Kelli Garner to Play Marilyn Monroe in Lifetime Miniseries

I've been a big fan of Kelli Garner since she starred in Larry Clark's true-crime drama, Bully, and have been waiting for her big moment to shine. Sadly, it hasn't really come yet despite a small role in The Aviator opposite Leonardo DiCaprio and a key role in Horns alongside Daniel Radcliffe. She even had her own TV series for a time in Pan Am, and although that didn't turn out so well she's about to get another shot. Garner has now lined up two projects, including one that will have her playing Hollywood icon, Marilyn Monroe.

Garner will star as Monroe in the Lifetime miniseries, Marilyn, which is based on the best-selling book The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe. She'll be joined by Susan Sarandon, and the story follows Marilyn "who walks red carpets in shimmering gowns while fighting a battle against demons she’s inherited from her mentally ill mother Gladys (Sarandon), whom she loves, hates and wants desperately to save. Marilyn becomes the Face and Voice of an era, yet wants most of all to be someone’s mother and someone’s little girl."  Laurie Collyer will direct from a script by The Kennedys writer, Stephen Kronish. Given Lifetime's track record this could turn out to be a disaster, but it's a role that will put a lot of attention on Garner and if she does well it should lead to bigger and better offers. [Deadline]

She's also signed on to star in the dramedy When I Live my Life Over Again, which stars Christopher Walken, Amber Heard, Oliver Platt, Hamish Linklater, and Ann Magnuson. Written and directed by Robert Edwards, the story centers on "Jude, the daughter of a famous crooner Paul Lombard who becomes her worst nightmare as he plots his big comeback." Garner and Heard in the same movie? Be still my heart.

So yes, I'll be watching both of these. [ScreenDaily]

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Mark Rylance is 'The B.F.G.'; Oliver Platt joins 'The 9th Life of Louis Drax'

After taking some time to settle on a post-Lincoln project, Steven Spielberg is now busy with a couple of them. He's currently filming his Cold War thriller that will star Tom Hanks, but at the same time he's casting up an adaptation of Roald Dahl's children's book, The B.F.G., and he's just landed 3-time Tony Award winner Mark Rylance to play the titular giant. Penned by Melissa Matheson (E.T.), the story follows a young girl who befriends a "big friendly giant" and with help from the Queen of England they set out to stop much meaner giants who like to bite humans.

Oliver Platt and Molly Parker have joined The 9th Life of Louis Drax, the odd film about a 9-year-old boy who suffers a near-fatal accident every single year. Jamie Dornan, Sarah Gadon, and Aaron Paul star, with the film marking the first screenplay by Max Minghella. He's reteaming with his Horns director Alexandre Aja on the project. 

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Ken Jeong Boards 'Ride Along 2'; Oliver Platt Joins 'Bessie'; 'Chef' Adds Sam Keely

* Ken Jeong has joined Ice Cube, Kevin Hart, and Olivia Munn for Ride Along 2, the sequel to this year's buddy cop comedy that broke $150M at the box office. He'll play "a cocky computer hacker who fancies himself a ladies man but who also is key in solving the case that Cube and Hart are working on." While this could possibly be very irritating having Jeong and Hart sharing scenes together, this will be the rare time when Jeong can look down on somebody. [THR]

* HBO is adding some familiar faces to the cast of Bessie, Queen Latifah and Dee Rees' biopic on blues singer, Bessie Smith. Oliver Platt has come aboard the film along with Bryan Greenberg (How to Make It In America) and Tory Kittles (True Detective), with Latifah as the iconic singer who became known as the Empress of the Blues for her acclaimed performances in the 1920s and '30s. Platt will play photographer and writer Carl Van Vechten, Kittles is Bessie brother Clarence, and Greenberg is renowned record producer and music critic John Hammond  [Deadline]

* That other Chef movie, the one led by Bradley Cooper, continues to add a number of promising ingredients to the pot. Cooper, Sienna Miller, and Omar Sy have now been joined in the kitchen by Irish actor Sam Keely. Keely's a rising star who has a role in Ron Howard's In the Heart of the Sea and the upcoming sequel Monsters: Dark Continent. Chef, which hopefully will undergo a name change to avoid confusion, has Cooper as a Parfs chef who loses everything because of his hard partying ways. After sobering up he assembles a team to start anew by heading a restaurant that can earn the coveted 3-star Micheline rating.

