Back From the Dead: Russell Brand will star in a remake of the 1991 comedy Drop Dead Fred, being written by SNL writer Dennis McNicholas. The original starred Phoebe Cates as a woman down on her luck who moves back home and starts interacting with her imaginary childhood friend again; Brand would play the cheeky, troublemaking friend. As the report notes, Fred was a commercial and critical failure, but for some reason we’d seen it something like 300 times before we turned 11, so we can’t freaking wait for this. [HR]
Peet Stays Big: Amanda Peet has joined the cast of Gulliver’s Travels, starring Jack Black as the adventurer and Jason Segel and Emily Blunt as little people. In this modern retelling (uh-oh), Black’s a travel writer (eeh) who is on assignment in the Bermuda Triangle when he mistakenly ends up on the secret island of Lilliput (all right!). Sorry, insect-sized–Amanda Peet fetishists: Peet plays Black’s editor and potential love interest, a full-size human. [HR]
Taken … in Tokyo: Taken director Pierre Morrel has his next project, another twisty, action romp that is currently untitled: When a near-retirement CIA operative stationed in Japan is ordered to carry out one last mission, he finds himself caught in an international conspiracy. Yeeeah, that sounds like a plot communicated over the phone in a bad insider-Hollywood comedy by a screenwriter on deadline with half a mouthful of bacon-and-avocado sandwich. [Variety]
What Will His Funny Industry Name Be?: Don Johnson has come onboard the Adam Sandler–produced porn comedy Born to be a Star, starring Nick Swardson as an aspiring porn star. Johnson plays a fading director who gives Swardson his big break. This is kind of like when Burt Reynolds resurrected his career playing a porno director in Boogie Nights, only not at all. [HR]
De La Soul Is Fit: De La Soul’s first new music in five years will be the latest entry in the NIKE+ campaign, in which artists (including LCD Soundsystem, A-Trak, and Aesop Rock) have created 45-minute pieces of music specifically created to run to. Says Posdnuos, “The set we did is an actual album, with eight or nine songs, not one long D.J. set.†Also, more bizarrely: “Nike has a team of runners on staff who listen to it and give us their opinion.†[Billboard]
With Arms Wide Open, We Assume: Creed’s back! All of the original members of the multiplatinum God rockers will reunite for a summer tour and eventual album. Fret not, fans of post-Creed project Alter Bridge and Scott Stapp’s solo career: Both of those entities will gloriously also continue to exist. [Billboard]