Casting Couch: Osbournes Return; Spike Tunes Up; 90210 Expands
Maybe it’s time for Black Sabbath devotees to renounce their fanhood: Ozzy Osbourne is moving into Osmond territory.
According to Variety, Fox has given a six-episode pickup to an hour-long variety show hosted by the 59-year-old erstwhile Prince of F–king Darkness, 55-year-old wife Sharon, 23-year-old son Jack and 22-year-old daughter Kelly, that’s said to be a throwback to such programs of yore asgulpABC’s Donny and Marie and CBS’ The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.
The untitled Osbourne project is being overseen by James Sunderland, the executive producer of NBC’s America’s Got Talent, on which the family matriarch serves as a judge.
Unlike their heady days on The Osbournes, the reality show that ran from 2002 to 2005 on MTV and earned the family Emmys, the new format will attempt to mix musical guests, comedy skits and game-show segments with in-studio audience participation and man-on-the-street-style bits.
One idea being bandied about, per the trade, is a segment titled “The Osbournes Meet the Osbournes,” in which the heavy metal clan hang out with another Osbourne family.
The show will be shot in Los Angeles and Fox aims to kick things off with a Christmas special.
Speaking of variety, Spike Leewho’s tackled all sorts of genres on the screenis reportedly headed for the Great White Way.
The Oscar-nominated helmer plans to film three performances of the Broadway musical Passing Strange for a future broadcast on a cable network.
Lee will record two of the black-themed production’s shows in front of audiences and a third without. No word when shooting will get under way, but Passing Strange, about a young black musician on a spiritual journey to Amsterdam and Berlin, could use the added television exposure.
Even though it won a Tony for Best Book last month, the musical has played to half-empty houses and seen its ticket sales slip from $300,000 a week to $245,000 for the week ended June 29.
Meanwhile, in other casting news:
- Per the Hollywood Reporter, Robert Duvall will direct and star in The Line, a four-hour Showtime miniseries about life on the American-Mexican border. The Oscar winner will play a Department of Agriculture “tick rider” who patrols the border for pests and accidentally becomes a target for Mexican drug lords, Mexican police, the FBI and Texas Rangers.
- Meghan Markle and Kellan Lutz have been added to the cast of the CW’s upcoming Beverly Hills, 90210 spinoff, simply titled 90210. The former will play Wendy, a sexy student who uses her looks to get what she wants, while the latter will fill the role of George Evans, a star lacrosse player who hails from a wealthy family.
- The Shield’s Jay Karnes has been tapped for a recurring role on FX’s new dramatic series Sons of Anarchy, about a vigilante outlaw motorcycle gang’s attempts to protect a small California town from predatory corporate developers and drug pushers. Karnes will essay the part of an ATF agent.
Emily the Strange - The First Movie Adapted From a Sticker?
Emily the Strange was created by Santa Cruz skateboarder Rob Reger in the early 1990’s to help promote his company Cosmic Debris Etc. Inc. Before becoming a cult counterculture icon, Emily began on a sticker that was passed out for free at concerts, record stores and skate shops to help promote Cosmic Debris. I give you this back story because I think it’s very important to establish that Emily The Strange will be the first movie ever to be adapted from a sticker. And I remember a few years back when people thought it was strange that DreamWorks was making a movie out of a line of action figures.
The character is a goth looking 13-year old girl who is usually accompanied by her four black cats: Sabbath - the troublemaker, Nee-Chee - the schemer, Miles - the creative, and Mystery, the leader of the group. The franchise has a considerable merchandising catalog, including clothing, stationery, stickers, and accessories, very popular with the Hot Topic crowd.
Dark Horse Entertainment president Mike Richardson will produce the film, which is currently on the hunt for a director. Richardson says that the filmmaker choice may in turn dictate what format will serve the story best: live-action, animation, or a combination of both. I can’t really imagine Emily the Strange as a live-action movie. May-be they could do a mixture using the Sin City approach. The story is said to be based on one of the four Emily the Strange young adult novels, which will be published next year by HarperCollins. Not much is known other than it will offer up some backstory on the character, and will feature her four cats.
The project is also not yet set-up at a studio. Universal, who is producing the comic book company’s Hellboy series, has a first-look deal.
source: The Hollywood Reporter
Amy Ryan and Greg Kinnear Join Paul Greengrass’ Green Zone
“For the last time, I’m not Traci Lords”
War films were notorious for not connecting with audiences (and critics) last year, but the studios seem determined in 2008 to push one or two through to leave an indelible mark for generations. For one, I am glad to see such resilience on the part of Hollywood. The best of these films will be the primary way kids in the future come to gage how much impact events like 9/11, the Iraq War, and the War on Terror had on our current culture. Sadly, it’s not the same with music. Back when I discovered Vietnam films like Full Metal Jacket, Platoon, The Deer Hunter, and especially, Apocalypse Now they informed my nascent political views, creative sense, musical tastes and were like tabs of LSD compared to my AP history books. Even if none of the new war films come to be labeled a masterpiece, films like No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood will be appreciated as time-capsules that bottled up our current zeitgeist and anxieties, and stared into the soul of America to see nothing but a black, oily abyss. And then there’s I Am Legend and Cloverfield, apocalyptic popcorn movies that subversively toyed with the modern death drive we all sensed popping into high gear this decade.
Sorry, I need to turn down Black Sabbath’s Sabotage. Per a definitive Iraq War film, Paul Greengrass’ Imperial Life in the Green Zone is building up its box office armor with a strong cast that now includes Amy Ryan, hot off Gone Baby Gone, and Greg Kinnear (Talk Soup) in addition to Matt Damon (Matt Damon).The film’s title is lifted from the nonfiction book by Rajiv Chandrasekara, with the author and Greengrass co-writing a fictional screenplay set in Iraq’s Green Zone, the safe zone where U.S. troops, officials, media, diplomats and Kid Rock reside.
Damon will play a CIA officer on the hunt for traces of WMDs, with Kinnear also playing CIA. Ryan’s character is a NY Times reporter sent to Iraq to see what’s what. No word on who will play Curveball, if applicable. I’m sure Horatio Sanz is available. Greengrass seems to exercise the semi-topical Bourne installments as a springboard for timely films like this and United 93; he’s also attached to They Marched into Sunlight, which reportedly focuses on the uproar of college students circa the Vietnam War. Imperial Life in the Green Zone is scheduled to hit theaters in 2009.
Christina Aguilera Shows Off Her Spider Look
Christina Aguilera Shows Off Her Spider Look
Unwilling to let her pregnancy keep her at home, Christina Aguilera and hubby Jordan Bratman got dressed up for a night of Halloween fun.
The Spider Girl and her Count Dracula made their way to a bumpin’ Halloween Party at Hyde Night Club in Hollywood on Wednesday.
Luckily for the expecting parents, Ozzy Osbourne wasn’t found passed out on their front doorstep when they made their way to their new house.
The former Black Sabbath singer recently spoke to press about his worries over winding up at his old perch, which is the current residence of the Dirrty singer.
Ozzy told, “I’m worried that if I get drunk I’ll go back to the old house.”