Goodbye 'Desperate Housewives,' Hello 'Devious Maids'
Today: Lifetime gets some new housekeepers, there's been a change in the summer movie schedule, and Lena Dunham is giving herself a hot new man.
.The Call Sheet sifts through the day's glut of Hollywood news to find the stories even non-industry types care about. Today: Lifetime gets some new housekeepers, there's been a change in the summer movie schedule, and Lena Dunham is giving herself a hot new man.
'Twas rumor, now 'tis fact. Lifetime: Television For Vibrator Foreplay has picked up ABC's rejected pilot Devious Maids, a story that's something of the downstairs flipside of the upstairs Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Adapted from a popular telenovela by Desperate Housewives gay Republican Marc Cherry, Devious Maids tells the story of a group of Latina domestic workers — played by Ugly Betty's Ana Ortiz, Entourage's Dania Ramirez, and Scrubs' Judy Reyes, among others — who navigate their own ambitions and dramas while working for wealthy BH families. Here's hoping that Ramirez has some sort of star-crossed love plotline with the cute son of her rich boss. That would be exciting! Susan Lucci is also on this show, so expect some high camp. Basically this could be a lot of fun, but given that it's Lifetime: Television For Weeping On An Ottoman, it could also be very bad. [The Hollywood Reporter]
Back when we wrote our Summer Movie Preview (May! We were so young!), it seemed strange that two of August's biggest releases, Total Recall and The Bourne Legacy, were scheduled to come out on the same day, August 3rd. Well Universal has apparently noted the conflict and has pushed Bourne back to August 10th. To get out of the way of Total Recall, yes, but also to give itself some more distance from The Dark Knight Rises, which opens on July 20th and will likely decimate all competition for some time. So in this game of chicken, Bourne blinked. Or not Bourne, but the guy who Jeremy Renner plays. Nü-Bourne. He blinked. Bason Journe. I think that's it. Bason Journe blinked and Doug Quaid won. Or, really, lost, because he didn't get outta the way of Batman, so he'll soon be squished by some sort of Batcraft. Quick thinking, Journe. [The Wrap]
Harumph. MTV will debut its American version of the fabulously filthy, adorably absurd British teen comedy The Inbetweeners on August 20th at 10:30pm. We do not approve! Just watch the British version. It's basically all on YouTube. Avoid the American, toned-down-for-basic-cable Wonder Bread edition. I mean, remember American Skins? Remember what a festering mess that was? Woof. Don't subject yourself to another terror. Avoid this show. (Don't worry, we'll watch the first episode for you and if it's good we'll tell you.) [Deadline]
OoooOOooOoo. Someone's given herself a little treat. Girls writer/producer/director/star Lena Dunham's character on the show will have a new potential love interest next season, a next-door work neighbor played by none other than New York dreambucket Patrick Wilson. It's good to be the queen! You can just cast whatever Johnny Gymbod or Petey Postmodern you want to play your love affair. I need my own show. Then and only then can I pair myself with my ideal mate, Patricia Richardson from Home Improvement. [TV Line]
Sarah Wayne Callies, who plays boring conflict-o-wife Laurie on boring conflict-o-series The Walking Dead, has been cast in a movie. So, good for her. But that is not really the news. The news it that the movie is a "found-footage natural disaster film" about tornadoes. Yiiiipes. Found-footage can be put to good use, but why does a 'nado movie need to be in found footage? I know, I know, it's to keep the budget low, but isn't the impact of a tornado the big messy grandeur of it, the huge, impossible scale? Obviously people who experience tornadoes are experiencing them as people, low-to-the-ground on earth, but like, for the purposes of a movie, I just don't see the tension in a found footage movie about a natural disaster. Nothing's chasing you, there's no villain. It's just a terrible force of nature passing by. So where's the tension that found footage, in all its claustrophobic intimacy, is supposed to invoke? I don't know. Maybe you get it. I don't get it. I just don't get it. Now, if they threw some zombies into that tornado, well then, absolutely. [Deadline]
Here's the international trailer for the Ben Stiller/Jonah Hill/Vince Vaughn/Richard Ayoade alien invasion comedy The Watch. There's, I dunno, some new alien jokes and stuff in this one, plus a glimpse of Rosemarie DeWitt playing The Wife. So, enjoy: