Gen X's favorite son needs to eat, after all, so he's headed (back) to television. Also today: Valerie Plame switches agencies, Up All Night had quite a, um, night, and some exciting Hunger Games newz.

  • Occasional action movie actor, celebrated theater person, musician, and somewhat dismaying novelist Ethan Hawke does a good job of mixing smaller creative projects (the aforementioned theater stuff, Hamlet, those novels) with bigger budget, bill-paying stuff (Daybreakers, Assault on Precinct 13, the upcoming Total Recall). And today we learn of one of those bill-paying things. The renaissance man has teamed up with writer Chris Brancato and actor Vincent D'Onofrio to make a television police drama called Blue Tilt, about two homicide detectives who solve murders and also try to deal with their personal lives and stuff. So, pretty standard territory! But, what the hell, Ethan Hawke remains a mysteriously appealing actor who, yeah, needs to make a living, so why not. He already tried his hand at a TV action drama last year that didn't get picked up, so hopefully this one will do better. After all... [THR]
  • Last night's premiere of Up All Night, starring Christina Applegate and Will Arnett as frazzled new parents, earned fabulous ratings. Its total number of 10.9 million viewers was certainly helped by its America's Got Talent lead-in, but it also managed to get the highest Nielsen rating of the night all on its own. So it's a hit? Well, we'll see. It jumps down to 8pm next week, where it will square off directly against ABC's successful family comedy bloc, which could prove challenging. I for one am rooting for it! If only so there can be more of Maya Rudolph singing Stevie Nicks songs. [EW]
  • This is a strange bit of news. Valerie Plame Wilson, the sexxxy CIA ladyspy who got outed by Dick Cheney and his cronies because her husband wouldn't play war-ball with them, is switching agencies (not spy agencies, talent agencies) from CAA to UTA. Plame Wilson uses an agent to book speaking and commentating gigs and the like. A strange thing about this? She'll keep her publishing agent, whose name is Elyse Cheney. Spooky. Also, did anyone see Fair Game? Actually a pretty good movie, I thought. Prettyyyy, prettyyy, prettyyyy good. [Deadline]
  • Hungah! Gimz! Hungah + Gimz = Hunger Games!! It seems that the Lionsgate adaptation of the popular YA book trilogy has wrapped principal photography in North Carolina. Progress! Now all that needs to be filmed is the 45-minute-long Peeta/Gale/Finnick love scene that I wrote into the script when they asked me to do some punch-up work on it. I know Finnick isn't in the first book, but trust me, when you see it, you'll see that it plays just fine. Reeeal fine. [THR]
  • ABC already has the terribly titled new show Suburgatory coming up, so why stop there with badly named shows? In that spirit they've gone and ordered a pilot for a soap set at a circus (great!) called Bazirkus (not great). I mean this is an intriguing, albeit kind of ridiculous, description: "This is a drama that brings the circus into the 21st century." Ha/yay. But Bazirkus? The only show I want to watch called Bazirkus is one in which Nate Berkus cracks under the pressure and goes on a banshee-screaming murder spree, soft velveteen blazer soaked with blood, Sperry Top-Siders caked in viscera, the audience shrieking and shrieking as they're brutally slaughtered. "He's gone... Bazirkus!" a terrified producer will yell. "Just as the prophecy foretold!" Then Oprah will kick down the door wielding an enormous elephant gun, yelling "Everybody gets a bullet!" and all hell will break loose. Please, PBS, make that show. [Deadline]

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