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Will Ferrell‘s filmography has been, more or less, stacked with his popular brand of outrageous, improv-style comedy. The classics are well-known (“Anchorman,” “Old School” “Step Brothers,” “Talladega Nights,” “Elf“) but duds have happened as well (“Semi-Pro,” “Land of the Lost,” “Bewitched,” “Casa De Mi Padre” “Get Hard,” “The Campaign“).

Continue reading Will Ferrell To Star In Adaptation Of ‘The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared’ at The Playlist.

Looks like Jimmy Fallon could have had a chance with Nicole Kidman — if only he had asked Naomi Watts for help!

The 42-year-old Tonight Show host had previously gone on an embarrassing date with the Oscar-winning actress when they were both single, totally blowing it in the end.

“You wouldn’t talk,” Kidman teased Fallon about the evening during a 2015 appearance on the NBC late night show. “You wouldn’t say anything, and then you put a video game on or something … and so after about an hour and a half, I thought, ‘He has no interest, this is so embarrassing.

Nicole Kidman is the epitome of fab at 50!

The Australian actress is celebrating the milestone amid what is shaping up to be her biggest year yet, as she continues to slay across both film and television.

Exclusive: Nicole Kidman Talks ‘Low Key’ 50th Birthday Plans

Et first caught up with the red-haired beauty when she was just 22 and buzzing over landing a life-changing role in the 1990 hit Days of Thunder.

Tom Cruise, whom Kidman would later marry and adopt two children with, had spotted her in the Australian film Dead Calm and subsequently cast her as Dr. Claire Lewicki in the action flick.

“I rang my mother and sort of screamed down the telephone and said, ‘I don't believe this, I'm gonna do a film over here!’" she told Et at the time. “It’s a really good role for me and it's the only female role in the whole film, so hopefully...

“Wonder Woman” is expected to top the weekend; claims that it will be the most successful film ever directed by a woman will soon follow. That’s possible, but far from guaranteed: While Hollywood’s pretzel logic would suggest that women rarely direct blockbusters, Patty Jenkins’ success story will have a lot of competition.

The dearth of women directors trusted by studios to helm top movies becomes even more suspect when adjusting grosses to current ticket prices. Despite limited opportunities, 14 have grossed over $200 million, and 40 total over $100 million when calculated at current numbers.

Below, we go into detail about the top directors and their movies; there’s a lot to see, with some compelling and surprising conclusions. However, more than any other statistic, here’s one that stands out: Among the most successful female directors, after adjusting to current ticket prices, the career average per film gross is over $100 million for several.

Walt Disney's Last Will and Testament, artwork from How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Nightmare Before Christmas, and many, many more incredible items are up for auction in the highly anticipated Animation and Disneyana event that began on December 9th. Also: watch two new clips plus the official trailer for Richard Mundy's Twenty Twenty-Four, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 10 Vol. 6 cover art and preview pages.

Animation & Disneyana Auction Details: Press Release: "Calabasas, Calif.- Walt Disney's Last Will and Testament, plus his signed document marking the genesis of the Disney Empire/brand; How the Grinch Stole Christmas production artwork (perfectly timed to the 50th anniversary of the animated TV special!) and Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas original artwork and set pieces; Disneyana, featuring rare animation art and Disney park props, including an "Atom-mobile" miniature prop from the retired Journey Through Inner Space attraction, an assortment of...

Disney's next live-action remake of a vault classic -- after Beauty and the Beast with Emma Watson -- is Cruella, an origin story of the fabulous, chain-smoking 101 Dalmatians villain Cruella de Vil. Betty Lou Gerson voiced Cruella in the 1961 animated version and Glenn Close donned the dalmatian garb for the '96 live-action update and its sequel. But now a new name is in the mix to play Cruella in its new, inevitably splashy incarnation: Emma Stone.  Hmm. Now, I don't know what angle this origin story will take, but here's everything I know about Cruella de Vil: She's a gravel-voiced, middle-aged, character actress role. Emma Stone covers exactly zero of those requirements. And that's fine! I enjoyed Emma Stone in Birdman, Easy A, The Help, and many other movies where she plays a relatable, wittily attitudinal figure. But as Cruella de Vil? Nothing in Stone's career so far indicates...

It’s 1957 and Frank Sinatra is at the top of his game.

He’s won a Best Supporting Oscar for his turn as feisty soldier Maggio in 1953’s From Here to Eternity, his albums are selling better than ever and he’s being offered big parts in big movies, including Pal Joey, the Hollywood adaptation of the hit Broadway show.

