Steve Carell Joins 'The Big Short'; Michael Keaton is 'The Founder'; Matthew McConaughey joins Music Comedy

With an Oscar nomination for his nose-worthy...er, noteworthy performance in Foxcatcher in the bag, Steve Carell is having a pretty good morning. And it gets even better as he joins the superstar ensemble of Adam McKay's financial and housing crisis drama, The Big Short. Starring Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling, and Christian Bale, the adaptation of Michael Lewis' book "chronicles multiple storylines and juggles various characters against the backdrop of the housing and credit bubbles of the 2000s that led to the 2007-08 global financial crisis." Carell will play money manager Steve Eisman, who shorted subprime mortgages. [THR]

Speaking of Oscar hopefuls, Michael Keaton is also in the Best Actor race for Birdman, and he too is closing in on a new project. He's entered talks to join John Lee Hancock's The Founder, about the early days of the McDonald's food chain. So if you were wondering how your greasy hamburger came to become so popular, this is the movie for you. The story tells "how Ray Kroc, a salesman from Illinois, met Mac and Dick McDonald, who were running a burger operation in 1950s Southern California. Kroc was impressed by the brothers' speedy system of making the food and saw franchise potential. He maneuvered himself into a position to be able to pull the company from the brothers and create a billion-dollar empire." [THR]

And Matthew McConaughey has lined up an untitled "music-driven event comedy" directed by Garth Jennings, the guy behind Son of Rambow. What's the plot? Nobody knows but hopefully we'll find out soon. [THR]

Read More

Banana! Universal Dates 'Despicable Me 3' and New Animated 'Grinch' Movie

Universal knows they struck gold with those mischievous yellow minions in Despicable Me, which is why they packed even more of them into last year's Despicable Me 2. The result was a whopping $935M worldwide (!!!), and an upcoming spinoff film appropriately titled Minions due out in 2015. So we already knew there would be a Despicable Me 3, only now we know when expect it.

Gru and the gang will return for Despicable Me 3 on June 30th 2017, so parents go ahead and mark your calendars. Universal revealed the date as part of a trio of announcements regarding their animation line with Illumination Studios. They also set their CG-animated remake of How the Grinch Stole Christmas for November 17th 2017, and an untitled project written and directed by Garth Jennings (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) for December 21st 2016. Chris Meledandri and Janet Healy will produce the Jennings film, which is vaguely described as an "original animated comedy event about courage, competition and carrying a tune". Yeah, okay.

So basically sequels and remakes rule the day over at Universal, which is frustrating but understandable. I'm interested in the Jennings project, just because of his history in the music video realm, but I have zero interest in another Grinch movie.

Read More