Women and the power of word of mouth, plus a short Friday clip show

It may well be just coincidence, but I at least find it very interesting that three of the movies which have benefited most from good word of mouth this summer are all movies about and primarily starring women.

First up came "Bridesmaids," which had a very big opening and then just kept going as more and more dudes got the word that this isn't just a movie you have to be dragged to: It's so genuinely funny you can just go and enjoy it it thoroughly. And that has led to a seriously healthy domestic box office take of more than $167 million, and made genuine stars of Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy.

Next up came "Soul Surfer," which had a built-in audience from the start as a Christian flick, but slowly expanded beyond that as the word spread that the story of one-armed wonder Bethany Hamilton was inspiring no matter how you look at it, and the movie itself is just flat-out entertaining (I've seen it twice now, and it's again in my Netflix queue, so you can certainly count me as a champion of it.) "Soul Surfer" rode that wave to an outsized domestic box office take of more than $43 million (I actually thought it was a bit more than that.)

And now comes word that "The Help," the new movie about Southern maids in the '60s starring Viola Davis, Emma Stone and Octavia Spencer, is expected to remain atop the box office in its coming second week. Granted, its four new competitors - "Fright Night", "Conan the Barbarian", "One Day" and "Spy Kids: All the Time in the World" - are all pretty pathetic entries. Of them all, I might go see "Fright Night," only because the reviews so far are promising a fun and funky little flick, and Colin Farrell should be a hoot.

And as for "The Help," if you're worried about it at all, please let me reassure you: It is indeed a very faithful adaptation of the very definition of an Oprah Winfrey book club selection, but it's also genuinely moving and even more importantly, just very funny from start to finish. And on top of that, it's packed with first-rate performances from all the leads, plus a scene-stealing gem from Jessica Chastain, who is just a brilliant ball of comic energy as the delirious Celia Foote (and Chastain, who can be seen in the upcoming movie "The Debt" and, as you'll see from the trailer below, also "The Texas Killing Fields," is just having one heck of a good year.)

So, what is it about women and word of mouth? Perhaps they just trust each other more than us dudes do. I have no idea, but if it leads to more movies written and directed by, plus starring, women, I'm certainly all for it. 'Nuff said.

OK, that went on longer than I had intended, but it's a subject that fascinates me, so forgive me. After that today, there's just a bit of news about two people I always like to see, and then just a couple of clips.

First up, buried in a truly unfortunate report that Tony Scott, bereft of anything approaching an original thought, now has his sights set on remaking "The Wild Bunch," was word of something much more interesting he wants to cook up with The Dude.

Apparently before he butchers Sam Peckinpah's great Western, he has plans to make "Hell's Angels," a narrative history of the notorious motorcycle gang. Normally I'd kind of just say meh to that, but the movie, to be based both on the book by founding Angels member Sonny Barger and also incorporate aspects of Hunter S. Thompson's tome on the gang as well, would - if Scott gets his way - apparently star Jeff Bridges as Barger. Now you've got my attention. Stay tuned for more on this as soon as I can find it. ...

And finally today, before a couple of clips, Sarah Silverman has found a home at NBC, for a show that surely won't be as delightfully crude as her much-missed (at least by me, though I'm the only person I know who watched it) Comedy Central show, but should still deliver plenty of funny.

No idea if this will be in the fall lineup or be a midseason replacement, but the good news is that the show, starring Silverman as a woman readjusting to single life following a decadelong live-in relationship, will be co-written by the very funny comedienne and two of her "Sarah Silverman Show" co-conspirators, Dan Sterling and Jon Schroeder. Keep your fingers crossed that something genuinely funny comes from all this (I'm betting on yes.)

