Justin Theroux to kiss a dog in Disney's live-action Lady And The Tramp remake

Welcome to Development Hell, the fiery pit into which we fling recent developments in casting, distribution, and everything else that’s new and mildly interesting in the Boschian phantasmagoria of the entertainment industry.

Michelle Williams has managed to find love again, a fact that would warm our hearts a bit more if we didn’t also have to hear about the lonely frog that can’t find any other frogs to love, but hopefully he can hold on for a few more years and find a Phil Elverum of his own to settle down with before his species goes extinct. No pressure there, buddy. Anyway, as much as we’d like to write about nothing but love and happiness, the cold and unflinching pop culture machine continues to churn out news.

• And yet, some of these stories are still about love! Justin Theroux is currently in talks to play Tramp in Disney’s live-action remake of Lady And The Tramp, which is expected to launch on Disney’s streaming service. Theroux’s pupper will most likely be computer generated, but he should probably practice his spaghetti-kissing anyway. It’ll make the performance more authentic. [via Collider]
• It looks like Bryce Dallas Howard will soon by burning out her fuse up here alone, because she’s set to play Elton John’s mother in Dexter Fletcher’s biopic Rocketman. Taron Egerton is playing John, with Jamie Bell playing Bernie Taupin and Richard Madden playing John Reid. We don’t know when the movie will come out, but hopefully it’s not gonna be a long, long time. [via Variety]
• Jason Scott Lee, the star of Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story and Mowgli in the live-action Jungle Book movie from 1994, has joined Disney’s live-action Mulan as Bori Khan. He’ll be one of the bad guys, alongside Gong Li. Liu Yifei is playing Mulan herself, and the movie will be out in 2020. [via The Hollywood Reporter]
• Julianna Margulies will star in The Hot Zone, a National Geographic miniseries based on Richard Preston’s book of the same name. The show is a dramatization about the discovery of the Ebola virus and the first cases of infection among chimpanzees in the United States. She’ll be playing Dr. Nancy Jaax, which is such a cool TV name that we had to make sure she’s a real person (she is). [via Deadline]
• Here’s some good news about HBO’s Watchmen pilot: It’s going super well! That’s what HBO exec Casey Bloys says, at least, though he hasn’t actually seen the finished pilot yet. That’ll apparently happen “in a few weeks,” so we should keep an eye on Bloys’ mood at some point in August. Speaking of HBO, the Confederate show that Game Of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss were working on is still in the works, but no movement has been made on it because everyone involved is still very busy with other projects. Also, it still sounds like an objectively terrible idea, but we don’t need to get into that again. [via Deadline]
• Netflix’s The Crown has some new royalty. Josh O’Connor is taking over the role of Prince Charles (replacing Julian Baring) and Marion Bailey is taking over the Queen Mother (replacing Victoria Hamilton). We still don’t know who will be playing Princess Diana, but she’s supposed to be introduced in the show’s third season along with these new faces for familiar characters. [via The Hollywood Reporter]
• Alicia Silverstone is set to star in Judy Small, an adaptation of Nancy Doyne’s book of the same name, which concerns a husband and wife who decide to see a marriage counselor. Unfortunately, the marriage counselor manipulates the couple and pits them against each other, making this sound like the worst fear of all stereotypical husbands. Also, the movie is going to be a “deadpan comedy,” in case that wasn’t clear. [via Deadline]
• George Lopez and Lana Parrilla have joined Shia LaBeouf in the cast of David Ayer’s The Tax Collector. The movie is a crime thriller with an indie aesthetic—so it should be a more low-key project before he moves on to Netflix’s Bright sequel—but that’s about all we know. Maybe there will be a nice love story? Probably not, but we just want to tie this last blurb back in with the first blurb. [via Deadline]