– Anton Yelchin — some say the worst thing about “Star Trek,” and the best thing about the terrible “Terminator: Salvation” — will play Mel Gibson’s son in Jodie Foster’s comedy-drama,”The Beaver,” about a man who forms an unusual attachment to a beaver hand-puppet.
The script, which topped last year’s Black List, is actually much darker and more interesting than the log-line sounds, and the pairing of Gibson in a big comeback role, Foster and Yelchin (who we like a lot, despite his under-written role in “Star Trek”) is intriguing. Jennifer Lawrence, who’s meant to be great in “The Burning Plain,” is also on board, most likely to play Norah, Yelchin’s love interest.
– The trailer for Michael Jackson’s posthumous tour documentary, “This Is It,” will debut on the upcoming MTV Video Music Awards during the live broadcast, airing this Sunday at 9 p.m. ET.
– British/Polish actor Max Ryan, best known for henchmen roles in the likes of “Death Race” and “The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen,” will play Samantha’s new love interest, a European architect, in “Sex and the City 2.” Is that a step up or down?
– Finally, we’ve managed to miss this so far, but the American Cinematheque will be hosting a series of double bills of the work of neck-hankerchief-donning ’70s auteur Peter Bogdanovich at the Egyptian Theatre, presented by Bogdanovich himself, who’ll also be discussing his career. Tonight sees “The Last Picture Show” and “They All Laughed,” Friday is the recently re-released to DVD screwball comedy/ode-to-early-era-filmmaking “Nickelodeon” (which is sadly not worth your time) and “Mask,” and the mini-tribute closes on Saturday with his unassailable comedy classics, “Paper Moon” and “What’s Up, Doc?.” Man, we’d forgotten how many great movies he made in his heyday. If you’re in L.A. and you can make it, this comes highly recommended.