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Jeremy Renner Takes on the CIA in First 'Kill the Messenger' Trailer

As issues of national security, whistleblowing, and the freedom of information are more prevalent than ever thanks to the continued chatter of one Edward Snowden, a movie like Kill the Messenger couldn't be more timely. And while we've seen many movies dealing with this subject of late, such as last year's underwhelming The Fifth Estate, this one has the benefit of Jeremy Renner in the lead role as a man who went head-to-head with the CIA and lost everything.

Renner plays real-life journalist Gary Webb in the first Kill the Messenger trailer, which looks like a cracking good political thriller. Webb was a writer for the San Jose Mercury News whose series of "Dark Alliance" articles exposed the CIA's connection to Nicaraguan drug smugglers. For those reports he was smeared in the media, ruining his personal and professional life with tragic consequences. Renner is surrounded by a great cast including Rosemarie DeWitt, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Barry Pepper, Paz Vega, Michael K. Williams, Michael Sheen, Oliver Platt, and Ray Liotta.

Directed by Homeland's Michael Cuesta, Kill the Messenger opens October 10th.

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Review: 'Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return' Starring Lea Michele, Patrick Stewart, and Martin Short

Oh the Wizard of Oz. That first story about the little Kansas girl and her dog being swept away to a magical land has surely lasted the test of time. A completely American fairy tale it’s been able to spawn so many books and adaptations. Last year we got the live action prequel Oz the Great and Powerful and this past season on TV with Once Upon A Time added the Wicked Witch of the West (don’t ask me how that works with the Disney princess stuff). I guess with this whole resurgence of interest in Oz someone decided they needed to also combine with another trend of 3D CG animated family movies and that’s how we got Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return.

Now here’s the thing; this isn’t based on any of L. Frank Baum’s many books that happen after The Wizard of Oz, it instead uses some out of canon story by his great Grandson Roger Stanton Baum. Now I can’t say if that book is good but I do notice that no one talks about many of the sequels that aren’t considered canon and I don’t think many people will be talking about the movie either. This movie is a mess and to be honest a lot of CG films this year just haven’t been that good but this might be the worst one I’ve seen all year. This film is completely forgettable and really uninteresting to look at with some of the flattest 3D to be done in the cinema all year.

The story of the film is that in Oz time a few years have passed and Oz has fallen prey to a new threat called the Jester, who is using the Wicked Witch of the West's broomstick and a magical Orb to terrorize all of Oz.  The Jester also captures all the leaders of Oz and turned them in marionettes. The Scarecrow, along with his friends the Tin Man and the Courageous Lion, find a way to contact and bring Dorothy back to Oz. For Dorothy the entire original adventure in Oz just happened a day a go but once she returns to Oz she has to complete another journey and make a new trio of friends to defeat this new magical bad guy.

Basically this whole story retreads the same type of journey seen in the classic 'Oz'. This time she meets a big, really brainy Owl named Wiser who really has no confidence. Then a solider of Candy County called Marshal Mallow who doesn’t know how to think for himself, and she meets the China Doll Princess, who must learn to not be so demanding and mean, a tired old princess trope seen many times before. Then the last person they encounter is an old talking tree who they turn into a boat called Tugg. The whole movie is 88 minutes of what feels like either a direct to DVD release bumped up to prime-time or three half an hour cartoons poorly tied together. Half the movie is singing with songs that really don’t help or move the plot along at all. There are points where you start to get into the story just a little bit before some annoying song starts blaring out of the speakers leaving you asking why and what’s happening. The vocal performances are decent with the singing all done very well since it’s by Broadway performers and people from Glee and Smash.

