes with American values and gets him into trouble." The writers of "That 70's Show" are behind it, so perhaps there'll be a few decent laughs.

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