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Hollywood Land

Superbad Gets Super Big!

There is just no escaping the Judd Apatow juggernaut at the moment. He has essentially become the John Hughes of the new generation with such flicks as 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up and now Superbad.  He is also the brains behind one of the (in our opinion) greatest TV shows of all time, Freaks & Geeks (if only because our Web Wombat Entertainment Editor, Lynchy, has a massive crush on Linda Cardellini).

And it's not over yet, with Judd about to deliver yet another hit in a few months time with his spoof of Ray and Walk The Line. The trailer alone is like playing "Spot The Cameo", which has now been renamed "Spot Judd Apatow's Friends".

Keep an eye out in particular for The Ladies Man (Tim Meadows) and Elivs (Jack White of music group The White Stripes).

Should be good - we have the first look here!

Now its The Karate Kid being Remade?

A few years back, prior to MGM’s sale to Sony, there was talk of another Karate Kid movie. Several folks were in the mix to flesh out Daniel Son’s next adventure but at the end of the day, a change of studio guard and the discernment of some who believed Ralph Macchio could never open a film again saw the sequel plans scrapped faster than a fractured egg in a basket.

Now, of course, we’re looking down the barrel at another potential remake. Sheesh!

Jerry Weintraub, who produced the 1984 original, is teaming with Will Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment to do the new version, says IGN Movies. Glad that Jerry’s involved, and terrific to know someone with such a unique vision as Will Smith is producing, but you’ll never guess who’ll be playing the new Larusso? Will’s son, Jaden Christopher Syre Smith.

Hmmm.

Look the kid was great in The Pursuit of Happyness but…. Well, he’s 9! This is supposed to be The Karate Kid, a timeless franchise for teenagers, not 3 Ninjas!… It sounds to me like they’re going to kiddie up the flick and target the under ten-year olds.

Other names to be mentioned (and this sounds sensible) is Jackie Chan Mr Myagi.

The project is apparently out to writers.

TV Trash: Prisonbreak & Kath and Kim in the USA

If there’s one thing that seems to be missing about this season’s Prison Break its that resident spunk Sarah, played by Sarah Wayne Callies (who, in our opinion, was one of the better actors in the show – and definitely the flesh behind one of the more interesting characters).

And why? Because Sarah Wayne Callies, the woman behind the stethoscope (she’s a doctor, ya see?), was let go. Or so she tells French magazine Tele Star (says Just Jared).

‘I didn’t have the choice. I’m sad, but it’s just show business’, the actress says of the firing. “I was shocked”.

Wayne Callies says she didn’t see it coming and expected to continue on the series.

“I’ll just say this. I am sorry to let down the viewers. I have loved the support Sara Tancredi got from them. And though she was a victim of her own destiny, I liked how she made decisions by herself. But the way things ended up couldn’t have been foreseen. Again, I was deceived by the decision.”

The producers told her ‘It’s too bad. I loved working with you and good luck, we hope we can work together again.’

In other TV news...

The rumour mill is going into over time in the US as the hotly anticipated US version of Kath & Kim gets underway. A couple of months back, we were joking when saying that Molly Shannon would probably be cast in the American version of Kath & Kim – it just seemed like your classically derivative casting decision.

And what do ya know? The Hollywood Reporter has just announced that the former Saturday Night Live star will indeed play ‘Kath’ in a U.S version of the hit Aussie sitcom Kath & Kim.

Casting the title characters has been considered crucial to the success of the show. When the project was first picked up to pilot by NBC in January, it was pushed to summer because of difficulties casting the leads, says the trade.

Nobody has been cast as Kim yet, however, we have recieved word close to the source that "Joan Cusack is interested in playing Kim from Kath and Kim".

Now that is even more scary than Molly playing Kath!

Biel rejects Wonder Woman role!

This just in : Jessica Biel has decided against playing Wonder Woman in Justice League. Apparently she didn’t realise she had to share the screen, and daybill, with half-a-dozen other faces, or something, so has given the project the birdie.

