— Yesterday, I bemoaned Walden‘s continued onslaught of YA fiction adaptations. For some reason, they’re not listening, and that may be well and good. Walden has just added Tim Robbins as a secretive inventor in addition to Martin Landeau, Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Harry Treadway to their upcoming adaptation of City of Ember. The title sounds mysteriously lovely and the story of a self contained city discovering why it exists gets my post-apocolyptic senses a tingling. But it’s Walden and YA, so I don’t know what to make of it. City of Ember is currently shooting in Ireland with an eye focused on release in October 2008.
— The rom-com Henry Poole Was Here has added Dr. Laura look-alike Cheryl Hines to its casting list. Larry David’s fake wife will play opposite Luke Wilson as he gives temperance the bird and dives into a life of imbibery, gluttony and all around good times upon learning he’s got six weeks to live. Enter eccentric neighbors, who intervene and add something rom-comy to what doesn’t sound all that rom-comy to begin with.
— The Delivery Man, a book about a guy lucky enough to nab a job totin’ teen whores about town in Las Vegas, has had film rights purchased by Whitsett Hill Films- a sub $10 million budget production company. Billed as Fast Times at Ridgemont High meets Cruel Intentions, you can probably expect a lot of naked nubility, illegal narcotics and good old fashioned pedophilia. Thom Mount, former Universal prez and current indie producer, describes the story as "Everything we fear". I’m guessing that’s from a parents’ perspective, not the whoremongers.
— Vivica A. Fox, she of the hodgepodge entertainment career (and owner of a shiny new drunk driving record) has been recruited to star in Street, the true story of an Oregon runaway who gets some mentoring and love after being beat by the guy she chose to skip home with. Street also stars Rachel "I loved Macaulay Culkin" Miner and Laura "Beware The Covenant" Ramsey.