First Wives Club

Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman ever to win the Director's Guild of America's highest honor for her gripping Iraq war film The Hurt Locker. With her victory, she spared us from having to endure another speech delivered in a made up language from James Cameron, who happens to be her ex-husband.

Bigelow impressed me early in her career with her vampire flick Near Dark, but then kind of went off the rails with the shitty Blue Steel and the over-the-top camp and bad acting of Point Break have made it a semi-classic, but I've always maintained it was a pretty lousy action flick. But she's matured as a filmmaker (after a few other missteps; K19 The Widowmaker I'm looking at you!) and has now smashed down the gender barrier to become the first female to capture this award; and you gotta think it's extra sweet to bag this honor going up against her ex-husband and his massively hyped flick. Bigelow, who despite my oh-so-clever title was actually wife #3 (of five!) was only married to Cameron for two years. Strangely, when he left to direct Terminator 2: Judgement Day, things fell apart. Even stranger, his next wife became that films star, Linda Hamilton (who became an ex-wife when he directed Titanic, and soon ended up marrying an actress from that flick too.) From reports from his sets, and a few books on Cameron I've read (I highly recommend Paula Parisi's 'Titanic and the Making of James Cameron') I suspect he wouldn't be a very easy man to live with, and judging by his acceptance speeches for his Oscar and recent Golden Globe, he seems to really really dig winning, so I'm sure his ex-wife snatching away an honor didn't sit well with him.

Congratulations, Kathryn!

'The Killer Inside Me' Gets Bought At Sundance

The Killer Inside Me, a film noir flick starring Casey Affleck as a psychotic deputy sheriff, Kate Hudson as his girlfriend and Jessica Alba as a prostitute he's involved with was sold yesterday at the Sundance Film Festival. The film sounds like a southern-fried noir version of Dexter, Casey Affleck's character has a "sickness" (much like Dex's "dark passenger") and his ailment is that he's a serial killer doubling as law enforcement. When the film screened at Sundance, the brutal violence in the movie - much of it directed toward women with Hudson and Alba on the receiving end - enraged audiences. Alba, who was on hand to introduce the film was among the many who walked out during the screening. (Deadline Hollywood has now refuted the report that Alba "walked out" as "bullshit" claiming she had another engagement. I think that reeks of PR-spin. I find it difficult to believe that Alba would fly to Park City, Utah to attend the premiere of her film and then somehow manage to double book the two hour period required to screen it.) During the post screening Q&A, director Michael Winterbottom fielded questions from angry audience members about the films misogynistic nature, extreme, unrelenting violence and one woman simply berated the festival itself for accepting a movie of this nature into Sundance. I've always found film noir flicks very sexy - and adding Kate Hudson and Jessica Alba to the mix certainly works in that regard - but I suspect it will be decidedly unsexy when Affleck starts brutalizing them. That being said, I find it odd when people complain about serial killer flicks or horror movies being 'misogynistic." The simple fact is, the vast majority of victims of serial killers are female. That's a fact, not a creative choice.

The movie is slated for a late summer release, and when it finally arrives in theatres, it will be a long time coming for this project. Based on 1952 pulp novel of the same name by Jim Thompson, the movie was first set to go before cameras in the mid-1950's with Marilyn Monroe in the Jessica Alba role, Marlon Brando in Casey Affleck's and Elizabeth Taylor circling the part that Kate Hudson ultimately played. Over the years many big names were attached to the project including a version that was to star Tom Cruise with Demi Moore and Brooke Shields in the female roles (that would have been awful;) a Quentin Tarantino directed version with (who else?) Uma Thurman, Juliette Lewis and Brad Pitt; it was also shopped as a Leonardo DiCaprio vehicle with Charlize Theron and Drew Barrymore. Ultimately, the version that made it in front of the camera was put together by the late Marc Rocco, a massive hack of a director who placed Casey Affleck in the starring role. He ultimately dropped out (then, sadly, dropped dead at age 46) and Michael Winterbottom stepped in and cast Hudson and Alba as his female leads. No word yet if the version that elicited such an extreme response from the audience in Sundance will be the version we see in theatres.

Worst Movie Poster Ever?

I just saw this poster over at /Film and burst out laughing. I've truly never seen anything as amateurish as this for a major motion picture. I don't know anything about this movie other then that its cast contains Paul Walker, Hayden Christensen, Chris Brown and T.I., so the odds are the acting is going to be terrible. But no matter how bad they are, they won't be the worst thing about this film. Take a look at that poster; first of all, forget the absurdity of Hayden Christensen looking so 'street' in his bow tie and bowler; is that not the worst photoshop work you've ever seen? Look how big Paul Walker's head is! It doesn't seem to have remotely the same lighting as the rest of his body either. Also, how is it that Idris Elba and T.I. have an intense white light shining on the right side of their faces, and yet that light magically doesn't shine on anyone else? What is the source of this light? But easily the best part is the dude

standing in the back on the right. No attempt has been made to create the illusion he's in the same room as the rest of the characters. While they are all looking at the camera, he's strangely looking off in some other direction ... and holding a glass of water. How natural. It's like they took photos of all the other actors for the poster, then later on realized they wanted him on the poster so they just used a screen grab from the movie and stuck him in there. Everyone else is trying to look bad ass, but he looks like he just heard a scary noise in the closet. Maybe it was the dude that was shining the intense light just on the side of T.I. and Elba's heads.

