Joseph Gordon-Levitt Can Do Anything

JGL is a man of many talents, Amy Adams heads into the art world, and a dismaying glimpse of the new Spider-Man.

The Call Sheet sifts through the day's glut of Hollywood news to find the stories even non-industry types care about. Today: JGL is a man of many talents, Amy Adams heads into the art world, and a dismaying glimpse of the new Spider-Man.

Determined renaissance man Joseph Gordon-Levitt is heading behind the camera to direct his first feature film, from a script he wrote. He will also star in the film. Busy boy! And what is this sure-to-be masterpiece about? "[T]he film is a sexy comedy about about a modern-day Don Juan, and his quest to become less of a 'selfish dick.'" JGL will be playing the dick. Just to reiterate, like Olivier's Othello or Gielgud's Hamlet before it, we will soon be seeing JGL's Dick. So. Anyway. Scarlett Johansson's in the movie too. Which... Sorry, what were we talking about? [Deadline]

Amy Adams has been cast in an adaptation of Steve Martin's recent novel Object of Beauty, about 15 years in the life of an ambitious art dealer. Travel happens, art happens, men happen, New York happens, etc. etc. Not to sound dismissive, though! Steve Martin turned an equally slight story of a woman at work, Shopgirl, into an oddly affecting tale, one that made for an equally oddly affecting movie. This could be the same! It's no Joseph Gordon-Levitt's soon-to-be famous Dick, obviously, but it's something. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Middle-aged TV actors who everyone loves Tony Shalhoub and Allison Janney have been cast together in the pilot Friday Night Dinner, from Greg Daniels. It's a show about a family that has supper together once a week. Janney and Shalhoub will play the parents. Presumably at some point there will be some kind of presidential communications crisis that Janney has to deal with while Shalhoub solves a murder despite his Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. That's in their contracts, right? Pretty sure that's in their contracts. Still, sounds good! That title will probably have to change though. To The West Monk. [Deadline]

Aw nuts. There goes your chance to see Kiwi kewtie Bret McKenzie or Jason Segel or probably any of the Muppets perform at the Oscars. The Academy has decided that it won't have Best Original Song performances this year, as there are only two and they're not really popular or anything. That's kinda sad. Also, did Randy Newman not have anything out this year? Where is that big old rooster when you need him? Had there been three songs and one of them was Randy Newman, we totally would have had Bret strumming away on a guitar on the Oscar stage or something. Rats! Well, maybe he'll still win one anyway. Hey, he's got a 50/50 chance after all. Will Jemaine be jealous? [Vulture]

Uh oh. Fox has decided to delay the formal opening of their upcoming romantic comedy This Mean War, apparently because of poor tracking. It was supposed to open on Valentine's Day, because it's all about kissing and hugging and the other stuff, but now it's just getting a smaller sneak preview then and opening Friday the 17th, in the hopes that those extra few days will give it some momentum. Hm. Reese Witherspoon kinda needs a hit, and Tom Hardy and Chris Pine probably wouldn't mind one either, so let's get this together, folks. And maybe let's tease what we think has to be the obvious spoiler: She's a spy too? See they're spies who both like her so they start spy-fighting over her and everything. But we think she's secretly also a spy and there will be some twist with that. But who knows. The twist could also be that at the end Chelsea Handler goes to jail and everyone cheers. That'd be satisfying too. Actually probably more so. Anyway! Time to gin up some excitement for this movie, guys. Let's go! [Deadline]

Here is a trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man, the toootally necessary Spider-Man reboot starring the totally necessary (no sarcasm there, at least) Andrew Garfield as Petey Parker and Emma Stone as love interest Not Mary Jane. And, ugh, guys. Doesn't this look kind of dumb? Like cartoony in a bad way and dimly lit and just sort of unpleasant? Obviously it's just a preview and blah blah. And Andrew Garfield in latex and yada yada. We get it. It just doesn't look very good from this little glimpse, is all we're saying. Are we being grumps? Cynics? Troglodytes? Lunkheads? Dopes? Fools? Jerks? Perhaps even, dicks?