One project we thought was dead, however, appears to have found new legs. Hasbro has moved its “Candy Land” project to Columbia Pictures, and with that announcement, they’ve revealed that “Grown Ups” star Adam Sandler is attached to star.

EW.com reports that “enchanted” director Kevin Lima is on board to helm the big-screen adaptation, while Sandler has expressed interest in collaborating on the screenplay with frequent writer Robert Smigel.

“The news comes a day after Hasbro announced it was moving its adaptation of Stretch Armstrong from Universal to Relativity Media,” the magazine writes. “That film does not have a star or filmmakers attached as of yet — Taylor Lautner, who had been attached to play the impossibly bendy action figure, has dropped out — but it is eyeing an April 11, 2014, release.”

So if “Candy Land” moves forward, would you like to see Sandler in the lead? And will it be anything like his “Bedtime Stories,” which went after the family dollar?

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Remarkably, the comedian has avoided bringing any of his memorable caricatures back to the big screen after decades of pumping out marketable comedies. Tell me you wouldn’t pay to see a “Happy Gilmore,” “Waterboy” or “Billy Madison” sequel, possibly catching up with these buffoons years after their original stories to see where they are in life? Just not “Little Nicky,” please. Once was enough.

Instead, however, Sandler reportedly plans to do a sequel to “Grown Ups,” the massively successful comedy that teamed the “SNL” star up with his close friends and fellow comedians Chris Rock, Kevin James, David Spade and Rob Schneider.

Variety says Sony has begun negotiations with “Grown Ups” scribe Fred Wolf to pen a sequel. The key, of course, would be getting all five guys back, but if Sandler says yes, you can bet the rest will hop on the bandwagon.

A sequel seemed inevitable. “Grown Ups” grossed a whopping $271 million in 2010. But all of Sandler’s films break the bank, and he hasn’t had to go to the sequel well before.

Maybe he just had a lot of fun working on that film? Maybe they have a solid idea for a second film? Either way, we’ll keep you posted on the progress.

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By Pete Hammond

HollywoodNews.com: The state of mainstream Hollywood cinema can be downright depressing sometimes. Witness the number one and number two movies of the week. In first place with a decent, if underwhelming $32 million is Relativity’s ripoff of 300 called Immortals. With ‘Superman’ in waiting Henry Cavill in the lead the film is a 3D sword and sandal beefcake epic that has no substance and no reason for being except for the fact that it wants to make money. It’s ‘B’ Cinemascore rating of audience satisfaction indicates the crowds that showed up were not too impressed and word of mouth must have been fairly lethal from Friday to Saturday as there was a large percentage drop between the two days. Of course 300 which starred Gerard Butler was a huge worldwide hit and did lots for bare ass warriors. It grossed somewhere in the vicinity of $70 in its first weekend just in the U.S. Plus it wasn’t in the higher-priced 3D like this film. The 3D conversion is fairly weak here and it is not necessary to sit thru this thing with glasses on to get the full effect. 2D ,in other words is just fine.

As for the number two film, Adam Sandler’s Jack and Jill in which the star takes on the hoary old cross dressing routine and plays his own sister, it is disheartening to see that it could even make as much as the estimated $26 million that it did. When are audiences gonna sour on these low common denominator comedies Sandler keeps churning out to great success. His earlier trifle this year, Just Go With It, actually managed to make over $100 million. The abysmal film he produced but didn’t star in, Bucky Larson Wants to be a Star came and went quickly in early September thank god. It is truly my candidate for Worst movie of 2011 and I don’t see a prayer of anything coming along to beat it, but I have to say Jack and Jill is a strong contender for the crown. You could see where this film was going just from the billboards with the ugly mug of Sandler in drag. It’s sad that Sandler keeps going for this schtick. He has proven on occasion he can be very good in the right hands and given smarter material. Wise up , Adam.

