A Thursday report just chock full of good movie news

There really is just a ton of news out there this morning about filmmakers and actors I like, so let's just jump right into it.

First up, in perhaps the biggest and best of it all, Kathryn Bigelow is set to reunite with "The Hurt Locker" scribe Mark Boal for "Triple Frontier," which is described as a "Traffic"-like drug parable set in the notorious border zone between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, and Bigelow says the film will use the same "raw and visceral visual style" as "The Hurt Locker."

Except for the "Traffic" reference (I can really think of very few movies that are more overrated than that one), that all sounds great to me. It's a perfectly gritty subject for her, and if I were still a betting man, I think there's been a groundswell of activity behind "The Hurt Locker" that just might bring it the big Oscar prize on March 7, which would be just fine with me (though, of course, I'm still standing behind Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds," which I've seen four times now.)

And in a related note, Jeremy Renner, also an Oscar nominee for his performance in "The Hurt Locker," has set up his next project, and being a devoted fan of all things Baltimore, it certainly sounds intriguing to me. To be directed by James McTeigue of "V for Vendetta" and star Renner and Ewan McGregor, "Raven" is sort of based on Edgar Allen Poe's poem, but set in 1850's Baltimore with a serial killer's crimes mirroring Poe's work (and it damn well better be shot in 2010 Baltimore, too.) Renner probably won't win on Oscar night, but as far as male performers go, he and Christoph Waltz (who we'll hear about in just a few paragraphs) certainly had the "breakthrough" performances of 2009, and he's definitely got my attention.

Duncan Jones garnering stellar cast for next flick

I've somehow managed to once again con my way into a press pass to the upcoming Atlanta Film Festival 365, and if they screen even one movie as good as Duncan Jones' debut "Moon," which I squeezed into there last year, it will be well worth the trip.

So it's certainly good news that Jeffrey Wright has now signed for Jones' next flick, "Source Code," joining the already-announced Jake Gyllenhaal, Vera Farmiga and Michelle Monaghan.

Best as I can tell, the flick is a sci-fi thriller involving time continuums in some way. Gyllenhaal is, of course, the main star, who's investigating a train bombing and finds himself in the body of one of the victims, reliving the incident until he can find out who's behind it. Farmiga will play Gyllenhaal's handler, and Monaghan a woman on the train with whom the man he becomes is romantically involved. All I know about Wright's involvement is that he plays a helicopter pilot of some kind, but I do know that with this director and cast, this is one I'll definitely be keeping my eyes on.

Cobain biopic in the works

Just about the last thing the world needs is another musician biopic, but I think I'd certainly at least turn out for one about Kurt Cobain. In fact, I can't believe this hasn't been done already.

Oren Moverman, director of "The Messenger" (which I haven't seen yet, but everyone tells me I should), is about to sign on to direct and rewrite David Benoiff's script for the project, using as at least a partial source Charles R. Cross' 2001 biography, "Heavier than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain."

No word yet on who would play Cobain, but I'd have to say Jared Leto, assuming he isn't just way too strung out by now, would be a natural, or maybe Billy Crudup. And as to why I'd want to see this, well, Cobain's certainly a fascinating subject, and I can still remember when my roomie at the time, Cory, told me what had happened to him. We had just seen the Breeders open for Nirvana about six months earlier at Atlanta's now-defunct Omni. A real bummer, but this seems to be in the right hands, and could make for a really compelling flick.

Waltz sets next project as another mean bastard

I've been hearing talk lately that Christopher Plummer, nominated for "The Last Station," just might pull the upset on Oscar night and nab the Best Supporting Actor award that everyone has been assuming would go to Christoph Waltz for his work as the Jew hunter Hans Landa in "Inglourious Basterds."

If that's the case, it would be a genuine travesty, because anyone who's seen QT's flick (and if you somehow haven't, why the heck not?) knows, he just takes over every scene he's in, and you can't take your eyes off him.

We'll just have to wait and see how that all turns out, but in the meantime comes word that he's in talks to star in "Water for Elephants" with Reese Witherspoon and a certain vampire dude you may have heard of named Robert Pattinson.

Based on the novel by Sara Gruen and to be directed by Francis Lawrence of "I am Legend," the story is about a Depression-era love triangle between a veterinary student (Pattinson) who joins a travelling circus and falls for the star performer (Witherspoon). Waltz would play the third angle, Witherspoon's husband, described as "a dangerous paranoid schizophrenic animal trainer who is as mean to his wife as he is to the circus creatures."

I'll watch Mr. Waltz in just about anything at this point - he's in Michel Gondry's upcoming "Green Hornet" with Seth Rogen, too, but I'd put my money on this flick being finished first - and especially in something that sounds this intriguing.

Carla Gugino set to run "Faster" with the Rock

You know, I really have no beef whatsoever with Dwayne Johnson. I'm sure he's a perfectly nice guy, but I'm not sure I've ever seen one of his movies. That said, putting the simply stunning (and just as talented) Carla Gugino in one of his flicks just might be enough to get me to buy a ticket.

She's come aboard the revenge thriller "Faster," being directed by George Tillman Jr., who made the mostly entertaining Biggie biopic "Notorious", and also starring The Rock, Billy Bob Thornton, Maggie Grace and Moon Bloodgood.

So, what's it about? Well, apparently, The Rock is an ex-con bent on avenging the death of his brother, murdered 10 years earlier when the two were double-crossed during a heist. Gugino will play the detective in charge of the investigation of the killing.

On second thought, I really can't see any way I will go see this, but I just really like Carla Gugino, so I'm just passing the news along 'Nuff said on that.

Whedon and Spurlock to harass poor Comic Con-goers
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I'm not sure why, but I just can't stand to even look at, much less listen to, Morgan Spurlock. I think it's because I also can't stand documentaries in which the filmmaker feels the need to make himself the star - exactly the wrong approach in my book - and no one except for maybe Michael Moore does this more than Spurlock. And, for that matter, Moore is just a much better filmmaker.

Now, however, it seems that Spurlock and Joss Whedon (because, with "Dollhouse" canceled I guess he just has nothing better to do) are teaming up to make a documentary about Comic Con, which I'd love to attend some day.

The duo will apparently follow their poor victims for three months leading up to this year's mega-geekfest in San Diego. I can't imagine anything good coming from any of this, but I've been wrong at least once before (and probably already today), so maybe I am about this too.

Whew. That certainly went on a lot longer than I intended when I woke up this morning, so anyone who actually made it this far deserves a reward. I'm not sure that the latest weekly installment of "Alice In Wonderland" featurettes really qualifies, but they've at least managed to keep them all entertaining, and there just something soothing about watching Helena Bonham Carter with the Red Queen's enormous head calling for a pig to rest her feet on. Enjoy, and have a perfectly enjoyable Thursday. Peace out.

A "Freaks and Geeks" reunion with Kristen Wiig? Yeah, I'll watch that.

Of all the comediennes working in movies today, none is more deserving of a starring role in a feature film than veryfunnywoman Kristen Wiig, and now she's about to get it thanks to "Freaks and Geeks" co-creators Judd Apatow and Paul Feig.

Though her Gilly on "Saturday Night Live" just makes me want to claw my own eyes out, she was sensationally funny last year in "Adventureland" and even better as the completely callous doctor in "Ghost Town" (if you somehow missed that rom-com of sorts starring Ricky Gervais and Tea Leoni, as most of the world seemingly did, do yourself a favor and rent it tonight - it's fairly great.) And now she's set to star in a now-untitled movie once called "Bridesmaids," to be directed by Feig and produced by Apatow. The movie will be about to two women battling to plan a friend's wedding party.

