If there's something strange in your neighborhood, it's probably because Columbia Pictures is calling on Ghostbusters again. It's been years since it was still Columbia Pictures' highest-grossing film, but the studio's getting ready to revive it for a fresh franchise.
Adding some insurance that the blockbuster begets box-office glory, Columbia hired The Office's coexecutive producers, Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, to pen the new script. The hope is that original cast members Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson would return for the redux.
While a cast reunion isn't yet official, some of the key players have lately been in close proximity to each other: Eisenberg and Stupnitsky just wrote Year One, which Ramis will direct.
Is a new, ghost-fighting franchise a good idea, or a ghoulish concept? — Anna Dimond
Carter, who has been working non-stop on multiple movie projects for two years is being treated for exhaustion and "an acute sleeping disorder," says EW.
Carter, who wrote, produced and directed this summer's The X-Files: I Want to Believe, jumped immediately into directing the hush-hush feature Fencewalker. That, coupled with an exhausting world press tour for The X-Files, could lead to one sleep-deprived multi-hyphenate.
Carter is expected to make a speedy recovery. – Erin Fox
French Women Don't Get Fat, but Hilary Swank does gain weight — for a movie role.
The double Oscar winner will star — and pack on the pounds — in the big-screen adaptation of the best-seller, E! Online reports.
The Mireille Guiliano tome is a nonfiction how-to guide, but the film will take some creative license for the silver screen. Swank, who will gain up to 30 pounds and also produce the flick, will play a champagne company manager working with whippet-thin, highly metabolized French gals who down bread, wine and pastries with no obvious consequences.
This is yet another body-transformation role for Swank, 34, who picked up bookend Oscars for Boys Don't Cry and Million Dollar Baby. Is she going to do the hat trick here? Probably not. — Joyce Eng
Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron by Bob D'Amico/Disney Channel
MySpace and High School Musical are all in this together.
The social networking site has teamed up with Walt Disney Studios for a new integrated campaign to promote the highly anticipated big-screen arrival of High School Musical 3: Senior Year.
In MySpace's largest campaign to date, the site will host a two-month long contest, in which fans are instructed to show the most school spirit by completing a myriad of tasks, including uploading photos, filming and uploading videos, changing profile skins and creating communities.
The multi-platform push will also encourage fans to text in votes for their school.
"It speaks to our ability to create highly creative and progressive campaigns," Angela Courtin, MySpace's senior vice president of marketing, entertainment and content, told TVGuide.com. "It goes from being a simple sweepstakes to actually engaging the user to build a community in their own high school, doing these tasks to get points."
The school that accumulates the highest point total by Nov. 3 and is deemed to have embodied the most spirit will win a senior class trip to a Disney theme park and a celebrity pep rally featuring Natasha Bedingfield and "members" of the HSM3 cast. Cross your fingers for Zac Efron!
"She's pulled out. She will not be there," her rep told us.
Leoni was scheduled to attend the Friday premiere of her new film Ghost Town at the annual event. Ghost Town — a fantasy-comedy in which Leoni plays widow to Greg Kinnear's dead man, who pesters Ricky Gervais' very-much alive character — opens nationwide Sept. 19, and the actress' press commitments for it are still up in the air.
"She's not scheduled for anything at this time," her rep added.
Duchovny, 48, who's been married to Leoni, 42, for 11 years, checked into rehab on Thursday, asking for "respect and privacy" for his wife and their children, West, 9, and Kyd, 6.
The couple also has a film project, Born to Rock, which they will produce, in the works, but Leoni's rep declined to comment on how and if it will be affected by Duchovny's rehab stay. — Joyce Eng
In a world without Don LaFontaine, trailers will be a lot less fun.
LaFontaine, who died Monday at 68 from complications relating to pneumothorax, wasn't a household name. But he was the voice of more than 5,000 movie trailers and 350,000 commercials over the last three decades, best known for the introduction, "In a world…"
LaFontaine's Web Site said he did voiceover work for all the major television networks, as well as TNT, TBS, and the Cartoon Network. He also served as the in-show announcer for the Screen Actors Guild and Academy Awards.
"Based on contracts signed, he has the distinction of being perhaps the single busiest actor in the history of SAG," according to his site.
The native of Duluth, Minnesota, joined the Army after high school, and was assigned to the United States Army Band and Chorus as a recording engineer.
After his discharge from the service, he worked as a sound engineer and editor.
His voiceover career started in 1965, when an announcer didn't show up for a session. LaFontaine stepped in to do "scratch" narration for radio spots for the film Gunfighters Of Casa Grande. — Tim Molloy
The central role was originally pegged for Nastassja Kinski, but a deal was never reach between the actress and Tarantino. Now, Kruger will play the part of a German actress who helps Nazi hunters infiltrate a movie premiere.
Til Schweiger has also signed on to star in the World War II film which already boasts a sizable star-power with a cast including Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, Mike Myers Christoph Waltz and Daniel Bruhl. — Gina DiNunno
In a Labor Day weekend that boasted five little-buzzed-about new releases, Tropic Thunder managed to hold on to its place at the top of the domestic box office for the third week in a row.
