Yesterday, Cinematical's own Mark Beall went off on Adam Sandler a bit, going so far as to say, "there's only so long a grown man can talk like a seven year old before it ceases being funny and becomes irritating -- about ten minutes, really." While I expected a bunch of you to immediately jump all over Mark, surprisingly, most agreed with his opinion. You're tired of Sandler's shtick, and some probably wish he would use that mysterious remote control found in Click to just turn himself off.
Unfortunately, that's not going to happen anytime soon, as Sandler's Happy Madison will help produce and adapt Dan Zevin's memoir The Day I Turned Uncool: Confessions of a Reluctant Grown-Up for Paramount Pictures. And, of course, folks are leaning towards shoving Sandler into the lead role. Through 24 chapters (dubbed confessions), memoir chronicles one man's slow journey into adulthood. One reviewer described Uncool as taking a "sentimental first-person approach to suburban adult dilemmas such as wine tastings, lawn care, the starter home and the contrast between the freewheeling college semester abroad and the fearful, sensible 30-something European vacation."
Seeing as I sort of enjoyed Sandler's performance in Spanglish and loved him in Punch Drunk Love, I know the dude has it in him to really entertain us -- ya know, if he stops putting himself in such cheesy roles. This particular project sounds like a lot of fun, and it could potentially be a great starring vehicle for Sandler, assuming he doesn't twist it around and go the silly route. What do you think? Does the guy deserve another chance.
The earth may continue on for many more millenia, and the human race may eventually colonize and populate other planets, but no matter how long our kind continue to exist, there will never be another Jerry Juhl. Even if you don't recognize the name, I promise you know at least something of the man's body of work -- he wrote or co-wrote nearly everything performed by Jim Henson's Muppets from the early days of TV specials until his passing last year. In truth, Jerry was as much a part of the Muppets as Frank Oz, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, and the rest of the more familiar names, even though he was not a performer. Jerry understood the magic of the Muppets, the soul, if you will, of foam rubber and antron fleece ... and the Fraggles were no exception. Jerry served as the primary writer for the run of the wonderful children's series, and was responsible for much of the "feel" of the show.
As we've discussed before, the Hensons are looking to return to Fraggle Rock for a new feature film. Remarkably, most of the key performers for Fraggle Rock are still living -- at least those who performed the famous "Fraggle Five." Jim Henson's presence will of course be missed, but Henson was never a primary cast member,* and Richard Hunt was Junior Gorg; but Steve Whitmire (Wembley), Karen Prell (Red), Dave Goelz (Boober), Kathryn Mullen (Mokey), and Jerry Nelson (Gobo), are all still with us.** The big remaining question mark has been who will write, now that Jerry Juhl is gone?
We have an answer now, in the form of largely untested (as a writer) Ahmet Zappa. On the upside, a limited body of writing work leaves us nothing to point to as a bad example ... but you can see the obvious other side of that dubious benefit. I want this film to be good. Desperately. I'd trade a dozen good Fantastic Four movies for one more great appearance from my old Fraggle friends. I have reason to hope -- the heart of the Fraggles should remain intact as long as the original performers can return, after all. I rejoice to see the Fraggles back on track, but mourn their old friend Jerry.
*His most recognized characters were Cantus the Minstrel and my personal favorite, Convincing John. **Although health issues limit the amount of time Jerry Nelson can spend performing.
According to Variety, writer-producer-actor John Cusack has signed on to star in the upcoming dark political satire Brand Hauser: Stuff Happens for director Josh Seftel and Avi Lerner's Millennium Films. The versatile Cusack is also scripting the film with Bulworth co-writer Jeremy Pikser and author Mark Leyner, as well as producing with partner Grace Loh through their New Crime production company.
Cusack is set to play an undercover assassin in the film who's pretending to produce a big trade show in order to kill a Middle East oil minister. As he tries to pull off the job, complications (and I'm sure a little comedy) ensue including a wedding between a local pop star and a big-time political figure. Other actors already cast in the film include Hilary Duff (playing, one would assume, the pop star?) the lovely and talented Marisa Tomei and, of course, Cusak's sister Joan.
What, no Jeremy Piven? I can't really believe Cusack would do a movie without him considering he's been in every one of Cusack's films (almost). Maybe its just an oversight? Or, maybe Piven is playing hard-to-get and channeling a little of his Ari Gold character from Entourage? We'll see. Needless to say, it's good to see Cusack returning to a genre and story that's similar to his great work as an assassin at his high school reunion in Grosse Pointe Blank -- a film he co-wrote as well. If Grosse Point Blank is any indication of what we can expect from Brand Hauser: Stuff Happens, I'll definitely be there to see it when it comes out. Still no word on a production schedule or a release date.
