Capt. Schoenaerts!

I feel that, for the last couple of years, I have been waiting for Matthias Schoenaerts’ star to take off, you know. For him to happen, really happen, in America.

Sure, the fact that the Belgian Brando’s stateside ascent has been a slow and steady one is a good thing, for it means that he will stick around for a while – but I need a little more Schoenaerts in my life. And I need it now.

I mean, Rust and Bone feels like a long time ago, The Drop pretty much kinda came and went last fall, and this weekend’s The Loft is not getting a whole lotta buzz.

OK, sure, soon enough he will be inescapable, what with Suite Française and Far From the Madding Crowd getting ready to come out and be seen. But will those decidedly art-house-y projects break the guy through?

Big maybe.

HBO also seems to think that Schoenaerts is som’in’ to be see, alright, which is probably why the clever creatives working on this Lewis and Clark mini for the premium cabler (including executive producers Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt, and Edward Norton) have tapped the actor for a starring part on it, opposite Casey Affleck.

Based on this Undaunted Courage book by Stephen E. Ambrose, Lewis and Clark will relate America’s first contact with the land and native tribes of the country west of the Mississippi River, centering on Corps of Discovery captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, two journeymen venturing into uncharted territory to deliver President Jefferson’s message of sovereignty as they search for his all-water route to the Pacific Ocean.

Mmm...period Schoenaerts....

Photo: GettyImages.com.

She Doesn’t Get By

Darn.

Tatiana Maslany will not be making be making the Off-Broadway scene this summer, after all.

The SAG Award-nominated star of the BBC America’s was meant to join Thomas Sadoski (Wild) on stage, in Neil LaBute’s The Way We Get By, but she has had to bow out due to some scheduling conflicts.

Amanda Seyfried will take over her part, though, so the show will go on, beginning previews at the end of April for a late-May opening.

Photo: HollywoodReported.com.

Missy Elliott Shall Super Bowl with Katy Perry, Too

You know, I wonder if anyone will accuse her of blackppropriatin’ her guests’ talents....

Missy Elliott has been announced as the second special guest who will join Katy Perry during her Super Bowl halftime performance. Lenny Kravitz was the first special guest announced.

Super Bowl XLIX, as you probably know, is set for this Sunday, Feb. 1, in Phoenix, Ariz., with the Patriots and the Seahawks playing for the win.

Photo: RollingStone.com.

Runner Runner

Does this spell he is bringing his shirtlessness back?

Matthew McConaughey has signed on to star in the adaptation of Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen.

M2 will play McDougall in Born to Run, which will the story of how he came across members of the Tarahumara Indian tribe in the Mexican Copper Canyons, thus discovering that they can run distances of more than 100 miles without getting the typical injuries that people usually get from running. This led to an eventual race between the greatest runners in America and members of the tribe, and inspired the barefoot running movement.

Yeah, yeah – but will McConaughey get his run on...while shirtless?

Photo: TheFashionisto.com.

Wet Hot American Hamm

The Wet Hot American Summer revival courtesy of Netflix just scored a big piece of Hamm.

Ha!

All kidding aside, Jon Hamm is joining original cast members including Elizabeth Banks, Bradley Cooper, and Amy Poehler on the upcoming new eight episodes that, actually, will be available for streaming this summer.

Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp will serve as a prequel-sequel to the 2001 cult hit, since it will chronicle what went down on the first day of a fictional Jewish summer camp in 1981 (the film centered on the events of the camp’s last day).

Hamm will play a secret spy (!), while Kristen Wiig and Chris Pine – oh yeah, they are both boarding the project as well – will portray a snobby counselor at a rival camp and...someone really, really hot (the details of Pine’s part remain a secret for now), respectively.

Now puts your hands up – if ya goin’ to camp this summer.

I know I is.

Photo: Twirlit.com.

César Hearts K. Stew

Kristen Stewart has been nominated!

No, not for an Oscar for her supporting turn in Still Alice (there was a push for it, did you know?), but for a French César Award, for her supporting work in Olivier Assayas’ Clouds of Sils Maria.

Well look at that.

In the film, Stewart plays the assistant of an (aging) actress (Juliette Binoche) who is threatened by her much-younger co-star (Chloë Grace Moretz), an It Girl who is now playing a part that the once-an-It-Girl-herself older woman once took on, thankyouverymuch.

I wonder if Sils Maria is on the iTunes already....

Photo: HawtCelebs.com.

Diving Off

There the Gone Girl goes.

Up next for Oscar nominee Rosamund Pike is The Bends, a diving adventure revolving around a mysterious find at the bottom of the ocean – a discovery that, somehow, creates a big ol’ issue for an ex-Marine who is working off a debt to the mob.

Joel Kinnaman (Netflix’s The Killing) co-stars.

Photo: uInterview.com.

The Doctress Is In

Overseeing the Red Band Society on TV didn’t quite work out for Octavia Spencer last fall – so the Academy Award winner is going back to film.