The role of Joey fits Sinatra perfectly. He plays a debonair singer who romances a wily, rich widow (Rita Hayworth, above right) in the hopes she’ll help him open his own nightclub. However, Joey’s also got his eye on a wide-eyed chorus girl (Kim Novak, above left).

And while the story is straightforward, the movie really comes to life the moment the orchestra stirs and the stars perform some of the loveliest songs ever penned by Rodgers and Hart, including “My Funny Valentine,” “I Could Write a Book,...

Making all of your nightmares come true … Varèse Sarabande will be releasing A Nightmare On Elm Street 8-cd box set (limited 2000 units) on October 16, 2015.

This deluxe package contains all 8 soundtracks from the original series, over 8 hours of music including almost 3 hours of bonus tracks. New artwork has been commissioned for the set (by artist Shawn Conn, http://atomicdeadguy.com/), and configuring the sleeves together forms a larger piece of art. Before you have any nightmares, please don’t worry … the original Matthew Joseph Peak creations are included in the packaging.

The set comes complete with the trademark knitted Freddy sweater encasing the outer box.

The world was introduced to Wes Craven’s Freddy Krueger (portrayed by Robert Englund) in 1984 with A Nightmare On Elm Street. Krueger was a former child killer seeking revenge against the parents who burned him by haunting the dreams of their teenage children and killing them in their dreams.

Jurassic World took the #1 weekend box-office spot for the third week in a row with $54.2M off a -49% week-over-week drop, just allowing it to fend off Disney's Inside Out, which made $52.1M on a -42.4% decline. With $32.9M in 3,442 theaters Ted 2, however, didn't really make a run at the spot, making less than even the most pessimistic pundits had placed it. Universal's own estimates had the film at $45M - $50M making Ted 2 the second Seth MacFarlane film to under-perform for them. A Million Ways to Die in the West opened in 3,158 venues on May 30 of last year to a still-surprisingly low $16.8M weekend. Ted 2 has a B+ CinemaScore.Included in the Universal report is another Jurassic World record. The film also crossed the $500M mark domestically, the fastest any film has done that, crossing the milestone in 17 days (6/12/2015 - 6/28/2015). The previous record holder, Marvel's The Avengers,...

In what is somewhat of a surprise Universal reports that Ted 2 had a $13.2M Friday which puts it on pace for a $34.1M weekend. That's quite a bit lower than tracking, pundits and conventional wisdom pegged the Seth MacFarlane sequel to take, with most citing $50M as the guesstimate. That is even slightly under the $54M the original Ted rang up on its June 29 - July 1 weekend three years ago, and Ted 2 is in 203 more theaters than Ted (3,442 vs. 3,239), so the low-30s tally is unexpected.Consequently the number one spot is open for either Universal's Jurassic World, in its third week, or Disney's Inside Out, in its second, for the top spot. Inside Out had the better Friday, but just barely, making $14.9M compared to Jurassic World's $14.7M. But, as it proved last weekend, Saturday and Sunday belong to the dinosaurs. Still playing in 4,198 North American theaters,...

It's hard to tell from the premise alone of a Will Ferrell project whether his character will be brilliantly funny, painfully moronic, or some unholy, sidesplitting combination of the two. Take Ferrell's latest, "Get Hard" (opening March 27). He plays a millionaire arrested for fraud who enlists the only black person he knows (Kevin Hart) to train him to cope with the harsh realities of prison life. The result could be razor-sharp satire of the insular cluelessness of rich white people, or it could be offensive and cringe-worthy; probably, it'll be some of each.

After all, Ferrell's characters tend to be unpredictable because they're volatile. As the performer has proved over the past 20 years, from his tenure on "Saturday Night Live" (1995-2002) to his decade-plus reign as an unhinged comic leading man in movies, Ferrell likes to play the unfettered id, man-children with no impulse control (Ferrell likes to strip down and show his flabby,...

Nicole Kidman is still giggling over how she embarrassed Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show earlier this week as they discussed their long-ago failed date. "I can't believe that it's two people that so misread the same situation," she told Access Hollywood about the day she went to meet Fallon at his home to discuss a role in 2005's Bewitched. On Tuesday, Fallon, 40, brought up their awkward meeting, but Kidman, 47, turned the tables on him, explaining that she hadn't really stopped by to talk about a work project, as he believed, but had been interested in dating him (both were...

