Happy New Year’s: Sarah Jessica Parker is joining Garry Marshall’s New Year’s Eve, while Halle Berry and Zac Efron are in negotiations to get onboard as well. So far, Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Hilary Swank, Ashton Kutcher, Sofia Vergara, Jessica Biel, Lea Michele, Abigail Breslin, and Taylor Swift are all in various stages of negotiations for roles in the film, which is one of those intertwining-stories movies — enough stories to fit all of ‘em — and will probably be really adorable. Parker is set to play Breslin’s mom, “who relies too much on her daughter for company.” And if a deal works out, Berry would play a caterer who runs into a former flame that night, and Efron a bike messenger who ends up trying to fulfill Pfeiffer’s New Year’s Eve resolutions in exchange for tickets to a big party. [HR]
New Girl in Town: Kaylee Defer, whose previous credits include The War at Home and The Mountain, is joining Gossip Girl. In a recurring role, no less, later this season. Details on the part are “shroud[ed] in secrecy,” but recurring Gossip Girl roles tend to follow a certain formula. So we may look to the past to understand her future part. [Deadline]
Heavy, But Funny: Showtime is developing the comedy Heavy and Rolling, about a town-car driver in Manhattan who assumes different Ripley-esque identities as he teeters on the brink of madness. Jeremy Miller and Dan Cohn are writing it, and Ryan Phillippe and Breckin Meyer are attached as executive producers. This is a comedy? [Deadline]
Hendrix Killed: A Jimi Hendrix biopic with Anthony Mackie poised to star and Paul Greengrass set to direct now looks to be dead, as gatekeepers for the late musician’s music rights refused to authorize the film, possibly out of fear it could hurt the music catalogue. Although a script had been commissioned and completed, Experience Hendrix president/CEO Janie Hendrix said “Legendary [Pictures] proceeded without our permission, direction or involvement. It didn’t ‘fall apart,’ it never was. When we do the Jimi Hendrix feature film bio, we will be involved and in control from the beginning.” Ouch. [Deadline]
