"Tenacious D" trailer

On a slow Monday for movie news, you can always count on Harry Knowles' Ain't It Cool News for a few nuggets.

The first good thing I found there this morning was the first trailer I've seen for Jack Black and Kyle Gass' upcoming "Tenacious D" movie.

I have to admit, Tenacious D tests the limits of my thus-far-fairly unconditional love for Jack Black. I went out and bought the CD, but have listened to it maybe twice. Being someone who often enjoys acting like I'm 8 years old, I enjoy a good fart joke as much as the next guy, but this is basically one fairly good fart joke that never knows when to end.

On the upside, Gass, a good comedic actor in his own right, should finally get some well-deserved attention. He was great as a member of Jason Segel's posse on "Undeclared," and if I'm not mistaken, he also played that stoned-out DJ in the bootleg cut of "Almost Famous."

Anyways, if there's something I've missed about Tenacious D, please let me know, and click here to enjoy the trailer yourself.

Early word on "Futurama"

Also on AICN this morning, some joker calling himself Ben Sinister has apparently read the script for the first four new episodes of "Futurama," which will be hitting Comedy Central in 2008.

According to Mr. Sinister, the script is for a DVD movie, which was probably where the "Futurama" folks were sure they would end up. Now, it's being divided into four episodes.

In a plot that sounds awfully familiar, Planet Express undergoes a hostile takeover, and its new owners involve Bender in their new criminal plot.

Mr. Sinister promises it gets really fun from that starting point, calling the story "delightful and truly epic in scope," and the eternal optimist that's been beaten down deep inside of me has to believe him.

I've always loved "Futurama," but thought it was way too odd to have survived so long on TV. Whenever someone annoys me, I'm always tempted to tell them to bite my shiny metal ass, but I've so far resisted that temptation.

"Speed Racer" from the Wachowskis?

This oddity comes directly from the Where Are They Now? file.

It seems the Wachowski brothers are trying to get back behind the camera to bring us a live-action movie based on the "Speed Racer" cartoon.

Much like the second and third "Matrix" sequels, this one, at least initially, simply makes me say WTF? This sounds like a disaster in the making to me, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.