Sophie Monk

EXCLUSIVE: Oz The Great And Powerful’s Roth Films has partnered with Jane Startz Productions to acquired movie rights to The School For Good And Evil, the first title in a novel trilogy by Soman Chainani that will be published in the U.S. by HarperCollins on May 14 and in the U.K. on June 6. The trilogy tells the story of ordinary boys and girls who are kidnapped from their homes and sent to The School for Good and Evil, where they are trained to be fairy tale heroes and villains, princesses and witches. The protagonist is Sophie, a beauty who is dumped into the School for Evil while her homely best friend Agatha is taken to the School for Good. Both girls find their fortunes reversed and are forced to confront the truth about their unexpected destinies. Chainani and Hook scribe Malia Scotch Marmo are attached to write the screenplay. This one sounds like a fun bit of mischief for Roth Films, where Joe Roth and Palak Patel are whipping up retro-fairy tale hits and cranking them out like modern day Grimm Brothers. CAA reps the author and Roth in the deal.

May 19: PBS newscaster Jim Lehrer is 79. TV personality David Hartman is 78. Actor James Fox is 74. Actress Nancy Kwan is 74. Actor Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca in "Star Wars") is 69. Musician Pete Townshend is 68. Singer-bassist Dusty Hill of ZZ Top is 64. Singer-actress-model Grace Jones is 61. Drummer Phil Rudd of AC/DC is 59. Guitarist Iain Harvie of Del Amitri is 51. Actor Jason Gray-Stanford ("Monk") is 43. Singer Jenny Berggren of Ace of Base is 41. Singer Shooter Jennings is 34. Guitarist Tim McTague of Underoath is 30. Guitarist James Richardson of MGMT is 30. Actor Eric Lloyd ("The Santa Clause") is 27.