To what I said earlier the design of the movie is completely uninteresting. Most of the character designs are pretty generic or coming from old CG movies. Most of the lighting is very flat and the texture at time really didn’t bring any depth or sense of believability to the world or characters. It felt like watching in game cut scenes from launch era GameCube games. There was one short scene that the crew did a fantastic job and it’s where Marshal Mallow gets tricked into asking the China Doll Princess to marry him and even though it’s short it’s the only time I sat there and was like wow these folks did a bang up job making this. The 3D is also a waste if makes a lot of the film very blurry and darker than normal for 3D movies and again nothing really pops out. I took off my glasses a bunch of times while watching and it and I lost nothing. The 3D actually makes Wiser look the worst since his edges of his feathered body is always blurry.

So as you can see I’m not too fond of this movie at all. I don’t think you should waste your time with this unless you have a kid so into the Wizard of Oz that they will annoy you until you past out. This is something to me that so bad you shouldn’t even waste a red box on. With all the options out there just go watch the old movie or read them the book or even the comic adaptations. In the end when I walked out I felt like I just watched a failed Broadway musical that got turned into a failed animated movie that no one else should have to suffer through. 

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New Trailer for 'Lucky Them' Starring Toni Collette and Thomas Haden Church

Toni Collette did a lot of flirting and partying on her underrated Showtime series, The United States of Tara, a show that I miss dearly. She's settled a little bit into comfortable, more mature roles, like in last year's The Way Way Back, so for me it's good to see her have fun again in the trailer for Lucky Them, a road trip dramedy co-starring Thomas Haden Church.

Directed by Megan Griffiths (Eden), the film has Collette as a hard-partying rock music journalist who is too busy bagging young musicians than doing her job. She's given one last chance to prove her worth by teaming up with a documentary filmmaker (Church) to discover the truth behind the disappearance of rock god Matthew Smith, who also happens to be her ex-boyfriend.

Lucky Them opens in limited release on May 30th.

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Bruce Willis is 'Captive'; Aubrey Plaza Joins 'Mortdecai'; Elijah Wood 'Sets Fire to the Stars'

* Bruce Willis can still pack 'em in, especially for the most tired of action movies, and he's just added another one in hopes of getting more of your money. He'll star in the boringly-titled Captive (*yawn*), about "an American real estate magnate living in Brazil who is kidnapped and held for ransom at a prison cell hidden in a Sao Paolo landfill while a detective specializing in ransom cases tries to find him." Directing is Simon Brand, who helmed the mediocre "whodunnit" Unknown. [Variety]

* Production on the Johnny Depp-led comedy Mortdecai has moved to Los Angeles, and along with it a handful of promising new additions have been made to the cast. Aubrey Plaza, Jeff Goldblum, and Oliver Platt have joined Depp, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ewan McGregor, Olivia Munn, and Paul Bettany in the adaptation of Kyril Bonfiglioli's books about the titular art dealer and part-time rogue who goes off on a quest involving a stolen painting and missing Nazi gold. David Koepp is directing, and with this cast Mortdecai could be Depp's best film in years.

* Elijah Wood will play famed poet John Michael Brinnin in the indie drama, Set Fire to the Stars.  Andy Goddard (Downton Abbey) will co-write and direct the story which chronicles Brinnin's friendship with Welsh writer Dylan Thomas, played by Celyn Jones. Thomas led a turbulent life led by his personal demons and a stormy marriage, and I suspect the bulk of the film will deal with how Brinnin tried to help his friend through it. Production begins later this month.

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Trailer Time: 'The Oranges', starring Hugh Laurie and Leighton Meester

For awhile there it seemed as if we'd never get a release date for The Oranges, even as it debuted at last year's TIFF to some pretty good buzz. Word has been quiet on the film ever since, odd considering the level of talent involved, but now with an October release date approaching, we're getting a look at a new trailer which shows off a clever mix of humor, longing, and a touch of heartbreak.

