Laurence here with a couple of juicy actress news tidbits. After a string of well-cast disappointments, we're all hoping for a return to Tim Burton magic this year with his new film Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. We finally have some images from the film, which has what might be Burton's most formidable (live-action) cast since Big Fish, including Judi Dench, Samuel L. Jackson, Allison Janney, Terence Stamp, Kim Dickens and Rupert Everett. Whoa.
Most importantly, though, here's Eva Green in the title role. [More...]
Burton told EW, "She's like a scary Mary Poppins, and she can turn into a bird." We were waiting on some details about the character, Tim, not what Eva does on her days off.
Green has a tendency to play eminently drag-worthy characters, and this one - Miss Peregrine a.k.a. Scary Poppins, Mary Gothins, Nanny McFear, Fran Fright - looks like no exception.
And naturally, the film means Burton can again indulge his predilection for creepy youngsters. "Weird kids: It’s something that I’ve dealt with and been interested in for a while," he presumably deadpanned.
On the TV side of things, there's some more news involving supernatural youths. Viola may not be the only Queen Davis on TV for much longer: Geena Davis has signed on to the pilot of Fox's modernised version of The Exorcist. She'll be playing Angela Rance, described as a naturally beautiful (duh), regal (clearly) and proud woman weighed down by stress due to her nightmares about a demon.
Geena Davis, reporting for duty
It'll be Davis' first regular TV role since she won a Golden Globe for Commander in Chief way back in 2005. The series is based on William Blatty's novel and not the immortal film version, which is a good sign since the last time a network tried updating a classic horror property, we ended up with Zoe Saldana's drab Rosemary's Baby.
It's wonderful to see Davis making something of a comeback after a few years of relatively low-key roles. She also has a film coming this year in Michael Almereyda's Marjorie Prime, based on the play of the same title. Davis is starring alongside Lois Smith (reprising her stage role), Jon Hamm and Tim Robbins about a woman (Smith) who uses a service which recreates people's loved ones as they would like to be remembered. It sounds like World of Tomorrow meets Amour, so start preparing your tear ducts now.