Not long after Tracy Letts’ play August: Osage County won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Weinstein Co., snatched up to the rights to adapt the three-and-a-half-hour epic about the darkly funny trials of a sprawling Oklahoma family into a feature film. Their first order of business was to contract the playwright to transform his Broadway production into something more filmic and moviegoer friendly (read: shorter, with less dialogue). 24 Frames has revealed that Letts has turned in his script, and while many playwrights turned screenwriters often need a collaborator to polish their draft into something shoot-worthy, an insider at the Weinstein Co. insist Letts draft is nearly ready to go into production. The question now is when.

That decision is almost entirely dependent on the two major stars August: Osage County has attached. The always in-demand Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts are set to play mother and daughter in the dramedy, or more specifically: Streep will portray prescription drug-addicted matriarch Violet Weston, while Roberts will take on the role of Barbara Fordham, a wife and mother driven to the brink by her teen daughter’s rebellious antics and her husband’s infidelities. Streep will be busy through Oscar season, doing press for her moody biopic The Iron Lady, while Roberts is about to shoot her part in a different movie adaptation of a heralded play, A Normal Heart. Simply put, this means that August: Osage County is presently looking to shoot this fall. And as one should expect from the Weinsteins, the film will be released the following fall, just in time for award-season buzz.

Julia Roberts, Alec Baldwin and Jim Parsons have all signed on to appear in Ryan Murphy’s upcoming film adaptation of Larry Kramer’s “The Normal Heart.” Mark Ruffalo will play Ned Weeks, the character Kramer based on himself. Ruffalo has been associated with the production for a while now.

“The Normal Heart” is Kramer’s autobiographical account of New York City during the early days of the AIDS crisis. It tells the story of his efforts with the Gay Men’s Health Crisis advocacy group to raise awareness of the disease. Weeks is eventually forced out of the group, and the play also explores his relationship with Felix Turner, and Felix’s battle with AIDS. Felix will be played in the film adaptation by “White Collar” star Matt Bomer.

“The Normal Heart” originally premiered off-Broadway in 1985 at the Public Theater, and also was later staged in Los Angeles and London. A Broadway revival premiered in 2011, and went on to win a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play. Ellen Barkin also won a Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her role as Dr. Emma Brookner, a physician bound to a wheelchair who also becomes an activist for the disease. Roberts will play Brookner in the film adaptation. John Benjamin Hickey, playing Felix, won the Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Play.

Baldwin will play Weeks brother, who is a lawyer that has a hard time excepting his brother’s sexuality. Parsons will play a Southern activist that is also part of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis group. Parsons played the same role in the Broadway play.

Murphy is known as the creator of both “Glee” and “American Horror Story,” and his last film was “Eat, Pray, Love,” which also starred Roberts. Brad Pitt’s production company, Plan B Entertainment, will produce the film.

Mirror Mirror Trailer 2

Julia Roberts talks about her Evil Queen role:

JULIA Roberts insists it wasn’t all fun and frolics playing the evil queen of Snow White — especially when she needed the toilet.

The smiley America’s sweetheart says that thanks to the huge amount of material and wire in her dress for fairytale movie Mirror Mirror she could not have any comfort breaks during filming.

“It was tricky to go to the ladies’ room, I can tell you, but it was a case of suffer in silence and suffer for your art!” he said.

“Tarsem is the one person who could get me to happily suffer for my art.”

Julia, 44, says that while her giant frock was elaborate and colourful it was also very uncomfortable.

“It was massive! It was like architecture — I was basically wearing buildings,” she said.

“It was hard to get around but they were appropriate and amazing even if they were uncomfortable to be in for long periods of time.”

Mirror Mirror TV Spot 1

Check out these two posters forMirror, Mirror featuring Lily Collins and Julia Roberts! The 44-year-old actress takes on the role of the Evil Queen, something she initially was hesitant to do.

“I was like, this is a terrible idea. I was against it a thousand percent,” Julia told Extra. “[But] I’m such a fan of [director] Tarsem[Singh] and fell so under his spell! It was pretty fun,” she explained.

