Val Kilmer will collect $9 million to play a blind man who will try experimental surgery to restore his sight in the romance, Sight Unseen. Funny, I’ve assumed he’s been blind for years. I mean, he couldn’t have actually read the scripts for Island of Dr. Moreau or The Saint, could he? He was just reading all the zeros on his Braille paycheck.
Matthew Broderick is back in high school, only this time he’s a teacher in Election. Karmicly enough, he has a student he hates; she’s no Ferris, but a goody-goody played by Reese Witherspoon who is running unopposed for student council president before Broderick creates an opponent for her. The film is being made under the MTV banner. It’s their third effort after Joe’s Apartment got flushed down the toilet after scurrying for cover when exposed to the light.
Albert Brooks has joined the cast of Out of Sight, number 397 in the current string of Elmore Leonard-based movies. Brooks is the victim of a heist by an all-star line of bad guys, including George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez, Ving Rhames, Don Cheadle and Dennis Farina. Leonard is quickly becoming the next in the line of succession started by Stephen King and followed by John Grisham. Soon to be heard at a theater near you – “If there’s one more preview for a movie with quirky, quick-witted bad guys who aren’t really bad compared to society’s white-gloved criminals and who look great in their underwear, seducing the girlfriend of the really bad bad guy so we root for them even though they spend the entire movie killing people and preparing to rip people off, I am going to scream!”
The Whole Picture delves into the dark side of entertainment journalism this week.
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