Hamming It Up: Jon Hamm has joined Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch, the action fantasy about a girl who is institutionalized against her will by her stepfather and subsequently enters an alternate reality in which she plots her escape. There are no details available for the role, but two things make this sound like a good fit: The movie is set in the fifties, so Hamm can just bring a suit from Mad Men; also, his character’s name is High Roller. [HR]
Stone-cold History: Showtime will air the ten-hour documentary series Oliver Stone’s Secret History of America in 2010. The special will cover historical events Stone feels have been “underreported†— like, apparently, Truman’s decision to drop the bomb and the United States’ role in the world following the collapse of the USSR. So does Stone get to call these events underreported because no one has yet heard his bat-shit crazy conspiracy theories about them? If that’s the case, then we can’t wait! [Variety]
Definitely Not Stopping: Rosario Dawson has joined Denzel Washington and Chris Pine on the cast of Tony Scott’s resuscitated runaway-train movie, Unstoppable. Variety doesn’t say much about her role, but presumably she’ll play the love interest of Washington, Pine, or the train. [Variety]
Motel, Holiday Inn: Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton, the Project Greenlight winners turned Saw screenwriters, have landed their script for Clive Barker’s Hotel at ABC. The show, about a series of supernatural events taking place at a bed-and-breakfast (no, they take place at a hotel), is being produced by Barker, though is not based on a specific Barker book. Does this mean we shouldn’t be waiting for a call back from ABC about our script based on Cassidy Featuring R. Kelly — “Hotel� [HR]
Art Down South: Neil LaBute will write and direct an adaptation of Charles Willeford’s The Burnt Orange Heresy. The 1971 novel is set in Palm Beach and revolves around a corrupt art critic’s attempts to set up an interview with a legendary reclusive French painter. [Variety]
Mama: Jamie King will star in Mother’s Day, a remake of the 1980 horror film in which three campers run into two brothers who attempt to rape and murder them to impress their deranged mother. The new one features the crazy family coming back to the house they used to live in to do some terrorizing; King plays a resident of the house, a mother who recently lost a child. The good news is, the production house is shooting for an actual Mother’s Day release for the movie, which is great because, you know, of course you’d want to see this with your mom. [HR]