Jimmy Fallon turned down a date from Nicole Kidman?The "Paddington" actress stopped by "The Tonight Show" Tuesday, where she revealed she was once up for dating the "SNL" comedian, but he blew his chance!"I don't know if you remember this, but we've met before," Fallon reminded her. "Oh, I remember," she replied. The late night host admitted the pair had met before under slightly odd circumstances, when a mutual friend brought Nicole to his apartment.Fallon was under the impression it was a potential work meeting, but Kidman thought the meeting was a set up! "I'm walking down the street in New York City, and my friend Rick calls me and says, 'Dude what are you doing? I have Nicole Kidman with me and she wants to meet you to be in 'Bewitched' or something. I can be in your apartment in 10 minutes,'" Jimmy recalls.

For this week’s spotlight piece, I wanted to look at someone from the cast of the upcoming movie Foxcatcher. I had three incredibly talented men to choose from, but I ultimately went with Steve Carell, a talented comedic actor finally getting his time to shine dramatically. The man has been snubbed for Oscar attention before, but this very well could be the year that he finally breaks through and gets an Academy Award nomination. That would cement him not only as the A-list comedy star, but as a truly respected dramatic performer as well. As such, he’s a perfect candidate to shine a spotlight on today. Carell first got his start on the small screen, showing up on television programs like The Dana Carvey Show, Over the Top, Watching Ellie, and of course The Daily Show. The latter was where he really made his initial mark, playing a correspondent.

No matter how good you are at your job, there will always be a point in your life when you’ll look back on your career and think to yourself, “what the hell was I thinking?” Nobody is immune. Not even well-respected, cinematic legends like Michael Caine.

If you’re ever in the mood for some Caine action and decide look back over his early filmography, you’ll find it extremely difficult to find an example of a bad film. The actor has appeared in so many classic British films over the years, that his résumé is a candidate for being almost perfect.

If you’re a fan of his earlier work, then you’ll no doubt already know about his brilliant performances as Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead in Zulu, or as Charlie Croker in the original Italian Job. No stranger to the gritty realism of early British cinema either, Caine...

Exactly one week after news broke that a Bewitched remake was in the works from Sony Pictures TV, NBC has given the comedy a pilot production commitment, our sister site Deadline reports.

Related TVLine Items: The It Crowd Gets U.S. Remake

But rather than retell Samantha Stephens’ story, NBC’s new pilot — penned by The Vow‘s Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein — will focus on Daphne, Samantha’s granddaughter, a single twentysomething who discovers her quest for true love can’t be solved with magic (though that won’t stop her from trying).

Lisa Hartman played Samantha’s grown...

You think it’s hard to balance a life as a mother and a businesswoman, or that of a governor and a single dad, how about alternating trying to cultivate a new relationship while you’re off saving the universe? Clara Oswald has got this very problem. Luckily she down’t have to deal with it alone, she’s got…

The Caretaker

By Gareth Roberts and Steven Moffat

Directed by Paul Murphy

After an exhausting montage of travels across the universe that need to end in tome for making dates with Danny Pink, The Doctor is pleased to let Clara know that she’ll be getting some time to herself. He’s got a job he needs to handle on his own, and is somewhat vague when pressed for details. She happily reports to Danny that while she has been distracted of late, she’ll be more centered on him for a bit.

Fresh off the heels of his role as President Business in The Lego Movie, Will Ferrell is starting to get more involved in the business side of making movies. Gary Sanchez Productions, which Ferrell runs alongside Anchorman director Adam McKay, has signed on to produce a big-screen adaptation of 80s cult TV series Manimal. Jimmy Miller and series co-creator Glen A. Larson are also tapped to produce, while Key & Peele scribes Jay Martel and Ian Roberts are working on the script.

Manimal, which had a brief, eight-episode run on television in 1983, follows Dr. Jonathan Chase, a shape-shifter who fought crime by morphing into animals. While it is not surprising that a show with that premise was cancelled so abruptly, Ferrell and McKay are promising additions to a film that could be very funny. With Manimal, Sony Pictures Animation hopes to have a hybrid of live-action and animation, similar to their Smurfs franchise,...

This week’s new entry in the Summer movie schedule has the distinction of pulling off the seasonal cinema trifecta. So, what’s this multiplex “hat-trick”? Well, number one, it’s a big studio action comedy. Number two, it’s a feature film remake of a decades old classic TV show. And the topper, number three, it’s a sequel. Usually TV adaptations are done in one, like The A-team and Bewitched. 22 Jump Street is the follow-up to 2012′s surprise smash 21 Jump Street, based on the late 1980′s Fox TV crime drama (created by The A-team’s Stephen J. Cannell with Patrick Hasburgh) that propelled Johnny Depp to stardom. But the flick from two years ago wasn’t a straight-faced, literal movie expansion. Taking a cue from 1987′s Dan Aykroyd/Tom Hanks starrer Dragnet, 21 was a loving parody of the earlier cop show. Can Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum possibly...

