First Look: The Paperboy

Since being Oscar nominated for directing Precious,  Lee Daniels has been having a hard time with his follow up project. It looked like his film about Matin Luther King, Jr and the Civil Rights movement, Selma, starring Hugh Jackman, was all set to go back in 2010. But, that film lost finance before it started filming. Then there were reports he was readying a script called The Butler about a man who worked in the White House. The film that finally got made is The Paperboy about a reporter who covers a story about a man on death row and ends up falling for the man's lady friend.

Today brings the first look at the poster for the film and, well, it's very...pink. I do enjoy the old fashioned washed out colors of it-perhaps a hint at the look of the cinematography.  But, I'm most curious about the casting of this film. These four actors seem like an odd pairing. And then I found out that it was originally set to star Tobey Maguire and Sofia Vergara who both dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. They were replaced with...Matthew McConaughey and Nicole Kidman. Um, are these actors even the same type? It's good to see that McConaughey is working with good directors like Daniels and Steven Soderbergh. He was poised to be the next big actor after A Time to Kill and then it seemed he couldn't stop being the good ol' boy in every romantic comedy ever made. But, I'm not sure what to make of the presence of Efron here. He's not exactly the first choice I would have in mind for a movie starring Nicole Kidman. But, I'm up for seeing him in something that he'll actually be acting in. (Confession time. After relentlessly making fun of Charlie St.Cloud -he plays catch with his dead brother!-I watched it on Netflix and...didn't hate it.)

Also, in Precious related news released today-that you didn't even know you wanted to know-Jennifer Hudson revealed in a new book (she has a book?) that she was actually offered the role of Precious but turned it down because she didn't want to gain weight. Instead she chose to do that heavyweight powerhouse, Sex and the City...The Movie! I just cannot imagine how that film would have been with Hudson. She's not much of an actress. I hope Gabourey Sidibe is giving her 10% of her earnings because she wouldn't have a career without her...