Trade Round-Up: The Passion, Now With Less Messiah Torture
· The House Energy and Commerce committed passes a bill that "dramatically increases" broadcast indecency fines. Way to go, five people that file 99 percent of indecency complaints! You're officially running the country now. [Variety]
· For those who prefer their Messiah roughed up, but not graphically brutalized, Mel Gibson is recutting The Passion for a limited theatrical release. Five to six minutes of violent scenes will be cut, and instead of a crown of thorns, Christ will wear an uncomfortably tight baseball cap. [Variety]
· Hollywood Out of Ideas, Scorsese Edition: The Aviator's team of Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, and writer John Logan will remake Kurosawa's Drunken Angel for Warner Bros. [THR]
· Hollywood Out of Ideas, What the Fuck? Edition: Producer Tony Thomopolous and George Hamilton are developing a sequel to the 1979 vampire comedy Love at First Bite. Finally, all those 25-year-old loose ends will be tied up! [THR]
· The Tom Cruise Book Club: Paramount buys another book for their golden boy, Christopher Reich's as-yet-unpublished The Patriots Club. [Variety]
· Meg Ryan, apparently bitter that her agents at William Morris thought it would be a good idea to get massive plastic surgery that rendered her almost unrecognizable, bolts for CAA. [THR]