Julia also shared she felt “awful” with how her character treated co-star Lily, who plays Snow White.

“I was terrible. I think I might’ve slapped her once for no reason! Just because she’s pretty!” Julia joked.

Mirror, Mirror also stars Armie Hammer and Nathan Lane and hits theaters March 16!

-source EW

Academy Award® winners Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts come together for a romantic and optimistic comedy about how it’s never too late to reinvent yourself. When he suddenly finds himself without his long-standing blue-collar job, Larry Crowne (Hanks) enrolls at his local college to start over. There, he becomes part of an eclectic community of students and develops a crush on his teacher (Roberts). Now this simple guy will discover that when you think everything worth having has passed you by, you just might find your reason to live. Starring: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Bryan Cranston, Cedric the Entertainer, Taraji P. Henson, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wilmer Valderrama, Pam Grier, Rita Wilson, Rob Riggle, George Takei Directed by: Tom Hanks

“To say Viola Davis is brilliant is to say running a marathon is difficult. It is simply something we all know. Now, I have never run a full marathon, but I have worked alongside Viola and I can tell you it is incredible. She is masterful. She is fierce. She is a little bit scary — in the most complimentary way! Her attention to detail and reason is impeccable. To sit face to face with that stunning face is heavenly. Playing closest friends was a dream and a joy. ‘The Help’ is a book I quite enjoyed and I was only sure of Viola’s brilliance as Aibileen. I knew she would be masterful and detailed. I didn’t realize the depth of the river she would call the audience upon — to float and submerge, to nearly drown in the pain of her brown seen-it-all-too-closely eyes. Viola actually vanished. Only Aibileen remained. Only her quest existed for those moments. The devotion to her charge. The steadfast faith in her god, her prayers. When she speaks of her son’s death and the feelings that overtake her each year on the anniversary of his accident, I didn’t realize my hand was to my mouth until I put it down in relief that she has kept going, has found a way to carry on in the face of such a loss. Viola’s portrayal of Aibileen is so human, so fully realized that you feel like you could reach out and hold her hand. Beautiful. The definition of the word ‘viola’ is a stringed instrument that resembles a violin but is larger and deeper in tone. As an actor, she — Viola Davis — stands alongside us all with resemblance, but so much larger and deeper in tone. Indeed.”

A statement from Julia Roberts, global ambassador for the Alliance for Clean Cookstoves:
World Pneumonia Day is Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011

This World Pneumonia Day I’m speaking out as a mother about the leading killer of children under the age of 5.

Pneumonia kills about 1.4 million young children annually, 99% of whom die in developing countries. That’s one child dying every 20 seconds.

I was inspired to join the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves because its core mission is saving lives – especially children’s lives. Of the 2 million people killed each year from diseases caused by toxic smoke from dirty stoves and open cooking fires, about half are young children who die from acute lower respiratory infections, most commonly pneumonia.

Cooking shouldn’t kill, but the sad reality is that it does, and a disproportionate amount of the victims are children at the household hearth with their mother as she cooks.

I believe this is a particularly cruel injustice. But it is one that can be stopped.

The deployment of clean cookstoves and fuels can significantly reduce worldwide childhood death from pneumonia. Combined with our partners’ global efforts to encourage vaccinations and increase basic health and wellness education, the Alliance is playing an important role in reducing pneumonia and other preventable deaths among the world’s most vulnerable people.

The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves is an innovative public-private partnership led by the United Nations Foundation to save lives, improve livelihoods, empower women and combat climate change by creating a thriving global market for clean and efficient household cooking solutions. The Alliance’s 100 by ’20 goal calls for 100 million households to adopt clean and efficient cookstoves and fuels by 2020. The Alliance is working with its public, private and non-profit partners to help overcome the market barriers that currently impede the production, deployment and use of clean cookstoves in developing countries. Visit www.cleancookstoves.org for more information.

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