Penn (who just barely beat out one of my good friends for Best Personality back in high school -- a story we've all heard about a thousand times) is probably best known as Kumar in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, but has recently tried on some more dramatic material like The Namesake and Fox's hit show 24. In Management, Penn will play one of two slackers who talk their boss into taking a vacation on a sex cruise, only to turn around and transform the office into one big party. As far as that much-anticipated Harold and Kumar Go to Amsterdam, Penn is currently trying to hammer out a deal to star.
It's fairly easy to get psyched up about a project written by the dude who kicked off his career by penning episodes of Beavis and Butthead, Daria and The Simpsons. Larry Doyle's first feature attempt (Duplex), however, fell way short of the funny. Chalk up another spectacular starring role for Ben Stiller. After returning to the animated world with Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Doyle just recently sold his latest comedy, Me2, to Disney. Currently, the plot is being kept under wraps (although they did let slip something about time travel), and we're not sure whether it will be animated. However, Mark Waters (Mean Girls) has signed on to direct, so chances are this one will go the live action route.
And speaking of top secret plots, Universal snatched up Gerald Olsen's comedy pitchOne Dave at a Time for Mary Parent and Scott Stuber (is it just me, or does it seem these two are in on literally every single deal?) to produce. Usually, when they don't feel like giving us a basic plot description, that means the idea is very high concept and, therefore, they're probably afraid of two or three similar projects suddenly popping up. Based on the title alone (and since I'm a pro at figuring out storylines with little to no information), I'm going to take a wild guess and say this one involves cloning, possibly along the lines of Multiplicity. But what do I know ... I just work here.
With only two feature films (The Grudge and The Grudge 2) under his belt (both of which are adaptations of someone else's screenplay), writer Stephen Susco is about the make a leap into the director's chair. Hey, anything to keep the guy's mind off of The Grudge 3 is just fine by me.
Mr. Susco will be writing and directing a film called White for the folks at Rogue, aka Focus, aka Universal Pictures. Based on the novella by Tim Lebbon, White is (according to Variety) "an apocalyptic tale centering on a band of people trapped in a blizzard and systematically picked off by mysterious phantoms." So ... no freaky Asian kids who hang around in attics? Cool.
Also on Susco's plate are the indie horror Zero Dark Thirty and a new spec script he just unloaded called Sanctuary.
If you were one of those people who absolutely loved The Break-Up and thought Jen and Vince just looked so totally cute together, then you might want to get in line for The Golden Tux, a comedy brought to us by the new (and improved?) Dimension Films. Jeremy Garelick and Jay Lavender (the two dudes who wrote The Break-Up) originally used their script The Golden Tux to break into Hollywood back in 2002, only to watch it change hands more times than a pocket mirror during an episode of The Simple Life.
After shaping it up a bit, Garelick and Lavender managed to score a helming gig on the flick which will, in turn, mark their feature directorial debut. The film, to be produced by Todd Phillips and star Dan Fogler, revolves around a professional best man who offers his services to those losers guys who simply need a friend to stand by their side during the biggest day of their life. Apparently, he then begins an "unusual" friendship with one of his employers. I'm not sure what that entails, but something tells me the groom will have a hard time letting go of their fake friendship. Of course, that's just speculation on my part.
[Thanks to Empire Online for the additional details]
If you love genre films as much as I do then this announcement will make you as happy as it made me. According to Variety ( via Coming Soon), Joel Silver's Dark Castle Productions has raised $240 Million from a half-dozen Wall Street firms to produce 15 films over the next six years. Warner Bros. will distribute the films under an existing deal with Silver.
I wrote about Silver's dealings with Wall Street before, and its good to see those efforts bear fruit already with some new projects. First up for Silver and Dark Castle under this deal is the action thriller Whiteout, based on the Greg Rucka graphic novel about a lone U.S. marshal tracking Antarctica's first serial killer.
The next two projects after Whiteout are expected to be the psychological horror film The Summoner, directed by Victor Salva (who also directed the very scary Jeepers Creepers) and the urban action film Gangland, written by Alex Tse (who's also writing the adaptation of Alan Moore's graphic novel Watchmen -- another pic I can't wait to see).
Dark Castle has been around since 1999 and in that time has turned out some pretty good genre films and some not so good ones. No matter what the relative merits and success of its films, it's good to see a company and a Producer like Joel Silver so committed to bringing these kinds of projects to the screen. If it wasn't for him we might never have had the guilty pleasure of seeing genre films like House on Haunted Hill, House of Wax, or the under-appreciated Gothika. Keep up the good work Joel, and I'll keep watching.
