Someone to Finally Pay Attention to the Millennials
At long last young twentysomethings are getting a work of art all about them. Naturally MTV is the network to bravely take up the mantle. Also today: some truly scary movie casting, some somewhat less scary TV casting, and a discussion of the work of Chris Columbus.
- MTV has picked up a pilot about a bunch of disaffected recent college graduates who thought they were going to be big deals right after school but are now working in shitty jobs and feeling listless. So don't worry guys, MTV has it covered. They will explain all of your sad business to you. You know, you whining "millennials" who demand blogging jobs and "cute" apartments and, if you live in a place where such things are needed, small but expensive eco cars. It's a nice racket you've got going. [Deadline]
- Director Chris Columbus has announced that he will be remaking the Korean movie Hello Ghost, saying "After watching Hello Ghost I was immediately struck by the film's ability to mix comedy, drama and complex emotional themes. Something I myself have proven completely incapable of doing in any movie, ever." Well... OK, so he didn't say that last part. But he should have! Has he made a single good, non-cloying, non-saccharine, non-something great-ruining (Harry Potter, Rent) movie since... what? Home Alone? I suppose someone could debate me on Mrs. Doubtfire, or the first two Potter movies for that matter, but I really think you have to go all the way back to 1990 and Home Alone to find a good Chris Columbus movie, and even that totally loses it during the slapstick climax. (Completely unrelated note: Never refer to sexual climax as "slapstick." Or only do. Either way.) But, yeah, I'm just saying. This Hello Ghost movie is apparently about a guy who is visited by four spirits and he has to do them favors. It's too bad a movie called Heart & Souls that is great and fun and about the same exact thing doesn't already exist. Too bad indeed. [Deadline]
- In other remake news, Paramount is gonna go ahead and remake Soapdish, the early-'90s gay curio about the behind-the-scenes world of daytime soap operas. That movie had everyone in it — Sally Field, Robert Downey Jr., Whoopi Goldberg, Kevin Kline, Teri Hatcher, Elizabeth Shue, Kathy Najimy, dear long-lost Cathy Moriarty — so I'm guessing it'll be a big ensemble all over again. Ohhh, I hope that Garry Marshall (who was in the original, actually!) directs it and casts it with a bunch of his Valentine's Day/New Year's Eve geniuses. Topher Grace in the Downey Jr. role. Maybe Jamie Foxx in the Kline role (if Jamie Foxx is willing to make fun of himself). Jessica Biel as the scheming Montana Moorehead. And, of course, Taylor Swift in the gosh-shucks Shue part. THIS SOUNDS GREAT. [THR]
- Speaking of Jessica Biel (and when, really, are we not speaking of Jessica Biel), she's just been cast in a new comedy alongside Gerard Butler. WHAT. Jessica Biel and Gerard Butler are going to be in a comedy together and— wait. Pinch me. Am I dreaming, in heaven? Because there is nothing better-sounding to me in the whole wide round blue silly old marble world than Gerard Butler and Jessica Bile (sp?) starring in a hilarious new comedy together. Oop, and I just had a joy-attack and died, so my ghost will tell you this: the movie is about Gerard Butler being "a former pro soccer player who finds himself dodging romantic advances from soccer moms after he agrees to coach his son's youth team in an attempt to bond with the boy." Hahahaha. It's called Playing The Field (get it?) Oh man. What a time to be alive. (Or dead, in my case.) Uma Thurman has also been cast, perhaps finally scrubbing away that last little bit of the goodwill she earned for Kill Bill. A rainbow burns kaleidoscope-bright over Hollywood today. [Variety]
- This isn't about casting or Hollywood business or anything, but it's interesting. It's a list of all the Oscar-related parties that are going down this week in Tintz-towne. Ever feel depressed about not being a Hollywood elitist who rubs elbows with your favorite matinee idols? Well, just think about your last big office Christmas party and how cramped and miserable it was and how you didn't like being surrounded by people you worked with and hated everyone sucking up to the boss. Now imagine that a million times more fabulous. Does it still suck? Or have the gold-flecked hors d'oeuvres and drunken starlets carried it into awesome territory? Having gone to exactly one celebrity-stuffed (TV) awards party in my life, I can tell you that it's fun for about five minutes — OMG Alec Baldwin! — but then it's just another awkward party full of chitchat and then everyone goes home. No big whoop, as the kids used to say when I was one of them. [THR]
- Jenna Elfman is said to be considering taking the lead in the ABC pilot Bad Mom, about a single mother who foisted her kids on their grandmother, but now wants them back after some life decisions. It's a comedy! It's not some Life UneXpected (I refuse to not capitalize the X, it was the creator's original intent, and I will honor that) schmaltz about how kids are people too and people change our lives. It's about jokes. Jenna Elfman jokes, specifically. Which are... Let's just say there's a reason Thomas Gibson never did comedy again after Dharma & Greg. Terrible murders are a happier place for him to be. Happier than that. [TV Line]
- World's only living triceratops Larry King has decided to launch a seven-stop tour, doing a live one-man show all about his life and career. It will be called If You're My Slacks, Please Meet Me in the Lobby of This Hotel, As I Am Cold and Cannot Find You. Then the next night it will be called If You Were Out of Applesauce You Should Have Told Me When I Ordered. And the next, Who Are You People and What Am I Doing Here. Etc. He's old guys. Is the joke. Old. [The Wrap]