Featuring a stellar cast that includes Hugh Laurie, Allison Janney, Leighton Meester, Oliver Platt, Adam Brody, Alia Shawkat, and Catherine Keener, the dramedy follows the suburban Wailing and Ostroff families. Neighbors and best friends for years, things get a little touchy when dad David Wailing(Laurie) falls for the Ostroff's daughter(Meester) when she returns home for Thanksgiving. Getting beyond the "ick" factor of seeing Dr. House making out with the Gossip Girl chick, their relationship has all the awkwardness and fresh excitement you'd expect. I can see the potential for this film to go a little over-the-top, but with a cast like this they should be able to keep it in check. Julian Farino(Entourage) is directing, with The Oranges set for a limited theatrical run on October 5th. Check out the trailer below....

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Snap Judgements: Please Give

Nicole Holofcener has been driving me to the cliff of insanity with her movies for years. The writer/director of such Lovely & Amazing, Walking & Talking, and Friends with Money, her films are always superbly cast but devoid of real emotion. You can always find Catherine Keener entrenched in the middle somewhere, pulling grunt duty trying to bring any emotional weight she can to Holofcener's consistent story of upper middle class W.A.S.P. angst. I look at the director as the female version of Guy Ritchie. Not that she makes action flicks, but in that if I strung all of her films together without breaks you'd never know the difference. They all look and feel the same. Please Give is no different, but in its attempt to explore the contradictions and hypocracies of its characters it is absolutely her best work to date.

Kate(Keener) and Alex(Oliver Platt) spend way too much together. Afterall they are married, with a teenage daughter suffering from bad skin and chronic insecurity. They own a high-end furniture store in Manhattan, buying up the merchandise of the deceased then marking them up to ridiculous prices for sale. It's a scummy job, but apparenly somebody's gotta do it. Adding to the yuck factor is their vulture-like hovering over their next door neighbor, an elderly woman named Andra. Kate and Alex have an agreement that when she finally kicks the bucket they get first dibs on her apartment, which will become part of an expansion. She's a feisty old goat, though, tended to by her loving granddaughter, Rebecca(Rebecca Hall). The other granddaughter, Mary(Amanda Peet), is a shallow, superficial facialist who never holds back from showing her hatred towards Andra. 

Kate doesn't know how to feel. She adores her upper class lifestyle, but simulanteously feels guilty when confronted by those who are less fortunate. Yet she continues to take advantage of those very same people. She deprives her own daughter, preferring to give money to strangers than family. Her relationship with Alex is less husband/wife and more co-worker/buddy, and she's starting to wonder if it'll ever be the way it used to be.

After about twenty minutes I was tempted to walk out of the theater, not willing to sit through another Holofcener whine fest. Then a funny thing happened and these characters started to become real. My biggest problem with her work isn't necessarily that she's a poor writer or the acting is awful, but that we're never really given a reason to care. Not that the  problems of the upper class are any less burdensome than anybody else's, but we need to be shown why we should even try to relate. These are all very shallow people, and their problems don't go beyond the surface level. Kate is the only one who recognizes her own nature, and that recognition further erodes her self-confidence. It's not a role that I'm used to seeing Catherine Keener play, which might be why it struck such a chord with me. I wish all of the other characters got the attention that Kate does. Unfortunately most of their ventures don't get much screen time and never amount to much. I'd like to say that Rebecca Hall continues her streak of stand out performances, but her character is too much the reverse of everybody else. Where they are all hatable, she's way too saintly to be believed.

Please Give isn't exactly a walk in the park. It's not cheerful at all, and most of the characters are either loathsome or pitiful. But they are fun to watch as they crash about in their shallow lives, and there's even the possibility of a happy ending if you look closely enough.

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