Johnny Depp Circles Lead Role In David Koepp’s ‘Mortdecai’

Johnny Depp is in negotiations for the lead role in Lionsgate‘s Mortdecai, an adaptation of the 1970s novels by Kyril Bonfiglioli. David Koepp is set to direct from Eric Aronson’s script. Depp would play the role of debonair art dealer and part-time rogue Charles Mortdecai. As one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars, Depp frequently falls in and out of projects. As recently as May 30, he exited the Barry Levinson-directed Black Mass, the story of Whitey Bulger. He’s currently onscreen in Disney’s The Lone Ranger and is wrapping Wally Pfister’s directorial debut Transcendence. Koepp and Depp worked together on the director’s Secret Window in 2004 and were teamed to reboot The Thin Man at Warner Bros before that project was put on the back burner.

UPDATE: Starz’ ‘Outlander’ In Talks With Sam Heughan As Lead

Turns out Starz says its digital division made a mistake earlier today posting the tweet confirming Sam Heughan as the lead. Starz now has taken down the tweet announcing Heughan as Jamie Fraser in the TV adaptation of the Outlander series. A press rep says the actor is in talks with no deal finalized yet. “I can’t confirm that contract is signed, but saw @heughan audition tapes. #jawdrop,” tweeted Outlander author Diana Gabaldon on Friday after Starz had taken down the initial tweet.
PREVIOUS 3:15 PM: Sam Heughan has been cast in the lead role of Jamie Fraser in Starz’ adaptation of Outlander, announced the cable channel today via Twitter. “It’s #FollowFriday here at #STARZ. Follow Sam Heughan (@Heughan) who will play the role of Jamie Fraser in #OutlanderSTARZ. #FF,” said the tweet from the official Starz Network account. Heughan has appeared in the 2007 TV movie A Very British Sex Scandal as well as in the BBC series Doctors back in 2009, among other roles. The Scottish actor is repped by UTA. Mixing romance, science fiction, history, and adventure, the seven-book Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon has sold 20 million copies worldwide. As officially announced on June 25, Starz has ordered 16 episodes of the series from Battlestar Galactica alum Ron Moore. Sony Pictures TV is producing the series with Tall Ship Productions, Story Mining and Supply Company and Left Bank Productions. Filming in Scotland this fall and expected to debut on Starz next year.An eighth novel in the series is scheduled to come out on March 25, 2014.

UPDATE: ‘Despicable Me 2′ Puts $50M In International Till Before Domestic Release

Illumination Entertainment‘s and Universal‘s 3D sequel Despicable Me 2 opened this weekend as one of the top 4 films internationally for the weekend alongside Man Of Steel, World War Z and Monsters University. All its rivals are playing in 40+ territories against DM2‘s seven markets. Yet the new toon opened #1 in five of its 6 new territories this weekend for a cumulative total of $50M through Sunday from the UK-Ireland, France, Belgium, Netherlands, French-speaking Switzerland, and Sweden as well as Australia which debuted last weekend. As a comparison in the same seven territories, DM2 is performing well ahead of the original Despicable Me as well as DreamWorks sequels Kung Fu Panda 2 and Madagascar 2 and 3. Gru and his manic minions open in North America in limited release Tuesday night and go wide on Wednesday before the Fourth Of July holiday. Expectations are for new records in the 38 territories with the U.S./Canada opening next weekend. Here’s a territory by territory breakdown:
UK & Ireland - Opened #1 with big $3.5M at 542 dates and 49% market share. This weekend is 4x bigger than the opening of Despicable Me. The total including last week’s previews is $23.3M (£15.2M). DM2 broke the record as Universal’s biggest opening weekend ever. In the U.K. and Ireland, Despicable Me 2set a new record for Universal’s biggest opening weekend ever and the biggest opening weekend for a film in 2013 including previews.
France - Opened #1 on Wednesday and has grossed $8M at 799 dates and 40% market share and is more than 1.5 bugger than Despicable Me. It’s the third biggest opening of 2013.
Belgium – Opened #1 and has grossed $1.3M at 71 dates including previews, or 20% ahead of Despicable Me.
Netherlands – Opened #1 and has grossed $2.4M at 131 dates and more than double of the original..
French-Speaking Switzerland – Opened #1 and has grossed $831K at 43 dates with previews, which is 2x bigger than Despicable Me for the biggest opening of 2013 in this market
Sweden – Opened #2 behind Man Of Steel and has grossed $1.6M at 140 dates with previews. It is almost 3x bigger than the debut of Despicable Me.
Australia - DM2 opened last weekend and is holding strong at #2 this weekend behind Man Of Steel’s opening. The cume Down Under is now $12.6M.
Related: ‘Despicable Me 2′ Courts Hispanic Ticket Buyers

