The Scene

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/11/2015 (3827 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Fantastic flop

Twentieth Century Fox is so unhappy about the flop of its Fantastic Four superhero movie the sequel no longer appears on the studio’s release schedule, says the reliable Boxofficemojo.com.

The picture was booked to open June 9, 2017, but so far there’s not even a script, following last August’s box-office disaster and brutal reviews for the original. That one — starring Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Bell — grossed only US$56 million domestically, on a $120-million budget.

Director Josh Trank played the don’t-blame-me card, saying the studio’s awful edit ruined his “fantastic version” that would’ve “recieved great reviews” (yes, he spelled “received” wrong).

No release date usually means no movie, but cinemablend.com claims Fox hasn’t yet given up completely.

Hadad bounces back with Malik

 

Spotlight couple: Zayn Malik, formerly of One Direction, is dating celebrity model Gigi Hadad, says Us Weekly.

The mag’s Nameless Insider says “I wouldn’t call them boyfriend and girlfriend… but seeing each other? Definitely.”

Hadad just unloaded Joe Jonas, a Jonas brother.

 

Morgan’s brush with God

 

Something strange happened during Tracy Morgan’s big car crash in June of 2014, he tells Complex magazine: “I went to the other side.”

“This is not something I’m making up. Do you know what God said to me? He said, ‘Your room ain’t ready. I still got something for you to do.’ And here I am, doing an interview with you.

“You’re never going to be normal after you go through something like that,” Morgan said. “Something’s going to be missing, something’s going to be gained — you just got to live your life after that.”

 

JLaw practising her ‘Action!’

 

What Jennifer Lawrence really wants, it turns out, is the same thing almost everyone wants: a chance to direct. And now, unlike most of us, she’s getting her wish.

She tells Entertainment Weekly she has signed to direct a picture called Project Delirium, “based on this article about mental warfare in the ’60s, like an acid experiment gone terribly wrong. It’s funny.”

EW identifies a 2012 New Yorker article by Raffi Khatchadourian. The movie may be a comedy but the magazine story is no knee-slapper: it’s about Pentagon chemical experiments conducted on U.S. soldiers decades ago.

But why shouldn’t JLaw, who is 25, go behind the camera? “I’ve wanted to direct since I was 16, and always thought I should start making steps towards that. If I had tried to do it earlier, I wouldn’t have been ready. Now I actually feel ready.”

 

Flying, without

the hoi polloi

 

Los Angeles International Airport has approved a private company’s proposal for a new VIP terminal. Now celebrities catching scheduled flights won’t have to be pestered by, or even see, paparazzi, reporters, gawkers and other Dull Normals.

To use this “Los Angeles Suite” terminal, the L.A. Times reports, you’ll pay an extra US$1,500 to $1,800 per trip. For that you get an indoor drop-off spot, 60-step access to a swanky private lounge, exclusive security and customs attention and a chauffeured limo ride out to the plane.

Gavin De Becker and Associates, the company behind this, will pay LAX US$34 million over 10 years, and hopes to expand to several other U.S. airports soon.

There’s already something like this at London’s Heathrow Airport, the $4,100-a-time Windsor Suite once used only for the Royal Family, and a few other international airports.

 

Between a Rock

and a… Rock

 

The divorce of comedian Chris Rock and Malaak Compton-Rock is getting strange, over the issue of the seven-year-old sometimes called their third daughter.

Adopted from South Africa as an infant, Ntombi lived with the Rocks — who also have two daughters born to them — but since Chris and Malaak split a year ago, he hasn’t seen the little girl, TMZ.com reports.

Around the time of the break-up, South African officials suddenly got interested in the case. Apparently there are no official adoption papers, TMZ says. Ntombi’s biological parents are said to be a jobless South African couple.

Further, Rock never signed any papers about Ntombi, his P.R. person told TMZ, and doesn’t have any adopted kids. So apparently this is all Malaak’s problem.