By Jeff Sneider
TheWrap

“White Collar” star Matt Bomer has signed on to play Montgomery Clift in an upcoming biopic that could start production next year, a representative for the actor has told TheWrap.

Pier 3 Pictures Michael Din, who is producing with Janine Giaime and Juri Henley-Cohn, is currently shopping the film for financing with the “Magic Mike” hunk attached.

Larry Moss will direct from a script by Christopher Lovick.

Clift was a major Hollywood star best known for his lead roles in “From Here to Eternity” and “Judgment at Nuremberg.”

Bomer, who will soon be seen in Ryan Murphy’s HBO movie “The Normal Heart,” was a fan favorite to play Christian Grey in “Fifty Shades of Grey,” though he was never in serious contention for the role, which went to Charlie Hunnam. He’s repped by CAA and Anonymous Content.

LONDON (AP) — Representatives of Scottish actor Billy Connolly say he has had surgery for the early stages of prostate cancer and is also receiving treatment for the initial symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.

The statement says the 70-year-old star is “fully recovered” from prostate surgery in the United States.

He is expected to continue his film and TV work, which has recently included a role in The Hobbit films.

Connolly started his showbusiness career as a folk singer and later made his reputation as a standup comic.

His role in the 1997 film “Mrs. Brown” opposite Judi Dench brought international recognition.

NEW YORK (AP) — Harper Lee has settled the lawsuit she filed to secure the copyright to her classic novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

A federal judge in New York City approved the order last week, dismissing the case against Samuel L. Pinkus, the son-in-law of Lee’s former literary agent, and the companies he allegedly created. Two other defendants had been dropped from the suit a week earlier.

Bing: More on Harper Lee

Gloria C. Phares, the Alabama author’s attorney, says the case had ended to Lee’s satisfaction. Defense attorney Vincent Carissimi said many people misconstrued the nature of the case and that Lee’s royalties were never in danger.

Filed in early May in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the suit alleged that Pinkus failed to properly protect the copyright after his father-in-law, Eugene Winick, became ill a decade ago.

By Jeff Sneider
TheWrap

In her first major movie role, model-actress Emily Ratajkowski is nearing a deal to play the hotly contested role of Ben Affleck‘s mistress in David Fincher‘s “Gone Girl,” an individual familiar with the project has told TheWrap.

Ratajkowski is best known as the bombshell beauty at the center of Robin Thicke‘s “Blurred Lines” video, which has nearly 174 million views on YouTube.

20th Century Fox and New Regency are behind the feature adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s bestselling mystery novel.

Affleck stars as Nick Dunne, who is implicated in the disappearance of his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike).

Also from TheWrap: Robin Thicke’s Mom Says ‘Blurred Lines’ Doesn’t Degrade Women

Ratajkowski will play Andie, a beautiful college student who Nick has an affair with before she bands together with Amy’s parents to incriminate him in her disappearance.

The eclectic supporting cast features Carrie Coon as Nick’s twin sister, Tyler Perry as his defense attorney and Kim Dickens and Patrick Fugit as the detectives on the case. Neil Patrick Harris also has a supporting role.

Reese Witherspoon and Bruna Papandrea are producing Gone Girl through their Pacific Standard banner along with Leslie Dixon. Production starts this fall.

Born in London, Ratajkowski started modeling at age 14 and was signed by Ford Models. She has appeared on television on Fox’s “New Girl” and Nickelodeon’s “iCarly,” and she’s currently on the cover of Carine Roitfeld’s CR Fashion Book.

Ratajkowski is represented by Innovative Artists and Untitled Entertainment.

More from TheWrap: How ‘The Conjuring’ Propelled Director James Wan From Torture Porn to Vin Diesel

It is also a victory for Blumhouse and producer Jason Blum who helped pioneer the low-cost, high-fright value formula so deftly employed by “Insidious: Chapter 2” with films like “The Purge” and “Paranormal Activity.” The current entry in the “Insidious” canon cost a mere $5 million to produce.

“The Conjuring” was helped by strong reviews, but not so Wan’s latest effort. “Insidious: Chapter 2” earned a drab 36 percent “rotten” rating on the critics aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences gave it a solid B+ rating, according to Cinemascore. “Insidious: Chapter 2” now has the biggest opening for a horror film in September, besting the $30 million debut of “The Exorcism of Emily Rose.”

Orr said that opening the film on Friday the 13th helped get horror fans in the right spirit. He speculated that horror has been such a consistent genre of late, because something about the shared experience of being scared is leading moviegoers to see these movies in theaters.

