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John Mulaney, Kathryn Hahn and Sienna Miller are in talks to star in 'Madden'.Director David O. Russell is working on a biopic about famed NFL coach and sports commentator John Madden, and according to Deadline, he's got a series of big names in the frame to join lead star Nicolas Cage and Christian Bale in the movie.'Everybody's Live' host John is set to play EA Sports founder Trip Hawkins, who was instrumental in the 'Madden NFL' video game series, while Kathryn will play Madden's wife Virginia and Sienna will play Carole Davis, the wife of late Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis (Bale).Production is scheduled to begin in Atlanta with the 'American Hustle' filmmaker directing from a script he wrote.The movie, which is being produced by Amazon MGM Studios, will follow Madden in the ’70s after he became the head coach of the Oakland...

Kevin Rooney, a stand-up comedian who won two Emmy awards for his work as a writer on “Dennis Miller Live,” died at his home on July 19 after a battle with diabetes and end-stage renal failure. He was 71 years old.

Rooney’s death was confirmed by his colleague, Jay Mandyam.

“He was a sophisticated raconteur and was a modern-day H.L. Mencken or Schopenhauer,” a statement from Mandyam reads. “As curmudgeonly as he was, he was always the wittiest person in the room and was generous and kind to all.”

Rooney briefly attended Lawrence College in the 1970s before joining the military. In 1977, he began a career in comedy, performing his first stand-up set in Washington, D.C., concluding his act by an act of arguable baptism — pouring a pitcher of beer over his head. Rooney then attended the University of Massachusetts where he studied to become a teacher.

Rooney found his...

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Emmy-winning writer and comedian Kevin Rooney died on July 9 at home in Los Angeles after a long battle with diabetes and end-stage renal failure, his wife Carole Raphaelle Davis and friend and former assistant Jay Mandyam tell The Hollywood Reporter. Rooney was 71.

A stand-up veteran who worked with Jay Leno and mentored Judd Apatow among other young comics, Rooney won two Emmys, in 1994 and 1995, for writing on HBO’s Dennis Miller Live.

After accidentally making his stand-up debut in 1977 at El Brookman’s in Washington, D.C., where he had a pitcher of beer poured on his head, Rooney returned to stand-up comedy first in New York City and then in Los Angeles, where he became a regular at the Improv comedy club, where he met Leno, according to an announcement sent in by Mandyam.

Rooney co-wrote Leno’s first comedy special Jay Leno and the American Dream.

Emmy award-winning comedy writer Kevin Rooney passed away in his home on July 19th after a long battle with diabetes and end-stage renal failure. He was 71.

Rooney wrote Jay Leno’s first comedy special, Jay Leno and the American Dream. He also worked on Leno’s “What’s my beef?” tirades for Late Night with David Letterman in the ’80s.

“He was the greatest muse a comedian could ever have,” said Leno, who met Rooney at The Improv. “I got so much material just through conversations with Kevin. The first time I saw him, I thought, ‘Oh boy, this guy is really good.’ It’s a real voice. There’s no gimmicks. He didn’t have a catch phrase. There wasn’t a funny look. When times were rough, they throw out the catch phrase or funny look. Kevin didn’t have any of that.”

Leno continued, “I don’t...

Here’s your daily dose of an indie film, web series, TV pilot, what-have-you in progress, as presented by the creators themselves. At the end of the week, you’ll have the chance to vote for your favorite.

In the meantime: Is this a project you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments.

The Queen of Hollywood Blvd

Logline: The proud owner of a Los Angeles strip club finds herself in hot water over a twenty-five year old debt to the mob, leading her on a downward spiral of violence and revenge through the underbelly of Los Angeles.

Elevator Pitch:

On her 60th birthday, Queen Mary (Rosemary Hochschild) receives a visit from Duke (Roger Guenveur Smith), a gangster who shows up out of the past to take back her beloved, aging Hollywood nightclub, given to her 25 years ago. But Duke is not a guy to be messed with,...

Walt Disney Pictures and producer Brett Ratner are teaming up to remake the studio's 1984 classic The Flamingo Kid. Nzingha Stewart, a music video director and executive producer on Tyler Perry's For Colored Girls, will write the screenplay.

Matt Dillon starred in The Flamingo Kid as Jeffrey Willis, a kid fresh out of high school who takes a job at the Flamingo Club. He gets sucked into the ritzy life at the club, determined to become rich and popular like all of its members. It isn't known if this redo will be set in modern day, or in a different time period. The original was set in 1963.

Brett Ratner is producing alongside Michael Phillips, who produced the original film, and Juliana Maio, with John Cheng executive producing. No production schedule was given as of yet.

The Flamingo Kid was released December 21st, 1984 and stars Matt Dillon, Hector Elizondo, Molly McCarthy,...

The story so far: Following the release of Jaws, legendary exploitation-movie producer Roger Corman hired fledgling director Joe Dante to direct a rip-off movie about small, killer fish. The result was 1978′s gore-drenched, but tongue-in-cheek Piranha, which cost less than $1 million to make and grossed around $14 million in the U.S. alone. The sequel, 1981′s Piranha II: The Spawning, was directed by first-time film-maker James Cameron. The future Avatar and Titanic auteur was fired midway through the film’s shoot in Jamaica, and the movie was not a commercial success. But this disappointing experience did inspire Cameron to write his breakthrough movie,...

The story so far: Following the release of Jaws, legendary exploitation-movie producer Roger Corman hired fledgling director Joe Dante to direct a rip-off movie about small, killer fish. The result was 1978′s gore-drenched, but tongue-in-cheek Piranha, which cost less than $1m to make and grossed around $14m in the U.S. alone.

The huge success of the original Piranha came as a surprise to Roger Corman. “Piranha achieved astonishing results,” says the producer. “These low-budget exploitation films can very often get a big gross the first week, but then fall away. Piranha did not fall away. It held, two and three weeks,...

Do you enjoy complex plotting? Subtle subtexts? Movies in which scantily clad people don’t get bitten to pieces by fish? Then you should think twice—actually, make it thrice—before seeing Piranha 3D, which opens this Friday.

Directed by French horror auteur Alexandre Aja (Mirrors, 2006′s The Hills Have Eyes remake) the film’s cast features both an Academy Award winner in Richard Dreyfuss, who cameos as his Matt Hooper character from Jaws in all but name, and an Oscar nominee in Elisabeth Shue, who plays the movie’s sheriff-heroine. But this Arizona-shot tale of prehistoric piranhas feasting upon...