Man the Deck: True Blood’s Alexander Skarsgard has signed on to star opposite Friday Night Lights’s Taylor Kitsch in Battleship, Universal’s sci-fi adaptation of the game, directed by Peter Berg (Hancock). The movie will see an international fleet coming together to fight an alien species. Skarsgard will play a “straight and narrow†naval officer whom Kitsch, a “wildly spirited†naval officer, idolizes, in a premise that is sure to inspire thousands upon thousands of fan fics. [Heat Vision/HR]
Playing Ball: Disney has acquired an untitled baseball pitch from screenwriter Allan Loeb (Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps) with Bradley Cooper attached to star. The dramedy is focused on a baseball player who gets injured and has to go back to the minor leagues and, somehow, the only place he can find to live is a senior citizens’ home, where an “old baseball guru†guides him back to glory. Hmmm, there must be a way they can work Betty White into this. [HR]
It’s Official: Months after talks began, Leonardo DiCaprio is now confirmed to play J. Edgar Hoover in the untitled biopic directed by Clint Eastwood and written by Milk’s Dustin Lance Black. Let the dress fittings begin! [Deadline]
It’s Official: Months after talks began, Leonardo DiCaprio is now confirmed to play J. Edgar Hoover in the untitled biopic directed by Clint Eastwood and written by Milk’s Dustin Lance Black. Let the dress fittings begin! [Deadline]
Grand Old Time: Brooklyn duo Matt & Kim have lined up a North American tour that starts on September 15 in Syracuse, New York, and will wrap up November 6 in Northampton, Massachusetts — which means a whole lot of singing “Daylight†when it’s dark outside. [Pitchfork]
College Confidential: ABC Family is developing a new series called Shadows about a secret program at Harvard that trains a new generation of spies. Sounds quite similar to the CW’s (potential mid-season pickup) Nomads, about broke young people who complete missions for the CIA. You know how kids are, always signing up for life-threatening secret missions in between putting up Facebook albums and playing beer pong. [HR]
Battle of the Sexes: Eva Longoria Parker and Christian Slater have joined the cast of the magic realist Latino comedy Without Men, directed by Gabriela Tagliavini. The film, based on James Canon’s international bestseller Tales From the Town of Widows, centers on Longoria’s character leading a group of women in a remote Latin American village who are forced to fend for themselves when the town’s men are off fighting in a civil war. When the men return, a battle of the sexes ensues. Not sure where the magic realism comes in, but we’re hoping it’s the kind of magic that transforms tired old gender cliches into original and hilarious comedy. [Variety]