“These titles are hitting notes that capture the imagination of the audience,” Orr said. “The concepts are gripping and they’re extraordinarily well-executed.”

Also opening this weekend, Relativity’s mob comedy “The Family” earned $14.5 million. It’s a decent debut for the film and one of the better openings of star Robert De Niro’s non-“Meet the Parents” movies.

Budgeted at $30 million, the film opened in 3,091 theaters. Reviewers were uncharitable handing the film a 33 percent “rotten” rating on Rotten Tomatoes and audiences didn’t like the movie much better either, giving it a C Cinemascore rating.

Kyle Davies, Relativity’s president of worldwide distribution, said the studio was pleased with the results and had expected the film to open to between $11 million to $13 million. He noted that the movie skewed older, with more than 80 percent of the audience clocking in at over 25 years of age. He predicted the demographic appeal and the film’s distinctiveness would help it play well going forward.

“There are some real comedic elements and there are not a lot of comedies in the fall, so we think that bodes well for how the movie is going to play in the next few weeks,” Davies said. “Older moviegoers historically are not storming the theater on day one. Because this plays to older audiences, we think it’s not going to be as front-loaded.”

In its second week of release, Vin Diesel’s action sequel “Riddick” fell a steep 63 percent to earn a little over $7 million. Its domestic total now stands at just over $31 million.

Latino comedy “Instructions Not Included” continued to draw crowds, grossing $4.2 million in 932 locations, which brought its domestic total to $26.6 million in its third week of release.

Also of note, “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” added $5.6 million to its box office take, which pushed the sprawling civil rights drama past the $100 million mark domestically. It wasn’t the only film to hit that particular milestone. Sony Picture’s apocalypse comedy “This Is the End,” passed the $100 million mark domestically in its fourteenth week of release.

Sony also decided to try to lure tweens back to see “One Direction: This is Us” by adding four songs and 20 minutes of additional footage to the concert film.  Even with the extra chances to ogle the fabulous five-some, the film still sank more than 40 percent from the previous week, adding $2.4 million to its gross.

The top 10:
“Insidious: Chapter 2” $41 million
“The Family” $14.5 million
“Riddick” $7 million
“Lee Daniels’ The Butler” $5.6 million
“We’re The Millers” $5.4 million
“Instructions Not Included” $4.2 million
“Planes” $3 million
“One Direction: This is Us” $2.4 million
“Elysium” $2 million
“Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters” $1.8 million

By Steve Pond
TheWrap

Steve McQueen‘s harrowing “12 Years a Slave” has been named winner of the BlackBerry Peoples Choice Award at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF announced at an awards lunch on Sunday.

The film, which is considered a leader in the Oscar race for Best Picture after triumphant screenings in Toronto and Telluride, won the strongest reaction from TIFF-goers who deposited their ticket stubs while leaving the theater or cast ballots online.

“The Square” won the award as the festival’s favorite documentary, while “Why Don’t You Play in Hell?” was named favorite film from the Midnight Madness section.

The last six Oscar Best Picture winners have all screened at TIFF. In that time, the Oscar winner has captured the TIFF audience award twice: “Slumdog Millionaire” in 2008 and “The King’s Speech” in 2010.

Last year, David O. Russell’s “Silver Linings Playbook” won the award, while the eventual Oscar winner, Ben Affleck’s “Argo,” was one of two runners up.

One of Cory Monteith’s last two films, “All the Wrong Reasons,” won the Grolsch Film Works Discovery Award.

“Ida” and “The Amazing Catfish” won awards from the international critics’ association, FIPRESCI.

In the awards for Canadian films, Seth Scriver’s and Shayne Ehman’s “Asphalt Watches” was named best first feature, while Alan Zweig’s “When Jews Were Funny” took the prize for best Canadian feature and Walter Woodman’s and Patrick Cederberg’s “Noah” was named best Canadian short.

In previous years, winners of the audience award included Oscar winners “American Beauty” and “Chariots of Fire,” as well as “Where Do We Go Now,” “Tsotsi,” “Hotel Rwanda,” “Whale Rider,” “Shine,” “Strictly Ballroom,” “The Fisher King,” “Roger Me,” “The Princess Bride” and “The Big Chill.”

The award is open to any film that screened at the festival, apart from shorts and entries in the TIFF Cinematheque section. Contenders included Alfonso Cuaron’s “Gravity,” Jean-Marc Vallee’s “Dallas Buyers Club,” John Wells “August: Osage County” and John Carney’s “Can a Song Save Your Life?”

