Larry Ratliff

What say you, Jones, Smith; back in 'Black'?

Tommy Lee Jones gunning for space aliens in "Men in Black II."  (Columbia Pictures)

According to reports bouncing around the World Wide Web, Columbia Pictures is forging ahead with plans for a third installment of "Men in Black."

 

Will Smith back for more?  (Columbia Pictures)

An article posted on Variety on-line says Columbia has chosen screenwriter Etan Cohen ("Tropic Thunder") to write the follow-up to the goofy, alien-busting fan favorite sci-fi comic adventures of 1997 and 2002.

"There are no deals in place for the franchise's stars Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, though it's unlikely that Col would greenlight the project without the duo's involvement," the Variety article says.

Also, The Hollywood Reporter's Risky Biz Blog says that Barry Sonnenfeld, who directed the first two adventures, is in for No. III.

So far, at least, no one at Columbia wants to speak publically about the fate of the "Men in Black" franchise, according to several published sources.  When something like this begins to bubble in media reports, it's likely that something's going on.

There's no denying that Jones, San Antonio's resident Best Actor Oscar winner, and Smith, who always excels in over-the-top comic adventures, had some electric chemistry shooting between them in the first two installments.

So what say you, guys?  There's bound to be a new batch of odd-shaped space aliens that need to be, you know, blown away real good. 

Former 'Letterman' lady writer cries late foul

 

David Letterman on the set.  (Courtesy:  CBS.com)

Uh, oh.  More trouble for Dave.

Nell Scovell, a former writer for "The Late Show with David Letterman" is speaking out about "a hostile, sexually charged atmosphere."

It took her a while, though.  Scovell, writing in an article posted on the Vanity Fair Web site, last worked for the troubled (Is that fair enough?) late-night TV talk-show host in 1988.

Scovell, who says she was the second female writer ever hired at "Late Night," walked away from what she describes as her "dream job." 

"Without naming names or digging up decades-old dirt, let’s address the pertinent questions. Did Dave hit on me? No. Did he pay me enough extra attention that it was noted by another writer? Yes. Was I aware of rumors that Dave was having sexual relationships with female staffers? Yes. Was I aware that other high-level male employees were having sexual relationships with female staffers? Yes. Did these female staffers have access to information and wield power disproportionate to their job titles? Yes. Did that create a hostile work environment? Yes. Did I believe these female staffers were benefiting professionally from their personal relationships? Yes. Did that make me feel demeaned? Completely. Did I say anything at the time? Sadly, no," Scovell says in the article.

Is there a good old boys late-night talk-show club?  Scovell calls out "The Jay Leno Show" and "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" as well.

"At this moment, there are more females serving on the United States Supreme Court than there are writing for 'Late Show with David Letterman,' 'The Jay Leno Show' and 'The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien,'" Scovell says.

Click here to read the entire Vanity Fair article.

This is almost 'It'

The long-awaited "Michael Jackson's This Is It" hits movie houses tonight.  (Columbia Pictures)

Tonight and especially tomorrow are likely to be very big days and nights for fans of the late Michael Jackson.

"Michael Jackson's This Is It," a behind-the-scenes celebration of the King of Pop's rehearsals for last summer's planned series of London concerts, officially hits screens Wednesday.

Those who can't wait, however, probably already know about 11 p.m. show times at a perhaps soon-to-be-frenzied theater near you.  (Check local listings.)

Choreographer/director Kenny Ortega ("High School Musical 3: Senior Year"), described in press notes as "Jackson's creative partner and the director of the stage show" (that never happened), is in the director's chair. 

Jackson was 50 when he was rushed from his rented Bel-Air mansion and later pronounced dead on June 25. 

Wait almost over for 2 of Oscar's leading ladies

 
Gabourney Sidibe, a newcomer, might just land an Oscar nomination as Claireece "Precious" Jones.  (Lionsgate)

Remember this name -- Gabourey Sidibe -- and a date; Nov. 13.

The excruciatingly real survival drama "Precious:  Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" opens on the 13th.

Once you see newcomer Sidibe as a severely abused (physically, emotionally) Harlem 16-year-old who refuses to let the worst circumstances imaginable define her, you won't need any convincing that this year's Academy Award race is out of the gates.

 

Hilary Swank as Amelia Earhart

(Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Also, look for amazing actress Hilary Swank to be back in the running for Oscar's golden statuette as legendary aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart in "Amelia."  Swank's an Academy Award perennial, having won Best Actress honors twice before.

Her first win came as cross-dresser Brandon Teena in the 1999 drama "Boys Don't Cry."  Swank took home her second Best Actress Oscar as determined boxer Maggie Fitzgerald in "Million Dollar Baby," director/actor Clint Eastwood's Best Picture winner of 2005.

