“Pretty Boy†Buscemi: Steve Buscemi is in talks to star in Martin Scorsese’s HBO pilot Boardwalk Empire. Written by Terrence Winter, the pilot is based on a book chronicling the origins of Atlantic City. Buscemi would play Nucky Johnson, a sly twenties businessman who runs a liquor-distribution ring during Prohibition. Kelly Macdonald is in talks to play Margaret, an Irish immigrant who married the wrong guy to get out of her parents’ house. But it’s the casting of the raspy-voiced, twenties-style-tracksuit-wearing, Atlantic City tourists that we’re most looking forward to. [HR]
Scorsese’s Falcon: Scorsese is also set to direct a new movie called Falcon’s Tale. Scorsese will work alongside Departed screenwriter William Monahan to tell the story of James Keene, a convict serving ten years to life on drug charges when the FBI offers him a chance at freedom. All he has to do is enter a high-security prison for the criminally insane and squeeze information out of a suspected serial killer awaiting retrial. Should be easy! [Production Weekly via /Film]
Molders of Minds: The Fame remake’s New York City High School of Performing Arts just picked up a slew of teachers, including Megan Mullally, Kelsey Grammer, Charles S. Dutton, and Bebe Neuwirth. Mullally will play a voice instructor, Grammer an orchestra conductor, Dutton an acting teacher, and Neuwirth a dance teacher. Given his grace on the stage, we were hoping Grammer would play the dance teacher. Alas. [HR]
Rome Reborn: Mentalist director Bruno Heller is in talks to make a movie version of Rome, wrapping up the prematurely canceled HBO drama. The critically acclaimed show was axed before the second season even aired and HBO later admitted that destroying the lavish sets and releasing actors from their contracts was probably a bad idea. If this is anything like the resurrection of other prematurely canceled but critically lauded TV shows, we can expect Rome: The Movie to land in about 2020. [HR]
Men Made of Straw: Production company Benderspink has nabbed the film rights to both The Straw Men, a crime thriller written by author Michael Marshall Smith, and its comic adaptation by Zenescope Comics head Joe Brusha. Story follows a detective brought out of retirement to solve a series of bizarre murders connected by a dark conspiracy. The book is the first in a trilogy, so expect this to be the first of some kind of Bond-on-Geritol franchise. Your grandma is pumped. [Variety]
Hail Caesar: It’s a big day for the newest edition of Planet of the Apes, which finally has a director, a writer, and a name. The name is Caesar, the rebellious ape from 1972’s Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, and the writer-director is Scott Frank, the writer of such varied screenplays as Minority Report and Marley and Me. Not too much is known about the ape revival other than the fact that the film will do away with time travel in favor of presenting Caesar as a chimp whose mind has advanced due to experimentation. Oh, and there will be no big ape suits. The idea of dressing up chimps in human suits to play the people has not yet been ruled out, though. [Production Weekly via CHUD]