Britney Spears About to Have Job Again

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The Call Sheet sifts through the day's glut of Hollywood news to find the stories even non-industry types care about. Today: Britney Spears is close to a big deal, Christian Slater stumbles again, and some Batman snaps.

Yes, we were warned about this last month, and now it comes closer to being a reality: Irradiated child star Britney Spears is close to signing a deal to be a judge on the second season of The X Factor. Apparently the deal is worth $15 million, which ought to buy a lot of DiGiorno three meat pizzas or inflatable balls or whatever it is that Britney Spears wants to spend money on these days. The one thing we're wondering about the deal: Is she supposed to replace Nicole Scherzinger as the sexy pop star or Paula Abdul as the mushmouthed mumbler? Both? Two birds, one Mouseketeer? Whatever they have in mind for her, we are excited. [E! via Vulture]

Oh dear. Fox has pulled Christian Slater's third attempt at a show in as many years, Breaking In, off the schedule. Not even the addition of Megan Mullally this season could save the show. That's strange! Everyone loves Megan Mullally! I mean, just look at her talk show, still going strong after all these— Hm? What's that? Oh, it did? Oh dear, that soon? I see. OK. Well. Sorry, Breaking In. And sorry costar Bret Harrison, whom "they" keep trying to make happen, in things like this and The Loop and Reaper, but just can't seem to make it. [Deadline]

Batman! Pictures of Batman! Here are pictures of Batman! Specifically of The Dark Knight Rises, which is coming out this summer and will end the Christopher Nolan B-man trilogy and thus the entire Batman story for good. There will be no more Batman movies ever. And by "ever" we of course mean "until ten years from now." So yeah, here are pictures of this landmark film. Look at Catwoman with her weird goggle-ears. And Bane with his scary mask. And Joseph Gordon-Levitt in uniform, holding a pistol. This is gonna be a good one! [Entertainment Weekly]

Paramount has bought a high school movie pitch called Status Update that is described as "a high school comedy that utilizes social media, particularly Facebook."  Hm. So, the world just mostly fallen off its axis, sending us all into perish and torment, but it's not quite there. Here, let's give it a nudge:  "Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage’s Fake Empire will produce." Yup, there we go. [Deadline]

Whoa, Ridley Scott is putting together a movie with some very famous people. It is a spec script by Cormac McCarthy, he already has Michael Fassbender attached to star, and now he might have both Brad Pitt and Javier Bardem in the movie too. Plus there's a rumor that Pitt's main squeeze Angelika Jorlemon might be joining the cast as well! That sounds like quite a project. It's quite the cast and quite the director and quite the writer. It's just a shame that the movie itself is The Lorax: 2 Truffula 2 Tree. [Deadline]

Speaking of Ridley Scott, here is an international trailer for his big upcoming sci-fi jamboree Prometheus. In this clip reel we see some new footage and hear some new dialogue, and omigod guys, aren't you so excited for this? But, like, what if it's bad? What if the mystery is stupid and the whole thing is just murky and doesn't make sense, won't that suck? But let's just assume it's not going to be, OK? Let's just say that it's going to be good, it's going to be good, it's going to be good, and that way we'll never get hurt, right? You can't hurt us, Prometheus. (Please don't suck.)

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.