Stuff You Need to Know, Friday, September 12, 2008

Ready for another I, Claudius? The rights have been picked up by Relativity Media. Jim Sheridan (My Left Foot) will co-scribe and direct. This of course was adapted twice before; the last time was with Derek Jacobi as Claudius, which is his signature role. Here’s the interesting bit from the article: the rights were bought last year by Scott Rudin, with William Monahan set to scribe (who co-scribed, huh, go figure, Edge of Darkness) and also Leonardo DiCaprio on board. But that fell apart. Source: Hollywood Reporter.

Doomsday Protocol is a script by Shane Salerno (Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem) about a group of aliens and humans who come together to save the Earth. The article doesn’t say from what, though. So we’ll assume that it’s another Cher farewell tour. Source: Hollywood Reporter.

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We mentioned last month about Edge of Darkness, which was to star Mel Gibson and Robert DeNiro. Now it will star Gibson and Ray Winstone, since DeNiro exited the project over “creative differences.” This will be the first time the two actors have appeared together on screen. Source: Variety.

Tuffley will have plenty of time to perfect his House costume: Hugh Laurie is getting paid well to stay on the series–an increase of $400K an episode for an annual take of about $9M. And his contract currently shows he’ll be on board the series through the 2011-12 season. He’s also going to get a producing credit with this season going forward. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer actor. Source: Hollywood Reporter.

The Men Who Stare at Goats sounds like it has the potential to be truly mental. No pun intended. George Clooney, who’s co-producing, is also starring. Ewan McGregor is a reporter who finds a former soldier in Iraq, played by Clooney, who was part of the military’s group of psychic soldiers and then reactivated following the attacks on 9/11. Jeff Bridges will play the founder of the program that created the psychic soldiers and Kevin Spacey is another former psychic soldier who’s in charge of a prison camp in Iraq. At least it’s not “The Men Who Stare at Goatse.” Because that would be wrong. Source: Hollywood Reporter.

Gordon Ramsay has gotten a helluva deal from Fox: two more seasons of Hell’s Kitchen; two more of Kitchen Nightmares; “a blind commitment for a third series”–which I interpret to mean “whatever the hell you want, Gordon”; and a live cooking special this season. And apparently the whatever the hell Gordon wants is an import of Man Camp from Channel 4: “a kind of boot camp for men whose ‘ladies are slightly concerned about how feminine they’re becoming,’ Ramsay explained. The series will put a group of men through physical and intellectual challenges, and by the time they’re done, ‘They’ll know how to cook for a living’ too, Ramsay said.” So basically Ramsay is now the R. Lee Ermey of cooking? Source: Variety.

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