Steffanie Leigh to Take Over Title Role in Disney's 'Mary Poppins' on Broadway (Exclusive)

After playing the iconic nanny on the North American tour of Mary Poppins, a Disney spokesperson tells The Hollywood Reporter exclusively that Steffanie Leigh will step into the title role on Broadway at New York City's New Amsterdam Theatre starting Tuesday, October 11.our editor recommendsLaura Michelle Kelly Goes Down Under to Become a 'Goddess'Mary Poppins -- Theater Review "I grew up watching the movie over and over again on a laser disc that my grandparents had," Leigh tells THR."So, I loved the movie, been singing the songs since I was yay high, so now to be a part of retelling the story to a new generation is so exciting." This will be Leigh's Broadway debut, though she has been playing the role on the stage production's national tour since February. She will replace Oliver Award winner Laura Michelle Kelly after her final performance on Sunday, October 9. Leigh, who graduated with her BFA in acting from Carnegie Mellon University, has appeared in numerous regional theatre productions, including Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,Beauty and the Beast, Into the Woods, Grease, Mame, andLes Miserables. Her Broadway co-stars will include Tony Award nominee Gavin Lee as Bert, Karl Kenzler as George Banks, Megan Osterhaus as Winifred Banks, and Valerie Boyle as Mrs. Brill. The co-production by Disney and Cameron Mackintosh opened on Broadway in 2006. It holds the distinction of being the only show from the 2006-2007 theatrical season that's still running. Based on P.L. Travers' stories and the 1964 Walt Disney film, the production includes the film's Oscar-winning music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. Watch our recent interview with Leigh and cast mate, Gavin Lee, below. Email: Jethro.Nededog@thr.com; Twitter:@TheRealJethro Related Topics Broadway The Walt Disney Company

Hot Trailer: 'Texas Killing Fields'

A trailer has been released for Texas Killing Fields, the drama that is directed by Ami Canaan Mann and produced by Michael Mann. The gritty drama stars Sam Worthington, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Chloe Moretz and Jessica Chastain. A New York and local detective team to investigate a series of murders. Production design on the film was done by Aran Reo Mann, the director's sister, who was also the production designer of Miranda July's film You and Me and Everyone We Know. Texas Killing Fields will be released October 7 by Anchor Bay. The film will also be shown at the Venice Film Festival.

Everything You Need To Know In '30 Minutes Or Less'

FROM MTV MOVIES: Like a bomb indestructibly attached to an anxious pizza delivery boy's chest, "30 Minutes or Less" hasn't been able to shake MTV News off itself. From the early news updates (Jesse Eisenberg as that unfortunate pie-slinger, "Zombieland" helmer Ruben Fleischer in the director's chair) to the exclusive first look at the Michigan set to an MTV Sneak Peek Week public screening of the action-comedy and beyond, we've been all over this movie. And now that it's finally hit theaters, we're not letting go quite yet. So slip on our "30 Minutes" cheat sheet for everything you need to know before heading to the multiplex this weekend. Read the full story at MTV Movies!

Weinstein Co. in talks to buy French 'Gang Story'

EXCLUSIVE: The Weinstein Co. is in talks to acquire the French-lingo pic "A Gang Story" for domestic theatrical distribution.Pic, helmed by Olivier Marchal, centers around a young man who grew up in a gypsy camp and his experiences with the real-life mob the Lyon Gang.Gerard Lanvin stars in the crime thriller, produced by Cyril Colbeau-Justin and Jean-Baptiste Dupont for uFilm and LGM Prods. Pic is due out in France later this year.Marchal's other credits include "36" and "The Last Deadly Mission."TWC's Peter Lawson and Gaumont's Cecile Gaget are handling the deal negotiations. Gaumont also sold TWC the pic "Untouchable" in July.TWC has not yet set a release date for the film. Contact Rachel Abrams at Rachel.Abrams@variety.com