That sounds like exactly the kind of movie I never need to see, but with this crew and Wiig having co-written the script, I'll certainly at least give it a chance whenever this comes out.

After that, the best news out there today is that director Doug Liman - who way back in the day directed a little movie called "Swingers" - has set his eyes on something much more serious, the 1971 uprising at New York's Attica state prison (insert your own Attica! chant here.)

The four-day confrontation that was at least as much the fault of the screws as the prisoners themselves is certainly ripe material for a movie, and Liman has a personal connection to the project. His father, the late Arthur Liman, served as chief counsel to the New York state Special Commission on Attica Prison and co-authored the commission's report on the uprising.

He'll be working with a script from "Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire" scribe Geoffrey Fletcher, an Oscar nominee for that flick and I'd have to imagine the favorite to win Best Adapted Screenplay. The two of them toured the prison recently to prepare for this flick, and here's what Liman had to say about seeing the notorious "cellblock z" in a post on his blog:

The rioters never succeeded in taking over cellblock z where the most hardened criminals are kept in solitary confinement. Had they succeeded, the devil would really have been out of the bag. The “box” was not really a relevant part of our tour, but I would be lying if I didn't admit to a morbid curiosity that drew me into that building. It did not disappoint.

This is how our guide put it: when you fuck up you go to prison, when you fuck up in prison they send you to Attica, and when you fuck up in Attica, they send you to cell block z. Prisoners are only allowed out one at a time, they are let out one hour a day, they must be shackled at all times when out of their cells. Up on the third floor a prisoner was about to be moved. In the rest of the prison, the inmates walk around lightly guarded, and the warden knew many of them by name and they all exchanged hello how are yous. Not so in the “box”. It was like the movement of Hannibal Lecter and we were ushered into a food prep alcove until the inmate was clear. Everyone seemed scared of him.

That certainly sounds like some intense material to work with, so here's hoping he gets it right. And before then, we'll get to see "Fair Game," the movie he recently wrapped starring Naomi Watts as outed spy Valerie Plame and Sean Penn as her husband, Joseph Wilson, some time later this year.

And from here on out today, it's all about clips, first from surprise Oscar nominee "Secret of the Kells" and then, even better, a glimpse of "Glee," which is finally coming back to tv soon.

The more I see of "Secret of the Kells" the more I'm starting to love it, so I certainly hope it gets more than an arthouse release in mid-March. The simple animation style is rendered beautifully, as you'll see from this U.S. trailer and then, much better, six minutes of footage from the animated flick courtesy of Collider.com, for which I occasionally contribute. Enjoy.





I'm sure I'm very far from alone in thinking that "Glee" was the best show of last fall, so I just can't wait for it to finally return to Fox on April 13. And, frankly, I don't care how incredibly gay the show might get (and I'm sure it will just keep getting gayer), because it's simply so much fun too. In this promo for the welcome return, you get two choice Sue Sylvester quips from Jane Lynch, and be sure to watch it all the way through to see her new wardrobe choice. Perfection. Enjoy, and have a perfectly passable Wednesday. Peace out.

The three craziest rumors you'll hear ... well ... at least today

With a post like this, there's really no better place than to start with Quentin Tarantino, who, if he followed through on everything he mentioned in the media, would have one whale of a great movie canon by now (the one he really has is, of course, pretty darn good as it is.)

This appeared in a New York Daily News item titled "Brad Pitt doesn't smoke pot while acting; I don't smoke pot while directing," so certainly take it with more than a few grains of salt. Even if that headline is true (which I kinda doubt), I'd still have to believe he at least smokes up a bit when he comes up with his movie ideas, like this one he let slip in the Daily News piece:

"I'd like to do a Western. But rather than set it in Texas, have it in slavery times. With that subject that everybody is afraid to deal with. Let's shine that light on ourselves. You could do a ponderous history lesson of slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad. Or, you could make a movie that would be exciting. Do it as an adventure. A spaghetti Western that takes place during that time. And I would call it 'A Southern.'"

Now, he's mentioned making a movie about slavery before, but now that he's made World War II into some kind of crazy revenge fantasy about killing Hitler with "Inglourious Basterds" (and even managed to make it into my single favorite movie of 2009), I'd imagine anything's possible, so we'd better take even his craziest ideas a little seriously. A "Southern" that makes slavery "exciting"? I don't doubt he can do this, but whether he actually does or not ... stay tuned.

OK, these are actually coming in order of how much I'd like to see them happen, and just behind QT's madness comes a potentially fantastic collaboration between Nick Cave and Andy Serkis.

While on tour plugging his Ian Dury biopic "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll" (yes, I'll watch that, please), Serkis let slip that he's planning a motion-capture movie version of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's "The Threepenny Opera." Even better, Nick Cave is writing the screenplay with him, and will presumably have a big part in the music too.

The piece, which seems tailormade to Cave's rather odd brain, is based on "The Beggar's Opera," which tells the story of the sociopathic criminal Macheath, who marries the daughter of Mr. Peachum, who controls all the beggars in London. Peachum opposes the match and conspires to have Macheath hanged.

This has, of course, already been made into a movie once - as the simply dreadful "Mack the Knife" - so it's screaming out for a version that people can actually sit through without visibly cringing. Details to come if this actually all comes together, but for now, enjoy this rather sublime clip of Cave performing the song "Mack the Knife."



OK, with that, the goodwill ends, because the next two items fill me with nothing but bile (I did warn you.) It seems that Lars Von Trier, who I've never much cared for (his sole mission seems to be "shock" people into complete boredom, but I concede it's entirely possible I simply just don't get his flicks), ran into Martin Scorsese at the Berlin Film Festival and, perhaps drunk, crazy or both, has challenged the old man to something of a cinematic fist fight.

The story is more than a little odd, so bear with me. According to the Danish mag Echo, he has apparently "challenged" Scorsese to remake "Taxi Driver" (pause a minute or so and let that sink in), with Robert De Niro but also with several "obstacles" thrown in to make things "interesting," as Von Trier apparently did to fellow Danish filmmaker Jørgen Leth in his 2003 doco "Obstructions."

The idea of remaking "Taxi Driver" under any conditions would, I certainly at least hope, just make Scorsese laugh in Von Trier's face, but can you imagine this old dude jumping through all kinds of hurdles just to turn his signature movie into some kind of game? It's ludicrous to the point that it could actually be kind of fun if it were ever actually to happen, but even if I still were a betting man, I wouldn't touch this one with even the longest of odds.

Scorsese, however, apparently isn't immune to incredibly bad ideas. It's fairly certain now that his next movie will be "The Invention of Hugo Cabret," and since I've read that children's book (I read quite a few of those, actually), that makes me nothing but giddy. It's a magical tale about a young boy in Paris who lives in the wall of a train station, where he tends to the clocks, doing the work supposedly performed by his drunken uncle. In the course of the story he eventually encounters Georges Melies and his wild automatons, and it just gets better and better from there.

So, what could possibly be the bad in this? Well, also while in Berlin, Scorsese let it slip that this will be shot in 3D, because, well, I guess everything has to be that way now. Sheesh. Can't I just go to a movie without putting on a second set of glasses? Apparently not, but that's really all I have to say about that potential disaster, because I have to get ready for the job that somehow still pays me enough to keep the lights turned on. I'll leave you with this new teaser trailer for "Despicable Me," which at least looks like it will at least be a lot of fun when it drops this summer. Enjoy, and have a perfectly bearable Tuesday. Peace out.

