Making Out with the Media: The Roundup for November 4, 2008

[Just in case you needed a break from the election news. -TL]

More details of Terrence Howard’s dismissal from Iron Man 2
Some say it was Howard’s behavior; others say that it was his initial salary… Read up on all the dirt. (Source: EW)

Charlize Theron joins Cruise in The Tourist
Or so they say because the words “in negotiation” are being used. The role is for an Interpol agent who uses a hapless American tourist to flush out a criminal with whom she had an affair. I hope you can hear my eyes rolling from where you are. (Source: Variety)

George Clooney isn’t The Lone Ranger, at least not yet (and other Bruckheimer news)
In a nutshell, Clooney’s dubious, Depp will be Tonto, the Pirates writers are doing the script, and Sorcerer’s Apprentice will be shot in New York. (Source: Coming Soon.net)

From book to movie: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
When he wasn’t busy wearing white suits and protesting over-development in Manhattan, Tom Wolfe found the time to sign a deal with Fox Searchlight to make a movie of his 1968 book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, which is about a weird cross-country trip that Ken Kesey (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) and friends took in a Day-Glo bus while on acid. Acid Test will be directed by Gus Van Sant and scripted by Dustin Lance Black, last having worked together on Milk. (Source: Hollywood Reporter)

J. Michael Straczynski lands on Forbidden Planet
Best known to his “Babylon 5” and comics fans as JMS, the screenwriter for the Clint Eastwood-directed Changeling recently landed another deal to pen a remake of Forbidden Planet, that 50s movie that many people only know about because of Robbie the Robot. And then, only barely. (Source: Hollywood Reporter)

Pulitzer-winning playwright joins Spider-Man 4 writing committee
Best known amongst theater geeks for having won the 2007 prize for his Rabbit Hole, David Lindsay-Abaire’s work may become known to a wider audience as he was recently named as having joined the Spider-Man 4 writing committee. Insiders say that Lindsay-Abaire’s addition to the team means the movie will have more of a focus on characterization, and to that I say “Hallelujah.” (Source: Hollywood Reporter)

Samuel L. Jackson joins The Last Dragon remake
Just in case you aren’t up on your blaxploitation remake news, the word is that Jackson will be playing a character known as “The Shogun of Harlem” whose flunkies always affirmed his egotistical assertions about himself by saying, “Sho’nuff!” The best part is the son of original director Berry Gordy is on the production team. (Source: Hollywood Reporter)

3 thoughts on “Making Out with the Media: The Roundup for November 4, 2008

  • Lethal Interjection says:

    The Tourist would be much more interesting (and less cliched) if Theron was the agent and Cruise was the tourist.

  • Lethal Interjection says:

    Sorry, I misread. When you said “with whom she had an affair” I thought it refered to the tourist, and the agent was using her to bring him to justice.
    So if Cruise was having an affair with some female terrorist, and Theron was using him to flush out said terrorist. That would be more interesting.
    What I thought it was, and what you corrected, are both crap.

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