We Need a Zombie Break
Today in show business news: The walking dead are headed to Riverdale, Michael Keaton is going to save his career, and Vinn Diesel is gonna go witch hunting.
RELATED: Zombies, Vin Diesel and European Sewers
Ugh, zombies. There are too many zombies these days. Zombie jokes, zombie spoofs, zombie video games, people on drugs who everyone accuses of being zombies. It's all too much. Sure The Walking Dead has been pretty good for the last season, and that Warm Bodies movie was kinda cute, but otherwise it's too much. We should be done with the zombies! And yet. Here comes playwright turned comic book writer turned Glee writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa to put more zombies in the world and in the worst of all possible places: Archie Comics. Yes, Archie and the rest of the Riverdale gang will soon be dealing with a zombie apocalypse in an upcoming series of comics, which sounds completely terrible does it not? Archie is classic and wonderful and should not involve people eating brains or dying or anything like that. Maybe some people were right: They added a gay character and the next thing you know the world is ending and everyone's eating each other. It's all Kevin Keller's fault! So what exactly happens in Afterlife with Archie? This: "Jughead’s beloved pooch Hotdog is run over by Reggie in his roadster. He convinces Sabrina to hatch a spell to bring back the pooch, but when Hotdog bites Jughead, he soon craves flesh." No. Unacceptable! And where did Sabrina come from? She's just hanging around for some reason? No. I refuse. No zombies in Archie Comics. No zombies anywhere for a while! Let's be done with zombies for a bit, please. [Deadline]
RELATED: The Taiwanese Animated Steve Jobs Biopic; Fake Zombie History
Speaking of things brought back from the dead, how about Michael Keaton's career?? I mean, the guy's got a hot movie coming together right now. He's set to appear in Birdman, a dark comedy from acclaimed director Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu, and a slew of popular, respected actors have just joined the cast. The movie is about an actor who is famous for playing a big movie superhero but has fallen on hard times (ahem) and who tries to launch a Broadway show to revive his career. Emma Stone will play his daughter/assistant, Naomi Watts will be an actress in the show, and Zach Galifianakis will be a "conniving producer." That is a good cast and a good director for Mr. Keaton to be involved with in the year 2013. Good for him. Hey, if you haven't listened to him on Marc Maron's podcast yet, you must and should. It's a fascinating glimpse into the smaller part of a once-big career. You'll be rooting for him if you weren't already. And this is a good step in the right direction. [The Hollywood Reporter]
RELATED: Like It or Not, the 'Entourage' Movie Is a Go
Celebrated actor Vin Diesel may soon be playing the title character in a movie called The Witch Hunter, about "an immortal witch hunter who partners with his natural enemy, a female witch, to stop the covens of New York City from unleashing a plague on humanity." Aha. His worst enemy: a female witch. Male witches, or rather warlocks? Ain't no thang. But female witches? Murder. Witches, man. Witches. Who will play the witch? Nobody knows, but probably someone younger and more attractive than Mr. Diesel. I know that sounds like a tall order, I mean it's Vin freakin' Diesel, but they'll probably manage to find someone. Could be interesting! Or it could just be Constantine with an even more respected actor. [Deadline]
RELATED: Zombies Take Over The Huffington Post
Dean Winters, from 30 Rock and all those "Mayhem" car insurance commercials (and Law & Order: SVU for one weird season), has joined the cast of the pilot that used to be called Venice. It's now called Westside, which is a way worse title, but it's still about the same thing: Two families dueling for control of Venice Beach. Yes. Venice Beach, that enclave of power and conflict. Winters will play the Jennifer Beals character's brother-in-law and the guy who runs the family surf shop (mmhm). He's also trying to take down the rival family, of course. For control of Venice Beach. So he can run, like, the places that sell sunglasses or whatever. Big money in those sunglasses. And the weed dispensaries, obviously. Those too. It's just a real dog-eat-dog world over in Venice. Serious business. Sounds like a very dramatic show. [The Hollywood Reporter]
RELATED: The 'Idol' Return of Adam Lambert
It's already been announced that they're making Entourage into a movie, and now they're making a movie *from* Entourage! No, not Aquaman. Think Vinnie's dream job. The one he wanted more than anything else in the whole wide world. Yes, Medellín!!! Oh sweet heavens, they're finally making Medellín. Well, OK, so they're making a movie called Silver Or Lead, but it's about Pablo Escobar so it might as well be Medellín. God, Vince and E and Ari would be so happy if they were real people instead of fake dudes who I really like because they make me feel like I lead a cool and sexy life and get lots of chicks and am awesome. If they were real instead of that, they'd be so freakin' excited. [Deadline]
Here is a trailer for Noah Baumbach's upcoming comedy Frances Ha, which he wrote with actress Great Gerwig, who also stars. If the combination of Noah Baumbach and mumblecore maven Greta Gerwig sounds like maybe too much of a much, I totally feel you, but people are saying this movie is actually pretty good. The trailer is a little obnoxious, with all that noodly flailing and whatnot, but let's remember that Noah Baumbach is really good at making movies so we should probably trust him. Plus that thing with Grace Gummer is pretty funny! Let's be positive about this, guys. At least there aren't any zombies?
