Trade Round-Up: Will Ferrell On Figure Skates
· Attorneys General in 32 states sign a letter asking studios to add anti-smoking message to DVD and video releases in which smoking is shown, hoping to prevent teens from looking really, really cool in the breezeway between Geography and Home Ec. [Variety]
· Will Ferrell, Jon Heder, Will Arnett and Amy Poehler are in talks to star in an ice skating comedy Blades of Glory for DreamWorks. But THR stresses that while these are serious talks, money and scheduling could deprive the public the joy of Ferrell and Heder playing figure-skating archrivals who are forced to become pairs partners. [Variety]
· Putting up your own money is the new putting up someone else's money: Producer Bobby Newmyer gambles his kids' education fund on financing Mo'Nique vehicle Phat Girlz, but Fox Searchlight picks up distribution rights, assuring that Newmyer will not be murdered by community college educated offspring. [Variety]
· Lost producers will shoot 20 mini-episodes of further show content for mobile phones, allowing viewers the exciting, cutting-edge opportunity to be very confused while squinting at a one-inch screen. [THR]
· Walden Media and New Line try to trick us into thinking Hollywood's not out of ideas by making a modern, 3-D version of Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth. [Variety]