Courtesy of HarperCollins
Once They Think Up a Story and Some Characters, ‘Dangerous Book for Boys’ Coming to the Big Screen
Rudin Loves Dangerous Book: Scott Rudin and Disney option The Dangerous Book for Boys, best-seller about the lost art of getting in trouble by Conn and Hal Iggulden. Deal is for mid–six figures, which is quite a bit of money to pay for a title and an attitude, which is what the book offers in place of any kind of actual film-ready narrative. [Variety]
Roach Replaces Pollack: Jay Roach replaces Sidney Pollack on HBO’s Recount, drama about the 2000 presidential election. Pollack steps down for personal reasons but will continue producing; Roach chosen after Supreme Court rules that further discussion of the movie’s director could be detrimental to the health of the union. [Variety]
Musical Replaces Entire Cast: Off Broadway’s Idol: the Musical sends home entire cast, replacing them with other actors we’ve never heard of before. Our previous item about this show garnered more e-mail than any other post we’ve ever done, because Claymates are crazy. [Playbill]
The Oaks to Fox: New Fox programming head Kevin Reilly makes his first buy, giving a series commitment to The Oaks, about three couples inhabiting a house in 1967, 1987, and 2007. David Schulner (Tell Me You Love Me) wrote the pilot; Shawn Ryan (The Shield) will oversee. In related news, people keep telling us that The Lake House is sort of good, actually, and we should rent it. [Variety]
Lost Van Gogh Found: The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, discovers an early Van Gogh painting on the canvas underneath Ravine, a Van Gogh the museum already owns. Painting was part of an early Buy One, Get One Free promotion that Van Gogh instituted to raise interest in his struggling career. [NYT]
Mohr Joins Fox Sports: Jay Mohr will create a weekly video program for FoxSports.com, mixing monologues, remote reports, and sketch-comedy riffing, all of which will make us want to punch him in the face. [HR]