So, what's the movie good enough to drag me back to the multiplex?

Before I get into any of that, what in the world is going on at HBO? With Martin Scorsese and Michael Mann already on the roster directing pilots for, respectively, "Boardwalk Empire" and "Luck," it now seems the network has even somehow managed to sign Kathyrn Bigelow too (and they'll have me back too if and when David Simon's New Orleans series "Treme" hits the air.)

I have no idea how they managed to snag Bigelow, but the material she's working with sounds fantastic, though about as different from "The Hurt Locker" as you could pretty much possibly get. Created by Broadway director John Logan, "The Miraculous Year" centers on a charismatic, self-destructive Broadway composer and his family in New York. Bigelow is so far on board as executive producer, but I'd have to imagine she'll at least direct the pilot for this too.

And man does that sound like something I'd tune in for every week.

But before I got distracted today, this was supposed to be about the movie that will finally drag me back to the multiplex to watch a new theater offering. I thought it might be "The Wolfman" or "Percy Jackson ... whatever that movie's called," but I just couldn't bring myself to do it with either of those.

The movie weekend was far from a loss, however, because I went to see "Crazy Heart" again, and I'm certainly glad I did. Though I liked it the first time, the story just seemed all-too-familiar, and that hindered my engagement with it. The second time around, that wasn't an issue, and I was able to dive into just how good a story it is, with sensational acting and even better music by Ryan Bingham (and I bought the soundtrack when I got home - if anyone's listening, this young man just might be able to save country music from itself.) I was thrilled to see a nearly sold out crowd of grownfolks at the 2:30 matinee, and hopefully the theater owners noticed ... we like to go to movies too!

But what will be the movie good enough to finally get me to watch a new release, only the third this year, after "Youth in Revolt" and "The Edge of Darkness"? It's Martin Scorsese's "Shutter Island," and I'm just thoroughly jazzed for it Saturday afternoon. The early reviews, while trying to be negative, have only amped up my excitement. I mean, really, a B horror movie directed with exceptional style and great pace, as they've all said? I'm definitely there.

And on that note, all I really have this Monday morning is a behind-the-scenes featurette for the flick courtesy of Comingsoon.net. I really don't see any possible way this movie won't just rock. Enjoy the clip, and have a perfectly passable Monday. Peace out.

Are the "Friday Nights Lights" about to go out? Plus, a treasure trove of trailers

Before I get into all that, I suppose congratulations of sorts are due to John Francis Daley, aka Sam Weir of "Freaks and Geeks" fame, because getting a job of any sort in this brave new world is certainly something to celebrate, but couldn't he have done better than this?

It seems that Sam Weir and writing partner Jonathan Goldstein have been hired to "reboot", "reimagine" or whatever the hell they call ruining perfectly fine movies these days "Vacation." This time out, Chevy Chase will return as Clark Griswold, but the main focus will be on son Rusty as he takes his own family on some kind of surely disastrous road trip.

All I can really say to that is a resounding sheesh, but if you're a fan of "Friday Night Lights" (and if not, how in the world?), it's a big day of news, both good and bad. Folks like me who don't get DirecTV will enjoy hearing that the show's fourth season is finally set to return to NBC beginning April 30, and I just can't wait to see what happens with coach Taylor at the new East Dillon High School.

At the same time, however, the always reliably TV-obsessed Michael Ausiello is reporting that the show's runners have been informed that the "Friday Night Lights" will go out for good after shooting wraps on the fifth season in June.

While I'll certainly be sad to see the best drama on television now (yes, really, better than "Mad Men" and anything you might come up with in my book) go, it does give Jason Katims and his fellow creators plenty of time to give this thing a proper ending. I certainly don't expect Connie Britton to remain unemployed for any long stretch of time, and it will be fun to see where she ends up next (and I'll definitely follow.)

And finally, in a final bit of good TV news before we dive into a sea of trailers, veryfunnyman Larry Charles has booked a new gig with CBS for a new pilot. Though perhaps best known for "Borat," Charles has for years done much funnier work with "Seinfeld" and then the even better "Curb Your Enthusiasm." For CBS, he'll team with frequent collaborator Ant Hines to create a show about a dad, played by Paul Kaye, who reenters the life of his now-famous daughter. I'm not sure Charles' truly caustic wit will fit at CBS, but I'll certainly tune in to find out.

OK, from here on out it's all about trailers (and a featurette too), and there are some great ones.

First up comes the first trailer I know of for "Get Him to the Greek," an offering from the Judd Apatow camp which stars Russell Brand in a continuation of his "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" character, Aldous Snow (along with the Dracula puppet show, the funniest thing about that flick.) The new movie, set to drop June 4, was created by Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller, and also stars Jonah Hill, who's charged with getting Brand's beyond debauched rock star to a gig at the titular Greek theater. Silly? Absolutely, but I'm betting on a lot of funny here too. Enjoy.



Next up comes also the first real trailer I know of for "Toy Story 3," which is sure to dominate the weekend when it opens June 18. In the third installment, the toys are (once again!) put in a tight spot and forced to escape, this time from a daycare center full of very eager rugrats. The plots for these just get more and more tired, but in the trailer below the moment when Ken meets Barbie at least shows director Lee Unkrich and crew have some inspired ideas in their bag. Enjoy.


Toy Story 3 Trailer 2 in HD

Trailer Park Movies | MySpace Video

Though he looks at least as creepy here as he did as Tim Burton's vision of Willy Wonka (which is, unfortunately, permanently seared on my brain), Johnny Depp appears to be having a lot more fun as the Mad Hatter in "Alice in Wonderland," so hopefully we will too when this comes out March 5. The best thing in this featurette is seeing the Mad Hatter take up his sword to join the battle with the forces of the Red Queen, just surreally fun. Enjoy.



And finally, I'm not sure what's craziest: That Nickelodeon's great animated series "Avatar: The Last Airbender" is now a live-action flick set to come out July 2, that both Dev Patel and Asif Mandvi of "The Daily Show" are in it and don't look entirely silly, that it's directed by M. Night Shyamalan or that it simply looks like it could be really great. Decide for yourself. Enjoy, have a great weekend, and please, if you live in Macon, go see either of our Oscar offerings this week, "Crazy Heart" and/or "A Single Man." I've seen them both, and while "Crazy Heart" is worth watching for the great performance of The Dude, Tom Ford's "A Single Man" is simply sensational, with Colin Firth at his best. Peace out.

Muppets, Wild Things and other news that just makes me smile

Anyone who's been here before (and there are, amazingly, a few of you) knows that I have a serious thing for children's stories meant to equally entertain young-at-heart "adults," and on that front there's two bits of good news to share.

Starting with Spike Jonze and "Where the Wild Things Are," there wasn't a bigger Oscar snub in my mind than the fact his take on the classic children's story by Maurice Sendak didn't get a Best Picture nomination, even with the field this year expanded to 10 flicks.

Heck, I loved the movie so much that I would have also certainly given nominations to James Gandolfini for his voice work as Wild Thing Carol and also to Dave Eggers for his wildly original adapted screenplay (Eggers' novelization of the script, "Wild Things," is also just a great read.)

Now comes word about both the DVD release of "Where the Wild Things Are" and something else fun that's coming with it (and, frankly, hopefully packaged together so I can afford them both.)