There's a certain satisfaction in reading about distribution deals for independent films that have caught your interest -- the smaller the film, the greater the satisfaction. Suddenly, there's a real possibility that you might actually get to see the film without having to live in New York or LA. And if you did catch the film at a film festival, and loved it, now you can persuade all your friends to see it too, when the movie arrives in theaters or on DVD. (If you hated it, well, then you can boast to everyone that you saw it already, that was soooo last week, and it's not worth bothering over ... and that's a whole other type of pleasure.)
When Kim reviewed Penelope (pictured right) at TIFF, I was intrigued and hoped I'd get a chance to see the movie. Fortunately, IFC and The Weinstein Company have jointly purchased the North American rights to the film produced by Reese Witherspoon and starring Christina Ricci and James McAvoy. Kim was worried that the movie had no clear audience, but I'm sure that IFC and the Weinsteins will find one. IFC is handling the theatrical distribution, and TWC will handle TV and video rights. My only worry is that Penelope seems to share certain superficial story elements with Gretchen, an Austin-shot feature I enjoyed at SXSW, and I hope that this buy doesn't harm Gretchen's chances at distribution.
In addition, Zeitgeist films has acquired the U.S. distribution rights for the film Into Great Silence, a documentary about the Carthusian Order monastery in the French Alps. Cinematical interviewed the film's director, Philip Groening, at Sundance in January. Zeitgeist faces a challenge: marketing a nearly three-hour documentary that contains almost no dialogue, because the filmmakers respected the monastery's vows of silence. (Perhaps they could persuade Morgan Freeman to record narration? I hope not.) The distributor is planning a release timeframe of next February or March.
Okay, so here is where I show my age ... which is none of your business thank you very much. I am not at all familiar with the Bratz dolls, other than the fact that they look like underage hookers and have really disproportionate heads and bodies. But, since little girls seem to love them, there are already magazines, albums, a TV show and now a live-action movie on the way.
Back in May, Erik reported on the live-action film which is being put together by MGA Entertainment and Crystal Sky Pictures, but a director had not yet signed on. However, it was announced on Tuesday that Sean McNamara (Raise Your Voice) would hop onboard and take over helming duties on the project. The screenplay follows Yasmin, Ari, Cloe, and Jade bonding over social pressures at Lewis & Clark High School -- it sort of sounds like Mean Girls, except with no actual point. I mean they're dolls, people! I always thought Barbie was a bit of a "good time girl" but these gals dress like Soul Train dancers and wear as much makeup as a Vegas cocktail waitress. Yeah, it's kind of disturbing.
It's not that I have anything against Jennifer Aniston, I just don't think she's a very good actress. Or even a moderately decent actress at that. I tend to believe that if she wasn't involved with Brad Pitt when Friends ended, it's quite possible she would've wound up in some crummy "Help, I'm in my thirties and life is so confusing" sitcom on either CBS or ABC. I can totally see it now: The Trials and Tribulations of Wendy Warner, starring Jennifer Aniston and Rob Lowe. Please, you know something like that was pitched to her. It's a given.
Needless to say, Aniston rode her high-profile romance and divorce straight onto the big screen, and by breaking up with Vince Vaughn twice a week, it seems her name will remain in the gossip rags and on our minds for quite some time. In fact, Universal just picked up Counter Clockwise, a script written by Paul Bernbaum with the intentions of having Aniston produce and also star. Story centers around a real-life study conducted by Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer in which she "reversed the aging process of her subjects by making them believe they were younger." Aniston, a Harvard psychologist? I don't buy it. You?
Well, the next stage of production on the film has begun, as Variety announced that writer-director Randall Wallace has agreed to pen the screenplay for Lionsgate. The film has taken the scenic route to production, with different stars including Clint Eastwood and Faye Dunaway attached at some point along the way. But now, Jolie's manager is one of the producing partners along with Howard and Karen Baldwin (Ray) -- so I guess that means it has a better chance of becoming a reality? Wallace is best known as the writer of Braveheart and director of We Were Soldiers (we won't hold the Mel Gibson connection against him), and apparently will start work on the Atlas Shrugged script immediately. Wallace is known for tackling epic themes in his scripts, so this seems like a good choice for him. Jolie and Wallace will be working together again in the upcoming The Mercenary, which is a period piece set in Russia during the American Revolution.
Yes, its true. One of my favorite movies of the last few years, Old School, finally seems to be moving forward with a sequel. The movie (which Erik wrote about before) has long been rumored, due in large part to the success of the original, and Dreamworks has always seemed committed to the idea, but for one reason or another, a sequel never seemed to get off the ground. The delays now seem to be over though, at least according to IGN, as Director Todd Phillips and co-writer Sean Armstrong, who both did the original, have started work on the script for the sequel called Old School Dos.
Maybe its because I was in a fraternity in college and I kinda miss those "good old days" so perfectly captured by the first film. Or, maybe its because the first film had such great comic performances by Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Will "Frank the Tank" Ferrell. Of course, it could also be that when I saw Old School for the first time (in a great theater in Portland where you can have a beer and watch movies at the same time) I laughed so hard I nearly choked on my frosty beverage.
