Casting

Looks like ESPN is really giving it a go with this whole ESPN Films thing.  The latest news is the hiring of Robert DeNiro to play Vince Lombardi in the creatively titled Lombardi.

The film will focus on the years that Lombardi rebuilt the Packers into a gridiron powerhouse, and five-time champions, between 1959-67. The producers plan to release the film in late January 2012, between the AFC and NFC conference championship games and the Super Bowl.

De Niro and Jane Rosenthal’s Tribeca Prods. is producing along with ESPN Films, Andell, the NFL and Chris Olsen.

“There are few actors who could accurately portray the fire, passion and grit of Lombardi, and we’re thrilled to have Robert De Niro on our team,” said NFL vp programming Charles Coplin. “With the addition of De Niro, Eric and Tribeca Prods., we have a deep bench to produce a film worthy of the legendary coach and American icon.”   [via risky business]

The script is being written by Eric Roth who has already dabbled in the biographical sports movie section with the Oscar nominated Ali.  Definitely a bit skeptical of this as DeNiro hasn't done good work in years and the ESPN Films banner is still relatively unproven when trying to play with the big boys.  Should be interesting to see who they get to direct the project with Roth and DeNiro officially on board, we'll keep you updated.

In other DeNiro reliving the past news comes the following tidbit from Deadline, apparently they are going to make a sequel to the awesome Midnight Run.  Unfortunately the sequel will be without the unbelievably curmudgeonly fantastic Charles Grodin who retired from acting years ago to be a professional brodcast journalist.  I guess that's the kind of thing you have to deal with when you try and make a sequel more than 20 years later.  No word yet on the plot but Role Models writer Tim Dowling has been hired to pen the script.

Mike Fleming over at Deadline Hollywood is reporting something that flirts with awesome but lives across the tracks.  The fact that they are making Smurfs: The Movie holds down the non-awesome segment while the recent hiring of a Mr Neil Patrick Harris as the lead live action character gets the awesome nod.  As it seems to be the case with most horrible movie adaptations of old cartoons, all the Smurfs will be of the CGI variety. 

Normally I'd try and find a way to get excited about this and I already have my angle.  The report by Fleming has very little details, so let's hope and pray that Harris has been hired to be a live action normal sized human Gargamel that hates smurfs.  I'm pretty sure he is an admitted magician anyway, which isn't really all that different than a wizard when you get down to it.  That's what she said. 

And then you find out Raja Gosnell is directing and check out his IMDB page and question the sanity of Hollywood.  His resume as a director is anything but flattering.

• The Smurfs (2011) (filming)
• Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008)
• Yours, Mine and Ours (2005)
• Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004)
• Scooby-Doo (2002)
• Big Momma's House (2000)
• Never Been Kissed (1999)
• Home Alone 3 (1997)

Um wow.  That is a lot of stink coming from one direction.  Stinson for Gargamel please, I don't know if I can handle it otherwise.  Seriously, check out this resume.

Looks like James McAvoy won't be with cancer after all.  shooting began on the film last month, but unfortunately the actor was forced to leave the project for personal reasons and has since been replaced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  Not a bad replacement with so little notice as shooting is set to resume on March 8th.  Seth Rogen had this to say about the switch.

It’s incredibly unfortunate that circumstances outside of everyone’s control have taken James away from the project, but, with James’s blessing, we were able to have Joseph step in to take on the role of Adam. We all look forward to working with James in the future. [via mtv]

Joining Rogen and Gordon-Levitt for the project are Up In The Air's Anna Kendrick and Ron Howard's daughter and specifically The Lady In The Water Bryce Dallas Howard.  The story for the film is that of Rogen's friend, screenwriter Will Reiser, and his diagnosis and subsequent battle with cancer.   [via /film]

Oh my gawd, it's Timby, and he's going to be in a movie!  Cuddle bear puppy yogurt!  

Justin Timberlake has nabbed the coveted role of the male lead in "Bad Teacher," the Cameron Diaz comedy Jake Kasdan is directing for Columbia.

Molly Shannon and Eric Stonestreet ("Modern Family") are also joining the cast.

The script, by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, follows a foul-mouthed, gold-digging seventh-grade teacher who, after being dumped by her boyfriend, sets her sights on a colleague (Lucy Punch) who is dating a substitute teacher, who also is the scion of a watch fortune.