First up, if you buy the "Where the Wild Things Are" DVD on March 2, there will be a rather sweet bonus in the form of an animated short based on another Sendak story, "Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life," featuring the voices of Meryl Streep and Wild Thing (the Bull, if I recall correctly) Forest Whitaker. Bully to that, although I didn't really need any more motivation to buy this one.

In even better news, on the same day, Beastie Boy Adam Yauch's Oscilloscope Laboratories will release the doco "Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait of Maurice Sendak," directed by Lance Bangs and Jonze, on DVD as well. Jonze and Sendak bonded quite a bit on the set of "Where the Wild Things Are," and as you see from the clip below, it became a genuine mutual admiration society. Enjoy.



And in a final bit about Mr. Jonze, a Web site has been just unveiled for his short film "I'm Here," which recently made its debut at Sundance. Best as I can tell, it's a 30-minute movie that's a love story involving two robots (why not?). You can watch the trailer at the site here, and according to the site itself, the movie will be released on it in March. Stay tuned for more on this very soon.

OK, except for that today, everything else will be about another subject that just fascinates me, the new Muppet movie being cooked up by Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller for Disney. Being both a Marylander and a child of the '70s, I of course grew up on the Muppets, and certainly have never outgrown their appeal.

Well, now details about the movie itself are coming out quickly. "Flight of the Conchords" co-creator James Bobin has been officially attached to direct the project (a perfect choice in my book), and now early word about the script has emerged on The Playlist (a daily must-read here.)

According to their source, the movie's name has also changed from "The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made" to now "The Greatest Muppet Movie Ever Made." Even with tongue firmly in cheek, you'd better deliver something solid with a title like that, and here's what the source had to say about the movie's synopsis:

" (The script) is about Gary, Mary, and Walter (a man, his girlfriend, and the man's life-long nondescript, brown puppet best friend) getting the old Muppet gang — now retired entertainers known for the same Muppet show we know them from — together to save the TV studio that the original show was shot in. A villain, Tex Richman (nice name, on par with Doc Hopper), bent on drilling for oil underneath the studio, is due to take over the studio in weeks and the only way to stop him? Putting on a show that draws ten million viewers (see also "Heartbroken: The Conan O'Brien Story").

I'm not sure what that last CoCo bit was all about, but although that synopsis perhaps lacks an original spin on the Muppets story, it at least fits firmly in the tradition of what they're all about, so I'm very confident this is in the right hands. Here's some more of what he or she had to say:

It's a fresh, younger approach. Stoller and Segel have fun with the characters, are aware of what made the Muppet early years so great (winks to the audience, friendly musical numbers, single gag repetition, friendship and togetherness being the answer to everything), and hit the mark 65% of the time.

Again, that all sounds great to me, but the key to any great Muppet movie is the music, none of which The Playlist's mole could get his or her hands on. The only proof we have so far of Segel's and Stoller's skills in that department is that blissfully silly Dracula puppet show at the end of "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" (easily the best thing about that very easily forgettable movie.) Here's a clip of Segel performing "Dracula's Lament" on Craig Ferguson's show (I think) to brighten your day.



Finally today, the world is certainly a better place now that the Muppets have their own YouTube channel (trust me, it's a seriously good time-waster), and here's the newest clip. Beaker sets out to meem his way through Kansas' "Dust in the Wind," but as you can probably imagine, the results are somewhat short of perfect. Enjoy, and have a perfectly bearable Wednesday. Peace out.

Tuesday tidbits, a visit from Wallace & Gromit, and why today should be a national holiday

Actually, let's start with the latter, because this is indeed a day so glorious that I should get the day off: After tonight, Jay Leno will no longer be polluting the airwaves at an hour when I'm still awake.

I suppose it's rude to kick a man when he's down, but what he and NBC tried to do to prime time was so atrocious, there's really nothing else to do but celebrate its demise. And though I realize he comes out of it as kind of a winner, since he gets to return to the wounded and almost dead duck that is "The Tonight Show," at least it will be at an hour by which I'm almost always fast asleep.

And though Time magazine actually hailed him as "the future of television" on a serious cover (and I have yet to see any apology for that), this Entertainment Weekly cover sums up the situation much more accurately (and is much, much funnier too), so I'll just let that speak for itself. Enjoy, and even though you surely have to work today, take some solace from the fact that today is V-JL Day (Victory over Jay Leno, of course, and I can take credit for that bit of silliness.)

And what I have after that today is news about three directors I like to varying degrees, in order of just how much I like them, and two videos, one the promised "Wallace & Gromit" bit and the other some madness about Colin Farrell and a mermaid (yes, really.)

First up is Thom McCarthy, who is easily one of my favorite directors working today. He's also an actor, and you may recognize him from his work on "The Wire" and various movies (including somehow, if I'm not mistaken, "2012"!)

As for the movies he's directed himself, there are two that I know of, and I love them both. "The Station Agent" is a sublime little movie, but even better is "The Visitor," easily one of my favorite movies of 2007 and featuring a well-deserved, Oscar-nominated turn by Richard Jenkins (who will somehow now be appearing in the thoroughly unnecessary American remake of "Let the Right One In" - Ack!) If you've never seen this one, I highly recommend it, because you'll find few better stories about immigration in America and the human face of it we so often strive to simply ignore.

And now it seems McCarthy is amping up to direct again, though this time with something completely different and much lighter.

In a tale apparently drawn directly from his own experiences, and in what sounds slightly like a white version of "The Blind Side," McCarthy is now working on a "light-hearted comedy" called "Win Win," which will be "about how a rough-and-tumble runaway changes the lives of a suburban New Jersey family and turns around the luck of a high school wrestling team," according to the always reliable The Playlist. The runaway wasn't McCarthy, but instead one of his childhood friends.

That certainly sounds like it has the potential for mawkishness, but I have full faith in McCarthy, and as someone who at least tried to wrestle in high school, the subject itself intrigues me. Paul Giamatti is apparently on board, presumably as the wrestling coach (perfect), and he and McCarthy are now out scouting unknown actors for the lead role, with an early March start to filming in New York and New Jersey. I can't imagine too many aspiring high school wrestlers read this, but if so, now is your big shot, I guess.

When I saw this next bit about the return of Peter Bogdanovich, I had to visit the IMDB to see when he had last a) made a feature film and b) made one that I've seen. The answers are: a) in 2001, which something called "Cat's Meow" and b) in 1973 and '74 with, respectively, "Paper Moon" and "Daisy Miller."

Even so, when you add to those "The Last Picture Show" and the perfectly silly "Targets," I think you can certainly list Bogdanovich as a great American director, so news of his potential return to the big screen is worth noting.

According to Variety, he's writing and directing an adaption of Kurt Andersen's novel "Turn of the Century," which I can't say I've read. Set in February 2000, it apparently focuses on a Manhattan power couple and their three private school kids. As details go, that sounds pretty far from exciting, but I'm betting Bogdanovich will turn this into something worth watching when filming starts in New York in spring 2011 (though with actual filming that far away, I suppose I should say "if" it starts.)

And finally, in something that's coming together very quickly, it seems that Steven Soderbergh is moving forward with "Contagion," a deadly virus outbreak thriller which is already somehow set to star Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Marion Cotillard, even though so far at least there is no studio attached.

When Soderbergh is genuinely engaged and having fun, I do too, which was certainly the case with "The Informant" this year. And if I can digress just a bit, I didn't see "Invictus," but no matter how good Damon may have been in that, there's no way he shouldn't have been nominated instead for his amazing role in "The Informant" at this year's Oscars instead.

Here's hoping "Contagion" turns into a fun ride rather than the star-studded disaster it certainly could very easily become.

