UPDATE 7/8: From Variety.com this morning, the MacGruber will flick will begin filming in August. Other new details: Ryan Phillippe and Val Kilmer are in talks to join the cast; MacGruber star Will Forte will be returning to Saturday Night Live in the fall; and Jorma Taccone, an SNL writer who also starred as Chaka in this summer’s Land of the Lost movie, will direct MacGruber.

Meanwhile, THR.com has plot details for the movie, which will revolve around MacGruber, now living as a monk, being called out of retirement to help fight Cunth (Kilmer), the big baddie who’s not only threatening the United States with a nuclear warhead, but who also killed MacGruber’s bride. Phillippe would play Piper, an Army officer who (reluctantly) pairs up with MacGruber.

From 6/2: Happy happy joy joy! Straight from the MacGruber’s mouth comes word of a big-screen movie version of our favorite MacGyver-spoofin’ bomb diffuser.

MacGruber himself, a.k.a. Saturday Night Live star Will Forte, confirmed on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Monday night that he has just finished co-writing a script that will find he and SNL co-star Kristen Wiig taking MacGruber and his pal Vicki into a full-length movie. Forte didn’t give many details, but he said fans may be surprised by some aspects of the movie.

Bring it on, I say, especially if it includes an appearance by the real MacGyver, Richard Dean Anderson (a fellow Ohio University alum – go Bobcats!), who, it was revealed, is MacGruber’s dad. Like father’s mullet, like son’s mullet.

Oh, and after you check out the clip of Forte on Late Night, take a visit to Hulu, where you’ll find the complete collection of MacGruber skit videos (including MacGruber’s foray into product placement with “Pepsuber”), all in one handy spot.

And PS: Yes, there is a big-screen MacGyver movie in development, too. Any thoughts about who should play the new-school Angus MacGyver? I nominate Chuck star Zachary Levi. Though he’d be a perfect Fletch, he’d be equally as good as MacGyver, doncha think?

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• Filed in Boob Tube to Big Screen, Chuck, Comedy
• Tags: Boob Tube to Big Screen, Chuck, Fletch, Kristen Wiig, MacGruber, MacGruber movie, MacGyver, MacGyver movie, Movie adaptation, parody, Richard Dean Anderson, Saturday Night Live, skit, SNL, TV show to movie, Will Forte, Zachary Levi

HawthoRNe
Stars: 2.5 out of 5

Stars: Jada Pinkett Smith, Michael Vartan and Vanessa Lengies

The Big Idea: Pinkett Smith is Christina Hawthorne (or HawthoRNe, as the annoying capitalization in the show title insists, making me seriously wonder if they named the character that just to be able to use ALL CAPS on the R and the N … but I digress), the compassionate Chief Nursing Officer at Richmond Trinity Hospital who’s raising her teenage daughter by herself since the death of her husband a year earlier. Hawthorne’s more interested in helping people and getting things done than being a stickler for rules, which, of course, leads to many a head-butting with administrators, including her friend and chief of surgery, Tom Wakefield (Michael Vartan).

To Watch or Not to Watch: I would have guessed that I wouldn’t like the show just because I’m not a fan of Pinkett Smith. But she’s always been good at playing tough characters, and does that again here, though she mixes it with a healthy dose of vulnerability and compassion that makes her and her character likable.

There’s also the usual hospital chaos to keep the drama ratcheted up to a respectable level (a friend of Hawthorne and her late husband’s – played by 24’s D.B. “Wayne Palmer” Woodside – tries to commit suicide by making a wicked swan dive off the hospital roof in the premiere’s opening moments), some quirky characters (including an awkward male nurse who’s trying to fit in as the new guy on staff) and the resident hunk (George Clooney’s stint on ER taught everyone in TV land that you can’t even think about making a medical drama without one) in Alias vet Vartan, who does have a spark with Pinkett Smith.

The problem: The cast and the set-up are likable enough, but the whole show feels very by-the-book. There’s some mystery surrounding the death of Hawthorne’s husband – we find out in the premiere he died of cancer, but the specific circumstances of his death will be a question the show will milk throughout future episodes – but otherwise, medical drama fans have been here, seen this before.

TV Screener Tidbit: One reason to at least keep Hawthorne on your DVR radar: a string of upcoming guest stars that includes Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Cloris Leachman and Chuck star Sarah Lancaster.

UPDATE: Directly from a Tweet by actor James Morrison, who 24 fans know as the heroic Bill Buchanan, he’ll be a recurring guest star on Hawthorne. Beginning with the June 30 episode, Morrison plays hospital CEO John Morrissey.

HawthoRNe premieres Tuesday, June 16, at 9PM ET on TNT

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• Filed in Review - TV
• Tags: Alias, Chuck, Cloris Leachman, D.B. Woodside, ER, George Clooney, Hawthorne, Jada Pinkett Smith, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, medical drama, Michael Vartan, Sarah Lancaster, Vanessa Lengies

All the tube news that’s fit to surf …

- Among the TV shows that will host panels at the San Diego Comic-Con in July: Chuck, Dexter, Dollhouse, Lost, MythBusters, Psych, True Blood, Supernatural and Smallville.

- There may be no such thing as a free lunch, but there are free TV comedy episodes to watch while you’re noshing. Thanks to Sitcoms Online.com for the heads up about iTunes’ summer sale, which includes free episodes of Arrested Development, Reno 911! and The State, 99-cent eps of The Office, 30 Rock and The Larry Sanders Show, and, best of all, the entire five-episode first season of The State for $3.96.

