Saturday, April 30, 2016

Schneider Sees Another Day

Meet Justina Machado’s new on-screen (potential) man.

Or pal, at the very least.

Cutie Todd Grinnell is going to play Schneider on Netflixforthcoming Latino retool of Norman LearOne Day at a Time. Indeed, the Grace and Frankie actor will be taking on the only role from the original that will be making it to the contemporary remake.

FYI, the update will center on an ex-servicewoman single Cuban-American mom (Machado) raising two troublesome children (a boy and a girl), with the help of her mother (Rita Moreno).

Grinnell’s Schneider will be a charming (how could he not – look at that face!), if a bit aloof and super-privileged handyman who lives free of rent in his dad’s building, which he also manages.

This one has love interest potential, alright.

Photo: Zimbio.com.

A New Kind of Blade Runner

A Dutch up-and-comer the way of the Blade Runner sequel goes.

Sylvia Hoeks (Tirza) has been cast in a lead role role in the project, opposite Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling, and Robin Wright.

Not much is known about the follow-up, other than Denis Villeneuve (Sicario) is directing, David Bautista is also co-starring, and the story will be set several decades after the original, with Ford reprising his role as the replicant-hunting Rick Deckard.

Blade Runner 2: Bladier and Runnier – ha! – is due out on Oct. 6, 2017.

Photo: WallpaperBros.com.

Ladder Days Ahead

Now that TV’s Sleepy Hollow is square in her rearview (GTS – but beware...spoilers abound), Nicole Beharie is refocusing on the movies.

The Shame star is going to climb Jacob’s Ladder, in a reimagining of the 1990 thriller, with Michael Ealy and Jesse Wiliams (TV’s Grey’s Anatomy).

The remake will center on two (hot) brothers embroiled in a real-paranoid situation.

Right on!

Photo: PurePeople.com.

Bullets Over America

Another Day in the Death of America will be a story told by David Oyelowo.

The Selma star is going to produce and headline the adaptation of the book of non-fiction by Guardian journalist Gary Younge, an investigation into the deaths of 10 shot-dead children ranging between 9 and 19 in age, on one random day – Nov. 23, 2013, in the United States of America. These real-life human stories are meant to illustrate the all-too-real real-life consequences of gun violence in America, and now, they are going to be told in a medium slightly more powerful (these days) than dem good ol’ books.

Younge’s tome will be published stateside on Oct. 4, and I’ll bet you will be able to expect its film adaptation to roll into theaters just in time for awards season next year.

Photo: NPR.org.

Friday, April 29, 2016

Zero Fs, Lotsa Attitude

I...am officially on the Erika Jayne bandwagon.

Meaning this week, I purchased the Real Housewife of Beverly Hills breakout’s latest single, How Many F***s?

Which, yeah, I absolutely think has Song of Summer potential.

In like, a really, really niche, silly way.

Check out the video for the ditty, and tell me that Jayne doesn’t have like, this crazy appeal (which you know she does, if you saw and enjoyed her on Bravo this past season), with her vixen Florence Henderson look, Britney by way of Paris (Hilton) singin’ inflection, and lite Nicki Minaj moves:



Keep gettin’ it, girl!

Leaving It All Behind

Looks like Penélope Cruz is in for one heckuva Layover.

Yes! Bye, Zoolander (thanks for nada).

Anyway and indeed, the Academy Award winner is going to star in the adaptation of the Lisa Zeidner novel, about a successful traveling saleswoman who decides to drop everything and go on the lam from her own life.

The film will see the otherwise stable and funny and clever and passionate woman go off the deep end before she finds her way back to herself.

Sounds kinda Wild-ish, no?

Photo: HarpersBazaar.es.

Thursday, April 28, 2016

To Bat a Thousand (As a Spy)

The Catcher Was a Spy, and he will be portrayed by Paul Rudd on the silver screen.

See, the Ant-Man has signed on to play Moe Berg, the Ivy League grad and super-smart attorney who spent 15 years in Major League Baseball (even though he wasn’t good at playing ball at all), who also served as a top operative for the Office of Strategic Services, a forerunner for the CIA.

Bergs work helped America win the race against Germany to build the atomic bomb?

Doesn’t ring a bell? It will soon.

In the meantime, you can read the book by Nicholas Dawidoff upon which the project will be based.

Up next for Rudd, though, is a little indie by the title Captain America: Civil War that is opening next week. You might have heard of that one....

Photo: Zimbio.com.

The New Lara Croft Has Been Found

Sorry Daisy Ridley (and Amanda Peet – ha!), but it’s gonna be Alicia Vikander.

The Danish Girl Academy Award winner is the one who will take over for Angelina Jolie as the new Lara Croft in the forthcoming reboot, Tomb Raider.