Actor Claude Laydu dies at 84

The un named priest is wracked by self-doubt in addition to a physical condition that's eventually identified as stomach cancer, and that he dies after achieving an inexplicable condition of sophistication. French actor Claude Laydu, who starred within the title role of Robert Bresson's classic film "Diary of the Country Priest," died on This summer 29 of heart problems in Paris. He was 84. Laydu made his screen debut in Bresson's 1951 film, an adaptation of Georges Bernanos' 1937 novel in regards to a sickly but ascetic youthful cleric at his first parish in a tiny provincial town that proves hostile to his serious morality. Born in The city, Laydu would be a youthful actor at Theatre Marigny in Paris (along with a practicing Catholic) when Bresson chose him for that role, that he dropped a few pounds to offer the necessary gaunt appearance. Laydu made an appearance in greater than a dozen films throughout the nineteen fifties. His second film was the 1951 light comedy "Le Voyage en Amerique," starring Pierre Fresnais, but his role in "Diary of the Country Priest" affected the tenor of his career. A minimum of two times he made an appearance again like a priest, in Rafael Gil's significantly acclaimed 1953 film "I Had Been a Parish Priest," by which Laydu starred, and 1954's "Rasputin," and that he performed Saint Etienne within the religious epic "The Street to Damascus" described the brother of the nun in "L'ensemble des dialogues des Carmelites" and wrestled with large moral questions in "Au coeur p la casbah" and "Nous sommes tous des assassins," concerning the dying penalty. He performed the composer Franz Schubert in 1956's "Sinfonia d'amore" and made an appearance opposite his wife, Christine Balli, in "Italienisches capriccio" (1961). Laydu and Balli created the children's puppet show "Bonne nuit l'ensemble des petits," which went on French TV in excess of ten years from 1962 -- the concept ended up being to help get kids to rest -- and came back within the the nineteen nineties. Laydu's children include his wife, a boy along with a daughter. Contact Variety Staff at news@variety.com

'Star Trek 2' Is About 'Starting Over,' J.J. Abrams States

Another run-along with J.J. Abrams, and the other tease for "Star Trek" follow up news coming "soon." This time around, however, when MTV News swept up with Abrams in the CBS TCA party, where he was marketing his approaching show, "Person Of Great Interest,Inch he gave us a real time period when ever don't be surprised to listen to the state follow up announcement. "We met yesterday," Abrams stated of his "Star Trek 2" writing dream team composed of Bob Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof. "We'd a large, endless meeting and i believe we'll have something to discuss soon.Inch Just how soon is soon? "I believe over the following month approximately we'll have the ability to let you know what are you doing so when and all sorts of that," Abrams revealed. "We are working very hard which is to make certain that nobody -- cast, crew, mostly the crowd -- is not disappointed in what we all do,Inch he stated, acknowledging he feels "sorry" for that delay. "[The crowd] may be the only master we are serving." When requested to target the specific challenge involved with ongoing the storyline of Kirk, Spock and also the Starship Enterprise, Abrams stated they do not think about it as being a follow up. "The odd factor about the first we did could it be had been kind of a follow up inside a strange way," Abrams stated from the 2009 box office hit. "It had been a reboot, although not. I believe the most crucial factor to consider is it does not matter if anybody has seen the first or otherwise. It does not appear the first was, in ways. This needs to be considered a movie that stands by itself,Inch he described. "You cannot just think that everybody will love the figures since they're performed by great stars, or they may have loved the very first film. It is about beginning over and simultaneously, you want to make certain you possess onto stuff that labored in the first, therefore it is the apparent stuff." When do you consider Abrams announce the film's release date and production plans? Inform us within the comments or on Twitter!

'Bellflower' Review: ... Or How We Learned to Stop Crying and Love the Apocalypse

