Tom Hanks to Debunk the Debunkers

Hanks, Paxton Address JFK: Tom Hanks’s Playtone Productions options Vincent Bugliosi’s epic, debunking Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Hanks, Gary Groetzman, and Bill Paxton will produce miniseries for HBO with aim of dismissing conspiracy theories about Dallas 1963. Bugliosi will help create accompanying documentary. We hope Oliver Stone makes a movie about cloak-and-dagger conspiracies inside HBO in retaliation. [Variety]

Jericho Officially Picked Up: Fan protest pays off as CBS officially renews once-canceled drama as midseason replacement. Fans stop sending CBS nuts, start sending us angry e-mails about our post yesterday calling the we’re-sure-carefully-selected nuts “random shit.� [HR]

Damon Off to Emerald City: Matt Damon is finalizing deal to star in director Paul Greengrass’s adaptation of Imperial Life in the Emerald City, Washington Post reporter Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s nonfiction about the day-to-day in Baghdad’s Green Zone. [Variety]

Spike Off to Italy: Spike Lee will direct World War II drama based on Miracle at St. Anna, James McBride’s nonfiction book about black soldiers in Italy. Lee tells Italian press he was inspired by a black Iwo Jima vet who complained to him about the lack of color in Clint Eastwood’s two war movies last year. We felt the same way about Eastwood’s washed-out cinematography! [Variety]

Perry, Madea Return: Tyler Perry will helm adaptation of his play Meet the Browns, again for Lionsgate. Popular Perry character Madea will be added to story of lonely single mother who meets the family of her baby’s father. Film shoots this fall at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta. We’re going to name our apartment Dan Kois Studios, just for fun. [Variety]

Disney Signs Stan Lee: Looking for new franchise characters, Disney signs first-look pact with Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment. Deal will not cover any of Lee’s old Marvel creations like Spider-Man or the Fantastic Four but will call on Lee to create new characters for Disney, such as ArachnoMan and the Fantabulous Five. [Variety]

Barton Finds t.A.T.u.: Mischa Barton will travel to Moscow to star in Roland Joffe’s Finding t.A.T.u., which sadly is not a biopic about the fabled teen soft-core lesbian pop duo. Disappointingly, the movie is a coming-of-age about an American teen in Moscow who befriends a local girl over their shared love of the band. [Variety]

Cannavale, Pill Topline Rebeck Play: Manhattan Theater Club’s fall production of Mauritius, Theresa Rebeck’s stamp-collecting drama (really!), will star Bobby Cannavale (Hurlyburly) and Allison Pill (Blackbird). Doug Hughes directs. A directors’ error will cause a single show of the Broadway run to be performed upside down; tickets to that evening’s performance will sell for $26,000. [Playbill]

Adichie, Connelly Win Orange Prizes: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wins $60,000 Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction for Half of a Yellow Sun. Canadian author Karen Connelly wins Orange’s new writers prize, worth $20,000, for The Lizard Cage. And Ethan Hawke continues to be shamefully ignored. [NYT]

Bright Eyes Go Orchestral: Conor Oberst’s band, Bright Eyes, will play show at Hollywood Bowl with the L.A. Philharmonic in September, raising fan hopes for a Decemberists-like full-orchestral tour. [Pitchfork]

The B-52s Are Back: Athens, Georgia, legends the B-52s have wrapped recording first album of new material in fifteen years, will now shop to record labels. Lead shouter Fred Schneider says new record includes notes of electronica and is “a bit sexed-up.� Cosmic! Oh, yeah! [Billboard]