WB Looks to Rome, Sweet Rome Pitch

Purchasing Des Moines-based author James Erwin’s first script pitch was accomplished by having an unusual route: social news aggregator website Reddit.com. Warner Bros. bought Erwin’s pitch Rome, Sweet Rome after Reddit clients selected to boost his idea up in the site’s web page. The idea? Contemporary U.S. marine corps by some quirk of fate are gone to live in An Italian Man , Capital where they suffer from Roman scores. Because the Marine corps’ presence interferes with history’s timeline, they need to set things back around the right course to return home. Adam Kolbrenner from Madhouse Entertainment spotted the publish and contacted Erwin, a couple-time Risk! champion, to develop his concept for just about any quick purchase. Kolbrenner will produce as well as Hollywood Gangs Gianni Nunnari (300, Immortals). John Ridley will oversee for Hollywood Gang. Chris Gary will shepherd the job for Warner Bros. Erwin’s next book, meanwhile, is past U.S. military actions apt to be launched next season.

At NYFF: Michelle Williams Talks Up Wry, Romantic My Week With Marilyn

It almost wouldn’t be the NY Film Festival these days without Michelle Williams, whose My Week With Marilyn marks the actress’s fourth effort in five years to grace Manhattan’s venerated fall-movie showcase. It’s inarguably her highest-profile work to splash down here — a world premiere debuting in the festival’s prestigious Centerpiece slot, glowing with awards-season ambition and hinging almost entirely on Williams’s risky interpretation of Marilyn Monroe. But come on: We’re talking about Michelle Williams here. Of course she pulled it off. Based on a pair of memoirs by Colin Clark, My Week With Marilyn breezes around the pitfalls of the modern biopic, instead bringing to life a notorious cultural moment — the making of The Prince and the Showgirl, the troubled Monroe/Laurence Olivier collaboration from 1956 — through Clark’s disarming coming-of-age perspective. An art historian’s son with designs on a filmmaking career, Clark (played here by Eddie Redmayne) persists and finagles his way into Olivier’s inner circle ahead of Showgirl’s production. Finally (almost punitively) assigned the deceptively titled job of third assistant director, the 23-year-old finds himself fetching tea, booking accommodations and, before he knows it, retrieving the tardy, insecure American sexpot from her dressing room at Pinewood Studios. Thus begins a simmering courtship between the two, chaste at face value but unswervingly romantic in its coalescence of privilege and damage. The whole film, directed with aplomb by Simon Curtis, inhabits and traverses the space between those dynamics: Monroe exhausts the vexed Olivier (Kenneth Branagh), alienates her new husband Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott), captivates her great British co-star Dame Sybil Thorndike (Judi Dench), and is the perfumed gust that sends Olivier’s wife Vivien Leigh (a beautifully vulnerable Julia Ormond) tumbling over the precipice of middle age. (In real life, Leigh originated Monroe’s Showgirl role on the London stage in Terrence Rattigan’s source play, The Sleeping Prince.) Fully aware of and thoroughly destabilized by her effect on this pedigreed class, Monroe’s confidence in Clark comes as a threat to some and a surprise to all. Yet the duo’s connection enables Monroe to pursue crucial moments away from her doomed screen persona. Williams thrives in both modes, to say nothing of her performance of Monroe as Showgirl’s titular Elsie Marina. Combining the three — often in the same scene, directed by Olivier within direction by Curtis — proves a nimble feat of craft that eschews convention, mythology and everything we think we know about Marilyn Monroe. In a press conference following this morning’s screening, Williams emphasized the subtleties separating Marilyn onscreen and off — nuances lost in the unfortunate tradition of, as NYFF programmer Scott Foundas put it, “bad impersonators” who’ve reincarnated Monroe for the camera. “Because the previous representations of her were more of that ilk, it felt like that was kind of the first thing that made me think, ‘Well, maybe I can explore this,’” Williams said. “It was a decision made kind of in the safety of my own home; I didn’t really consider the larger implications of it. And it was a very, very slow process. It all started at home. It all started with watching movies, listening to interviews, poring over books. It was just something that I put on in my living room — mimic a walk, or figure out how exactly it is she’s holding her mouth. “The first sort of big discovery that I stumbled on was that [for] Marilyn Monroe herself, ‘Marilyn Monroe’ was a character that she played,” Williams continued. “The image that you’re most familiar with? There’s a person underneath there. That was the first big discovery: That it was carefully honed, but it was artifice. It was honed to where you couldn’t tell that it was artifice. It felt so real, but it was something that she’d studied and perfected and crafted. So once I discovered that that was a layer, I was finding out what that layer was and getting underneath it. It was a long and ungainly process.” But it pays off. I enjoyed the hell out of My Week With Marilyn, from its intermittent song-and-dance interludes (“It still comes up on my iPod all the time — all the Marilyn Monroe,” Williams said of the songs she sang for the film) to its wry period infatuations to its clipped classical austerity laid waste by Monroe’s woozy compulsions. Mostly, though, Marilyn succeeds as a loving movie about movie love — the lightness of its bliss, the heartache of its illusions. None of the film’s personal infatuations (particularly that of an extraneous wardrobe girl played by Emma Watson) yield quite the charge of the lush moving pictures they serve. It’s almost ghostly in a way — and to hear Redmayne tell it today, maybe not by accident. “I think one of the great things of the whole production was the sense that we shot in the same studio that The Prince and the Showgirl was shot in.” turned to Williams. “And… your dressing room?” “My dressing room was Marilyn’s actual dressing room when she was making Prince and the Showgirl,” Williams said. “And Parkside House is playing Parkside House,” Curtis said of the star’s rented English residence. “So when Marilyn is sitting on those stairs having looked at Miller’s journal, Michelle sat on the very stairs that Marilyn would have sat at. One of the great moments for me was when we shot that wonderful dance from The Prince and the Showgirl. We were actually seeing that on the same stage — on the very spot — where I think it was in 1956 that Marilyn actually danced. In that very spot! It was incredibly moving and incredibly special.” Indeed. Keep an eye on Movieline for more about My Week With Marilyn as its Nov. 4 release date approaches. PREVIOUSLY: David Cronenberg, Michael Fassbender Bring Their Dangerous Method to NYFF

