Trade Round-Up: Billy Bob Thornton, Astronaut Farmer
· Undeterred by the abandonment of two of his partners, Revolution's Joe Roth will take a more "hands-on role" in ensuring that the studio continues to reliably churn out five or six flops a year. [Variety]
· Buoyed by the inexplicable success of Fantastic Four, director Tim Story signs a deal with Fox to develop and direct two pilots. [THR]
· Billy Bob Thornton to star in the comedy Astronaut Farmer, in which an astronaut returns to—wait for it—the family farm, written and directed by the Polish Brothers of quirky Twin Falls Idaho fame. [Variety]
· The MPAA rules that Saw 2's severed-finger marketing campaign is "unacceptable," helpfully giving the movie more attention than the ads themselves would have attracted on their own. [THR]
· Bruce Willis will co-star with Halle Berry in Revolution's psychological thriller Perfect Stranger, which is "set in the world of the internet," hopefully proving once again that there is nothing quite as cinematic as a fevered exchange over IM. [Variety]
· ABC and Touchstone are sued by a local writer who claims Lost was stolen from his plane-crash-survivors-on-a-creepy-island idea from 1977, also called Lost. ABC immediately dispatched a jungle-loving polar bear, an invisible monster, and three inscrutable plot twists to deal with the aggrieved scribe. [THR]