The One Where I Finally Lose My Mind
The Daily Trade Round-Up / Daniel Carlson
Trade News | August 26, 2008 | Comments ()
Hello out there in America! Your roving reporter is still here in La La Land doing the do and walking the walk, and listening to those stars talk the talk!
What natural-born killer would be the perfect fit for a powerhouse pic about man versus zombies? Zounds! Why, none other than Woody Harrelson, of course! The Wood Man has signed on to star in Zombieland, a fiendish-sounding horror comedy from Columbia and director Ruben Fleischer. The script is by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the duo behind Spike’s “The Joe Schmo Show,” but these guys are anything but schmoes with the story they’ve cooked up. Woody will play a man named Albuquerque (was Truth or Consequences taken? I kid fellas!), who teams up with a comically mismatched partner in an attempt to survive when a zombie apocalypse overruns the world. If you think Woody knows about the munchies, wait until those zombies start eyeing his brains!!!
But good ol’ Scoop Carlson is hardly done with you this morning, loyal readers. It looks like Warner Bros. has its hands full this week: First a kerfuffle over Watchmen, and now a skirmish with an Indian company that’s spicier than curry! It seems that Bollywood’s own Mirchi Movies wants to put out a movie titled Hari Puttar: A Comedy of Terrors, but the ol’ WB isn’t gonna let them get one by. A Mirchi maven says that they registered the title in 2005, so it’s a little late for Warners to give them the old stink-eye, but Warners sez: Them’s fightin’ words! The studio has begun legal proceedings against the company, and this one could go the distance.
From “The O.C.” to “Yes sir!”: Ben McKenzie signed this week to play the title role in the film version of Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun, based on the one-man show that Ben’s been treading the boards with. The film will be locked and loaded into American theaters this fall, beginning with an Austin bow in September followed by a national platform.
Somebody call a Lion-tamer! Rumor has swirled this week over a possible sale of MGM, but the Lion roared back on Monday by saying it’s not for sale, though it did acknowledge it’s retained Goldman Sachs for the pursuit of capital enhancements. Though there’s no asking price on the table, GS is likely to go calling in the Middle East and up Wall Street way looking for an investor. That’s one hungry feline!
Sasso lassoes another one! The portly powerhouse of comedy, known for “Mad TV,” is leading the charge for National Lampoon’s latest feature, The Legend of Awesomest Maximus, a super-skewering of sword-and-sandal slashers like 300 and its ilk. The comedy’s cast also counts among its members the dishy Kristanna Loken and the delightful Ian Ziering.
This morning’s trailer watch brings a blast: Here’s the clip for next year’s Fast & Furious, the fourth installment in the cars-and-cops adventure pic series. From the looks of it, they took a couple words out of the original title to make room for more high-octane thrills!
The hits just keep on coming this morning. (You can thank me later!) Here’s a look at The Transporter 3, an actioner that’s fast and furious in its own right:
Daniel Carlson is the managing editor of Pajiba and a low-level employee at a Hollywood industry magazine. He has been reading trade papers for so long he can no longer feel it when another part of his soul succumbs to the rot and falls off, and he gets so depressed thinking about how shitty all these “professional” writers are that some days it’s all he can do not to cash it all in and start a fight club or become a carpenter or really do anything he can to prove to himself and whoever’s listening that life is still happening, and it can be better than this. You can visit his blog, Slowly Going Bald.
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