Frickin' Eh Movie News 04.06.08: Strange Interlude Edition
Posted by Matthew Motiuk on 04.06.2008
Neil Armstrong? A Magnum P.I. star? What's a Hungry Rabbit Jumps? Not many of the answers within! Pardon me while I have a strange interlude . . .
There is officially one (1) week left of classes before the end of my first year of university. That is somewhat frightening. I've chosen most of next year's classes, but first, I guess I'll have to pass finals. And then it's four months of summer. Speaking of summer, it snowed today. Yes, in April. I love weather in Alberta.
I've been watching How I Met Your Mother lately now that it's back on. I haven't been all that impressed with the new episodes, though. I think some of it has to do with the focus on only one character per episode now. Whereas before, most episodes had two or three stories going on, these only have one, and so only one character really gets highlighted. I'm starting to think the greatness of the show was the balance between the characters, and when one becomes singled out, the entire show loses something. Hopefully they fix it, because I really liked the first two and a half seasons of the show. But anyway . . .
Universal To Tell Neil Armstrong's Story
Universal has acquired nonfiction novel "First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong" and will turn it into a film about the first person to set foot on the moon, says Variety.
NASA historian James R. Hansen got rare direct access to Armstrong, a test pilot-turned-astronaut who was so driven to reach the moon and play the role of American hero that he became known as "the Ice Commander."
Nicole Perlman will write the script. Temple Hill Entertainment partners Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey produce.
"The closer he got to the moon, the further away he became from his family," Perlman told the trade. "He had a family tragedy before Apollo that turned him into this driven astronaut, and he became such a perfect hero that while Buzz Aldrin was announced to be the first man on the moon, NASA reversed its decision because Neil was regarded as more heroic."
Armstrong returned from the moon as one of the most famous men on Earth but didn't capitalize on it with a political career or endorsements. He reconnected with his family, shut out the world and became an intensely private man.
This is probably going to be a very feel-good movie in the end, but I'm not sure if I'd want to sit through it. I'm not big on the tales of family struggles versus career, especially the true ones. That may make me a heartless animal, but that's just who I am. I'm sure this will turn out to be a relatively typical movie about one of the big American heroes, and honestly I'm surprised something like this hasn't been done before, but we'll have to wait and see.
Fox and Panettiere Make a Kiss List
Fox Atomic is acquiring the novel "Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List" and will develop it as a star vehicle for "Heroes" star Hayden Panettiere, reports Variety. Amy Andelson and Emily Meyer will write the script.
Published last year by Knopf, "Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List" takes place in Manhattan, where Naomi and her gay best friend Ely protect their soulmate friendship by creating a list of people deemed off limits for smooching. Their friendship is imperiled when Ely kisses Naomi's boyfriend.
Panettiere is currently playing the title role in the Chris Columbus-directed Fox Atomic comedy I Love You, Beth Cooper, and she is also planning to star in Daydream Nation, which Vogel and Gerson-Saines will produce.
Ergh . . . I am torn here whether to rip into this one or throw it a little slack. Let's do the noble thing. First off, this is in no way a movie I would ever watch, but as far as the audience it will be shooting for goes, I'm sure it will be a good fit. It's story sounds original enough, at least from where I'm sitting. I'm not sure Naomi should be dating someone who would kiss her gay best friend . . . no, I promised myself I wouldn't do this! Focus! Okay, I'm back. This should be an effective way to promote Panettiere (god, that's a hard name to spell), and I don't see any reason why this won't be successful.
Stiller Named King Doug
Ben Stiller is attached to produce and possibly star in The Return of King Doug, an adaptation of an upcoming Oni Press graphic novel whose film rights were picked up by DreamWorks, says The Hollywood Reporter.
Written by Greg Erb and Jason Oremland, "King" centers on a man who must return to the fantasy world which he abandoned 30 years earlier. Erb and Oremland will also write the screenplay.
Stiller, Stuart Cornfeld and Jeremy Kramer will produce through their DreamWorks-based Red Hour Productions.
Eric Gitter, one of the partners at Oni, will also produce through his Closed on Mondays Entertainment, the company which acts as Oni's production arm. Peter Schwerin is executive producing.
This definitely sounds like a Ben Stiller kind of movie, no doubt about it. Well, I'm assuming. Nowadays they throw you some weird descriptions and you're like "Wow, that sounds like a great comedy" and they say "What? That's a drama." And then you kind of burst out laughing in a less than graceful manner. But anywaye . . . I think the plot sounds ludicrous and the movie will probably not be all that fantastic, but let's cross our fingers that we're all somehow miraculously mistaken.
Crudup Is a Public Enemy
Billy Crudup has been set to play FBI director J. Edgar Hoover in Public Enemies, the Michael Mann-directed crime drama for Universal that stars Johnny Depp as John Dillinger, reports Variety.
Mann has also set Stephen Lang to play Winstead, the leader of the Texas Rangers who joins the manhunt for John Dillinger and his gang. Christian Bale and Marion Cotillard also star.
Crudup's a great actor who will be a solid addition to this already-incredibly-strong cast, but I am still in dreadful fear of Mann being in control of this movie. It's a style issue with me, I can't watch Michael Mann movies without wanting to throw something at the TV and yell "Just take a step back and stop shaking the damn camera!" Other people like it, though. I look forward to this one coming together.
Hyperion Cantos Chosen By Warner Bros.
Producer Graham King has set up Dan Simmons' award-winning science fiction book series "Hyperion Cantos" at Warner Bros., with Trevor Sands on board to adapt the first two books as one feature, says Variety.
