1. Matt Damon is in talks to join the already stacked cast of “The Monuments Men,” the World War II drama about a group tasked with the mission of retrieving art stolen by the Nazis. George Clooney is set to direct from a script he wrote with Grant Heslov. Previously announced cast members include: Daniel Craig, Cate Blanchett, Bill Murray, Jean Dujardin, John Goodman, Hugh Bonneville and Bob Balaban. Alexandre Desplat is set to do the music, and Clooney plans on using much of the same crew from “Argo,” which he and Heslov produced. Production begins on March 1st, so expect this one to be making a big push come next awards season. [Deadline]
2. “Scandalous,” the Broadway musical with lyrics and book by Kathie Lee Gifford, is set to close this Sunday after only twenty-nine regular performances. The show, which opened on November 15th, received largely negative reviews, and the box-office was weak from the start. Last week, two of the show’s producers agreed “to underwrite the show’s financial losses after its standard financial reserve had been depleted.” Even so, the show will still close at a financial loss. [Artsbeat]
3. Mindy Kaling is continuing her quest to poach every actor from the cast of her previous show, “The Office.” B.J. Novak will play a potential love interest for Kaling on a two-episode arc of “The Mindy Project,” her struggling Fox comedy. Novak, currently riding out the final season of “The Office,” is also pulling double-duty as a consulting producer on “Mindy,” so it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that he’s now moving in front of the camera. [Vulture]
4. Eddie Murphy has topped the Forbes Magazine list of most overpaid actors, “having taken in with his recent films only $2.30 for every dollar appointed to him.” Katherine Heigl, Reese Witherspoon, and Sandra Bullock follow Murphy on the list, each starring in a string of flops over the last few years. [Forbes]
5. Watch the trailer for “Sound City,” the directorial debut of Dave Grohl. The film, which will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January, is a documentary about the famed Los Angeles studio of the film’s title. Trent Reznor, Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty, Neil Young, and Rick Rubin all appear in the film, which uses the studio to frame “a broader conversation about how music keeps its human element amid ever-changing technology.” [SPIN]
Previously: Guillermo de Toro, Broadway, Documentary Oscar, “Ironside,” Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy
Image: Matt Damon/Theo Wargo/Getty Images
