A Wednesday clip show, with the Swell Season, J. Edgar and more

Actually, before we get into any of that, there's a bit of news out there this morning, starting off with an "Arrested Development" reunion of sorts ... but no, of course not the one fans have been waiting for.

I'd certainly advise not, if you ever were, holding your breath for any kind of "Arrested Development" movie any time, well, ever, but the entire cast is apparently coming together at the New Yorker Festival for "A Bluth Family Reunion."

If you're lucky enough to be in in NYC, definitely try and snag a ticket for this Oct. 2 event (they go on sale at noon today at the New Yorker's website) that will indeed feature Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, David Cross, Portia de Rossi, Tony Hale, Alia Shawkat, Jeffrey Tambor, Jessica Walter and series creator Mitchell Hurwitz. Color me jealous.

And along with an "Arrested Development" movie, another thing that I'd like to see that now probably won't happen, or at least not in any form worth watching, is a "Bad Santa 2." I'd think more antics involving Billy Bob Thornton's truly foul Father Christmas, the even funnier Tony Cox and hopefully Lorelai Gilmore too would be an easy sell, but writers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa have apparently spurned an offer to do that for something else that could be a lot of fun.

Jumping on an idea from Steve Carell, they've apparently, according to Moviehole, already written the script for "one of these three friends from college, but now they’re in their 40s, movies. They’re going on a European backpacking trip that they never did. And it’s filled with all this middle-aged fun.”

Actually, sounds like exactly the dreadful kind of dreck that would star John Travolta and Tim Allen, but these are some seriously funny writers, so I'll keep an open mind. Stay tuned ...

And in the last bit of news, you can always sell me on Jeremy Renner in a good heist movie, so here's hoping this will be another one. In "King of Heists" (the movie's got to be better than that title, at least), based on the nonfiction book by J. North Conway, he's set to star as the mastermind of "the greatest bank robbery in American history," which took place on October 27, 1878, when thieves broke into the Manhattan Savings Institution and stole nearly $3 million in cash and securities — around $50 million in today’s terms.

OK, now on to the clips, and there's certainly no better place to start than with the first and only trailer I know of for what should be a truly sweet little music documentary about the Swell Season, aka the duo of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. If those names sound at least vaguely familiar to you, they should, since they were the stars of John Carney's thoroughly charming little romance "Once," which you should rent immediately as soon as you can find it. The doco charts their own path from true-life romance to the Oscars and more, and it should be well worth watching if you're lucky enough to catch this when it comes out in October. Enjoy the trailer.



Next up indeed comes the first full trailer I know of for "J.Edgar," director Clint Eastwood's upcoming biopic on the first FBI director with the rather colorful personal life. I've made my distaste for many of Eastwood's directing efforts clear in this space before, so I can't help but thinking in watching this that it's going to be plenty broad, but not much more than skin deep. And besides, with that aging makeup, Leo DiCaprio just looks creepy. It does, however, have a script from "Milk" scribe Dustin Lance Black, so I'd love to be proved wrong when this comes out Nov. 9. Enjoy the trailer.



Coincidentally enough, I have "Rumble in the Bronx" sitting on my DVR, probably for watching tonight. That's the last Jackie Chan movie I can remember just loving unconditionally, and really the last one in which he hasn't seemed to play some silly form of spy/babysitter/supercop hybrid. The trailer below, on the other hand, for a movie titled "1911" which he apparently co-directed, promises something more serious and hopefully still fun, too. A historical epic about the founding of the Republic of China, it's set to open in at least some American cities on Oct. 12, so keep an eye out for it, and enjoy the trailer.



OK, shifting a bit to TV, the MTV Movies site has a short interview with "Games of Thrones" producers D.B. Weiss and David Benoiff from the Emmys red carpet, and while it doesn't reveal much about season two, I'm certainly jonesing for it, so I'll take what I can get. Since season one was so entirely, but still very entertainingly, by the first book by George R.R. Martin, I've avoided reading any more of the books so I can be surprised from here on out. When will we get a season two on HBO? All I know is next spring, but hopefully by March or so. Bring it on already!

