In the case of Jason Bateman, we were sent a scoop via a thoughtful reader who swore he had the casting verified. However, since it seemed so out of left field, we first wanted to see if we were on to something, then, wanted to see if it was going to hurt anything by posting it if we WERE. We can assure you, were the rumor true that Bateman was cast in “Zack and Miri”, Kevin would absolutely have told us when we could break the scoop – When the time was right, papers were signed, deal done, etc. We run the risk of hurting a great film, and possibly even losing our jobs (and this site) in the process when we run stuff that isn’t finalized yet.

Ok, that out of the way, here’s a few bits and pieces from Kevin’s recounting of the Jason Bateman casting rumor, which started with that little e-mail from us and eventually ended up, well, all over the place:

…I never thought to simply say “It’s not true” to anyone but Brad at News Askew. Jason, however, was asked and did have an answer for Peter Sciretta over at SlashFilm. Then, over at Mtv’s Movies Blog, Shawn Adler threw up a link to the SlashFilm article, but it kind of insinuated that Bateman had passed on “Zack and Miri.” So I called Shawn to clear it up and asked him to adjust it on their site.


However, in case folks are still unclear, I’ll second what Bateman said: no, he’s not Zack in “Zack and Miri Make a Porno.” We never asked him and he never read it. He was a great idea for Zack, as Bateman’s a genius who drops performance clinics in even small roles (”Smokin’ Aces”, the upcoming-but-gonna-be-retitled “Quebec”), but like I said: I wrote the role for someone specifically, and that specific someone’s the only guy I’ve ever sent the script to.

As always, see the full blog for more detail on this. Just another tale of how one little rumor can get blown way outta control.