The upcoming Spider-Man musical, featuring music from U2′s Bono and The Edge, will open on Broadway on Feb. 18, 2010, according to the Los Angeles Times. The $31 million production will be directed byJulie Taymor (The Lion King), who also co-wrote the book with Glen Berger(Underneath the Lintel). There is no official word on casting.
More ‘Spider-Man’ musical:
Get ready for ‘Spider-Man’ the musical
U2 writing songs for a ‘Spidey’ musical
‘Spider-Man’! The Musical!
It looks like Seth Rogen will be a superhero after all. Sources tell EW.com that director Michel Gondry (Be Kind, Rewind) is in talks to helm Green Hornet for Sony Pictures. The studio had been scurrying around to secure a director for the Rogen- and Evan Goldberg-penned project after Stephen Chow dropped out of the film in December. (Chow is still playing Kato.) The two parties were having difficulty seeing eye-to-eye on who would be his replacement, and artistry seems to be winning out over straight commercial appeal withGondry as the choice. Plans are to begin production in the summer with the project still slated to be one of Sony’s tentpoles for summer 2010.
More ‘Green Hornet’:
Seth Rogen’s ‘The Green Hornet’ gets a green light
‘The Green Hornet’: Stephen Chow to play Kato and direct
Michel Gondry picks 25 classic music videos
Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Caccone — the three comic musicians known collectively as the Lonely Island — will play Call of Duty: World at War with Xbox LIVE Gold members on Feb. 26 to celebrate the release of their album Incredibad. The "Game with Fame" session starts on at Noon ET. Head over to the Xbox website to register.
Is Eminem suing his label’s corporate parent, Universal Music Group, for downloading royalties? Not true, says a rep for Slim Shady: "Eminem is not a party to this lawsuit." The real plaintiff is F.B.T. Productions, a music publishing company affiliated with the rapper early in his career, which is taking Universal to court today in a bid to score millions in profits from digital download revenues, including iTunes and ringtones. But while Marshall Mathers is not expected to face the judge, The Wrap is reporting that Interscope Records chief Jimmy Iovine is on the witness list, along with Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who will testify by video.
CBS has announced the guests for The Late Late Show Craig Ferguson for the week the Jimmy Fallon–led Late Night debuts: Paris Hilton, Desmond Tutu and Amy Adams (among others). On Monday, March 2, Hilton and Ferguson will "host" CBS’s prime-time lineup — The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men, Rules of Engagement, and CSI Miami — and then Hilton will be a guest on Late Late, as will Dee Dee Myers. Tuesday’s guests will be Kristin Davis and Wolfgang Puck, Wednesday’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Thursday’s Holly Hunter and Andrew Bird, and Friday’s Amy Adams, Ed McMahon, and M. Ward. On Monday, March 9, Ferguson will again host CBS’s programming, this time with Jim Parsons, in character as Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory. According to TV Week, "[t]he spots with both Ms. Hilton and Mr. Parsons will be set in Mr. Ferguson’s fake TV home. He and his guests will dine on TV dinners as they watch CBS programming." [TVWeek]
Chiwetel Ejiofor is in talks to star alongside Liev Schreiber and Angelina Jolie in the upcoming action thriller Salt, about a Russia-based CIA agent accused of going rogue. Jolie plays the titular Salt, who attempts to avenge her reputation; Schreiber plays her boss, and Ejiofor would play another CIA agent. [Hollywood Reporter]
Chicago-based bank Northern Trust, which received bailout money from the government even though it characterizes itself as "healthy," is under fire for its sponsorhip of the Northern Trust Open golf tournament in Los Angeles last week. In addition to backing the event, TMZ claims Northern Trust also flew hundreds of clients and employees to LA, put them up in pricey hotels, and treated them to various dinner parties that included private performances by Sheryl Crow, Chicago, and Earth, Wind & Fire. In a lengthy statement to TMZ, Northern Trust acknowledges that it footed the bill for the client events, and that it was in the second year of a five-year contract to sponsor the PGA tournament, which is an integral part of the bank’s global marketing strategy. Northern Trust also says it did not request bailout money, but "agreed to the government’s goal of gaining the participation of all major banks in the United States." It maintains that funds from the U.S. Treasury’s Capital Purchase Program, which are not allocated for the purposes of marketing and corporate sponsorship, were not used for the tournament or the events surrounding it. "These are funded through our normal cash flow. Last year, Northern Trust earned operating net income of $641 million."
Comedian-TV star Kathy Griffin has landed book deal with Random House imprint Ballantine worth more than $2 million, according to The New York Observer. The newspaper reports that three sources with knowledge of the deal say that Griffin’s literary agent sold her memoir atauction last week to a Ballantine editor.
John Cusack and Rob Corddry have signed on for the MGM comedy Hot Tub Time Machine, Variety reports. The film, written by Josh Heald and to be directed by Steve Pink (a co-writer on Cusack’s Grosse Pointe Blank and High Fidelity), revolves around a group of friends who step into a hot tub at the ski resort where they hung out as teens — and are transported back to 1987. Craig Robinson (The Office‘s Darryl) and Sex Drive‘s Clark Duke are in negotiations to costar. Cameras roll in Vancouver this April. Cusack will also produce.
Starz has ordered a 13-episode second season of Crash, its original drama series based on the Oscar-winning movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The new season will take the series in a different direction under a new creative team led by new executiveproducer/showrunner Ira StevenBehr (The 4400), and producers James DeMonaco and ToddHarthan (both of Spike TV’s The Kill Point). First-season showrunner and series creator/exec producer Glen Mazzara will stay on as a consulting producer. About half of the first season’s story lines will continueinto season 2, and about half of the cast, including star DennisHopper, will return as well.