OK, it's probably time to start wrapping this up, but there's also a bit of very good casting news out there too. Danny Boyle's next movie, "127 Hours," is already set to star James Franco as Aron Ralston, a mountaineer who was forced to amputate his own arm in order to escape entrapment under a fallen boulder. And now it seems that Amber Tamblyn, who presumably can no longer talk directly with God, has joined the flick as his girlfriend, with the relationship apparently played out in a series of flashbacks in his mind.

I'm not sure how far along this is, but I love me some Danny Boyle, so this is one certainly worth keeping your eyes on.

And now, for the real ending, does anyone remember "The Secret of Roan Inish"? I love that John Sayles movie about selkies, mysterious Irish creatures of myth that can turn from seals into humans. Well, it seems Neil Jordan did too, and now he's made "Ondine," which stars Colin Farrell as an alcoholic Irish fisherman whose life is turned around when he encounters what he thinks is a mermaid (the simply stunningly beautiful Alicja Bachleda, his actual wife.) What will hopefully be a magical fairy tale of sorts has been picked up by Magnolia Pictures, and with Farrell in it, I suppose it might even play wide enough to reach my little corner of the world when it drops June 4 in the U.S. Enjoy the trailer.




And finally, as promised at the outset, there is indeed a visit from Wallace & Gromit today, thanks to a heads up from my fellow cubicle slave Randy Waters. Nick Park is nominated for an Oscar this year in the short film category for "Wallace & Gromit in A Matter of Loaf and Death," and I'm certainly rooting for him. But here today, all we get is a little snippet of the duo in action, with poor Gromit of course subjected to another of Wallace's disastrous inventions, the "Turbo Diner." Enjoy, and have a perfectly passable Tuesday. Peace out.

What if Wes Anderson directed the "Spider-Man" reboot?

I'm gonna go on an overnight drunk and then find the man who killed my uncle.

I really don't have the time or energy to say much on this Monday morning, but this YouTube send up of Wes Anderson was just too good not to pass along.

I have no idea if Wes Anderson was really rumored to be the director for the upcoming "reboot" (in this case, aka disaster) of the "Spider-Man" franchise, but once you decide to scrap the great Sam Raimi and essentially pretend the first three movies didn't even happen (actually, with the third one at least, I'm with you there), I suppose anything's possible. (The Spidey job, by the way, went to "500 Days of Summer" director Marc Webb, so maybe it won't be a complete catastrof***.)

Anyways, this Anderson parody is just about about spot on, so I'll stop prattling on now and just let you have at it. Enjoy, and have a perfectly nonobjectionable Monday. Peace out.

A Saturday cache of clips: Is there really hope for "Cop Out"?

This surely isn't terribly exciting to the rest of the world, but it's thrilling to me that I have actually managed to enter the mid-90s or so and am - for the first time - typing this on my fancy new laptop while enjoying a strong cup of java at Jittery Joe's. It might be also because of the large Brazilian brew I'm downing, but it makes me seriously giddy.

And you know, ever since I heard that Kevin Smith was making a rather routine-sounding buddy cop movie as his next flick - and one he didn't even write himself - I just assumed that "Cop Out" was one I would skip altogether.

But, as you can see from the red band clip below, he does have one definite strength in his corner, the indefatigably crude Tracy Morgan. If you love watching him on "30 Rock" - and when the Emmys are perennially showered on the show, I really can't understand why he isn't at least nominated - you know he's at his best when he appears to be just spouting whatever comes into his head. And from this seriously crude clip - be warned, it contains both talk of monkey sex and a 10-year-old getting punched in the nards - you can see that Kevin Smith understood that he should at least let Tracy Morgan be Tracy Morgan, which will be enough to sucker me into buying a ticket when this comes out Feb. 26. Enjoy.



Next up comes the teaser trailer for a new Luc Besson movie, which though it really doesn't reveal much at all, is still reason to celebrate. The movie is called "The Adventures of Adele Blanc Sec," and from what little I know about it so far, it's based on the comic books by Jacques Tati about a young novelist who gets into all kinds of Indiana Jones-style adventures in the early 20th century. Though this is listed as coming out in April in France and July in Japan, I can't yet find a U.S. release date, but one is sure to come soon. Enjoy.



Even if Avril Lavigne's new theme song for Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" is nothing but a disaster, I'm still almost entirely convinced that the movie itself will rock when it finally comes out in the first week of March. In this clip featuring interviews with both Johnny Depp and Anne Hathaway, I got the sense for the first time that this is going to be "Alice"-meets-"Chronicles of Narnia," with, near the end of this clip, young Mia Wasikowska donning armor to go into battle for the White Queen. And if I can digress about her for a second, she's part of the seriously great ensemble cast of "That Evening Sun" - the best Southern movie I've seen in many years. Go see that one if you can.



There's no shortage of artistic efforts to aid Haiti, and there can really never be too many. Lionel Richie's reconstitution of "We Are the World" surely will have more star power, but I'll take this project over that one any day. As you'll see from this British TV clip, Pogues poet and drunkard extraordinaire Shane MacGowan has convened Nick Cave, Chrissie Hynde, Glen Matlock of the Sex Pistols. Mick Jones of the Clash and - though he doesn't appear in this clip - even Johnny Depp too, among others, to record a version of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' great "You Put a Spell on Me," with all proceeds going to help Haiti rebuild. You don't get to hear any of the new track in this behind-the-scenes clip, but it's still fun to watch (not the least so you can try and decipher just what in the world MacGowan is saying), and keep your eyes out for the single release at the end of this month. Enjoy.



And finally, in a definite case of saving the worst for last, here's an "Entertainment Tonight" visit to the set of "Burlesque," which gets my early vote for the biggest disaster of 2010. You do get to see Christina Aguilera, Kristen Bell and other very attractive young ladies cavorting around in their burlesque outfits, but this clip mostly just left me with this burning question: Just how in the world did Bell, Stanley Tucci and even Alan Cumming end up in what appears to be a "Showgirls" sequel of sorts with Cher as the matron? Sheesh. Anyways, enjoy the clip, have a great weekend and please, if you have the chance, do go see "That Evening Sun," which features a performance from Hal Holbrook that's even better than the one in "Into the Wild" that should have won him an Oscar. Peace out.



P.S.: The Blogger spell check is once again not working, so please forgive any egregious spelling errors. Thanks.

I guarantee this will be the craziest thing you see all day

OK, I'm off to finally see "That Evening Sun" today at Atlanta's fabulous Tara (of course) theater, so not a lot of time today, but there is one great bit of Southern movie news, and as promised, a clip that will have you laughing and scratching your heads at the same time.

When (not if) the South rises again, this time it will be in the form of comedy, and buddies Danny McBride, Jody Hill, David Gordon Green and Ben Best are leading the charge.

McBride is the face of their little mob, and has developed into - without exaggeration - probably my favorite actor working today. This year he perfectly played George Clooney's brother-in-law-to-be, who Clooney has to save from a case of cold feet in "Up in the Air." After memorable supporting turns in flicks like "Tropic Thunder" and Gordon Green's "Pineapple Express" (in which he managed to be almost as funny as James Franco, no mean feat), it's beyond high time he get the lead role in his own feature film.

Actually, he's been the star of one movie, Hill's delightfully dark comedy-of-sorts "Foot Fist Way" (rent that right away), and the HBO series "Eastbound and Down," in which he jumped into the role of the ultimate anti-hero in former baseball semi-great Kenny Powers. I might be the only person in the world who loves that show (a friend of mine, Randy "Lethal" Waters, bought it on sale but hated it so much he gave it away to me - thanks!)

