Dog days or flick finds? What to expect from the movies of August

Starting off with some funny, the banner above that welcomed the cast of "Community" back to the set this week for the filming of season three, and was tweeted by star Joel McHale, pretty much perfectly captures the comic spirit of the show, as do two of its upcoming multi-episode guest stars.

In season three, the great Michael Kenneth Williams, aka Omar from "The Wire," will join the show as Greendale's new biology teacher (I'm laughing at that already), and in potentially even better casting, John Goodman will play the vice dean of the School of Air Conditioning Repair, the only program at Greendale that gets any kind of good recognition.

Great news all that, and keep an eye out for the return of "Community" on Sept. 22, but here today its otherwise all about the movie slate for August, a month that gets a bad rap, but still often delivers some comedies that are, if you'll forgive the truly groan-worthy pun, august. Here's a look at some of what's coming up in the next month.

Aug. 5: "The Change-Up"
For a truly funny guy, Jason Bateman has managed to make some seriously wretched "comedies" since "Arrested Development" ended, and it certainly doesn't look like this frat-boy "Freaky Friday" of sorts also starring "Green Lantern" Ryan Reynolds will do anything to change that course.

Aug. 5: "Rise of the Planet of the Apes"
When exactly did the term "prequel" become the go-to idea when movie producers are lacking anything resembling an original thought? I can't pinpoint it, but even with engaging stars such as James Franco and Freida Pinto (from "Slumdog Millionaire"), I really can't see this one as being anything but one of the most unintentionally funny movies of this summer.

Aug. 10: "The Help"
In what I think will be one of the gigantic sleeper hits for the rest of this year, Emma Stone leads the cast of this flick based on the very popular novel by Kathyrn Stockett, which I read and mostly enjoyed. She plays Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, an awkward Southern socialite who organizes the black maids of 1960's Jackson, Miss., led in the movie by Viola Davis, to tell their stories.

Aug. 12: "30 Minutes or Less"
For that perfect combination of clever and just plain crude, director Ruben Fleischer's follow-up to "Zombieland" should be the flick to look out for this August. In it, Jesse Eisenberg gets a bomb strapped to his chest by unsavory characters Danny McBride and Nick Swardson and is forced to rob a bank. And hijinks will surely ensue.

Aug. 19: "One Day"
I've probably seen the trailer for this flick starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess more than any other this summer, but that hasn't made it look any more appealing. Granted, I'm not the target audience for romantic comedies like this one about two college friends who agree to meet for one day each year of their lives. It is, however, from "An Education" director Lone Scherfig, so here's hoping I'm wrong about this one and it turns out to somehow be a winner.

Aug. 26: "Our Idiot Brother":
If the entire secret to making funny movies would be simply to stock them with funny people, this flick somehow starring Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, Emily Mortimer, Adam Scott and Rashida Jones would be an automatic success. And if director Jesse Peretz lets Rudd be truly funny as the titular "Idiot," I'm betting it will be.

Aug. 31: "The Debt":
By far the most serious wide-release movie of the month could also be a surprisingly big hit, with Joel Madden directing an espionage thriller about a trio of retired Mossad agents (Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson and Ciaran Hinds) who find a celebrated 1966 mission in which they tracked down a Nazi war criminal called into question. Exactly my kind of spy games.

Wednesday news, of Spike Lee, Errol Morris and a small clip show

Actually, let's start with the photo above, which I'm sure everyone can tell is a photo of Woody Allen and Penelope Cruz on the set of his new film, "The Bop Decameron," in Rome. Why? Because I always like seeing Penelope Cruz, and with Woody's "Midnight in Paris" being my second-favorite movie so far of 2011 (behind only Thomas McCarthy's "Win Win"), you can certainly say I'm psyched to see what he cooks up on the next stop of his late-in-life European tour.

And after that, though the news about Spike Lee returning in a big way may be a bit old now, so am I, and besides, to me it's easily the biggest story of the week, and there's something new to report about his "Oldboy" remake.

Before he makes that, in better news, Mr. Lee is apparently already at work on a low-budget flick that will have him playing Mookie once again. Think for a minute about just how good that could be. The movie, called "Red Hook Summer," is about "an adult from Atlanta who comes and spends the summer in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, NY."

That doesn't say a whole lot about where this might go, but as Lee fans will certainly know, the last time he made a big splash in Brooklyn in a very hot summer was with a little movie called "Do the Right Thing," so certainly stay tuned for more on this as soon as I can find out.

And Mr. Lee, apparently eager to get busy after his too-long hiatus from making big-budget feature films, has also signed on to direct Mandate Pictures' "Oldboy" remake, and there's good news today about how that might just come together.

Twitchfilm was the first to correctly report that Mr. Lee was going to direct this (the best way it could happen, since there's clearly no way to stop it), and the site is now reporting that Josh Brolin is being pursued for the main role. Without spoiling too much for anyone who somehow hasn't seen the original (do so, please!), he would play the American version of Oh-Dae Su, who is locked in a hotel room for 15 years before he finally gets to seek revenge on his unknown captors.

Perfect casting there, I'd say, so here's hoping it actually happens.

And there's other news out there this morning about another of my favorite directors who likes to move between the worlds of documentary and feature films, Errol Morris. In theaters in at least some corners of the world, he'll soon have a new documentary, "Tabloid," with the rather juicy subject matter of a model who allegedly kidnapped a Mormon to sex him up. I'm sure it's all more complicated than that, and it's just a great match for Morris.

For his next project, however, he'll be venturing into the world of feature films with a movie about cryogenics based on a the book "We Froze the First Man" by Robert F. Nelson and a "This American Life" segment titled "You're Cold as Ice." For me, Morris has always been at his best when he delves into the truly odd, as with "Mr. Death" and "Fast, Cheap and Out of Control," so this should be a real treat.

And now comes word that Paul Rudd has signed on to play the lead in this as-yet-untitled flick. It's unclear yet if he'll play the first man to be cryogenically preserved or Nelson, who helped invent the technology in the 1960s. Either way, this should be nothing but fun, so stay tuned.

OK, now on to the videos, and where better to start than with something new from Studio Ghibli, especially since, in Japan at least, it's coming out very soon. "From Up on Poppy Hill," directed by Goro Miyazaki from a screenplay by his father, one Hayao Miyazaki, it tells the story of a group of Yokahama teens who try to save their school's clubhouse from being torn down in preparation for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. The real treat from Studio Ghibli will be "Porco Rosso 2," which the elder Miyazaki is at work on now, but in the meantime enjoy this teaser for his son's flick, which looks like a real winner too.



As far as the clips go, it's almost all about cartoons here today, but that's the way I like it, and I'm the author here, so deal with it. Next up comes the most thorough trailer I've seen yet for "The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn." I still say that Tintin just looks way too modern in this, but it should still be a pretty good Christmas gift from Steven Spielberg to finish up this year. Enjoy.



OK, I know this weekend is all about "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2," and I'll certainly go see that, probably on Friday, but there's also a "Winnie the Pooh" movie opening this weekend, and even though I don't have any little kids to drag with me, I think I'll sneak in to see that, too. After all, with two or three new songs from Zooey Deschanel and a good, old-fashioned story about Pooh and all his friends, what's not to like? Enjoy this trailer, and don't be afraid to unleash your inner little kid this weekend.



