Shocking Al Pacino News Rocks Hollywood
You're never going to believe what he's about to do. Also today: a TBS show gets canceled, an ABC show gets ordered, a SATC alum movie gets a distribution deal, and a sitcom star has an unfortunate accident.
Wow. Sometimes movie news comes along and you're just like "Why is this the weirdest movie news ever?" Sometimes movie news just doesn't make sense. Take this tidbit today: Al Pacino and Joe Pesci are considering climbing aboard a project cooked up by Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro that's about the mob. The mob?? For these guys?? I mean, I know actors and directors are supposed to stretch themselves, challenge their ranges, but this is a bit much. This would be like Hilary Swank doing a movie about a tough woman overcoming odds or Denzel Washington doing a movie about a police officer or Hugh Grant playing a wealthy cad. It's just so strange! Oh well. This crazy movie is about real-life Irish mobster Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran. You can tell he's Irish because it's right there in his name. [Deadline]
Uh oh. Everyone set your DVRs to "stunned sadness". Your favorite show The Big Bang Theory has suffered a terrible tragedy. Kaley Cuoco, who plays the woman, has fallen off of a horse and broken a leg. She will be humanely put down by Chuck Lorre later this afternoon. Or, she will be written out of the episode taping today and then hopefully hobble back to work after a planned hiatus the week after next. Donations can be sent to the Who The Hell Is Haley Cuoco Foundation. [EW]
Being an "It Girl" in Toronto is about as cool as being Lucy Mucusy the Braceface Girl at a middle school in Popcorn, Indiana, but people report on it anyway. The current "It Girl" at the Toronto Film Festival is a British gal name'a Andrea Riseborough, who's appearing in three films at the fest. She plays a smaller supporting role in screwball comedy Never Let Me Go, a factory worker in the union drama Made in Dagenham, and a waitress in love with a criminal in Brighton Rock. (Brighton rocks!) She studied at RADA and once played a young Margaret Thatcher in a TV miniseries. So watch out, everyone: Andrea Riseborough is the new Carey Mulligan, who's the new Keira Knightley, who's the new Kate Winslet, who's the new Emma Thompson, who's the new Vanessa Redgrave, who's the new old dead woman who acted with Olivier once or something. [THR]
Oh for heaven's sake. As if news about Bad Bangz wasn't enough, now we get some word having to do with its partner in sitcom crime, How I Met Your Mother. Two of the writers of that painful show have sold a multi-camera sitcom pilot to ABC. Livin' On a Prayer is going to be a hilarious look at how life changes when you have kids. Hopefully there will be lots of Bon Jovi references like the one in the title, which really have been so funny for about five years now. There should be a show where it's just people sitting around making obvious Golden Girls, Bon Jovi, and Saved by the Bell references and everyone's like "Oh yeah, this is a funny TV show." They could call it Facebook Photo Album Titles: The TV Series. [Deadline]
Producer David Fury has left the Fox show Terra Nova in... a fury. He cited "creative differences" for his leaving the Steven Spielberg-produced series about scientists who discover a rip in the space-time continuum and travel back in time to visit dinosaurs. The creative difference perhaps being "I don't want to make a television show about dinosaurs." I can't imagine why not. [Variety]
TBS has apparently canceled their comedy series My Boys, one of the most inexplicably watchable and yet in no measurable way good or interesting TV shows on the air. Seriously, why have I seen so much of that show? Jim Gaffigan was funny. That one guy is cute. The lead lady is fine. But... why have I seen so much of it? There's no there there. It's the Matchbox 20 of TV shows. [EW]
A small company called Anchor Bay has picked up distribution rights to the Kim Cattrall indie Meet Monica Velour, about a faded pop star living in a trailer park. Cattrall was able to fit the movie into her busy schedule because all she has to do for the upcoming Sex and the City 3 is lie on a coroner's table while a pathologist shrugs his shoulders and says "Old people die. It happens." [The Wrap]