Casting/recasting news is beginning to trickle in as ABC tweaks its rumored-to-be-in-trouble just fine adaptation of the British series Life on Mars.Jason O'Mara is still the lead — and dagnabit, he better remain the lead! — but now Michael Imperioli has joined the cast.The Sopranos' former Christofuh! will fill the role of Det. Ray Carling, a colleague of Sam's who is mysteriously transplanted from the present into 1972.Imperioli's lawman is described as a rule-bending tough guy who, when the chips are down, is handy to have in your corner. He was played by Dean Andrews in the BBC edition. — Matt MitovichRelated:• ABC Entertainment Boss: Life on Mars Is "Fine"• Mega Buzz: "Is ABC's Life on Mars in trouble already?"• Fall TV: Mars Lands on ABC's Official Schedule
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Former TV gangster Michael Imperioli will find some redemption this Sunday, Dec. 9, at 9 pm/ET on ABC, in the Oprah-produced tear-jerker For One More Day.
Imperioli has played a hard-nosed detective (Law & Order), a pervy telephone caller (Girl 6), a gangster wannabe (Goodfellas) and, unforgettably, a mobster junkie (The Sopranos). So who would have guessed that one of his biggest acting challenges would come in an Oprah Winfrey-produced TV-movie that requires him to… throw a baseball?
"I'm not gonna lie, I'm not a good ballplayer, certainly not a natural one," says Imperioli, 41, a Mount Vernon, New York, native who grew up rooting for the Yankees. "I spent some time trying to pick the brain of [Yankees catcher] Jorge Posada and I worked with a trainer, but
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Or for those who care to liken my headlines to a high-school newspaper: "Jessica Alba Gets Plow'd." The Fantastic Four's Invisible Woman may be making her first appearance on the Great White Way. According to the New York Post, though she possesses zero/zilch stage experience, Alba is being wooed to star in a spring 2008 revival of David Mamet's Speed the Plow. Alba's prospective role, Karen the secretary, last was inhabited (and not very well) by another Broadway baby, Madonna, back in '88.The Sopranos' James Gandolfini and Michael Imperioli are said to be on the producers' wish list for the two male leads.
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Jack Black has signed on to star in and produce The Lost Adventures of Stone Perlmutter Jr. for Universal Studios. In the mockumentary, he'll play a late-'70s Indiana Jones type... only tubby and a bit potty-mouthed. Ill-fated Soprano Michael Imperioli has been cast as the detective in Peter Jackson's DreamWorks adaptation of the best-seller The Lovely Bones. Stanley Tucci has also come on board as the killer. Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation have announced the release date of the fourth Shrek movie: May 21, 2010. Gosh, that's so far away. If only they'd do something to remind us occasionally as opening day draws nearer. Salma Hayek's new MGM-based production company with a Latin flair, Ventanazul, is pursuing George Lopez to cowrite, produce and star in one of their inaugural projects.
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Emmy winner Michael Imperioli is set to star alongside Oscar winner Ellen Burstyn in the ABC TV-movie Oprah Winfrey Presents: Mitch Albom's For One More Day, about a despondent former baseball star who is magically granted a 24-hour reunion with his deceased ma.... A&E's Ridley and Tony Scott-produced four-hour adaptation of The Andromeda Strain now counts Ricky Schroder, Eric McCormack, Andre Braugher and Benjamin Bratt among its cast, says Variety.... Charles S. Dutton will direct and star with Elizabeth Peña in Racing for Time, a Lifetime pic inspired by the true story of Noel Chestnut, a prison guard who created a sports program for hard-core female juvies.
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