And I tell you all that to tell you this: Jody Hill has signed on to direct something called "L.A.P.I." Details are scant so far, but we do know it would star McBride as a beaten-down, hard-boiled private investigator, and that's enough to get me intrigued. The pic would be the first production from McBride, Gordon Green and Hill's production company, Rough House Pictures, and is definitely something worth keeping your eyes on.

But, before I got distracted by all that, I promised some video craziness, and here it is. Long before they became exes and now Oscar rivals, Kathyrn Bigelow and James Cameron - of course - worked together, as they thankfully did for this deliriously cheesy music video.

It's from some kind of '80s new wave band called Martini Ranch, which I had never heard of but apparently featured Bill Paxton as a member. I suppose that connection was what led to Cameron directing this video for the band's song "Reach," which at seven minutes-plus harkens back to the days when music videos at their best were mini-movies.

As you'll see, it looks like some kind of surreal mashup of "Near Dark" (still my favorite Bigelow movie, rent that one too) and "Deadwood," and stars Paxton as a bank robber on the run in the Wild West. Most of the cast of "Near Dark" makes appearances, and best of all, Bigelow leads an all-female posse of bounty hunters, and to be as piggish possible, just looks sensationally hot doing it.

Enjoy, and have a great weekend. For me, it will also include Best Picture nominee "An Education," which somehow turned up at my local multiplex this week. Peace out.

Mel Gibson is clearly just an angry old man

Actually, I doubt anyone had any real doubts about that already, but the video proof is still worth watching simply to see just how little he's changed in the last five years or so.

But, before we get into any of that, there are at least a few other things out there that caught my eye, so here goes.

The two funniest people in Judd Apatow's "Funny People" were very easily Aziz Ansari and the RZA (and the latter's "my n****" joke about Michael Richards made me laugh out very loud.) And though he got scant on-screen time in that flick, Ansari went to great lengths to become his character, Randy, who tells dick jokes with such glee that they seem much funnier than they are. I'm really not describing that anywhere near as funny as it is, so here's a clip of him doing standup in character (and please, be warned, along with being extremely crude and juvenile, this is also certainly nothing you want to watch at work without headphones.)



Like I said, the character and the delivery are a lot funnier than the jokes themselves, but if you were to make a movie about Randy, I'd certainly watch that, and I'm apparently not the only one. Here, according to Mr. Ansari himself, is what Quentin Tarantino had to say about it:

Yeah! That was one of the coolest things. I was at some party and he showed up and yelled “RAAAAAAAANDY!” I couldn’t believe it. I talked to him for a bit about it. One of the three movies we’re doing with Judd is a Randy movie; we’re not sure what order we’ll do them in. People on the Internet were like, “a Randy movie would be terrible!” How do you know? You think we just said “Randy movie” and didn’t think about it at all? But Quentin Tarantino was like, “Man, a Randy movie, I would love to see that!” So I just want to send a mass e-mail to all those Internet people who thought a Randy movie would be terrible: “You know who thinks it would be a great idea? Quentin Tarantino.”

Actually, I wasn't aware of any Internet attention to this at all beyond my bizarre fixation on it, but I certainly think it's a great idea too. But what are those other two movies he's talking about? Well, they are apparently something called "Let's Do This," a road movie about guys working at a motivational-speaking company, and an "untitled astronaut movie" about "two disgraced astronauts who have to go back to space to clear their names," according to The Playlist.

No idea when or if any of these three would actually happen, but Aziz Ansari is one seriously funny guy (new "Parks and Recreation" tonight, huzzah!), so hopefully at least one of them gets going very soon.

OK, enough about that. Before we get to the main Mel event, I have a couple of other nuggets.

"Scrubs" has been so bad in what must be its 18th season that I have finally stopped watching, but I'll tune in to at least a few episodes of just about anything with Sarah Chalke in it, especially something that sounds this promising.

Chalke, who had a great guest run recently on "How I Met Your Mother," has signed on to star in a new ABC comedy "The Freshmen" from HIMYM executive producer Greg Malins and Arianna Huffington (yes, that Arianna Huffington.) The show will center on the friendship of three freshmen members of Congress - two men and a woman, Chalke - who live together in D.C.

A comedy about Congress, the most unpopular group in the country? An odd idea, but I'm still betting this will be funny whenever it hits the air.

And finally, before we get to Mel, anything people want to do to help the people of Haiti is great, but few things sound more fun than what Shane MacGowan has cooked up.

In what could I guess be described as a "We Are the Rest of the World" kind of thing, the Pogues leader has recruited Johnny Depp, Nick Cave, Chrissie Hynde, Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie, Mick Jones of the Clash, Glen Matlock of the Sex Pistols and others to record a version of Screamin' Jay Hawkins "You Put a Spell on Me," with all proceeds going to Haiti relief.

I wish I could say I had a sample of it to share, but it hasn't been released yet. I do know that I'll certainly buy this when it's released later this month, both for the cause and because that much alcohol and debauchery in one room has to lead to something at least comically amazing.

And, speaking of alcohol, we're finally back to Mel Gibson. And before you play this, if you haven't seen it yet, please know that I enjoyed "Edge of Darkness" quite a bit. That, however, has nothing at all to do with the man, and if you play this interview with Chicago TV host Dean Richards until the very end (it's only 90 seconds or so long), you'll see that in terms of muzzling himself or not revealing his own inner a**hole, Gibson has learned absolutely nothing since his drunken tirade about Jews from a few years back. Enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday. Peace out.

Just what in the world is "Secret of the Kells," and what will Jason Reitman do next?

Although the Oscar nominations always leave me with as many questions as answers, this was the biggest one I had after yesterday's nominations announcement.

After all, I just assumed that, after a truly banner year for animation, one of my favorites - "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" - would get a nomination, especially since the field grew to five entries this year. Instead, it went to something called "Secret of the Kells," and I can't be the only person who had never heard of that before yesterday.

So, what in the world is it? Well, an animated movie, obviously, from co-directors Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey. As you'll see from the fairly long trailer below (and, even though it labels the movie "Brendan and the Secret of the Kells," I assure it's genuine), it's animated in a charmingly simple style. As far as the story, here's an official synopsis:

In the movie “The Secret Of Kells,” young Brendan lives in a remote medieval outpost under siege from barbarian raids. But a new life of adventure beckons when a celebrated master illuminator arrives from foreign lands carrying an ancient but unfinished book, brimming with secret wisdom and powers. To help complete the magical book, Brendan has to overcome his deepest fears on a dangerous quest that takes him into the enchanted forest where mythical creatures hide. It is here that he meets the fairy Aisling, a mysterious young wolf-girl, who helps him along the way. But with the barbarians closing in, will Brendan’s determination and artistic vision illuminate the darkness and show that enlightenment is the best fortification against evil?

Sounds like slightly heavy stuff for a children's animated movie, but as you see from the clip below, it will be pretty fun too. Enjoy.



And when will we get to see this? I'd have to imagine that, even with the Oscar love, this will be an arthouse release in the U.S.A., meaning I'll have to drive to Atlanta when it comes out March 10.

As for the rest of the Oscars, I'd have to say the 10 movie field for Best Picture was certainly a success, especially if the goal was to recognize some box office smashes along with the usual suspects. I haven't seen "The Blind Side," but is it really Best Picture material? I doubt it, but that along with "Up," "Avatar" and "District 9" should at least stop the ratings slide.

