Conan O'Brien to Wage War With Alex Trebek?
Yes, it could happen on your TV, at dinnertime. Also today: Lee Daniels' new movie, some MacGruber early feedback, forgotten actors get cast in new things, and news of your mom, Wendy Williams.
Precious director Lee Daniels is lining up names for his civil rights movie Selma. British actor David Oyelowo has been cast as Martin Luther King, Jr., joining Hugh Jackman's racist sheriff. Yes, beloved theater geigh Hugh Jackman is playing the racist bully in a movie about the march on Selma. Daniels continues to dazzle with his truly bizarre eye for casting. [THR]
Hmm. Beloved exploded carrot head Conan O'Brien is nearing a late night deal with Fox, though it's not the only iron he has in the fire. The gangly Bostonian is also being courted by syndicators for a non-network, pre-primetime talk show. Think 7pm, Jeopardy time. Right, because so many of Conan's fans are safely home and stoned and eating Tostitos by 7pm. NOT. (Sorry, I'm '90s nostalgic today.) [The Wrap]
Congratulations, America. You have performed well enough this year to earn a prize. For your troubles and successes, the universe has granted you a second season of The Wendy Williams Show, a television series about an old drag queen who breaks into an abandoned television studio and creates an imaginary talk show. So, enjoy it everyone. You deserve it. [Variety]
Aww, remember Goran Visnjic? He was Abby Lockhart's dreamy Croatian loverboy on ER and popped up in The Deep End and then sorta disappeared. Well it's pilot season, and he's back! He's been cast in Boston's Finest, a show about me. Yep, it's about me, because I am Boston's finest and look exactly like a young Goran Visnjic. The show also stars that butch lady from Battlestar, you know... Coffee Connection or whatever her name is, Pete's or something, as a Boston policecop. [THR]
Speaking of remembering things! Gregory Smith, who played a troubled teen slowly seducing Treat Williams in the WB's psychosexual thriller series Everwood, is back and ready for action. Three times the action! Yep, he's going to take on three at once, just working each one until it's good and finished. Three movies, guys. One of them is a chiller directed by Jim Sheridan called Dream House, that's about Daniel Craig and Naomi Watts watching HGTV for hours and then looking at their watches and all of a sudden it's midnight and they've wasted the whole day and they just scream and scream and scream. [THR]
The new comedy film MacGruber, a totally relevant parody of MacGyver, premiered at the Ess Ex Ess Double-U festival (that's how you say it, right?) and people liked it. So there you go. [EW]