How has he not been put in director jail yet? It’s a wonder with his reputation as being a ego maniacal, tyrant and difficult prick that David O. Russell still is allowed to make movies, but someone still trusts this notorious nutcase. James Marsden, Catherine Keener and Tracy Morgan are about to join the cast of his political comedy, “Nailed.” The film stars Jessica Biel as a socially awkward, uninsured receptionist who accidentally gets shot in the head with a nail. She goes to Washington on a crusade to fight for the rights of the bizarrely injured and meets an immoral congressman played by Jake Gyllenhaal who takes advantage of her sexually and politically. “Nailed” was written with Al Gore’s daughter, Kristin. Marsden will play Biel’s small-town boyfriend, Keener will play a “self-serving congresswoman,” and it’s unclear what Morgan’s role will be other than presumably bringing the funny.It sounds light and amusing. Let’s hope it’s better than the overrated disaster that was “I Heart Huckabees.” [Hollywood Reporter]
Guy Ritchie’s upcoming crime caper “RocknRolla” is going to be turned into a trilogy? According to ‘Rolla’ star Thandie Newton, that’s the plan. “It’s one of three films and Guy’s keen to get going on that straight away. [The second and third films in the series] are going to be excellent. I can’t wait,” she said, but advised that don’t expect to see all of the cast – Gerard Butler, Jermey Piven, Ludacris, Tom Wilkinson, Idris Elba (“The Wire”s Stringer Bell), Toby Kebbell (the breakout star of “Control“) – return for the sequels. “Well I managed to get away, but a quite a lot of them died,” Newton laughed of her doomed co-stars. “[The sequel] will follow whoever’s left.” RocknRolla is due later this year in the fall. [MTV]
“Juno” director Jason Reitman has a new script on the way that he hopes to direct later this year. What’s it called? What’s it about? The Oscar-nominated filmmaker is being coy, but did reveal a few things. “It’s a comedy and a drama [book adaptation],” he said. “Think ‘Thank You for Smoking,’ but instead of political it’s corporate.”Anyone got any guesses? Was this this the script he was working on that he abandoned after he read Diablo Cody’s “Juno” script and decided he had to drop everything he was doing and immediately get on board the project? Meanwhile, Reitman also teased Cody’s next project, the horror-teen comedy “Jennifer’s Body” (which he is producing). “Well, we’ve got Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried getting into a fight in their underwear. That’ll be fun.”[MTV] We’re not the only ones that think Ben Stiller’s upcoming war comedy, “Tropic Thunder” looks ridiculously bad. A Hollywood Insider pal of Jeffery Wells’ has read the script and said, “It’s surprisingly primitive. It’s a really uninspired execution of a terrific premise. Here’s hoping they improvised some better material on set.” Gee, that sounds almost exactly like what we said. [Hollywood Elsewhere]