Richard Matheson Has Died

In the class of science fiction’s most influential and original writers, Richard Matheson stands up there with the likes of Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury. So it is with sorrow that we report he has died in California at the age of 87.Though his name might not immediately spark recognition the way those other two do, there is a good chance that if you enjoy the genre, you’ve read his work seen something adapted from it, including I Am Legend, published in 1954 and filmed as The Last Man On Earth, The Omega Man and the eponymous 2007 Will Smith version, The Shrinking Man, which he adapted into 1957’s The Incredible Shrinking Man, A Stir Of Echoes and several episodes of The Twilight Zone, including the classic Nightmare At 20,000 Feet.He was born in New Jersey in 1926 to Norwegian immigrants and lived with his mother after his father abandoned the family. After serving in World War II, he earned a journalism degree from the University of Missouri in 1949, but by 1950 had already sold his first story, Born Of Man And Woman to The Magazine Of Fantasy And Science Fiction, which solidified his writing career.After moving to Santa Monica in 1951, he married Ruth Ann Woodson and the couple had four children. To support both his growing family and his writing, he worked as a postal clerk and in an airplane factory, honing his stories in his spare time. The Incredible Shrinking Man saw him launched into a fresh career writing for movies and TV and even wrote an earlier treatment for I Am Legend that was intended for Hammer in London but was never made thanks to the concerns of the censor.Other work included episodes of Star Trek and his short story Duel, which famously helped kick off Steven Spielberg’s professional career. In 2010 he was rightfully inducted into the Science Fiction Gall Of Fame, and died in Calabasas. The world has lost a true talent, and our thoughts are with his family.

James Gandolfini: Friends, Family Mourn Acting 'Genius'

