Karina on SpoutBlog

Under discussion:

The Dark Knight  (2008)

So Warner Brothers is planning to work a “tribute” to the late Heath Ledger into their New York premiere of The Dark Knight next month. Reports OK! Mag (yeah, I know):

The studio behind the Batman Begins sequel is planning a tribute to the late actor at the New York City premiere and has been working closely with the Ledger family to make it come to fruition.

If all goes according to plan, Heath’s family will be flown in from Australia for the event and Michelle Williams, his ex and mother of their 2-year-old daughter Matilda, will walk the red carpet as well.

So: will this amount to a trashy trotting-out of a widow to ensure maximum tabloid coverage of a tentpole from a studio that could really use a big hit to justify their recent swerve away from producing smaller films? Or is it actually a classy way of explicitly acknowledging the obvious cloud that hangs over this wannabe blockbuster? I took an informal poll via Twitter, and responses leaned towards the latter, but do use the comments to tell us what you think.

• Though Universal says they’re still assessing the damage of Sunday’s fire, which destroyed a tape and film print vault/shipping and receiving center, there’s speculation that some of the prints lost may be irreplaceable. “So-called EK prints, struck from the original negatives when the negatives were new and thus irreplaceable, would be among the most valuable prints on Earth.”
• Director Craig Gillespie is trying to cast his Lars and the Real Girl star Ryan gosling in The Dallas Buyers Club. Gosling would play a real-life AIDS patient circa 1986 who, “frustrated with the lack of available medical options and unwilling to accept a death sentence, found a lifeline using alternative drugs and created a lucrative smuggling business that made those drugs available.”
• The guy who made “I’m Fucking Matt Damon” for The Jimmy Kimmel Show has been given a movie deal. He’ll direct the comedy Cool School for Fox.
• The United States of Tara––a TV pilot starring Toni Collette, produced by Steven Spielberg and written by Diablo Cody––has been picked up by Showtime. Cody is expected to write about half of the 12-episode season.