Adrien Brody to Become Magician
Today in show business news: History is doing a miniseries about Houdini with TV actor Adrien Brody, Julie Taymor gets her Spider-Man money, and fans of Zack Morris can rejoice.
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The channel called History, formerly known as The History Channel, is developing a miniseries about Harry Houdini that will star Oscar-winner Adrien Brody as the famous magician. So... is that a coup for History, or a step down for Brody? Or both? I guess it could be both. Though, we shouldn't knock History. They've had grand success recently, what with The Bible and Hatfields & McCoys. So maybe this is a good thing for Adrien Brody. I mean plenty of big-name actors are doing TV these days. Sure, most of them are doing HBO or FX or whatever, but Sigourney Weaver did USA for god's sake. And Kevin Costner was in Hatfields. Is Adrien Brody bigger than Kevin Costner? I think not. Man, do we (read: I) have a lot of conflicted opinions about Adrien Brody. Lotta turmoil trying to decide just what that dude's career is. All told I think he's done pretty well, but he gets a bad rap so often that it's hard not to believe it. Anyway. What were we talking about? Oh, right. Houdini. Too bad he didn't look much like Adrien Brody. He was more of a young Victor Garber. But, oh well. Adrien Brody it is. [Entertainment Weekly]
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Now that she's done with Weeds and finished filming Red 2, Mary-Louise Parker can return to the New York stage. And she's doing just that in a play called The Snow Geese, by Sharr White. In the play she'll be a mother trying to keep her family together during WWI. She's got two teen sons, just like on Weeds, and she'll be newly widowed, just like on Weeds. So it's Weeds: WWI Edition. That's fine! Nothing wrong with that. Parker will be directed by her Proof director Daniel Sullivan, which could spell good things. The show begins previews on October 1st at the Friedman. [Playbill]
While on the topic of theater, Julie Taymor has reached a settlement with the producers of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, whom she sued for profits after being fired from the disastrous production. Well, disastrous in terms of quality, not in terms of ticket sales. The ticket sales are enormous. And Taymor wanted some of that sweet, sweet spider money. It seems she finally got some, but the amount is not being disclosed. How much you want to guess? A couple thou? Three grand and a bus ticket? Who knows. But whatever it is, you can be sure it's big. [The New York Times]
Sorry, ladies and gays. You may not get to see Alexander Skarsgard shimmying around in a loin cloth as Tarzan after all. Though things were once lining up well for the movie, with Harry Potter director David Yates on board and Jessica Chastain nearing a deal to costar, the production office has been shut down and plans to make make the movie this year have been scrapped. Apparently the budget was too high, and they couldn't figure out a way to lower it. Probably because Skargard's loin cloths would have to be spun out of pure witch's gold lest his powerful Swedish netherparts burn a hole in the fabric. Or, I dunno, CGI vine technology is expensive. So, oh well. A new Tarzan movie probably would have been kind of dumb anyway. Skarsgard and Chastain should do another movie together, though. The Pale People of Transluscentania or something. Pitch that to Yates, guys. I'm sure he'll go for it. [Deadline]
SPOILER ALERT. Specifically, DEXTER SPOILER ALERT: Actress Yvonne Strahovski, who played Dexter's murderous girlfriend last season, will be back for next season. It's unclear for how many episodes or in what capacity, but Hannah will be back. Which isn't that surprising, really. She did that creepy thing toward the end of the finale, so it's not like they were just going to drop her character entirely. I just want to know how many episodes. That will give us a clue as to whether she lives, dies, live happily ever after with Dex, etc. This is the last season of the show, so anything could happen! Masuka and Angel probably won't hook up, but other than that, yeah anything could go down. [Entertainment Weekly]
Attention, Franklin & Bash fans! So, attention Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Breckin Meyer's families: TNT has moved the show's third season premiere date from July 24 to June 19. Meaning we get some good Franklin & Bash business sooner than expected! That is terrific. God is good, man. God is good. Franklin & Bash is god, is what I'm saying. [Deadline]
Salman Rushdie revealed in a comment discussion on Gawker today (yes, that is a thing that happened) that he has a pilot "floating around" at Showtime that he's waiting for a greenlight on. Good lord, meaning good Franklin & Bash, what could a Salman Rushdie Showtime pilot possibly be about? That is intriguing and exciting and unsettling all at once. Is it about Padma? Please Franklin & Bash let it be about Padma. [Gawker]
