Liam Neeson Is Making a Lot of Money
Liam Neeson's new thriller Taken 2 is doing quite well at the box office, domestically and internationally, meaning everyone's favorite late-career action star (remember when he was in serious movies? Many moons ago now) is making a lotta dough. But how much dough? Well, it depends on who you ask. The Hollywood Reporter says that he made just $10 million up front ("just," ugh) for the sequel. But Deadline disagrees, ever these two Hollywood alley cats hissing at one another, saying that Neeson got paid $12 million up front but will make a lot more in back-end deals. (Hollywood back-end deals, not San Fernando Valley/Czech Republic back-end deals. Big difference.) However much he ultimately makes, it's going to be a lot, and maybe there will be a Taken 3, in which the dopey boyfriend from Taken 2 gets taken and Neeson just shrugs his shoulders and says "Eh, whatever," but then Maggie Grace is all "But daddyyyyyyy" and so he sighs and trundles off and halfheartedly (you really don't have to do much to beat these Albanian idiots anyway) takes the doofus back. Should make a mint. [The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline]
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A possible Taken 3 isn't the only thing on Liam Neeson's schedule. He'll be starring opposite Julianne Moore in some crappy airplane thriller called Non-Stop, which sounds like either a crappy airplane porn movie or an Olsen Twins vehicle. But it's not, it's a thriller. The plot involves an air marshal (Neeson) trying to stop a "mysterious nemesis" who keeps IMing him and threatening passengers. Aha. IM. How thrilling. Moore plays a lady he likes who's into electronics and stuff. So... Yeah. Well, hey, I guess making money is nice. And it's nice that a 50-year-old and a 60-year-old can be in a thriller together and not have to play second fiddle to some pair of stupid little jerks. Plus they probably have a good time together. Whatever. Let 'em have their fun. [The Hollywood Reporter]
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Bow your heads in reverent teen mourning. ABC Family has gone and canceled Brenda "7th Heaven" Hampton's teen pregnancy (and eventually teen everything else, it seems) show The Secret Life of the American Teenager after five seasons. Oh dear, oh dear. What will we do? Without all its weird moralizing and truly unbelievably terrible acting? We will miss it so. What will we do? And most important, what the hell will Molly Ringwald and Josie Bissett do? They needed this thing, guys. Come on, ABC Family. You can cancel the show, that's fine, but you have to get Josie and Molly some work. Maybe just put them in the mailroom or something until they book another show? Just something. We don't want them sitting around the house doing nothing. [Deadline]
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The cancellation is certainly great news for one gal, the show's star Shailene Woodley. Remember she got all those accolades and award nominations for The Descendants, but of course she had to stick with her show, so she was basically torn between big, important stuff and, well, The Secret Life of the American Teenager. But now that she's freed up from that burden, she's off like a shot. Word is today that she's in talks to play Mary Jane Watson in the sequel to The Amazing Spider-Man. Presumably she'll be vying with Emma Stone's Gwen Stacy for Andrew Garfield's affections, which sounds like really hard work. Imagine having to hit on Andrew Garfield all day while getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to do it? What a misery. Maybe she should ask ABC Family for another season of the show. Because the other options just seem ghastly. [The Hollywood Reporter]
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Emilia Clarke, who will be forever better known as everyone's favorite Khaleesi, Daenerys Targaryen, will soon be appearing on Broadway in a new stage adaptation of Breakfast at Tiffany's, playing Holly Golightly. That all sounds like a bit of a silly lark, but the great Richard Greenberg is doing the adaptation, so it could in fact be very good. And it will be very interesting, if a bit jarring, to see Dany, excuse me Emilia, doing more modern things. Not present-day things, of course, but almost there. Certainly closer to our times than an alternate Earth's vaguely medieval period. And she'll probably have to do less nudity, too. Though in this adaptation, Cat will, of course, be played by a dragon. [Entertainment Weekly]
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GREY'S ANATOMY SPOILER ALERT (Though you really should not care about Grey's Anatomy at this point, come on, what's wrong with you, it's been on for like 28 years.) Weep not, McSteamy fans. Your beloved Eric Dane is not actually dead, because he is just an actor on a television show. Though his Grey's character might have gone to the big unoccupied hospital room where you can have sex with your sexy co-doctor in the sky, Dane soldiers on. Well, actually, sailors on. He's signed on to play the lead in a TNT pilot called Last Ship, which will see him as the captain of a Navy ship that is believed to contain the only people alive following a nuclear holocaust. So it's another goddamned post-apocalypse show, because we certainly need more of those. Even better yet? It's going to be produced by Michael Bay. Oh McSteamy. You coulda done better. (Well, though, could he have? All former network doctors end up on post-apocalyptic TNT. Just ask Noah Wyle.) [Entertainment Weekly]
Here is a trailer for Hitchcock, the movie where Anthony Hopkins plays Alfred Hitchcock, Helen Mirren plays his long-suffering wife, and Scarlett Johansson plays booby Janet Leigh, while Jessica Biel plays Vera Miles, who played the sister in Psycho. Oh, yeah, it's about the making of Psycho. It looks... just O.K. These stunt-y biopics are getting a little tiresome, are they not?
