Steve Carell Signs For Three More Years of The Office!
Today the angels looking down on Scranton, Pennsylvania are crooning “Beers in Heaven.” Steve Carell has signed on to star as Dunder Mifflin’s quasi-top dog, Michael Scott, on NBC’s The Office for three more years. An understandably elated, Ricky Gervais, broke the news on his blog…
“Steve Carell (now one of the most bankable film stars in the world) has just signed up for another three years with us. He is the hardest working man in Hollywood and the harder he works the better it is for me. I mean… well done Steve you are wonderful. …Steve had to do months of that in Evan Almighty and I heard he didn’t complain once. He is a very nice man and deserves all his success.”
Gervais went on to mention 2009’s The Office spin-off starring Aziz Ansari but kept mum. He also (half-?) jokingly threw his name into the ring for the role of Hannibal in The A-Team remake. John Singleton, give him a call, no joke. That would be choice.
Back to Carell: the news is a welcome surprise given Carell’s consistent box office draw in hit comedies (The 40 Year Old Virgin, Little Miss Sunshine), sleeper dramas (Dan in Real Life) and passable summer fare (Get Smart). That this rare flexibility has worked out so well on both sides was no doubt a contributing factor in the deal. Why not celebrate by picking up some cupcakes on sale at the grocery store during your lunch break to cheer up your office’s fluorescent-lit hangout room? “That’s what she said!” is going nowhere.
Quinton Rampage Jackson joining the A-Team?
It looks like we have a potential candidate for the B.A. Baracus role in the movie adaptation of the 80’s television show The A-Team. UFC fighter Quinton Rampage Jackson mentioned on The Jimmy Kimmel Show that he was in the running for the role made famous by Mr. T.
Looking at the photo, it’s easy to see why he’s in the running. He’s already got the pecks and the chain. If you check out the video after the link, he’s even got the attitude. Just give him a mohawk and he’ll be set.
The planned release for the feature film is June 12, 2009. It will be produced by 20th Century Fox and Universal Studios and is to be directed by John Singleton (Boyz In The Hood, Shaft, 2 Fast 2 Furious).
The question is: can the UFC fighter act? And if he can’t act, then can he at least act like Mr. T.?
[Thanks, Ryan!]
Halle Berry Heads Back to Work
There'll be no frothy rom-com needed to ease new mama Halle Berry back into the biz.
While she's been maintaining a very low postpartum profile, the Oscar winner is about to return to the big screen in a big way, signing on to star in and produce the psychological drama Frankie and Alice. It's her first professional undertaking since the March birth of daughter Nahla.
Far from being lightweight fare, the film, per Variety, follows a woman who has been diagnosed with multiple personality disorder. As if that weren't enough of a dramatic hook, one of the character's alter egos is a racist Caucasian.
No production date has yet been set and no other actors have yet been cast.
While the 41-year-old has several films in the works, including the romantic comedy Nappily Ever After, for which Berry has proclaimed she will shave her head in real time, Frankie and Alice is the first flick she's signed on to since welcoming her first child with her beau, model Gabriel Aubry.
The actress is also set to star in the John Singleton-directed drama Tulia, which will reunite Berry with her Monster's Ball costar Billy Bob Thornton. Originally scheduled to film late last year, the movie was postponed due to Berry's pregnancy.
John Singleton’s The A-Team Set For Release Summer 2009
“Fool, you betta call me!”
If John Singleton (Higher Learning, 2 Fast 2 Furious) needs someone to walk the Earth in search of the perfect gold dookie chains for his re-envisioning of the hit ’80s show The A-Team, I’ll do it for free shrimp. That’s right, the suspect action show that kept a million kids off the pot is headed to the big screen via 20th Century Fox on June 12, 2009. It will face off on that date with the Eddie Murphy extravaganza Nowhere Land.
None of the macho mercenary roles are locked, though Singleton, who has made this project sound promising and even hinted at an R-rating (I’d still bet on PG-13), tipped Woody Harrelson for the role of Murdock back in January.
And then Ice Cube (zzz) generously offered his services for the role of Mr. T’s B.A. Baracus, but Singleton replied to that with, “all this bullshit of who is saying who is this person and who is…nobody is playing Mr. T, the character’s name is B.A. Baracus, he will have a Mohawk and there is a moment in the movie where he actually gets the Mohawk cause he’s going crazy!” So, got that, Ice Cube, nobody is playin’ Mr. T.
Mohawks and overalls (on badass black dudes) forever.
via Variety