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George Clooney Can’t Stop With the Spy Movies

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La Tourista: George Clooney, People magazine’s Sexiest Man of the Last 2,000 Years, will star in The Tourist for Warner Bros. Anthony Peckham (Human Factor) will write the script about a spy who “risks everything to reveal a conspiracy after he’s accused of a murder he didn’t commit.” Maybe the conspiracy involves movie studios colluding to produce a gratuitous number of seemingly identical spy movies? [Variety]

Apatow Picks Funny People: You know that part in Knocked Up where Seth Rogen talks about how badass Eric Bana is? Today his dream comes true as Bana joins the cast of Judd Apatow’s Funny People (the previously untitled comedy with Rogen and Adam Sandler), the story of a stand-up comedian who has a near-death experience. Semi-fact: Bana began as a stand-up comedian in Australia before reimagining himself as a serious actor, after someone pointed out how good-looking he was. Jason Schwartzman and Jonah Hill have also joined the cast because Apatow figured, eh, what the hell. [Variety]

Neeson and Nesbitt go to Heaven: Liam Neeson and James Nesbitt will try their damnedest to play Irishmen in Oliver Hirschbiegel’s Five Minutes of Heaven, the story of two guys whose lives were destroyed because of violence in Northern Ireland from the sixties to the nineties. We know how they feel, because in 2007 our lives were destroyed by the awfulness of NBC’s The Black Donnellys. [HR]

Downey Jr. to Wear Hugh’s Pajamas?: We love rumors as much as the next guy, hence our love for Comingsoon’s juicy tidbit from an interview with Hugh Hefner: Hef and director Brett Ratner are “avidly pursuing [Robert] Downey [Jr.] as the lead for a planned big-screen biopic on Hef’s legendary life at the center of his centerfold empire.” Even one of Hef’s girlfriends, Holly Madison, agrees that he’d “be a good choice.” Sold? [Comingsoon]

Best TV Movie Ever: Nickelodeon tween stars Drake Bell and Josh Peck (a.k.a. Drake and Josh) will reunite, more than a year after their series ended, to star in Drake & Josh: Best Christmas Ever. Story follows the duo working at a mall for Santa, David Sedaris style, where they promise a girl in foster care the “best Christmas ever.” You know what that means! NINTENDO 64!!! [Variety]

George Clooney Can’t Stop With the Spy Movies