Pop Culture Brain | Movies TV Music Web Theater

After months of hand-wringing and poring over the proposals from the cities of San Diego, Anaheim and Los Angeles, Comic-Con decided to stick to the place where it all began. Comic-Con struck a three-year deal with San Diego, which will keep the pop culture event in the coastal city through 2015.

In a power pairing, Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep are in talks to star for The Weinstein Company in the bigscreen adaptation of the Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer and Tony-winning play August: Osage County. I hear Roberts and Streep have agreed to the project and they are now working out deals and locking a production start. John Wells will direct the film from a script written by the playwright. Production will start by next summer. Streep will play Violet, the drug-addicted matriarch of the working class Weston clan. Roberts will play Barbara Fordham, the oldest daughter in the family.

Men in Black 3 is casting up. I’m told that Emma Thompson will be taking a lead role of Oh, the head of MIB. She’ll join Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin in the Barry Sonnenfeld-directed film for Sony Pictures Entertainment.

The Senate unanimously passed a bill late Wednesday to require television stations and cable companies to limit the volume of commercials and keep them at the level of the programs they interrupt. The House has passed similar legislation. Before it can become law, minor differences between the two versions have to be worked out when Congress returns to Washington after the Nov. 2 election.

Ever since television caught on in the 1950s, the Federal Communication Commission has been getting complaints about blaring commercials. But the FCC concluded in 1984 there was no fair way to write regulations controlling the “apparent loudness” of commercials. So it hasn’t been regulating them. [USA Today]

Now if only movie theaters would do the same for trailers.

One ride wasn’t enough, now Disney wants to make a movie about the entire park.

Looking to eliminate “redundancy” and save costs, Paramount Pictures is consolidating operations in four divisions, resulting in the elimination of 53 positions worldwide.

One studio executive estimated that the move will save Paramount close to $10 million. 

The Viacom Inc.-owned studio will fold licensing and consumer products into its motion pictures promotions division, which is run by LeeAnne Stables, executive vice president of worldwide marketing partnerships.

Development and production of movies for home entertainment and digital platforms will now be overseen by Paramount Digital Entertainment President Tom Lesinski, while the distribution of movies in the digital realm will be handled by Hal Richardson, president of Paramount Pictures Worldwide Television Distribution.

Mr. Grey, the “Cabaret” and “Wicked” star, will play Moonface Martin in Roundabout Theater Company’s production of the Cole Porter musical.

He seems a bit old for that part. 

EW: Are there people you work with who are telling you that you should put another record out sooner rather than later?
Timberlake: … Does a painter make a painting because he has to make it by December 21st? No, he doesn’t. It happens when it pours out of him. That’s how music is for me … .

Do you think it’s dangerous to wait so long? Christina Aguilera waited four years between albums, and her fans don’t seem to care about her right now.
Timberlake: If you’re asking me, no. I never stop making music. I don’t know what else to tell you, except that I just don’t know [in] what capacity I want to be involved anymore.

That sounds very final.
Timberlake: No. All I’m saying is, in very simple terms, I’ll know when I know. And until I know, I don’t know.

Mr. Snider, the Twisted Sister front man and reality television star, will enter the cast of the Broadway musical for an 11-week run.

There sure seems to be an influx of rock stars on Broadway recently.