We don't know about you guys, but whether it's zombies or nukes or little green men, we're pretty darn certain that the apocalypse is coming one day, and when it does, we know exactly what we're gonna do. So when we first heard about 'Bellflower' a few months back and that it revolved around two guys who not only know what they're gonna do but are so freaking prepared that they're practically counting down the minutes until the doomsday clock strikes 12, we didn't even have to see the flaming Buick to realize that this was a movie after our own hearts. Now that it's finally hit theaters in New York and LA, go ahead and check out our full rundown on whether this bad boy was dead on arrival or made Lord Humungus proud. What's it about? 'Bellflower' is about two best friends who are obsessed with 'The Road Warrior,' spend their days building a custom flamethrower, and looking high and low for the perfect muscle car to turn into a fire-breathing tank of destruction in preparation for when the end of days finally comes. Their post-apocalyptic gang will be called "Mother Medusa," and they will be fully prepared. Then one day they go out drinking and one of the guys meets a girl who he quickly falls head-over-heels for. The more time he spends with the girl, the less time he spends making "Mother Medusa" a reality, but then his world gets tossed on its head and he plummets into a downward spiral of anger, revenge, and setting things on fire. So it's like 'Mad Max' mixed with 'Blue Valentine?' Yeah, that's about right, and unless we're sadly mistaken, we've never heard of a movie with a hook like that before. Even after having seen the trailer, it's a tough movie to sell and a tough movie to describe since these are two genres don't usually go together and they're not exactly catered to a specific demographic. Guys tend to like destruction, ladies tend to like romance, but it takes a special kind of couple to like both equally. By the same token, this isn't much of a date movie. As a tainted love story, it works surprisingly well and actually ends up being more important to the story as a whole than the apocalypse prepping does. Writer/director/star Evan Glodell said that he wrote this script after a badly broken heart, and if there has ever been a reason not to toy with someone's emotions, this is it. As far as love stories in movies go, we're far more used to seeing guys go from flawed bachelors to perfect boyfriends, so the fact Glodell's character Woodrow goes down a path that's closer to Travis Bickle's than Lloyd Dobler's is a fresh breath of toxic air that really makes the movie more than anything else. Folks, this thing gets dark, it gets borderline evil, and because we get so connected to the characters from very early on, the road that takes us to those depths is as honest as it is vulnerable and the hurt that comes after feels as devastating as it absolutely should. No, it's not the cheeriest thing we've seen all year, but it's genuine, it's entirely relatable from an emotional standpoint, and it's just a really well-written script that as fresh and entertaining as it is personal and crushing. And as a pre-apocalypse movie, it works and then some. Even though it takes place in present-day LA, it looks like a wasteland, it looks like a sunburnt relic that someone stumbled across in the desert before they dusted it off and threw it in the microwave. After all, Glodell filmed this movie with a camera he invented from old parts of other cameras, and it sure works wonders in creating a visual style that's brand spankin' new and perfect for the tone of the story it's showing. Blowing stuff up has never looked this slick and dirty, and there is a lot of fun stuff to blow up. Match all that to a killer soundtrack that complements the visuals to a tee and gets right under your skin with beats that'll drown you in rage, and you've got yourself a downright drug of a moviegoing experience. Is that car as awesome as it looks? You don't know the half of it. The "Mother Medusa" car is just the icing on the cake against everything else that elevates this movie to a level of cool that most movies can't even touch. It's the visuals, it's the score, it's the homemade flamethrower, it's Evan Glodell's outrageously badass facial hair, it's the glowing homage to 'Mad Max,' it's the existence of a second car called "Speed Biscuit" that has a built-in whiskey dispenser on the dash, it's a lot of things. There isn't a whole lot of action in this movie, so don't expect Woodrow to start chasing down oil tankers or anything, but there is no denying how boss this movie is and how it successfully continues to one-up itself in this regard from one scene to the next. How's the cast? When we interviewed him this week, Glodell told us that his biggest reservation about 'Bellflower' as a whole was how people would react to his performance since he's playing the main character and he hates acting. The funny thing about it his hesitations as a leading man is that they actually end up being the thing that makes him so good. He doesn't come across like he's acting, he's just doing what comes natural, and his smiley, giggly, naturally endearing nature not only makes us care about Woodrow right off the bat, but makes his gradually descent into someone completely opposite that much more affecting. This is his story, and from the good times to the bad, he's playing himself as much as he's playing a persona. One of the best characters we've seen all year. Tyler Dawson is great as his crazy best friend Aiden (great name), and our hat's off to Jessie Wiseman for going all out and delivering a solid performance to boot as Woodrow's main squeeze Milly, but when push comes to shove, Glodell's the one running this show both in front of the camera and behind. Good cast all around though, hopefully this helps put them on the map. Is it worth seeing? You ever see a movie that you feel like was made just for you? That's how we feel about 'Bellflower.' The plot gets a tad cliche at one point and it does get a bit too crazy towards the end, but these are minor complaints that were easy to overlook in light of everything about this movie that had us floating in a sea of brutal awesomeness. If you've ever had your heart stepped on, if you're of the understanding that 'The Road Warrior' may very well be one of the greatest movies ever made, or even if you just want to see a movie that's unlike anything you've ever laid eyes on before, clear your calendar and book it to New York or LA to check out one of the best movies we've seen all year. Debut efforts don't get much better. VERDICT: 9/10 Lovesick Reckonings

Breaking Bad Sneak Peek: Walt and Skyler Try Their Hand at Counting Cards

Anna Gunn and Bryan Cranston Paging Rain Man.Walt and Skyler sure could use him on Breaking Bad. On Sunday's episode (10/9c, AMC), Skyler tries to help Walt master counting cards to sustain her elaborate gambling lie about the origins of his millions. As you can imagine, it doesn't go totally smoothly - especially when Skyler feels his detailed explanation of his technique is unnecessary.Breaking Bad: How far can Walter White fall?"You don't think it behooves me to be able to explain any of this?" Walt asks."It behooves you to be a pro," she says.But they soon find common ground on which to build their lie. Watch the clip: