Trade Roundup: Fox Hoping To Simulate Quality Entertainment

· Sandra Bullock will star in The Proposal, a romcom about a “demanding female boss” who winds up in a sham marriage to her “young male assistant” in order to avoid deportation to Canada. Hopefully this won’t put any bright ideas into the heads of nebbish agents who hired their call-rollers based on their fuckability alone. [Variety]
· Fox has bought the rights to The SIMS videogame series, which they feel has great potential for “traditional story telling,” something the simulated gay cowboy love story Brokeback SIMS Mountain has already poignantly proven.
· Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End is on a course for a box office bounty as bloated and incomprensible as the movie itself. [Variety]
· Despite having taken out a full-page ad trumpeting Nicolas Cage would play young(er) Al Capone in The Untouchables‘ prequel, “scheduling conflicts” won’t allow the actor to participate. Producers can take great comfort in knowing that not only have they dodged a massive bullet, but that white-hot breakout Spartan Gerard Butler is on board, taking over for Sean Connery in the role of Jimmy “That’s the Chicago Way” Malone. [Variety]
· TV Networks scan the 2006-2007 ratings data, then promptly crap their pants. [THR]