LOS ANGELES (AP) - James Gandolfini, whose portrayal of a brutal, emotionally delicate mob boss in HBO's "The Sopranos" was the brilliant core of one of TV's greatest drama series and turned the mobster stereotype on its head, died Wednesday in Italy. He was 51.Gandolfini died while on holiday in Rome, the cable channel and Gandolfini's managers Mark Armstrong and Nancy Sanders said in a joint statement. No cause of death was given.[RELATED: James Gandolfini Dies of Heart Attack at 51 (REPORT)]"He was a genius," said "Sopranos" creator David Chase. "Anyone who saw him even in the smallest of his performances knows that. He is one of the greatest actors of this or any time. A great deal of that genius resided in those sad eyes."Gandolfini, who won three Emmy Awards for his role as Tony Soprano, worked steadily in film and on stage after the series ended. He earned a 2009 Tony Award nomination for his role in the celebrated production of "God of Carnage.""Our hearts are shattered and we will miss him deeply. He and his family were part of our family for many years and we are all grieving," said Armstrong and Sanders.HBO called the actor a "special man, a great talent, but more importantly a gentle and loving person who treated everyone, no matter their title or position, with equal respect." The channel expressed sympathy for his wife and children.Joe Gannascoli, who played Vito Spatafore on the HBO drama, said he was shocked and heartbroken."Fifty-one and leaves a kid - he was newly married. His son is fatherless now. ... It's way too young," Gannascoli said.Gandolfini and his wife, Deborah, who were married in 2008, have a daughter, Liliana, born last year, HBO said. The actor and his former wife, Marcy, have a teenage son, Michael.Gandolfini's performance in "The Sopranos" was indelible and career-making, but he refused to be stereotyped as the bulky mobster who was a therapy patient, family man and apparently effortless killer.In a December 2012 interview with The Associated Press, a rare sit-down for the star who avoided the spotlight, he was upbeat about a slew of smaller roles following the breathtaking blackout ending in 2007 of "The Sopranos.""I'm much more comfortable doing smaller things," Gandolfini said in the interview. "I like them. I like the way they're shot; they're shot quickly. It's all about the scripts - that's what it is - and I'm getting some interesting little scripts."He played Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta in Kathryn Bigelow's Osama bin Laden hunt docudrama "Zero Dark Thirty." He worked with Chase for the '60s period drama "Not Fade Away," in which he played the old-school father of a wannabe rocker. And in Andrew Dominick's crime flick "Killing Them Softly," he played an aged, washed-up hit man.There were comedies such as the political satire "In the Loop," and the heartwarming drama "Welcome to the Rileys," which co-starred Kristen Stewart. He voiced the Wild Thing Carol in "Where the Wild Things Are" and made a rare return to the TV screen with the HBO film "Cinemate Verite."Deploying his unsought clout as a star, Gandolfini produced (though only sparingly appeared in) a pair documentaries for HBO focused on a cause he held dear: veterans affairs."Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq" (2007) profiled 10 soldiers and Marines who had cheated death but continued to wage personal battles long after their military service had ended. Four years later, "Wartorn: 1861-2010" charted victims of post-traumatic stress disorder from the U.S. invasion of Iraq all the way back to the Civil War."Do I think a documentary is going to change the world?" Gandolfini said with characteristic modesty during an interview about the latter film. "No, but I think there will be individuals who will learn things from it, so that's enough."Gandolfini grew up in Park Ridge, N.J., the son of a building maintenance chief at a Catholic school and a high school lunch lady.While Tony Soprano was a larger-than-life figure, Gandolfini was exceptionally modest and obsessive - he described himself as "a 260-pound Woody Allen."In past interviews, his cast mates had far more glowing descriptions to offer."I had the greatest sparring partner in the world, I had Muhammad Ali," said Lorraine Bracco, who, as Tony's psychiatrist Dr. Melfi, went one-on-one with Gandolfini in their penetrating therapy scenes. "He cares what he does, and does it extremely well."After earning a degree in communications from Rutgers University, Gandolfini moved to New York, where he worked as a bartender, bouncer and nightclub manager. When he was 25, he joined a friend of a friend in an acting class, which he continued for several years.Gandolfini's first big break was a Broadway production of "A Streetcar Named Desire" where he played Steve, one of Stanley Kowalski's poker buddies. His film debut was in Sidney Lumet's "A Stranger Among Us" (1992).Director Tony Scott, who killed himself in August 2012, had praised Gandolfini's talent for fusing violence with charisma - which he would perfect in Tony Soprano.Gandolfini played a tough guy in Tony Scott's 1993 film "True Romance" who beat Patricia Arquette's character to a pulp while offering such jarring, flirtatious banter as, "You got a lot of heart kid."Scott called Gandolfini "a unique combination of charming and dangerous."Gandolfini continued with supporting roles in "Crimson Tide" (1995), "Get Shorty" (1995), "The Juror" (1996), Lumet's "Night Falls on Manhattan" (1997), "She's So Lovely" (1997), "Fallen" (1998) and "A Civil Action" (1998). But it was "True Romance" that piqued the interest of Chase.He shared a Broadway stage with Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis and Marcia Gay Harden in "God of Carnage" when he received the best-actor Tony nod. He was in "On the Waterfront" with David Morse and was an understudy in a revival of "A Streetcar Named Desire" in 1992 starring Alec Baldwin and Jessica Lange.In his 2012 AP interview, Gandolfini said he gravitated to acting as a release, a way to get rid of anger. "I don't know what exactly I was angry about," he said."I try to avoid certain things and certain kinds of violence at this point," he said last year. "I'm getting older, too. I don't want to be beating people up as much. I don't want to be beating women up and those kinds of things that much anymore."

Steven Spielberg And George Lucas Predict Gloom For Hollywood

Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, E3Last night Empire's focus switched from high-octane Forza Motorsport 5 news at the E3 gaming to a high-profile Q&A down the road involving two of cinema's elder statesmen. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, helping to open the University of Southern California’s new Interactive Media Building, offered a rather bleak prognosis of the future of cinema. Revealing that Lincoln was "this close" to appearing on HBO, Spielberg predicted that a few high-profile blockbuster flops will spark a radical overhaul of the Hollywood business model.

