Woody Allen's Biggest Movie Yet

Today in show business news: Blue Jasmine is Woody Allen's most far-reaching movie, Clint Eastwood might take over the Chris Kyle story, and True Blood makes some improvements.

Today in show business news: Blue Jasmine is Woody Allen's most far-reaching movie, Clint Eastwood might take over the Chris Kyle story, and True Blood makes some improvements.

Woody Allen is 962 77 years old, and yet he's still growing. Or, well, his body is very much shrinking, but his movies are growing. His latest film, the drama Blue Jasmine, which features a (hack alert) tour de force performance from Cate Blanchett, will be expanding to 1,200 theaters this weekend, from a mere 229. That's the most theaters a Woody Allen movie has ever been in. Ever! More than Midnight in Paris, even. I mean, when Annie Hall came out there weren't even that many theaters in the country. (I don't know if that's true, but it feels like it could be true, right?) The movie has been doing very well in its "platform release," so Sony Pictures Classics feels it's time to take the thing really national. That's good news for Allen and it's probably good news for Blanchett's Oscar chances. The bigger the film is, the less likely it is to be forgotten come voting time in five months. Sorry, Julia and Judi and Nicole and all the rest of you with your eyes on the prize. Jasmine isn't going anywhere. [Deadline]

Speaking of old men who are still wildly successful, Clint Eastwood is in talks to replace Steven Spielberg as the director of American Sniper, the biopic about SEAL sniper Chris Kyle that Bradley Cooper is attached to star in. So... that could change the movie's politics a bit, couldn't it? Will Chris Kyle talk to a stool? He might be talking to a stool. Hilary Swank could play the stool. None of this is set yet, though, and Eastwood still has to film the musical Jersey Boys, so anything could happen. If Eastwood can't do it, maybe they could try Francis Ford Coppola next. He's old too! [The Hollywood Reporter]

Oh thank god. Or thank Warlow or Lilith or whoever the hell we're supposed to be thanking on this godforsaken show. In an interview with Vulture, the showrunner for True Blood says the following: "I feel like we can learn more about these people in this town and do much more interesting character-driven stories if we reduced the number of separate story lines that we were telling. So if you're seeing a correction, it's essentially that. It means — and this won't come as a surprise to Joe Manganiello — closing off werewolf pack stories." So! Not only will next season (I'm watching next season, I'm just admitting it to myself and moving on) have fewer storylines, but there won't be any ding-dang werewolves. Or, there will be werewolves, but we won't have to deal with tiresome subplots about dynastic power struggles between a bunch of trash buckets who live in the woods. Honestly who ever cared about the werewolves? "I am the leader of this pack of werewolves. I decide what grubby patch of woods we have sex and yell in." "No I am the leader, and I say we growl at each other in this junkyard." Dumb. It was always dumb. And now it's done. Joey Magnets will still be on the show, but that's it. I'll miss Dale Dickey, because I always miss Dale Dickey, but other than that I say good riddance werewolves. Who, from what I could tell, were just shifters who could only turn into wolves and liked to punch each other outside of shacks. Not terribly awe-inspiring. [Vulture]

This could be exciting. The CW is putting together a series similar to Fame, to be produced, in part, by Debbie Allen. Ok... This could be good... Let's see what else it says here... It's set in Los Angeles and-- Wait. Ick. That's not. It sort of takes the dance and musical theater thing out of the equation, doesn't it? Because those things don't really exist in LA? So it's all going to be music video wannabes and whatnot? Sigh. But, fine, I suppose beggars can't be choosers. Please make this thing happen. We need it. Don't we? [The Hollywood Reporter]

Here's the trailer for The Book Thief, an adaptation of the inspirational book about an adopted girl whose German parents take in a young Jewish boxer during World War II. It's also about books and reading and stuff, so, there you have it. One of the lines in the trailer is "from the studio that brought you Life of Pi," so you know where they're going with this thing. All the way to feelings town. Which, hey, fine. Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson are great, the guy who plays the boxer is cute, what more do you need? Carry on, The Book Thief.