Between burgeoning Web series, original programming popping up on just about every network imaginable and Hollywood churning out big-screen eye candy, it’s tough to keep up with what’s out there. And as any self-confessed pop-culture maven knows, keeping up is key to owning that title.
So here are snippets of what to look forward to at the box office, on the tube, the Web or just in general with casting announcements and so forth. And plus, putting this all down helps us keep up with what’s going on in the world too!
Kicking off with the big screen, look for the Angelina Jolie spy thriller Salt to pull in good box office again this week, although it has to contend with the run-a-way hit, Christopher Nolan’s Inception, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and feisty little Ellen Page and with the American remake of a French film Dinner with Schmucks, which promises loads of gross-out shlubby guy humor – something I’ll be sure to miss.
In its first weekend Angie’s little kick-ass movie grossed $36.5 million while Leo’s blockbuster beat it with a cool $43.5 million gross.
Meanwhile, Focus Features appears to be doing just the right thing with its little lesbian film that could become big box office. The Kids Are All Right, Lisa Cholodenko’s controversial – in some circles—family film that features heavy hitters Julianne Moore and Annette Bening as a lesbian couple whose children decide to meet their donor dad (Mark Ruffalo), is set to open even wider this weekend.
For its third week in release the film added 163 screens and saw its box office take increase 148.8%. Kids has the highest per-screen average with $13,174 and to date and has grossed $4,963,000, according to Box Office Mojo.
Kids has earned a strong $5.8 million in the U.S. since launching July 9, after playing at Sundance and opening the Los Angeles Film Fest, says Variety.
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For the earnest cinephile there are a few indie and foreign gems playing at the local art house that feature strong women including the very bad ass Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander in The Girl who Played with Fire, Tilda Swinton in the Italian film I Am Love and Winters Bone, directed by Debra Granik.
In dream casting news Meryl Streep and Tina Fey are short listed to play mother and daughter in Sony Pictures Mommy & Me, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Perhaps Meryl will take on the Shirley Maclaine-esque role ala Postcards from the Edge, while Tina channels Meryl!
Broadway diva with the ‘beautiful brass trap’ --thank you Jack McFarland— Patti LuPone is a busy woman with two casting items. The Tony winner is set to appear in Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow’s The Miraculous Year for HBO, according to AfterElton. Miraculous Year is purportedly a family drama that centers on a gay male composing genius (Norbert Leo Butz), and LuPone will play a role close to home – a Broadway diva. Hope Davis, Frank Langella, Eddie Redmayne and Lee Pace round out the cast so far.
Next up, LuPone makes a return to Broadway in the big-time musical version of Pedro Almodovar’s 1988 farcical masterpiece, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. The production also stars Brian Stokes Mitchell, de’Adre Aziza, Nikka Graff Lanzarone, Mary Beth Peil and Sherie Rene Scott, with music by Jeffrey Lane, music and lyrics by David Yazbeck and helmed by Bartlett Sher, according to GreginHollywood.
Meanwhile, the musical sensation of the last decade, Wicked, is set to get the big screen treatment, and Glee golden boy, creator Ryan Murphy, is rumored to be on the short list to direct.
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The Glee front is news-heavy thanks to a slew of juicy bits dropped at Comic-Con last weekend. First up, and this is new to me, Glee will go Rocky Horror for an episode and do the “Time Warp.” Here's hoping Lea Michelle plays Janet. I'm already dreaming up her version of "Toucha, Toucha, Toucha Touch Me." There are already plenty of whispers about a Britney Spears themed episode but on the subject of Brittany's, Murphy teased at Comic-Con that Santana and Brittany may still enjoy a lesbian storyline. And speaking of women with big pipes and Wicked, Kristen Chenoweth and Idina Menzel are both slated to appear on the runaway hit Glee again this season.
There is good news for fans of cop procedurals on TNT! The Kyra Sedgwick starrer, The Closer, which is continually ranked as the number one cable series of all time will be back for a 7th season. Meanwhile, the summer hit Rizzoli and Isles starring a raspy-voiced, hardened Boston cop played by Angie Harmon and her oft-bespectacled coroner genius bff played by Sasha Alexander (those characters sound nothing like Holly Hunter and Laura SanGiacomo on Saving Grace), got picked up for another season, according to THR.
If you’ve ever wondered what 30 Rock’s The Girly Show might look like live, you will get your chance. NBC’s Emmy-dominating comedy 30 Rock is planning a live show for Oct. 14th. Tina Fey and the gang will perform the show twice, once for the east coast and once for the west, according to Entertainment Weekly. Those live Will & Grace episodes were classics and 30 Rock’s Alec Baldwin appeared on the first. So we know he can vamp. Plus Tina Fey and Tracy Morgan’s SNL days are apt to make this episode TV gold.
That’s the wrap for this week. Now go get watching. There’s not enough time in the world to keep up with it all!
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