"The big danger is that there’s eventually going to be a big meltdown", Spielberg said, "where three or four, maybe even a half a dozen of these mega-budgeted movies are going to go crashing into the ground. That’s going to change the paradigm again."

"You're at the point right now where a studio would rather invest $250 million in one film for a real shot at the brass ring", he added, "than make a whole bunch of really interesting, deeply personal projects that may get lost in the shuffle."

The pair's big worries - of fragmenting distribution channels, the vast choice open to audiences and a breakdown of the narrative form – add up to a world in which their own passion projects, Lincoln and Red Tails, struggled for distribution.

Citing the popularity of premium cable networks such as HBO, the rise of on-demand streaming services and consumers with increasingly large screens in their homes, Lucas believes that the multiplex will gradually become a luxury product - with prices to reflect. "You’re going to end up with fewer but bigger theaters [and] going to the movies is gonna cost you $50, $100, maybe even $150." That, even for the most hardcore of blockbuster fans, isn't pretty.

Adds Spielberg: "You’re going to have to pay $25 to see the next Iron Man and you’re probably only going to have to pay seven dollars to see Lincoln."

These two grandees of cinema - the fathers of the modern blockbuster, lest we forget - echoed some of the concerns raised recently by Steven Soderbergh (see Empire's July issue). Like Soderbergh, they pointed to the emergence of television as a threat to moviemaking, as well as an opportunity for up-and-coming talent. "The Lincolns are going to be on television," predicted Lucas, to which Spielberg added, "Mine almost was: ask HBO. This close."

Not all filmmakers share their apocalyptic vision. Duncan Jones tweeted that the pair were "out of touch" with emerging moviemaking ideas.

Check back later this morning for the full E3 transcript. In the meantime, post your thoughts below.

The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug Teaser Poster

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Peter Jackson and Team Hobbit, so he’s making sure we haven’t forgotten about the second film in his trilogy by putting a teaser poster for The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug on Facebook.  The imposing image finds Martin Freeman's Bilbo trying to decide how exactly he might best enter the Lonely Mountain. Will he pretend to be a door-to-door salesman? Will he try to blast his way in with dynamite? Or will he carefully and sheepishly make his way inside with all due stealth? It’s like a Choose Your Own Adventure book with a really, really obvious choice!Jackson’s second movie will of course find Bilbo and his companions making it inside the mountain, where they’ll have to deal with a certain dragon, none too happy at the intrusion into his massive treasure stash.With the first trailer for the film due this week, The Desolation Of Smaug is set to hit our cinemas on December 13. Check out Peter Jackson talking about working on the movie below.

'Anchorman' Ron Burgundy Is Getting His Own Newseum Exhibit

Ron Burgundy's dream was to tour the countryside with his family band, but he'll have to settle for a stop at the Newseum instead. The TV news anchor so memorably chronicled in "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy" is getting his own exhibit at the Washington, D.C.-based museum devoted to the history of news and the First Amendment."Anchorman: The Exhibit" will open at the Newseum on November 14 to help promote the sequel, "Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues," due in theaters December 20. The exhibit will include costumes worn by the Channel 4 news team in the original film, as well as props such as Ron's jazz flute and the whip wielded by rival anchorman Arturo Mendez in the movie's legendary showdown between competing news teams.A replica of the Channel 4 news desk will also be featured in the exhibit, where visitors can pose for photo ops. Visitors will also be able to film an "Anchorman"-themed news segment of their own (perhaps involving one of the National Zoo's pandas?).Cathy Trost, vice president of exhibits and programs at the Newseum, said that the movie poked at the "authority and credibility" that many Americans automatically apply to television news, and showcased how often "anchormen and women also are popular targets for pop culture laughs.""The exhibit explores the reality behind the humor of 'Anchorman' and tracks the rise of personality-driven news formats in the 1970s," Trost said.The exhibit will remain open stay classy until August 31, 2014. As for the legend himself, Ron Burgundy had this to say about the news: "I'm literally trapped in a glass case of emotion." Us, too.

