Michael Shannon

• Better Off Ted will be back with new episodes starting June 23. — The Futon Critic
• Natalie Portman will star with Danny McBride and James Franco in the comedy Your Highness. — Variety
• Live Nation will eliminate all service fees on its concert tickets for one day only on June 3. — Billboard
• Michael Shannon is in negotiations to play one of the lead male roles in The Runaways, the feature take on Joan Jett's 1970s rock band. — The Hollywood Reporter
• This year's Emmy Awards are moving up a week to Sept. 13. — TV Week
• Halle Berry is in talks to star in director Paul Verhoeven's new thriller The Surrogate. — ComingSoon
• "Octomom" Nadya Suleman has signed a reality TV deal, but the show hasn't yet been picked up by a network. — Variety
• The creators behind comic strip cat Heathcliff might be bringing the feline to the big screen. — Entertainment Weekly

Photo copyright 2009 ABC, Inc.

• Guiding Light, broadcast's longest-running scripted show, will end in September after 72 years. — New York Times
• Steve Carell is eyeing the lead role in divorce comedy Dumped, based on a novel by Andrew Gottlieb. — ComingSoon
• Wanda Sykes is getting a new Saturday night series on Fox. — TV Week
• Will Arnett and Oscar nominee Michael Shannon will join the cast of the Jonah Hex movie. — Reuters
• The Wackness director Jonathan Levine has signed on to direct the Adventures in Babysitting-type comedy The Sitter. — The Hollywood Reporter
• Mark your calendars: Pushing Daisies season two, including the unaired episodes, will be on DVD July 21. — Entertainment Weekly
• Lucy Lawless has signed on to star in the fantasy-and-fighting series Spartacus: Blood and Sand from Xena: Warrior Princess masterminds Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi. — Variety
• Lost, Entourage, Breaking Bad, and YouTube are among this year's Peabody Awards winners. — The Hollywood Reporter
• Disney has set Julie Anne Robinson to direct Miley Cyrus in The Last Song, an adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel that Sparks wrote specifically for Cyrus. — ComingSoon

Photo courtesy of CBS

While I won't be heading down to the 2009 Sundance Film Festival this year, I will be sorting through the humongous pile of festival entries to share with you some of the films I think look most promising. From quirky documentaries to talented young filmmaker debuts to a potential runaway hit, Sundance is filled with entertainment possibilities. Here are today's selections:

The Missing Person
Michael Shannon is getting all kinds of attention for the creepy role he plays in Revolutionary Road, which is one of the reasons this movie is already earning some early buzz out of the festival. Also starring Amy Ryan, The Missing Person looks like a slow-boiling noir that follows "a private detective prone to sardonic wit, gin, and the endless repercussions of what happens when you mix the two." Intrigued?

You can check out the trailer for this one and see some more of my picks (which include Ashton Kutcher and cutie Michael Cera) if you read more

Having seen the play on which Bug is based and knowing what Exorcist director William Friedkin can do, I'm curious to find out how Bug will adapt to the big screen. The story follows an ex-military man (Michael Shannon) and a lonely woman (Ashley Judd) as they become gradually convinced that their bodies are infested with bugs.

From what I remember of the play, the action takes place almost entirely in one room, and I've heard the same is true for the movie. This confinement works well on stage where, over the course of the play, the audience is dragged along with the characters on their descent into paranoia and madness. On screen, though, I wonder if the effect won't be too maddening. To watch the creepy trailer, read more