Not sure this is the best way to follow up Deadpool, Ryan Reynolds, but, then again, ya didn’t ask me.
The actor – oh-so-golden at the moment – has decided to board Hitman’s Bodyguard, a movie about a world renown bodyguard hired to protect a hit man coming in from the cold (Samuel L. Jackson).
Samuel L. friggin’ Jackson.
Samuel L. Jackson, who doesn’t quite stand in as sidekick to anyone, youknowhwatImean.
Samuel L. Jackson, whom Ryan Reynolds shouldn’t support because any time R2’s paired with an elder statesman of Hollywood, it just doesn’t click. I mean, who can tell me that Self/less opposite Ben Kingsley or R.I.P.D. with Jeff Bridges worked?
To boot, Reynolds and Jackson are going to play characters who hate each other (because they’ve always been at odds), but who now...now are going to have to work together to stay alive and unravel the plans of a murderous Eastern European dictator to be portrayed by Gary Oldman.
Salma Hayek and Elodie Yung (Netflix’s Daredevil) are set to co-star. So there’s that, too.
Photo: RyanReynoldsDaily.com.
Before Ava DuVernay can direct Lupita Nyong’o in the Steven Spielberg-produced Intelligent Life, the Selma helmer is going to tackle A Wrinkle in Time.
Yes, the 1963 fantasy classic by Madeleine L’Engle is getting the silver-screen treatment, courtesy of Disney by way of Academy Award winner Jennifer Lee, the writer and co-director of Frozen.
For those of you who don’t/didn’t know (like me!), A Wrinkle in Time centers on a young girl whose father, a government scientist, goes missing after working on a mysterious object o.k.a. a tesseract. The tesseract turns out to have the power to transport a person into a fifth dimension in which all these unknown planets orbit – which, of course, she uses to join the search party for dear ol’ dad.
Go, Ava!
Photo: Jawbreaker.NYC.
Everything old is new to Netflix.
The streamer is retooling Norman Lear’s One Day at a Time with a Latino bent and Screen Actor Guild Award-winning actress Justina Machado (HBO’s Six Feet Under) as the lead.
Machado (who has a part in the upcoming USA Network series Queen of the South) will portray a single Cuban-American mom – and an ex-servicewoman – raising two troublesome children (a boy and a girl) on the new show, with Rita Moreno playing her mother.
An initial 13-ep season shall stream...soon, so you keep un ojo out for that, OK.
Photo: NBC.com.
#ICYMI, Ke$sha has been embroiled in the legal battle of her life the last year and a half or so.
See, the “Die Young” singer leveled a complaint against music producer Dr. Luke in October 2014, alleging that he was abusing her in many nasty ways and urging the court to nullify any contracts between the two so she could move on with her career and away from him, literally, figuratively, and professionally. Dr. Luke, in turn, responded in kind, with a defamation counter.
Alas, last week, Kesha’s request for a preliminary injunction was denied, therefore keeping her tied to the producer, I guess, until the terms of their contracts together are met.
The move has generated an outpour of support for Kesha from the likes of Kelly Clarkson, Fiona Apple, and Demi Lovato, and even prompted Taylor Swift to write her a $250,000 check to help pay for her legal fees.
Sounds like, unfortch, this quest for justice and artistic freedom is far from over.
Photo: Billboard.com.
Update 1: Bleachers frontman, Jack Antonoff, has rallied behind Kesha, too, to offer creative and moral support by suggesting the two get in a studio together and work on some music that she could then leak if she wants to.
Update 2: While the world embraces Kesha, though, Dr. Luke has broken his silence regarding their imbroglio and tweet-stated that he never “rape[d] Kesha” and more. Which I think is not what was argued in court, regardless of what people are now saying (the rapist characterizations have become dangerously matter-of-fact in the Internet conversation).
It is my understanding that Kesha, indeed, accused Dr. Luke of drugging her and taking advantage of her, and of threatening to ruin her career if like, she did not stay in her lane, and that is why they went to court. So he could be prevented from ruining her career.
