The Big 'Hunger Games' Shakeup

The Big 'Hunger Games' Shakeup

The Call Sheet sifts through the day's glut of Hollywood news to find the stories even non-industry types care about. Today: Katniss has no leader, Nicole Kidman is to become a princess, and an injured actor gets litigious.

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Whoa! What was rumored not two days ago now seems to be fact. According to some, at least. A few outlets are reporting that director Gary Ross will not be directing the second film in the Hunger Games franchise, Catching Fire, after negotiations with Lionsgate stalled out. People were saying it was a money thing, but now it seems it was a creative issue? Mainly that Ross didn't want to do a sequel, and is moving on to something else. So that will be interesting! We're sure there are a lot of directors out there clamoring to take a crack at this next movie, we just hope it's someone really good (i.e. not Chris Columbus). The games have begun! [Indiewire]

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There's rumor afoot that Nicole Kidman has landed the highly in-demand role of Grace Kelly in an upcoming biopic about the doomed motorist. It's a Black List script to be directed by the guy who directed La Vie en Rose, for which Marion Cotillard won a damn Oscar, so this is a good get for Nicole. Apparently lots of other people were hot for this role, everyone from Marian Seldes to Chris Colfer. Well, OK, probably it was more 30-40ish blonde women, but who knows. The French are weird! Anyway, it's all moot now. Nicole's got it, everyone. [Variety]

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This morning Matt Lauer officially announced that he will be on The Today Show until the day he dies, quite literally he plans to die on the set during a live broadcast. No one knows when that will be, or how long this particular contract is for, but for the time being we'll still have Matt every morning. And for his trouble he's rumored to be making upwards of $100 million. Which is not a lot of money when you think about it. I mean, this guy has to wake up early and talk to Sarah Palin on a regular basis. Let's just give him all our money and be done with it, huh? Matt Lauer for king, until he groans, moans and keels over dead during a cooking segment. "He died as he lived," they'll say as they turn the entire studio into a giant funeral pyre. [The New York Times]

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One of the aerialists who was injured in Julie Taymor's disastrous (except financially) Broadway show Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is taking steps toward suing the production. He replaced a guy who had fallen 30 feet during a show and the production didn't stop to recalibrate one of the crazy machines they use to make Spider-Man fly so basically the machine was tossing him all over the place and causing him to "make hard floor landings on 70 occasions." He's now claiming that he has "a hole of .14 cm in his right knee and a hole of .9 cm in his left knee." Yiiiiikes. Art is pain, but that's just ridiculous. Frankly it's a wonder this show managed to not kill someone in its early days, so probably the producers should just count their blessings and throw this guy some money. Unless of course it's just Julie Taymor in one of her elaborate costumes trying to get a bigger chunk of the profits. Which, let's be honest, is more than a little likely. [The Hollywood Reporter]

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The final season of AMC's Breaking Bad will be split up into two eight-episode runs, so basically there are two more seasons of Breaking Bad, guys. I hate this split season thing. It's so silly. Just call it a season! I know that creatively or whatever there might be a single arc that extends over the two groups of episodes, but this nonsense has led to all this "midseason finale" balderdash that should not be accepted. That's our complaint here. We are not complaining about more episodes of Breaking Bad, we promise. [Entertainment Weekly]

Here is a trailer for Take This Waltz, the new movie written and directed by Sarah Polley and starring Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, Sarah Silverman, and Luke Kirby from the great Canadian series (which also featured Polley, and her father) Slings & Arrows. It's a Canadian love story about a married woman who meets a cute new guy and just isn't sure what the hell to do. Must be nice to have such problems, huh? Here in Singleton Acres we call that an embarrassment of riches. Lucky girl. (The weird thing about Singleton Acres is that we probably wouldn't have to live in Singleton Acres if we didn't live in a place called Singleton Acres, y'know? Oh well.) The movie looks good!