"Amelia," directed by Mira Nair ("Vanity Fair") opens Friday (Oct. 23).  Swank teams with Richard Gere (as publishing magnate George P. Putnam) and Ewan McGregor, who portrays Earhart's longtime friend and lover Gene Vidal.

In "Precious," Sidibe commands the screen as Claireece "Precious" Jones, a Harlem teen who fantasizes about a better life as real-life horrors challenge her very existence.  Directed by Lee Daniels ("Shadowboxer"), "Precious" is the only film ever to win the Audience Award at both the Sundance and Toronto film festivals.

Oscar season is just heating up, of course.  There's no guarantee that either of these actresses will draw a Best Actress nod.

If you love movies, though, and appreciate the fine art of fine acting, let this serve as a head's up to check out two very strong -- and very different -- excellent performances.

Weitz up: Taking a 'Twilight New Moon' walk

 

(Left to right) Kristen Stewart, Chris Weitz, 1st  AD Mike Topoozian and make-up artist Robin Matthews on the "New Moon" set.  (Summit Entertainment)

Tween screams won't be limited to Halloween this year.

The Nov. 20 release date of "The Twilight Saga:  New Moon" looms ever closer.  There's some good news for frenzied fans waiting with baited breath for the second installment of Stephenie Meyer's young vampire romancer.

Director Chris Weitz, who took over the "Twilight" sequel when Texan Catherine Hardwicke was removed from the project, is finally speaking out about taking over the popular novel-to-big screen franchise.

As Borys Kit points out in the Q&A interview posted on the Hollywood Reporter Web site, "The man behind 'American Pie' and 'About a Boy' wasn't the obvious choice to take on 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon.'"

Weitz likes to genre hop, however.  That probably had more than a little to do with the writer-director of "The Golden Compass," a lackluster fantasy at best, hopping in the director's chair for the "Twilight" sequel.

Click here to read Kit's Chris Weitz interview. 

NBC 'cracks' balloon boy hoax case

 
An unidentified photographer gets the lowdown, so to speak, on the balloon hoax case. 

(Courtesy:  NBC-TV)

It may not quite be a wardrobe malfunction that ranks up there with Janet Jackson's exposed breast during the Super Bowl halftime show in Houston in 2004.

But NBC's coverage of the balloon boy hoax exposed a boob photographer caught, uh, with his pants down during the network's NBC Nightly News Weekend anchored by Lester Holt Sunday evening.

"We were duped," Holt quotes the Colorado sheriff in regards to the story that captured media attention and temporarily shut down Denver International Airport Thursday afternoon.

In case you've been off the planet and didn't hear, 6-year-old Falcon Heene was not in that balloon shaped like a flying saucer after all.  In fact, with the exception of throwing up twice during a live interview on NBC's Today Show on Friday, Falcon's fine.

Parents Richard and Mayumi Heene, on the other hand, could face felony charges for an alleged hoax conceived, as far as officials can tell at this point, to launch a "reality TV" series.

The parents could get more reality TV than they bargained for when and if charges are filed.

NBC might want to clean up its own house a little back in one of the editing bays.  As reporter Lee Cowan waxed on about how the sheriff lured the Heenes back into his office for more questioning, something flashed across the TV screen that looked ... well, wrong.

Thanks to our digital video recorder and a little freeze framing, there it was:

As photographers raced toward the Heene house to catch up with Richard just before he escaped behind the front door, one photographer's pants were slung low enough to reveal what will undoubtedly turn out to be another crack in the Heene -- or should we say hiney -- case.

Does Joe the Plumber work for NBC News these days?   

Keeping up with The Jones

 

Tommy Lee Jones (Courtesy:  dailystab.com)

It looks like San Antonio's Tommy Lee Jones, who made his feature-film directing debut with the modern border Western "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" in 2005, is about to hop behind the camera again.

And it's not likely to be for a reboot of Ernest Hemingway's "Islands in the Stream," Jones' long-nurtured pet project that he shopped around the Cannes Film Festival last year.

According to a post on the Hollywood Reporter Web site, the Alamo City's resident Oscar-winning actor is in negotiations to direct and co-star in "The Lincoln Lawyer" opposite fellow Texan Matthew McConaughey.

"The Lincoln Lawyer" appears to be a starring vehicle for McConaughey.  Set up at Lakeshore Entertainment, the story revolves around Mickey Haller, "a wheeler-dealer Los Angeles lawyer who operates out of the back of his Lincoln," according to the Hollywood Reporter story.

"Haller is content with a career defending garden-variety criminals until he lands the case of a lifetime: defending a Beverly Hills playboy accused of murder.

"McConaughey is on board to play Haller. It's unclear what role Jones would play; the playboy character, which could be the second male lead, is described in the book as somewhat younger than Jones, though the part could be adjusted to accommodate an older interpretation," the article states.

