Variety is filled with casting news today. Let's get right to it:
• Hugh Jackman has joined the cast of Avon Man, to be scripted by Kevin Bisch, a.k.a. the guy who wrote Hancock. Wait a minute? Avon man? What the…?
Story follows men laid off from an auto dealership. One is reluctantly recruited into becoming an Avon salesman, and while the experience is initially emasculating, he uses his charm and good looks to become a top seller. The comedy takes on a "Full Monty" vibe [Editor's note: "takes on"?] when the car salesman sets out to save his financially strapped family and town by conscripting his buddies into the makeup business to win a regional contest.
• Renee Zelweger has signed on for a third Bridget Jones movie. Well yay. That's a saga that needed to go on and on.
• Cate Blanchett has paired with Joe Wright, director of Atonement and Pride And Prejudice (and The Soloist, a film rumored to have come out earlier this year.) In other news of inevitable team-ups, vanilla ice cream and hot fudge are reported to be in talks.
• Finally, Miley Cyrus is not going away. She'll be starring in something called Wings in which she plays a sheltered girl who transfers to larger school. And here's the twist:
Adjusting to a big high school is difficult, and her suspicion that she's not like the other kids becomes a reality when she sprouts a pair of wings and learns that she's a fairy.
Could fairies be the new vampires? Is James Patterson fuming somewhere? Stay tuned!