'Catching Fire' Capitol Couture Tumblr Features Effie Trinket Profile and Panem Fashion

Fashionistas and “Hunger Games” fans alike can find common ground at Capitol Couture, the Lionsgate-sanctioned Tumblr that’s been re-launched to promote the next installment of the hit action series, “Catching Fire.”

The site is stuffed to the gills with content, featuring a day-in-the-life profile of District 12’s Capitol escort, Effie Trinket, and a lookbook of clothing items that would be at home in each of Panem’s districts. (A large scarf will help keep you warm in the cold District 8 climate, for example, or a dress made from dehydrated eggplants would fit in well with District 11’s lush vegetation.)

It’s a clever marketing ploy that works on many levels, both giving fans of the series a taste of some of the fashion they can expect to see in “Catching Fire,” while offering a deeper, winking understanding of the clueless Capitol residents’ fetishization of lavish luxury and their out-of-touch outlook on the rest of the country’s subjects.

“The Capitol Elite support the victors as they tour Panem with 12 District-inspired looks,” the site’s copy reads. “As Effie Trinket said, ‘…district ruins are going to be all the rage this year’.”

It looks like Capitol Couture will be updated fairly frequently before “Catching Fire” hits theaters November 22 -- Issue One of its Chroma Nouveau online mag is live on the site now -- so check back often to see what sort of looks Effie, Katniss, and other tributes will be sporting in the next installment. And may the fashion odds be ever in your favor.

'Poltergeist' Reboot May Actually Be a Sequel

A remake of ‘80s cult horror classic “Poltergeist” was announced in 2011, but not much information about the project had been scared up until now. What was once thought to be a complete reboot might instead be a sequel, if two recent reports are to be believed.

Earlier this week, Bloody Disgusting posted a short synopsis of the movie, which would follow a similar trajectory to the original, focusing this time on the Bowen family (the Freelings were featured in the original) and their young daughter, Madison, who’s abducted by the titular ghosts. Like the original, a team of paranormal investigators would be recruited to help bring Madison home; in the new version, the family matriarch can also communicate with the dead.

But while that summary certainly sounds like a direct remake of the first “Poltergeist” film, Moviehole posted some additional plot details a few days later that seem to indicate the new movie will follow in the footsteps of this year’s “Evil Dead” update -- keeping the name and a few select details of the original while presenting an entirely new plot.

The site says the film will exist in the same universe as the previous “Poltergeist” movies (there were three altogether), and that the Bowen family moves into the Freelings’s former home many years later. There they find abandoned possessions belonging to the family -- including a black-and-white television set -- and come upon some of the same suspicious occurrences that plagued the house’s former owners.

Sam Raimi’s involvement as producer would indicate that the “Evil Dead” trajectory theory isn’t too far off from what filmmakers have in mind. We’ll see what director Gil Kenan (“Monster House”) has in store soon -- the movie is set to start shooting later this year.

LEGO Made A Full Scale X-Wing!

There are only a handful of ways to experience the world of "Star Wars" for yourself, but most of them are pretty lame. You could buy a replica lightsaber, but it won't actually work. You could go to Disney World, but that Darth Vader is someone's nephew and will probably break into dance before long.
But for the 30th anniversary of the folks over at LEGO gave MTV Geek a chance to get close to an X-Wing that's as big of as the real thing... but you know, made out of LEGOs.
Fun fact: The entire thing took more than 5.3 million individual bricks to build and weighs (internal steel skeleton included) 46,000 pounds.

Watch All Of Seth MacFarlane's Oscars 2013 Celebrity Jabs

People on the internet can't seem to decide on how Seth MacFarlane did as the host of the Oscars. Either he was funny or sexist or edgy or dated, or he was all of these and no one could decide among the adjectives.

Thankfully, VH1 has put together a compilation of MacFarlane's most biting jokes from his opening monologue. That way, you can review the evidence and decide for yourself whether the host sucked, rocked, or fell somewhere in between.
Did MacFarlane's Lincoln joke go too far, even 150 years later? What about the Chris Brown-Rihanna jab? MacFarlane certainly threw a lot of punches; we're just not so sure about how many he landed.