Vikander must be quite som’in’ in the upcoming actioner Jason Bourne that she’s been given this potentially blockbusters-spanning role, which shall first require that, much like the character, she cut her teeth while out on her first adventure Indiana Jonesing around the world.

The Wave’s Roar Uthaug will be directing the project. No word on a release date yet, but you know it’s gonna be a plum spot in the calendar.

Photo: 2LUXURY2.com.

Hairspray for J. Hud!

Hairspray – the musical based on the 1988 John Waters classic –is coming to NBC later this year, and it is coming to us live.

Obviously.

Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson is on board, as Motormouth Maybelle (y know, the part that Queen Latifah played in the 2007 movie musical version), while Harvey Fierstein will reprise his Tony-winning role as Edna Turnblad.

Phew – we dodged a Travolta bullet!

In fact and btw, Fierstein also will be writing the teleplay for Hairspray Live!, which will feature Derek Hough and Martin Short as well, as Corny Collins and Wilbur Turnblad, respectively.

The Peacock’s Hairspray Live! will premiere on Dec. 7.

Photo: NYDailyNews.com.

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Ready to Blow That Whistle

Here we go.

Perennially controversy-courting director Oliver Stone’s Snowden is finally ready to be seen, after it saw its release date delayed last fall and again this spring.

Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the bane of the NSA, whistleblower Edward Snowden, the analyst who three years ago leaked the infamous documents that made it clear America was/is – question mark! – spying on its citizens, the film is due out on Sept. 16, and here is your first trailer.

Please, tell me this isn’t the first you’re hearing about this....

Anyway. Snowden co-stars Shailene Woodley as the whistleblower’s girlfriend, Nicolas Cage, Rhys Ifans, Tom Wilkinson, Melissa Leo (as Laura Poitras, the director of Citizenfour, the Oscar-winning documentary about Snowden), Timothy Olyphant, and Zachary Quinto.

Will this be the movie the government will not want ya seeing?

Probably.

But that wont stop ya, right. Right?

Photo: ScreenRant.com.

Accessing Today

Bush is in at the Today show.

And...that is it for my puns this morning.

Billy Bush is leaving his post on TV’s long-running Access Hollywood to join one of the hours of Today (more than likely the 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. hour), making him the second Bush on the show (his second cousin, Jenna Bush Hager, has been in the NBC family since like, 2009).

Sounds like more change is on deck at the show, which recently launched a Sunday situation. Hope no one gets Curryd!

Photo: AccessHollywood.com.

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Kelly Ripa’s Back and In Charge

Live! With Kelly and Michael returned with both Michael and Kelly this morning, and, boy, was it a good one.

Kelly Ripa – who was on a sort of strike by way of a went-on-it-early and extended previously scheduled time off – came back to her show to a standing ovation, and to do some matter-o-fact damage control by taking the bull by the horns (how apropos that she wore red!). The bull? What bull?

The bull of the drama that, you will remember, stemmed middle of last week from the surprise announcement that her co-host of more than four years, Michael Strahan, would be leaving her side this fall, to decamp for ABC’s Good Morning America – which was a total surprise to her (the powers that be at the network, presumably in their efforts to avoid any news leaks, apparently left her out of any and all conversations on the subject and the move).

So there Ripa was earlier today, back after taking some time to gather her thoughts, as she put it, ready to address the controversy, which she did like a total boss.

“After 26 years with this company, I earned the right,” she said, noting that her issue wasn’t with Strahan but with the lack of “communication and consideration and, most importantly, respect in the workplace.

Can’t argue with any o’ that!

Ever the gracious one, Ripa reassured her audience and her co-host that she is thrilled and proud of him, which is totally believable, yet completely overshadowed by the events leading up to the moment (the show went on, as it should – but we all know things have changed).

It’s a tricky thing to call out your bosses while remaining a team player, and Ripa schooled everyone in the art of standing up for yourself. April 26 should go one as one for the feminist books, IMHO, and now we know who should write that chapter.

Alas, although the woman herself has taken back the reigns of her show and reclaimed a narrative she did let go off her hands, and we should all move right along with her and Strahan, something tells me that won’t be an easy feat. Especially now that ABC – which reportedly has apologized to both stars – has decided to say an early farewell to Strahan, as in next month. May 13 is his last day on that job.

How will it all play out?

Guess we’ll have to watch.

Photo: People.com.

Monday, April 25, 2016

All the LEMONADE Is TIDAL’s

So. Did you get TIDAL yet?

’Cause that’s the only way you gon’ listen to Beyoncé’s new album, LEMONADE, which the superstar premiered like a boss on HBO last Saturday night.

A visual album as a television event. Queen B sure knows how to innovate her delivery system.

