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Breaking! Another Boot Found On Fox Lot!

mark · 03/31/05 03:38PM


The terror that had gripped the Fox lot during the height of the "Fox Leg" mystery hasn't yet subsided. An operative fears that yet another boot-related incident may again trouble Rupert Murdoch's already worried minions: "I found this boot on the Fox lot next to the old NYPD Blue Stages this morning. Considering recent events surrounding boots and the Fox lot, I'm a bit concerned for my well-being. I didn't see a severed leg in this one, but I'm on the look-out."

Trade Round-Up: Harold And Kumar Guys To Get Wasted On Studios' Dime

mark · 03/21/05 12:52PM

· Hugh Jackman signs on for the film adaptation of the C.P. Taylor play, Good, and will play a professor in 1930's Germany who gets "caught up in the fervor of nationalism." We're going to assume that's a euphemism for "getting all Nazi'd up." [Variety]
· DreamWorks and Imagine hire the writers of Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle for the Eddie Murphy vehicle Johnny Blaze. The writing duo will spend the next two months trying to rediscover the exact combination of psychotropic drugs and junk food that birthed their first hit. [Variety]
· FilmEngine purges the original cast of the Butterfly Effect and will go ahead with the development of a Kutcher-less sequel. Wilmer Valderrama, your moment has finally arrived. [Variety]
· And in other ridiculous sequel news, New Line has picked up a couple of disposable actors for Final Destination 3. Before you laugh, this one features an amusement park accident. Dude—killer Ferris wheels! [THR]
· Reason for rejoicing; Bravo orders a second season of Project Runway. [Variety]
· Everyone gets a poker project! Janeane Garafalo to star in the NBC poker comedy pilot All In. [THR]

Trade Round-Up: Fantastic Four Hides Under The Bed

mark · 02/08/05 12:57PM

· Double-feature alert: There are plans to re-release Deep Throat to accompany the Universal documentary Inside Deep Throat on the [cough-cough] "seminal porn film." [Variety]
· Fox sensibly shits its pants and decides to move Fantastic Four back a week, avoiding a likely one-sided Fourth of July showdown with War of the Worlds. They're a lot less afraid of Bewitched, the new competition, which will likely feature fewer spectacular explosions. [THR]
· Now that Paul McCartney's buzzless Super Bowl halftime show has made live television safe for America, ABC will air the Oscars through 2014, and will shrug off the tyranny of the 7-second tape delay. [Variety]
· In an effort to capitalize on the runaway popularity of housewives in suburbia, ABC signs
Kristin Davis to star in the one-hour pilot Soccer Moms. The move also helps temporarily to keep former Sex in the City stars off the welfare rolls. [THR]
· Even after bothering to "reimagine" Jennifer Love Hewitt half-hour In the Game, ABC mercifully decides to finally put it down like a crippled dog. [THR]

Trade Round-Up: The People Choose Simon Cowell Over George W. Bush

mark · 02/03/05 01:01PM

· You heard it here first: Boxing movies are hot, hot, hot! Paramount and Sony team up to buy the rights to make the boxing documentary Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story, the true story of the boxer that beat his opponent to death in the ring after he called him a homo, into a feature film. You're not going to get that kind of edge in Russell Crowe's Cinderella Man. [Variety]
· The People's Mandate: American Idol trounces Bush's State of the Union address in the ratings, despite the president's hilariously off-key rendition of "It's Raining Men." [THR]
· It's official: The Apprentice: Martha Stewart is a go at NBC, and Stewart's five-month house arrest isn't even a problem—she'll bring her new prison edge to the show. Instead of merely dismissing contestants who can't hack it in Marthaland, they'll be raped by her former lesbian cellmates. [Variety]
· You just know this one was sold off the pitch, "Antonio Banderas is a ballroom dancer." [THR]
· Jack Nicholson joins Martin Scorcese's The Departed to show young punk co-stars Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio how it's done. [Variety]

Hollywood PrivacyWatch Special Edition: The Grazer/Weiland Connection

mark · 01/21/05 03:35PM

While a joking offer to shoot up in the bathroom with Scott Weiland might meet with a grateful acceptance or a polite, "I'm clean now" refusal, the same overture to Ron Howard's best buddy would probably result in a deal to write the sequel to A Beautiful Mind. Thankfully, this reader realized exactly which celebrity he was spying on before he committed an embarrassing faux pas and altered cinematic history,