Here’s an unremarkable first look of Justin Timberlake on the set of David Fincher’s “The Social Network” as Napster founding president Sean Parker. Since Parker always had curls, it looks like Timberlake is going back to his N’Sync faux-jheri curls look. Congratulations, Justin.
-As was pretty much figured from day one, considering their successful work on “The Wrestler” and the fact it was mentioned in the trades from the beginning Fox Searchlight is in talks to distribute Darren Aronofsky’s supernatural ballet film, “Black Swan.” It’s surely all but a done deal by now.
– As previously reported about two weeks ago, lovely French actress Cécile de France (from the underrated 2007 film, “A Secret”) has joined Clint Eastwood’s “Hereafter.” The news is belatedly in the trades today and some are making a fuss that the “secret” of the film has been uncovered, but Movieline revealed that weeks ago as well. Scripted by Peter Morgan (“The Queen,”) it’s essentially about three separate stories connected by death. Matt Damon plays a reluctant psychic, who wants to do nothing with his powers (we read the script), DeFrance plays a French TV journalist/talk show host who has a near death experience in the 2004 Tsunami and the third character is a young boy whose twin brother dies in an accident. Slowly as the script evolves, their lives interconnect. As Movieline originally reported, THR initially called the film a thriller, but it is anything but that.
-There’s nothing that will put asses in the seats like shit blowing up real good, and Fox is ready to light the fuse. The studio has bought an untitled pitch from director Len Wiseman, “about a group of people who survive the end of the world and the mystery surrounding how they got to that position.” We guess his pitch went like this: “Imagine ‘2012’ crossed with ‘Lost’!” and then they gave him a briefcase full of money. Wiseman is also attached to two other films, an underwater military action picture, “Atlantis Rising” and a futuristic war movie called “Shrapnel.” Fox is currently seeking writers for the project, but our guess if they aren’t going to greenlight anything remotely expensive that isn’t attached to a toy brand or comic book, until they seem the numbers that come in on “Avatar,” which, depending on who you ask, is going to cost upwards of $500 million. That’s enough money to blow up the world few times over.
– British actress Romola Garai says she tried out for a part in “Spider-Man 4.” Some are speculating on who she could play, but put it this way, if you’re writing a diary-like entry about auditioning for a role in a major American movie, you either don’t have a part at all or you have a role so insignificant, no one really cares…
-“Kick-Ass” has been generating buzz (and derision from our editor-in-chief) for its combination of a “Newsies”-age cast and “Sin City”-level, hard R violence. Well, the website has now gone live and you can expect the first trailer to arrive on MySpace this Friday. Based on the comic series by Mark Millar, the film stars Aaron Johnson as a high school kid who decides to become a superhero. He then teams up with a vigilante named Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) who along with his daughter Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz) work to bring down a drug lord. Thespian Christopher Mintz-Plasse also stars as Red Mist. The film, directed by Matthew Vaughn, hits theaters on April 16th.
– And here’s a very unremarkable first look of Anna Paquin and Katie Holmes filming “The Romantics” on Long Island. Looks like Holmes has grown out her hair and dropped the short mom haircut which is a good idea. Can’t remember when such a cute actress went from adorable to near-hideous in such a short time. Tom Cruise will do that to you, ladies.
– NASA is apparently on a “crusade “to debunk “2012” apocalypse myths, some of our guys saw this thing last night. Apparently there was plenty of unintentional laughter, it’s two hours and 45 minutes long and the carnage doesn’t start until around the 55 minute mark. Review soon.
