Chris Pine Is Richer Than You
The Call Sheet sifts through the day's glut of Hollywood news to find the stories even non-industry types care about. Today: Chris Pine's salaries revealed, the Parents Television Council is mad at MTV again, and some less than stellar news for NBC.
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Uh oh! Star Trek star (trekker) Chris Pine is being sued by his old agency, a small one he was with for years. The company claims that Pine dumped them unceremoniously via email in November but that they're still owed tons of money in commission. The interesting thing here is that the lawsuit discloses Pine's salary for a few movies, which is always fun to read about. OK, sure, these are only "alleged" salaries, but c'mon, they're probably at least sort of right. The dirt: Pine was paid a small-ish seeming $1.5 million with a $500,000 backend bonus for the Star Trek sequel and will be paid a theoretical $3 million for a third one. He made $3 million for the unstoppable train movie called Unstoppable Train . And, most surprising of all, he got paid a whopping $5 million to star in the upcoming action romantic comedy This Means War. Which, we're reviewing this thing on Friday, and... Woof. That anyone involved with that thing earned more than a hard slap across the face is kind of shocking. But really, what Pine's old agency is probably most after is the planned reboot of the Tom Clancy Jack Ryan franchise which would pay handsomely: "the deal would pay him $4 million for the first film, $8 million for the second and $12 million for a third, plus backend." That's a lotta bones and now this little boutique, which found Chris Pine wandering in a cornfield one day and made him a star, might get none of it. This shall not stand! This, well... this means war. [The Hollywood Reporter (they have Pine's kiss-off email if you're interested)]
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Finally something we can agree with the Parents Television Council on. The shrill group of sex-afeared ninnies has made MTV's new show I Just Want My Pants Back the target of a new outrage campaign, crying that "Once again MTV is taking HBO-style content and marketing it to a Nickelodeon-age audience." Which, OK, normally we'd roll our eyes and say "oh, brother" to this, because it's the PTC and they'd prefer everything on television to just be people standing across a room from one another saying "We are holding hands" to each other, but they kindaaaa have a point with regards to this terrible show. Mainly in that it's insanely vulgar in a way that's offensive, if not in an "Ewww, sex!" way necessarily, but definitely in a "Oh please shut up," obnoxious shock-value way. So while we don't necessarily agree with the PTC's exact reasoning, we fully support their efforts in pointing out how annoying this particular television program is. Like with MTV's Skins. Remember that mess? We kinda agreed with the PTC there too. Oh god. Have we become them? [Deadline]
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This is surprising: Gina Carano, the less-than-convincing star of Haywire, has booked another acting gig! It's in another action movie, this one to be directed by the decidedly less-than-Soderberghian John Stockwell (Into the Blue, Blue Crush, perhaps something else involving blue), about a woman whose husband goes missing on vacation so she sets out to get him back. So it's Taken where the Maggie Grace character is a husband not a daughter. No word yet on whether Maggie Grace will play the role anyway. [The Hollywood Reporter]
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Hm. Musical Smash's sophomore outing last night dipped 30% from its big premiere week and finished third overall in its timeslot. Yikes. Although! In the important under-50 set it finished first, so maybe there's hope for this thing yet? It would be something of a big deal if this show were to fail, in no small part because the dang thing is called Smash. If only they'd called it Managed Expectations or We're Fine With Whatever, a cancellation wouldn't seem quite so shameful or embarrassing. Don't these people know anything about these expect the worst and never admit to hoping for the best times? Trying is lame, guys. Never boast, never aim big, just shrug your shoulders and if people like your stuff just act awkward about it and only occasionally humblebrag by referring to "my friend Joseph Gordon Levitt." That's how it's done these days, guys. Don't you know anything? [Vulture]
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Oh good news, everybody. Zachary Levi from The Chuck, NBC's hit show about Chuck, has landed a role on a new pilot. It's called Let It Go and it's about "a married couple, the husband played by Levi, his best friend and her sister as they try to navigate, negotiate and sometimes manipulate society’s unspoken rules." Ohhh gosh! Wow. Champagne. Are you popping champagne? Because not only has the star of America's favorite Chuck-based show The Chuck landed a new gig, but it's on a show about a couple and (one hopes) their zany friends/family and "society's unspoken rules." Phew. Haven't had one of those since, like, Happy Endings or something. Man! TV! Just the best. [Deadline]
You thought that news was good? Here's better news: Transformers 4 is a go for 2014. Perhaps the best news humans have ever received. [MTV]
And here, FINALLY, is the full video of Taylor Swift's "Safe and Sound," the new jam that was written for the most important movie to ever come out, this year or any other (until Transformers: The Phantom Menace, that is), The Hunger Games. She's wandering in the woods, just like Katniss! And there are ominous fires in the distance just like, well just like The Road, but there are probably ominous distant fires in Hunger Games too. The point is, this video means Hunger Games is allllmost upon us. (And then, for the good of everyone, we can finally shut up about it.)