And where better to end up on a Wednesday morning than with a free movie, especially when it's "Repo Man," not to be confused with that "Repo Men" flick from a couple of years ago. That's right, this is the one with Harry Dean Stanton, Emilio Esteves and all kinds of punky fun, so enjoy it, and have a perfectly endurable Wednesday. Peace out.

First look at Meryl Streep as the Iron lady and, oh yeah, Sarah Palin too

No, none of those are either Sarah Palin, Meryl Streep or Margaret Thatcher, but the dwarves are what really make "The Hobbit" my favorite of Tolkein's novels, so I couldn't resist. They actually are, in full costme from Peter Jackson's upcoming flick, the dwarves Dori (Mark Hadlow), Nori (Jed Brophy) and Ori (Adam Brown). Bully.

And before we get into the two videos that make the title, there's a bit of news about what exactly Judd Apatow's next directing effort will look like, and since it involves veryfunnywoman Melissa McCarthy, here it is.

The flick, fortunately apparently known as "This is Forty," picks up five years after "Knocked Up" and looks at the lives of Debbie and Pete, played by Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd. And joining them along with McCarthy will be "Knocked Up" vet Charlene Yi (always very funny), "Bridesmaids" co-star Chris O'Dowd, Lena Dunham and Albert Brooks, among others.

Here's what I know: O’Dowd and Dunham will play employees at the record label that Pete now runs, while McCarthy will play the Mom of "Super 8" star Ryan Lee, whose character attends the same school that Pete and Debbie’s kids (aka Judd Apatow's kids) go to.

I'm fairly certain I've never used the word ironic correctly, but it's at least odd that Apatow, who pretty much launched the R-rated comedy renaissance we're now enjoying (mostly), risks being left behind with more serious work such as "Funny People" (which I really didn't care for much at all) and possibly now this. But since he's stocking this new one, tentatively due out in June 2012, with genuinely funny people, here's hoping it's a winner. Stay tuned ...

And now on to, as promised, a couple of trailers, the first of which features Meryl Streep doing, not surprisingly, a rather uncanny impression of Margaret Thatcher. Her performance in "The Iron Lady," which chronicles Thatcher's rise to power and is due out in the U.S. of A. on Dec. 16, will surely do more than that, but for now enjoy this brief glimpse and then stick around for, yes, Sarah Palin.


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As pure, shameless propaganda, which I always respect, this trailer for "The Undefeated," in some theaters now and apparently expanding, is pretty first-rate. I'll keep most of the commentary to myself and just let you decide, except for this: when "DAUGHTER," "WIFE," "MOTHER" and then "WARRIOR" came on the screen, I kept waiting for "QUITTER" to be added to the end, but I guess they left that part out. Anyways, "enjoy" the trailer, and have a perfectly great weekend. Peace out.

The Undefeated Teaser Trailer from Dain Valverde on Vimeo.

Summer 2011 movie preview

Though summer doesn't officially begin for at least a few weeks, in movie terms it got off to a faster-than-expected start last week with "Fast Five," and is now set to really explode with the release of the first big superhero flick.

So, here are the 10-plus movies I'm most looking forward to seeing between now and the end of August, with a couple of caveats. First of all, these are only my picks. It won't have every superhero movie coming out (there are four, if you're wondering) or pirates, and though there is an animated sequel, it's not "Cars 2." And second, these are only the movies likely to open where I live, so though I really want to see the British flick "Submarine," you won't find it here today.

And with that, in order of release (which may, of course, change), here goes:

May 6: "Thor"
I'm thinking I'll skip "Captain America" unless it just gets some really big buzz, but this is one "Avengers" lead-in I'm definitely in for. Directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring Chris Hemsworth as the warrior cast out of Asgard and sent down to Earth, I've been hearing that, like the first "Iron Man" flick, this will be one with almost as brain as brawn (and hopefully a lot of fun, too.)

May 13: "Bridesmaids"
I know women are funny, and you most likely do, too. So why is it so rare for a group of truly funny chicks to get to star in a movie where they get to really act up? That's a topic for another day, but this time out veryfunnywoman Kristen Wiig, who wrote the script, is the maid of honor planning a rambunctious bachelorette party and more that should just be a hoot to watch.

May 26: "The Hangover Part II" and "Kung Fu Panda 2"
At least there's a week off between "Bridesmaids" and the sequel to the movie that's pretty much its dude equivalent. The first "Hangover" was nothing but funny, so especially when Ken Jeong turns up again as Zach Galifianakis' "plus one," this one should be, too. And as for "Kung Fu Panda 2," I'm thinking it will share an impressive trait with its predecessor: Being an animated movie that's better than the Pixar movie it shares the same year with (Yes, I thought "Kung Fu Panda" was better than "Wall-E," and am certain the sequel will be superior to "Cars 2.")

June 3: "X-Men: First Class"
I doubt director Matthew Vaughn can re-create the genuine comic-book spirit that pervaded "Kick-Ass," and probably won't really try, but as the trailers have gotten better, I'm more and more convinced that this tale of the cold-war origins of Magneto, Professor X and other mutants (though a lot less than in "X-3") should be a real winner.

June 10: "Super 8"
If it's what I'm expecting, than director J.J. Abrams' flick about a group of kids who make an otherworldly discovery should harken back to the kinds of movies that Steven Spielberg made back in the '80s, and that would be just fine with me.

July 8: "Horrible Bosses"
The workplace revenge comedy is a truly tired gambit, but since this comes from "King of Kong" director Seth Gordon and stars Charlie Day of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," I'm hoping this tale of three friends who conspire to murder their bosses will be dark enough to be a summer treat.

July  15: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2"
Though "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" and "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" (two movies you'll notice didn't make this list) should give it a run for the money, the end of Harry Potter's long saga (in 2D for me) should be the box office champ this summer, and just a much better movie than either of those. Bring it on.

July 24: "Cowboys and Aliens" and "Crazy, Stupid, Love"
With the most "Snakes on a Plane" title of this summer, as long as Jon Favreau's flick indeed delivers plenty of the titular cowboys (Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford among them) battling alien invaders, how can you really go wrong? Also this week, Steve Carell makes his first post-"Office" movie appearance in "Crazy, Stupid, Love" as a dude facing divorce who gets advice on pitching woo from ladies' man Ryan Gosling. The thought of the two of them together already makes me laugh.


Aug. 12: "30 Minutes or Less" and "The Help"
"30 Minutes or Less," Ruben Fleischer's follow-up to the sublime "Zombieland," stars Jesse Eisenberg and Aziz Ansari as two dudes forced to rob a bank. I'm betting on very funny. And in genuine counterprogramming, "The Help," based on Kathyrn Stockett's novel about a Southern woman who leads a group of Mississippi house maids to tell their stories, should finally make a big star out of Emma Stone.

