Per Variety, a contemporized, all-African-American remake of Lawrence Kasdan's The Big Chill is in the works, with Regina King already in the ensemble.... Per the Reporter, Jennifer Aniston will produce and possibly star in Goree Girls, a 1940s-set musical about singing inmates in a women's prison.... William Hurt has joined the Edward Norton-fronted Incredible Hulk, playing Gen. Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, the father of Dr. Banner's love interest/a man committed to capturing the big green guy.... Rachel Weisz is the dead girl's mother in Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Lovely Bones.
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Per Variety, Brendan Fraser has finally signed on the dotted line for The Mummy 3, but leading lady Rachel Weisz took a big, fat pass. The follow-up, penned by Smallville's Miles Millar and Al Gough, features Jet Li as the baddie.... Producers Dino and Martha De Laurentiis are out to reinvent Barbarella as "a free, modern gal who survives in a futuristic world through her intelligence, fighting skills and sexuality." Hate to say it, but Lindsay Lo just found a franchise (intelligence can always be faked).... Forest Whitaker has joined The Great Debaters, a fact-based drama directed by and featuring Denzel Washington as a small-town college debate-team coach.
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Lost
Question: Lost, Lost, Lost. Anything Lost, please!
Answer: You've come to the right place, Carrie. Back by popular demand, this week's Ask Ausiello is essentially one big Lostapalooza, starring executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. Not only is the duo answering all of our burning Season 2 questions, but they're also offering up tantalizing clues and spoilers about the final four episodes. Or, I should say, three. Conspicuously missing from the following Q&A is any discussion of tonight's explosive May-sweeps kickoff. For the dirt on that, you'll have to check out my Ausiello Report blog immediately following tonight's telecast. Trust me when I say you don't want to miss
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Question: Do you have any info on the episode of Lost that Darren Aronofsky is supposed to direct? Are all the castaways going to break into Charlie's heroin stash and run around the island stoned just like in Requiem for a Dream?
Answer: That joke was made already, Ray — and by me. Besides, it's a moot point. As EW.com reported last week, Darren had to back out due to family obligations; he and Rachel Weisz are about to have a baby.
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Walk the Line's Reese Witherspoon
While favorites Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line) and Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) walked away with the top acting honors at Sunday's Oscars, Crash pulled an upset by lassoing the best-picture trophy away from Brokeback Mountain. In the supporting slots, Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener) and the never-fails-to-impress George Clooney (Syriana) grabbed gold. One of the night's other surprises came when rap group Three 6 Mafia's raucous "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" (from Hustle & Flow) merited the Academy Award for best song. (A complete list of winners can be found here.) Me, I couldn't help but be fixated on Keira Knightley's seeming inability to crack a smile for Jon Stewart. Geez, loosen up, girl.
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Jon Stewart
The 78th Annual Academy Awards 8:01: The opening scene just demonstrates why we love Jon Stewart: No one does self-deprecation so funny. Not even George Clooney. I think my dog would look great in a Steve Martin wig.
8:05: At first, the Hollywood royalty aren't laughing quite as hard as I am at Jon's jokes — especially not at the one about the suffering caused by movie piracy. But nothing brings people together like a Bjork joke. (She was trying on her gown and Cheney shot her!) And then the gay Western montage. Not even Stewart knows how to follow up that hilarity, so I'm not even gonna try. Brilliant.
8:16: Nicole Kidman's weird intro for the best-supporting-actor nominees has me thinking right away that Clooney will win. And then he does; self-deprecation keeps working wonders. "So I'm not winning director." The music starts after about 10 sec
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Screen Actors Guild Awards The night actors pat each other on the back. Much like the Golden Globes, there wasn't a host. There were plenty of awkward moments of presenter chatter, and TelePrompTer problems out the Ziyi Zhang. Everyone was having issues reading the thing, except for the wonder known as Dakota Fanning. I mean, the 11-year-old was unflappable as she introduced Shirley Temple Black's life achievement portion of the evening. I seriously think she's genetically enhanced, like one of those Dark Angel characters. Some other highlights:
- I much appreciated the Peter Graves-Barbara Bain Mission: Impossible reunion, PrompTer issues and all.- I admit it: While I thought the beginning "I'm an actor" monologues were supremely cheesy, I fell for them. - Apparently, if your name's S. Epatha Merkers
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Geena Davis, Commander in Chief
After the shell-shocked winners step off stage at the Golden Globe Awards, they go backstage to meet the press. When they find us reporters camped out in the Wilshire Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel, the stars are granted a second chance of sorts: They can either address the world with more eloquence than they mustered onstage, or simply make bigger fools of themselves! Once this TVGuide.com reporter got past surly security guards at the door, I took my seat and watched a parade of Lost thespians, Desperate Housewives and Brokeback Mountaineers take their shots. Read on to see how they fared in the media frenzy.
5:15 pm/PT What will Syriana scene-stealer George Clooney do with his best-supporting-actor trophy? "I'm going to put this on the hood of my car," he quipped. "Is that too much?" Everybody's a joker, George. But this time it's a plus: While Mr. Clooney couldn't resist making that Jack Abramoff crack onstage, at
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