Fonz Jr.: Max Winkler, son of Henry “the Fonz” Winkler, will make his directorial debut with his self-penned indie comedy Ceremony. Jesse Eisenberg is in talks to star as a dude who falls in love with an older woman about to be married and who travels to the beach town where the wedding is occurring in order to attempt to break it up. Congratulations to the young Winkler, but, for the record, this is why people hate celebrity kids — apparently, after writing the screenplay, Winkler “showed it to [Jason] Reitman, a family friend with whom he … had set up two projects at Fox Searchlight.” [HR]
Ups and Downs: Rosie O’Donnell may return to Broadway in a revival of the 1937 Rodgers and Hart musical Babes in Arms, playing a chorus girl helping a group of kids put on a show so that they can avoid being sent to a work farm. (Was the original set in the USSR?) In other Broadway news, Guys and Dolls will close after failing to win a Tony. But hey, Broadway, Rosie O’Donnell! [Variety, Variety]
More Nursing to Be Done: Nurse Jackie has already been picked up for a second season after relatively strong numbers for Sunday’s first episode — a combined 1.35 million viewers for the two airings of the debut, making it Showtime’s best-watched series premiere ever. This is the summer of the quickie sequel orders, with Star Trek and The Hangover both getting doubled up before their premieres. We like Zack Galifianakis’ theory on this: “It’s probably some kind of marketing technique that somebody researched at Harvard, and all of the sudden it’s a business plan … ‘The human condition: If they think that there’s going to be a sequel, they’ll go see the first one.’” [Variety]
Boardwalk Emperor: Finally, a reason to be excited about Boardwalk Empire, the Martin Scorsese HBO series about the rough-and-tumble origins of Atlantic City — Michael Kenneth Williams has been cast! Williams, best known as Omar from The Wire, will play Chalky White, the ruthless ex-boxer who is the defacto “mayor” of Chickenbone Beach, Atlantic City’s black section, and an ally to Nucky (Steve Buscemi), the show’s main character, who runs a liquor-distribution ring. Well, this sounds awesome. [HR]
Futurama Rama: Matt Groening and David X. Cohen will produce 26 new episodes of Futurama, originally cancelled in 2003, to air on Comedy Central in 2010. Strong DVD sales and the performance of the four Futurama movies and the show’s repeats prompted the move. Confusingly, Futurama’s studio, 20th Century Fox TV, is looking for a broadcast network to air the new episodes, with Comedy Central getting them second for a reduced license fee. Fox, the channel that canceled the show in the first place, is the primary target. Okay, we’re not doctors of television or anything, but isn’t that a whole lot more complicated than just airing the reruns you already have? [HR]