In honor of Mother’s Day, EW asked celebs visiting our video studio to name their favorite TV mom. The answers ranged from the wonderfully predictable to the hilariously unexpected.

To give you a chance to guess who went traditional and who went subversive, we’ll list the names of the celebs who played along and all their picks. How many can you match correctly? [Helpful hint: Dallas' Linda Gray selected two mothers.]

The celebs:

Surviving Jack’s Christopher Meloni

Crisis’ Gillian Anderson

Once Upon a Time’s Jennifer Morrison

NCIS’ Rocky Carroll

Ghetto Klown’s John Leguizamo

Chicago Pd’s Sophia Bush

Dallas’ Josh Henderson and Linda Gray...

Entertainment Geekly is a weekly column that examines pop culture through a geek lens and simultaneously examines contemporary geek culture through a pop lens. So many lenses!

Should we start with the music videos? Does anyone in college or younger understand why music videos were important? There was a significant portion of the ’90s spent agonizing over how cinema would be forever altered by the onrushing influx of young-turk hotshot music-video auteurs, and the quick-cut glitter-grit really-just-too-much style they brought along.

Now it’s 2014 and music videos are dead, unless you’re a bygone spiffy-clean tween star nakedly straddling a spheroid metaphor.

April is the cruelest month, and not just for T.S. Eliot.

At the multiplex, throughout April, we're in for a brutal, Darwinian survival test for several A-list stars of yesteryear -- from Kevin Costner to Nicole Kidman to Jude Law -- all of whom are currently on the comeback trail. Some of them may end the month on their way back to their former glory, and some will see their careers shredded even further.

Here are our best guesses as to who will thrive and who will starve.

Nicolas Cage

Last Big Hit: 2013 cartoon "The Croods" (starring voice role); 2009 drama "Knowing" (leading role)

Comeback Effort: Drama "Joe" (April 11)

Prospects: Cage is earning the kind of acclaim he hasn't seen in years for delivering a real, non-cartoonish performance in this rural drama as the title ex-con, who becomes the unlikely mentor to a teen (Tye Sheridan) in need of adult guidance.

Minneapolis, Mn (January 2, 2014) Mill Creek Entertainment rings in the New Year with their first collection of TV on DVD releases for 2014. Sure to bring back great memories, this release group includes seasons one and two of The Cosby Show, Bewitched, Married With Children, Just Shoot Me and Good Times along with Charlie’s Angels Season 1, Dilbert – The Complete Series, Highway to Heaven Season 3 and Wings Seasons 3 and 4.

Available for the first time on home video are the original uncut broadcast episodes of season one of The Cosby Show and the original theme song, Love and Marriage by Frank Sinatra, on the Married With Children releases. Many of these TV series aired for more than 5 seasons as well as in syndication and made a significant impact on prime time television and our culture.

Audiences will experience the laughter and entertainment all over again with pop culture icons Cliff Huxtable TV Guides’ #1 ranked TV Dad,...

Hollywood is reaping a decent harvest from a tight focus on broadly appealing fare – in spite of the gloomy predictions of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas about an 'implosion'

Boisterous summer box office continued to demonstrate the iron-clad credentials of broadly appealing studio fare as Monsters University held its top berth and the top five movies each grossed over $20m. Despite the recent gloomy prognostications of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, by the half-way point, blockbuster season 2013 has shown little sign of cracking up.

What is interesting about the remarks about an "implosion" by the moviemaking duo at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts in June is how, well, uninteresting they actually were. There was nothing in their dark predictions that any savvy industry watcher hadn't already accepted as inevitable.

There will come a time when several summer tentpoles will come crashing to earth within the space of several months.

Lionsgate will release the Danielle Harris (Halloween) directorial debut Among Friends on DVD Digital Download and Video on Demand August 27 from Lionsgate Home Entertainment. Check out the trailer below and let us know what you think in the comments section. Alyssa Lobit writes the screenplay Danielles The Victim costar Jennifer BlancBiehn produces. BlancBiehn will also top the on screen bill. Christopher Backus (Elevator) Aj Bowen (The House of the Devil) Dana Daurey (Bewitched) Brianne Davis (Prom Night) Kane Hodder (Hatchet) and Harris herself join Jennifer in front of the cameras.

