Today's Film News: Bana Stands Up

By Katey Rich

There was a charming moment in last summer's Knocked Up, when the quintet of slacker roommates decided that, as Jews, they had to thank Eric Bana for his badass performance in Munich. Now it seems that director Judd Apatow is thanking Bana in the best way he can, by casting him in his upcoming project, Funny People. Adam Sandler, Leslie Mann and Seth Rogen had already been announced as the main cast, and now Bana (who got his start doing stand-up and sketch comedy in Australia), Jonah Hill and Jason Schwartzman will be on board as well. Variety also said the movie will be about a stand-up comedian who has a near-death experience.

Jack Black is one of the most common names in our Blue Sheets section, where he seems to be part of every other "out-there" comedy that goes into development. Now he's taken his name off one of them-- Black dropped out of Todd Phillips' Man-Witch, about a man who discovers his true identity and goes to teach at an all-female witchcraft school. The Hollywood Reporter says the project is still in "active development"; Phillips was the force behind Old School and a writer on Borat, so he's not exactly an up-and-comer who needs Black's support to survive.

Uh-oh. I've been avoiding coverage of the potential SAG strike and their negotiations with the Association of Motion Picture & Television Producers, out of a blind hope that we wouldn't be facing another strike. But now Variety is reporting that negotiations aren't going so well, and most insiders aren't expecting a resolution by the June 30 deadline. The union hasn't decided to ask their members to authorize a strike, but SAG president Alan Rosenberg told Variety that "if we do, we'll have to fairly soon." In better news, he also said the union will work past the expiration date if they're still negotiating. Are we headed for a labor union war of attrition?

Despite the serious failure of the Bewitched movie a few summers ago, producer Sid Ganis is taking a shot at adapting another 60s magical realism TV icon, I Dream of Jeannie. Now Rita Hsiao, who polished up the scripts for Enchanted and 13 Going on 30, will take a stab at the new script, the Reporter tells us. Apparently the screenplay Hsiao submitted puts Jeannie "smack in the middle of contemporary times and circumstances," which has to mean she'll stop calling the main character "Master." Right? Can we really have come such a short distance?