Jason Segel was cast in the supporting role of a gym teacher, with John Michael Higgins slotted as the principal, but the studio has spent the better part of the new year looking though class photos trying to find its leading man.   [via thr]

All the film Timberlake I have experienced can be found in the abominable The Love Guru and the animated Shrek stuff.  He's been fine on Saturday Night Live and I'd imagine he's been moderately competent in his other roles.  He did land a big part in the upcoming The Social Network about the founding of Facebook, so it will be interesting to see how he performs in what will surely be a highly publicized film.

Director Jake Kasdan will always have a special place in my heart for the great Zero Effect starring Bill Pullman as the world's greatest detective Daryl Zero.  Anything Kasdan is involved in I will at least give a chance, and while anything but spectacular, his other films Orange County and Walk Hard have their moments.  Also, Jason Segel.  Rock.

My love for all things Danny McBride was in a bit of a lull until I caught Hot Rod on Comedy Central yesterday. Such a good movie.  Anyhoo, it appears we have some more McBride focused comedy coming down the line, aside from the incredibly awesome sounding Your Highness.

The project is The Chadster, which at one time had The Hangover’s Todd Phillips attached to both produce and direct. Phillips has fallen off as director, but he’s still producing the comedy, which is moving ahead with Harwell as scribe.

The studio wedding comedy, set up at Warner Brothers and produced by Phillips’ Green Hat Films, is about a best man who has his position threatened when an eccentric, long-lost childhood friend shows up at the wedding and causes trouble. Danny McBride is currently attached to play the eccentric childhood friend.

This is the second project scripted by Harwell that McBride is attached to — they are also developing the comic-book adaptation, Hench, for Warner Brothers.  [via pajiba]

Clearly it seems like a role McBride can knock out of the park, but what can't the man do?  He's Kenny Powers.  With Phillips leaving the director's chair it could be a bit worrisome, but hopefully there is a mullet involved which would more than make up for it.  [via filmdrunk]

Shock Til You Drop is reporting that the awesome Zach Galifianakis has added another project to his endless list.  As far as I am concerned the more Zach the better, especially if he's going to be pretending to exorcise demons.

Michael Aguiler and I spoke last night at Overture's big Hollywood screening event for The Crazies (which he produced). There he told me he has a script Galifianakis is attached to called Miracle Workers. The story is a buddy supernatural comedy in which the actor is put on a path that has him posing as an exorcist with a pal. The two think they've got a good thing going until they're faced with a real menace.

A director announcement is forthcoming, I was told.

I'm pretty sure Leslie Nielsen made a movie just like this but as so often is the case with Leslie Nielsen it was ignored.  The idea works enough for me so hopefully this thing has some legs to it.  Galifianakis also seems like a perfect con man that is in over his head.  Maybe they can get Sam Rockwell to join him a la Safe Men.  A boy can dream can't he?  We'll update you with more when we hear it.  

Make sure to tune in to Saturday Night Live March 6th to watch Zach Galifianakis get his funny on, while the awesome Vampire Weekend hold down the musical guest slot.  Rock.

Jonah Hill certainly must be fond of that Superbad movie considering where he is now.  Currently he has about a million projects that he is attached to, and it seems like there is a new one every week.  The latest?  Hill is set to star in the comedy The Sitter, which is being described as a cross between Adventures In Babysitting and Superbad.  Even awesomer?  David Gordon Green may be hopping into the director's chair.

The irreverent comedy will harken to 1987's "Adventures in Babysitting." It follows a college student, suspended for the semester and living at home with his single mom, who has a night to remember when he gets talked into baby-sitting the eccentric kids next door: two boys and a wild 8-year-old girl.

The duo's involvement reinvigorates the comedy that originally began life as a spec by Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka at Fox Atomic. The project consistently has attracted strong talent; Jonathan Levine was attached to direct it when it was at Atomic, and Zac Efron and Zach Galifianakis have circled it.   [via the hollywood reporter]

Super awesome movie blog /film has some insight into the story as well.

