the industry

Oliver Stone to Explore Hugo Chavez’s Unresolved Daddy Issues

Bosom Buddies: You’ve got to appreciate someone who sticks to what he knows. Oliver Stone, who’s currently working on a documentary about beret-wearing Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, is one of those people. The doc will focus on the Chavez-led leftist revolution in South America and the opposition Hugo has faced at home and abroad. [Variety]

Stiller Goes Green: Ben Stiller is attached to star in Noah Baumbach’s upcoming Greenberg in a role previously being considered by Mark Ruffalo. Amy Adams was also once reportedly interested the part of the female lead, but producers are currently in talks with other actresses. There aren’t many details about the Scott Rudin–produced pic other than Hollywood Reporter’s description of it as a “relationship comedy-drama” that would “mark a turn toward drama” for Stiller. Seems they’ve forgotten about his searingly poignant performance in Along Came Polly. [HR]

Family Business: Anthony Pellicano may be headed to jail, but his family’s moving on without him. And they’re doing it in typical 21st-century style — with a reality show! The Pellicano Girls, which is being shopped by Zoo Productions (the minds behind Foxworthy vehicle Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?), will follow the ladies Pellicano, Anthony’s wife Kat and their three daughters, as they attempt to maintain their extravagant lifestyle and reopen daddy’s P.I. company. It’s being pitched as a mix between Keeping Up With the Kardashians and Charlie’s Angels. We’re looking forward to the emotional prison visits to daddy. No touching! [Variety]

Thor Takes On a Wimp: Awesomely named director Thor Freudenthal has signed on to direct Fox 2000’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Adapted from Jeff Kinney’s novel that began as a Web comic, the family-friendly flick will focus on the life of smart-ass preadolescent Greg Heffley and his typically awkward life. So basically it’s about you as a kid. [HR]

Showtime Comes Out: Showtime is developing a reality series showing real people coming out of the closet to friends and family, succeeding in its apparent mission to produce the most uncomfortable show on TV. The pilot of Way Out comes from Bryn Freedman, executive producer of the current most uncomfortable show on TV, A&E’s Intervention. The show will chronicle a person’s closeted life, the moment when he reveals his sexuality to friends and family and the subsequent fallout. Let’s hope no one gets hurt. [HR]

Water Wars: DreamWorks is bringing Awake screenwriter Joby Harold along to adapt Platinum Studios’ five-part sci-fi comic Atlantis Rising. With Live Free or Die Hard director Len Wiseman already onboard to helm the tale of a underwater civilization that does battle with land dwellers, the studio is expecting big things. The Hollywood Reporter says DreamWorks is envisioning it as “a big-budget, effects-driven sci-fi war movie in the vein of the James Cameron–directed Aliens and The Abyss.” Because there’s no better path to success than absurdly high expectations. [HR]

Oliver Stone to Explore Hugo Chavez’s Unresolved Daddy Issues