The Snowpiercer star is eyeing the starring role in Seacole, an upcoming period biopic about Mary Seacole, the pioneering Jamaican doctress who stood up to prejudice to play a key role in the Crimean War, even rivaling Florence Nightingale.

The project would reunite Spencer with one of her producers from The Help – so you know the material will do good by her and she definitely will do good by it.

In Secret’s Charlie Stratton is set to direct.

Photo: KRNB.com.

SWM Needs Date

You wouldn’t know it from looking at him, but Zac Efron will soon need help finding himself a date.

For a movie, of course.

Efron is set to star in Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, a comedy about a couple of brothers who place an ad online looking for – guess what – dates for a wedding only to see their ad go viral.

Oh millennials and their shenanigans....

The search for a suitable counterpart to Efron is ongoing, but if they have any smarts to ’em the powers that be will pair him up again with his Neighbors co-star, Dave Franco.

Photo: EHads.com.

Screaming Jonas

Scream Queens has found its leading Jonas.

Nick Jonas (DirecTV’s Kingdom) has been tapped for a recurring role on the new comedy horror anthology series that Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk are working on for Fox.

Jamie Lee Curtis and Emma Roberts are already on board. So are Lea Michele and Joe Manganiello.

And Ariana Grande is set for a guest turn.

The 15-ep first-season of Scream Queens will premiere in the fall.

Photo: PopSugar.com.

Is Open Mic In?

Anybody else getting a major open mic vibe off of the new collaboration that has brought Rihanna, Kanye West, and Paul friggin’ McCartney together?

Of course, I’m talking about “FourFiveSeconds.”

Think about it....

No? Anyone?

Photo: EW.com.

Lady Ghostbuster

Hot Reboot Casting News Alert!

It’s gonna be Melissa McCarthy and a talented trio of SNLers who will play the all-female Ghostbusters, yo

The project is going to be a Bridesmaids reunion for McCarthy, director Paul Feig, and Kristen Wiig, and also will feature current Saturday Night Live players Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones (Top Five).

The powers that be have yet to confirm this, but Feig himself tweeted as much earlier today, so you know, it probably is a done deal and just a matter of getting some signatures on paper at this point.

Photo: UsMagazine.com.

Update: The new Ghostbusters will hit theaters on July 22, 2016.

Let’s Get Fantastic

Here they come.

The Fantastic Four are getting the reboot treatment this summer – with Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, and Jamie Bell as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, a.k.a. The Human Torch, and Ben Grimm/The Thing, respectively – and, evidently, the foursome will be using their newfound powers to get some...answers of some sort.

Fantastic Four is opening on Aug. 15. Check out the teaser for it now.

Photo: AintItCool.com.

Ray Donovan’s New Gal

I hope this means she won’t have to affect a Boston accent.

Oh, good – it don’t.

Katie Holmes has signed on to guest on the upcoming third season of Showtime’s Ray Donovan. The actress will have a season-long arc as the shrewd-and-chic-businesswoman-daughter of Ian McShane’s character, a new client of Ray’s.

Betcha Holmes ends up in bed with Liev Schreiber, the lucky witch with a B....

Photo: Celebzz.com.

Is a Black Green Lantern Coming?

Sorry, Ryan Reynolds – but you probably, more than likely will not be suiting up as the Green Lantern again.

We all know that.

Tyrese Gibson might be taking over the ring as a member of the Justice League. Or so the Furious 7 star would like us to think.

Gibson Insta-teased his possible involvement in the Marvelfication of the DC Comicsverse last week, y’ see.

Right now, though, it looks like it’s all posturing by the actor to land the role, but, hey...it could happen.

Photo: BellaNaija.com.

She’s Belle!

Well alright then.

It took three years to confirm, but, yes, Emma Watson – #HeForShe shout-out! – will play Belle in an upcoming live-action musical telling of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

Guillermo del Toro Bill Condon (Dreamgirls) will direct.

Cameras are set to roll later this year.

Photo: CelebMafia.com.

Not Into the Squad

Hit a snag much?

The Suicide Squad movie is having a bit of a tough time finding its new Rick Flag in the wake of Tom Hardy’s departure from the production.

Rumor had it the powers that be were looking at Jake Gyllenhaal to replace Hardy as the elite soldier-character, but the Gyllen-yum reportedly has said thanks, but no thanks.

Who shall it be, who shall it be?

We better find out soon because Suicide Squad – starring Will Smith, Jared Leto, Jai Courtney, and Viola Davis – is meant to start shooting in April for an August 2016 release.

Photo: LATimes.com.

Married No Moore

Whoa.

Mandy Moore and Ryan Adams have called it quits.

The married-since-2009 couple announced that they have mutually decided to end their (still-somewhat-surprising) marriage after almost six years together.

Their rep says that all is cool and respectful and amicable between the two, so I am sure this one will go down as privately as it started and unfolded.