Get More: Movie Trailers, Movies Blog

And finally today, though I haven't watched "Today" in any form except on "The Soup" for about 25 years or so, I'm a sucker for any interview with the truly inspiring Roger Ebert, so enjoy this interview he did with Matt Lauer to promote his new memoir, "Life Itself." There's not much I can say about this that Roger himself doesn't say much better, so I'll just leave it at that. Enjoy the clip, and have a perfectly passable Wednesday. Peace out.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

P.S.: If you really made it this far, you certainly deserve a reward, so here goes: NPR is streaming the new Wilco album "The Whole Love" here, and it's well worth a listen.

Going down to "The Wire"

"New Line has been the most successful independent studio in history."

The sentence above really has nothing to do with the rest of this post, but it is indeed what Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes told the employees of New Line as he announced he was eliminating virtually all of their jobs. What a jackass.

Moving on to less important, perhaps, but if you watch "The Wire," very urgent stuff, there is indeed only one episode left of my all-time favorite TV show, so it's as good a time as any to assess how this fifth and final season has unfolded (and pay tribute to easily one of my favorite characters.)

Overall (and if you have been DVR-ing the episodes and are a bit behind, please don't read on and have anything spoiled for you), I'd have to say the season has been a mixed bag at best, but last night's episode, which I just watched this morning, was a stunner.

My main beef with this season is that I simply can't stomach that, no matter how hungry Lester Freamon (the great Clarke Peters) was to take down Marlo Stanfield (Jamie Hector), there's no way in the world a cop as smart as he clearly is would have gone along with McNulty's increasingly insane fabricated serial killer. And, frankly, I couldn't believe that McNulty would come up with something so crazy either, and will be disappointed if, in the end, he doesn't at least get fired and more likely get arrested.

That said, there have been many other things to like in this season. The journalism story line, which they've allowed to unfold at a slow and realistic pace, has been fascinating to me. Having worked with a serial plagiarist in Macon, I think Tom McCarthy has captured the weaselness of reporter Scott Templeton just right, and Clark Johnson, as the city editor on his trail, has been just as good.

But why was last night's episode just so much better than any other recent ones? It wasn't just that McNulty's finally about to get his due and (though I have no way of knowing this for sure), I think Marlo is definitely going to walk away a free man. What it came down to was the end of the line for a character I've grown to love, Felicia "Snoop" Pearson (played by the real Felicia Pearson), and what it means for the soldier who did her in.

The real beauty of "The Wire," to me, is that it makes you get attached to characters who, you know, are largely just reprehensible figures. Stringer Bell. DeAngelo Barksdale. Chris Parlow. Omar Little. And, even moreso for me, Snoop.

It wasn't just that Snoop was the only female member of the "street" contingent. For me, I always liked her because you always knew she was acting a lot tougher than she really was (which is not to say that she's not one bad mutha, because she is.) In her final scene (remember, huge spoiler coming), when she asks Michael just how her hair looks before he blows her head off, is the kind of moment that "The Wire" specializes in and, when it's not going almost completely off the rails with phony serial killers, can still deliver.

What made Snoop such a great character, beyond the acting skills of the great Ms. Pearson (who, in real life, is indeed alive and well), is that her real-life story is as intriguing as anything David Simon and friends could ever have come up with.

Pearson was born premature to two drug-addicted and incarcerated parents and reared in an East Baltimore foster home. Much like the kids of season four of "The Wire," she came up through the drug trade rather than the classroom, and at age 14 was sentenced to 8 years in prison for the second-degree murder of Okia Toomer. She said her life turned around at 18, when a man she called Uncle Loney, a local drug dealer who looked out for her and sent her money in prison, was shot and killed. She finished school while behind bars. After earning her GED in prison, Pearson was released in 2000.

Much of the above comes from Wikipedia (verified at HBO.com), but how in the world did the real "Snoop" get to play her alter-ego on "The Wire"? In another story that indeed could have come straight from the show, she met Michael K. Williams, who plays Omar Little, in a Baltimore club, and he brought her to the set.

I know I'm going on an awful lot about a minor character on a show that not that many people tune in for, but it's a tribute that Snoop dearly deserves. I wanted to leave you with a YouTube clip with the title "R.I.P Snoop Pearson," but HBO pulled it over copyright violations. Instead, and to lighten the mood a bit, here's a clip of Wilco (introduced by Ellen Page) performing "Walken" on last weekend's "Saturday Night Live." It's four minutes or so of pop bliss, and hopefully an improvement to everyone's Monday morning. Peace out, and rest in peace Snoop.