Movie News

Jason Segel Attached to Star in ‘Undercover Cop’

Briefly: It’s going to be a big year for Jason Segel. He’s finishing The Muppets, has a role in Bad Teacher, which hits this summer, and now it looks like he could be the star of Undercover Cop. OK, not the greatest title, but the concept could work: the comedy is based on the story of a cop who “infiltrated the New Jersey criminal underworld” in the ’80s. Let’s hope it’s something like Donnie Brasco meets Beverly Hills Cop rather than, say, Donnie Brasco meets the ’04 Starsky & Hutch.

Coen Brothers Will Watch Tara Reid in ‘The Big Lebowski 2,’ If It Gets Made

The saddest or most amusing statement so far this week, depending upon your perspective, came from a substance-affected Tara Reid on the red carpet for a benefit event in Los Angeles . The actress, who played nympho trophy wife (to use the parlance of our time) Bunny Lebowski in The Big Lebowski, said that a sequel would shoot this year. Ha ha, good one Tara! Oh, wait. You’re serious? Gulp.



Austin 360 mentioned it to the Coen Brothers, and Ethan Coen said, “I’m glad she’s working on it…we don’t [have a sequel in the works] but we’ll watch it when it comes out.” Joel Coen chimed in, “Especially if Tara’s in it.” Good to see they’ve got a sense of humor about it. All I request of Tara Reid is that, should this sequel ever happen (it won’t) please make sure John Turturro‘s idea to have his character Jesus Quintana show up as a school bus driver is put into play. (And for the record, Tara Reid’s reps have tried to clarify the story, saying “she heard Jeff Bridges say that he wanted to make Big Lebowski 2 and have all the original cast members in it, so she may have misspoke, thinking that included her based on what Jeff said.”)

Johnny Depp Passes on Sam Raimi’s ‘Oz, the Great and Powerful;’ James Franco Next

Finding a new wizard of Oz is proving to be much more difficult than following a yellow brick road. First Robert Downey Jr. stepped out from behind the curtain, next Johnny Depp passed on the role and now director Sam Raimi is hoping that he can reunite with his Oscar-nominated Spider-Man co-star to headline Oz, the Great and Powerful. James Franco is in preliminary talks to star in Raimi’s Wizard of Oz prequel after Depp passed on the role this week. Read more after the jump.The Hollywood Reporter broke the news of Depp turning down the role and Franco being next on Raimi’s wish list. And while he hasn’t had the box office success of Downey or Depp, Franco is fast becoming one of the most versatile and popular actors in Hollywood. He also really loves taking projects that are out of left field so him playing the eventual Wizard of Oz might appeal to him. That is, unless, the deliberate actor finds the film a bit too similar to the one he’s already finished filming that’s also a prequel to another Hollywood classic, Rise of the Apes.