Just like M2 and Adams would want it.

Photo: E! Online.

Birdman’s Big Weekend

And the awards-season plot thickens.

Looks like Boyhood is not, shall not coast to that widely anticipated Academy Award Best Picture win without a fight from Birdman, after all.

So adjust your expectations (not to mention your stake on the that office pool you probably got going on with your mates at work).

Why?

Because Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s won the 2015 Producers Guild Award on Saturday night, and just last night, the film’s Michael Keaton-led cast picked up the Best Ensemble Actor at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, which also recognized Eddie Redmayne, Julianne Moore, J.K. Simmons, and Patricia Arquette with some cool hardware for their work on The Theory of Everything, Still Alice, Whiplash, and Boyhood, respectively.

Who will win the Oscar come Feb. 22? So hard to say right now. His favor might be easier to discern once the Directors Guild Award is announced on Feb. 7, though. If the helmers go with Richard Linklater that’ll tell me that they heart his experiment of a film just a tad better than Iñárritu’s, which, this year, absolutely means something.

Photo: LATimes.com.

Julia’s Bringing Batkid to the Movies!

They are making a movie out of the story of Batkid, and I think that that is fantastic.

Julia Roberts is going to produce and star in Batkid, a film based on the 2015 Slamdance title Batkid Begins: The Wish Heard Around the Word, a doc that chronicles young Miles Scott’s Make-A-Wish desire to spend a day back as a sidekick to Batman.

You remember how #Batkid took over your Twitter feed back in November 2013?

Well, get ready for more.

Photo: Parade.com.

The Truth About Charlie Mortdecai

Charlie Mortdecai. He is one of those guys who just sounded so good on paper. However, as the subject of a movie, well...he flat-out suuucks.

Consider the pitch for Mortdecai, the movie based on the Kyril Bonfiglioli character: He’s an anti-hero art dealer on a race against the clock to recover a stolen Goya that’s said to contain the code to a lost bank account filled with Nazi gold.

What sets Lord Mortdecai apart – yes, he has a title to boot – from the lot is he’s a Brit-ccentric bon vivant (his quite elaborate and ridikolous mustache is the proof of it!) with a rather large...tax debt (gotcha!), and he is played by Johnny Depp.

What could possibly go wrong!

Everything, as it turns out.

There is nothing amusing about Mortdecai. The movie – directed by David Koepp, an esteemed popcorn screenwriter who now probably will be encouraged to stick with screenwriting – wears its Ocean’s-esque aspirations on its stylish sleeve. And yet, it fails, spectacularly, to reach the levity or smarts of the George Clooney vehicle, the poor thing.

Mortdecai, as it turns out, is the only person capable enough to recover the painting, which may have caught the attention of an international terrorist ring. And, natch, that of some Russian thugs, although I am not entirely clear on that part (I may have gone sleepy-bye-bye for a bit). The fact that MI5 comes to him for assistance should be, well, OK...you know how Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock Holmes is like, this necessary evil to the authorities on his show?

Well, Mortdecai’s more like, a really annoying evil. Should be fun – but he ain’t. At all.

Shame then that Depp proves incredibly tiresome and, worse, beyond-boring as the idiosyncratic character (he’s an amoral horndog...with a heart!). ’Cause if we know anything about the actor that’s that he commits to a role. Even worse, the movie is a thankless affair for his supporting cast, which includes a hammy Gwyneth Paltrow (she plays his posh wife Johanna), Paul Bettany as his devoted manservant, a fellow named Jock Strapp (yes, seriously), Ewan McGregor as the government agent who hands him his mission papers, and Olivia Munn as a nymphomaniac billionairess who has designs of her own on that Goya.

Mortdecai is an entertaining offering by all means, but, in actuality, it’s the opposite. Fingers crossed this will be the last time Depp’s allowed to play an amalgamation of tics passing as a would-be one-of-a-kind persona created for the screen for a while.

And, please, let this be a lesson for my girl G.P. If it’s too good to be true – and again, this did sound kinda foolproof – then, clearly, it could be.

That being said, Gwyn, if someone comes at ya offering you a part in a star-studded remake of an Academy Award-winning Argentinean film, uhm, do not pull out of that, by GOOPness gracious.

My Rating *

Photo: Lionsgate Films.

A New Jean Grey

Sophie Tuner is the new Famke Janssen.

Meaning Sophie Turner is going to play young Jean Grey in X-Men: Apocalypse, of course.

Indeed, the Game of Thrones player will take over for Janssen in the sequel-prequel-whateverequel, which already has Oscar Isaac on board as the villainous Apocalypse.

Tye Sheridan (Joe, Mud) will take on the Cyclops character (bye, James Marsden!), while Alexandra Shipp (Lifetime’s Aaliyah) will play a young Storm (portrayed until now by Halle Berry).

Photo: Independent.co.uk.