Aug. 26: "Our Idiot Brother"
With Paul Rudd unleashed to be genuinely funny as the titular idiot and Zooey Deschanel, Elizabeth Banks and Rashida Jones all tarring as his sisters, I'm hoping this will somehow be as good as the sum of its parts.

So, there you have it. A few more than 10, and I'm still sure I left some out, so please feel free to add any I may have snubbed, and have a perfectly pleasant Tuesday. Peace out.

If at first you succeed ... plus a big Wednesday clip show

Well, if you're Aaron Sorkin, if you've done something exactly right the first time (even if it was severely under appreciated), just do it all over again almost exactly the same way.

Does anyone remember "Sports Night"? It was a truly great Sorkin show that ran for a couple of years simultaneously (I think) with the early years of "The West Wing." As you may remember, it was about a sports news show hosted by two dudes and produced by two women, with another producer as a rival for one of the hosts' affections.

Just believe me, it was a whole heck of a lot better than I'm making it sound here. In the original version, the two hosts were Josh Charles and Peter Krause, the producer was Felicity Huffman and the associate producer was the sorely-missed Sabrina Lloyd. I frankly can't remember who played the other part, but you get the idea.

Now, fast forward about 10 years or so, and Sorkin has sold something called "More as This Story Develops" to HBO, and with the exception that it's about a news rather than sports show, it sounds like pretty much exactly the same thing, with pretty much the same cast dynamic taking shape (and although it may sound like I'm complaining, I'm really not ... "Sports Night" was fantastic.)

This time around, if all the pieces fall into shape, Jeff Daniels will play the host, Marisa Tomei the producer (and following the "Sports Night" model, probably unrequited love interest), Alison Pill of "Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World" will play the associate producer and Olivia Munn will play a business news reporter and undoubtedly rival for Daniels' affections. I could be wrong of course, but that certainly does sound familiar, no?

Either way, I'll definitely be tuning in when this hits HBO, perhaps sometime this fall.

And in just a bit of movie news, it seems that Russell Crowe is reuniting with the source of his best movie so far, "L.A. Confidential," for his first directing effort.

Crowe would also star in "77," based on a James Ellroy script that is apparently being rewritten by someone else. Best as I can tell, per Deadline, it's about the unsolved murder of an LAPD officer, and the nationally televised shootout in South Central L.A. between the Symbionese Liberation Army and the LAPD, as seen through the eyes of two police partners, one black and one white.

Sounds like typically juicy Ellroy stuff, so stay tuned. And now, on to the clips ...

OK, today, these are pretty much in descending order of funny until the end, a plug for tonight's premiere of the 15th (really!?!?) season of "South Park." First up, courtesy of The Onion, comes an interview with the screenwriter of "Fast Five," 5-year-old Chris Morgan. Now, I have nothing against the Fast and Furious flicks (that Tokyo one is some pretty seriously satisfying Saturday afternoon viewing for a half hour or so), but this is seriously funny. Enjoy.


Today Now! Interviews The 5-Year-Old Screenwriter Of "Fast Five"

Next up is the first red band trailer for Kristen Wiig's "Bridesmaids," courtesy of Myspace, and having watched it, I'm now certain the ladies are going to bring a whole lot of funny when this drops May 13. You do have to feel more than a little bad for Melissa McCarthy, who is apparently going to be one running fat joke in the flick, but she does at least seem to be in on the joke. Enjoy.



OK, these next two I'm a little more dubious about, but I like the stars of both, so here goes. Paul Rudd, who can be really funny when he allows himself to be (just trust me, "Role Models" is a minor comedy classic), stars as the titular idiot in "Our Idiot Brother," set to come out Aug. 16. Zooey Deschanel, Elizabeth Banks and Rashida Jones all play his sisters, so here's hoping this will be a whole lot funnier than I'm expecting. Enjoy.



And for the last of our trailers, there isn't a comedienne working today who deserves a great starring role more than Anna Faris. She's just a natural wit (and yes, I even love "House Bunny"), but I don't think the role she's been waiting for arrives with "What's Your Number?", for which the titular question seems to be addressing how many rom-com cliches can be stacked into one two-minute or so trailer. Oh well. "Enjoy" this trailer, and then stick around for a much better look back at her career so far, courtesy of the New Yorker.





And finally today, Trey Parker, Matt Stone and friends are indeed back tonight, and only those guys could combine Steve Jobs, the iPad and ... well, just watch the clip to see. I'll just say it's expectedly both disgusting and simply hilarious. "South Park" returns to Comedy Central (and my DVR) tonight at 10 p.m. Enjoy the clip, and have a perfectly passable Wednesday. Peace out.

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If you read one thing today ...

Actually, it's not this, but I'll lead the way. If you never watched Starz's short-lived but rather seriously good "Party Down," you really missed out.

The often wickedly funny show was available for a time streaming on Netflix, and a quick check reveals that that's the case once again. If you have that, put it in your queue, but be warned, this has something to offend just about everyone.

The show, about a group of way underemployed wannabe actors/writers working as caterers, sprang from the minds of "Veronica Mars" creator Rob Thomas and veryfunnyguy Paul Rudd, among others. And now, those two plus stars Adam Scott, Jane Lynch (who obviously moved on to bigger, but not better shows), Ken Marino, Lizzy Caplan, Martin Starr, Ryan Hansen and others have all contributed to Details magazine's "oral history" of the show, and though you might rightly think nine pages is a lot to read about a show that barely lasted two seasons, I guarantee that this piece charting the series' "rise" and all-too-rapid fall is just a great read.

And in case you missed out on the show entirely (which apparently many, many people did), here's the trailer, which in itself is already full of laughs. Enjoy, and stick around for a video that's even better.



OK, finally today (short report, granted), there's probably no way that Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Commando" is appropriate viewing for a 9-year-old boy, but it's really impossible to hard with the enthusiasm that this Tanzanian kid has for it. It was put together by the African community development group Mamahope, and before it hits you with something to think about at the end, just enjoy Alex giving this spirited shot-by-shot breakdown of the big action scene, in which he rather excitedly explains, "Everything's ready for fighting!" Enjoy, and have a perfectly passable Wednesday. Peace out.

For Friday, a small cache of clips

Actually, there's some pretty big movie news out there, too, so let's get right to it: Judd Apatow is finally going to direct another movie, and even though it will have a familiar feel, it sounds like potentially a lot of fun.

Not a lot of details are available yet about the still-titled "Untitled Judd Apatow Project," but we do now know it will focus on the characters played by Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann (aka Mrs. Apatow) in "Knocked Up."

Despite the potential sequel/prequel feel to this, it could still be great, because they were easily the two most interest characters in that flick (and here's hoping that Katherine Heigl has NOTHING to do with this.) And besides, in a tidbit Apatow shared with HitFix, he promised it wouldn't be either of the dirty words at the beginning of this paragraph. Here's what he had to say:

"It is neither. It is just a story from Pete and Debbie's current life. People really responded to their characters and problems. I felt like there was a lot of ground I could explore with them, so we'll be shooting in July and will come out the following June."

June 1, 2012, to be exact, but given the increasing rarity of Apatow bothering to write and direct anything anymore, this is definitely something worth keeping an eye on.