It'll be interesting to see how all this plays out in Hollywood.

Jones, who appears next in the timely unemployment drama "The Company Men" alongside Ben Affleck, Kevin Costner and Maria Bello, sued Paramount Pictures for $10 million in Sept., 2008 over compensation and other issues related to the Coen Bros. drama "No Country for Old Men."

 

  

Boys will be boys, but cover girl Marge Simpson?

 

(Courtesy:  Matt Groening/Playboy.com)

Bear (and bare) with me for a minute.

Let's just say you're an 83-year-old guy who likes to hang out with young girls, and perhaps your name is Hugh Hefner.

And let's just say further that in the name of, oh, lusty free commerce, you're willing to share explicit photos of some of your young "friends" with eager males willing to pay for something called a Playboy magazine.

Soft porn in the name of art -- and, of course, those insightful interviews -- worked (and worked up boys) for decades in magazine form.

At least it did until the Internet came along.  Who needs the creepy old guy's "friends" in magazine form once young voyeurs discovered the world, so to speak, at their keypad fingertips?

That could all change soon when the new issue of Playboy hits newsstands.  The new issue, you see, will feature a certain Marge Simpson on its cover. 

Yep, that Marge Simpson; blue hair reaching to the heavens and more golden skin than you're likely to see on a Sunday night "Simpsons" episode.

Why?  The lousy economy, bub.  The CNN Web site runs it all down in a recent post:

"Like nearly everything printed on paper these days, Playboy magazine has been facing tough times. Advertising pages have dropped 31 percent over the last year, newsstand sales have dried up by 25 percent, and its circulation has dipped to 2.4 million, according to publishing insider Media Industry Newsletter."

The CNN article continues to ask:  "Can a blue-haired mother of three deliver the iconic gentleman's book to a new generation?"

So get ready, all you 7-Eleven and other corner grocery employees.  It's bound to go down something like this:

Guy or Woman behind the counter:  "Let's see.  A large Slurpee, two Slim Jims and a package of Twinkies.  Will that be all, young man?"

Nervous Kid in blurt-out mode:  "Wait ... Mom wanted something else.  Oh yeah, the November Playboy with Marge Simpson on the cover!  Mom told me to grab that for her.  Really, she did!"

Yeah, right, kid.  But where are you going to stash it, under your bed or under the TV? 

EW's wild Friday night in 'Zombieland'

 
Woody Harrelson gunning down the undead in "Zombieland."  (Columbia Pictures)

What a great idea.

Entertainment Weekly's Nicole Sperling spent last Friday night (Oct. 2) hanging out with the stars, director and screenwriters of the monster action-comedy "Zombieland" as they cruised Los Angeles movie houses checking out the flick's attendance on opening night.

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't expect "zombie slayer" Harrelson, who dispatches the walking dead with a banjo at least once, to go along for the ride.

Harrelson did, though, at least until they encountered an almost empty auditorium with "Zombieland" lighting up the screen.  Co-star Jesse Eisenberg stuck it out the entire evening, though.

Nicole Sperling's innovative and insightful tag-along story begins at one of Hollywood's largest movie houses:

"8:30 pm Mann Grauman’s Chinese Theater

"The cavernous 1,400 seat theater is about halfway full. Eisenberg leans up against the back wall of theater watching his character Columbus explain that one of their crazy plans wasn’t his but belonged to his traveling companion Tallahassee (Harrelson). 'I’m just kind of a Sancho Panza character,' says Columbus. The line gets a couple of chuckles. Eisenberg shrugs his shoulders in (director Ruben) Fleischer’s direction."

Click here to check out the entire EW article. 

'Pianist' Brody takes on Rodriguez's 'Predators'

 
 Adrien Brody stalks or is stalked by the big monkey in "King Kong."  (Universal Pictures)

In what an article on the Variety Web site is calling "a surprise" move, droopy-eyed Adrien Brody, Variety says, has been set by 20th Century Fox to play the hero in Robert Rodriguez's reinvention of the "Predator" franchise.

Although the project is being creatively spearheaded by Rodriguez, Nimrod Antal ("Vacancy," "Kontroll") will actually hop into the director's chair. 

"Predators," slated for release on July 9 next summer, is about to get under production in Hawaii and at Rodriguez's Troublemaker Studios in Austin, according to the Variety article.

"Though best known for his Oscar-winning turn in the Roman Polanski-directed 'The Pianist,' Brody is playing a character close to the one that Arnold Schwarzenegger did in the 1987 original. He's a mercenary who tries to keep his team alive when its members are hunted by the aliens," the article states.

'Scuse me for bringing this up, Variety folks, but Brody spent some pretty intense action time in the bush as screenwriter Jack Driscoll in Peter Jackson's remake of "King Kong." 

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