She may have just purchased a new home with her personal trainer, Jeanette Jenkins, but Just Wright star Queen Latifah must still have fond memories of “Living Single,” because she’s producing an updated spin on the sitcom called “Single Ladies.” Yes, the title is a shout out to the Beyoncé hit and, as such, also a clever bit of crossover marketing. Set to star Clueless alum Stacey Dash and up-and-comer Lauren London (ATL, This Christmas), the show is about four 20-something female friends, all unlucky at love. And Latifah is not only the producer, she also wrote the pilot of the VH1 show, so add screenwriter to her multi-hyphen title. “Ladies” is currently in production in Atlanta, so look for the inevitable “Real Housewives” cameo when the series finally hits the small screen.

Gay Entertainment Weekly journalist Mark Harris’ 2008 New York Times bestseller Pictures at a Revolution explored both the behind-the-scenes stories about the making as well as the cultural impact of the five films that were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1967: Bonnie and Clyde, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, In The Heat of The Night, The Graduate and Doctor Doolittle. The diverse batch of films highlighted both the shifts in the cultural landscape and in how Hollywood made and marketed its product. And now indie-film distributor Oscilloscope is partnering with Specialty Films to develop a feature-length documentary based on Pictures. Filmmaker Marina Zenovich (Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired) will direct, and the movie is planned for a limited theatrical release that will qualify it for the Oscars itself. If it winds up nominated, how meta will that be?

Thank both YouTube and the Cannes Film Festival for Ian McKellen’s upcoming role as a zombie, because that’s where the project, titled E’gad Zombies, is creating both buzz and finishing funds, respectively. The low-budget British black comedy is from director Matthew Butler, who put an excitement-stirring preview of the film on YouTube and then took the small amount of footage he’s got in the can across the Channel and to the famed film festival in the hopes of beefing up his budget. Set in the 18th century in the fictional town of Upper Trollop, the movie is being described (we’re guessing with a wink) as a Shaun of the Dead meets Gone with the Wind. Will the upstart indie trump the bigger-budget period horror-comedy Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by making it into theaters faster? Or will it just inspire a glut of gory comedies about fancy undead Brits? If it’s the latter, Romeo votes for Judi Dench to star in at least one of them.

Alan Ball (“Six Feet Under,” “True Blood”) and Oprah Winfrey are teaming up with HBO Films to bring Rebecca Skloot’s nonfiction bestseller The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks to TV. The story of a very unusual cancer case, Henrietta Lacks’ “immortal” cells are fascinating as both a medical mystery and as a historical comment on the treatment of black Americans in the 20th century. Lacks was a poor woman whose cancerous cells were taken without her knowledge or consent and used to pioneer huge advancements in modern medicine. But along with these achievements came difficult consequences for her family. All that’s set in place right now is the deal, with casting and production dates to come later. Stay tuned.

Once upon a time in a land called Hollywood, all the way back in the olden days of 2002, Drew Barrymore was set to play the lead role in Surrender Dorothy, a sequel to The Wizard of Oz. Well now it’s eight years later and the starlet is a director who might just take over the whole project. Barrymore, whose sweet, funny, underrated directorial debut, Whip It, went almost unnoticed at the box office last year, looks like the person who’ll helm the journey back to the yellow brick road. In this story, Dorothy’s great, great granddaughter must use the power of the ruby slippers to prevent the Wicked Witch of the West (who, frankly, needs a boost of badness after her all that sympathy generated by a certain emotional Broadway musical) from taking over both Oz and the outside world. But the question is will Barrymore still play the lead? Or will she pass the privilege down to someone not yet in their 30s? And will someone please give Fairuza Balk a shot at one of the roles? It’s only right.

They’re finally casting Scream 4 in the hopes of a planned July start date, and, really, it was about time. What’s taking so long? Well, the script is on lockdown and agencies aren’t even getting copies to show their clients, which slows down the process. (But think about it, the fourth installment of its parody cousin, Scary Movie 4, came out years ago.) This next go-round will reunite creators Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson, as well as original cast members Neve Campbell, David Arquette and Courtney Cox. And, so far, the new faces tentatively on board (negotiations, they keep happening) are Lake Bell, Twilight alum Ashley Greene, Rory Culkin and Hayden Panettiere. Who’ll be stabbed first? And do they get paid less?

For a limited six-week run starting Oct. 26, New York’s Stephen Sondheim Theater (formerly the Henry Miller Theater) will become a playhouse – Pee-wee’s Playhouse to be specific. That’s because “The Pee-Wee Herman Show,” the original stage production created by Paul Reubens, based on the character he created with L.A.’s Groundlings three decades ago, is coming to Broadway. And why not? The sugar-powered man-child Pee-Wee has been beloved by everyone from hipsters to children for 30 years and has recently enjoyed a resurgence in popularity thanks to Los Angeles performances of the show. He’s an institution by this point, and Broadway can only be made brighter by his presence. No human casting has taken place yet, but there will be puppetry by Addams Family string-puller Basil Twist, and yes, Chairy and Conky will co-star. Romeo loves this news so much he wants to marry it.

No amount of Newsweek op/ed negativity can keep Sean Hayes down. The man accused by a columnist for that magazine of being too gay to play straight in Broadway’s Promises, Promises, is, it turns out, not too gay to host the Tony Awards, which he will be doing come June 13. And we can all breathe a sigh of relief that gay co-star of “Glee,” Jonathan Groff, was not so unconvincingly hetero on camera that he sank the entire show – it’s been picked up for a third season before season two even starts shooting. How’s that for a vote of homo confidence? And finally, un-gay Paula Abdul, who convincingly played a singer on eight seasons of “American Idol,” is moving into a new judge’s chair, this time on the CBS show “Got To Dance,” where the choreographer will help prop up the hopes and dreams of a variety of aspiring dancers hoping to make it big with their feet, eventually getting cast on that very straight show called “Glee” or in totally heterosexual Broadway musicals.