Thursday, April 15, 2010

FILM NEWS: Mulligan & Ronan as "Thelma & Louise," Megan Fox takes "Red Sonja," Wiig & Rudolph are "Bridesmaids," and more


• There are so many things wrong with this sentence: Carey Mulligan (Any Education) and Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones) are being pursued to star in Violet and Daisy, a project described as Thelma and Louise meets Superbad meets Pulp Fiction. Mind = blown. Can't wait to see these refined ladies behave as stupidly as Superbad and as crazy as Pulp Fiction.

• Looks like there's also a recession in sex, since there are a number of projects in the pipeline that involve turning to a reliable, unemotional source for a few moments of ecstasy. There's the NBC pilot "Friends with Benefits," the Ashton Kutcher-Natalie Portman comedy Fuckbuddies, and now the Justin Timberlake rom-com Friends with Benefits. We've seen this scenario play out plenty of times in several settings and we all know that one or both parties end up falling in love, so the only real allure is the casting. I'll wait to pass judgement on Timberlake's project until I see who he's been paired with. But if I may suggest a foxy lady, how about AIice Eve (She's Out of My League), Kristin Kreuk ("Smallville"), Sarah Michelle Gellar (please God do something light Buffy), or Sophia Bush ("One Tree Hill")?


• Had no idea that Will Smith was in the running to star in Cameron Crowe's Marvin Gaye biopic, but I'm glad he turned it down. That would've been so random. Besides Will.i.am looks way more like Marvin. Now if only he could act...and sing.

• I'm not quite sure how I feel about the news that Colin Farrell will be playing second banana in the romantic comedy Something Borrowed. First off, a romantic comedy? That's not exactly familiar territory for him. Secondly, he'll play the lead male actor's best friend. That would be understandable of the lead male actor were Ben Affleck or even Gerard Butler, but not TV actor Colin Egglesfield, who was fired from "Melrose Place." *sigh* The producers have justified the casting by explaining that the adaptation will actually have a sequel that brings a few of the original cast members back, including Kate Hudson and John Krasinski ("The Office"). Still, it'll be kind of odd to only see Farrell in a film for 10 minutes of screen time.

Robert Rodriguez's Red Sonja project has been up in the air for a while now. He's claiming it has to do with financing and scheduling, but the blogs are speculating that it's more likely due to the several quarrels he's had with his leading lady/lover Rose McGowan. Now there are reports that Megan Fox is being offered the role. It makes sense. Fox has already asserted herself as a fiery vixen (Jennifer's Body and Transformers), plus she isn't four years shy of 40 like McGowan. Of course, the script has been scrapped and the director pulled out, so I don't see Fox committing to such an unstable project. I also don't see why she should bother. Red Sonja is just a fantasy tale about a half-naked, sword-wielding barbarian. Where's the story in that?

My Best Friend's Wedding and Wedding Date actor Dermot Mulroney's directorial debut will be Mandy Moore's rom-com tentatively-titled Love, Wedding, Marriage. In it, Moore plays a newlywed marriage counselor "who is thrown for a loop when she learns her parents (James Brolin and Jane Seymour), whose marriage she's always idealized, are headed for divorce. She sets out on a disastrous path to save their marriage at the expense of her own to a loving husband (Kellan Lutz from Twilight), and manipulates loved ones to achieve her objectives." Mostly intrigued by the casting of Lutz. Have yet to really see him act.

• As if it wasn't bad enough that Kristen Wiig is writing the wedding-themed chick flick tentalively-titled Bridesmaids, it's just been announced that Maya Rudolph has signed on to play her rival. Must you drag her into your mess as well?


• Warner Bros. have picked up an interesting Japanese novel, Hiroshi Sakurazaka's 2004 novel All You Need is Kill. "The story follows Keiki Kiriya, a young recruit sent out to fight off an alien invasion and finding himself in a Groundhog Day-esque scenario of dying on the battlefield and being reborn each day. Five months into this cycle though, he noticed something different than the previous version: a female soldier who may be the key to his escape." Hopefully, they'll cast at least one Asian person, instead of whitening the cast like they did with Dragon Ball Z. I could name a few if they don't know how to use Google. How about 36-year-old John Cho (Harold & Kumar and Star Trek), who's got the mercenary-look down from his work on "Flash Forward," or 38-year-old Sung Kang (Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Live Free or Die Hard, and Ninja Assassin), who tends to float through movies unnoticed, or 29-year-old Aaron Yoo (Disturbia and 21), who could use a little more screen time, or better yet 30-year-old Leonardo Nam (stoner in The Perfect Score, Tibby's gamer boyfriend in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, the douchebag in Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, and a gay guy in He's Just Not That Into You), who is like the official Asian chameleon of Hollywood. And that's only the list of actors who could pass for being in their 20s. Did I miss someone?

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