This truly looks like a "fan" poster done by a high school student. Hilarious shit.

I'm Going Back to the Shore, Bitch!

After contract negotiations that included MTV offering the cast the embarrassing pittance of $5,000 per episode (which they refused, settling for reportedly double that,) things have finally been ironed out and the juicers and guidettes are gearing up to shoot season two. In effort to strike while the iron is hot, the cast will re-locate to a warmer climate, so the title Jersey Shore will be strictly symbolic. If they waited until next summer to shoot again at the actual Jersey Shore, the show wouldn't air until next winter, and by then the fickle public might have moved passed drunk Italian stereotypes fucking and fighting. No word on where they're heading this time, but suffice to say it would have to be a place jam-packed full of touristy assholes for them to interact with (meaning for Ronnie to punch out.) I'd recommend Cancun, which while naturally beautiful, is full of the worst kind of Americans and a string of cheesy motels mixed in with the beautiful resorts. I'm sure the biggest concern is finding a hotel with the proper gym facilities, and, of course, a tanning bed.

MTV Picks Up Real Life "Breakfast Club" Series

The Hollywood Reporter is uh... reporting that MTV has picked up a series called "If You Really Knew Me" which should really be called "Don't You Forget About Me" because it sounds like a reality show version of the classic teen film The Breakfast Club... which doesn't neccessarily sound like a bad thing.

The series takes five high school kids (I'm gonna take a wild stab in the dark and suggest they may fit neatly into familar sterotypes; one princess, one brain, one athlete, one basketcase and one criminal) and tracks them over the course of one day. The day in question is something called "Challenge Day," which The Hollywood Reporter describes as a "one-day program designed to break down barriers between different social cliques." MTV has picked up 12 episodes, but there's no word on whether the series will follow the same five kids after they've presumably made a connection during their one day together, or if the show will instead look at twelve different groups, changing each episodes.

Are You Ready For 3D Porn?

Italian filmmaker Tinto Brass; the man who directed the infamous Caligula back in 1979 for Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione; has revealed plans to direct the world's first 3D porno film, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Brass' Caligula, which was written by Gore Vidal (who later disassociated himself from the project) rose to infamy when after the film was completed, Guccione went back and did re-shoots of hardcore sex scenes which were inserted (no pun intended) into the film without the consent of the director. Brass subsequently removed his name from the film which boasts easily the best cast in the history of fuck films with Malcolm McDowell, John Gieguld, Peter O'Toole and Helen Mirren. And before you ask, no Mirren doesn't get it on with anyone. Brass' new film will be a 3D pornographic project - can't wait for that 3D money shot coming right at you! - that will tell the story of a Roman emperor that was ruined by Americans. How the Roman Emperor will exist in the same timeline as the Americans that allegedly ruin him is unclear. But who cares? Nobody is gonna watch a 3D porno flick for the plot. Brass is currently scripting and plans to start shooting in May.

The Ridiculous "Poltergeist Curse"

Actress Zelda Rubinstein; who was nearly fifty years old when she made her first major film appearance in Tobe Hooper's Poltergeist playing a pint-sized psychic medium; died yesterday at the age of 76.

Rubinstein; who was an odd presence on-screen with a child like voice and a diminunitve 4'3 frame; appeared in all three Poltergeist films as well as the spin-off tv series Poltergeist: The Legacy making her the only cast member to be involved in all of the series incarnations. The actress succumbed to kidney and lung failure after a two month hospitalization. This is not an uncommon or surprising demise for a 76-year old, though that hasn't stopped some people from mentioning the absurd 'Poltergeist Curse' in online reports of her passing. The 'Curse' is an urban legend stemming from the supernatural nature of the films premise and the nasty habit of cast members dying shortly after shooting films in the series. It began when shortly after the release of the first film, one of the young actresses; Dominique Dunne, was murdered by her deranged ex-boyfriend. When the actor who played the villain in Poltergeist II: The Other Side died during filming, then one of his co-stars passed away the following year; the urban legend was born. It really gained momentum in 1988 when the 12-year old star of the series, Heather O'Rourke tragically died during post production of Poltergeist III. The death of a 12-year old actress known for her role in a franchise of horror films makes for a morbid hook for the notion of the film being cursed - according to the legend because of a scene where actual human skeletons were used instead of props - is really kind of silly and disrespectful to those that have died. Young O'Rourke died of septic shock after a bowel obstruction sent bacteria through her bloodstream. The others who died weren't necessarily big surprises like the passing of a youthful child star.