Oscars 2013: How Did 'Argo' Take the Lead?

Sometimes Oscar prognosticators are slow on the uptake. After all, if something unexpected happens once, it's a fluke. Twice, and it's a coincidence. But three times? That's a trend. And four times is -- what? A groundswell? A movement?

So it is with Argo. After Ben Affleck failed to secure a Best Director nomination, pundits counted it out of the Best Picture race, since no film has won that Oscar without also being nominated for Best Director since 1989's "Driving Miss Daisy." Nonetheless, hours after the Oscar nominations were announced, "Argo" picked up Best Picture at the Critics' Choice Awards. Then it did so a few days later at the Golden Globes. And this past weekend, it won the top prize at the Producers Guild Awards on Saturday and then at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday.

So, yeah, okay, we get it. "Argo" is the frontrunner. Still, how did it come from behind, despite the Oscar snub, to take the lead? There are a number of theories.

"Argo" was always the frontrunner; we just got distracted when newer, shinier movies came along. According to this theory, "Argo," the first of the major Oscar hopefuls to be released, was on top from the beginning, but later releases like "Lincoln", "Silver Linings Playbook" and "Zero Dark Thirty" briefly distracted critics and awards voters. But support for "Argo" was always strong, the theory says, it was just drowned out by the brief fancies for the newer films.

"Argo" is the most likable -- or maybe just the least unlikable -- of the nominees. This theory explains why the other movies fell by the wayside. "Zero Dark Thirty" was halted in its tracks by the controversy over its depiction of torture. "Lincoln" had its own historical anomalies. "Silver Linings Playbook," as a comedy, seems slight, and its portrayal of mental illness makes some viewers uncomfortable. "Life of Pi" is too foreign, "Django Unchained" too violent, "Amour" too uncompromisingly bleak and "Beasts of the Southern Wild" too precious. So that leaves "Argo," a film that everyone at least respected, if not loved, and one that nobody has anything bad to say about.

"Argo" makes Hollywood a hero. Oscar seldom smiles on inside-baseball movies about the workings of Hollywood. Last year's "The Artist" was a notable exception, and "Argo" paints a more flattering portrait of the industry than that film did. In an era when Hollywood is often cast as a villain (both by politicians and by its own filmmakers), "Argo" makes the whole town (represented by the composite character Alan Arkin plays) come off as a hero and a patriot. Sure, the movie has some gentle, satirical tweaks at the town for being built on lies and hype, but it's that gift for deceit that makes the merchants of movie fakery in "Argo" ideal partners in a secret espionage operation. No wonder the Producers Guild smiled on "Argo"; it's the only movie in memory that makes a hero out of one of the Guild's own.

Actors love "Argo." Here, it's the narrative behind the production and release of "Argo" that matters. It's a critical and popular hit directed by a member of the Screen Actors Guild, and it represents his redemption after years of being a Hollywood joke. (So it gives hope to every other member of SAG that, given the right project, they could do as well as Ben Affleck has.) According to that narrative, Affleck's Oscar snub isn't a disqualification, just one more obstacle he's had to overcome on his way to a coronation. Also, TV actors (who make up a large chunk of the SAG voters) love Affleck for giving plum roles in "Argo" to performers generally thought of as TV actors (such as Bryan Cranston, Tate Donovan, and Victor Garber).

    Of course, the voting patterns of TV actors don't matter at the Academy Awards, but actors still make up the largest branch of the Academy. Curiously, actors aren't likely to honor "Argo" for any of its performances. (Its only acting nominee, Arkin, is likely to lose to either Tommy Lee Jones of "Lincoln" or Christoph Waltz of "Django," who won the SAG and Golden Globe prizes, respectively.) Rather, they just admire Affleck for getting it made at all. Same with the producers, whose proportional voting system most closely resembles that of the Academy, and whose top prize has anticipated the Best Picture Oscar for 16 of the 23 years since "Daisy." If Affleck wins the Directors Guild prize this weekend, we can all drop our pencils; this unpredictable race will finally be predictable.