Been litrally dyin’ to quote-unquote meet second Kimye spawn, Saint West, since he was born last December?
Well, suffer no more, you fool.
Today, Kim Kardashian released the first official pic of her 2-month-old son with husband Kanye West, on what would have been her late father Robert Kardashian’s birthday (the kid’s middle name is Robert).
As Kylie would say...Q-uh!
Photo: UsMagazine.com.
So, evidently, Mary Poppins is getting the remake treatment.
I know, right?
Indeed, Disney is prepping a new original musical production featuring the Julie Andrews character, and the House of the Mouse wants Emily Blunt to lead the way.
Rob Marshall is directing, so the project would reunite him with his Into the Woods star, a mix that I am not totally against, if I may say so, especially given that the film will be more a continuation set 20 years after the events of the 1964 classic chronicling Mary Poppins’ later travels.
Maybe, this one will become a classic, too.
Photo: JustJared.com.
From the Empire to space!
Golden Globe winner Taraji P. Henson is set to headline Hidden Figures, the adaptation of the publishing-this-fall Hidden Figures: The Story of the African-American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race, a book that is not about anything other than that (Margot Lee Shetterly’s title is pretty self-explanatory, no?).
Henson will portray Katherine Johnson, a math wiz who, together with colleagues Dorothy Vaughn and Mary Jackson, contributed to the launch of John Glenn into space and to his safe return home.
Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer is also on board, as one of the other two women propelling the story forward.
Ted Melfi (St. Vincent) will helm.
Photo: GospelGoodies.com.
Now that Barbra Streisand’s working on a return to the director’s chair with a Catherine the Great biopic, she is going to need a star.
And two-time Oscar nominee Keira Knightley might be it.
I mean, the actress was said to be in the mix for the part of the 18th century Russian ruler earlier this week. It still could go to someone else, but here we are.
Photo: DesignNTrend.com.
I am positively giddy thinking about the prospect of Jessica Chastain speaking some Sorkinese.
See, Aaron Sorkin is getting ready to pop his directorial cherry with an adaptation of Molly’s Game, the memoir of one Ms. Molly Bloom, a Colorado woman who ran the highest-stakes, most beyond-exclusive poker game Hollywood had ever seen back in the late aughts.
And he wants the two-time Oscar nominee and all-around dynamo to star in his film.
I love it. I’m into it. Get it done, people.
Photo: JustJared.com.
Lupita Nyong’o and Ava DuVernay walk into a film studio....
And they walk away with a deal to work on an awesome-sounding project that’s been blessed by producer Steven Spielberg.
Oh, this is happening.
The Academy Award-winning actress is set to star in Intelligent Life, a new DuVernay-directed sci-fi thriller co-written by Colin Trevorrow, the helmer that delivered that little hit from last summer, Jurassic World. (Trevorrow will produce as well.)
The project will tell the story of a U.N. worker in a department created to represent mankind in the event of a close encounter with alien life. The U.N. worker ends up falling in love with a mysterious woman (enter Nyong’o), who ends up being...not from Earth.
Sounds to me like the talkie Under the Skin. And I can get behind that.
Photo: Vogue.com.
So you know how Charlize Theron headlined the adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s Dark Places?
Well did you know that the role – of a woman who, at 7 years old, survived the brutal murder of her family and testified against her accused brother only to be questioned and confronted about the events 20 years later (and rethink what she thought she knew about her brother) – was once meant for Amy Adams?
No? Well it’s true.
Flynn must be a thing for Adams, because the five-time Academy Award nominee is going to star on a made-for-TV-or-streaming adaptation of the Gone Girl author’s Sharp Objects.
The actress will play fresh-off-a-psych-ward reporter Camille Preaker, who must go back to her small hometown to investigate the murder of a pair of preteen girls, reluctantly reconnecting with her estranged mother and half-sister in the process.
Jean-Marc Vallée (Wild) will direct the Jason Blum-produced joint, while Marti Noxon (Lifetime’s UnReal, TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer) will run the show, which she is adapting.
Sounds like this should go to HBO, huh.
Photo: LaineyGossip.com.
