LATE NIGHT HIGHLIGHTS

Attention late night viewers! Tonight, NBC will air the last episode of the Jay Leno Show. You may not have known since NBC has spent no money saying “Goodbye Primetime Jay!” (or finding goodbye-quality guests — tomorrow, Jay will chat with Ashton Kutcher) since he’ll be returning to the network in a month. But we here at Movieline recognize that our 10 PM nightmare is nearly over and the celebrations will be aplenty. Beginning with another one of Jay’s patented “Earn Your Plug” segments — remarkable and unremarkable at the same time for its gratuitous use of Carrot Top. That gem, as well as the other after hours highlights you missed while dreaming about your future American Idol reign, after the jump.

Continued

Superman

Warner Brothers has reportedly arrived at an executive decision on what to do with the man from Krypton, nearly four years after Bryan Singer’s limp-fisted, Maury-rrific knockoff of the original did little to reinvigorate the brand. Deadline says Christopher Nolan will serve as a “godfather” figure on Superman Reboots 2. But who will be kissing his ring and pledging to darken things up by detonating Lois Lane with 500 tons of plastic explosives? Here’s five directors who could save the seemingly hopeless franchise:

Continued

Gym, Tanning, Lanai

The producers of MTV’s breakout hit Jersey Shore have been dealing with a season two conundrum over the last month — and it wasn’t just the cost of reuniting the show’s cast members, who currently command five-figure appearance fees to judge the Sammy’s Hot Wings Contest at the Twin Cities Promenade food court. The bigger issue was where the series should shoot its next installment, since it would be too hard to pull off another summer at the titular shore, yet some of the other suggested locales might mess with the show’s patented bikinis-and-bronzer aesthetic. Now, Movieline can confirm that Jersey Shore has committed to its season two setting: South Beach.

Continued

The Movieline Interview

jeff_bridges_ch_preem_top.jpgAfter four previous tries at Oscar glory and even more seminal roles the Academy overlooked (seriously, how did The Dude ever miss the cut?), Jeff Bridges is finally the presumptive front-runner for this year’s Best Actor prize. His turn in Crazy Heart as Bad Blake — a broken-down country singer on the slow rebound to redemption — has stimulated both the awards cognoscenti and moviegoers alike, and the film enjoyed a successful expansion in its first weekend after its nominations (also including Maggie Gyllenhaal) were announced.

Foreseeable as Bridges’s selection was and his likely win remains, Movieline nevertheless caught up with the busy 60-year-old hustling on the Oscar trail. There, he enlightened us on how campaigning has changed over four decades, the difference a great director makes, the tech-y allure of Tron and why reporters sometimes sleep with their subjects — in the movies, anyway.

Continued

The Big Bang Theory

Forget biopics and The Theater: Viral videos are the new frontier for actors who want to prove they’re not run-of-the-mill thespians stuck in an ensemble world. Jim Parsons, the pop-eyed star of The Big Bang Theory, plays over 30 different characters in this cancer awareness PSA called “Up2 You + Me,” whose title alone makes me want to rave un2 the year 2000. Caution: The level of acting here is somewhere between Peter Sellers and Eddie Murphy, but I can’t say for sure where.

Continued

Written by S.T. VanAirsdale | 09 Feb 2010, 8:30 AM | 1 comment

The Cove: Big in Japan?: cove_japan_ql.jpgThe Oscar-nominated documentary The Cove hasn’t been so warmly received by the Japanese commercial fishing industry, members of which the film features brutally, secretly slaughtering scores of dolphins off the country’s coast. And now, after a year of battling threats and intimidation, the film’s producers have released a statement announcing a deal to take the film directly to the Japanese people in April. It’s the first time many Japanese will have heard about the mercury-poisoned dolphin meat that results from the annual “dolphin cull” in Taiji; the country’s Flipperburger market will never be the same. Oh, and awards oddsmakers take note: This is the kind of real-world impact that stretches Oscar leads to virtually insurmountable lengths.

Bedtime Stories

jay_leno_joke_recap.jpgWhile David Letterman’s fast-and-loose broadcast Monday night (“Where’s Drew Brees? Oh? The Lincoln Tunnel? What are we doing now? Top-10 list, ladies and gentlemen!”) paid only glancing tribute to his already legendary Super Bowl commercial, his friend-turned-rival-turned-collaborator Jay Leno wasn’t quite as coy in recalling the top-secret behind-the-scenes details. In a short aside during his penultimate 10 p.m. broadcast, Leno walked viewers through the strategy, subterfuge and image-salvaging dynamics of his stunning reunion with his “old friend.”

Continued

TV BITES

JackBauer225.jpg· Fox executives are in the preliminary stages of planning Jack Bauer’s feature film crossover, but before they push forward, they are waiting to see how 24 performs the next few weeks. Based on those ratings, the network will either extend the series into a ninth season or hit the gas on the 24 movie with the help of Flightplan scribe Billy Ray. The rumored setting of Jack Bauer’s film foray: Europe. There’s no word yet on how filmgoers will respond to a 24-hour movie; test results are expected sometime soon. [EW]

Paul Reiser returns to NBC, another Friday Night Lights alum finds work, and more TV Bites after the jump.

Continued

Written by S.T. VanAirsdale | 09 Feb 2010, 6:50 AM | 3 comments

Alan Alda Not Bitter About Fallen M*A*S*H Record: alda_ql.jpgOK, maybe he’s a little bitter. After Super Bowl XLIV eclipsed the 1983 M*A*S*H series finale to become the most-watched television broadcast ever, the show’s former star acknowledged, “If they broke our record, I’m happy for New Orleans and I hope it gives even more to cheer about to a city I love.” If, Alan? “I know it sounds evil to mention,” Alda continued, “but how does Nielsen know how many actual people were watching either broadcast?” At least he toed a classier company line than former co-star Wayne Rogers, who commented, “That Super Bowl is never going to earn what M*A*S*H earned, that’s for sure, because there’s no reruns for that Super Bowl — nobody’s going to be interested in that, and M*A*S*H reruns have been on for 30 years.” Don’t tell that to the NFL Network, which is already rerunning the game today. [LAT]

Hollywood Ink

broken_oscars.JPG· Seemingly half the A-list actresses in Hollywood got new projects Monday, with the most amusing casting news potentially pairing Penelope Cruz with Lars von Trier for his disaster-psychology film Melancholia. Not much is known about the lead role itself, and von Trier’s apparent acknowledgment comes through translations of European media sources, so who even knows? In any language this would be spectacular, particularly reading and hearing Cruz’s subsequent comparisons of the misogynistic Dane with actress’s-best-friend Pedro Almodovar. Make history, Penny! [The Playlist]

Kate Winslet, Katherine Heigl, Cate Blanchett and others sign on elsewhere, Terminator is sold (and not to whom you’d think), and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.

Continued