The winners:

BlackBerry Peoples Choice Award: “12 Years a Slave”
BlackBerry Peoples Choice Documentary Award: “The Square”
Runners-up: “Beyond the Edge,” “Hi-Ho Mistahey!”
BlackBerry People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award: “Why Don’t You Play in Hell?”
Best Canadian First Feature Film: “Asphalt Watches”
City of Toronto and Canada Goose Award for Best Canadian Feature Film: “When Jews Were Funny”
Best Canadian Short Film: “Noah”
International Critics (FIPRESCI) Prize for Discovery Program: “The Amazing Catfish”
International Critcs (FIPRESCI) Prize for Special Presentations: “Ida”
NETPAC Award for World or International Asian Film Premiere: “QISSA”
Grolsch Film Works Discovery Award: “All the Wrong Reasons”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Phylicia Rashad is best known for starring roles on stage and television, but as a director she’ll commemorate a historic moment that helped spur the civil rights movement.

The Tony Award-winning actress is directing a reading of the play “Four Little Girls: Birmingham 1963” at the Kennedy Center Sunday to mark the 50th anniversary of the bombing at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. Four girls were killed in the explosion, which was set by white supremacists and helped spur passage of landmark civil rights legislation.

Rashad, who is recognized for her portrayal as the matriarch on “The Cosby Show” TV series and Broadway’s “A Raisin in the Sun,” said she wants the reading to emphasize the “sanctity of joy, human existence and the value of all life.”

Are you kidding me!

Ben Afflec is not just a terrific actor who will be great in any role, he is a fine human being.

He is one of the few Hollywood good guys who is a real person.

They could not have made a better choice.

While I am at it, George Clooney is another one of those genuine good guys.

WENN

Justin Bieber has hinted he has landed a role in the upcoming “Man Of Steel” sequel by publishing a picture of the film’s script stamped with his name.

British actor Henry Cavill will reprise his role as Superman in the follow-up and he will be joined by Ben Affleck as Batman, and Bieber has now suggested he will join the line-up as the Caped Crusader’s sidekick Robin.

Bieber’s picture, which he uploaded to his Instagram page, shows a script bearing the title “Batman vs. Superman” written by director Zack Snyder and David S. Goyer, the screenwriter behind 2013 Blockbuster “Man of Steel,” as well as Christopher Nolan’s “Batman” trilogy.

The script is stamped “Bieber” in large, bold letters, and singer has teased fans by captioning the picture, “Robin??” The post has sparked a frenzy on social networking websites, with many critics and comic book fans suggesting it must be a prank.

WENN

Russell Brand has aimed a scathing rant at the organisers of the recent GQ awards after he was booted out for cracking jokes about Nazis, branding the awards a “fabricated fun” dominated by big business.

The actor/comedian was removed from the GQ Men of the Year Awards in London earlier this monthafter he used his acceptance speech to criticize the evening’s sponsors Hugo Boss, the German fashion firm which produced uniforms worn by Adolf Hitler’s troops during World War II.

Brand told the audience, “Hugo Boss made the uniforms for the Nazis. The Nazis did have flaws, but they did look [expletive] fantastic, let’s face it, while they were killing people on the basis of their religion and sexuality!”

Brand has now opened up about his experience at the awards show in a column for Britain’s The Guardian newspaper, insisting he didn’t really want to be there and only attended the “because I have a tour on and I was advised it would be good publicity.”

 He adds of the bash, “These parties aren’t like real parties. It’s fabricated fun, imposed from the outside. A vision of what squares (executives) imagine cool people might do set on a spaceship… The glamour and the glitz isn’t real, the party isn’t real.”

Brand goes on to describe the audience’s reaction to his controversial speech, writing, “I could see the room dividing as I spoke. I could hear the laughter of some and louder still the silence of others… Subsequent to my jokes, the evening took a peculiar turn. Like the illusion of sophistication had been inadvertently disrupted by the exposure. It had the vibe of a wedding dinner where the best man’s speech had revealed the groom’s infidelity. With Hitler.”

The comic insists he wasn’t aiming to hurt Hugo Boss, but didn’t want to pander to corporate sponsors, adding, “The jokes about Hugo Boss were not intended to herald a campaign to destroy them… They are, I thought, an irrelevant menswear supplier with a double-dodgy history… We know that however cool a media outlet may purport to be, their primary loyalty is to their corporate backers. We know also that you cannot criticise the corporate backers openly without censorship and subsequent manipulation of this information.”