FILM/ SCORCESE & DICAPRIO TEAM UP FOR NEW PIC: Martin Scorsese has come back on to direct "The Wolf of Wall Street" in his latest collaboration with star Leonardo DiCaprio. "Sopranos" writer Terry Winter wrote the adaptation of Jordan Belfort's memoir. DiCaprio's Appian Way and Scorsese are producing the film, they plan to reveal financing details and the date for the start of production at the Festival de Cannes in May. The project will detail Belfort's fast-dealing, drug-and-sex-drenched '90s-era tear through the halls of Wall Street, which eventually led to jail time in federal prison for offences related to stock market manipulation. "After almost 4 years in development, I can’t begin to tell you how thrilled I am to finally be working with Leo and Marty on this," said Belfort, who's now sober. "They’re the ultimate Dream Team, and it was definitely worth the wait". Scorsese is currently finishing up his latest, "Hugo Cabret," for a December release through Sony, which he will follow with an adaptation of the Shusaku Endo novel "Silence" for Warner Bros. "Wall Street" could then follow. DiCaprio, who has worked on 4 films with Scorsese, is currently shooting "J. Edgar" with Clint Eastwood directing for Warner Bros.
Halle Berry will star in New Line’s ensemble romantic comedy "New Year’s Eve" after all, just in a different role. Last month, Berry pulled out of the project because of a custody battle over her young daughter. At that time, Katherine Heigl stepped in and replaced Berry. But Berry was freed up this week when a judge in Los Angeles ruled in her favor, making it possible for her to travel with her daughter to New York, where Garry Marshall is shooting "New Year’s Eve". Berry's new role in the film, he'll play a nurse, is slightly smaller than the one she gave up due to the custody battle. The film is currently shooting and is similar in vein to last year's "Valentine's Day". Along with Berry and Heigl, "New Year's Eve" stars Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Ashton Kutcher, Hilary Swank, Sofia Vergara, Sarah Jessica Parker, Lea Michele and Zac Efron.
FILM&MUSIC/ JOHN STRAUSS DIES AT 90: Composer and music editor John Strauss, who worked on films including the Oscar-winning "Amadeus," has died at the age of 90 in Los Angeles. Strauss, who had Parkinson's disease, died at a nursing home on Monday night. As a composer, his best known work in the US was the theme tune to 1960s comedy "Car 54, Where Are You?" which he co-wrote with show creator Nat Hiken. He also worked as music editor on a number of Woody Allen films. They included "Take the Money and Run" as well as "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask)". In the 1984 biopic "Amadeus," the story of the rivalry between composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri, he was music co-ordinator and also briefly appeared in the film as a conductor. He also won a Grammy as producer of the film's soundtrack album. In 1978, Strauss shared a sound editing Emmy for his work on TV film "The Amazing Howard Hughes".
Kathryn Sockett, the author of "The Help," is being sued by 60-year-old Ablene Cooper for using her name and likeness for one of the 2 main characters in the best-selling novel without her permission. Like the real Ablene Cooper, "The Help’s" Abileen Clark is a middle-aged African-American maid who has a grown son that dies just before the birth of her white employer’s first child, has a gold tooth, and is called “Aibee” by the family. The suit filed in Mississippi state court asks for $75,000 in damages. Experts say such suits are extremely difficult.“We’re talking about a work of art,” said a scholar with the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University. “There are strong First Amendment protections". An interesting twist is that Cooper works for Kathryn Stockett’s brother and sister-in-law. Cooper says the 2 support her lawsuit. The movie version starring Emma Stone, Alison Janney, and Bryce Dallas Howard is scheduled for an August 2011 release by DreamWorks via Disney. The book has spent 97 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.
Eva Gabrielsson, the longtime partner of the late Swedish novelist Stieg Larsson, has written her version of their life together. “Millennium, Stieg and Me” is a slim memoir published in France, Sweden and Norway last month with a co-author, the French journalist Marie-Françoise Colombani. Gabrielsson claims that Larsson wrote slightly more than 200 pages of a sequel to his 3-part “Millennium” series“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” “The Girl Who Played with Fire” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest,” shortly before his sudden death in 2004. She has been seeking the legal authority to finish it; his family has refused. “I have no intention of recounting here the story line of volume four,” she writes, adding that finishing the book is a task that “I am capable of doing.” She says that the texts are stored in his laptop computer, “perhaps.” She does not have the computer herself, but says that it is safely in the hands of the anti-Fascist magazine where he worked. Gabrielsson does not claim to be Larsson’s ghostwriter for the Millennium series, which has sold more than 45 million copies worldwide, but writes that he could not have written it without her. “Out of our struggles, our commitments, our travels, our passions, our fears, these books are the jigsaw puzzle of our lives,” she writes. “That’s why I cannot pinpoint exactly what, in ‘Millennium’ comes from Stieg and what comes from me.” At the book’s end, Ms. Gabrielsson vows to avenge those who have harmed both her and Larsson. She has been locked in a bitter dispute with Larsson’s father and brother over the rights and income deriving from his works. She and Larsson lived together for 32 years, but because they were not married and Larsson left no will, she has no legal right to his estate. The book will be published in the United States in June by Seven Stories Press.
2 years after scrapping its original plans, Roundabout Theater Company announced this week that it would produce “Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ ” this fall at Broadway’s Studio 54 theater, with director Graciela Daniele recreating Fosse’s original choreography from his hit revue “Dancin’.” This will be the 1st production of “Dancin’ ” since the 1978-82 run, pictured, one of Fosse’s biggest commercial successes, which won Tony Awards for his choreography and Jules Fisher’s lighting design. A spokeswoman for Roundabout said that a tour of “Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ ” is still under consideration for 2012. Cast members and the design team will be announced later. Daniele, a critically acclaimed artist best known as a choreographer, has been nominated for 10 Tony Awards over the years, including for her direction and choreography of the 1990 musical “Once on This Island".
THEATRE/ "BENGAL" UP IN LIGHTS: The marquee is up for the upcoming Broadway play, "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo," at the Richard Rodgers Theatre. "Bengal" stars Robin Williams and begins previews on March 11, ahead of a March 31 opening. The play is scheduled to run until July 3. Rajiv Joseph's darkly comic tale is narrated by a tiger held captive in the Baghdad Zoo. The play follows the intertwined lives of two American marines and one Iraqi gardener as they search through the rubble of war for friendship, redemption and a toilet seat made of gold.
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