Fox renews 'MasterChef'

Fox has bought another season of "MasterChef" with Gordon Ramsay. News round the reality skein starring Gordon Ramsay happen to be expected, thinking about the truth that a casting demand season-three participants was broadcast throughout season two, which found the final outcome August. 16. The summer season finale won its 9 p.m. timeslot among grownups 18-49 getting a couple.4 rating and 8 share. Greater than 7 million audiences overall seen. Ramsay professional produces "MasterChef" with Elisabeth Murdoch, Robin Ashbrook, Adeline Ramage Rooney, Pat Llewellyn and Ben Adler. Reveille then one Potato Two Potato produce the series, with various format co-created by Franc Roddam and Shine, which distributes. Contact Jon Weisman at jon.weisman@variety.com

Billy Burke Sorta Certifies She's Dating Rachelle Lefervre

When gossips made an appearance that 'Twilight' co-stars Billy Burke and Rachelle Lefervre were dating each other, tabloids (and teen women) everywhere went wild. The simple truth is, the two haven't exactly confirmed their relationship and possess always handled to obtain their private existence in the spotlight. To date. Maybe. Throughout the interview with British GQ, Stewart stated that her "boyfriend is British." However, following a author supported, Stewart was quick to point they "never may have mentioned after i understood you're ending up in me" (forget the fact she'd been asked). Stewart added that "lots of my existence is actually easily Investigated ... I'm speaking about, it's like, 'Come on males, it's so apparent!'" So, there you have it: Billy Burke is dating an british dude and Rachelle Lefervre is British! It kinda counts just like a semi-confirmation! That noise you just heard were the screams of countless Twi-hards around the globe. [via Us Weekly] [Photo: AP] Follow Moviefone on Twitter Like Moviefone on Facebook The Twilight Saga: Breaking Beginning - Part 1 See All Moviefone Galleries »

Will and Jada Pinkett Smith Sell Comedy to ABC (Exclusive)

ABC has nabbed a multicamera comedy from Will and Jada Pinkett Smith.our editor recommendsWhite House Drama From 'Cowboys & Aliens,' 'Robot Chicken' Teams Lands at ABC The pair, along with long-time business partner James Lassiter, have sold the Untitled Romeo Project, with singerAnthony "Romeo" Santostapped to star. PHOTOS: Fall TV Death Pool: Which New Show Will Be Axed First? The project, which hails from ABC Studios and their Overbrook Entertainment, centers on a charasmatic Dominican-American (Romeo) from Washington Heights, who tries to please his very traditional, immigrant father while also creating a life that reflects his new vision of the American Dream. (While the character differs significantly from the singer's real life, the father-son relationship is reminiscent of Romeo's with his father.) STORY: Mark Gordon Sells Home Security Comedy to ABC Chris Pappas and Mike Bernier (Unhitched, One Night Stan) will serve as writers and executive producers on the project, with the Smiths and Lassiter attached as non-writing executive producers. If ultimately ordered to series, it would join a growing cadre of Smith projects, including films The Karate Kid and The Secret Life of Bees, along with Broadway's Fela! and TNT's since-canceled Hawthorne. Email: Lacey.Rose@THR.com Twitter: @LaceyVRose Related Topics ABC Jada Pinkett Smith Will Smith TV Development

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John Calley memorial looking for March. 19

A memorial to celebrate John Calley's existence and career is going to be held at 4 p.m. March. 19 at The new sony Pictures Galleries. Longtime studio professional and producer Calley died Sept. 13 at 81. RSVPs are needed by March. 14 to 310-244-4142. Parking is going to be covered within the Overland Parking structure. All visitors should enter with the Overland gate for directions towards the celebration. Contact Variety Staff at news@variety.com

About That Time James Franco Almost Died in an Ape's Arms

Spoiler alert: James Franco’s character wasn’t always supposed to survive the Rise of the Planet of the Apes chaos. According to an early script, Franco’s Will Rodman was supposed to die in the arms of his primate pal Caesar after being hit with a bullet during the dramatic forest showdown. At the last minute, the filmmakers decided to change the ending and flew the actor cross-country to film an alternative goodbye scene with Caesar (Andy Serkis). The casualty-free climax made the final cut, Rise of the Planet of the Apes grossed over $400 million worldwide and Will Rodman lives to film a potential sequel. [THR]

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