OK, now on to the clip show, starting with the first trailer I've seen for an upcoming true crime movie titled "Texas Killing Fields." With a name like that, I suppose it doesn't need too much of a plot description, but the flick starring Sam Worthington, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Chastain and definite Reel Fanatic fave Chloe Moretz, is about two cops who are on the trail of a prodigious serial killer who dumps his victims in the titular marsh dubbed the "killing fields." Moretz plays his latest potential victim, and though I suppose this could all somehow suck, I'm a sucker for this kind of thing, so I'm in. Keep an eye out for it in at least some American cities (though why in the world something like this would be limited is beyond me) in October, and enjoy the trailer below.



Finally today, though he's made one movie I just can't stand (and in fact couldn't even finish), "The Killer Inside Me," Michael Winterbottom has made many, many more that I love, chief among them "24-Hour Party People" and "Tristram Shandy." I missed his earlier entry this year, "The Trip," which just looked like a comedy treat with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, but now he's got another movie coming out just in time to be shown at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.

As you'll see from the trailer below, "Trishna" stars the simply ravishing Freida Pinto in Winterbottom's adaptation of Thomas Hardy's "Tess of the D'Urbervilles." Not sure when this will have a U.S. release or when I'll ever be able to see it, but here's hoping it will be soon, because it looks fantastic. Enjoy the trailer, and have a great weekend. Peace out.

A Friday report with "Wargames" madness, Danny Boyle and Aaron Sorkin

Something that perfect really shouldn't need any words from me, but just in case you somehow can't tell, that's Martin Freeman in his Bilbo Baggins costume for Peter Jackson's upcoming movie of "The Hobbit," making it pretty much pure bliss. 'Nuff said.

And in other movie news this morning, I've really lost all my zeal to complain about the need to remake every single thing that came out of the '80s, especially since it's so clear there's nothing I or anyone else can do to stop them.

When they keep claiming the careers of promising directors, however, it just keeps getting more and more distressing. First this week came the inexplicably bad/tame first trailer for "Hustle & Flow" director Craig Brewer's take on "Footloose," and now comes word that the '80s remake machine has claimed another victim in Seth Gordon.

Gordon, who made the sensational documentary "King of Kong" and in a few weeks will have "Horrible Bosses" starring Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day in theaters, has now signed on to direct a remake of "WarGames."

Think about that for a second. While "WarGames" was a perfectly fun little flick, was there an '80s movie that was more specifically of its time? I really can't see how you would recreate that ridiculously entertaining scenario in this even more threatening world, and there's another attempt to resurrect something similar that should serve as a cautionary tale, "Red Dawn."

Making a remake of that even sillier '80s minor treasure wouldn't really seem on the surface to be too difficult, but for the filmmakers it's turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. After all major filming for the movie starring Thor's Chris Hemsworth had been completed, whatever studio is behind this madness decided that China could no longer be the big bad because its potential audience is too large, so they had to make a last-minute change to North Korea, where for all I know they don't get many Hollywood movies at all.

And I tell you all that to simply say this: The "Red Dawn" remake still has no release date and may well just disappear straight to DVD, as hopefully this "WarGames" chicanery will too, if it happens at all.

OK, after that diatribe, there's two other bits of news out there that caught my eye this morning, starting with an "X-Men: First Class"-related casting shift for Danny Boyle's next movie.

"Trance," which the director will unfortunately most likely not make until after he directs the opening ceremonies for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, sounds like its right in the vein of his earlier work such as "Shallow Grave" (still my favorite Boyle flick) and "Trainspotting."

The flick is about an employee at an arthouse who teams with a group of criminals to steal a valuable piece. Though the heist succeeds, a blow to the head gives him amnesia and he is unable to remember where the art is hidden. Suspecting foul play, his co-conspirators hire a hypnotist to try and pull the secret from his mind.

Sounds like nothing but potentially great to me, and though Michael Fassbender was originally set to play the lead, it has now apparently been passed on to James McAvoy. Not really trading up or down there, but a lateral move, I'd say, so stay tuned for more on this project as soon as I can find it.

And finally today, it seems that when HBO gets is hands on talented directors/writers, it really doesn't want to let them go.

