“The Strip,” as its called, is about a former child star (Lennon) who is now the owner of a Hooters-esque restaurant in a strip mall on the outskirts of Las Vegas. Garant will be playing a supporting role in the pilot.

Universal Media Studios is producing the project. They had kept the premise a secret since being set up last October. Lennon and Garant are also serving as executive producers, with Peter Principato and Paul Young.

The original release date was June 18, but the studio has now placed the film on hold. The production start date is actually listed as “TBA.”

They’ve yet to find a new director after Kenny Ortega quit the project last fall. Zac Efron was originally going to star, but he backed out over fear he was being typecast. He was replaced by Chace Crawford, and that’s pretty much the only thing known about the remake currently.

Oh, and that it is being filmed in Utah.

Battsek most recently was the head of Disney’s Miramax Films, but he was fired late last year. His name was on the shortlist for Leipzig’s position at NatGeo when Leipzig announced he would be stepping down to produce.

David Beal, president of National Geographic Entertainment, made the announcement earlier today. Battsek will report directly to Beal.

This will be the first big screen representation authorized by the King estate, and DreamWorks has full access to King’s intellectual property. Harwood isn’t hinting at how he is going to approach the project.

Picking Harwood as the scribe is a wonderful, given his near-obsession with racial themes. Makes sense, he is from South Africa.

Bridges stars as U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn, which was the role that John Wayne played in the original. Matt Damon is going to co-star.

The Christmas release puts “True Grit” in the right path for an awards run and gears it up for a very nice opening weekend.

Malkovich is joining Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman, and Bruce Willis. I never thought I’d see that as the cast for a comic book movie. The film is being produced by Summit Entertainment. Robert Schwentke will direct the Erich and Jon Hoeber written script.

The three-book series was bought up by Summit last year. It focuses on a former black-ops (why’s everything about race right now?) CIA agent who is being hunted by an assassin who knows a thing or two about gadgets. “Red” has an expected release date of November 19.

Nick Twisp is the main character of “Youth in Revolt,” which is based on the novel of the same name by C.D. Payne. He is an anxious 16-year-old hipster who really enjoys films, books, music, and vocabulary that most people don’t even know exist. He lives with his mother (Jean Smart) and her sleezeball boyfriend (Zach Galifianakis). After the boyfriend screws over a very intimidating trio of Navy Sailors, the “family” decides to go on vacation. They go to a trailer park on a lake, and this trailer park on a lake is where Nick Twisp meets the girl of his dreams, Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday).

Sheeni is the female version of Nick, just a bit more adventurous. To win her over, Nick must find a way to move to the trailer park and be a bad ass. He hatches a scheme to move in with his father (Steve Buscemi), who has recently moved to the trailer park. To do so he must get his mother and her new boyfriend (Ray Liotta) to kick him out. This is where his bad ass, mustachioed, cigarette-smoking alter ego François comes into play.

My main problem with this movie is that the younger characters all speak like writers, while the older characters seem to be much less mature and close-minded. I can’t stand when high school aged characters speak like they’re writing their dissertation. I mentioned at the beginning of my review that Cera disappointed me with this one, but he didn’t disappoint me near as much as Galifianakis. I can’t quite put my finger on it with Zach, perhaps it was the script, perhaps it was his acting, perhaps it was both. The plot didn’t do it for me.

Fred Willard’s acting did, however. He was a shining star in this movie. Every scene he was in was hysterical. The opening credits were also well done. They’re animated and much different than the rest of the film.

Overall, I think that they could have gone much darker with Nick Twisp’s character. I mean, he created an alter-ego to help him get a girl to fall in love with him. However, I think the writing went for faux-intellectual happy ending instead. Some people won’t get it. Others will, and that’ll be the problem. They’ll discover that there isn’t much depth to it. I was expecting so much more from this film, and I feel like I was cheated. The trailer is so good. The cast is fantastic. The movie just isn’t. Rent on it DVD. Even better, Netflix it.

That TV show is “Jersey Shore.”

Now, in case you don’t have the Interwebnetz (which means your buddy printed these out for you) or cable television, “Jersey Shore” is much like another show on MTV, “The Real World.” Basically, I think MTV wanted to do “The Real World: Seaside Heights,” but the only people that applied with douchebags that wear Ed Hardy and skanks that fake tan too often. So they just changed the name to “Jersey Shore” and cast those Guidos and Guidettes.

Eight people, four Guidos and four Guidettes, move into a house in Seaside Heights. They must live, work, and party together. The working part doesn’t always work out, as it cost Angelina aka Jolie her spot on the show.

Oh, that’s the other part. All but two of the cast mates have these incredible silly nicknames. Let’s see, there’s Jenni aka JWoww, Mike aka The Situation, Nicole aka Snooki aka Snickers. Paul aka Pauly D, and Sammi aka Sweetheart. Ronnie and Vinny round out the cast. No, I did not just pick two random Italian names.

I don’t know why this show has become such a hit. Maybe it’s that America loves Italian stereotypes. Maybe it’s just because these people are freakin’ nutbags. Or maybe it’s Snooki getting punched in the face by that random guy at the bar.

“Jersey Shore” sure has created a lot of controversy. Three sponsors have already pulled out of the show. The first was Domino’s Pizza, who felt the show exploits negative Italian-American stereotypes and doesn’t portray how most Italian-Americans really are. To paraphrase Pugs from Pugs & Kelly, Domino’s doesn’t make real Italian pizza. American Family Insurance and Dell also pulled their ads. The National Italian American Foundation and the Order Sons of Italy in America have also cried out against the show.

However, the one person and, more importantly, the one incident that made this show for me is Snooki. She got shwasted the first night in the house. So much so that her housemates didn’t like her. However, she won them back, basically by being herself and doing the same thing that got her roomies to hate her in the first place. Then she got punched in the face.

Back when the show was taping in August, a dude stole a drink from her and her housemates at a bar. She started yelling out him, rightfully, and he just reared back and punched her square in the face. This random guy turned out to be Brad Ferro, a PE teacher in Deer Park, New York. It was supposed to air during the December 17 episode, but the actual punch and seconds following were blacked out. You can still find the clip online, however. MTV promoted the hell out of it before deciding, “Hey, women getting hit isn’t cool.”

The season isn’t even over yet, and I can’t wait for the reunion show. I also can’t wait for next season! My only question: Can the people next year match the mess that is this season?

The film is based upon a previously unproduced screenplay by the great playwright. The story centers on a 1920s Southern debutante played by Howard who falls in love with a poor country boy.

“Teardrop Diamond” opens in L.A. and New York today. Howard has a role in “Eclipse,” the next film in the “Twilight” saga, taking over the role of Victoria. “Eclipse” comes out in June.

Mel Gibson is reportedly going to film his next project at the prison soon, and this sparked protests yesterday. The relatives fear that the prisoners will be moved to make room for the filming. This would make it more difficult to visit the inmates or bring them food (seriously, the prison doesn’t feed them?) if they’re moved.

The director of the prison, Gerardo Duran, has called the rumors of transfer unfounded. Gibson filmed “Apocalypto” in Veracruz.