Stuff You Need to Know, Friday, June 20, 2008

The director of Atlas Shrugged has been shunted from the project, so Cinematical reports. I’m in favor of this. Maybe the next director can jettison the screenwriter, in favor of somebody who’s actually read the book–and understood it. In the interview I read with him, I got the feeling that Randall Wallace figured he could make up a new ending to the book, because surely no one’s finished a book that size, right? Surely not… Found via Atlasphere.

Disney parks are being Dixarified. Don’t panic, because the Pixar folks have been working closely on the projects. Okay, well, it is Disney. I suppose a little panic is warranted.

Hedviga Golik was last seen in 1966. She was found this past May sitting in front of her television, dead for forty-two years. All I can say is that some people took the cancellation of The Donna Reed Show harder than others.

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That Jonah Hex photo? Apparently Thomas Jane is such a fanboy that he did it himself and has nothing to do with the actual movie. So says Shock Till You Drop and Film School Rejects. He must truly be a comic geek. Nicolas Cage, to our knowledge anyway, never engaged in staging shots of himself as any of the heroes he was once attached to play: including but not limited to Superman, Green Lantern, and Bat-Mite. The time he dressed up as Katchoo from Strangers in Paradise was just for fun, he claims.

Dear Keira Knightley. I apologize on behalf of my country.

There’s nothing more frustrating that Hollywood Reporter beating you to a perfectly good line: “Who knew that shtupping Matt Damon and Ben Affleck could be such a career booster?” Wayne McClammy, the guy who directed and co-wrote “I’m Fucking Matt Damon” and “I’m Fucking Ben Affleck” has sold a script he co-wrote to MGM: Le Car. And he’s on board to direct Cool School at Fox. Feuds seem to mean lots of web traffic. Considering how much the staff here and I try to kill each other, you’d think we’d be top of the charts. Oh well.

A public school teacher in Mount Vernon, Ohio is alleged to have been a religious whackjob, going so far as to burn crosses in the skin of his students. A friend said, “I believe John Freshwater is teaching the values of the parents in the Mount Vernon school district.” If this were true, then that would really suck to find out too late that the parents of that district were also whackjobs, wouldn’t it? It would be like waking up and realizing you’ve bought a house on Summerisle.

The Mummy 3‘s stealth marketing campaign has finally failed. One month from release, I’ve heard of its existence. Now there are months of mockery to catch up on. But hey–at least this trailer (exclusive to…Papa John’s?!) gives away the major plot points so you can avoid seeing it. But you’ll see it. Don’t deny it.

Gene Persson, one-half of the creative team that brought you You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, has passed away at age 74 due to a heart attack. “At the time of his death he had been working on a new musical stage version of ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas.'” That would be cool, with or without OutKast’s involvement. Our condolences go out to his family.

Harry Shearer is to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame next year.

Martha Stewart has been denied entry to the UK because of her criminal record. This in direct response, no doubt, to the United States turning Russell Brand away recently because of his “record.” Ah, international diplomacy. It’s a fine art.