Aaron Sorkin already has a series going to pilot on the network this fall, "More as the Story Develops," which sounds eerily like "Sports Night" simply redone with a cable news show instead of a cable sports show (not that there's anything necessarily wrong with that.)

And now comes word that he's teaming up with "The Office" star John Kraskinski, who will produce and probably star, for a mini-series of eight episodes or so that springs from the book "Life at the Marmont" by Raymond R. Sarlot.

Given the Sunset Strip hotel's juicy history, it should give Sorkin plenty to work with. It's where the corpse of John Belushi was discovered in 1982, and among the personalities who lave lodged there since the 1930s are Hunter S. Thompson, Greta Garbo, Errol Flynn, Judy Garland and Lindsay Lohan.

Sounds like a whole lot of fun to me, and the casting alone should be a hoot. And if you'll excuse me now, I'm off to do some swimming before I take a chance on Jake Kasdan's "Bad Teacher," which I'm hoping against hope will deliver some pretty solid laughs. Peace out.

I always suspected Ronald McDonald was pretty much pure evil

An advisory word for anyone reading today: If you make it to the end, you'll find the most recent Oscar winner for Best Animated Short Film, the Froggie flick "Logorama," embedded at the bottom, and it's extremely worth watching (and it inspired the title of this post.) But before that ...

This may be rather amazing news to no one other than me and Bob Connally, but it seems that not only has Bruce Robinson apparently finished his movie of the Hunter S. Thompson novel "The Rum Diary," but it may even be headed for Cannes.

For anyone unfamiliar with the flick, it stars one Johnny Depp as an American journalist working for a newspaper in Puerto Rico who gets involved in a love triangle and surely all other kinds of trouble too. The movie also stars Aaron Eckhart, Amber Heard, Giovanni Ribisi and Reel Fanatic fave Richard Jenkins.

So who in the world is Bruce Robinson? Well, before pretty much disappearing for more than 20 years now, he managed to direct the ultimate buddy comedy of sorts, "Withnail & I," and the almost-as-good "How to Get Ahead in Advertising." He's been sorely missed around here, so any word of "The Rum Diary" finally moving towards one day maybe seeing a movie screen anywhere near my little corner of the world is certainly welcome news.

And in really good TV news, if you haven't been watching NBC's "Parenthood," you've really been missing out. Sure, it can be awfully schmaltzy, but it's also pretty epicly good storytelling, and Lauren Graham, Peter Krause and yes, even Dax Shepard are all great in it.

Well, now it seems the show, created by "Friday Night Lights" guider Jason Katims, is finally starting to pick up some mojo, winning its time slot Tuesday night for perhaps the first time, even managing to beat out a new episode of ABC's "The Good Wife."

Seriously, this is what good TV looks like, so catch it while you can, which looks more and more like it will be for at least two seasons.

And in much bigger news about TV people I really like, it seems that Aziz Ansari has just signed on to be one-half of what, at least around here, will make a comedy dream team with Danny McBride.

"Zombieland" director Ruben Fleischer has signed on to direct an action-comedy called "30 Minutes Or Less" as his next project, and now those two - my favorite two comedians working today, in case you missed the hint - have signed on as the leads.

Written by Michael Diliberti and Matthew Sullivan, the script revolves around a junior high history teacher (Ansari) and a pizza-delivery man (McBride) who are forced to rob a bank when one of them is strapped to a bomb vest.

And in a final bit of news before we get to the promised movie, now that I'm reupping with HBO this week in time to watch the premiere of David Simon's post-Katrina series "Treme" this Sunday, it seems they're determined to never let me go again.

Along with series coming from all kinds of top-shelf directors (Martin Scorsese, Kathyrn Bigelow and Lee Daniels, among them), HBO has now signed "School of Rock" and "Freaks and Geeks" scribe Mike White for a new series that sounds just about perfect to me.

