Big Screen Little Screen

The Weinstein Company will take the 1980s Jim Henson property Fraggle Rock to the theaters in live-action musical form, reports Variety. Just as Forgetting Sarah Marshall director and star Nick Stoller and Jason Segel have been lined up by Disney to oversee another Muppet Movie, the Weinsteins have entrusted the cave-dwelling Fraggles to a relatively unproven talent in Cory Edwards, who has but the 2005 animated feature, Hoodwinked! to his credentials as a director. In the film, the Fraggles - consisting of characters from the original production - will be removed from their natural habitat and interact with humans, who mistake them for aliens. Edwards will also write the screenplay for the Jim Henson Company produced feature.

A day after getting serious with Morley Safer (Defamer) - until the line about being “a young man” by “60 Minutes correspondent terms” - Alec Baldwin counterbalances with The Hollywood Reporter, talking up his upcoming pilot: “a hybrid between Star Trek, Falcon Crest, and Girls Gone Wild.”

Former “modeling” dabbler and current “reality” show “celebrity” Audrina Patridge is the “first” participant of MTV’s The Hills to land “an acting job.” Partridge will join the cast of Into the Blue 2, the newest installment in the “prestigious” “franchise,” as “a no-nonsense, beautiful beach babe whose boyfriend caters to her every command.” (Hollywood Reporter)

You would have thought that David Chase - seven-time Emmy winner and creative parent to The Rockford Files, Northern Exposure, and The Sopranos - would have had a shot at a feature by now - whether by choice or by lack of opportunities, he hasn’t yet taken that leap in his thirty-plus years in the business. Yesterday, Paramount Pictures announced that Chase will finally get his shot - writing, producing, and directing his first film, which will not be a continuation of The Sopranos, and has only been described as “an original drama.” (L.A. Times)

“I was always fascinated by the infinite, strange and ‘scandalous’ ways
that insects copulate.”

Green Porno - Isabella Rossellini directed and starred in these eight, minute long shorts for the Sundance Channel. The network approached Rossellini to create experimental videos for small, mobile screens, and she came back to them with insect world Sex Ed spots: all Bjork-like, green minded head-scratchers that might be considered obscene if they weren’t so goddamn cute. See the internationally fawned-over actress costumed as a randy earthworm, dragonfly, and more, offering astute bug wisdom like “If I were a firefly, I would light up my ass at night.” (via Indie Eye)

NPR’s Ira Glass has another season of This American Life (Showtime) primed for television. Premieres Sunday, May 4. This evening, Glass is also hosting a one-time live version of TAS, broadcast via satellite to select theaters. Locate and contact for tickets.

Previously: Season 1 review

Diversional

Whether NBC was trying to improve the ratings for Deal or No Deal, or George W is immaterial - either way it backfired.  Ratings for the April 21 show featuring Bush’s videotaped appearance tied Deal’s worst ever Monday numbers, and were 27 percent below the season average. (Video/via Think Progress)

Jimmy Fallon and NBC have come to an agreement which will place him in Conan O’Brien’s late night spot after Conan takes over The Tonight Show next year, possibly as soon as in January. The official announcement from NBC is expected to come on May 12th. Though “retiring” from his job at The Peacock, Jay Leno is in play for upcoming gigs at either ABC or Fox. (Hollywood Reporter)

David Chase has already alluded to what really happened to Tony Soprano, but what about the frozen Russian that got away from Christopher and Paulie Walnuts? Chase answers that, and discloses twenty or so other crumbs of Sopranos trivia that you didn’t know that you needed to know. (On The Air)

– Bill Cosby joins Chris Rock, Steve Harvey, George Wallace, Paul Mooney and Katt Williams for the Robert Townsend-directed documentary, Why We Laugh: Black Comedians on Black Comedy. (Hollywood Reporter)

– Soderberg’s Che Guevara double header, Woody’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and Clint Eastwood’s Changeling headline some of the American entries to debut at Cannes, but I’ve got a one track mind about (former Spike Jonze & Michel Gondry collaborator) Charlie Kaufman’s directorial debut with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Synecdoche, New York. (The Guardian)

– Uma Thurman hints around about the two anime companion films that are rumored to part of the grande Kill Bill DVD re-release. (MTV News)

– Ricky Gervais in the much anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV? (Paste)

– “Tina Fey-tigue” on the horizon (via Risky Biz)

Like the 60 year-old Larry David and 72 year-old Woody Allen, this photo of Larry and Evan Rachel Wood on the set of Woody’s new, untitled New York film  (via Spout, more at DListed) has been around the block a few times. Late pass me/and or yourself.  Woody (who will also appear in the film) has been on another dry spell since Match Point (honestly, did you or anyone you know head out to see the stealthy Cassandra’s Dream release?), but if anyone can play the requisite Woody Allen stand-in and deliver at least a third-base run, it’s Larry David.

