Slow news day (volume two)

Waaay back when this blog was first starting out, when we had barely scratched the potential of the literally dozens of people interested in my take on movie news, we mentioned Moneyball. That's right, all the way back in '08, we discussed the book-about-baseball-finances-turned-Steven-Soderbergh-movie. In the vast space of time between that day and now, a chasm old enough to have...grown an awesome beard?...things have changed. Aaron Sorkin has rewritten the script, someone named Bennett Miller (I'm checking to see if this is a fake name) is directing, and the cast still includes Brad Pitt, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Wright, and Jonah Hill (presumably not playing a baseball player). Had news of any of those things broken today, it would have counted as real, actual news. Instead, let me introduce you to someone. This is Kathryn Morris.
She's pretty in that generic Hollywood way, which is not to say that she wouldn't drop jaws in person and isn't a red-hot hottie. She's just familiar looking. She's also in Moneyball now. I believe she gets to make out with Brad Pitt. She was also on "Cold Case," which I always think of as the show that they were making fun of in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, even though I know their target was "CSI." Folks, this is what defines a slow news day. Casting an actress you kind of remember, who has few distinguishing characteristics, in a part you don't care about, in a movie that sounds iffy to begin with. Lemons into lemonade, folks. I'm trying here.

Conspirator sounds like the worst superhero ever

Chances are, this will not be how the scene in the new Robert Redford-directed film about the conspiracy surrounding the Lincoln assassination will look.

I know, disappointing right. I would sooooo be there if that were the case. Instead of this delightfully bizarre take, instead Redford will likely opt for soft-focus and melodrama when he shoots James McAvoy and Robin Wright Penn in The Conspirator, which sounds more like a supervillain's accountant. Variety is reporting that McAvoy will play a lawyer who defends Penn's character (actually, let's start calling her "Wright" after Sean Penn left and was seen around town doinking presumably socialist starlets). Penn will play the only female conspirator involved in the shooting (not quite the feminist leader they were looking for). The film is produced by the American Film Company, which was created to tell historically accurate (ie, BOOOORING...I kid, history is bitchin') American stories (sorry, GOP....ZING!). I know you don't get up in the morning hoping to find out whether James McAvoy and Sean Penn's soon-to-be-ex are going to co-star in a historical drama, but that's what Monday has to offer. So, you're going to eat it and you're going to like it.