Actor Julian Beck, who played the creepy Kane, died before the shooting of Poltergeist II: The Other Side wrapped production, but he had been diagnosed with stomach cancer a year and half before being cast in the film. His co-star Will Sampson died on the table during a heart and lung transplant procedure. Not exactly a shocker or something that sounds like the tragic fate of a cursed man. Amazingly the passing of a 76 year old woman is seen as further evidence of this 'Curse' for those that want to believe it to be true. I hope I get 'cursed' to a tragic 76 years on the planet. Earlier today wikipedia - the giant bathroom wall of the world - had listed Zelda Rubinstein as the latest victim of the dastardly 'Poltergeist Curse,' but to their credit, the information has since been edited and now, strangely, a truncated CNN wire service report of her passing is now awkwardly pasted at the bottom of their entry on the 'Poltergeist Curse.'

If you enter 'Poltergeist Curse' into google, amazingly, perhaps sadly, over two million hits come up. If you type the word 'coincidence' into google, you get 16,000,000 hits. I think that's something that is lost on those that think a tragic string of untimely deaths is evidence of a 'curse.'

This Would Be An Amazing Movie...

Telling It Like It Is

I didn't know who Kevin Greutert was until he was hired on to direct to Paranormal Activity 2 and I thought it was an odd choice considering his only directing experience was helming Saw VI; the film that the original Parnormal Activity trounced at the box office. The story took an interesting turn when Twisted Pictures, the studio behind the Saw franchise elected to exercise a clause in Greutert's contract that would force him to direct the new Saw film instead. This move of course forces him to drop out of Paranormal Activity 2, a film that was on the fast track to be in theatres on October 22nd, the same day, not-so-coincidentally that the new Saw 3D was slated for release. Gee, I wonder why they did that?

Greutert, who was the editor on the first five Saw flicks before taking the directors chair for Part VI, showed his skills in the suite by cutting the shit and telling it like it is today on his blog. Over at /Film I read his honest no bullshit take on the awkward situation of being yanked from one film and put on another with so little time to prep the film. "I'm in the middle of something really terrible now, as anyone who has come to this site probably knows. While I fight for justice in this, the important thing is to avoid giving into hatred and anger, because these emotions are life killers. Hopefully we will arrive at an amicable solution. Thank you everyone who is working wtih me on this."

It's... civil. But it's not quite polite. I mean, he does use the word hatred. He does refer to directing Saw 3D as "something really terrible" which may actually be accurate. So he's not sitting on the fence in any way, but he's also not slinging mud.

But then he commented again in a much more honest, bitter fashion. "I just had the task of telling my 83 year old mother that no, I'm not going to be allowed to direct the movie we were all so excited about when my family last got together, and that I'm being forced to leave town before getting a chance to see her again. Yes, I'll be filming people getting tortured YET AGAIN. So we'll have to put off making a film she can actually watch for another year. I'm not making this shit up."

That's honest. That's straight up. That's ballsy. It's also not-so-suprisingly no longer up on his site. Maybe I judged this guy too quickly because of his Saw assoctation. Sounds like he doesn't like the series that much either! Greutert does have a very legitmate gripe; Twisted isn't bringing him back because they want him, they're doing it cause they don't want Paranormal 2 to have him, and they want to do whatever they can to disrupt the pre-production and cause them to miss their release date. It might be a career-limiting move, but I have to respect that he's not taking this lying down.

Classic Dennis Farina Story

My last post about Midnight Run reminded me of my all-time favorite junket story. Dennis Farina, who's part of the exceptional ensemble cast of Midnight Run playing mobster Jimmy Serrano, has spent his entire career either playing gangsters or cops. Farina, who before he became an actor actually was a cop, was in town to promote one of his police roles. In 2004 he joined the cast of the television juggernaut Law & Order. I was working at the Comedy Network at the time and we were invited to cover the CTV "Up Fronts" which is essentially a series of quick junkets with some of the stars of the shows that would populate the networks lineup that fall. Farina is well known for his admiration of fine clothing, and he didn't disappoint showing up in a $3000 suit with shoes so shiny they were like mirrors. One of the correspondents for our show, David Reale, was barely twenty years old and dressed in the official uniform of youth: t-shirt, ripped jeans and a pair of weathered Chuck Taylor's. The contrast between the two outfits was striking enough that it made them both look like they'd arrived at the wrong place. Farina gave him a quick up and down as he entered the room and generally seemed a little wary of the slightly goofy interview from the under dressed kid, but Reale's natural charm had warmed him as it went on. Just as the interview ended, Farina leaned over and shook David's hand, then reached into his suit pocket and produced a handful of twenties and chucked them at a surprised Reale. In that classic Farina voice he closed the interview by saying "Now go buy yourself a decent fucking pair of shoes."

De Niro To Take Another "Run?"

