Genre: Comedy.
Studio:
Universal Pictures.
Production Company:
Imagine Entertainment.
Project Phase: In the Can.
Who's In It: Matthew McConaughey (Ed); Ellen DeGeneres (Cynthia); Woody Harrelson (Ray); Elizabeth Hurley (Jill); Jenna Elfman (Shari); Martin Landau (Al); Sally Kirkland (Jeanette); Rob Reiner (Whitaker); Dennis Hopper (Hank); Viveka Davis (Marcia).
Who's Making It: Ron Howard (Director); Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel (Screenwriters); Brian Grazer (Producer); Todd Hallowell, Michel Roy, Richard Sadler (Executive Producers).
Premise: A video store worker named Ed find his life turned upside down when he agrees to be filmed all day, every day, by a 24-hour cable network.
Release Date: March 19, 1999.
Comments:
None.
Rumors: Unknown.
Scoop Feedback:
[Page submitted by 'Deadpool'.]
January 11, 1998... Howard wants to get some major Hollywood stars involved for cameos in the film. [Scoop by 'Deadpool'.]
January 20, 1998... Jenna Elfman will play McConaughey's girlfriend. We also should note that the Universal picture was inspired by the popular French Canadian movie Louis 19: Roi des Ondes; which when translated into English is Louis 19th: King of the Airwaves. 'Our man in Toronto' figures that Hurley's character will most likely play the woman the cable station hires to seduce Louis so that they show will get better ratings, then winds up falling in love with him. [Info fed to us by 'Deadpool', 'Dali' and 'Our Man in Toronto'.]
'Dali' goes one better and provides us with a URL for the Louis 19: Roi des Ondes picture. It seems to match up with Ed TV's premise. [Kudos to 'Dali' for spotting the website.]
San Francisco actor Kevin Lasit just tried out for one of the three young producer roles in the picture, the Greg, Keith and Terry parts. Kevin felt "very confident" about the reading he gave, and hopes that when callbacks are issued in February his name will be on the list. We're crossing our fingers for you. [Thanks to Kevin Lasit for the producer names scoop. Break a leg!]
June 10, 1998... A quick tidbit about what's happening with Ed TV just popped in our mailbox. "30 days left of shooting on this one. Jenna Elfman and Matthew McConaughey have little chemistry together. Will see what this one does." [Anonymous.]
August 9, 1998... [The list of character and cast names was provided by 'Deadpool'.]
September 14, 1998... A test screening was recently held for Ron Howard's soon-to-be latest film. Our scooper caught the screening and gave high praise to the film in their review:
"I saw a screening of the film in rough form, but have a good idea of how the film will end up. In my opinion this film will make Matthew M. the big deal everyone thought he would be.
"Jenna Elfman's character, Shari, is originally Woody Harrelson's (Ray -Ed's brother) girlfriend but things change and she see's Ed. They're in love, but she can't stand the cameras so they decide to break things off temporarily. Elfman is delightfully good in this, being both funny and touching. The producers then introduce the beautiful (and she looks GREAT in this) Elizabeth Hurley. I don't want to give away too much so I won't tell you what else happens, although I can tell you that Liz Hurley doesn't fall in love with Ed as your report speculated. Ellen, whom normally I despise, is surprisingly funny in this film. She gives a really strong performance, but Martin Landau is drop dead hilarious. Woody Harrelson is great, there are really no weak performances. Dennis Hopper plays Ed's dad, but his role is pretty small. Adam Goldberg plays Ed's friend but although his character is relatively small, the parts he is in though are great. Some of the cameos that I can name are Jay Leno, Ru Paul and Bill Maher.
"The film is very funny and very entertaining and blows The Truman Show out of the water. It is way more realistic, has universal themes and is just a better film. Director Ron Howard does it again, making another great film. 90% of the screening viewers rated the film either very good or excellent."
[Anonymous.]
November 8, 1998... We here at CA like to pass on every little bit of information that comes out way but sometimes the writers of the emails could be a little more informative. Take this email for instance: while it dishes out mounds of praise about a recent screening of Ed TV, it doesn't provide much else besides acting like one of those quotes from some unknown, small town movie critic somewhere in America. Sure Ed TV may be the best thing since heated towel racks but we'd be more prone to believe our scooper if they had only given more details to support their claims. How are we to distinguish between accurate reporting and company spin with only two sentences to go on?
"At a screening a few days ago, critics and studio execs were laughing out loud in howls because this movie is so funny. Of the 20 critics, only ONE is writing a negative review." [Sent in anonymously.]