News You Need: Mackie in ‘Eagle Eye,’ ‘Star Trek’ Beams in New Captain, Strike Pauses ‘24’

We! Are! Terrorist Cell!: We already told you about Billy Bob Thorton being cast in “Eagle Eye,” which is shooting now in Chicago and is directed by D.J. Caruso.

Now Variety and Hollywood Reporter and are reporting that Anthony Mackie (“Half Nelson,” “We Are Marshall”) has joined the cast as a “hot-shot soldier”.

“Eagle Eye” stars Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan as a falsely accused young man and single mother who are “forced to become members of a cell with plans to carry out a political assassination”.

Thorton will play a “patriotic hero” while Rosario Dawson plays a government agent. Dawson opted out of a role in Kevin Smith’s “Zach and Miri Make a Porno” (a role written specifically for her) to make “Eagle Eye”.

“Eagle Eye” comes from a screen idea by Steven Spielberg. Dan McDermott, John Glenn, Travis Wright, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, J.J. Abrams and finally Hilary Seitz all worked on the screenplay, according to Film Jerk.

Kurtzman and Orci – who worked on Abrams’ “Star Trek” and did a rumored rewrite to the “Watchmen” screenplay – are overseeing Seitz. Let’s hope in light of the WGA strike that “overseeing” is past tense.

Unless Voted Out By Focus Group, Greenwood Will Boldy Go: Speaking of J.J. Abrams’ increasingly more-interesting “Star Trek” reboot, Hollywood Reporter says Bruce Greenwood (“Thirteen Days,” “I, Robot”) has been cast as Captain Christopher Pike.

Originally played by Jeffrey Hunter, Pike was technically the first captain of the starship Enterprise. That’s due to his having been in the original, shelved “Star Trek” pilot.

Bruce Greenwood.
Photo credit: Steve Granitz/WireImage
Scenes from this unused pilot were reworked as flashback footage into first “Star Trek” season two-parter “The Menagerie”. In that episode Sean Kenney took over the role and played Pike as a scarred mute who communicated via light on his wheelchair.

At one point, Tom Cruise (who worked on Abrams’ last film “Mission: Impossible III”) was rumored for the role. There’s still no official word if the movie is a restarted Ultimatization or simply an alternate reality.

Jack Bauer Now Has Time to Use Restroom: The first big casualty of the Writers Guild of America strike is the seventh season premiere of Fox’s “24”.

Originally set to air on Jan. 13, TV Week reports that Fox has chosen to hold off on airing the show until the strike’s end. The show has run the past two seasons week to week with no repeats.

After last season’s critical drubbing, which saw its viewership down drastically, “24” was set for a major revamp this season. The show already started production a month late after Fox scrapped a storyline that was to partly take place in Africa.

In Bauer’s absence, perhaps now we can finally have a real national dialogue about torture.

By Shane Hazen
Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com