It could be all of those reasons and any one of a dozen others, but no matter what it is, I am psyched about a sequel and look forward to seeing it when it comes out. But even though Phillips and Armstrong have started on a script, there's still no guarantee the film will get made -- or if it does, arrive at your local theater any time soon. There are many details still to be worked out, not the least of which are the schedules of Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell and a finished script approved by the actors.
Still, if Phillips and Armstrong do manage to get a script together that entices the actors to return, and Dreamworks can manage the schedules and put the rest of the pieces together, we might just see this film after all. And after seeing the film, maybe we'll swing by Bed Bath and Beyond, but I'm not sure if we'll have enough time.
I am currently holding what I like to call "the big bag-o-comics." Inside this wonderful, imaginary bag, are thousands of slips of paper, each with the title of a comic book series on it. When a production company wants to land a comic book movie (a very popular genre these days, as you well know), they simply contact me, and I reach into the bag to give them their box office gold. Today's candidate is Rogue Pictures, who will be buying the rights to -- shake shake shake -- Blood on the Tracks? This is ridiculous, there is no such comic. That's just the title of a Bob Dylan album.
What? Oh, I see -- it will exist sometime soon, but doesn't actually exist quite yet. But no worries, this won't stop Rogue from "preemptively" buying the rights for film purposes. After all, who doesn't want another vampire movie filled with a sequence of killings in the New York subway which *gasp!* turn out to be the work of a rogue vampire? I know, this will make a killing at the box office, right? I can't wait for -- what was it called again -- oh yeah, Blood on the Tracks. Congratulations, Rogue!
Okay, this one is certainly a bit odd. According to Production Weekly, director Rob Cohen (The Fast and the Furious) has taken on a Bruce Lee project called Rage & Fury. Now, seeing as Cohen is very familiar with the martial arts master, having directed the biopic Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story back in 1993, this news shouldn't really come as a surprise.
However, what if I were to tell you Bruce Lee (yes, the dude himself) will star in the movie? No joke, this is how Production Weekly put it: "Rob Cohen is set to helm Rage & Fury, featuring the legendary Bruce Lee, the most influential and famous martial artists of all time." It sounds delicious but, um, Bruce is dead. Are we talking a CGI version of Bruce? A documentary about Bruce? An animated Bruce? How on earth does Cohen plan on having Lee star if he's longer alive?
Bruce Lee is hot at the moment, what with a possible theme park, musical and biopic (put together by his family) all circling around the rumor mill. Perhaps the man secretly came back to life and none of us were aware? What do you make of this?
Yesterday, Cinematical's own Mark Beall went off on Adam Sandler a bit, going so far as to say, "there's only so long a grown man can talk like a seven year old before it ceases being funny and becomes irritating -- about ten minutes, really." While I expected a bunch of you to immediately jump all over Mark, surprisingly, most agreed with his opinion. You're tired of Sandler's shtick, and some probably wish he would use that mysterious remote control found in Click to just turn himself off.
The earth may continue on for many more millenia, and the human race may eventually colonize and populate other planets, but no matter how long our kind continue to exist, there will never be another 
According to Variety, writer-producer-actor 
Though the paint is still wet on 
It's fairly easy to get psyched up about a project written by the dude who kicked off his career by penning episodes of Beavis and Butthead, Daria and The Simpsons. 
With only two feature films (
If you were one of those people who absolutely loved 
If you love genre films as much as I do then this announcement will make you as happy as it made me. According to Variety ( via 
There's a certain satisfaction in reading about distribution deals for independent films that have caught your interest -- the smaller the film, the greater the satisfaction. Suddenly, there's a real possibility that you might actually get to see the film without having to live in New York or LA. And if you did catch the film at a film festival, and loved it, now you can persuade all your friends to see it too, when the movie arrives in theaters or on DVD. (If you hated it, well, then you can boast to everyone that you saw it already, that was soooo last week, and it's not worth bothering over ... and that's a whole other type of pleasure.)
It's not that I have anything against 
Back in September, the 
Yes, its true. One of my favorite movies of the last few years, 
I am currently holding what I like to call "the big bag-o-comics." Inside this wonderful, imaginary bag, are thousands of slips of paper, each with the title of a comic book series on it. When a production company wants to land a comic book movie (a very popular genre these days, as you well know), they simply contact me, and I reach into the bag to give them their box office gold. Today's candidate is Rogue Pictures, who will be buying the rights to -- shake shake shake -- Blood on the Tracks? This is ridiculous, there is no such comic. That's just the title of a Bob Dylan album.
Okay, this one is certainly a bit odd. According to Production Weekly, director 