It's a little weird to watch a trailer for an upcoming Disney cartoon like "Planes" and hear among the characters the voice of Dane Cook. What's a typically adults-only comic like Cook doing in the G-rated world of a Disney animated feature?

Well, maybe it's not that weird. After all, the family-friendly studio has a history, going back 60 years, of casting performers from the world of grown-up entertainment in its cartoons, and most have proved they can be fun and kid-safe in fantasy worlds far from smoky nightclubs. In fact, Disney and Pixar's classic cartoons are full of unlikely voice actors -- not just blue comics but also performers cast radically against type, and even people not considered actors at all.

Cook, then, joins a distinguished list of stars you'd never have expected to find in a Disney cartoon feature, as you can see from the gallery below.

Gallery | Unlikely...

It's a little weird to watch a trailer for an upcoming Disney cartoon like "Planes" and hear among the characters the voice of Dane Cook. What's a typically adults-only comic like Cook doing in the G-rated world of a Disney animated feature?

Well, maybe it's not that weird. After all, the family-friendly studio has a history, going back 60 years, of casting performers from the world of grown-up entertainment in its cartoons, and most have proved they can be fun and kid-safe in fantasy worlds far from smoky nightclubs. In fact, Disney and Pixar's classic cartoons are full of unlikely voice actors -- not just blue comics but also performers cast radically against type, and even people not considered actors at all.

Cook, then, joins a distinguished list of stars you'd never have expected to find in a Disney cartoon feature, as you can see from the gallery below.

Gallery | Unlikely...

The star roster of "Anchorman: The Legend Continues" continues to grow.

The latest celebrity added to the mix? Nicole Kidman.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Nicole recently shot a hilarious (uncredited) cameo in Atlanta for the "Anchorman" sequel.

The 45-year-old Aussie beauty is no stranger to working with Will Ferrell - the pair co-starred in 2005's "Bewitched."

In addition to Nicole, THR reports "Anchorman" stars Vince Vaughn and Luke Wilson (who played rival newsmen in the 2004 original) will also make appearances in the upcoming sequel.

Photos: Nicole Kidman

As previously reported on AccessHollywood.com, ...

Copyright 2013 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved.

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The late writer Nora Ephron was behind some of the most beloved films, including "When Harry Met Sally" and "Sleepless in Seattle."

Almost a year after she passed away in June at the age of 71, Ephron herself is the subject of a movie, THR reports. HBO announced plans this week for a documentary about the celebrated writer.

Led by Ephron's son, Jacob Bernstein, the film will be called "Everything is Copy" and chronicle Ephron's life. Bernstein has signed on to direct and co-produce the film, with Nick Hooker also co-directing. Past HBO producers Matt Parker and Carly Hugo have signed on to producer as well. Vanity Fair's Graydon Carter will oversee the project as executive producer.

Ephron, who died of complications from myelodysplasia, worked on numerous films and made her mark with her witty writing and captivating movies. Ephron penned the screenplays for films such as "Heartburn," "You've Got Mail,...

A "Good Times" movie is in the works. According to Deadline.com, Scott Rudin and Sony Pictures will revive the classic 1970s CBS sitcom as a feature film.

Phil Johnston, who recently penned "Wreck-It Ralph," has been tapped to write the "Good Times" movie.

The series, which aired from 1974-79 on CBS, was a spinoff from "Maude." "Good Times" followed the Evans family in the Chicago projects and starred Esther Rolle as Florida Evans, John Amos as James Evans, Sr. and Jimmie Walker as James 'J.J.' Evans, Jr.

"Good Times" is far from the first classic TV series to get the big screen remake treatment. Nicole Kidman starred in a "Bewitched" movie, Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway starred in a "Get Smart" film and Jonah Hill's "21 Jump Street" movie was a success.

On the small screen, there have also been plenty of reboots: Vince Vaughn was working...

The following article is provided by Rolling Stone.

By Erik Hedegaard

Last night, just as he was going to sleep, Will Ferrell started worrying about ghosts. Like, what if, right now, a ghost wafted into the room and said, "Hi"? What should he say back? And, more importantly, if it's a hostile ghost, what action should he take next? Lie still? Move? He was staying in a rented house in New Orleans. He started planning an escape route, but drifted off in the middle of it. Then, at 5:50 a.m., he awoke, untroubled and unperturbed by any bad mojo or evil spirits. In fact, he didn't have a single thought in his head. You would think there would be a million thoughts bouncing around in there. For instance, he could be pondering the movie he is making here, a political comedy called The Campaign. Or about any of his other far-flung ventures,...