Last year I had a chance to read an early draft I read was pretty great. The Adventures in Babysitting comparison is good, as it is basically an R-rated version of that film. For example, Noah drags the kids along while he stops at a drugdealer’s house to pick up some coke for a girl he is trying to get with. One of the boys ends up stealing something valuable from the drug dealer’s house which sets up a chain of events which just keep snowballing in scale and hilarity.  [via /film]

I actually was a really big fan of Adventures In Babysitting so the comparison has me sort of excited.  I just pray they keep the Thor guy in it.  He was amazing.

Someone woke up this morning and decided that their Bad Idea Jeans looked like a fantastic option, and that someone is not the racist version of the 50's, maybe someone racist in their 50's but that is not the same.

Everybody's favorite not even remotely funny comedian/talk show host George Lopez has signed on to voice Speedy Gonzales in the dreaded live-action/CG hybrid format.  Luckily the writing team behind adapting the mouse for the screen, Alec Sokolow and Joel Cohen, are the same duo responsible for the Garfield films, so we can rest assured that a great screenplay will be written.  *fart sound*

The character has often courted criticism that the ethnic characterizations of him and his compatriots (especially lazy cousin Slowpoke Rodriguez) are stereotypically racist and severely outdated.

Aware of this, New Line and the producers plan to update the brand with a modernized sensibility (it takes place in present day) under what Anne Lopez calls George's "Latino seal of approval." (No need to throw fuel on the fire that serves as an immigration debate in this country.)

"We wanted to make sure that it was not the Speedy of the 1950s -- the racist Speedy," Anne Lopez said with a chuckle. "Speedy's going to be a misunderstood boy who comes from a family that works in a very meticulous setting, and he's a little too fast for what they do. He makes a mess of that. So he has to go out in the world to find what he's good at."

That path becomes clearer once Speedy befriends a gun-shy race-car driver.   [via heat vision blog]

Get it?  Because he's fast.  That's why they call him Speedy.  Or maybe he worked really hard on his speed so that he could live up to his given name.  Either way a spot for some interesting backstory that I'm sure Sokolow and Cohen will wow us with.

If anyone knows can they please explain to me what exactly George's "Latino seal of approval" means.  I'm guessing it has something to do with tacos or burritos.

Fresh off his turn as real life rugby star Francois Pienaar in last year's Invictus, it appears Matt Damon may once again be playing a historical icon, this time of the American variety.  Unfortunately it seems like we would still be dealing with a heavy accent.  Mike Fleming of Deadline Hollywood is reporting that Damon has signed on for an untitled Robert F Kennedy project.  

I've just heard that a deal closed at New Regency for an RFK film that has Damon attached, with Gary Ross directing and Steven Knight scripting. Damon will wait to see the script before we know whether or not the project will really happen. The film will be based on the Evan Thomas biography His Life, which Landscape Entertainment’s Bob Cooper optioned and will produce with Ross and his Larger Than Life partner Alison Thomas.  [via deadline hollywood]

Those that have followed this blog for any amount of time can attest to the fact that I'm a pretty big fan of Damon's work.  Mostly because it's almost always good and that he makes interesting choices.  Ross wrote and directed Seabiscuit as well as the fantastic Pleasantville, so we're not talking chump change in the director's chair either.  Hell, the man wrote Big, Mr. Baseball, and Dave over a five year stretch.  That is some damn fine work.

Of course this is a long way from production but considering the pieces involved and the story they are trying to tell I can't imagine too much getting in the way.  We will keep you updated.

Everybody's favorite filmmaking brothers, Joel and Ethan Coen, have just cast the missing ingredient in their planned remake of the John Wayne classic True Grit.  Set to join Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and Josh Brolin is relatively unknown thirteen year old Hailee Steinfeld who will play the vital Mattie Ross role.

The 13-year old will play the centerpiece of a new adaptation of the Charles Portis novel, with Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Josh Brolin starring. Mattie Ross is the 14-year old spitfire whose father has been mowed down in cold blood by Tom Chaney (Brolin). Determined to bring the killer to justice, Mattie enlists hard-drinking U.S. marshal Rooster Cogburn (Bridges) to track the killer before a Texas Ranger (Damon) does. The Coens are producing with Scott Rudin.  [via deadline hollywood]

Conisdering the original is one of my all time favorite westerns, the Coens ability to make fine fine cinema, and the cast already in hand, I have a pretty serious nerd-on for this movie.  We'll keep you updated with any new details but for now just remember, she's only thirteen.