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Ben Affleck Unable to ‘Extract’ Himself From New Mike Judge Movie

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Extraction Imminent: Ben Affleck is in final negotiations to star in Mike Judge’s Extract, the story of a factory owner (Jason Bateman) with workplace troubles and a cheating wife. Affleck will play an ambulance-chasing lawyer, and Clifton Collins Jr. joins him as a factory worker who gets injured and wins a huge settlement. We don’t want to “jump to conclusions,” but didn’t this subplot already happen in Office Space? Not that we’d mind watching Office Space again. [Variety]

Blackbird Sings in Dead of Night: David Harrower will adapt his awesome play Blackbird into a feature for Jean Doumanian Productions. Blackbird, which ran Off Broadway with Jeff Daniels and Alison Pill, follows a woman in her twenties who shows up in an older man’s office, years after they had an underage affair that he tried to hide by moving and changing his name to something other than R. Kelly. [Variety]

Domingo Returns to Adriana: Placido Domingo will return to sing the role in which he debuted at the Met 40 years ago, replacing Marcelo Álvarez as Maurizio in Adriana Lecouvreur. In February, he’ll sing the role for the first time since 1983, and the last time until his head in a jar performs at the SpaceMet in 2158. [NYT]

The House That Silver Bilt: Producer Joel Silver has optioned Arthur T. Vanderbilt II’s Fortune’s Children: The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt, as a possible HBO series. The book, “a portrait gallery of extravagant crazies,” follows the family for more than a century as they fight a losing battle against a declining fortune, financial overindulgences, and ruthless social climbing, until they’re so destitute they can’t even afford to have a decent university named after them (oh no we di’in!). [Variety]

ABC Pulls Bunnies From Hat: ABC has snagged a script from Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith (the duo behind House Bunny and Legally Blonde) to develop into an autobiographical series about the writing team’s lives. The ladies say the sale came about after an L.A. Times article highlighted their working style, one that usually involves drinking, tanning, and swimming whilst they talk out story points. Just what America wants to see: a show that makes us hate our jobs even more. [Variety]

Ben Affleck Unable to ‘Extract’ Himself From New Mike Judge Movie