Lionsgate Nabs Werewolf: After a weeklong bidding war, Lionsgate has won the rights to Abduction, a thriller to star Taylor Lautner. The Gotham Group, Vertigo Entertainment, and Lautner’s Tailor Made are producing. The script from Shawn Christensen is about a young man who discovers his own baby picture on a missing-persons website. Taylor’s sure that it’s him because of the baby six-pack on the baby stomach. [Variety]
Very Nice News for Nic: Nicollette Sheridan has signed on as the lead in the untitled CBS comedy pilot from the Borat and Bruno team of writer Ant Hines and director Larry Charles. Sheridan, who played bad girl Edie on Desperate Housewives for five seasons, will play the “outrageous stage mother†of a teenage superstar, whose father (Paul Kaye) has just moved to L.A. to reconnect with his daughter. Be wary, Nicollette; as Pamela Anderson can attest, blonde vixens can have it kind of rough with these guys. [HR]
Play Football or Die Trying: Curtis Jackson (a.k.a. 50 Cent) will star in Things Fall Apart, a film he is producing with partner Randall Jackson. Directed by Mario Van Peebles and from a script by Jackson and Brian Miller, the film revolves around a star football running back (Jackson) who faces a personal tragedy “as well as his own mortality†while in his senior year in college. You know, just totally normal college-dude problems! [Variety]
Rising Star: Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica, 24) will star in an untitled ABC drama pilot from Richard Haten. Sackhoff will play a “beautiful female detective†who partners with a disgraced ex-cop to solve crimes and “untangle the conspiracy that sent him underground.†And presumably take part in a frustrating “will they or won’t they?†ongoing story line that takes a dramatic turn around February sweeps when he tells her he loves her while she is dozing off in her cop car … but which ultimately never gets resolved. [HR]
Smoove Operators: Stephen Merchant and J.B. Smoove will join the Farrelly Brothers’ Hall Pass, starring Owen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis, and Jenna Fischer. The movie centers on two wives who give their husbands “free passes†to have extramarital affairs. Merchant and Smoove will play friends of the husbands (Wilson, Sudeikis) who tag along as they “cut loose,†which means their characters are definitely not going to be horn dogs who totally love golf and beer and spout Leno-esque one-liners left and right. [HR]
Faris Heads to Wyoming: Sean Faris has nabbed the lead in the CW’s drama pilot The Wyoming Project. He’ll play a horse trainer who has to take care of his three younger sisters after their parents die. As if his life wasn’t hard enough, he also is named Gideon Thorpe. [HR]