In "Beautiful Creatures," Lena Duchannes traipses into the damp, small town of Gatlin, South Carolina with the sole intention of remaining a good witch. There are those in her lineage who want nothing more than for her to join the dark side upon turning the dreaded age of 16, but the gal's got eyes for a little human boy named Ethan and just wants to play nice, for crying out loud.

Most of her predecessors in cinematic spell-casting, however, were not quite so noble. In fact, a lot of them would just do some downright effed up stuff. Let's review some of the worst.

"The Craft"

Four high school goth girls (Robin Tunney, Neve Campbell, Fairuza Balk and Rachel True) learn to exercise earth's darkest magic against the bullies who trash their social lives, and they dish out some pretty messed up orders. One induces a heart attack on her redneck stepfather,...

Los Angeles — Long before Kevin Costner, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks and Nicole Kidman were Emmy nominees, they were kids who loved watching TV.

"I liked `Man from Uncle' and `High Chaparral,'" Costner said. "I really, really liked that when I was a kid."

"I remember the transition from black-and-white to color," continued Costner, who is nominated as both star and producer of the TV movie "Hatfields & McCoys." "It like one by one the televisions in my neighborhood became color TVs and we would all go look at each other's color TVs and ooh and aah at `Bonanza.' I'm kind of glad I saw it all, in a way. I remember the TV would shut off at 11 and just play the national anthem all night long."

Cranston, who is nominated for his role on "Breaking Bad" – which won him the Emmy Award three years in a row, grew up on "The Andy Griffith Show.

Will Ferrell has been a comedy staple around the world for what feels like an eternity. He can always be counted on to give a fantastic performance with each outing and watching him is always a treat.

It’s difficult to not watch any Will Ferrell movie without cracking at least a smile. Even his lesser scenes can produce a chuckle whilst his best can leave you in tear inducing hysterics.

Naturally though, there are a few movies where you have to question whether Ferrell was paying attention when he accepted the job; the less that is said about Bewitched the better.

Nevertheless, there are plenty of movies to choose from for this list but of course, not all of them can make it to the top 10 and many of you will have a different opinion on the order. At the end of the day though, we’re all winners...

After being a behind-the-scenes voice in Hollywood for nearly half a decade, Justin Theroux is finally going to be making his feature directing debut.

The "Tropic Thunder" and "Iron Man 2" scribe is going to be helming and rewriting the upcoming Warner Bros. comedy "Swear to God," Deadline reports. The movie is set to star frequent collaborators Will Ferrell and Steve Carell, with Ferrell reportedly playing a narcissist who believes that God has reached out and spoken to him. "Due Date" screenwriters Alan Cohen and Alan Freedland wrote the original script.

This is a big move up in the world for Theroux, who has been dating Jennifer Aniston since May 2011. Theroux started out as an actor, appearing in films like "Mulholland Dr." and "American Psycho," before transitioning to writing in 2008. This isn't the first time he's been eyed to write and direct a comedy in recent years, either. It was...

In light of this weeks news of the passing of noted author, playwright, producer and director Nora Ephron, today we are highlighting some of the most memorable moments from her accomplished and versatile career onscreen and onstage. Ephrons artistic output consisted of collections of essays, memoirs, novels, screenplays, feature films, plays and producing duties on projects close to her heart, as well as a considerable amount of awareness raising for womens causes and general charitable work for the arts. While perhaps best known for her much-loved trio of romantic comedies When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless In Seattle and Youve Got Mail, Ephron also penned the screenplay for the Mike Nichols biopic Silkwood about whistleblower Karen Silkwood, as well as wrote and directed the recent hit comedy Julie amp Julia, re-teaming with her friend and consistent collaborator, three-time Oscar-winner Meryl Streep. Incidentally, Streep actually played Ephron - or at least a...

As a leading female in her field of work, Nora Ephron made a huge impact on Hollywood. Creating memorable characters such as Harry and Sally, bringing a climatic kiss to an all-time high in Sleepless in Seattle, and making Bewitched fit with a modern audience, she created moments of heartwarming love, as well as adding her own unique humour that made even the most serious of people laugh.

Using her talent as a screenwriter in the late 1980s, Ephron was one of the few females to be successful in the competitive, male dominated business of Hollywood. Arguably her most famous work would be When Harry Met Sally, with a contemporary,‘out-there’ appeal the film holds towards sex and relationships, Ephron wrote a script that was not only appropriate, but incredibly relatable for audiences with the discussion sex as a casual and enjoyable act rather than something that should be taken seriously.

