Today's Film News: Jack Be Simple

Next week's action comedy Tropic Thunder has somehow managed to avoid offending anyone despite that fact that it features Robert Downey, Jr. in blackface, but now it's in trouble with an entirely different group. The Special Olympics and other organizations contacted DreamWorks to ask them about the movie Simple Jack, an Oscar-bait movie featured in Tropic Thunder in which Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller) plays a mentally challenged man. DreamWorks has removed the fake promotional site for Simple Jack, recognizing that "taken out of context, the site appeared to be insensitive to people with disabilities," Variety reported.

Apparently there's just not enough Michael Bay to go around these days, so the director is hiring a protege. Sam Bayer, who also made his name in music videos and commercials, will direct the action thriller Fiasco Heights, with Bay signed on as one of the producers. Just read this description from The Hollywood Reporter to know we've got a Bay 2.0 on our hands: "A gunman returns to the crime-ridden city of Fiasco Heights and teams with a degenerate gambler/private eye on the run from a syndicate to look for a beautiful femme fatale and a mysterious briefcase." Well, that, or a cheap knockoff of Grand Theft Auto.

I'm still a little baffled by the existence of Playing for Pizza, a novel about an NFL player moving to Italy that's written by John Grisham, the king of the courtroom drama. And an even weirder wrinkle has been added, now that Adam Shankman (Hairspray, Bringing Down the House) has signed on to direct the movie adaptation. Variety notes that Shankman, a former gymnast, might be interested in the story of an aging athlete. Still, with both author and director stretching their usual boundaries here, what will the result be?

And finally, Pulitzer and Tony-award winner August Osage County will get a big screen adaptation, Variety reports. Jean Doumanian Productions has acquired the rights to Tracy Letts' play.