OK, enough of that, on to the clips, and where better to start than with the seriously funny first full theatrical trailer for "Paul"? I didn't realize until this morning that, along with starring as the two geeks at the story's core, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost also wrote the script for this Greg Mottola flick due out March 18, but that just makes this all the more promising. And with "Your Highness" due shortly after this, it should be a better-than-usual Spring for good comedies. Enjoy the trailer.



If I knew what the next "Ice Age" movie - which if I'm not mistaken will be the fourth one - was about, I'd probably tell you, but since I haven't seen any one of them after No. 1, it just really doesn't interest me all that much. I can tell you, however, that it's called "Ice Age: Continental Drift", and it's set to come out July 13. And even better is this animated short film from Blue Sky Studios which explains exactly how Scrat, that crazy squirrel just trying to get a nut, was actually responsible for splitting the Earth into seven continents. Enjoy the clip.



Best of all today, however, is this short preview for season three of "Parks and Recreation," which is FINALLY coming back to NBC's Thursday night lineup at 9:30 p.m. on Jan. 20 (does that mean the end of "Outsourced"? One can only hope.) While not quite as funny as "Community," it still has a fun and funky spirit that nicely sets it apart from the sitcom pack, and with Adam Scott and Rob Lowe now regular players, this should just be even more fun. And with that, I'm out, for a movie weekend that will include a second viewing of "Black Swan" (because I just don't think I can bring myself to watch "Season of the Witch" or "Country Strong") and then most likely the Macon Film Guild's offering of the Cold War spy flick "Farewell" on Sunday. Peace out.

What will Wes Anderson's next movie look like?

I guess it shouldn't be too much of a surprise that with Wes Anderson about to get busy on a new movie, there are plenty of stars ready to sign up for it. And in even better news, unlike the disastrous "Darjeeling Limited," it seems like this one might even have a proper story behind it.

Anderson is expected to start shooting his next film, "Moonrise Kingdom," in the spring, and he's apparently in negotiations with regular partner in crime and funniest man alive Bill Murray, plus Frances McDormand, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton and even Bruce Willis.

And even though he's again working with co-writer Roman Coppola, who was with him for "Darjeeling Limited" (sorry to keep bringing it up, but I really hated that movie), it indeed sounds like this flick will have something actually going on in it.

In a story set in the late 1960s, two young adults fall in love and run away, and leaders in their New England town go in search of them. Norton will play a scout leader who brings his charges on a search. Willis is in talks to play the town sheriff who’s also looking, and who is having an affair with the missing girl’s mother, the role McDormand is in talks to play. Murray will play the girl’s father, who has his own issues.

Oooohh, drama. Since Anderson has managed to make four movies I have nothing but love for with "Bottle Rocket," "Rushmore," "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "Fantastic Mr. Fox" (and also two real duds, but enough about that), I'll definitely be keeping track of this one, so stay tuned for more on this soon.

A fairly short report today because, after all, I am on vacation (but, of course, watching movies, since I'm at the Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival.) The only other real bit of news before a couple of clips today is something that just makes me giddy: The Muppets movie taking shape painfully slowly is finally starting to line up some seriously funny people.

Along with writing the movie, Jason Segel, of course, gets to cast himself as the main human in this operation, and it's already been announced that he'll be joined by Amy Adams, as his girlfriend (rough gig for Segel, eh?), and Chris Cooper as the big bad, an oil man who wants to drill below the Muppets' theater. But now surrounding them is when things are starting to get really good.

Lady Gaga will make an appearance (why not?), and her entourage will be made up of veryfunnyguys Ed Helms, John Krasinski and Eric Overstreet (a recent Emmy winner, and deservedly so, for "Modern Family"). Also in the mix will be Jack Black, Paul Rudd and "Community" uberfunnyman Donald Glover in unspecified roles, Jane Lynch as a prison guard and Danny Trejo as her prisoner (why a prison guard would have a personal prisoner I don't know, but anything can happen with the Muppets!), and Zach Galifianakis as Hobo Joe.

Whew. Is that enough funny for you? The flick, being directed by James Bobin of "Flight of the Conchords," isn't set to come out until two Christmases from now, but you can already count me as thoroughly psyched for this.

OK, that's all the real news I have today, so here are couple of clips to wrap things up. First up comes the first trailer I've seen for "Barney's Version," based on the comic novel by Mordechai Richler and, thankfully, starring Paul Giamatti. The story is about the life of the titular Barney, or at least his version of it, which includes three wives, two continents and any number of possibly true adventures. It's probably much better than I'm making it sound here. Enjoy the trailer and keep an eye out for this in at least some corners of the world Jan. 14.

And I'll leave you today with the trailer for a magical movie I saw last night here in Rehoboth, a 2009 Indian movie titled "Harishchandrachi Factory." Directed by Paresh Mokashi, it's a humorous look at the life of impossible dreamer Dabasaheb Phalke who, in 1913, made "Raja Harishchandra," thus launching India's feature film industry. It really is a movie made for people who love movies, and though I have no idea if it's coming to DVD in the Western world any time soon, definitely see it if you get a chance. Unfortunately, this trailer was the only one I could find that has the English subtitles, but it also has a truly unfortunate voiceover. It still gives you an idea of the spirit of this great movie, so enjoy the clip, and have a great weekend (and if you happen to live in Macon, of course, please go see the Macon Film Guild's presentation of my favorite flick of 2010, "Winter's Bone," Sunday at 2, 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. at the Douglass Theatre.) Peace out.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the Riddler? Bring it on!

Rumors are, after all, exactly that, but when they're this good, you just have to embrace them and hope that somehow makes them true.

Hollywoodlife.com is reporting that, after the two joked about it on the set of "Inception," aka the best candidate to save us from this thoroughly wretched summer (though if you've been here before, you know I did enjoy both "Get Him to the Greek" and "Splice"), director Christopher Nolan now has Joseph Gordon-Levitt on his short list to play the villain in the next Batman movie, the Riddler. Take a second to absorb just how cool that would be if it turns out to be true.

Now, keep in mind that any new Batman movie is two years away and is still being written by David S. Goyer, but if you look at Gordon-Levitt's work so far, you'll hopefully understand just how cool this could be. I'm not as high on "500 Days of Summer" as many people I know, but it's a pleasant enough little movie, and he's much better in either "Brick" or "The Lookout," if you're in the market for a movie rental.

And easily the weirdest thing about this of all? I had forgotten but saw somewhere that Nolan's last big bad, the late Heath Ledger, and Gordon-Levitt co-starred in the much-better-than-it-should-be teen comedy "10 Things I Hate About You." Not sure why, but I just for some reason find that a little eerie ...

OK, enough of that, because it's a day full of actual casting news, good and bad, so let's get to it. And, being me, I'll just start with the bad and get it over with. If you've seen "Tropic Thunder," I have to hope you liked it, because even though some of it was indeed overkill (way too much Jack Black), it was mostly savagely funny (and you'll have to forgive me if it offends you, but that "full retard" bit will always make me laugh out loud.)

Unfortunately, now comes word that easily the least funny part of that movie, Tom Cruise's movie producer Les Grossman, is now somehow getting his own feature-length movie (but, if Marmaduke can get his own movie, I guess I shouldn't be surprised by anything anymore.) You may remember him from "Tropic Thunder" with more fondness than I do, but I just thought it was a tremendous amount of bluster signifying very little funny. This is being produced by Cruise and Ben Stiller, and this statement from Stiller announcing it did little to convince me they'll actually come up with anything funny here:

“Les Grossman’s life story is an inspiring tale of the human class struggle to achieve greatness against all odds. He has assured me he plans to quote ‘F**king kill the sh*t out of this movie and make Citizen f**king Kane look like a piece of crap home movie by the time we are done.’ I am honored to be working with him.”

Whatever comes of all this will apparently be written up by "Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World" co-screenwriter Michael Bacall, but that still doesn't give me too much confidence.

OK, enough negativity, because it really is far outweighed by the good casting news out there today. First up comes word that two of Jack Donaghy's girlfriends will be among the ladies I like watching in movies joining veryfunnyman Paul Rudd in what sounds like a really fun little flick.

Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, Emily Mortimer and Rashida Jones will star opposite Paul Rudd in "My Idiot Brother," a comedy being directed Jesse Peretz. With that much funny on the female side, can this possibly go wrong?

The movie, according to the Hollywood Reporter, centers on an idealist (Rudd) dealing with his over¬bearing mother who crashes at the homes of his three ambitious sisters and (this last part actually scares me a bit) "brings truth, happiness and a sunny disposition into their lives while also wreaking havoc." No matter how sappy that sounds, I'm still betting on funny too. Here's a bit more about the characters, per THR:

Banks, Deschanel and Mortimer play the sisters. Banks is a career-driven single about to get her big break in journalism after spending years writing about accessories at a fashion magazine; Deschanel is a bisexual whose flakiness and lies are getting in the way of moving forward with her caring, responsible girlfriend (Jones); and Mortimer plays a Park Slope mom too worried about having the perfect life and children to notice that her marriage is falling apart.

That all sounds good to me, and the few people who may have visited here before probably know that I have an inordinate amount of affection for the Paul Rudd movie "Role Models," which makes this next bit of casting news even better.

It seems that Steve Zahn (currently starring on "Treme"), Peter Dinklage (easily my favorite of the little people) and Ryan Kwanten (Jason on "True Blood") will star in something called "Knights of Badassdom." Yes, really.

The horror/comedy being directed by Joe Lynch is about a group of live-action role players who just happen to conjure up a demon from hell by mistake and have to deal with the consequences. That had me laughing already, and just to make it better, here's what Kwanten had to say about it to Access Hollywood:

"... it's like 'Shaun of the Dead' meets 'Role Models.' It's that real black comedy that I really love."

Nothing like name-checking two movies I love too to get me hooked. OK, from here on out today, it's simply about a trio of videos that happened to catch my eye. "True Blood" does indeed return this Sunday at 9 p.m., and you can count me as thoroughly psyched for it. I've read all of Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse novels now, and though the show takes all kinds of liberties from her work, they almost always pan out. Here's a clip from season three that features one of its new characters, the werewolf Alcide Herveaux, being played by Joe Manganiello, and Anna Paquin's Sookie. Enjoy.



For some reason not until an hour or so after I've gone to bed (it is after all, a school night), AMC will be premiering the first episode of a promising new series called "Rubicon" this Sunday at 11 p.m. (thank God for the DVR.) I'm a sucker for almost anything with a grand conspiracy, and when you make it political, I'm even more in. "Rubicon," which will be a 12-part series and eventually settle in behind the new season of "Mad Men" starting on Aug. 1, is about a fourth branch of American government that really runs everything around us, as far as I can tell from this trailer (just to clarify, "Mad Men" actually returns on July 25, and not a minute too soon, but "Rubicon" won't get it's proper launch until the following week.) Enjoy.



And finally, and in so many ways saving the very best for last, I found this little comedy nugget in the latest Roger Ebert newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. It costs like $5 for a year, but it's thoroughly worth it, especially when he puts in things as good as "David Mamet's Lost Masterpieces of Pornography." With a title like that, I'm not sure it needs any more embellishment from me, but know it's hosted "Masterpiece Theater"-style by Ricky Jay and somehow stars Kristen Bell and Ed O'Neill. Yes, really, and on the funny or die scale, this is definitely funny. Enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday. Peace out.

For Thursday, no laughing matter in baseball, great movie news and a cache of funny clips

I suppose I would actually get a few people to read this if I ever bothered to make it single entries rather than a fairly free-flowing outpouring of whatever enters my mind at 6 in the morning, but than it would stop being fun, so what then would be the point?

But I, like many people, was watching baseball on ESPN last night (actually out of the corner of my eye while watching something else on Netflix, about the most multitasking I can actually do) when Armando Galarraga of the Detroit Tigers was absolutely robbed and jobbed out of a perfect game.

That was the lead story on NPR when I woke up this morning, so it's obviously already a lot bigger than baseball, which it should be. For me, however, as angry as it initially made me, it was Galarraga's classy reaction to the obviously blown umpiring call that sticks with me: "No one is perfect."

He's certainly right there, and it is, in my own warped way, while I'll always be opposed to the introduction of replay in baseball (though I'd be willing to bet Galarraga would vote for in an instant.) Baseball is and always be a sport with as many opportunities for error as grace, and that all goes into what makes it the world's second-most beautiful game (second to, only of course, soccer.) It's far preferable that these errors be committed by the players than the umpires charged with regulating the game, but even in extreme cases like this one, think about it for a second.

Do we really want the game to be stopped every time there's a close call on the base path or anywhere in the field? That slippery slope will eventually lead to recalls on balls and strikes, and games that could easily go on for five hours or more. It would simply disrupt the natural flow of the game, which often, yes, does involve the extremely human act of umpiring, and would be a disaster.

OK, enough about baseball in what is supposed to be a movie site, especially since it's a day full of good news about directors I really like.

To start, does anyone remember Whit Stillman? He made his debut with what lingers as one of my favorite movies in "Metropolitan," a very dryly witty look at the lives of wealthy young NYC socialites (it's a lot better than I'm making it sound here, and rather amazingly, you can watch in on Hulu.) He followed that up with two movies that were not quite as good but still entertaining, "Barcelona" and "The Last Days of Disco," and then pretty much disappeared, at least until now.

He tried to make a comeback a couple of years ago with an adaptation of Christopher Buckley's satirical novel "Little Green Men," but like many ventures in our brave new world, that fizzled fast. Now, however, it seems like he's actually going to be able to make a movie, and it will be called "Damsels in Distress." Here's a synopsis:

[The picture] centers on a group of college girls who take in a new student and teach her their own misguided ways of helping people. Lily, a new student at Seven Oaks University, winds up filling in with a dynamic and highly individualistic group of girls, addicted to the elegance of the past: Heather, Violet and Rose all volunteer at the campus Suicide Prevention Center, convinced that musical dance, sharp clothes and good hygiene — the Dior perfume “Diorissimo” is their trademark — can all contribute to staving off the inevitable self-destructive impulses that follow hard on the heels of failed college romances. Despite their sophisticated talk and savvy use of perfume, the girls are plagued by Cupid’s arrows and must adjust their psyches to the onset of amour.

That all sounds really funny to me already, and casting is apparently going on now, with eyes set on a five-week July shoot in NYC, so it looks like, yes, we will actually get another movie out of Whit Stillman.

In other news, I didn't know that Spike Lee was working on a sequel to his sensational Katrina documentary "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts," but it certainly makes sense, especially since those same poor folks could find their land covered in oil any day now. Never being one for half-measures, however, it now seems that Lee is also now filming in Haiti, to draw obvious parallels between what happened there and in N'awlins.

The fate of Haiti is worthy of a Spike Lee documentary on its own, but whatever he comes up with here should be as painful to watch as it should be thoroughly engaging (and frankly, thank God that he keeps doing things like this as the attention of the rest of us understandably turns elsewhere.)

And, in a final bit before we get to the, I promise, extremely silly clips, it seems that director Sam Mendes has very, very wisely turned his back on some kind of "Wizard of Oz" prequel, sequel or whatever the hell it might be called "Oz the Great and Powerful" to instead direct a movie based on the Ian McEwan short novel "On Chesil Beach," a minor McEwan work but one of my favorites, and even better, "An Education" star Carey Mulligan will apparently star in it (even with Robert Downey Jr. as the wizard, there's just no way you could have gotten me to watch that "Oz" crap.)

As for "On Chesil Beach," it's about a couple on their honeymoon on the titular beach in the 1960s, and like Mendes' best movies so far, it explores the psychological barriers to and burdens of intimacy. Again, I'm surely not summing that up very well, but trust me, it's great stuff, and Mulligan as one half of the couple at its center will surely be fantastic.

OK, you have my solemn promise that from here on out today, it will be nothing but silly in the clips. First up comes something that needs absolutely no more description from me: Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert vs. Conan O'Brien and Andy Richter in a fatal danceoff. Enjoy.



I was already convinced that "Get Him to the Greek" is gonna be exactly my kind of raunchy funny with just enough heart, but just in case anyone else needs some convincing here, courtesy of Funny or Die (I'll take the former with this) are the movie's first five minutes. As were the best parts of Nicholas Stoller's "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," it's a pretty spot-on hit on our celebrity culture, and I think that even if you can't stand Russell Brand (which I can, because he's just friggin' funny), this is still gonna be a winner. Enjoy.

Get Him To The Greek Opening - watch more funny videos

Next up comes the second trailer for one I'm not as sure about, Jay Roach's remake of the sublime French farce "Diner de Cons," which is now called "Dinner for Schmucks" and stars Steve Carell and Paul Rudd (and as you'll see from the trailer, Zach Galifianakis too.) This has a high hurdle to jump in being compared to the original flick by Francis Veber, but it at least looks like Carell will be in full geek mode when this comes out July 23. Enjoy.



Well, these last two are probably more silly than funny, but Ben Kingsley trying out for a part in "Transformers 3"? Why not? (Sorry to break it to you, Sir Ben, but I'm afraid you somehow missed out on this to Victoria's Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whitely - say what you want about Michael Bay, but the man does certainly at least have a type.) Enjoy the clip and compare it to Heidi Montag's apparently earnest "Transformers" audition tape he's spoofing, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday. Peace out.

Sir Ben Kingsley Shows Up Heidi Montag - watch more funny videos

Chuck vs. a fourth season: We all win

OK, I've seen it from enough sources now, but first at the Hollywood Reporter, that "Chuck" will in fact be back for a fourth season that I'm just gonna accept it as the truth and smile about it.

Details are still sketchy, but it looks like a fourth season will have 13 episodes, and that sounds about right to me. No word yet on when exactly we might see this, but I'd imagine next January would make sense.

The official word won't come until Monday morning, I think, when NBC unveils its upfront, but like I said, take this at least as a done deal. And now that NBC and the fans have shown "Chuck" the love, like I've said here once before, it's time for the show's creators to give us something in return: An epicly good, over-the-top big bad for season four.

Though the show has been as funny as ever this year, with only 13 episodes coming in the next season (and precious few left this year!), the opportunity is certainly there for some focus when it comes to the storytelling and a proper villain for Team Bartowski to set its sights on. Is that really too much to ask?

But enough quibbling on what is, after all, a great day. In the bigger picture, I think I can perhaps take my extremely tiny bit of credit now that my strategy of not watching one single network reality show since the first season of "The Real World" has finally paid off.

The big four are still gearing up, but what I've seen so far is a lot of scripted series ("Wilde Kingdom" from "Arrested Development" creator Mitch Hurwitz at Fox, Michael Chiklis in ABC's superhero show "No Ordinary Family" and NO ROCKFORD FILES at NBC) and not much reality TV at all. I'm probably dreaming here, but if that cancer is indeed finally starting to go into remission, it's a banner day for us all.

And in just a bit of movie news, there are a couple of tidbits out there today that are truly delightful for fans of animation and good comedy.

"Kung Fu Panda" was already my favorite animated movie of 2008 (yes, better than "Wall-E"), and now the 2011 sequel "Kung Fu Panda: The Kaboom of Doom" is getting some script touching up from ... Charlie Kaufman?

Yes, really. He's apparently put about two weeks into reworking the script, probably not enough to turn it into "Being Kung Fu Panda," but hopefully still enough to make it at least a bit of a trip.

And after directing the severely underrated "Role Models" (rent that already and be ready to laugh) and originating with "The State," Ken Wain is now reuniting with Paul Rudd and even bringing Jennifer Aniston along too for his next comedy, "Wanderlust."

In a story that sounds a heck of a lot like "Lost in America," the duo will play a married couple who flee the big city for life on a hippie commune, or something like that. Rudd is always money when it comes to funny, and I can certainly take Jennifer Aniston when she picks smart comedies, and this one written by Wain and fellow "The State" vet Ken Marino (the duo behind "Role Models") certainly should be. Stay tuned ...

And with that, I'll cut it short today, because I've started to at least slightly take on the clutter in my living room by offering some of my books for sale at Amazon. I've sold three since Wednesday, but that of course means I know have to actually send them out. I'll leave you with this prediction: "Iron Man 2" will win the box office this week, and by a pretty wide margin over "Robin Hood." Just a hunch. Have a perfectly great weekend. Peace out.

Three or four things that hopefully bring the funny this morning

You know, I get a lot of movie reviews that cross my desk (well, appear on my computer, anyway), but rarely these days do I get one that surprises me as much what we got re "Date Night."

It was about noon Tuesday, and there were so far no reviews, never a good sign. But then exactly one showed up, from McClatchy Newspapers critic Christopher Kelly, and he gave it three-and-a-half stars. Exaggerating? Surely, but he made a good case, and I still have enough faith in critics that, even though I was on the fence about this one, I'm now gonna give it a couple hours or so of my Saturday afternoon. And later today, courtesy of Collider.com, come eight or so clips that show the movie starring Tina Fey and Steve Carell (and somehow James Franco, J.B. Smoove and even Taraji P. Henson, a definite Reel Fanatic favorite, too) should have more than a little funny going for it.

