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Dimension Gives a Boost to Struggling Young Screenwriter Ice Cube
Promotion for Cube: Ice Cube has sold his screenplay Janky Promoters to Dimension. Story will star Cube as a promoter who gets the chance to book a high-profile hip-hop artist at a small venue, with hilarious consequences. Dimension head Bob Weinstein swears on his brother’s life that he’ll “land a big-name rapper to star as himself.†If Kanye is unavailable, we wouldn’t be opposed to an alternate version starring Taylor Hicks. [Variety]
Casting Bush’s ‘Rents: James Cromwell and Ellen Burstyn are set to play George Herbert Walker Bush and Barbara Bush in Oliver Stone’s W, joining Elizabeth Banks and Josh Brolin. It’s not that Cromwell will make a bad George H.W. Bush, we just desperately wanted the part to be a comeback vehicle for Dana Carvey. [Variety]
More Souls Entering Hell: Jessica Lucas, Lorna Raver, and David Paymer have joined the cast of Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell. Paymer’s a bank manager, Lucas is Alison Lohman’s skeptical roommate, and Raver is expertly cast as a creepy old lady. You might remember Lucas from a little movie called Cloverfield, unless you were too busy throwing up from motion sickness in the bathroom like we were. [HR]
Anderson Drinks His Milk: Tony nominee Kevin Anderson has joined Oscar-winner Olympia Dukakis in the cast of Tennessee Williams’s The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore. Play is part of the Hartford Theater’s Williams marathon, but since we know you’re not driving to Connecticut anytime soon, you might as well watch Danny Devito’s film version, Throw Momma from the Milk Train. [Playbill]
Stuart Bleeds History: Jeb Stuart, writer of Die Hard and The Fugitive, will direct Timothy Tyson’s autobiographical Blood Done Sign My Name, the true story of “a black Vietnam veteran allegedly murdered by a white businessman,†and the North Carolina riots that followed. Nate Parker (The Great Debaters) will star as a teacher who became a leader during the aftermath. It’s a tough business, Jeb, but your fans demand you slip in a nice “Yippee ki-yay, motherfucker†for old time’s sake. [HR]