One of my favorite comedies is Martin Brest's 1988 film Midnight Run. I remember being very intrigued by this movie because it was Breast's follow up to the wildly successful Beverly Hills Cop and when the trailer arrived and it became clear that much like that film it was action comedy hybrid I was surprised because Robert De Niro was in the lead role. Back in 1988, the notion of De Niro in a comedy was much more startling then it is now, because this was well before he'd whored himself out in crap like Meet the Fockers and Analyze This (or That.) What seperates Run from the later comedies he made was in Midnight Run he wasn't trying to be funny. It's a slight but significant difference.

Midnight Run is easily the best comedy De Niro ever made; and a film worthy of being mentioned with his best work, which is heady praise considering the fine resumé he built up until he went off the rails in the mid-nineties. De Niro plays bounty hunter Jack Walsh who's on the trail of Jonathan "The Duke" Mardukas, a mafia accountant who's double crossed the mob and is on the run. Walsh locates "The Duke," played by the brilliant (and criminally under used) Charles Grodin and the film tells the story of their trip from New York to Los Angeles, where De Niro's bounty hunter needs to deliver "The Duke" to get his payout. Their journey is complicated by rival bounty hunters on their trail, the mob's effort to intercept the Duke and the F.B.I. who are embarrassed by the ease in which Walsh has located "The Duke."

A recent story at Deadline Hollywood about De Niro changing representation (which is a great move for him; he's been getting awful advice and making horrible choices for over a decade now) mentioned his future projects and I was pleased to see, among the productions, was a sequel to Midnight Run. Martin Brest, who built a solid reputation starting in the 1980's as the director of quality flicks

Beverly Hills Cop, Midnight Run, then Scent of a Woman and Meet Joe Black in the 90's has been put out to pasture since his last effort, Gigli tanked spectacularly in 2003. Since then, he's done nothing and seemingly has no projects being discussed with him attached. I'd love to see him step back behind the camera to helm a Midnight Run sequel. And I don't really think there's an argument that De Niro is in need of a comeback project even more than Brest, because he's made some truly embarrassing films recently after building an unprecedented resumé of spectacular work in the first half of his career. It's hard to believe that the actor who played the twitchy ticking timebomb Travis Bickle also played 'Fearless Leader' in The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. It's difficult to fathom that he actor that channeled the terrifying rage of Jake La Motta also played a generic mafia don in two crappy Billy Crystal comedies that essentially amounted to him pissing on the virtuoso acting he did playing mobsters in Godfather Part II and Goodfellas. If he's willing to make Meet the Parents 3 (and sadly, he is,) it's no surprise that he's on board to re-visit Jack Walsh in a Midnight Run follow up. I think this is wise project for his new management to be putting together for him, and a promising sign for their new partnership. He's too good to be as bad as he's been. I'd really welcome a comeback, and I'd love to see Martin Brest as part of the project.

Run, Bobby, Run.

'Buried' Bought at Sundance

The Sundance Film Festival is underway in Park City Utah, and one of the films I was most interested in has already been sold, which is good news, 'cause that means it should be hitting theatres in the near future. The film in question is called Buried, and what intrigues me about this project is its high concept. The movie unfolds in real time and opens with a man, a contractor in Iraq, played by Ryan Reynolds, waking in a coffin to discover he's been buried alive. He has just a cellphone, a flashlight, a lighter and ninety minutes of oxygen before he will die.

The only location for this movie is the claustrophobic confines of the pine box Reynolds finds himself in and the only source of light is the screen on his cellphone, a flashlight and the flickering flame of his Zippo. For the next 90 minutes, the movie is set entirely and exclusively in the coffin. No flashbacks, not cut aways to the world outside, just Ryan Reynolds inside a dark coffin fighting for his life. I've always been intrigued by films like this that utilize one location dating back to when I first got into Alfred Hitchcock and marveled at his film Rope, which not only takes place entirely in one apartment, but also is designed to appear to have no camera cuts throughout it's running time with the exception of the exterior establishing shot and the final shot of the film, which again cuts outside. (The film actually did have other cuts, but they were all hidden as the camera passed behind something to make the edits invisible.) Hitchcock tried the same exercise in a much smaller location closer in spirit to Buried with his 1944 film Lifeboat, which takes places entirely in a lifeboat in the North Atlantic following a wartime sinking.

The creative challenges that Buried director Rodrigo Cortes faces in telling this story fascinate me and I can't wait to see this movie to see how he choose to tell this story. The movie premiered last night at a midnight screening at Sundance, and the movie played so well with the audience that he immediately sparked a bidding war, won by Lionsgate. The late night screening spawned many solid reviews and if Lionsgate, who paid just under $4 million for the film, markets this movie properly they could have a micro-budgeted hit on their hands in the vein of Paranormal Activity and The Blair Witch Project.

