– In news that will delight Harry Lockhart fans the world over, Michelle Monaghan is to re-team with “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” co-star Robert Downey Jr. in Todd Phillips’ “Due Date,” where Downey Jr. will play a man desperately trying to return to his pregnant wife (Monaghan) before she gives birth. Zach Galifianakis will play ‘a mismatched traveling companion,’ or, essentially, the John Candy role in “Planes, Trains and Automobiles.” We’ve got the script lying around somewhere, but if “The Hangover” is anything to go by, the script will bear almost no resemblance to the finished project anyway…
– We reported a few weeks back that Jesse Eisenberg was likely to play Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in David Fincher’s “The Social Network,” and, while talking to MTV on the “Zombieland” press tour, Eisenberg gave an artful non-denial, saying “They are rumors. That is true”. He’s a perfect choice for the part, and, with the shoot set to kick off next month, we’d expect an official announcement soon.
– The first teaser trailer for “Valentine’s Day” has hit over at Yahoo! The romantic comedy, set in a bizarre fantasy world where neither Jessica Alba or Jessica Biel can get a date on Valentine’s Day, appears to be a sort of riff on “Love Actually,” and features an all-star cast, including Alba, Biel, Anne Hathaway, Julia Roberts, Bradley Cooper, Ashton Kutcher, Jennifer Garner, Emma Roberts, Jamie Foxx, Shirley Maclaine and Taylor Swift (cue obligatory Kanye West joke…). The trailer also features a Black Eyed Peas song that will make you wish you were deaf.
– Rebecca Hall may join Kat Dennings in Richard Linklater’s “After A-E,” with a script from novelist Emma Forrest. The comedy, which Variety claims Forrest wrote in three days following her break up with Colin Farrell, follows a woman (Hall) dumped by her boyfriend on the night of Barack Obama’s election victory, and takes a road trip to Washington to see the inaugaration with a friend (Dennings), and to visit various ex-boyfriends. Hall’s a tremendous actress, and teaming her with Linklater is a pretty enticing prospect.
– After Spain announced their shortlist earlier in the week, the French selection committee have chosen Jacques Audiard’s “A Prophet”, which won the Grand Prize at Cannes this year, as their entry to the Foreign Language Academy Awards. The film is, by all accounts, outstanding, and Audiard’s “The Beat That My Heart Skipped” is arguably one of the best films of the decade, so this must be a front-runner for the prize at this stage. The trailer can be found below.
– Finally, in deeply sad news, screenwriter Frank Deasy died yesterday of liver cancer, aged 49. His credits include a great deal of British TV work, as well as the screenplays for Tim Roth starrer “Captives” and the adaptation of Elizabeth Wurtzel’s “Prozac Nation.” His final project, “Gaza,” featured on the Black List a few years back, and is set to film next year starring Helen Mirren. Deasy had been on the transplant waiting list for some time, and wrote a moving article in The Observer only last weekend, urging more people to become organ donors. If you read anything today, make it this.
