Brace yourselves, sci-fi geeks: According to Variety, Ridley Scott will be directing the long-discussed Alien prequel for FOX. “It will precede that film, in which the crew of a commercial towing ship returning to Earth is awakened and sent to respond to a distress signal from a nearby planetoid. The crew discovers too late that the signal generated by an empty ship was meant to warn them.” Sigourney Weaver has stated that she can’t imagine being involved with any prequel — and can’t imagine how Scott can be on board either.
The LA Times’ Christopher Hawthorne has created an interactive map of the downtown LA architecture featured in 500 Days of Summer. He goes on to explain (snark?) that the focus on older, lesser-known buildings “has something to do with the film’s allegiance to a certain strand of emo culture — to a finely honed sense of taste both specific and wide enough to honor The Graduate, Regina Spektor, the Smiths and the Bradbury Building.” We think that’s called pop culture, Hawthorne. (Read our interview with our interview with 500 Days director Marc Webb and our comparison of the film’s cast to Harry Potter characters.)
Moveline has leaked a rather involved video made by Ben Stiller while spending time on the 20th Century Fox lot (it’s home to his production company). Some of the humor is fairly insidery (like the bit about Fox Filmed Entertainment Chairman Tom Rothman), but some things will translate — like the clip reel of FOX’s rich cinematic history. Or the thought of Stiller “secretly arranging” to be adopted by Rupert Murdoch. Sneaky way of creating some buzz around Red Hour, wethinks.
Remember back in 2007 when Katherine Heigl told Vanity Fair that she found Knocked Up sexist? US Weekly reports that Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen had some choice words to share with Howard Stern about Katie’s new movie, The Ugly Truth: “‘That [movie] looks like it really puts women on a pedestal in a beautiful way,’ [Rogen] quipped on Howard Stern’s SIRIUS XM radio show on Thursday. Added Apatow, ‘I hear there’s a scene where she’s wearing … Underwear …with a vibrator in it, so I’d have to see if that was uplifting for women.'” Obviously there’s no hard feelings there…
Finally, here’s some “insider” 8mm footage of the Disney Studios strike of 1941. How cool is that?