Billy Crystal and Meryl Streep among luminaries praising work of film-maker best known for When Harry Met Sally

Hollywood stars have been paying tribute to the wisdom and wit of their friend and colleague the film-maker Nora Ephron, the screenwriter behind When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle, who has died at the age of 71.

Billy Crystal, who starred with Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally, told the Huffington Post: "She was a brilliant writer and humorist. Being her Harry to Meg's Sally will always have a special place in my heart. I was very lucky to get to say her words." Ephron died on Tuesday after suffering complications from the blood disorder myelodysplasia, with which she was diagnosed six years ago.

Having begun a journalistic career as a reporter at the New York Post in the 1960s, she moved into scriptwriting after working on a screenplay for All the President's Men,...

Filmmaker and author Nora Ephron died Tuesday, leaving behind a huge legacy of films, as well as many friends and colleagues in Hollywood. Here are their thoughts and memories of Ephron:

“Nora was a person whose gifts of mind, amply displayed as a young person in her sharply observed journalistic pieces and in her personal wit, were, when I first met her, kind of scary: aimed and airy at the same time, an insouciant sharpness that could be intimidating, because you could never catch her ‘trying’, everything seemed effortless. But as I got to know her, I understood what drove her was her acute curiosity,...

It's been touching to see the outpouring of love for Nora Ephron since the journalist, novelist, screenwriter and director passed away last night. Ephron's films have never really been particularly trendy; you're not going to find many hip young filmmakers naming her as an influence. But it's clear from the last twelve hours or so that most cinephiles hold at least a few of her films close to their hearts. Ephron wasn't just the writer, and sometimes director, behind a string of classics, she was also one of the most important women in the film industry across the last twenty years, and one of the most insightful writers of female characters that Hollywood has ever had.

Her big-screen work is only a drop in the ocean of a long and hugely impressive career; she was a prolific and brilliant prose writer, and anyone with even a slight interest in Ephron...

A true trailblazer, Nora Ephron leaves behind a legacy of always knowing the right (and wittiest) thing to say. She was "an expert in all the departments of living well," according to Meryl Streep - one of many paying tribute to the late author-journalist-screenwriter-director, who died Tuesday at 71. "You could call on her for anything: doctors, restaurants, recipes, speeches, or just a few jokes, and we all did it, constantly," Streep - who was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her role as Julia Child in Ephron's Julie & Julia (2009) - wrote in an email to The New York Times.

'At a dinner table and on a film set she lifted us all with wisdom and wit,' Hanks says of late filmmaker.

By Jocelyn Vena

Nora Ephron

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Nora Ephron's impact on the world of film — particularly romantic comedies, thanks to her memorable scripts for big-screen classics "When Harry Met Sally ..." and "Sleepless in Seattle" — was felt in the wake of the news that the screenwriter, journalist and director passed away on Tuesday at the age of 71 from pneumonia.Tom Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, who both appeared in "Sleepless in Seattle" (Hanks also later appeared in Ephron's "You've Got Mail"), recalled the times they spent with her when the cameras weren't rolling. "Nora Ephron was a journalist/artist who knew what was important to know; how things really worked, what was worthwhile, who was fascinating and why," Hanks and Wilson said in a statement to E!

The Oscar-nominated director and writer Nora Ephron has died aged 71. We look back over her career in clips

Nora Ephron's first screenwriting effort never saw the light of day: a polish on the script for All the President's Men, based on the case of her then-husband, Carl Bernstein. Director Alan J Pakula scrapped that version, but it was a heavyweight kick-off to a career largely remembered for its lighter moments.

In fact, Ephron's first work to make it to the big screen was similarly serious and scrupulous: Silkwood, a 1983 drama directed by Mike Nichols inspired by the true-life story of a whistleblower at a malfunctioning plutonium plant who died in a suspicious car crash.

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It was a fine film, an auspicious start; not least because it led, three years later, to Heartburn – also directed by Nichols, also starring Streep – and based...

Chicago – Six years after her diagnosis of preleukemia, filmmaker Nora Ephron died Tuesday, June 26, in a New York hospital at age 71. She leaves behind a legacy that began with her work as a celebrated essayist and continued through a successful film career that earned her three Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay. Her films provided especially memorable showcases for the talents of actresses Meg Ryan and Meryl Streep.

