Oz The Great And Powerful

It had been a great last couple of months for James Gandolfini and his HBO-based Attaboy Prods. They set up three major TV projects, whose future is now uncertain following the actor-producer’s untimely death today at age 51. In April, Gandolfini got Bone Wars at HBO Films, reuniting with his The Incredible Burt Wonderstone co-star Steve Carell. It is a fun project, in which the two were to play famous post-Civil War paleontologists  Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh, whose notorious fossil race led to the discovery of more than 160 dinosaurs. The film was in nascent stages, with no script written yet. “Unbelievably sad news. A fine man,” Carell tweeted today. R.I.P. James Gandolfini Then in May, HBO gave the green light to Criminal Justice, a limited series starring Gandolfini in his post-Sopranos series return. The project, written by Richard Price directed by Oscar winner Steven Zaillian, was originally piloted as a traditional drama series last year. After HBO passed on the pilot in February, it garnered interest from other nets. Meanwhile Gandolfini and Zaillian decided that a limited series would better serve the narrative, leading to a seven-episode order at HBO. “A real man, like they don’t make anymore,” Zaillian said today of Gandolfini. “Honest, humble, loyal, complicated, as ... Read More »

FORWARD OPERATING BASE SHINWAR, Afghanistan (AP) — The young Afghan soldier lay in great pain on a cot at an army base, his uniform pants cut up to his thigh so medics could clean the wound in his right knee where he was shot fighting insurgents.