Jennifer Aniston is on a holidays kick.
Not only is she starring in Garry Marshall’s upcoming Mother’s Day, my favorite Friend is also getting ready to throw an Office Christmas Party.
And L’Aniston will reunite with her friend and Horrible Bosses 2 co-star, Jason Bateman, to do so. The pair will be featured in the movie, which is coming together fast for a December premiere, alongside Deadpool’s T.J. Miller and SNL’s Kate McKinnon.
Mmm...does their employer not hire any people of color?
Will Speck and Josh Gordon (Blades of Glory) are directing.
Photo: MarieClaire.com.
Aussie pop princess Kylie Minogue is off the market!
Indeed, the singer is engaged to her British actor-boyfriend, Joshua Sasse (TV’s Galavant).
The couple made the happy development public at an awards show in London earlier this week.
Photo: UsMagazine.com.
She keeps on tryin’.
Emily Ratajkowski has landed another part. I know. Meow much?
The model-cum-actress is going to share the screen with Natalie Dormer (The Forest) and Deadpool’s Ed Skrein in a new project by the title of In Darkness. Dormer reportedly co-wrote the script with the movie’s helmer, Anthony Byrne.
The Game of Thrones player will star in the psychological revenge thriller, as a blind musician who comes into too-close contact with the underbelly of London after she hears a murder in the flat upstairs.
Ratajkowski will play the plum role of the unstable daughter of Dormer’s main foe.
Photo: FashionGoneRogue.com.
Legendary Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Harper Lee has died.
The woman behind the recently published Go Set a Watchman and the beloved To Kill a Mockingbird was 89 years old.
Lee passed away yesterday, publisher HarperCollins confirmed today.
Photo: USAToday.com.
Yes, Niecy Nash. Yes!
N2 has landed on another Fox after stealing scenes on Scream Queens. The Emmy nominee is getting on (see what I did there?) with a lead part on The Enforcers, a new single-cam comedy pilot, about two wildly different single mothers who dream of being police officers.
Their hopes and aspirations come true when they are paired as inspectors in the Code Enforcement Department at their precinct.
Which, of course, means ours do, too, because Nash is just that delightful and enjoyable, and now we are going to get more of her.
We all win.
Photo: Zimbio.com.
Cue your trailer man’s voice.
Coming up, for Joe Manganiello....
Pee-wee’s Big Holiday on Netflix. (I’m watching, btw!)
And then. The Manga-beast on History.
Yes, the History Channel.
Sofia Vergara’s ridikolously good-looking other half is going to be featured on Six, a new eight-episode Navy SEAL drama, about a 2014 mission to take out a Taliban leader in Afghanistan that takes a bad turn when the SEALs discover that an American citizen is aiding the terrorists.
Oh. That old nugget.
Photo: People.com.
James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is officially in production, with Chris Pratt, Zoë Saldana, David Bautista & Co. all back for more.
Legit-joining them, as expected, will be Kurt Russell coming on board, maybe, to play Pratt’s Peter Quill’s long-lost father, and Elizabeth Debicki in a top-secret role.
Mmm...who might the Man from U.N.C.L.E. starlet be portraying....
Guess we shall find out a lot closer to the blockbuster’s May 2017 opening date. Ha!
In any case, Chris Sullivan (Cinemax’s The Knick) and Canadian actress Pom Klementieff (Oldboy) also have secured parts in the production.
Photo: News.com.au.
I heart how the trailer for Bastille Day kicks things off: With star Idris Elba’s name and the movie’s title up front.
Because the movie does declare Elba’s a star, gosh darn it.
The actor plays a covert operative tasked with dispensing with an American artist (yeah, a con artist portrayed Cinderella’s Richard Madden) after the latter’s linked to an attack on the Paris metro (when another attack takes place, the agent realizes that his mark is innocent and that, to boot, he may be his only meaningful connection to the truth).
Of course, the two must work together to blow the lid off the real plan that’s in motion in order to prevent further chaos and take down their common enemy.
Bastille Day is set for release in France this July, while an American release is still TBA.
Photo: FlickeringMyth.com.