Check out the teaser trailer below:

New Trailer For 'Hot Tub Time Machine'

John Cusack is an actor I've been a long time fan of. His 1984 coming-of-age film The Sure Thing was, for years, my favorite movie, and I still maintain it's easily the best of the rash of 80's "young-man-needs-to-get-laid" flicks. Since then, he's appeared in a lot of great flicks, ranging from a border line cameo in Stand By Me to starring roles in gems like Say Anything..., Grosse Point Blank, High Fidelity and Being John Malkhovich. However, in recent years, he's hit a cool streak with a lot of lousy movies, so when I heard he was doing a film called Hot Tub Time Machine I couldn't help but think as he hits his mid-forties, it might be over for John Cusack.

Then I saw the trailer for Hot Tub Time Machine and thought it actually looked pretty good! The director of the film, Steve Pink, was the producer on previous Cusack flicks Grosse Pointe Blank and High Fidelity and adding further cred, he made his acting debut in The Sure Thing! Check out the trailer; am I crazy or does this actually look good? Looks like a breakout role for Rob Corddry who really deserves to bust out. (Corddry, by the way, was actually hilarious in the movie What Happens in Vegas, which I reluctantly watched on a flight back from L.A. after a being urged to do so by Movie Night host Johnny Hockin, and was amazed to discover it was a pretty decent comedy.) Corddry looks foul and funny in this and could be delivering the hilarious role that will break him out of secondary roles in comedies and give him a chance to take his career to the next level.

Check it out below:

Director for 'Paranormal Activity 2' Is An Odd Choice

After the micro-budgeted Paranormal Activity scared up over $150 million at the box office, a sequel was inevitable, but how do you catch lightning in a bottle twice? The original flick, which was made for just $15,000 seemed like the anecdote for what has ailed the horror genre in recent years. The success of the Saw series, as well as the Hostel films led to an onslaught of "torture porn" flicks - which basically consist of people screaming for their lives while they get murdered slowly, usually in an overly complicated and grisly way. Paranormal Activity arrived and did away with all of that nonsense, and instead opted for a scary story and a no frills approach.

Paramount - the studio behind the original Friday the 13th series - has never shied away from milking a property, so they quickly announced Paranormal Activity 2 was on it's way shortly after the original started to fill theatres. Now comes word they've settled on a director; and it's an odd choice at best. Oren Peli, the one-time amateur filmmaker who helmed the original has already moved on to his next project, Area 51, so the studio needed to find someone new and they've gone with Kevin Greutert. Greutert made his directorial debut last year helming Saw VI. Saw VI was the first entry in the series to see a significant drop off in box office receipts signaling that perhaps audiences had at last tired of the torture porn sub-genre. That's just speculative, but what is certain is that the film under performed because it got slaughtered by another horror film that opened the same weekend. That film, of course, was Paranormal Activity. So why would Paramount go out and lock up the director of the film they demolished? Why would they get someone who's only feature is the polar opposite of the kind of movie the original Paranormal Activity was? All signs point to Paranormal 2 being lousy - much like the Blair Witch Project; which spawned a truly awful sequel - there really is no reason to make a sequel except to try and wring some more cash out of the success of the first entry. Greutert's sequel hits theatres on October 22nd, and, ironically he will go up against Saw VII (which will be in 3-D.) Here's a prediction: he'll lose this box office battle again.

In Defense of NBC...

I'm not going to attempt to defend NBC in their handling of their late night lineup. Let me just be clear on that right up front. I've never been a fan of Jay Leno; I think his new ten o'clock show is all kinds of awful, and I absolutely loved seeing Jimmy Kimmel rip him a new asshole right there on his own show while Leno - allegedly a wily veteran comedian - just stood their stupidly and took it. NBC's handling of the entire Tonight Show debacle is nothing short of idiotic and their treatment of Conan O'Brien is shameful. Can they really be stupid enough to move an institution like The Tonight Show to 12:00 am? Don't they realize it wouldn't be tonight, it'd be tomorrow if they aired it at midnight? Anyway, that's the not the point.

What I think is unfair, is how NBC, as a network, is being blasted not just for their awful bungling of their late night comedy lineup but as an overall network. The common attitude online and in the press seems to be that the entire network is a total mess and being run by morons, and that overlooks that incredibly good job they are doing developing comedy shows at a time when no other network is enjoying much success in that regard. I currently watch four half hour comedies weekly, and all of them were created by NBC. The Office, 30 Rock, Parks & Recreation and Community, all part of the networks Thursday night lineup, are, for my money, easily the best comedies on television. They all feature strong writing, no laugh-track, excellent casting and each consistently deliver solid laughs. While the huge comeback that Parks & Recreation has made is a big story (it was pretty terrible when it debuted last season as a pale rip off of The Office;) the real revelation in this group is Community. I've posted about the show before; calling it the best new comedy on television; but as it continues to improve each week and finds its stride it may well be the best comedy on television period, freshman or otherwise.

