By Romeo San Vicente
Jackman: More musicals, more 'Wolverine'
Perhaps no Hollywood leading man since James Cagney has been able to balance tough-guy roles and musical-comedy chops as easily as Hugh Jackman. And his upcoming projects indicate that Jackman will continue to divide his time between the two. Having won a Tony for his portrayal of gay song-and-dance legend Peter Allen in "The Boy from Oz," Jackman will return to Broadway to star in a new musical about Harry Houdini, a show that will feature a score by Danny Elfman. Also on Jackman's dance card is a sequel to his recent "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," which broke box-office records on its opening weekend. Both projects are in early stages of development, so until the man decides he wants his own cooking show, too – or the day comes that Baz Luhrmann writes a Wolverine musical (don't laugh, it could happen) – Jackman will keep genre-hopping.
Re-'Used Guys'
Development Hell is what they call it in Hollywood when your movie dies before it ever gets made. That's what happened to the original incarnation of the sci-fi comedy "Used Guys," which was to star Ben Stiller and Jim Carrey as two emasculated males in a woman-dominated society of the future where men are cloned and discarded like old appliances. Now, thanks to Reese Witherspoon, the show might go on. The new idea? Stiller and "Walk The Line"'s Oscar winner as a clone and a clone-owner. Translation: romantic comedy time! Will themes of masculine panic and debasement get drowned in formulaic hetero smooching? And what about the gays? Where are they in the future? Arranging the flowers? Simply non-existent? No one knows. Meanwhile, "Little Miss Sunshine"'s Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris might come on board to direct. So consider this one officially back in Development Purgatory.
Leighton Meester, single white 'Roommate'
Queer activists no longer protest in the streets over movies with homicidal lesbians, but that doesn't mean those characters no longer appear. And Romeo will eat his hat if that turns out not to be the subtext of "The Roommate," a "Single White Female"-style thriller starring "Gossip Girl"'s Leighton Meester as a college student who becomes rabidly obsessed with her roomie ("Friday Night Light"'s Minka Kelly). There's going to be plenty of pretty young Hollywood men on display, including Matt Lanter ("90210") and Cam Gigandet ("Twilight"), but you just know there's going to be that moment where Meester puts the moves on Kelly, and it's not going to end well. See for yourself when "The Roommate" stalks into theaters in 2010. She'll probably leave dirty dishes in the sink, too.
Madea's family-friendly reunion
Tyler Perry knows how to make money. Lots of it. And he's got drag to thank for his success with his most famous character, the loose cannon known as Madea. She's a white-hot cash cow, a bawdy old woman played by Perry himself to manic effect and aimed at adult audiences. But what about little kids? Don't they deserve to enjoy the antics of a big man in a dress? Sure they do, which is why Perry is currently creating an animated version of the gun-toting granny for a family-friendly sitcom that may go directly to DVD. Currently taking a back seat to Perry's current five film projects in the works, the cartoonish live-action lady patiently waits her turn to become the Bugs Bunny (he did drag a lot, too) of this generation. All she needs is a team of animators in Korea to finish the job.
