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.
James McAvoy Makes a Tough Call
Between last year’s Atonement to this week’s Wanted, James McAvoy has gone from Oscar bait to action hero, from wooing Keira Knightley to wowing Angelina Jolie. So I had to ask him the desert island question. Hit the clip to see what he says.
And click through to the jump to see how James learned the hard way not to mess with Jack Nicholson.
Sienna Miller Gets Back to the States
Sienna Miller Gets Back to the States
She’s been busily promoting her new film “The Edge of Love” with Keira Knightley over in the UK, and it looks like Sienna Miller needed a break.
The “Factory Girl” actress, who recently dumped her fiancé Rhys Ifans via cell phone, touched down at Los Angeles, California’s LAX International Airport yesterday looking to lay low for a bit.
She rocked a grey tank top, vintage jeans, and UGG boots as she made her way through the terminal, stopping to chat with a few fans along the way.
Earlier in the day, Miss Miller was the object of the London paparazzi’s attention as she arrived at London Heathrow Airport, looking a bit sad as she chatted incessantly on her phone prior to her transatlantic flight.
Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller Party on the Edge
Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller Party on the Edge
Their new film “Edge of Love” debuted earlier this week at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. And Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller were all about celebrating at their private VIP party last night.
The girls got down at the Berkley Hotel in London, England, with Knightley sporting a strapless purple frilly dress with black super-high heels and Sienna rocking a more conservative short-sleeved white dress with black shoes.
When it came time to ditch her clothes for a scene in the new movie, the “Pirates of the Caribbean” hottie said ‘no problem.’ She told press, “I always bare my breasts. It’s not like it’s only in this film! It was very simple. It was a sex scene and I never like them when they’ve got bras on.”
But when it came to singing in the film, Keira wasn’t nearly as nonchalant. “I thought I was going to die. My knees actually started buckling. I wasn’t particularly pleased that Shar (her mother, Sharman Macdonald put singing into the script – in the first couple of takes I sounded like a pubescent boy.”