Today's Film News: Fire at Universal

By Katey Rich

This time, an old lady collecting donations in a coffee can won't be enough to save the clocktower. The iconic location from Back to the Future, along with several other backlot sets, were destroyed in a fire at Universal Studios yesterday. Variety reports that, even though over 40,000 film and TV prints were incinerated, backup copies were stored elsewhere-- "Fortunately, nothing irreplaceable was lost," Universal president Ron Meyer said. Wait, since when was the clocktower not irreplaceable? Does Meyer know nothing of the technical details required for the 1.21 jigawatts necessary to travel back in time?

Bryce Dallas Howard acquitted herself pretty well as a lady in peril in Spider-Man 3, and now she may be filling the same shoes in Terminator 3, replacing Charlotte Gainsbourg in the role of Kate Connor, wife of heroic resistance fighter John (Christian Bale). The Hollywood Reporter explains that Gainsbourg dropped out due to the ridiculous complications pending a July SAG strike, which would mean production would shut down and restart at some point in the future. I know strike fatigue went out of style when the writers' strike ended, but can we start complaining about this next one yet?

The MTV Movie Awards golden popcorn statue for Best Movie may seem pretty meaningless, but the prize Transformers took home is nothing compared to the honor bestowed on Iron Man, which was named Best Movie of the Summer So Far. I'm sure the prize has nothing to do with the fact that Iron Man had been in release the longest at the time MTV's viewers voted, or that one of its competitors, Sex and the City, only opened on Friday. Variety has the full roundup of the mostly meaningless awards, as well as a mention of host Mike Myers and Dana Carvey's reunion as Wayne and Garth, easily the highlight of the night.

And finally, "American Idol" also-ran Katharine McPhee is working on making a movie career for herself. She has a role in the summer release House Bunny, and now she'll star alongside Wes Bentley in The Storyteller, a psychological drama about a writer and his muse. The Reporter says the shoot will get underway in August.