According to Variety, Ben Stiller's Hollywood-spoofing comedy earned $11.5 million dollars, bringing its total haul to $83.8 million. Newcomer sci-fi action flick and Vin Diesel starrer Babylon A.D. came in at No. 2 with $9.8 million.
The Dark Knight bounced back up to No. 3 this week, taking in another $8.8 million to pass the $500 million mark, the only movie except Titanic to accomplish such a feat. The House Bunny's $8.3 million took fourth, and Don Cheadle's Traitor rounded out the Top 5 with $7.9 million.
Theater traffic was slow overall, despite five new releases. Though the final four-day weekend numbers are still forthcoming, it seems this summer's final outing will fall well short of last year's take when Rob Zombie's Halloween remake earned $30.6 million as the top movie. — Adam Bryant
Imagine John Lennon's life story on the big screen — because it's happening.
U.K. production company Ecosse Films, in conjunction with the U.K. Film Council, is developing a biopic on the iconic musician, The Hollywood Reporter reports. Nowhere Boy will explore the teen, pre-Beatle years of Lennon and his befriending of former bandmate Paul McCartney.
Matt Greenhalgh will pen the screenplay while visual artist Sam Taylor-Wood is slated to direct. The flick will be shot on location in Lennon's hometown of Liverpool, England.
Casting for the all-important roles "is under way," producers say.
The Dark Knight courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures; Iron Man courtesy Paramount Pictures
The Dark Knight ruled theaters, but the summer box office was not dark at all.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, summer 2008 can go down in history with a record domestic gross, thanks to the $300 million-plus hauls of Knight, Iron Man and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Though last summer had four films cross the $300 milestone, Knight made up for the deficit with its own record-setting performance, which includes four consecutive weeks at No. 1.
By the close of Labor Day weekend, domestic intake is projected to surpass $4 billion.
Produced by Fox, the epic romance, starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, will now be released Nov, 26, two weeks later than originally planned, Variety reports.
The change was made to accommodate Luhrmann's post-production schedule. The director is also currently filming pick-ups Down Under.
Set during World War II, the flick chronicles the romance between Kidman's English aristocrat and Jackman's Aussie cattle drover. — Joyce Eng
Check your newsfeed: Facebook is coming to the big screen.
Prolific writer and producer Aaron Sorkin is penning a film based on the creation of the social networking site, according to the The Hollywood Reporter.
And as a true Facebook user would, Sorkin announced his celluloid plans on his account, prefacing by insisting he's the real Aaron Sorkin.
"I understand there are a few other people using Facebook pages under my name — which I find more flattering than creepy — but this is me," he said. "I figured a good first step in my preparation would be finding out what Facebook is, so I've started this page."
The Emmy winner goes on to ask users to share their experience with the site to serve as inspiration and research for the film.
Hilary Swank, along with producing partner Molly Smith, has acquired the rights to adapt Emily Giffin's New York Times Best Seller, Something Borrowed, to the big screen.
Swank, who may also star in the picture, and Smith will co-produce Borrowed, according to Variety . The deal also includes the rights to Giffin's sequel, Something Blue.
Following Swank's romantic turn in P.S. I Love You, this chick-lit-turned-chick-flick centers on a Manhattan attorney named Rachel who has a few too many after her 30th birthday party, and ends up sleeping with her best friend Darcy's fiancé.
No word on whether Swank will potentially play Rachel or Darcy and no timeline for the project has been announced. — Erin Fox
Paws crossed! Cher is interested in playing Catwoman if The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan is interested in casting her, the singer and Oscar-winning actress' publicist tells TVGuide.com.
So far, though, she hasn't heard from the filmmaker.
"I'm really excited abut the possibility," publicist Risa Shapiro said. "But nobody's ever called me. ... People like me would love nothing more than to get that phone call."
The British Telegraph newspaper quoted an anonymous studio executive as saying Nolan wants the 62-year-old Cher to portray the whip-wielding cat burglar as "a vamp in her twilight years."
Shapiro found that take on the character intriguing: "I haven’t talked to her about it, but I assume she would absolutely do that," she said.
She noted that it would be unusual for a casting possibility to make its way into the press before she hears about it.
"Sometimes, where I sit, we say where's there's smoke there's fire. In this case I don't think that's accurate. I hope it is," Shapiro said.
A spokesman for Nolan didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Dark Knight, released last month, is already the second-highest grossing film of all time.
Woody Harrelson better master the art of bustin' heads because he's going to need it for his role in the new horror comedy Zombieland.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film, written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, follows the story of a mismatched pair of survivors who find friendship in a world overrun by the evil undead. Harrelson plays Albuquerque, one of two zombie fighters.
Note to Woody: Remember Hollywood Zombie-Killing 101 — "Kill the brain, and you kill the ghoul." — Gina DiNunno
