Zombie Blobs: Rob Zombie will trade horror for sci-fi for his next project, a remake of 1958’s The Blob. Zombie says he’ll be abandoning the setup of the original, which revolved around a substance that arrives from space and swallows up everything it comes in contact with. Says Zombie: “That gigantic Jello-looking thing might have been scary to audiences in the 1950s, but people would laugh now.†An excellent point! Just one question, then — why are you remaking The Blob? [Variety]
Linney on the TV: Laura Linney will star in a half-hour comedy for Showtime called The C-Word, about a suburban mother battling cancer. The idea is that Linney’s character begins seizing the day upon hearing the news, showing us how we should all be living our lives, anyway, or something. And with this — which follows Funny People and the upcoming I’m With Cancer — the cancer comedy is somehow officially a trend. [HR]
More Robin Williams!: Robin Williams will star in Wedding Banned as half of a long-divorced couple that kidnaps their daughter on her wedding day to prevent her from making the same mistake they did. Then, during the “high jinks ensue†part of the getaway, the couple rekindles their old feelings. At what point is it brought up that one of the mistakes the couple is implicitly trying to prevent the daughter from making is giving birth to a daughter? [HR]
Brighton Rock and Roll: Helen Mirren will star in Brighton Rock, the adaptation of the Graham Greene novel, alongside some less famous British people. The book, about a young gangster who marries a waitress to shut her up after she witnesses him doing a bit of murdering, was first filmed in 1947, but the new version will be based on Greene’s work, and not the flick. However, it will be set in 1964, and not 1939 like in the book. There — that’s your Helen Mirren fix for the day. [Variety]
Batteries Charged: Maggie Grace is in talks to join Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz in Wichita. Diaz plays a lonely woman who goes on a blind date with Cruise (awesome blind date!), whose character is secretly a spy who goes on a madcap adventure to protect some mystical battery that is the key to an infinite power source (um, what?). Grace plays Diaz’s sister, who is getting married and wants Diaz to walk her down the aisle in place of their late father. Presumably, Diaz won’t be able to, because she’s going to be off somewhere looking for a battery. [HR]
Mad Woman: Christina Hendricks will co-star in Life As We Know It, a weepy-sounding movie in which Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel are forced to come together and care for their mutual best friends’ children when said best friends die in an accident. Hendricks plays one of the best friends. Is it too late to make it so maybe Heigl dies instead? It is? Okay, okay. [Variety]