I knew nothing about creator Dan Harmon before the show aired, and I only checked the show out because I was intrigued by Chevy Chase (one of only two cast members I was familiar with before the shows debut, the other being "Dr." Ken Jeung, best known as the naked gangster in The Hangover) as a television series regular. Now, however, Harmon tops my list of people to keep an eye on in the industry in terms of comedy. The last time I was this psyched about a show runner, it was Judd Apatow with his incredible back-to-back run of Freaks & Geeks and Undeclared, and the amazing fact that both shows got cancelled after just one season, despite oozing excellence out of every pore. Much like those shows, the writing and tone of Community is pitch perfect and; perhaps the best compliment; the show improves every single week. This past weeks episode, which featured a guest starring performance from Jack Black and a cameo from Owen Wilson was absolutely hilarious and it had little to do with the high-profile help. The behind the scenes efforts are obviously very important in terms of the series success, but the casting and performances are where the show really has no peers at all.

From the main cast, to the guest stars, to the bit players, this series consistently delivers hilarious comedic performances - even Chevy Chase is funny for the first time since the mid-1980's and I suspect this role is just the beginning of his comedic renaissance, he's too good for it not to be - and while it's hard to single out an individual in such an excellent ensemble, Danny Pudi, who plays the nerdy, awkward Abed, is someone to keep an eye on. If you're not already watching this show, I urge you to check it out. It's nice to know that while NBC has its head up its ass in terms of their late night lineup, they are, at the very least, providing solid Thursday night comedy fare; which has been their bread and butter dating back to Family Ties and The Cobsy Show. In an era when crap like Two and a Half Men is heralded as a "successful" half hour comedy program, the work NBC has done developing smart, edgy funny comedy shows should be acknowledged. Instead, it's being ignored.

Hockey Flick Iced

Hollywood's history with hockey movies is not impressive. The sports status in the United States (somewhere below bowling and darts) means there's been very few hockey films in the first place, but when there are, they usually turn out pretty awful. It's difficult to find a hockey enthusiast that doesn't cringe at the mere mention of the Mighty Duck series. Those films lacked and even passing knowledge of the sport. Case in point: the big, badass, unbeatable foreign club didn't hail from Canada or Russia. They came from Iceland. Even when an entertaining movie about the sport is made, like Slap Shot (which make no mistake is a classic) it still doesn't really fully understand the sport. The premise of that movie is a floundering team in a rust belt down discovers that playing a rough and tough, fight-filled brand of hockey brings in big crowds. Sure, fighting is part of hockey, particularly in the era and minor leagues that the movie depicts, but it's not the mindless never ending brawlfest that Slap Shot depicts. Imagine if a baseball movie were made that focused on pitchers beaning batters. Game after game, the pitchers just threw fastballs at their opponents heads. Baseball enthusiasts would be up in arms.

So I was quite excited when I heard two Canadians, actor Jay Baruchel (best known for Tropic Thunder and also the star of the criminally under-appreciated Judd Apatow TV series Undeclared) and Evan Goldberg, (the writing partner of Seth Rogen, who brought us Superbad and Pineapple Express) had sold a hockey screenplay. My enthusiasm was slightly tempered when I discovered their film was called Goon, obviously focusing on the pugilistic side of the sport yet again, but the respective comedy chops of each writers made me willing to overlook it. It's not just comedy chops either, it's also hockey knowledge. Baruchel, a native Montrealer, is a long time Habs season ticket holder, and I've had the chance to chat hockey with him and he knows his stuff and is a passionate fan of the sport. The director they hired on, Michael Dowse, is also a Canadian, and as the guy that helmed the cult classicsFubar and It's All Gone Pete Tong, I was genuinely psyched to see what these guys were gonna come up with. Well... sadly, it's not gonna happen. The picture was set to start shooting in April, but now comes news that the movie has been shutdown. Baruchel and Goldberg sold their screenplay to a neophyte producing team made up of David Gross and Jesse Shapira (they share a combined zero credits) and it seems the project has fallen apart with shooting just around the corner.

Now, the only hope for a decent hockey movie lies in the hands of Kevin Smith. Smith, who has never been shy to work hockey into his movies (A Felix Potvin Toronto Maple Leafs jersey appeared in Chasing Amy, as well as Sega Hockey, and recently in Zack & Miri Make A Porno, star Seth Rogen played hockey in the film. Smith himself is a huge New Jersey Devils and Edmonton Oilers fan has been discussing his hockey project, Hit Somebody a lot this past year even describing it as "his passion project." So he's got the hockey fan and the knowledge of the game thing covered, but his film, which is based on the Warren Zevon song of the same name, will be about, you guessed it: fighting in hockey. Set in the late 1970's - also known as the goon era of hockey - his film will tell the story of a man who loves the game but can't play very well so he becomes a brawler. Smith's passion for the project and for the sport means I'm willing to give him the beneift of the doubt, but I'd love to see a Hollywood hockey movie that wasn't strictly focused on fighting.