Battlestar Galactica co-creator, writer, and producer Ronald D. Moore has made a deal with Tom Cruise’s revamped United Artists to begin work on penning a new sci-fi trilogy for the big screen. Moore has previously written and produced for several Star Trek TV iterations in the nineties, along with Roswell and Carnivàle. (Variety)

Stand-up comic Louis C.K. and Pamela Adlon, former stars of HBO’s Lucky Louie, are reteaming for another multicamera sitcom - this time for CBS. HBO cancelled Louie - a raunchy, male-nudity friendly comedy shot in front of a live audience - after its first season, citing bad ratings. Less than favorable reviews from critics didn’t sit well with the network either.

C.K. and Adlon get co-writer/co-creator/co-star credits for the new, untitled project for CBS, about “a married couple who have been together too long and have too many children.” (Hollywood Reporter)

Due to the writers strike, the series on HBO’s regular summer slate (Big Love, Entourage, Flight of the Conchords) have been delayed. To help fill the void in programming, the cable network has scheduled original documentaries to air every Monday from June until the end of August, beginning with Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired. The doc looks at the controversial Rosemary’s Baby director who fled from the U.S. to France after pleading guilty to statutory rape of a 13-year old girl in 1977. The full summer doc schedule, from Variety:

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired (June 9)
Resolved (June 16)
Hard Times at Douglass High: A No Child Left Behind Report Card (June 23)
Section 60: Arlington National Cemetery (June 30).
The Art of Failure: Chuck Connelly’s Not for Sale (July 7)
China’s Stolen Children (July 14)
Heidi Fleiss: The Would-Be Madam of Crystal (July 21)
The Recruiter (July 28)
Baghdad High (Aug. 4)
We Are Together: The Children of Agape Choir (Aug. 11)
Ganja Queen (Aug. 18)
The Black List, Vol. 1 (Aug. 25)

Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz has found room for former cast members Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Henry “The Fonz” Winkler for voice roles in his animated sitcom in development for Fox, entitled Sit Down, Shut Up. Based on a live-action series in Australia from back in 2000, Hurwitz’s version, centered around the politics and personal lives of a high school staff, will also employ the vocal talents of Cheri Oteri, Will Forte, Regina King, Nick Kroll, Tom Kenny and Maria Bamford. (Hollywood Reporter)

“I’ve never discussed a movie possibility for ‘The Hills’…and I’m not sure if for my first movie I’d let Lauren Conrad narrate me, so I don’t think that would be something I would do.”

“If I was doing movies, I’d want it to be with Denzel Washington or something like that. If they were to make a ‘Hills’ movie, I wouldn’t be in it. No, thank you.”

“The perfect movie I want to do is like [Jennifer Garner’s character] Sydney Bristow on ‘Alias.’ I want to be, like, an action star. I want a big gun. Like Angelina Jolie roles. I want to be the badass.” - The Hills “Star” Heidi Montag (MTV Movies)

Birth Control Glasses still required (Variety)

Craig Ferguson’s Late Late Show saw its very first week at the top of the ratings as Late Night with Conan O’Brien slumped. Ferguson was first in viewership four out of five nights last week, averaging 1.88 million viewers while Conan averaged 1.77 million. I find myself catching Ferguson’s opening by default, as the lead-in host to Conan’s late nighter is a nonstarter. (NYT)

Eating disorders are OK - beef panties, and batshit crazy Tyra Banks won’t melt your child’s brain - but a blurred out nude photoshoot with America’s Next Top Model hopeful Anya is where the Parents Television Council draws the line. (Time)

“We had my birthday party in L.A. at this club called Funky Reggae. There was this girl dancing like mad on a speaker. I said, ‘Will you please get down before you break your neck and I get sued?’ She cursed me out. I never heard a voice like that. I said, ‘What’s your name?’ She said, ‘Rosie Perez.’ That’s where I got the idea that Mookie should have a Puerto Rican girlfriend.” - Spike Lee looks back on Do the Right Thing, the in-movie campaign against Ed Koch, and getting overlooked because of “Driving Miss Motherfucking Daisy.” In another segment, he relates Scorsese’s Oscar for The Departed to a “makeup call in basketball.” (New York Magazine)

– Related: The woefully missed Miss Perez will follow up an appearance in Pineapple Express by joining Geena Davis for the CBS drama Exit 19.

– Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain) is developing the psychological thriller Riverview Towers for AMC - another series (after critical hit Mad Men) passed on by HBO. (HR)

– Why you should buy the There Will Be Blood single disc DVD and skip the double disc special edition. (via Row Three)

– Jeffrey Wells rounds up the speculation surrounding Steven Soderbergh and his Che Guevera double dips starring Benicio Del Toro - The Argentine, and Guerilla.

– The Weinstein Brothers need another controversy like they need two pairs of skinny jeans: Nikke Finke diagrams the lead-up to the Project Runway defection from Bravo to Lifetime.

– Flickr’d: Steve Zisso and company in The Lego Aquatic. (via Kottke)