Anyway. Holla if you get your hands on the 12-track album, which features guests such as Jack White, The Weeknd, James Blake, and Kendrick Lamar, as well as the surprise first single, Formation (Dirty).

Photo: EW.com.

Update: Fun! The album is also on iTunes.

Saturday, April 23, 2016

Here Comes Jesus

Because you can’t very well tell a Mary Magdalene story without Jesus.

Joaquin Phoenix is probably joining Rooney Mara in Garth Davis’ in-the-works biopic about one of the most enigmatic (and polarizing) lady figures of Christianity.

The actor, of course, would play the son of God.

Photo: Biography.com.

Friday, April 22, 2016

Man of Justice?

Now that Justice has dawned, it is now official time to populate the DC Comicsverse proper.

Willem Dafoe has been tapped to play a reportedly good guy (surprise!) in fall 2017’s Justice League: Part One and – good for him – summer 2019’s Justice League: Part Two.

Whiplash’s J.K. Simmons is already on board the projects (at least, the first movie, right?, as Commissioner Gordon of Gotham. No word on what character exactly Dafoe will portray, but since he’s signed on for both blockbusters, you can bet he’s gonna matter.

The actor joins a cast led by Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, and Gal Gadot that also will feature Jason Momoa, Ezra Miller, Ray Fisher (who will play Cyborg), and Amber Heard, among others.

Photo: EmpireOnline.com.

Free Jumanji!

Ohmyjeez.

Fresh off doing a backboned-by-cheer-charisma nice, serviceable job co-hosting the MTV Movie Awards a couple of weeks ago, Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart are said to be wanting to mess up som’in’ good.

The two are rumored to be mounting a reboot of Robin Williams’s Jumanji. The Rock is, at least, anyway.

Johnson is on-Instragram-on the record about his enthusiasm about the latest script for the project, since he’s gone and said, “[To] have the opportunity to tell this story in dope new ways to a whole new generation is truly and honor.

Harrumph.

You know what’s a good way of introducing younger folk to classic tales? Show ’em to ’em. Dust off your DVDs, and let the kids see Williams in action. Show them what simpler times looked like.

For real, Hollywood. Stop ruining most of everything (for some of us).

Photo: E! Online.

Flatlining Nina

Looks like that movie thing is totally working out for Nina Dobrev, although TV might come a-callin’ again soon...).

The xXx: The Return of Xander Cage star is circling a part in the Ellen Page-led remake of Flatliners. She would play an overachiever at the top of her class in the retelling of the story of a group of med students that experiments with near-death experiences in order to learn about the afterlife.

Diego Luna is also on board the project, which will be helmed by Niels Arden Oplev, the director of the Swedish Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Photo: TVAfterDark.com.

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Iron Man Hearts Spider-Man

Looks like Iron Man and Spider-Man are tight, yo.

Spidey – as you should know by now – will be picking a side in the upcoming threequel Captain America: Civil War, and it looks like the kid’s gonna be #TeamStark all the way (Tom Holland will be taking over the role, which that you knew, right?).

Why? Because Robert Downey Jr. has signed on to appear as Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man, in the forthcoming solo-Spider-Man offering that Marvel is working on with Sony (GTS), Spider-Man: Homecoming, which will co-star Zendaya, Marisa Tomei, and Tony Revolori (The Grand Budapest Hotel), and open next year.

The multiverse is strong with these heroes.

Photo: EW.com.

Fully Empty

Another sad day for music, to be sure.

But sound is forever, as are all of the brilliant originals we lose.

Have you heard the latest GarbageEmpty”? It’s the lead single off of the band’s upcoming new album, Strange Little Birds.

Check it, for def. It’s an easy listen. Very old them, yet new.

Photo: ConsequenceOfSound.net.

R.I.P. Prince

Wow.

Prince – the celebrated multi-hyphenate Prince – is dead.

Wow.

The iconic Purple One reportedly was found dead at his recording studio in Minnesota earlier today. He was 57.

Wow. Just...what else can you say.

Photo: NYDailyNews.com.

Update: The Grammy- and Oscar-winning original reportedly had been in ill in recent days, with a severe case of the flu.

Woman Got Some Gunslingers

Coming up later this year, it’s The Magnificent Seven!

Indeed, as expected, Southpaw director Antoine Fuqua is delivering his Nic Pizzolatto-written remake reimagining of the 1960 film about a group of gunmen who defend a Mexican town from a bunch o’ outlaws (and the woman who puts them on the task).

The Sept. 23 release will pit cowboys (led by Denzel Washington) against cowboys (hey there, Peter Sarsgaard) in a sandy battle of bullets and whathaveya.

The Magnificent Seven co-stars Chris Pratt, Haley Bennett, Ethan Hawke, Matt Bomer, among others. Behold the movie’s first trailer now.

Photo: ComingSoon.net.