Ewan Flying High With Amelia
Ewan McGregor is headed for the wild blue yonder.
The Star Wars star has come aboard Fox Searchlight’s Amelia, a biopic starring Hilary Swank as the legendary aviator.
According to Variety, the 37-year-old actor will play the father of famed author Gore Vidal, Gene Vidal, with whom Earhart had a passionate affair while married to publisher George Putnam. Richard Gere has been cast as Putnam, while Virginia Madsen will play Putnam’s first wife, Dorothy Binney Putnam.
Amelia is being helmed by Mira Nair (The Namesake) from a script by Ron Bass, who won an Oscar for writing Rain Man.
Earhart, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, disappeared over the Pacific Ocean and was declared dead after a courageous 1937 attempt to circumnavigate the globe.
McGregor is about to wrap the comedy-drama I Love You, Philip Morris, opposite Jim Carrey.
He’ll then have a brief window to shoot his role for Amelia, which is currently filming in Toronto, before beginning work next month on Angels and Demons, Ron Howard’s highly anticipated prequel to The Da Vinci Code.
Here’s the CW’s new Sunday night lineup
Brad told you a couple of weeks ago about the new shows on The CW this fall. The network put aside Sunday nights in order to have Media Rights Capital program the night as it pleased, as an experiment. Now, the lineup that MRC has come up with has been released. The network has put all four shows into production immediately (no pilots) so they’ll be ready for fall. The shows will run from 7pm to 10pm. Note: sorry Moonlight fans, your show didn’t make it.
In Harm’s Way: This reality show about people who have dangerous jobs (it’s from the same guy who brings you Discovery’s Dirty Jobs) got a 10 episode order from the network.
Valentine, Inc.: This is a comedy/drama from Kevin Murphy, who was a producer/writer on Reaper (also on The CW). It’s about the modern day adventures of Aphrodite and her son Eros, who run a matchmaking business. Sounds like Cupid, maybe?
Easy Money: A drama about a family of loan sharks. From two people who used to work on The Sopranos.
Surviving Suburbia: A half hour sitcom that Kevin Abbott (who has written for The Golden Girls, Reba, Growing Pains, Roseanne, ALF, and was a producer on My Name Is Earl) wrote years ago, found, and decided to pitch again. 13 eps ordered.
Of course, reading the plot line of a TV show can be misleading. Even the flimsiest of a premise can be great with the right writing, cast, and production. Having said that, what show looks the most interesting to you?
Will Kristen Bell and Rob Thomas reunite on new project?
Will it be the magic again? You’ve gotta hope so… According to Watch with Kristin on E!online, there’s a good chance that the Veronica Mars team of Kristen Bell and Rob Thomas will be working together again.
In a recent chat with Kristin, Kristen (that’s Ms. Bell — check the spelling) has been talking with Rob about the possibility of another series. It would be great if they were talking about bringing Veronica back, but that’s apparently not meant to be. Only fans like us, we see that that is what we’d want most of all, but it ain’t happening.
No, instead it looks like Rob has his eye on plunking Kristen B. into one of his three — count ’em three — ongoing projects: ABC’s Cupid, the CW’s new revamped Beverly Hills 90210, or Outrageous Fortune (also for ABC). E! claims that their sources are confirming it’s the latter, and that Kristen could be playing opposite Rene Russo who is ready to sign on to play the mother in the comedy-drama about a family of criminals that decide to try going legit after the patriarch is sent to prison. Kristen would be part of the family, an important part if Rob is smart and uses her the way he did in Veronica M.
The prospect of Kristen Bell and Rene Russo going toe to toe — as adversaries or chums — is enough to make me want to tune in. But the big question is how will Kristen be able to do another project? If it is Outrageous Fortune, and it’s picked up as a pilot, would she have time in her schedule to do a series? She’s already committed to five episodes of NBC’s Heroes (although I find her character completely write-out-able), and voice overs for Gossip Girl voice-overs, plus there may be things we don’t know about.
Ray Romano returning to TV
Welcome back, Raymond. TNT has signed Ray Romano for a new one-hour comedy/drama pilot, Men of a Certain Age. After the success of Everybody Loves Raymond for CBS — 1996 -2005 — Ray Romano left television sounding very much like a guy who wasn’t interested in another show. After all, he could have kept Everybody Loves Raymond going for years. It was an Emmy-award winning, Nielsen champ. The show is doing great in syndication.
Men of a Certain Age, which is described as something like Sideways (in tone) about three guys, college friends, who are all struggling with life in their 40’s. Romano and Mike Royce wrote the script and will share executive producing chores. “Mike and I have always had success writing what we know,” Romano said in Variety. “What we know now is that we’re middle-aged, neurotic and fat.”
TNT is clearly high on the show, which was originally being created for HBO. When the cable net backed away from the project last year, Romano and company began talking to TNT. They’re thrilled about the prospect of adding Ray Romano to their lineup. “It’s about three best friends, each hoping to fulfill his dreams before the clock starts running out,” said Michael Wright, head of content development for TNT. “It’s an honest, emotional and funny and very personal take on the subject.’’
Men could be ready early next year, or TNT may reserve it for summer 2009. Romano will be playing Joe, who sounds like a variation on Raymond Barone — if Raymond was a divorced dad who failed to become a pro golfer and now runs a party store. Joe’s buddies are a struggling actor and another dad who’s a stressed-out car salesman.