News You Need: State of ‘Play,’ Carnahan’s Updates, Embry Gets ‘Eagle Eye,’ Ambrose With ‘Wild Things,’ ‘Hulk’ Photos

HollywoodChicago.com — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:48:46 -0700

State of Pay or Play: According to Variety, Russell Crowe is in talks to take over for Brad Pitt in “State of Play,” which is an adaptation of the 2003 BBC mini-series.

Brad Pitt.
Photo credit: WireImage.com
The film was written by Matthew Michael Carnahan (“The Kingdom”) and directed by Kevin Macdonald (“The Last King of Scotland”). It was undergoing a rewrite by Tony Gilroy (“Michael Clayton”) and Peter Morgan (“The Queen”) before the WGA strike.

While Pitt has been notorious for dropping out of pictures at the last moment, his publicists claim he wanted to postpone shooting until after the strike.

Crowe – who is currently shooting Ridley Scott’s al-Qaeda/CIA-themed “Body of Lies” with Leonardo DiCaprio – is also prepping “Notingham” with Scott.

If Crowe turns down the role, Universal will likely go after Tom Hanks and Johnny Depp. Their strike movies (Ron Howard’s “The Da Vinci Code” prequel “Angels & Demons” and Mira Nair’s “Shantaram,” respectively) were also postponed.

“State of Play” already had the cast of Helen Mirren, Jason Bateman (reportedly playing a Mohawked “bisexual fetish club promoter”), Rachel McAdams and Robin Wright Penn lined up.

Nikki Finke off-handedly reported that Variety held off the story of Pitt’s exit for 10 days “at the request of Universal Pictures”.

‘White Jazz,’ ‘Killing Pablo’: Carnahan’s brother – director Joe Carnahan (“Narc,” “Smokin’ Aces”) – recently made two posts on his blog about the in-flux productions “White Jazz” and “Killing Pablo”.

“White Jazz” was adapted by both brothers from the James Ellroy “L.A. Quartet” novel.

The first post was simply a picture of Marvel’s Juggernaut, which was played in “X-Men: The Last Stand” by Vinnie Jones. He made a vague and playful inference that Jones was up for a role in either “White Jazz” or “Killing Pablo”.

Vinnie Jones.
Photo credit: IMDb
Jones – who was central in Guy Ritchie’s first two films – actually wasn’t in “Smokin’ Aces” (though it’s easy to mistake that film of Carnahan’s for one of Ritchie’s).

The second post pointed out that Christian Bale – who AICN has rumored to be playing John Conner in McG’s fourth “Terminator” – is still in “Killing Pablo”.

Christian Bale.
Photo credit: WireImage.com
Carnahan’s blog has been consistently entertaining and honest since George Clooney exited out of “White Jazz,” which then was set for a Jan. 2008 shoot date.

Carnahan even leaked the shooting scripts to “White Jazz” and “Killing Pablo” before being told hours later to take them down.

New ‘Eagle Eye’ FBI Agent: “Eagle Eye,” which has been shooting in Chicago, just added Ethan Embry (“Freakylinks,” “Brotherhood”) to its cast to play Rosario Dawson’s FBI partner.

Ethan Embry.
Photo credit: IMDb
In Other ‘Can’t Hardly Wait’ Alumni News: Lauren Ambrose will replace the voice of Michelle Williams in Spike Jonze’s adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s children’s book “Where the Wild Things Are”.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the filmmakers got along with Williams but felt her voice “didn’t match their original vision”.

Lauren Ambrose.
Photo credit: Theo Wargo, WireImage.com
The film co-stars Catherine Keener along with the voices of James Gandolfini, Forrest Whitaker, Tom Noonan, Paul Dano and Catherine O’Hara.

Written by Jonze, Michael Goldenberg and Dave Eggers (who is writing an adult novel adaptation), the film is to combine live action, computer animation and puppetry.

“Where the Wild Things Are” finished shooting in Dec. 2006 and is set for a fall 2008 release.

“Where the Wild Things Are”.
Photo credit: MTV
Ambrose is also set up to co-star with Parker Posey in Fox’s mid-season sitcom “The Return of Jezebel James” from “Gilmore Girls” creator Amy Sherman-Palladino.

The network did, however, reduce its show order (thus giving it this Fox seal of quality: probable fait accompli cancellation).

Hulk Smash: ComingSoon.net has posted new photos and video of “The Incredible Hulk” along with a first look at the smartly cast William Hurt as General Ross.

Zey Don’t Belong Here, Mozambique: MovieWeb has a spoiler-full and potentially obnoxious rumor about potential cameos in “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” by “old friends”.

Hint: They know sign language, and no, it isn’t the digitally generated ghost of Francois Truffaut.

By Shane Hazen
Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com