Laura Dern (remember her?) will star in "Enlightened" as "a self-destructive woman who has a revelatory experience at a treatment center and becomes determined to live an enlightened life." That already sounds funny to me, and the show has received a 10-episode pickup and will begin filming this summer.

And you may remember that Laura Dern did her best work in years in the HBO movie "Recount" (which was somehow written by "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Gilmore Girls" veteran Danny Strong) as dragon woman Katherine Harris.

OK, as promised, anyone who bothered to stick around (or perhaps skipped) until the end today deserves a reward, so here goes. Like most of the world, I just assumed that Nick Park's latest Wallace & Gromit flick, "Wallace & Gromit in a Matter of Loaf and Death," was gonna win the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film, but it lost to something called "Logorama," made by Frenchies François Alaux and Hervé de Crécy. Subtle? Nah. But this glimpse of the secret lives of the advertising mascots who truly run our lives is wickedly funny, especially the inhabitants of the zoo. Having now watched this and the latest Wallace & Gromit offering, I deem this a worthy winner by a nose. Enjoy the flick embedded below, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday. Peace out.

Logorama from Marc Altshuler - Human Music on Vimeo.

" I gave him like a traditional African name, O.J." - brace yourself for Bruno

Actually, the funniest thing I could find out there that's not about Sacha Baron Cohen is that an NBC affiliate in Boston - Jay Leno's hometown - is refusing to air his upcoming five-day-a-week primetime show, saying that an hour of its local news would simply attract more viewers at 10 p.m.

Here's hoping that starts a movement. Now, I really have nothing against Mr. Leno personally, but I haven't found him to be anything approaching funny for many a year now, and I just can't imagine who would want to tune in for five hours a week of him "interviewing" people. That's simply overkill on an epic scale, and it must be stopped now.

And in other news before I get to the main attraction, there's evidence that two movies I wasn't sure would ever get made are actually getting started. First and most exciting comes news that principal photography started in late March for "Withnail and I" director Bruce Robinson's take on Hunter S. Thompson's first novel, "The Rum Diary." I had heard rumors that Johnny Depp would be in for this for what seems like years, which he is, but I still wasn't sure it would ever really come together.

The story is an autobiographical one about Thompson's days as a newspaper reporter in Puerto Rico, and it's attracted a great little cast to surround Mr. Depp. Richard Jenkins (resounding huzzah!) will play Depp's editor at the San Juan Star and Aaron Eckhart will play a businessman involved in shady property deals. Round it all off with young Amber Heard as Eckhart's fiancee who catches Depp's eye, and you've certainly got something juicy in the works.

The second flick is one that might only appeal to me when it's finished, but I really like Noah Baumbach's unfiltered fountain of dysfunction, and I'm glad he's still working even though just about everyone (except me) just crapped all over "Margot at the Wedding."

Production began last week in Los Angeles on writer/director Baumbach's as-yet-untitled next film, which will, rather amazingly, star Ben Stiller.

The story, conceived by Baumbach and his much prettier half, Jennifer Jason Leigh, is about a man (Stiller) who's at a crossroads in his life and ends up housesitting at his brother's L.A. home, where he begins pitching woo to his brother's assistant, an aspiring singer played by Greta Gerwig. That doesn't sound all that promising on paper, but I really like Baumbach's claustrophobic style of filmmaking, so I'll definitely check out what he comes up with here.

OK, on to the main event. I've posted videos on here before that were certainly "not safe for work," but certainly BE WARNED THIS TIME. It shouldn't be terribly surprising to anyone that what Sacha Baron Cohen has cooked up for his second feature film as the rather seriously gay fashion reporter "Bruno" will be just about as offensive as imaginable, but I'm not sure any more words from me can really prepare you for this. Just please, seriously, make sure no one's standing behind you when you watch this trailer, which includes, among other things, a naked dominatrix and a whole lot of laughs.

