Terry Schiavo and other, better news

If that name means nothing to you, count yourself lucky, I guess. Though I tried my best to ignore the whole unfortunate situation involving Mrs. Schiavo, it was virtually impossible.

Now comes news that can only make things worse. Apparently her husband, whose name I never need to know, wrote a book called "Terri: The Truth," which has been optioned for a movie by former Tarantino producer Lawrence Bender and Mike Farrell.

I can't see anything but a TV movie for this one, and I haven't watched one of those in many, many years. However, there are two - albeit remote - ways this just might not suck.

Flash back with me, if you will, to Pedro Almodovar's "Talk to Her," a touching, at times funny movie about, well, women in comas. It can be done, but probably not twice.

Even better would be a look at the hypocrisy of the Washington politicians who rallied to keep her alive or advocated pulling the plug - though they had no actual connection to the situation. If I'm not mistaken, even Jesse Jackson was involved somehow by the end. Now that would be fascinating, but it probably won't happen.

In the end, we don't know yet what we'll get, but I just can't see it being anything good.

"Arrested" alumni update


This pretty good nugget of news comes courtesy of the Hollywood Reporter.

Following in the footsteps of Jeffrey Tambor, Will Arnett has made plans for his immediate post-"Arrested Development" career. DreamWorks and Paramount have picked up "The Ambassador," a movie pitch by Arnett and Michael Schur.

The story centers on a former U.S. vice president's privileged son (Arnett), who is assigned an ambassadorship in Europe, where he quickly becomes the quintessential ugly American. This sounds to me a lot like Gob Bluth takes on the world, which would by default have to be funny. Schur is a writer for the American "Office," a surprisingly funny and skewed offering, so these two should make a good match.

Chandrasekhar update

With "Beerfest" wrapped, Broken Lizard's Jay Chandrasekhar also has a new project, but maybe one without his comedy troupe mates.

According to the always reliable Ain't It Cool News, he is going to direct a flick called "Ambulance Chasers" for Warner Bros under the Broken Lizard production company. It's about two rather unreputable lawyers who fight over clients.

Good premise, good director, so why any worry? Well, first of all, this isn't a Broken Lizard movie. Jon Zack, whose few writing credits include a movie called "Perfect Score" about cheating on the SATs, has been hired to write the script instead. Somehow, even with the promise of Scarlett Johansson, I managed to miss that one.

The last time Chandrasekhar ventured out on his own we got, well, "The Dukes of Hazzard." He has nowhere to go but up.