Elton John ditches gnomes for trolls
Elton John’s movie producing arm, Rocket Pictures, scored a solid hit with this spring’s Gnomeo & Juliet, an animated reworking of Romeo and Juliet featuring talking, singing garden gnomes. Filled to the brim with John’s classic hit singles, the film made almost $200 million worldwide. And because it’s a short leap from gnomes to trolls, that’s where Rocket’s going next. Will Gallows and the Snake-Bellied Troll, a live-action/CGI-animated feature based on the first in a series of kid-aimed books by author Derek Keilty, is already in production withGnomeo’s writer/director Kelly Asbury. The story combines elements of Wild West cowboy adventure and, well, trolls from a fantasy universe. There’s no voice cast set up just yet, but it’s safe to expect that John will contribute in some way to the film’s score. No gay troll jokes please.
Glee’s Jonathan Groff and True Blood’s Rutina Wesley join The Submission
When a gay white male playwright poses as an African-American female in order to pen a story about an alcoholic black mother, only to be discovered in that lie, the consequences aren’t going to be the stuff of fluffy musical theater. So when the non-musical drama The Submission opens Off Broadway this fall, audiences can expect to see a side of Jonathan Groff (Spring Awakening/Glee) they might not have experienced before. The Tony nominee will be joined by True Bloodstar Rutina Wesley (as a woman who becomes involved in Groff’s hoax) as well as by Eddie Kaye Thomas (American Pie) as Groff’s boyfriend, with directing duties handled by Tony winner Walter Bobbie (Venus In Fur/Chicago) So if you’re planning a New York theater trip this fall, put it at the top of your to-see list; serious drama – especially serious drama about touchy issues like race – never sticks around as long as the ones with catchy songs and cat costumes.
Are you ready for The Young Carrie Bradshaw Chronicles?
From this summer’s X-Men: First Class to the upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man, youthful reboots are all the rage – but prequels aren’t just for superheroes anymore. And while first there were just rumblings, there are now more definite plans for HBO’s developing series (that would probably air elsewhere, most likely the CW) focusing on younger versions of the Sex and the City quartet. Imagine something along the lines of Smallville, only with Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha instead of Clark Kent. With two recent “Teen Carrie” books by Candace Bushnell, The Carrie Diaries and Summer in the City, freshly ready for adaptation, this could all get moving quickly. Early casting news buzzing about Blake Lively has now grown to include talk of Emma Roberts. Who knows, maybe Selena Gomez is looking to change her image; if so, then there’s your Charlotte. And if the show wanted to incorporate a genuine element of the surreal into the proceedings, they could just let Kim Cattrall keep playing Samantha. OK, maybe Samantha’s slutty grandmother.
*Romeo San Vicente believes in the health benefits of buttered toast with Nutella, no matter what anyone else at the gym has to say about it. He can be reached care of this publication or at DeepInsideHollywood@qsyndicate.com.