As for things that made me smile, certainly the fact that Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds," my favorite, got eight nominations (second only to the nine nabbed by both "Avatar" and "The Hurt Locker"), including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and of course, Best Supporting Actor for Christoph Waltz (one way to make the interminable broadcast shorter would be to just give him and Mo'Nique their statues now.)

There a few other little things I liked, too. The single best nomination would have to be Armando Iannucci and crew for Best Adapted Screenplay for "In the Loop." That was easily the wittiest movie of the year, and any script that moves that fast without ever faltering certainly deserves the recognition. It was also nice to see Maggie Gyllenhaal get a Best Supporting Actress Nomination for her work in "Crazy Heart." The Dude seems to be the favorite for Best Actor for his role in that flick about an aging country music star of sorts, but you wouldn't care a lick about his character if he didn't have Gyllenhaal's journalist and single mother to play off of and pitch woo at. Huzzah to both of those.

And though it has seemed to be losing steam over the weeks (I tried to see it a second time, but it had already disappeared from theaters), that "Up in the Air" only got six nominations is a bit of a surprise. It did, however, get all the big ones: nominations for all three actors, adapted screenplay, director and Best Picture.

Which brings us to the next topic: What will Jason Reitman do now? Well, according to The Playlist, he let that cat out of the bag in a visit with Roger Ebert. Here, according to The Playlist, is what he had to say:

"The book I'm adapting is 'Labor Day' by Joyce Maynard. I re-read it over the weekend and when I finished the book [on] Monday morning, I was kind of on the verge of tears and I remembered at the moment, 'alright, my job is to make sure the audience feel exactly what I'm feeling right now.' And that's it, thats the gig. The test is with each film, 'can I do that?' and 'is that something the audience wants to feel at the end of the day?' And in this case, I think it is. This ones a very very tricky love story. It's very dramatic."

"I know what actors I want for it. I'll be able to go to them easily and, presumably, it'll be an easier greenlight than my first movie. Or my second movie."

Fair enough, but what in the world is "Labor Day," which I will now be reading soon, about? Here, with some editing, is what it says on Maynard's own Web site:

With the end of summer closing in and a steamy Labor Day weekend looming in the town of Holton Mills, New Hampshire, 13-year-old Henry - lonely, friendless, not too good at sports - spends most of his time watching television, reading, and daydreaming about the soft skin and budding bodies of his female classmates. For company Henry has his long-divorced mother, Adele, a onetime dancer whose summer project was to teach him how to foxtrot; his hamster, Joe; and awkward Saturday-night outings to Friendly's with his estranged father and new stepfamily. As much as he tries, Henry knows that even with his jokes and his "Husband for a Day" coupon, he still can't make his emotionally fragile mother happy. Adele has a secret that makes it hard for her to leave their house, and seems to possess an irreparably broken heart.

But all that changes on the Thursday before Labor Day, when a mysterious bleeding man named Frank approaches Henry and asks for a hand. Over the next five days, Henry will learn some of life's most valuable lessons: how to throw a baseball, the secret to perfect piecrust, the breathless pain of jealousy, the power of betrayal, and the importance of putting others - especially those we love - above ourselves. And the knowledge that real love is worth waiting for.

That all sounds great to me. There's nothing up about this yet on the IMDB, but I'd imagine that as he rather immodestly claims, he can indeed get this greenlit just about whenever he wants to. And, since I'm so enamored of my new laptop, I might just make "Labor Day" the first purchase to read with my new "Kindle for PC" thingie from Amazon.

Except for that, all I have today is a music video from a woman I had never heard of, but since it's directed by Michel Gondry, it's certainly worth a look. The video is for a song called "Open Your Heart" by a chica named Mia Doi Todd. As the title implies, it's a breezy little ditty, and Gondry uses flashes of color in a deceptively simple way that becomes genuinely hypnotic (hyperbole? Perhaps, but that's the effect it had on me at 6:30 in the morning.) Anyways, enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant Wednesday. Peace out.

Since the Oscars get 10 best, I do too (actually, I get 11)

Thinking about what to write about this morning, I realized that - with no computer for a month - I never got around to revealing my 10 best movies of 2009. And while it may be far too late for anyone but me to care, here goes anyway, in order only of when they were released (and if you're a fan of the Drive-By Truckers - as everyone should be - stick around 'til the end for a special treat.)

And lest anyone be left scratching their head at the omission of Jason Reitman's "Up in the Air," it just missed the cut, earning honorable mention along with the following flicks: "The Road," "A Single Man," "Crazy Heart," "Avatar," "Broken Embraces" and "Fantastic Mr. Fox." Now, on to the 11 winners, and please feel free to chime in with your favorites or let me know if you think I'm just all wet about any of these:

Coraline
"Up" is going to get most of the attention as far as animated movies go with this morning's Oscar nominations - since I fully expect it to get a Best Picture nomination - but this little flick from Henry Selick and Neil Gaiman was actually the best animated movie of the year for me (and the only one besides "Avatar" that really made me think it was worth wearing 3-D glasses for the entire movie.) Though, like any story told through the eyes of a child, it really goes out of control by the end, "Coraline" is still a genuinely magical story about the powers - and dangers - of the imagination, my favorite movie subject of all.

Sugar
This flick from directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck spent the first half of 2009 as my favorite movie of the year, and it's held strong in the top five. This portrait of life in modern America through the eyes of an outsider starts out as a low-key sports flick about a Dominican player in the minor league baseball system and pivots deftly about halfway in to become a story about immigration in America without ever losing the natural flow that makes it so entertaining to watch. Rent this immediately if you haven't seen it.

Drag Me to Hell
Has anyone had a worse movie year-or-so than Sam Raimi? First, no one in the world but me (and maybe a few others) went to see this incredibly fun return to his horror roots, and then his "Spider-Man 4" flick implodes to the point that they just scrapped the whole project and started over without him (and, frankly, most likely without me too.) He certainly deserves better. Especially when, if you're a fan of "Evil Dead" and "Army of Darkness," you should love this flick about what happens when poor Alison Lohman denies a mortgage extension to the wrong person (a gypsy woman with the power to curse her - and ingest her poor kitty - of course.) If you can stomach it, watch this on DVD.

Moon
I'd say there's probably no chance at all that Sam Rockwell will get an Oscar nomination for his work in Duncan Jones' sci-fi flick, and in my book that will count as the single biggest snub of the year. He's in virtually every frame of this, a welcome return to the kind of smart sci-fi allegory we haven't seen on the big screen in a long time (though "Battlestar Galactica" did a fine job with that too on the little one.) I saw this one at the Atlanta Film Festival 365, and am thrilled that Charles Judson has invited me back for this year's event too.

The Hurt Locker
Just how much do military members love this Iraq War movie of sorts from Kathyrn Bigelow? Well, as a tiny and random sample, a video store bought an ad in the publication I lay out that serves Warner Robins, GA (proud home of Robins Air Force Base) just to promise that "The Hurt Locker" will "always be in stock." I don't know why, but that just struck me as funny. I do know, however, that Bigelow has crafted the first Iraq War movie I genuinely enjoyed, not just because it has at least three of the best action set-pieces of the year, but also two of the best performances from Anthony Mackie and Jeremy Renner as it presents the rarest kind of flick - an apolitical war movie that simply looks at combat through the eyes of those who have to wage it.