EW doesn’t actually state why Biel decided – at what’s seemingly the 11th hour – not to take on the role after all (despite the trades announcing she was as good as locked for the part), but it should please those die-hard “Wonder Woman” fans who’ve been writing into us like typing’s going out of style complaining about the casting decision.

Hate to break it to ya fellas but there’s no frickin’ way Lynda Carter’s getting back into those tights.

Furious 4 reuniting Diesel and Walker?

The saying ‘you’re too young to know better’ makes for a nice opener here.

A few years back Vin Diesel was offered the chance to reprise his role from the surprise hit Fast and the Furious (2001) in a sequel – the film that became 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) – but as he was about as in-demand as a newspaper offering a free DVD at the time, the big guy nixed the idea and instead went on to star in his own solo effort, XXX.

According to Paul Walker, Diesel’s co-star in Furious and the star of 2 Fast, Diesel didn’t want to do it because it’d mean he’d have to share the poster with someone else again. “Vin doesn’t want to do two-handers, he wants to go and be ‘Vin’”, Walker said in a 2003 with Moviehole.

How things change.

Today, The Hollywood Reporter says that both Diesel and Walker are in negotiations to star in a Fast and the Furious 4 together.

I’m not at all surprised. Diesel’s commodity has been heavily cheapened over the past couple of years. He hasn’t had a hit to his name since The Pacifier – and that’s definitely not the type of film he should be doing; maybe after a couple of big action hits, but not straight out of the gate - and those big projects he’s wanted to do, like the biopic on Hannibal the Conqueror that he’s been tooting for years, can’t get financing. Quite simply, he isn’t the big star he – or his agent – thought he was. So seems Diesel has taken a wise step back. I think the first tip-off of that was when we saw an ad in a local streetpress indicating Diesel would be making an appearance at a local nightclub.

We shit you not. Diesel is going to make an appearance at a nightclub here in Australia in a few weeks.

There’s no way the Vin Diesel of 2003 would’ve made a nightclub appearance – so something has definitely changed.

Even in 2005, Diesel was asked to co-star with Walker and Tyrese in a third Fast and the Furious film – Tokyo Drift would end up starring Lucas Black – but gave the birdie to the idea believing he’d have better offers on the table (he did do a cameo in it though). Those better offers did come (well, one did – the upcoming Babylon A.D) but the career still isn’t as on fire as much as he thought it would be by now. Hence, Fast and the Furious 4.

Even still, I thought of a Fast and the Furious 4 happened with Vin, it’d happen only with Vin. I didn’t see Vin agreeing to share the screen with Paul Walker again. But there you go.

The bargaining chip may have been Vin negotiating his way into a producer’s position on the film. His company, One Race Films, are apparently going to steer the film alongside the original films producer, Neal Moritz.

The story line is being kept under wraps, but fast cars are involved. A spring start is anticipated with shooting in Los Angeles, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

Justin Lin, who directed Fast and the Furious : Tokyo Drift, is returning to direct the new film. Chris Morgan, who penned the latter, will write.

Interesting indeed. The next thing you now Harrison Ford will be agreeing to star in a Han Solo spin-off, and Alec Baldwin will be back as Jack Ryan for Cardinal of the Kremlin.

Trailer Trash

Here's something we've been hanging out for, for quite a while. Jack Black stars in Be Kind Rewind, a one-of-a-kind comedy from the mind of writer/director Michel Gondry (Dave Chappelle's Block Party, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind).

Black stars as a loveable loser stuck in a life that's too small for his big dreams. But when he unintentionally erases all the tapes in a video store where his best friend works, he devises a plan to satisfy the store's few loyal customers by re-creating and re-filming every movie they decide to rent. Be Kind Rewind features a cast that includes Mos Def, Danny Glover, and Mia Farrow. It is scheduled for a January 25, 2008 release.

While it isn't in the trailer, we have heard rumours that there is a Back To The Future "re-film" in the movie. Can't wait!

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