Trade Round-Up: Michael Bay Gets To Blow Shit Up
· Warner Bros. throws in some money to get DreamWorks' Ewan McGregor/Scarlett Johansson movie The Island off the ground. Hope they're kicking in a lot—director Michael Bay's nausea-inducing battalion of cameras and constant explosions can really fuck up a budget. [Variety, sub. req'd.]
· NBC looks outside of LA for comedy development deals, vacuuming up NYC-based Upright Citizens Brigade, Demetri Martin, and "New Zealand folk parody duo" Flight of the Conchords. New Zealand what? Was the Naked Cowboy out washing his Speedo when NBC was tossing deals off the top of 30 Rockefeller? [THR]
· Arsenio Hall is apparently still alive, and signs a deal to direct/produce a documentary on the black stand-up scene tentatively titled The Other 23 Hours. [THR]
· Jonathan Prince, creator of American Dreams, will write and executive produce a Tara Reid comedy for Fox Broadcasting. The show will feature Reid as a bad girl trying to change her ways to please her parents and friends. And failing miserably, over and over again. (We suspect the show will be heavy on documentary footage from Reid's life to save costs.) Fox has their fingers crossed that she performs better than she did on Quintuplets this week! [THR]
· Tom Hanks' Playtone Productions tries to milk My Big Fat Greek Wedding one-hit-wonder Nia Vardalos again, as she'll write and star in the adaptation of the novel The Wilderness of Monkeys. [THR]