the industry

Moses to Get Great Abs

Old School: 20th Century Fox will produce a big-budget retelling of the Moses story, from his early life to his leadership of the Hebrews out of Egypt. Adam Cooper and Bill Collage, who recently completed a Moby-Dick adaptation, will write the screenplay, which will — in a move sure to delight the purists — incorporate new, non-biblically sourced elements of Moses’ life and will be shot “in 300 style.” [Variety]

Crappy Vacation: Angelina Jolie is in talks to star in The Tourist, a remake of 2005 French film Anthony Zimmer. Jolie would take over for Charlize Theron, who recently pulled out, opposite Sam Worthington in a role to which Tom Cruise was formerly attached. Bharat Nalluri, who was to helm, has also left the movie, set to begin production early next year, so Spyglass Entertainment could be prompted to “act quickly on a director,” reports HR. This thing just keeps sounding better and better! [Risky Biz Blog/HR]

Pop: Sam Raimi will produce Burst 3D, the next directorial project from Neil Marshall (The Descent, Doomsday). The horror flick revolves around a group of travelers stranded somewhere by a blizzard, who are then stalked by an evil force that makes people spontaneously combust. That log line doesn’t make us think so much “scary” as “hilarious” and “maybe awesome.” [Variety]

King Jr.: Joe Hill’s novel Horns, about a 26-year-old man who wakes up after a night of drinking with horns sprouting out of his head, has been optioned by Mandalay Pictures. This is the second novel from Hill, who is Stephen King’s kid but uses a pen name to avoid association with his father. That makes sense — if we were trying to make a name for ourselves as talented writers, we wouldn’t want to be associated with Stephen King, either. [Variety]

Tab Talks: Tab Hunter Confidential, the 2005 autobiography in which Hunter spoke at length about his past as a closeted fifties movie star, will be adapted into a feature documentary. Hunter most notably had a relationship with fellow closeted star Anthony Perkins while starring in such films as Damn Yankees. Later, he would go on to have a soda named after him. [Variety]

House Trouble: Former Daily Show correspondent Nate Corddry will guest-star on the upcoming season of 30 Rock as Liz Lemon’s upstairs neighbor. Lemon attempts to get him to move out so she can take over the space and build a duplex, but then something surely hilarious happens to stop her. Nice to see some non-super-famous special guests every once in a while. [Ausiello Files/EW]

Moses to Get Great Abs