6/14/2010

Sure Shots: Pirates of the Caribbean; Scream 4; Atlas Shrugged

Quickly...

* What's with all the supermodels getting acting gigs in major blockbusters lately? They must come cheap. Or get paid by the word or something. The Courier Mail reports that supermodel Gemma Ward has signed on to Jerry Bruckheimer's Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides. She's probably best known as the supposed girlfriend of Heath Ledger at the time of his passing. In all fairness, she's acted before, including an acclaimed turn in 2008's The Black Balloon and as one of the masked stalkers in The Strangers. Seriously? They hid her face? Who greenlit that decision?

* More unknown CW teenyboppers crawling up from out of the woodwork and forced to my attention. Nico Tortorella, who I couldn't pick out of a crowd if he wore a nametag, has signed on to Wes Craven's Scream 4. I'm assuming he'll be playing some hunky guy who's just mysterious enough to make him a possible suspect? Check.  How appeared for an eyeblink of time in the CW series, The Beautiful Life, which you might've missed if you got up to use the bathroom or make a sandwich. Wasn't Mischa Barton in that?

* Apparently, the government has done away with all the creative minds in Hollywood and so it was left to Paul Johannsson(One Tree Hill) to both direct and star in Atlas Shrugged, an adaption of the classic novel by controversial writer Ayn Rand. Atlas Shrugged has been a project that studios have been trying to get off the ground for nearly 40 years with no success. I have my doubts about this one. The studio has to get the project done immediately or lose the rights, so Johannsson is a last second final solution. His resume consists mostly of episodes of One Tree Hill. The budget is tiny, roughly at $5M, which sounds crazy for a story this size. I don't expect this to get off the ground at all.