By the way, for those keeping track of other categories besides Best Picture: SAG wins for Jennifer Lawrence ("Silver Linings Playbook") and Anne Hathaway ("Les Miserables") mean those two continue to be the frontrunners for Best Actress and Supporting Actress, respectively. "Wreck-It Ralph" won the PGA prize for Best Animated Feature, an award that has predicted the Oscar-winner in four of the last five years. The PGA's documentary prize went to "Searching for Sugar Man," which is no guarantee of an Oscar victory. Still, it's something to go on.

Ashton Kutcher Is Actually Pretty Good In First 'jOBS' Clip

 

Ashton Kutcher's Steve Jobs biopic, which is closing this year's Sundance Film Festival, has yet to screen in Park City, but the very first clip from "jOBS" has hit the web, courtesy of Entertainment Tonight.
The clip shows Kutcher as the Apple founder trying to convince Josh Gad as Steve Wozniak that his idea is something they can develop together and sell to everyone. (As if that will ever catch on!)
Check out the first clip from "jOBS" after the jump!

As one of the highest profile premieres at Sundance this year, the biopic already has distribution from Open Road, so you'll be able to see the full thing on April 19, 2013.

Watch Arnold Schwarzenegger Say Big Words

Yes, the man has never really had a great grasp on the English language. Yes, we understand he's from Austria, but it's still very, very funny.
Also, see how Weta built a better Gollum in today's Dailies!

» Blooper reel from "This Is 40" [Funny or Die]

» Arnold Schwarzenegger says big words. [Film.com]

» An amazing FX reel about Gollum in "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" [LA Times]

» Trailer for "At Any Price" with Zac Efron and Dennis Quaid [Yahoo! Movies]

» Matthew Holness ("Darkplace") is "The Reprisalizer" in "A Gun for George." [Super Punch]
» The trailer for "Terms and Conditions May Apply" is frightening. [Film.com]

Welcome to the Dailies, where the MTV Movies team runs down all the film and television news, odds and ends that are fit to print! From awesome fan art to obscure casting news, this is your place to feast on all the movie leftovers you didn't know you were hungry for.

New details emerge concerning S.H.I.E.L.D. TV show

ABC Entertainment President Paul Lee has been talking about the status of the upcoming S.H.I.E.L.D. TV show, revealing that Joss Whedon has gone beyond writing for just the series pilot.“He’s already working on the scripts for the series,” reveals Lee. “We shot it in Los Angeles to make sure that he is free to work across his feature life and his television life, but I love to see Joss who of course has made many great television shows in his day, enjoying television as much as movies. That’s flattering for us.“The truth about Joss is he has some great relationships in it so there are a lot of really funny male/female relationships that go through it,” continues Lee. “But it’s also Joss too and there’s a lot of action.“I talk about the emotion of the network, that it’s smart with heart. There is something which I talk less about, that’s very real about this network, is we have more co-viewed shows. Absolutely Marvel has the ability to bring the whole family around it.”Sounds as though Whedon has tapped into that magic combo of action, humour and loveable characters once more. Now how long do we think it will be before he starts killing them off…

‘AMC’, ‘OLTL’ Creator Agnes Nixon Gives Prospect Park Reboots Her Blessing

Agnes Nixon, creator of both All My Children and One Life To Live, chimed in tonight with her approval of Prospect Park‘s plans to resurrect the canceled ABC soaps. On her blog and on Facebook, Nixon wrote, “We of the One Life to Live and All My Children families are thrilled to bring our beloved viewers new, ongoing stories from Llanview and Pine Valley.” It’s believed to be the first time Nixon has said anything publicly about Prospect Park’s second attempt to bring the soaps back online. “I’m especially grateful to Prospect Park for deploying the power of you, our fans, to enable this exciting transition to dramatic production for the Internet. It’s a historic moment, comparable to how life was changed when television took over for radio.” Prospect Park has secured agreements with SAG-AFTRA and DGA but is expected to forgo an accord with the Writers Guild and use “financial core” writers who opt for reduced membership status. Details remain scarce but AMC alum Vincent Irizarry (Dr. David Hayward) has agreed to return as has Lindsay Hartley (who played Cara Martin). Nixon did not say whether she will play a part in the soaps’ resurrection.