Trade Round-Up: Will Smith To Make Suicidal Ideation Seem Totally Charming
· Da Vinci Code continues to kick ass and take the names of blasphemy fans overseas (we know we harp on this, but what else are we gonna talk about, the two and a half hours of deadly, expository dialogue explaining how they wound up in the wrong church again?), takes in $52 million in its third week. [Variety]
· Touchstone TV throws bags of money to keep Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes around through the 2008-9 season, ensuring that the studio will corner the market on platitude-filled, bookending voiceovers for years to come. [THR]
· Will Smith finds some time in his busy schedule to sign up to produce and star in Seven Pounds, about "a man intent on killing himself who falls in love before he can do the deed." Unfortunately, that's not the set-up for a romantic comedy about a guy with an adorably quirky death wish. [Variety]
· Horror superfan Rob Zombie will reimagine the Halloween franchise, with an eye on de-pussifying once-scary masked maniac Michael Myers. [THR]
· HBO and producer David Milch make a deal to end Deadwood with two two-hour specials, a four-hour series-closing event that will contractually feature no less than six hundred utterances of the word "cocksucker." [Variety]