The red-carpet area at the premiere of the Disney Channel’s new Cheetah Girls movie last week looked less like the typical Hollywood cast party than some sort of United Nations session.

“One-third of the U.S. population is now nonwhite,” said Ms. Chase, one of a handful of prominent African-American producers in Hollywood. “That is reflected in the Disney Channel projects because they are committed to diversity. It has been a priority for them all along.”

None of which should be particularly surprising in the 21st century, except that television in general seems to be caught in one of a series of repeating cycles in which diversity all but disappears from the small screen.

(New York Times)

“CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” has solved the mystery of who will replace departing CBS series star William Petersen: It’s Laurence Fishburne.

Fishburne, an Emmy and Tony winner, will be introduced in the ninth episode of the upcoming 10th season, the network told The Associated Press on Monday. He’ll play a forensics scientist with a secret.

Fishburne is a “CSI” newcomer in more ways than one. Asked if he’s a fan, he told a teleconference Monday that he was embarrassed to admit he’d never watched before he was approached by producers.

(Associated Press)

Hollywood actor Orlando Bloom said on Tuesday he was stepping aside from the big productions that made him a star to work in a film about life in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo during the 1992-95 siege.

The film is based on the book Fools Rush In by American writer and filmmaker Bill Carter who lived in Sarajevo at the height of the siege. It will be directed by Brazilian director Andrucha Waddington and produced by Elliot Lewitt.

(Reuters)

What did Angelina Jolie and Tom Cruise have in common? A role in the thriller “Edwin A. Salt.” It seems that the actress will take Tom Cruises part in the new spy thriller. According to Variety, Tom Cruise was expected to play the part, but the role was adapted so that Angelina Jolie could play it.

The original script was originally written so that a male actor would fit the part, but Jolie’s interest for the part made the writers change the role. “Edwin A. Salt,” a Columbia Pictures espionage thriller, will be released in 2010. Screenwriter Kurt Wimmer made the adjustments to the part so that Angelina Jolie could take Tom Cruise’s place.

(EFlux)

“Inglorious Bastards” is Quentin Tarantino’s next movie and Eli Roth, the director of “Hostel”, is among the actors who will star in it. Tarantino’s movie is about World War II and Roth is to play Sergent Donnie Donowitz, a not so normal Nazi enemy, described as a “baseball bat-swinging Nazi hunter”.

Rumor has it that Leonardo Di Caprio was eyed for the bad guy’s part, the role of SS Col. Hans Landa, but it seems he changed his mind and decided to give the role to a German actor.

The second rumor is about Brad Pitt, who may star as Aldo Raine, the leader of the band of Jewish U.S. soldiers who are out to get some Nazis killed.

(EFlux Media)

• The Passion of the Christ star Jim Caviezel (pictured) will join Ian McKellen (The Lord of the Rings) in a remake of the ’60s sci-fi series The Prisoner for AMC that will premiere next year. The network will turn the classic into a six-part miniseries that will feature Caviezel in the title role of Number Six, which was once played by Prisoner creator and writer Patrick McGoohan. McKellen will play Number Two. The original series, which bowed in 1967, told the story of an ex-British government agent who is kidnapped and taken to a mysterious village where his captors try to extract information from him. AMC will adjust the plot to address 21st century issues such as security and surveillance.
• Acclaimed movie actor Tim Roth is set to appear in Lie to Me, a Fox television series about a human lie detector. The drama is expected to debut early next year; Fox has made a 13-episode commitment. Based on the work of a real-life scientist who is able to read the human body and voice to determine if someone is being truthful, Lie to Me will be the first attempt at TV stardom for Roth, who currently appears in The Incredible Hulk and received an Oscar nomination for 1995’s Rob Roy. A pilot is due to be shot in August.
• The truth is out there for another Gillian Anderson character. The X-Files star will produce and star in a biopic of Martha Gellhorn, the pioneering female war correspondent who covered the Spanish Civil War and married Ernest Hemingway. Anderson’s company, Fiddlehead Prods., has acquired the rights to Caroline Moorehead’s 2004 biography Gellhorn: A Twentieth-Century Life; playwright/screenwriter Sharman Macdonald (The Winter Guest) will adapt the book for the screen.

The latest news reporting is a remake/sequel/adaptation story call it what you may to bring 21 Jump Street to the big screen, yes that is right the popular television series being made into a movie. The Superbad actor Jonah Hill who in the picture below looks a little rough and should have a shave is in negotiations with Sony to develop a movie remake of the highly popular 1980’s television show 21 Jump Street.

(In Entertainment UK)

Lindsay Lohan passed up a role in a movie about convicted killer Charles Manson in order to accept two other offers, including a guest star turn on the TV comedy “Ugly Betty,” her publicist said on Friday.Lohan’s spokeswoman, Leslie Sloane, said the 21-year-old actress was “definitely interested” in “The Manson Girls,” but she denied online gossip reports that Lohan was dropped from that film because other actors refused to work with her.

“Unfortunately (the Manson movie) didn’t come together quickly enough, and she was offered other roles, which she accepted and is looking forward to doing,” Sloane told Reuters.

The ABC television network announced on Monday that Lohan, who is seeking to rebuild her career after a year of personal upheaval, has signed a deal to guest star in six upcoming episodes of the popular workplace comedy “Ugly Betty,” starting this month.

(Reuters UK)

Sir Ian McKellen has said he will reprise his role as Gandalf in the two-film adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit.

The Lord of the Rings star told Empire magazine that it was not a part to turn down.

“Yes, it’s true,” he said, when asked if he was set to return.

“Obviously, it’s not a part that you turn down, I loved playing Gandalf.”

Guillermo del Toro has been confirmed as directing The Hobbit and its sequel.

(The Guardian UK)

Your average superhero movie tends to be more style than substance. But when director Jon Favreau took on Iron Man, one of the original Marvel comics, he wanted to ensure the end result wasn’t your average superhero movie.

Key to that plan was casting former drug addict, felon and Oscar nominee Robert Downey Jr.

(Stuff NZ)