So was there ANY hope for adults this week? This is supposed to be November, safe haven for smart Oscar-type movies right? Well Clint Eastwood unveiled his latest, J.Edgar starring Leonardo DiCaprio as the late and controversial FBI director J.Edgar Hoover. DiCaprio is superb under several pounds of old age makeup in the film. If an actor can survive all that makeup and still deliver a three dimensional performance he’s a great actor, and Leo certainly proves to be one. When I talked to him last week he said the 8 hour process of applying the make up every day was absolutely grueling and he felt like he couldn’t possibly emote under all of it ,but somehow he did. Co-star Armie Hammer as his constant companion and maybe-lover Clyde Tolson is also terrific but they did him no favors with his make up job. He looks like he just walked out of a high school play in his old age scenes. It’s too bad because otherwise he is terrific as is Naomi Watts as Hoover’s loyal secretary. Audiences and critics were mixed on the movie but you can bet DiCaprio will be up for an Oscar.
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As his latest film, “50/50,” took a hit at the box office, Rogen was busy tying the knot with longtime girlfriend Lauren Miller, in Sonoma, Calif., on Saturday, according to PEOPLE magazine.

PEOPLE says Jonah Hill Adam Sandler and Paul Rudd were in attendance. Rogen, 29, and Miller, 30, have been together since 2004, and they got engaged last September.

The wedding hopefully took some of the sting away from the $8.8M earned by Rogen’s “50/50” over the weekend. And while the film was made on the cheap (relatively speaking), we still have to wonder if this underperformance – landing behind such holdover titles as “Moneyball,” “Dolphin Tale” and the 3D “Lion King” re-release – damages the minor Oscar hopes the film might have held for nominations in the screenplay, supporting actor and actor categories.

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But a role on a hit sitcom has lured Holmes back to the small screen.

The actress, most recently spotted in the late summer horror pic “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark,” is joining the cast of CBS’ hit show “How I Met Your Mother,” according to Vulture. She has been cast as Slutty Pumpkin, the girl who Ted (Josh Radnor) met at a Halloween party before losing touch. She is the proverbial “one that got away” in the show’s lore, and could go a long way toward tying up the sitcom’s big-time loose ends.

“Katie is a lovely and talented actress, which is why we’ve saved for her perhaps the most classily named character in our show’s history,” said “HIMYM” co-creator Craig Thomas, calling Holmes’ casting in the pivotal role “literally six seasons in the making.”

Holmes next appears in Adam Sandler’s “Jack and Jill,” out in November.

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The Victoria’s Secret model and Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover girl has agreed to join Ryan Reynolds in the new movie “R.I.P.D.,” a supernatural cop adventure about spirits who fight for justice as members of the Rest In Peace Department.

Robert Schwentke directs the project, which has cast Jeff Bridges as Reynolds’ ghostly partner and Miller as “his human avatar, the form humans see when Bridges’ character is in his earthly form,” THR reports. The model has appeared on episodes of “Entourage” and CBS’ “How I Met Your Mother,” but this would mark her feature-film debut.

Kevin Bacon and Mary-Louise Parker also are in the cast. The film begins shooting soon, with an eye on a June 28, 2013 release date.

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Leonardo DiCaprio knocked the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star one notch down on Forbes’ list of the highest-earning actors. Adam Sandler, Will Smith, and Tom Hanks round out the top 5.

The magazine estimates DiCaprio earned $77 million in the 12-month period ending in May, thanks to the staggering performance of Christopher Nolan’s “Inception,” as well as the impressive run by Martin Scorsese’s “Shutter Island.”

As Forbes points out, Di Caprio took an unconventional approach to his career, which – like Depp – helped catapult him to superstardom.

“Few of his films were blockbusters, but they established DiCaprio’s reputation as someone who could work with the best directors on the planet,” the article writes.

Sandler, Smith and Hanks, on the other hand, are bankable talents, so long as you don’t count Hanks’ “Larry Crowne.”

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HollywoodNews.com: On Tuesday, the LA Times* announced Charlie Sheen has landed the lead role of the new television series, “Anger Management” based on the movie starring Adam Sandler. “I chose ‘Anger Management’ because, while it might be a big stretch for me to play a guy with serious anger management issues, I think it is a great concept,” Sheen said.

That’s not all Charlie Sheen has been up to.

Last Wednesday, Dawn Williamson, founder of CHERUBS, challenged Mr. Sheen via Twitter to get his millions of fans to throw her charity 25,000 votes in a Facebook contest. Her efforts paid off and Mr. Sheen accepted the challenge. Tweeting and re-tweeting for the charity this week, Mr. Sheen has made it a personal quest to help CHERUBS; “I’m down with Dawn!! @ncdawn RT @cherubs Help critically ill babies with CDH. Take Charlie’s challenge to vote! www.voteforcdh.org”

Currently at 3rd place, CHERUBS is a regional finalist in the 2011 Vivint Gives Back Project. CHERUBS and 1000′s of families of children born with Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH) are counting on a miracle from the former “Two and a Half Men” star. “CDH families in 38 countries are cheering him on and so very grateful for his support and the awareness he is raising for our cause,” says Williamson.

