Scott Passes Go: Universal and Hasbro’s Monopoly has a director, and his name is Ridley Scott. Scott, who is also producing, has been brought on to direct with the apparent intention of giving the board-game movie a Blade Runner–esque, futuristic feel. Pamela Pettler, who wrote Corpse Bride and Monster House, will write the screenplay. We’re assuming this all means Rich Uncle Pennybags will travel around in a flying Aston Martin, and we approve. [HR]
Jesus vs. Jackson: Jim Caviezel will star alongside Samuel L. Jackson in Blown, a spy thriller set in London. The story centers on a top MI5 operative who discovers the plans to an imminent terrorist attack. Jackson is a businessman who strings him along in a high-stakes game of deception. Given the fucking title of this one, we’re gonna bet motherfuckers will be getting blown the fuck up. [HR]
Attn: Deadheads: Producers Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa and Eric Eisner have signed on to make a biopic of the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia. The untitled project is based around Robert Greenfield’s book Dark Star, an oral history of Garcia, and will focus mainly on his life in the Bay Area before joining the Dead. Topper Lilien, who penned the Paul Newman drama Where the Money Is, will write. The movie is expected to be long and meandering with extended bits of improvisation punctuated by small bits of plot. [HR]
Ripped From the Headlines: A period comedy about a magazine struggling to survive in the face of an economic downturn is in the works at HBO. Written by former Paris Review staffer Andy Bellin, The Review is set in 1987 New York and follows a young man who leaves banking to work at a literary magazine just as funding cuts begin to threaten its existence. Recession? Job cuts? It’ll be like watching your own life on HBO! [HR]
Father’s Milk: Red Hot Chili Peppers front man Anthony Kiedis has teamed with HBO to create a series, titled Scar Tissue, based on his childhood. The show will center on Kiedis and his father, Spider, who sold drugs and hung with rock stars on the Sunset Strip. “He introduced me to the arts, to a more culturally magnificent life,” Kiedis told Variety. “But some of it was this heavy, adult matter that I wasn’t quite capable of digesting.” Who ever would have guessed that such a well-adjusted
gentleman had a childhood like that? [Variety]
Close to Home: In other “nineties rock stars get involved in moving pictures” news, Counting Crows lead singer Adam Duritz is teaming up with comedy troupe Broken Lizard on big-screen comedy Freeloaders. The film will focus on six freeloaders living it up in a rock star’s house only to have their plum arrangement threatened when the musician decides to sell his home. If this is like any of Broken Lizard’s other comedies, you’ll never hear from it again. [Variety]
