Roundup 8/06

Loosen your lassos, because this is a big one. Giddy up!

• George Lucas recently told MTV that if Indy 5 comes out, it will not be centered around Shia LaBeouf's Mutt Williams character. The moviegoing public breathes a sigh of relief.

• The plagued Justice League movie is back. The Herald Sun reports that filming will resume next year. At this point, I just want it to come out and suck already - we all know it's going to happen, so why delay the inevitable?

• I don't remember if I told you this or not, but there were rumors that Brad Pitt and Leo DiCaprio were slated to star in Tarantino's next rip-off (I mean, movie) Inglorious Bastards. Looks like Pitt is still in consideration, but as of now, Leo has been replaced by a German actor. They're still being really secretive about the casting, but the freshest news is that Quentin is getting his long time friend and fellow director Eli Roth (Hostel) to star in a role. Not surprising, since QT is known for casting his friends in his flicks.

• Speaking of Tarantino - he's developing another exploitation film (Gasp! There's a surprise!), a remake of a 1965 cult classic called Faster Pussycat! Kill, Kill! Britney Spears is apparently in talks for a lead role in the movie, and she would play a killer lesbian stripper. I'll leave you to your own opinions on that one.

• Jason Statham told a reporter that he would love to play Daredevil in a big screen reboot of that franchise if one ever comes along. Frank Miller (Sin City, 300), who revitalized the character back in the 70's, said that Statham would make a great Daredevil. If he's got Frank Miller's approval, then that's all he needs. I think it'd be pretty sweet. (And for the record, I didn't hate Ben Affleck's Daredevil as much as other people did.)

• Mike O'Hearn aka Titan from American Gladiators, either A) really had auditions as the lead for both the remake of Conan and Marvel's upcoming Captain America, or B) blatantly lied to get his name in the headlines. I hope for all our sakes that it was the latter.

• Shane Black, writer of the original Lethal Weapon and writer/director of the fantastic Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, has written a spec script for Lethal Weapon 5. The story follows Riggs as he is about to retire, and this time he pulls Murtaugh out of retirement to solve one last case. Reportedly, Danny Glover and Mel Gibson are both interested, but no deals have been signed yet.

• Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats) recently battled the MPAA for a rating on his upcoming Zack and Miri Make a Porno, a movie about two friends who are low on cash and resort to making a porn movie to make some money (then fall in love, yadda yadda yadda). The MPAA originally gave the flick the dreaded NC-17 rating, but after an appeal by Smith, it was dropped back down to an R. Now they can actually market the movie, which seems pretty funny from the premise.

• My boy Shia LaBeouf supposedly called the producers of Transformers 2 yesterday and told them that his pinky finger might have to be AMPUTATED following his car accident from earlier this week. The writers are considering ways to write his injury into the story. (In a semi-related note, even though he was drinking, that accident wasn't his fault. He definitely shouldn't have been drinking and driving, and that's inexcusable, but he didn't cause the accident.)

• James Franco told MTV that work is being done to make a crossover movie that melds the characters from Superbad and Pineapple Express into the same storyline. That sounds really awesome to me, and definitely better than the straight-up Superbad sequel that Sony was pushing them to write. This way you kill two birds with one stone and generate massive interest by breaking new ground at the same time. I give it my seal of approval.