- Fox has announced its fall 2009 premiere dates, kicking off its season on Sept. 16 with Glee and (another) new season of So You Think You Can Dance.

- Speaking of SYTYCD, why would Katie Holmes be performing on the show? Right? Yet, the rumor persists that she’ll be shaking her moneymaker on a July episode.

- American Idol season five vet, and one of the show’s most successful artists, Chris Daughtry, talks about his second album, which will be released on July 14.

- America’s Got Talent kicks off next week on NBC (June 23, (9PM ET), but will the show find its own Susan Boyle? Even though the Internet sensation was the runner-up on the latest season of Britain’s Got Talent, she’s reportedly earning more than $160,000 for a 12-minute performance at corporate events. In comparison, former President Bill Clinton gets between $140,000-150,000.

- NPH – Neil Patrick Harris, of course – is going to be a villain called The Music Meister in a fall episode of Cartoon Network’s Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Wouldn’t he be great in the next big-screen Batman, too …

- Gossip Girl is the big TV nominee at this year’s Teen Choice Awards.

- Heidi Pratt says Al Roker made her cry. So does dry shampoo … in other words, what doesn’t? Did being chastised by Whoopi Goldberg also make her shed tears?

- Dave Letterman apologizes, again, for the Palin jokes on tonight’s Late Show.

- Heroes star Sendhil Ramamurthy will guest star in the upcoming “Bollywood Homicide” episode of Psych, which premieres (not soon enough) its fourth season on Aug. 7.

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• Filed in TV News
• Tags: 30 Rock, Al Roker, America's Got Talent, American Idol, Arrested Development, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Chris Daughtry, Chuck, David Letterman, Dexter, Dollhouse, Fox fall premiere dates, Fox premiere dates, Glee, Gossip Girl, Heidi Pratt, Katie Holmes, Lost, MythBusters, Neil Patrick Harris, NPH, Psych, Reno 911!, San Diego Comic Con, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Smallville, So You Think You Can Dance, Supernatural, Susan Boyle, Teen Choice Awards, The Larry Sanders Show, The Office, The State, True Blood, Whoopi Goldberg

All the tube news that’s fit to surf …

- What if Hurley, John Locke and Ben from Lost, Dwight Schrute and Craig Ferguson were Simpsons characters? It would be awesome, that’s what.

- VH1 is planning a Hills-ish reality series revolving around the rich and not-so-rich folk who frequent Aspen.

- Bravo reps are suggesting next week’s episode of The Real Housewives of New Jersey will shed further light on the alleged criminal past of scene-stealer Danielle Staub.

- The next issue of Rolling Stone will reportedly feature a cover in which American Idol runner-up (sigh) Adam Lambert announces he’s gay. Inside, there will be stories where Miley Cyrus admits she can’t really sing so well and John Mayer confesses he’s in love … with himself.

- Kris Allen, future governor of Arkansas? Crazier things have happened.

- A Shot at Love star Tila Tequila is reportedly preggers. What are the chances this isn’t going to unfold on reality TV?

- Could Chuck return earlier than March 2010?

- And the next cast of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew will include a former Real World-er, Dennis Rodman, Heidi Fleiss and One Day at a Time star Mackenzie Phillips.

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• Filed in American Idol, Celebreality, Chuck, Comedy, Drama, TV News
• Tags: A Shot at Love, Adam Lambert, Aspen, Ben, Celeb Rehab, Celebrity Rehab, Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, Chuck, Craig Ferguson, Danielle Staub, Dennis Rodman, Dwight Schrute, Heidi Fleiss, Hurley, John Locke, John Mayer, Kris Allen, Lost, Mackenzie Phillips, Miley Cyrus, Real Housewives of New Jersey, Rolling Stone, Simpsons, The Hills, Tila Tequila, VH1

Don’t call it a remake. Don’t call it a sequel or a prequel (especially since Buffy papa Joss Whedon isn’t involved). Instead, like J.J. Abrams‘ Star Trek, the upcoming Buffy the Vampire Slayer big-screen movie will be a reboot of the franchise, one that could lead to a series of movies and maybe even a new TV series.

But, who’ll fill Sarah Michelle Gellar (and to a lesser extent, original Buffy movie star Kristy Swanson’s) shoes? The Hollywood Reporter throws out Megan Fox, Kristen Stewart, Jessica Stroup, Amanda Seyfried and Teresa Palmer as candidates, but if I were the Buffy producers, I’d take a look at seasons one and two of Chuck on DVD …

Yvonne Strahovski, as tough spy chick Sarah Walker, is the best TV action heroine since Jennifer Garner left the tube in Alias. In fact, Chuck premiered on NBC during the same season as the network’s ill-cast Bionic Woman remake, and I think if Strahovski had been the titular star of that show, it would have been a runaway hit.

As Chuck devotees, particularly the male ones, will tell you, Strahovski is one of those rare actresses who can serve up a side of vulnerability with her kick-assedness, which is an endearing quality and a key to playing the often emotionally tortured Buffy.

So Buffy fans, let’s hear it: Who should be cast as Buffy 3.0? Megan Fox? Big Love star Seyfried? Twilight’s Stewart? Or do you agree that Chuck star Yvonne Strahovski should stake (pun totally intended) a claim to the role?

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• Filed in Boob Tube to Big Screen, Chuck, Drama, TV News
• Tags: Amanda Seyfried, Buffy, Buffy Summers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Chuck, J.J. Abrams, Jessica Stroup, Joss Whedon, Kristen Stewart, Kristy Swanson, Megan Fox, Prequel, Remake, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Sequel, Star Trek, Teresa Palmer, Yvonne Strahovski