But before that today, there were a few other things that caught my eye this morning or perhaps yesterday (speed has never been all that important to me.) First up, what has to be the best premise for a movie I've heard in the last few years or so.

Though mi hermano lives in the land of 10,000 (or however many there actually are) lakes, I have never had the pleasure of going to the Minnesota State Fair or any other such Midwestern variant, and so have never experienced firsthand the glory of butter sculpture, but it has always fascinated me. I would not, however, have been clever enough to somehow tie it to the 2008 presidential election, as a screenwriter named Jason Micallef has apparently done.

The movie, "Butter," will star Jennifer Garner as the wife of a reigning butter-sculpting champion who attempts to follow in his footsteps after he steps down, only to have her path to power blocked by a young black girl with prodigious butter-sculpting talents (I'm laughing at that already.) The rival will be played by a young lady named Yara Shahidi, and Kate Hudson and funny guy Rob Corddry will factor into this somehow too.

Genuine political satire, which this certainly seems to be, is a rapidly dying art, so definitely keep your eyes on this flick set to begin filming later this month. (And for a pitch-perfect recent example of the genre, rent "In the Loop" if you somehow haven't seen it yet.)

And next up today comes up the first trailer I know of for "Dinner for Schmucks," which, given the Steve Carell connection, I have to presume will debut this weekend before "Date Night." The French movie it's based on "Le Diner De Cons," has sat near the top of my netflix queue for many months now, and having just checked, I find it's now actually No. 1, so I'm gonna return something today in hopes of getting it back in time for that to arrive in my mailbox Saturday afternoon. In the meantime, the remake starring Carell and Paul Rudd is set to drop in July, and judging from the trailer, the Jay Roach flick should deliver some pretty serious funny. Enjoy the trailer.



And coincidentally enough, George Lucas has apparently given Seth Green and Matthew Senreich, creators of "Robot Chicken," the green light to pen some further "Star Wars" adventures with a comic touch. That's pretty amazing news given that I just assumed Lucas had no sense of humor at all (or rather the kind that found Jar Jar to be funny), but in the meantime, I laughed right out loud at this "Star Wars"/"Arrested Development" mashup, and hopefully you will too. The best thing about this poster created four years ago or so to promote the Fox show when it was actually still on the air instead of just a constant reunion rumor has to be David Cross, but it's all pretty darn funny. Enjoy.

To wrap things up today, why not something from a movie that actually comes out this week, rather than a show that sadly died quite a while ago? As promised, here are about 7 minutes or so of "Date Night," which will be getting my $6.50 or so Saturday afternoon. Enjoy, and have a perfectly pain-free Wednesday. Peace out.

Now that's how you start a Tuesday morning

If, like me, you consume your music chiefly through Itunes and you're slowly losing what's left of your mind, here's a trick: If you know an album is coming out from one of your favorite acts, order it like a month in advance and, if you're like me, you'll forget all about it until it starts to download, making almost for a surprise.

That's what happened this morning with "I Learned the Hard Way" by the sublime Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings. If you're unfamiliar with what they're cooking up, there really are only two or three groups in the world I can recommend higher. If you saw "Up in the Air," it was Sharon and her guys who performed that sensational rendition of "This Land Is Your Land," which really should be the U.S. national anthem (and therefore sung when the Baltimore Orioles - finally! - begin the season today with Kevin Millwood on the mound against the Devil Rays, go O's!)

Deceptively simple and throwback, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings play soul music the way its meant to be played, but with orchestration that makes the sound all their own. Check it out already.

After that today, it's all about three projects by up-and-coming directors who have already managed to direct movies I love, so are well worth keeping an eye on.

First up, in probably the most high-profile project, Peter Sollett has been tapped (apparently knocking out Joss Whedon) to direct a movie based on the graphic novel series "Runaways," not to be confused with "The Runaways" starring Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning. This movie is apparently about a group of young people who discover that, drat, their parents just happen to be archvillians. The titular "Runaways" band together to discover their own powers and fight their own parents, and as silly as that sounds, it should be really great in Sollett's hands.

His best movie, for those who might forget, is easily "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist," a movie about bridge-and-tunnel Jersey kids starring Michael Cera and Kat Dennings that's way better than it ever deserves to be (if you haven't seen it, just trust me and rent it already.) Almost as good, though on a much smaller scale, was Sollett's first movie, "Raising Victor Vargas." What the two movies have in common is a real ear for the lives of young people - without the skeeviness of, say, Larry Clark - something which should make "Runaways" a real fun ride once this all comes together.

And come to think of it, "Nick and Norah" was a lot like "Date Night" in its "After Hours"-style look at New York City, but why in the world is that flick starring Steve Carell and Tina Fey the only wide-release movie opening this week? Sheesh. But I digress ...

Next up today is a new project from easily one of the funniest guys around today, David Wain. When his last movie, "Role Models," came out, I took a pass, and that was a real mistake. Starring the alwaysveryfunny Paul Rudd and Elizabeth Banks (and that McLovin kid too), the flick about live-action role playing is a whole lot funnier than most "comedies" that come out nowadays, and I'm certainly glad I finally managed to catch up with it on DVD.

Now, Wain is about to sign on to direct something called "Too Cool to Be Forgotten," also based on a graphic novel, this one by someone named Alex Robinson.

The premise, unfortunately, sounds awfully tired, but in the hands of Wain (a veteran of "The State," in case your doubting his comedy chops), I'm still betting on funny here. It's about a middle-aged man who, after trying hypnosis to stop smoking, is somehow transported back to 1985, where he must relive his awkward teen years. And if you wanna sew up the funny right now, why not sign Rudd for this right away?

And finally (well, almost), comes the craziest story of the day. I rented Lone Scherfig's "An Education" over the weekend (that's not the crazy part, because that movie just gets better and better with age.) It's even better than I remembered, and easily the best ensemble cast movie of 2009.

For her next project, she's lined Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess to star in the rom-com "One Day," based on the novel by David Nicholls (author, by the way, of the screenplay for the extremely underrated "Starter for 10," rent that one right away too.) That story is about two college friends who agree to meet once a year for twenty years, but that's not the crazy either.

Here it comes. After that, and apparently in the belief that Kathyrn Bigelow shouldn't be the only chica in the world who gets to direct action movies (huzzah to that), she'll set her sights on something called "Mob Girl," to star known thespian Jessica Biel. I told you it was coming.

Based on Teresa Carpenter's nonfiction work of the same name, it will apparently be about mob mistress Arlyne Brickman, who infiltrated the mafia before turning over evidence to the state that led to the arrest and incarceration of boss Anthony Scarpati. That all sounds great to me, but Jessica Biel? Really? Stay tuned ...

And really finally, you can consider this the launch of my official push to change the U.S. national anthem, and before you dismiss that as thoroughly crazy too, at least first listen to this clip of Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings performing "This Land Is Your Land" live. I defy you to find it wouldn't be a lot more fun to sing before ball games, and it's just a better song, performed perfectly. And with that, have a perfectly passable Tuesday. Peace out.