Nora Ephron

Ephron received her first Oscar nod for “Silkwood,” Mike Nichols’ 1984 drama inspired by the life of whistleblower Karen Silkwood (played by an Oscar-nominated Streep), who died under suspicious circumstances. Ephron’s other two Oscar nominations honored the ace screenwriter for two of her greatest crowd-pleasers, Rob Reiner’s 1989 comedy, “When Harry Met Sally,” and Ephron’s own wildly popular 1994 romance, “Sleepless in Seattle.” Both films featured splendid collaborations between Ephron and Meg Ryan, whose feigned restaurant orgasm in “Sally...

One of the most distinct female writer/directors in the business, Nora Ephron, has sadly passed away at the age of 71 from pneumonia. The pneumonia was a complication resulting from acute myeloid leukemia which she has been quietly battling since her diagnosis in 2006.

Ephron pretty much set the standard template for contemporary romantic comedies and, more importantly, has been a signature voice for women in movies. In times when film studios and producers almost never actively pursued films either made by or for women, she helped break through many of those barriers.

Starting out as a journalist for the likes of Esquire and The New York Times Magazine, Ephron began her foray into cinema penning an unused draft for 1976's "All The President's Men" which lead to the TV movie "Perfect Gentlemen" and then the Meryl Streep-led "Silkwood" which earned Ephron an Oscar nomination.

She re-teamed with Streep on...

Earlier today, friends of writer/director Nora Ephron revealed that she has been suffering from leukemia and will likely not recover. And now, with friends and family by her side, Ephron has passed away. She was 71 years old. Ephron is best known for writing the screenplay for "When Harry Met Sally," along with writing and directing "Michael," "Bewitched," "Sleepless in Seattle," and "You've Got Mail." Most recently, she directed 2009's "Julie and Julia," which starred her frequent collaborator Meryl Streep as Julia Child. Ephron was married to writer Nicholas Pileggi and has two sons, Jacob and Max Bernstein, from her previous marriage to investigative reporter Carl Bernstein, who played an integral role in reporting on the Watergate scandal.

Nora Ephron, the celebrated writer and director of romantic comedies such as "Sleepless in Seattle" and "You've Got Mail," died on Tuesday. She was 71.

Ephron died in a New York City hospital after a long battle with leukemia, according to The Hollywood Reporter. News of Ephron's passing away follows reports from earlier this afternoon that she was gravely ill and almost certainly in her final hours.

Nora Ephron was a celebrated screenwriter, playwright and director and considered a Hollywood pioneer for being one of the first women to write and direct her own films.

Ephron made her feature screenwriting debut with "Silkwood" (1983), which earned her an Oscar nomination. One of her most beloved screenplays was another Oscar nominee, "When Harry Met Sally" (1989), the highly influential romantic comedy that chronicled the longtime friendship and later romance between two New Yorkers (Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan). Ephron went on to direct Ryan...

The death of Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and director Nora Ephron - the voice of romantic comedies including When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail - has provoked tributes from across Hollywood. Stars who worked on her movies are among those who have celebrated Ephron and her work, with a selection of their thoughts below: When Harry Met Sally star Billy Crystal: "I am very sad to learn of Nora's passing. She was a brilliant writer and humorist. Being her Harry to Meg's Sally will always have a special place in my heart. I was very lucky to get to say her words." Nicole Kidman, who starred in Ephron's Bewitched: "She was so smart, warm and funny. I am so grateful that she was my friend and we had the opportunity to work together. "My thoughts and love are with her family (more)...

There was a bit of confusion online today when reports of the passing of filmmaker Nora Ephron surfaced and were quickly recanted as the director of films like Sleepless in Seattle and writer of When Harry Met Sally was said to be very ill, but not yet dead. Well, Variety now has word that Ms. Ephron ended up passing away today at age 71-years old after a battle with leukemia. Though Ephron only directed eight feature films in her career, she certainly left her mark as one of the most influential female directors and writers in Hollywood and has crafted some of the best romantic comedies in the history of film. More below. In addition to the aforementioned modern classics, Ephron also directed Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan again in You've Got Mail, not to mention John Travolta in both Lucky Numbers and Michael, Will Ferrell and Nicole Kidman in Bewitched,...

Journalist, author, playwright, filmmaker, and three-time Oscar nominee Nora Ephron passed away today, reportedly after a battle with leukemia. She was 71.

The seeds for Ephron’s trailblazing career as a pop-culture polymath arguably began soon after her birth in New York City in 1941. She was the first of four daughters to Henry and Pheobe Ephron, who were successful screenwriters for films like Carousel and There’s No Business Like Show Business. They based their play Take Her, She’s Mine on their eldest daughter’s experiences in college. (It was adapted into a feature film starring Jimmy Stewart and Sandra...