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Sheen will star in a small-screen version of the Adam Sandler movie “Anger Management,” though he won’t play the Sandler role, as you might have assumed. Instead, Sheen will play the unconventional therapist played by Jack Nicholson, E! News reports.

“I chose Anger Management because, while it might be a big stretch for me to play a guy with serious anger-management issues, I think it is a great concept,” Sheen said via a statement. “It also provides me with real ownership in the series, a certain amount of creative control and the chance to be back in business with one of my favorite movie producers of all time, Joe Roth.”

Roth produced such Sheen vehicles as “Major League” and “Young Guns.”

“Who better than Charlie Sheen to tackle Anger Management,” Roth said in a statement. “With Charlie’s incredible talent and comedic gifts, he remains the leading man of TV sitcoms. I’m excited to collaborate with him once again.”

The duo hope to have a pilot ready by fall 2012.

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HollywoodNews.com: Two debuting comedies on different ends of the audience spectrum were upstaged by autobots and decepticons as the second week of Transformers: Dark Of The Moon held on to the number one slot at the boxoffice with a drop of only 52% for $47 million. That’s impressive because an opening of the size this third edition of the Transformers franchise had would be expected to take a bigger tumble in its second weekend.

In fact the 2nd film in the series, Revenge of the Fallen did just that with a 61% dive. So good reviews, good word of mouth and of course those higher 3D ticket prices are keeping this one at Bay, so to speak. Say what you will about director Michael Bay. He knows how to deliver a blockbuster. This film should easily top the first two and ultimately be the number one grossing movie of 2011. It’s already tallied $261 million domestically and is well on its way to over a billion worldwide. With next week’s 3D juggernaut, the Harry Potter finale, in the wings expect a much bigger drop but Transformers has already proved its might.

Comedy, despite what an L.A. Times article said earlier in the week, is also still king at the box office and not an endangered species, particularly the raunchy kind exhibited by Judd Apatow’s biggest grosser ever, Bridesmaids , The Hangover Part II and now this week by the very funny, extremely crude and deliciously wicked Horrible Bosses. This perfectly cast employee revenge flick makes the most of a terrific premise and took in an estimated $28 million to place second .

The very R-rated movie also scored a nice B+ Cinemascore rating and top reviews with a 75% fresh ranking at Rotten Tomatoes. And for a change it gives co-star Jennifer Aniston a chance to do something different as she plays (to the hilt) a sexually harassing dentist who wears revealing dental smocks which trying to seduce her assistant , hilariously played by Charlie Day. The entire cast which includes a seething Kevin Spacey and an almost non-recognizable Colin Farrell as well as Jasons, Bateman and Sudeikis really shine here. Perhaps it is a bit surprising that top critics have fallen for it the way they have but funny is FUNNY and Horrible Bosses delivers.

Surprisingly it took producer Brett Ratner several years to get it made but it was worth the wait for raunch lovers everywhere. When I spoke to Ratner on a panel last April that I moderated for the TCM Classic Movie Film Festival he said he’s also proud of his upcoming November thriller, Tower Heist which he hopes will turn into a franchise ala Rush Hour which he directed to great success.

One film definitely NOT destined for that kind of success is the week’s other new comedy, and I use the term loosely, Zookeeper which is from the Adam Sandler pee pee and poo poo joke factory. Sandler is also in it as the voice of the monkey but the film’s star is Kevin James who scored a big hit for Sandler’s company as Paul Blart Mall Cop. Don’t expect that kind of success either as it really isn’t wise to make a talking animal movie and basically leave the animals on the sideline, reduced to offering romantic advice to their caretaker (James).

That two hotties, Leslie Bibb and Rosario Dawson are fighting over this lug defies credibility to say the least. The film has been on the shelf for a while but somehow Sony deluded themselves into thinking this thing could fly in a prime July slot. The fact that it made $21 million (although dropping slightly from Friday to Saturday) and gathered a B+ Cinemascore ranking from non-discriminating family crowds is amazing. Critics actually got it right here by giving it a dreary 15% fresh score at RT. Don’t expect this one to last long in theatres. The animals are cute though. Too bad they did lock James in the cage and let them take over the screen. Oh well.

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