Enjoy, and please, please, please go see Greg Mottola's "Adventureland" this weekend (as I will Saturday afternoon) so it doesn't simply just get flattened by "Fast & Furious." Peace out.

Bruno - International Red Band Trailer | Movies & TV | SPIKE.com

Looking for the next "Arrested Development"?

"Nothing for 40 years in the business, then my son graduates from college, goes to work for Price Waterhouse and boom!"
- The ever-humble Richard Jenkins on his much-deserved Oscar nomination for "The Visitor"

As for the headline of this post, it comes from the lead of a Variety story on Imagine and its move back into TV comedy. As anyone who's seen "Arrested Development" knows, however, there could only ever be one show quite that madly entertaining.

That said, any effort to bring actually funny comedies to Fall TV is welcome in this little corner of the world, especially since I just assumed it would pretty much be a victim of the recent writers' strike.

What "Arrested Development" producer Brian Grazer was actually talking about that led to Variety's little bit of hyperbole does indeed sound like it could fit that bill, especially since it comes one half of the creative team behind "Gilmore Girls" (and not the half that created the unqualified disaster "The Return of Jezebel James.")

Daniel Palladino will be the main writer for a sitcom loosely based on Grazer's father, who Grazer said was "a lawyer with a slightly questionable moral compass." The show will be called "The Chairman of Chatsworth," so keep your eyes out for it.

Michael Gambon peruses "The Book of Eli"

I think the reason I just can't get too much into apocalyptic movies is that, once they're over, the world never really does end (not that I'm looking forward to that or anything), but I'm gonna give the genre at least one more chance for "The Book of Eli," for several reasons.

First and foremost, it's the very welcome return to feature film directing for the Hughes Brothers, Allen and Albert, who have been out of the movie game for far too long.

Secondly, with the new addition of Michael Gambon (a k a Albus Dumbledore the second), it's acquiring a first-rate cast. Denzel Washington plays the titular Eli in what the IMDB describes as a "post-apocalyptic Western, in which a lone man fights his way across America in order to protect a sacred book that holds the secrets to saving humankind." Gambon will play one half of a "strange couple that holds onto old traditions," and Gary Oldman's in on this somehow too.

But most of all I'm just happy to see the Hughes working on a big-time film again (with this one tentatively set for release next January), because they showed so much promise before pretty much disappearing after 2001's "From Hell."

Will Johnny Depp really write "The Rum Diary"?

Speaking of a director who is soon (hopefully) to make a welcome return after an even longer absence, the adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's "The Rum Diary" to star Johnny Depp and be directed by Bruce Robinson indeed appears to be back on again.

Robinson, as you may or may not remember, made the simply brilliant "Withnail and I" in 1987 and only two films since (neither of which I have seen.) I just assumed that "The Rum Diary" project, based on Thompson's semi-autobiographical novel about a young journalist working in Puerto Rico in the 1950s, was buried somewhere in deep development, but it hit the wire again this morning.

The latest bit of news is that Amber Heard (Dale Denton's just-about-jailbait girlfriend in "Pineapple Express") is about to sign on to play the female lead, which will put her in the middle of a love triangle between Depp's Paul Kemp and a fellow journalist.

That all sounds good to me, but it will sound so much better if this ever comes close to becoming an actual movie, and I'll certainly tell you if it does.

Who watches the Watchmen?

I've recently started re-reading Alan Moore and Robert Gibson's "Watchmen" graphic novel again to get psyched up for the movie, and I can report that it more than stands the test of time. As I've lugged it around town to read over lunch, no less than three strangers (all dudes, of course) have come up to me to tell me how much they love the book, and I have to say I share that devotion.

And I'm reasonably confident that Zack Snyder's feature film, when it comes out March 6, will be a real winner. All I know for sure so far is that the viral marketing machine has certainly been efficient, with the video below about the Keene Act to suppress masked vigilante justice being the most recent bit of promotion. Enjoy it, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday. Peace out.