Hughes Brothers Nearly Directed "Pirates 4"

Albert & Allen Hughes, the filmmaking brothers from Detroit that brought us Menace 2 Society, Dead Presidents and From Hell, revealed to MTV that they were approached by Disney to direct the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film. The Hughes brothers have a new film coming out next weekend, The Book of Eli, a post-apocalyptic tale starring Denzel Washington, and it was the post-production work on that film that caused the brothers to withdraw themselves from consideration for the directing gig on the fourth Pirates movie. Gore Verbinksi, who helmed the first three films in the series, backed out of the fourth one leaving Disney scrambling to find a new director. The Hughes Brothers, who hadn't made a film in ten years since their (underrated) Jack the Ripper flick From Hell, seemed like an unlikely choice, but Johnny Depp, who starred in From Hell, recommended the brothers and soon they were considering taking on the challenge; cheifly because of how much they respected Depp.

Though scheduling issues led to the job ultimately going to Rob Marshall (the director of Chicago and Nine - and in my opinion a very odd choice for a big budget pirate movie) I would have liked to have seen their take on The Pirates of the Caribbean. They're films are known for their grittiness and violence, and a darker take on Captain Jack Sparrow would have no doubt been interesting (though I really wonder if Disney would have allowed them any leeway in terms of making the film darker or more violent at all.) When the duo began production on the Jack the Ripper flick, they received a lot of criticism, much of it just thinly veiled racism, because their previous projects, the aforementioned Menace 2 Society and Dead Presidents (and their third film, a documentary called American Pimp) were urban stories in urban settings. Obviously From Hell was a period piece set in Victorian England. Were these the right filmmakers to tell this story, was the oft-posed question by the doubters. (The unspoken remark being: they can make films, but let them make "urban" films. The moment they want to make a movie outside of that world, then we've got a problem!) I was already a fan of the brothers before From Hell, but it was their response to this criticism that really won me over - and silenced their critics. They simply asked if Steven Spielberg had ever really met a space alien, and if he hadn't, was he really the right guy to make E.T. - The Extra Terrestrial? The questions stopped after that.

Riff of the Decade

For my money, the riff of this past decade; (and sadly, yes, I am the kind of person that will take/waste the time to determine things like 'favorite riff of the decade/year/album' and throw that information into a mental pile with a bunch of other useless shit;) belonged to the White Stripes for, of course, 'Seven Nation Army.' I know the riff is so popular (and overplayed perhaps) that it's much more fashionable to bash it, or perhaps, cite some much more obscure chord progression, but that wouldn't be honest to my reaction when I first heard the song. (And, for that matter, the 100th time I heard the song.) When I first heard it, I didn't even think it was a guitar riff at all. It sounded like a bass line, which was surprising, because the White Stripes don't have a bass player. Rolling Stone.com has an interview with Jack White where he discusses the riffs inception. Apparently the riff came to him in one piece, during a soundcheck. Interestingly, White played the riff for an employee at Third Man Records who was on the tour and at the soundcheck. His original verdict... "it's OK." This amused White.

What I find amusing about his recollections of the birth of 'Seven Nation Army' is that the riff came to him, in it's entirety, rather then being something he slowly worked at. I'm sure this sort of spontaneous stroke of genius often comes to musicians, but what's funny about this is how unusual this riff really is. In order to achieve that bass-like sound, White is running his semi-acoustic guitar through a whammy pedal set down an octave. You know, the sort of thing you casually do while tinkering around in a soundcheck! It all sounds like such a specific series of choices, clearly designed to make an unusual sound... and yet, he does all this then stumbles upon an iconic rock riff spontaneously.

Dawn of the Dead: The Television Series?

Horror website bloody-disgusting.com delivered a surprising scoop earlier today: MTV is licensing George A. Romero's classic horror film Dawn of the Dead for the purposes of spinning off a television series. Dawn, the second entry in Romero's original Dead trilogy followed a rag tag group of survivors that hole up in a shopping mall while the world outside is overrun by the living the dead. Precious little is known about this project, and curiously, bloody-disgusting.com appear to have removed their original article from their site, so it's very difficult to offer much of an opinion on this. Would the series be set entirely in the shopping mall? How many stories could they possibly concoct about a small group of people living in an abandoned shopping mall with uncertain death stumbling around outside in the parking lot trying to get in? Conversely, If it took place outside of the mall, what connection would it really have to Dawn of the Dead? Without the mall, it's just zombies, not Dawn of the Dead. I have a nagging suspicion that the recent success of Zombieland, and the involvement of MTV - not exactly a name-brand in the horror business (despite some recent, surprising genre choices like the straight to DVD horror flick My Super Psycho Sweet 16 and their upcoming werewolf series based on the cheesy 80's flick Teen Wolf) - means this might trade dark horror and social commentary for a lighter tone and a more teen-friendly vibe.

