When it was announced that Spike Lee would be remaking Park Chan-Wook’s 2003 Korean hit Oldboy, I assumed that Oldboy 2: Who You Callin’ Boy, would star a respected African-American actor as the lead, Bro Dae-Su. Instead, they went with Josh Brolin, whose character will now be named “Joe.” Don’t I feel silly.

Brolin was rumored to be on the short list, now it’s official: Brolin will topline the Mandate Pictures redo, which begins production in March. Brolin, who just wrapped Men in Black 3 with Will Smith, next begins work on Warner Bros’ Gangster Squad. It looks like he’ll squeeze in Oldboy before shooting Jason Reitman’s Labor Day opposite Kate Winslet; that movie is set to begin production in June.
The new Oldboy has script adapted by Mark Protosevich [Thor, I Am Legend], who will co-produce. |Deadline|

Meanwhile, there’s reportedly still an offer out to Christian Bale to play the villain. Brolin should be fine — he’s already worked with Oliver Stone, the white Spike Lee, twice, so by now he should be used to heavy-handed blowhards. Also, his name would make an awesome broism if it didn’t already have “bro” in it. Brose Canseco, Broseph Stalin, Maximillian Brobespierre – Josh Brolin. By Brove, it’d be perfect! But no, it came pre-broheimed. His ancestors really f*cked us on that one.

And Pugsy Siegel blows yet another casting call.

Question marks in the headline mean only one thing: EjacuSpeculation time! According to Nikki Fink’s dubious gossip rag, Josh Brolin is in negotiations to join Sean Penn and Baby Goose in Ruben Fleischer’s “Gangster Squad.” What, was “Mafia Crime” already taken?

“Warner Bros has begun negotiating with Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling and Josh Brolin to star in Gangster Squad, the Will Beall-scripted crime drama that will be directed by Zombieland helmer Ruben Fleischer. Production will begin in the fall. The linchpin of the film is Los Angeles mobster Mickey Cohen, which is the role that Penn is in talks to play. Gosling and Brolin are in talks to play two cops assigned to bring him down when the gangster’s penchant for violence leaves the blood of innocents on the street.” [Deadline]

This is still in the early stages, and I hope they’re able to make this happen since it sounds really cool, but I’m worried that the prospect of a hardscrabble Brolin teaming-up with an naively optimistic Gosling to take down Penn’s over-the-top Jewish kingpin is just too good to be true.

CHIEF: Yer a loose cannon, McPunchington! You can’t just beat a suspect in custody!

BROLIN: Seems like I just did, Chief. *takes swig from flask, smiles haggardly*

CHIEF: That’s it, yer off the case, Detective! Send in the kid.

BROLIN: Detective Snugfeather? He doesn’t even carry a gun! He says they’re too loud.

[interrogation room door flies open]

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Homophobic Turtle thinks this is sick and gross and promises he's not even a little turned on.

Even if you managed to stay awake through the entire Oscars telecast on Sunday, which was almost as hard as staying awake through The King’s Speech, one thing you didn’t see was Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem’s kiss, which occurred entirely while producers awkwardly kept the camera on Penelope Cruz.  Why did they do it?  Was a joke about two straight guys kissing (which Saturday Night Live has based an entire recurring sketch on, in at least three separate shows — still hilarious, btw, guys, no really, it never gets old) too hot for the network owned by Disney?  Clearly, the answer is yes.  These gay-bashing bullies need to be punished. Punished FABULOUSLY.

As if on cue, openly gay Oscarcast co-producer Bruce Cohen is facing the ultimate Web sanction for that censored Javier Bardem-Josh Brolin smooch from Sunday night: an attacked Wikipedia bio calling him a “liar” and homophobe in cahoots with ABC.

“Bruce Cohen is a liar who claims he does not partake in the homophobia of the ABC network when clearly he does,” reads the recent addition to Cohen’s bio — a bio that includes Cohen having married his partner Gabriel Catone in 2008, worn a White Knot to the 2009 Oscars in support of same-sex marriage and earned his second Best Picture nomination that same year for co-producing Milk. [Also, he's named 'Bruce.' -Ed]
[Movieline]

ABC has issued a response saying that they have no comment on the incident.  Now, I’m no expert on tolerance, but it seems to me that blowing a dude would be the ultimate rebuttal to accusations of homophobia.  Better get going on that Twitpic, Cohen.

Ha, “rebuttal.”
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You nerds can keep your Trons and your gay comic book movies about promise rings from space, True Grit is the movie I’m excited for (trailer here).  The Coen Brothers remake adaptation of the Charles Portis book just released a new batch of posters, and… (*puts on reading glasses, pulls a dusty leather-bound volume off the shelf, searches inside for the right passage*) …according to my research, it still looks badass.

It opens Christmas, and I know, I know, so far all we’ve really seen is cowboy costumes and Jeff Bridges with a dirty face and a Larry Flynt accent.  But if you need more than that to be excited about this, I don’t know what to tell you.

[via IMDB]
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It wasn’t too long ago that the Coen Brothers’ True Grit teaser hit, and now that the full-length trailer is here, I don’t have much to say other than what I’ve already said. i.e., if you don’t want to see The Dude as a an eyepatch-wearing drunk shooting two pistols at people, I don’t what to tell you, other than that you’re a communist.  I’d rather limit today’s discussion to “OMG, OMG, THERE’S A BEAR ON A HORSE!”  (*flails arms above head, runs about the room*)

Also, I made you guys something VERY SPECIAL:

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