Taylor Swift's World Domination Is Nearly Complete
Pretty soon we'll all be living under her cruel, pop-Western rule. Also today: Steve Carell lines up another TV series, Noam Baumbach and Paul Thomas Anderson plan for the future, and some important young man news.
Blood your doors everyone, Taylor Swift is a'comin' for ya. Our jocky younger brother's bête noir has landed on the cover of Entertainment Weekly's annual year-end issue, as she is their Entertainer of the Year, 2010. Yes! She entertained people more than anyone else — more than Jellies Bieber, more than Kanyon Ranch West, more than the cast of Mike & Molly even! Basically Taylor Swift is an unstoppable force at this point, and there is nothing you can do but get out her way before she crushes you under her hot pink flip-flop. (Or you can climb into a pickup with her and give her eyelids butterfly kisses and drape your letterman jacket over her shoulders and stare off into the distance at a purple Tennessee sunset together. She seems to like things like that.) [EW]
Steve Carell may soon be done with The Office, but he's not done with NBC! He's working with them to write a new show about a post-grad twentysomething who goes to work at a small town post office with other post-grad twentysomethings, just as Carell did in his own salad days. So it'll be a little bittersweet and quirky and whatnot, sorta like the show he's currently on. Sounds nice! That's all I have to say about it. [Deadline]
Quite the cute, smart little cast this cute, smart little director is amassing for a cute, smart-sounding little movie. Noah Baumbach is rumored to be courting James Franco, Ben Stiller, and Cate Blanchett for his next film, While We're Young, about "a free-spirited couple who have an impact on a documentarian and his wife, getting the latter duo to loosen up." Ohh, doesn't that sound perfectly Baumbachian? I'm sure there will be some weird awkward sex tension, maybe between Cate and James, and Ben Stiller will get all confusticated and maybe try to get some from Franco's willow-limbed young lady, whoever ends up playing her. Cue morally ambiguous ending and... we're out. [THR]
Speaking of indie auteurs and their casting adventures, Paul Thomas Anderson is hoping to adapt the Thomas Pynchon novel Inherent Vice, about a stoner private eye making his way through the hippie scene of late-'60s Los Angeles. (Vulture says it's 1969, but they also call it the Summer of Love, which was 1967, so I just don't know.) Robert Downey Jr. is the desired actor for the lead role, which makes sense. So, yeah yeah, all well and good, I guess, but really it's just another bitter reminder that Anderson's planned Scientology opus, The Master, is probably not gonna happen. Sigh. [Vulture]
OK, enough of this serious, older people bullshit. Let's get back to what we all truly care about: sexy young people. First up we have Catherine Hardwicke, who's always made movies about young people except they used to be small and good and smart but since Twilight she's gotten a taste for pandering lustiness and big paychecks, so instead of a Thirteen kind of picture, she's going to make another YA silliness picture. This one is based on the book (part of a planned trilogy) The Maze Runner, about a teen boy who suddenly wakes up in an alternate reality where there is nothing but young men (um, excuse me for a moment) but then suddenly one day a girl arrives and, well, you've seen Catholic high school dances when the boys school hosts. You know what happens next. So that'll be... Well. Anyway. (In fairness to Ms. Hardwicke, she is working on a movie called Freeheld, which is about interesting, important things, and who knows, her modern-day Emilie Hirsch Hamlet could be interesting. I mean, Emile Hirsch, riiight ladies? Put him on teen boy planet.) [Variety]
Second bit of young people news! Australian rubber frat paddle come to life Liam Hemsworth, who used to date Millie Styrus, has signed with a big agency and nabbed the lead role in a thriller to be directed by John Singleton. Hopefully a thriller directed by Catherine Hardwicke awaits:
Ext. A city street. Day.
LIAM HEMSWORTH stands, looking around, confused. Suddenly he is tapped on the shoulder by EMILE HIRSCH. LIAM spins around, stares hard at EMILE.
EMILE: Hey.
LIAM: Where am I, mate?
EMILE: You're in an alternate universe.
LIAM: Where is everyone else?
EMILE: Oh, I'm afraid it's just us. Well just us, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, your brother Chris Hemsworth, and this strange blogger guy who keeps staring at us.
Cut to: BLOGGER standing in a corner, laughing maniacally.