Bryan Singer making return to the X-Men? Bring it on

After watching the purely craptastic "X-Men: The Last Stand" and the entirely mediocre "Wolverine," I wasn't sure there was anything that would be able to bring me back to the franchise at this point, but Bryan Singer - rather amazingly - is about to do it.

Stealing more than a bit of the thunder from the Los Angeles premiere of "Avatar" Wednesday night, Singer let slip to a MySpace television crew that he had indeed signed on the previous day to direct "X-Men: First Class," which should be nothing but cool.

Why? Well, Singer, of course, directed the first two X-Men movies, and while "X-Men" is a perfectly fine superhero movie, "X2: X-Men United" is one of the very best in the genre, right up there in my book with "Spider-Man 2."

Here's exactly what Singer had to say about the matter: "I'm ramping up to do a movie called 'Jack the Giant Killer' at Warner Bros, and I just yesterday signed a deal to do an 'X-Men: First Class Origins' picture, which is kind of cool. I'm very excited."

I have yet to see any actual confirmation of this from the trades, but since I'm at least willing to assume the man isn't flat-out lying, I have to take this as true and great news, made all the more unlikely given how Singer spurned Fox once already to direct "Superman Returns" instead of the third X-Men flick (which I don't think even he could have saved.

But what exactly is "X-Men: First Class"? Well, it comes from a script by "Chuck" co-creator Josh Schwartz, and will look at the early days of our mutant friends at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. Schwartz has yet to do anything wrong on TV in my book (yes, I even watch "Gossip Girl," and "Chuck" is simply fantastic), so this certainly now seems to be in all the right hands.

Is Disney killing achingly bad comedies?

Probably not, but John Travolta and Robin Williams certainly have to be wondering if that's the studio's new mission.

First this week (or maybe last, I really don't know) came news that new Disney boss Rich Ross (not to be confused with the Miami rapper Rick Ross, I suppose) had terminated a virus called "Wedding Banned" (get it?), which would have been a "comedy" starring Williams about a divorced couple who kidnap their daughter on her wedding day in order to prevent her from making the same mistakes they did. Even though the always very funny Anna Faris and Diane Keaton (as daughter and mother, I presume) were set to co-star in this, it's probably best that it never sees the light of day.

And now, Disney has also stepped in to stop the "Wild Hogs" plague too. "Wild Hogs 2: Bachelor Ride," would have brought back Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence and even poor William H. Macy for a production that would have launched next summer, with Walt Becker coming back to direct again, but Disney has halted all that for good.

Like I said, I don't really believe this puts even a dent in the bad comedy factory, but it has to at least be some kind of progress, right?

"The Freshman," the tv show?

My fellow cubicle slave John Parnell likes to quote from "The Freshman" all the time. Remember that one? I do, and though it was a genuinely funny flick, most of its charm came from the truly oddball pairing of Marlon Brando and Matthew Broderick in the tale of a NYU freshman who gets involved with the mob (and fine dining and exotic lizards, of course.)

Now it seems that USA, which has unleashed a flurry of original shows in the past few years ("Burn Notice" is one I always tune in for, and it will soon return for a fourth season), has latched on to this idea for a series, with the movie's writer/director, Andrew Bergman, on board to at least write the series adaptation.

Can this work? I seriously doubt it, because like I said, most of the charm of the original came from the Brando/Broderick combo, and obviously that can never happen again. USA, however, has proven me wrong before, so certainly keep your eyes on this one.

OK, what else? Well, I suppose I could have led with this, but it's easily only the second-best superhero movie news of the day. Below is the first trailer for Jon Favreau's "Iron Man 2," set to start the movie summer May 7, with Robert Downey Jr. back as our hero and Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow, Mickey Rourke and even Sam Rockwell and Scarlett Johansson somehow coming along too. As you can see from the trailer, Tony Stark is certainly every bit as brash as we remember, so here's hoping he's just as funny too. Rourke as Whiplash, at least, should make a first-rate big bad. Enjoy.



Next up comes two clips for flicks that promise to bring the funny, but about the first oddity, at least, I have my doubts. "Hot Tub Time Machine," judging from the trailer below, will almost certainly be as goofy as it title promises when it drops in March, starring John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Michael Cera's bff and even Darryl from "The Office," aka Craig Robinson. It's directed by "Grosse Pointe Blank" writer Steve Pink and, as you'll see from the trailer, at least returns Cusack to the ski slopes like "Better off Dead," so I'll at least give it a chance. Enjoy.

And finally, courtesy of MTV comes a look at what should be a better comedy, "Dinner for Schmucks," a remake of the Froggy flick "Le Diner de Cons," which has sat near the top of my Netflix list for a while now but somehow hasn't yet made its way into my mailbox. The title is pretty self-explanatory, and as you'll find out from the clip, Steve Carell is the titular schmuck in this flick being directed by Jay Roach and coming out in July. Enjoy, and have a perfectly endurable Thursday. Peace out.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Finally, two remakes I can certainly support

You know, the Coens really don't have the best of luck with remakes, which is probably all for the best, since their original ideas usually work so well.

I think I'm just about the only person in the world who almost unconditionally liked their take on "The Ladykillers" (it probably helped that I know absolutely nothing about the original), but now they're getting back in the remake game with source material that's just about perfectly fitted to their view of world, methinks.

I really like Southern writer Charles Portis, especially his novel "Dog of the South," but he's certainly best known for "True Grit," the novel turned into the John Wayne-starring flick that the Coens are set to remake as perhaps their next movie.

The Dude himself, Jeff Bridges, has already signed on to play U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn (I can already picture that, and it's nothing but cool in my mind), and now it seems that Josh Brolin and Matt Damon are about to sign on for parts too in the flick set to begin filming in March for a late 2010 release.

Damon would play the lawman (played by Glen Campbell in the original) who teams with Cogburn and a 14-year-old girl to track her father's killer into hostile Indian territory. And Brolin would, natch, play the killer. Sounds just about perfect to me so far.

Definitely keep your eyes on that one.

In another potentially very funny remake of a movie for which I haven't seen the French original ("Le Diner Des Cons"), Ron Livingston - the "Office Space" star who I don't think I've seen in a movie in many years now - has just joined the already very solid cast of the 2010 flick "Dinner for Schmucks."

In the flick, already set to star Paul Rudd, Steve Carell and Zach Galifianakis, a group of friends invites the biggest losers they can find to dinner to ridicule them, and surely there will be some comeuppance delivered. I have no idea who the schmucks are here, but I'd put my money on Carell and Galifianakis, and I'll certainly be there when this Jay Roach flick hits theaters in July.

All I have except for that is the first five minutes of "Boondock Saints II." I don't know if the sequel is going to get (or has already gotten) any kind of theatrical release or is headed straight to DVD (or when that would happen.) If you know, please share.

It's been a long time since I've seen the original, but it's certainly a lot of fun, and it's just nice to see the McManus brothers and the great Billy Connolly back in this clip. And I'm fairly certain those rather sensational legs you see at the end belong to Darla, Julie Benz herself. Enjoy, and have a perfectly passable Tuesday. Peace out.