Sweep of the Day: Scarlett Johansson in Heist Film, Joust Optioned From Chicago’s Midway Games

MTV on Tuesday scooped that Scarlett Johansson, who admittedly is one of my favorite women in Hollywood, will be starring in a new diamond heist film called “Brilliance” from Samuel Bayer.

Bayer, who directed Justin Timberlake’s “What Goes Around… Comes Around” music video, says filming will begin this winter. I have embedded the video with the trio below.


My original, old-school Ms. Pac-Man arcade machine is one of my proudest and most frivolous material possessions.

Though Ms. Pac-Man from Midway Games in Chicago isn’t getting its day in Hollywood any time soon, it’s sweet nonetheless that Joust from the same game maker is en route.

CP Productions, which is the new production banner from Michael Cerenzie and Christine Peters, has optioned the arcade game Joust, which debuted in 1982. To play, “players control a knight on a flying ostrich who combats flying buzzards”.

Why only make loot on TV ads when you can hawk yourself on Amazon.com, too?

Bloomberg said on Tuesday that NBC Universal began selling TV shows for download at Amazon.com just days after ending a similar deal with Apple. NBC shows available on “Amazon Unbox” include “The Office,” “Heroes” and “30 Rock”.

Midway Games Releases Video Detailing Making of John Woo’s Stranglehold

Chicago-based Midway Games on Thursday released a new video detailing the making of the third-person action-adventure game Stranglehold.


The widescreen version of the video can be found here. The 720p HD version can be found here.

The video reveals many behind-the-scenes moments during the game’s production along with candid interviews with the product development team, insight into John Woo’s directorial involvement and a sneak peak into the sound booth with Chow Yun Fat during his voice-over session.

Stranglehold is scheduled to be released in Aug. 2007 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and the PC.