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.

"Anvil!" rocks much more than I could have imagined

You know, I actually saw two fairly exceptional movies yesterday, making it a truly banner day in my book, but I'm really not quite ready to say anything about "Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire" just yet, so instead I'll start with what for me was a truly pleasant surprise, "Anvil! The Story of Anvil."

Actually, I will say this about "Precious": Don't ever doubt the power of Tyler Perry and Oprah. I drove to see this at the AMC Southlake 24 in Morrow, Ga., and for a 10:15 a.m. show there was an almost completely packed house (and quite a few kids who probably shouldn't have been there for such an intense movie, but that's an entirely different subject.) I was thrilled to see that it took in $585,000 at just 18 theaters on Friday alone to shatter all previous indie records. See it if you can.

Saturday night, however, it was all about Canadian rockers Anvil at my house, and I'm sure glad I finally invited them in. I had hesitated to see this simply because I - mistakenly - thought I was just too old for heavy metal. Well, I'm happy to say that as I write this and listen to Anvil's glorious album "This is Thirteen" and drink my coffee and Ovaltine, I don't think that's ever gonna be true.

And besides, you really don't have to have any love at all for heavy metal music to enjoy this movie, which is at least as much about friendship and the power of impossible dreams than it ever is about the music.

Comparisons to "This Is Spinal Tap" will be inevitable and are often apt, especially since Anvil's drummer is (yes, really) named Robb Reiner, but Sacha Gervasi's documentary has something going for it that the other Reiner clearly didn't (and really, with a fake band, couldn't) have, a genuine affection for his subject. And you'll certainly share that once you meet Anvil frontman Steve "Lips" Kudlow and Reiner and see the bond they share as they pursue their dream of heavy metal stardom well past its expiration date.

When we first meet them, Lips is playing a guitar with a dildo (again, yes really) and the band is at the height of its stardom. After some talking heads telling us how great they were (and man, what the hell was that growth on Lemmy's cheek? gross), which gets old pretty fast, we fast-forward to present day, in which Lips is a driver for a catering company and clearly none too happy about it.

And Gervasi, a fan of the band himself, lets the attempted comeback that plays out next get pushed right to the brink of parody, but never treats his delusionally earnest subjects with anything approaching irony or sarcasm. And believe me, it certainly would have been easy to succumb to those as our heroes embark on a European tour after receiving an e-mail from a fan who in short order gets referred to as their "manager" (and later marries the band's guitarist.)

Oddly enough, things don't go anywhere near as well as they might have hoped, and there's plenty of funny to be had here, from Reiner's description of how one of their first songs, "Thumb Hang," was inspired by the Spanish Inquisition to the fact that his sister apparently really is named Droid.

But what comes through the strongest as they go on to somehow record a new album, "This is Thirteen," (which, yes, I did buy) is the friendship of these two impossible dreamers, and that's what makes it all the more satisfying once you see how modest that dream really is at the big finale (and, I don't want to spoil too much, but there are few things in the world funnier than seeing Japanese girls dressed up as French maids and chanting "Anvil!")

Ultimately, though this was loaned to me by fellow cubicle slave Randy Waters, I think I'll have to buy my own copy, because - like "Office Space" - it's just the perfect cure for any kind of dreary day. Rent it as soon as you can. Peace out.