Jessica Biel Rumored for 'Thor' Love Interest

OK, so the latest Thor casting rumor has Natalie Portman out and Jessica Biel in. This is worth noting for a few reasons, not the least of which is that Portman, an actress of considerable heft, would leave a cast with very little audience recognition.

Certainly, on the other hand, Biel is a bigger "name" as those things go, but I don't think I need to tell you that she's not in Portman's league on screen. However, she's probably a better fit for a movie like Thor than Portman could ever be, especially if there's any action involved. Nuke The Fridge says that Biel is in talks to play Thor's love interest, but points out specifically that she won't be Jane Foster, the arm candy of Thor's alter ego, Donald Blake. Biel is certainly fine as an actress, but I've seen her try more serious work and it's not convincing. The only reason that could be a problem is because Marvel hired a Shakespeare specialist in Kenneth Branagh to direct, and he is apparently taking the film down some pretty dramatic roads.

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Fearless Forecast - Repeat of 'The Fallen'

The final five-day numbers for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen were just a tad lower than the estimates, which is to say, this thing was an absolute monster in its debut. Can it hold? That's been a popular question posed by some of the regular readers here at The Big Picture, and I think for this weekend, it certainly can.

I will never understand the way the studios work the summer: May has too many potential blockbusters (six in five weeks this year), June has too few (two, Transformers and The Hangover, but only one was expected to be in that category), and then summer's over on the 15th of July or thereabouts. Why is June so dead? You'll hear it's because people go on vacations or something but don't people go on vacations on the Fourth of July? And Memorial Day? And if they do, and movies are still big business in spite of it, why don't they also release blockbusters on Labor Day? The answers to those questions remain a mystery. The point is, as it relates to Transformers, that it doesn't have the strongest competition this week or next week, so it will do very well over the course of 21 days. Had it kicked off the summer, it might not do the kind of business it will now. Then again, Universal has a Johnny Depp-Christian Bale gangster movie out this weekend, and that beats a stick in the eye, and Fox has Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, so why am I discounting those?

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Steve Carrell Here for Billy Mays!

It's too early to know for sure if this is even going to be a movie, but a Billy Mays bio-pic wouldn't have seemed illogical a week ago, so why should it now? In bad taste, perhaps, but no less viable.

The Daily Stab reports that Steve Carell is the rumored front runner in a movie about the late pitchman, and that's either great casting or great scuttlebutt. The search should end right there. In addition to being a very good comic actor (emphasis on the "actor," or have you not seen the wonderful Amy Poehler struggle mightily to execute the Michael Scott routine on Parks and Recreation?), Carell conveys a full range of emotions pretty well. That's what makes Michael Scott such a great TV character. Now, how all that translates to Billy Mays is hard to say at this point. But a combination of Brick Tamland's volume and Michael Scott's undying earnestness is about the right formula for the TV persona Mays projected.

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Bill Nighy (Finally) Cast in 'Harry Potter'

I had wondered why Bill Nighy never appeared in the Harry Potter series. He's clearly not above doing mediocre movies like the Underworld trilogy, and he's been in blockbusters, like the so-so Pirates sequels. So what's been the hold-up? Isn't Potter both a great franchise and the most profitable series ever?

Wonder no more: Nighy has apparently joined the cast of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgeour. According to The Leaky Cauldron, Nighy has confirmed the news. "I don't think I'm allowed to say it but I'm going to be in the next Harry Potter film." He added, "I won't say which character, but he's a goodie. I just got the gig."

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New 'Couples Retreat' Trailer with Vince Vaughn

With the fairly surprising box office bonanza that was Four Christmases, producers rushed into action to recapture that ol' Vince Vaughn comedy magic. For a while, Vaughn's stuff has been pretty sub-par, but the hope is if you surround him with a lot of talent maybe the old Vince - the Wedding Crashers and not Fred Claus Vince - would come back to us.

Couples Retreat certainly should give Vaughn fans hope. In addition to reuniting with Jon Favreau, the new comedy co-stars Jason Bateman, Kristin Davis, Kristen Bell, Malin Akerman, and Faizon Love. The story has promise, too, and even if it doesn't sound like much, remember the basic premise to The Hangover doesn't exactly leap off the page. In the film, four couples head to the islands for a big vacation, but one of the four tandems is there to work on their relationship, and what the other three couples don't release until it's too late as that the entire resort is for couples' therapy. At the very least, I'd like to see what Jason Bateman will do here. Oh, and I guess I should point out that this is directed by Peter Billingsley, of A Christmas Story fame.

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