Zac Efron by Steve Granitz/WireImage.com
Let's hear it for the boy! Paramount is developing a full-blown musical remake of 1984's Footloose, with High School Musical cutie Zac Efron picking up where Kevin Bacon's be-bopping, Walkman-toting Ren left off. HSM helmer Kenny Ortega is in talks to both choreograph and direct the redo. The original Footloose, for those so young you sicken me, concerned a rebellious newcomer's arrival in a small town that has banned dancing. (And no, it's not where Ashlee Simpson lives.)Related: Kevin Bacon Clears the Air About Footloose Remake
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Per Variety, Jim Carrey will star in I Love You Phillip Morris, a dark comedy pegged as "Catch Me If You Can meets Brokeback," concerning a con man whose love for a released cell mate leads him to attempt several prison escapes.... Jack Black will front Year One, a comedy that Judd Apatow will produce, Harold Ramis will direct and cowrite (with a pair of Office scribes), and Michael Cera will star in.... Per the Reporter, Big Love's Ginnifer Goodwin is Matthew Perry's sis in Laws of Motion.... Kevin Bacon is chief-of-staff Jack Brennan in Ron Howard's Nixon/Frost.... Paul W.S. Anderson (Resident Evil) will direct Spy Hunter, a big-budget take on the awesome '80s arcade game.
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The unsinkable Molly Brown is teaming up once again with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet for the upcoming Sam Mendes drama Revolutionary Road, about a 1950s couple whose relationship devolves into one that sounds an awful lot like Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger's. Unreliable sources say Billy Zane was considered for a role, too, but the furniture on the set was so nice, they didn't want the scenery getting chewed. In other movie news, Kevin Bacon has agreed to accept the lead in HBO's Taking Chance, the true story of the military man who escorted the body of a Marine, Chance Phelps, a casualty of Iraq, back to his Wyoming hometown in 2004. Here's hoping he insists on a name change for the project. Is it just me, or does the one they have sound alternately corny as hell and vaguely porny?
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Per Variety, Fox Animation is bringing Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr. Fox to the big screen, using several forms of animation, primarily stop-motion. Wes Anderson will direct.... Charlize Theron will join Woody Harrelson, Nick Stahl and Dennis Hopper on Ferris Wheel, an indie drama about an 11-year-old girl abandoned by her mother.... Night at the Museum, starring Ben Stiller and Robin Williams, will simultaneously be released in conventional and IMAX theaters on Dec. 22.... Per the Hollywood Reporter, Heather Graham and Dylan McDermott are a beatnik couple in the indie drama A West Texas Children's Story.... Mystic River's Kevin Bacon and Marcia Gay Harden are in talks to reunite for Rails and Ties, the directorial debut of Alison Eastwood, daughter of Clint.
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In his most commercial directorial effort to date, George Clooney will helm and star in Leatherheads, a romantic comedy set against the backdrop of pro football's formation in the 1920s. Renée Zellweger is in talks to costar.... Also per Variety: Brittany Murphy is The Ramen Girl in a romantic comedy about an American woman, stranded in Tokyo, who trains under a master noodle chef.... Per the Hollywood Reporter, Ghost Whisperer's Aisha Tyler will play a homicide detective in Death Sentence, a vigilante drama starring Kevin Bacon.
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Question: I really enjoyed Saved on TNT. I was wondering if it was coming back like The Closer is? Would it come back in December, as well? I have to say, I was surprised to see the ad for The Closer coming back in December, since it didn't last year. Please give me good news!
Answer: Too soon to know if Saved will be renewed. I checked with TNT earlier this week, and there was no news yet. But neither show is likely to begin a new season until next summer. The ad you saw regarding The Closer in December involves a two-part episode, directed by Kyra Sedgwick's husband, Kevin Bacon, which will air that month as an original special. That will be the official season finale for The Closer, and it won't return with new episodes until next June or thereabouts ...
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Question: Are you pleased with how terribly Desire and Fashion House did during their first week? Ratings are horrible! I can't imagine anyone wanting to tune in to these series five or six times a week when there are already daytime soaps and Spanish telenovelas. It reminds of me when NBC tried a soap called Sunset Beach. It always ranked near the bottom because who has the time to invest in a new five-hour-a-week series? What were MyNetwork TV's expectations? I'm sure they weren't met!
Answer: Especially considering that these shows launched in early September, without the real competition of most regular network series, the early numbers are probably as disappointing to the network's powers-that-be as the programming itself is to the public at large. But you asked if I'm pleased, and the answer is no. I'm never pleased about failure; I want TV to succeed. But I am gratified to think that the public won't necessarily swallow junk delivered this cynically. Dead air would be preferabl ...
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Question: I agree 101 percent with your Dispatch that The Closer is fantastic. I would go further and say it is better than many of the top dramas on the regular networks. The writing is super, and the cast is perfect. I cannot imagine how they could have gotten it any better. I really am happy for Kyra Sedgwick. She is a great actress who, in the past, has not received the attention she deserves, because of her famous hubby.
Answer: And now Kevin Bacon is going to direct an episode (officially the second-season "finale," airing in December, outside of the regular season). Sedgwick is my pick to win the Emmy this season, though I'll be surprised if she actually scores (given the maddening weirdness of the Emmy voters, who I'm expecting will find a way to give one more trophy to Allison Janney). You're right about the cast. The bench on The Closer is almost embarrassingly full of strong actors, all of whom give Brenda Leigh Johnson terrific support each week ...
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Jon Bernthal in The Class
In town to promote Oliver Stone's World Trade Center and the new CBS sitcom The Class, Jon Bernthal gave TVGuide.com an inside look at doing a movie about the city's darkest day, living at home with "mom" and planning his ultimate dream.
TVGuide.com: What was it like to be part of World Trade Center?
Bernthal: It was really an honor, and different from any other acting job. Normally when you get a script and you meet with the director, you work together to create somebody, but this was really going the other way. It was a
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Jon Tenney, The Closer
TNT's The Closer (Mondays at 9 pm/ET) is the hottest show on cable right now, and it has the numbers to prove it. On the day that the Season 2 premiere's record ratings came in, TVGuide.com got on the phone with Jon Tenney, who plays FBI agent Fritz Howard, beau to Kyra Sedgwick's crafty, if curt, police chief.
TVGuide.com: So you're a star of TV's most-watched — what's the qualifier again? — ad-supported cable drama telecast ever?
Jon Tenney: "Ad-supported, original scripted cabl
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