In the Loop
A small Web cult of sorts has blossomed that's devoted to the singular swearing prowess of Peter Capaldi as political operative Malcolm Tucker in director Armardo Iannucci's wicked sendup of the buildup to the Iraq war, and it's well-deserved. It's hard to keep up with all the jokes that Iannucci packs into this razor-sharp satire - the kind we haven't seen since the days of Peter Sellers, and they've been sorely missed by at least me - but believe me, the effort is well worth it. Watch this now.

Inglourious Basterds
This is my favorite movie of 2009, and just to show I've put it to the test, I've watched it all the way through at least five times now, and it just keeps getting better. Taken individually, the opening gambit with Christoph Waltz and a French farmer, that sensational scene at the French bar that turns into a bloodbath and - of course - the unforgettable finale, are the three best-written sequences of 2009. Add them together and throw in Brad Pitt and his basterds for comedic value, and you get my favorite kind of movie, just wildly imaginative story telling and a thoroughly fun ride.

Passing Strange
Can what amounts to simply the filming of a Broadway musical being performed on stage really be turned into one of the best movies of 2009? In the hands of Spike Lee, yes. He uses the same technique he did with "Kings of Comedy" to make it an intimate experience, and it certainly doesn't hurt that this musical about a black teenager's voyage to Europe to find his artistic self has a genuine energy that radiates from the screen as I'm sure it did even stronger on stage.

The Damned United
I was a little hesitant to see this at first because it's based on the best book I've read in at least the last five years or so, and I was sure there was no way that director Tom Hooper could re-create the manic pace or odd structure of David Peace's piece of historical fiction about Brian Clough's disastrous 44 days or so as the manager of Leeds United. I'm very happy to report, though, that I was once again wrong, because it comes damned close, and more importantly turns this tale of ultimate futility into a winningly witty period piece that will entertain soccer fans as much as those of you who have somehow not become a fan of the beautiful game, and Michael Sheen is perfectly vainglorious as Clough.

Where the Wild Things Are
Probably my favorite joke from "Freaks and Geeks" remains the one about Sam Weir trying to do a book report on "the novelization of 'Star Wars'," but I can report that the novelization of "Where the Wild Things Are" by Dave Eggers (called "Wild Things" and of course at least loosely based on the children's classic by Maurice Sendak) is a tremendously good read. Like Spike Jonze's movie (but without having to create those rather amazing wild things), it deftly dives into the mind and imagination of a troubled child and somehow bundles all these emotions into a moving and simply entertaining tale. And young Max Records, perfectly wild as Max in the movie, delivers my single favorite still of the year, the look of horror on his face when his teacher casually announces that the sun will, indeed, some day die. Priceless.

Precious
It really seems a crime to put Lee Daniels' flick last on this list, but those were the rules I set out. In actual order of appreciation, it would certainly be in the top five, because although I didn't find it as uplifting as many people I know who like this as much as I do, it's still a genuine American story of the kind we very rarely get to see on the big screen. Mo'Nique is a sure winner in the Best Supporting Actress category at the Oscars, but I'm hoping Gabourey Sidibe gets a Best Actress nod too, because she portrays our heroine's wounded but still fierce pride perfectly, as much with her expressions as she does Precious' emerging voice.

So there you have it. And I promised a treat for any Drive-By Truckers fans who stuck around through all of that, so here it is. Yesterday, they debuted a new single, "Birthday Boy," and I'm pleased to report it's a Mike Cooley track that kicks the kind of ass they used to, and hopefully will again when a new album comes out in the next six weeks or so. Just put your e-mail address in the widget (it won't go to me, so don't worry), and the link will be sent to you. Enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant Tuesday. Peace out.

Take the first short trip to Gervais' "Cemetery Junction"

Actually, let's start with what, at first glance, seems to be the oddest news of the day: Steven Spielberg is eying Spock himself, Zachary Quinto, to play George Gershwin in a new grand biopic.

I say on the surface, however, because it actually makes a lot of sense. Spielberg revels in movies like this, especially when it's about a rather famous Jewish American. Anyone who had to suffer through high school marching band (I played the clarinet myself) has had the pleasure of trying to play Rhapsody in Blue at least once, and it was of course used to perfection in my favorite Woody Allen movie, "Manhattan."

And, judge for yourself with the pic of Gershwin here, but I think the resemblance is there, and though I gave up on "Heroes" a very long time ago (is it really still on the air?), Quinto can really act. Anyways, something to keep your eyes on.

But here today it's really all about the first trailer (that I've seen, at least) for "Cemetery Junction." And what is that? Well, it's the first collaboration of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant since "Extras," reason enough to cheer, and it's a movie that will hopefully open wide enough for me to see it when it drops ... well who knows? It's listed as April 7 for the UK and next fall for much of the rest of the world, but I can't find a release date anywhere for the U.S. Nards!

Anyways, though it's a return to the working world, it's hardly a "The Office" knockoff. Instead, though Gervais plays a role, the focus is on three young chaps who sell insurance in Reading in the early '70s. The accents are indeed a bit hard to understand when you're listening to them five minutes after waking up, but other than that, the trailer looks good to me. Enjoy, and stick around afterward for some big news about the U.S. "The Office" and a couple of more clips.



Next up comes a pretty big spoiler about the U.S. "The Office," so if you don't want to know, just skip down to the next clip. Anyone who'd been watching knows that Dunder Mifflin has been bought out, and now it seems that the buyer has been revealed.

According to movieviral.com (and, as you'll see, they have memo to prove it), Kathy Bates will very soon join the cast for at least a little while as Michael's new boss when Dunder Mifflin is bought by some entity called Sabre Corp. (and we all know he does so well with female bosses, so this should be a hoot.) Bates plays Sabre Corp. CEO Jo Bennett. The new company is apparently a printer selling company (synergy, anyone?).

Lest you doubt this, there's already a Web site for Sabre Corp. you can find here. And, because what would "The Office" be without a memo, here's the one announcing Sabre Corp.'s new acquisition:

FROM: Dunder Mifflin Management

TO: All Dunder Mifflin Employees

SUBJECT: Dunder Mifflin Joins Sabre

Dear Colleagues,

By now you have probably heard stories regarding the ownership of Dunder Mifflin. Allow us to take this opportunity to shed some light on our company's future. We are very pleased to announce that Dunder Mifflin will be joining the Sabre Corporate family. This marks a high point in our company's history. Rest assured that Sabre will do all they can to make this transition as smooth as possible.

At this time, it is important that we keep our focus on our every day activities and continue to deliver the kinds of results that have made Dunder Mifflin what it is today. It is an exciting time, and these are exciting possibilities. We are confident that you, our employees, are the best team to face the challenges and seize the opportunities that lay ahead.

This promises to be a very exciting journey for all of us.

Regards,
Dunder Mifflin Management

Like I said, Michael (Steve Carell) with Kathy Bates as his boss? Sounds like great TV to me. Stay tuned.

Except for that, all I have left today is a couple more clips. First up comes what purports to be a new trailer for Martin Scorsese's "Shutter Island," which will finally hit theaters Feb. 19. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot new here, but I'm thoroughly psyched for this flick, so enjoy the trailer.

And finally, courtesy of Collider.com come three clips from "Thankyoumoreplease," the writing and directing debut from "How I Met Your Mother" (which I believe has just been renewed for a sixth season) star Josh Radnor. The movie stars Radnor, Malin Akerman and Tony Hale of "Arrested Development," and although the clips below don't really look all that promising for this flick about six New Yorkers dealing with, well, life, this movie did just win the Dramatic Audience Award at Sundance, so what in the world do I know? Enjoy the clips, and have a perfectly passable Monday. Peace out.