Over The Rainbow

Variety sez: Zooey Deschanel will be playing 'DG' alongside Alan Cumming's raggedy man Glitch in the SciFi Channel's Tin Man.

The series is a riff on The Wizard of Oz, in case you haven't already been told or couldn't work it out, and this pair are stand-ins for, essentially, the Dorothy and Scarecow roles.

All they need to do now is cast Jon Heder as the Cowardly Lion (Or Liger?) and Alan Tudyk as the titular Tin fella...

Okay. Maybe that's just me and my typecasting ways.

The series will run to six hours, air at Christmastime and is being directed by Nick Willing - who recently resurrected Jackanory with the assistance of Ben Kingsley and John Sessions. As Willing also has versions of Jason and the Argonauts and Alice in Wonderland on his resume it's not hard to imagine how he ended up in the hot seat for Tin Man.

Jackboots On Whitehall

Voice recording for the new satire Jackboots On Whitehall began today, with Timothy Spall, Richard E. Grant, Alan Cumming, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Richard O'Brien, Pam Ferris and Tom Wilkinson amonmgst the larynx-lenders. Though I can't find specific reference to the fact, the film appears to be stop-motion animated, starring as it does a cast of Action Man style dolls and being described by The Hollywood Reporter as "like Team America minus the strings" (but hopefully plus a backbone, some brass balls and a solid point of view).

The script - which, encouragingly, won a contest run by the production company and is getting made as a direct result - details an alternative history of World War II; one in which those darn Gerries invaded England and stomped all over her lush, green plumpness, only to meet their match at Hadrian's Wall. Apparently there's a twist at the end too - I'm thinking the Scots decide to invade England and then go further, ending up ruling even Germany. What's your guess?

I have to admit I was somewhat surprised to not see David Mitchell's name in the cast list. Maybe he's too busy appearing on another panel show.

We've got a while to wait for this one, but with a bit of luck it will be worth it and won't end up like a pint-sized puppet version of Churchill: The Early Years.