Casting Couch: Special Guest for Stiller, Roth Hits Small Screen, Gillian Anderson Has Write Stuff
As if Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Robin Williams and Ricky Gervais didn’t provide enough kid-friendly comic power the first time around, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian is turning the funny all the way up to 11.
The thinking man’s funnyman, Christopher Guest, is bringing his comedy chops to the blockbuster sequel, signing on to star as Ivan the Terrible.
The original’s stars are all back, as is new addition Bill Hader, who will play Gen. George Custer.
Reno 911 short-short wearer Thomas Lennon, who copenned the first film as well as the sequel, will also take a turn in front of the camera this time around, playing one of the Wright brothers alongside his cowriter and fellow member of Reno’s small-screen finest, Robert Ben Garant.
Shooting will take place in Vancouver and at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.
In other casting news:
- Hulk nemesis Tim Roth is making his inaugural jump to the boob tube to star in Lie to Me, a Fox series the network has already picked up for a 13-episode run to premiere in early 2009. Roth will play Dr. Cal Lightman, a human lie detector who specializes in the art of “deception detection.” Bad guys beware.
- Get a load of this: Six Feet Under’s Frances Conroy has joined the cast of Manure. Conroy will play the longtime secretary to the head of a troubled manure company. Billy Bob Thornton, Téa Leoni and Kyle MacLachlan also star in the comedy-satire being filmed in Santa Clarita.
- War, what is it good for? Some epic movies, if nothing else. Gillian Anderson is set to star in and produce a biopic of trailblazing female war journalist Martha Gellhorn, who, among her professional travails, also suffered through a failed marriage to Ernest Hemingway. The film will be based on Caroline Moorehead’s 2004 bio of the writer, Gellhorn: A Twentieth-Century Life, and will be written by The Edge of Love scribe (and Keira Knightley’s mother) Sharman Macdonald.
- English Patient star Kristin Scott Thomas will make her Broadway debut in this fall’s revival of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull. She’ll play the troubled actress Arkandina opposite Peter Sarsgaard. Previews begin Sept. 16 and the curtain goes up Oct. 1 at the Walter Kerr Theatre.
TV: Jason Schwartzman in HBO’s Bored to Death / Tim Roth in Fox’s Lie to Me
Jason Schwartzman (Rushmore, Spun, Coconut Records) will play an aging Brooklynite/alcoholic writer who experiences a nasty breakup and finds himself in the position of a Philip Marlowe-ish gumshoe in the new HBO series Bored to Death. Written by former New York Press columnist and novelist, Jonathan Ames, the half-hour comedy will go into production this September. Seth Gordon, director of The King of Kong, will work as a consultant on the show.
Schwartzman’s character “takes out an ad pretending to be a private detective and starts taking cases — solving some and making others worse.” You may remember that back in 2004 Schwartzman starred in the failed Fox sitcom, Cracking Up, from writer Mike White (The School of Rock). Ames also began developing a semi-autobiographical pilot for Showtime the same year, but it was never picked up. Based on the logline, it’s easy to picture Schwartzman making the role and premise into an irreverent hit.
HBO also has the series, Hung, in development from creator/director Alexander Payne and weeks ago I took a look at the pilot script for Cocaine Cowboys, the rumored series for HBO from Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay.
via Hollywood Reporter / Buzz Sugar
The iffier logline belongs to Lie to Me, a one-hour drama for Fox starring Tim Roth as a “scientist/human lie detector, skilled at reading the human face, body and voice to uncover the truth in criminal and private investigations.” Shades of House: the character’s talent/gift makes it difficult for him to maintain personal relationships.
As long as Lie to Me isn’t peppered with computer-generated eyeball schematics of various suspects in the vein of Robocop, we’ll check it out. Variety reports that the material is inspired by the real life science and life long studies of psychologist/deception specialist Dr. Paul Eckman. Brian Grazer is exec-producing the show, which has been picked up for 13 eps, and begins shooting in August.