George A. Romero is unlikely to be too precious about his property even if MTV does want to change the tone or mess with the canon of his original film. His first trilogy, Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead have all each been remade at least one time. (On top of te remakes, there have been other efforts to milk the franchise. Due to complicated rights issues and low wattage intelligence by the hack who purchased said rights, there's actually a film called Day of the Dead 2: Contagium. The film purports to be a sequel to Romero's Day; which, by the way was the third film of the series so to have a sequel with 2 in the title is odd. In reality it was just a zomebie movie trying to cash in on the marginal name-brand value of Romero's least-known entry.) A Dawn television series is an odd project, but it's even stranger that MTV is the network looking to try this. It seems like a considerable shift from the programming they've been developing in the last decade (rich kids act like douchebags) and it's the second old film property that they are rebooting for the small screen. In light of the slew of television shows we've seen get a "big screen update" - usually an underwhelming results - it is interesting to see MTV doing the opposite. What remains to be seen is if they can get better results. The picture should become a little clearer when he find out who the creative team is that's going to be spearheading this venture.

Before The Sunrises and After It Sets: Part 3

I had a chance to chat with Ethan Hawke this morning - grab a broom, I just dropped a name - about his new flick Daybreakers and I couldn't let the opportunity to ask him about a third Before Sunrise flick pass.

For the uninitiated, Before Sunrise was a little flick from director Richard Linklater (who I will be a fan of eternally thanks to his brilliant Dazed and Confused) that told the story of a young American, played by Ethan Hawke, who befriends a beautiful French girl (played by Julie Delpy) on a train and ends up spending the night wandering around Vienna with her. Nearly ten years after this tiny, perfect movie, Hawke, Delpy and Linklater reunited for the sequel, Before Sunset; and against all odds, they recaptured the magic and made another fantastic little romantic flick.

The films were never big box office draws. The original, made for $2.5 million, grossed $22 million while the 2004 sequel didn't even earn back its modest $10 million production budget. However, the audience that did find these flicks absolutely adored them. (Both movies garnered an 8 out of 10's from the imdb.com viewer rating system.) I asked Hawke if he would be intrigued by a third chapter and I was surprised by his enthusiasm for the idea. "I would love to do it, in fact, I would be so bold as to say I would be surprised if we didn't. That said, I have no idea if it would be in two years or in twenty five years. There's no plans to do it; Richard Linklater and Julie Delpy are two of my closest friends in the world. Those movies are really... You know, to say they're dear to me, makes it... less than what it is. They're a part of me. I love those movies." Linklater himself has recently been quoted talking about how he and Delpy have tossed a few ideas around for a third installment, so it seems it's more a matter of when it will happen. Hawke closed by saying "I would love to make another one, I think we're just kind of waiting to have something to say."

Sam Mendes to direct the next Bond flick?

The sale of MGM has the 23rd James Bond movie in a state of flux. Pre-production on the movie was shut down this week until the sale is sorted out, but the next entry is in the new for other reasons. This is just plain odd, but according to 'The Hollywood Reporter' Sam Mendes is deep in negotiations to direct the twenty-third James Bond flick. This is very strange choice because Mendes has zero experience directing action scenes, let alone an action movie. Mendes was an acclaimed stage director - not exactly the training ground for action directors - before he moved behind the camera to make his debut with the fantastic American Beauty back in 1999. He would bag the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Director for his efforts, but it appeared that he peaked early. He followed the film up with Road to Perdition; a film I really enjoyed; then his mediocre war flick Jarhead followed; then the dreary, depressing Revolutionary Road and finally last year's Away with Her, a low budget relationship 'dramedy.' It doesn't appear that there's anything on that list that would make him remotely qualified for a big-budget high-profile franchise action flick, but the Bond producers have made curious choices before, including as recently as the last flick in the series. That movie, Quantum of Solace, was helmed by Marc Forster, who had previously directed the dramas Monster's Ball and Finding Neverland and the grossly underrated Will Ferrell vehicle Stranger Than Fiction before making his Bond flick.

There's an argument to be made that a good director is a good director (and make no mistake: I think Mendes is a great filmmaker) but there is also a very different skill set required to make edge of your seat action movies and moving, emotional dramas; and Mendes, with his background in stage direction seems about as far away as you can get from a slam-bam action wizard. What I find more troubling about this pairing is why Mendes would want to do this in the first place. After American Beauty, he could green light and project he wanted as studios lined up to work with him and he opted for Perdition and Jarhead as his next two projects. Jarhead in particular is a telling choice because it's a war movie about the boredom and monotony of war - not about the violence, action and battles. Mendes doesn't seem to be drawn to those kind of stories or that kind of filmmaking. So why would he suddenly want to sign on for a big budget, high profile action juggernaut? The simple answer is: because he needs it. Since his debut with American Beauty, Mendes has seen his stock as a director - and his films box office fortunes plummet. His last film, Away We Go, was made on a micro-budget for less then $8 million and yet he still failed to become a profitable venture making just over $9 million back. When you factor in the film's marketing budget, he managed to lose money on a micro budget project.

It appears Mendes has gone from an Academy Award winning director to a desperate man scrambling to keep his career afloat in just ten years. That being said, much like Michel Gondry stepping behind the camera to make a superhero movie, I'm intrigued by what Mendes will come up with as a Bond director