The first book, "Hyperion," won the Hugo Award for best novel in 1990, while the second, "The Fall of Hyperion," was nominated for a Nebula Award for best novel.
"Hyperion" deals with a space war, with most of the action taking place on a planet named Hyperion, known not only for its electricity-spewing trees but also for the Time Tombs, large artifacts that can move through time. The tombs are guarded by a monster called the Shrike, which impales people on metal trees.
I'm obviously out of the book loop lately, because I've never heard of these, but it sounds pretty interesting. The description of impaling people on metal trees was a little unnecessary, but hey, that's cool. I've never actually heard of Hugo or Nebula Awards, either. Regardless, handled right, this could lead to some solid sci-fi movies.
Can McConaughey Pull Off the Hawaiian Shirts?
Entertainment Weekly reports that Matthew McConaughey has been offered the role of Thomas Magnum in Universal Pictures' adaptation of "Magnum P.I.," based on the hit '80s TV series that starred Tom Selleck.
McConaughey is reportedly reading the script from writer/director Rawson Marshall Thurber (Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story) and will decide shortly.
Brian Grazer and Imagine Entertainment are producing.
This sounds like it's nowhere near being verified, but it's an interesting bit of news. McConaughey looks the part (minus moustache, of course, but that's not that hard to fix) and I don't think he's a terribly bad actor. I think he picks some stupid parts, but the good ones, he handles well. I think it'll be an interesting take on the movie. It'll still be hard pressed to break free of the usual rut that old TV shows have to break out of to make a good movie twenty years later. Keep an eye on this.
Gretchen Mol in Tenure
Variety reports that Gretchen Mol will star opposite Luke Wilson in Blowtorch Entertainment's collegiate comedy Tenure about two professors competing for the same permanent spot on the roster.
The film, from new writer/director Mike Million, starts shooting next week in Philadelphia.
"The Office" regular David Koechner is already on board as Wilson's sidekick colleague.
Luke Wilson does not inspire much confidence, and Mol has been in a whole bunch of movies I've never heard of (except 3:10 to Yuma, in which she was fine). We can't write this one off just because of a new writer/director, everybody's got to start somewhere, but I've got my reservations over this one.
Rhames and Pike Are Surrogates
Ving Rhames and Rosamund Pike have joined Bruce Willis and Radha Mitchell in the sci-fi thriller The Surrogates for Disney.
Jonathan Mostow is directing the film based on the graphic novel by Robert Venditti and artist Brett Weldele of Top Shelf Comix. Michael Ferris and John Brancato (the Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines duo) wrote the script.
Mandeville Film's David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman are producing along with Max Handelman and Elizabeth Banks.
Ned Vaughn (Frost/Nixon) was also previously cast in the film, which is set in the future where humans live risk-free lives through robot surrogates that are eternally young, perfect-looking versions of themselves.
Rhames plays a charismatic cult figure who disdains the use of surrogates and tries to lead an uprising against the "new world order."
Mitchell plays the professional partner of Willis' character, a cop that through his surrogate investigates the murders of others' surrogates.
Pike plays his wife.
Production is set to begin in late April on the film, which will be released through Touchstone.
Shooting is scheduled to start on April 28 in Boston for a November 20, 2009 release.
Both Pike and Rhames are good at what they do, and I can totally see Ving Rhames as a charismatic cult leader. It's a weird story, but it'll be interesting, I guarantee that. Everyone seems to love the graphic novel, so I expect this has some steep expectations to live up to. I'm excited to see how this one turns out.
Maguire Is a Jumping Hungry Rabbit?!?
Endgame Entertainment has picked up Robert Tannen's spec Hungry Rabbit Jumps for Tobey Maguire ("Spider-Man" franchise) to topline, reports Variety.
The project is described as a dramatic thriller in the vein of David Fincher's The Game.
Endgame's James Stern is producing alongside Maguire and Gordonstreet Pictures' Ram Bergman. Endgame's Wendy Japhet is executive producing.
Maguire Entertainment has a number of projects set up at various studios including Tokyo Suckerpunch and Everything Changes at Columbia Pictures and Hot Plastic.
I dislike Maguire, I think he has very limited talent, and coincidentally, I also dislike the Spider-Man movies he starred in. With no information about this besides an incredibly awkward title and a reference to a 1997 movie, you can't make a judgement call yet, but I wouldn't be setting my hopes too high.
Rapid-Fire: Animal Crackers (1930, starring the Marx Brothers, Margaret Dumont, Lillian Roth)
Ah, the Marx Brothers. There's nothing quite like the mad genius of them. This week, I present one of the best known of their movies, containing one of the best known lines of any of them:
There's no rhyme or reason in one of these, and it's useless and silly to try and find any. You can only enjoy this if you just sit back and let the utter randomness wash over you. There actually is a story, and it's not actually that bad, but you won't derive any pleasure from it. The staple Marx Brothers elements are here; singing, cigars, random dances, piano, harp, and Margaret Dumont. Everything is just as you would expect, and it's all as great as always.
Groucho delivers a great performance with his randomness, as always, except this time he gets to throw in a couple incredibly serious parts with his ‘strange interludes' which are priceless. Harpo and Chico do the usual, although this is apparently the only movie where Chico's Italian heritage is called into question. Zeppo has his classic incredibly small role. The other actors are there and do well, but you're not there for them.
This movie delivers two classic moments. One is the line that was actually voted one of the funniest lines in movies: "One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don't know." (That entire part is actually quite funny) But the best moment of the entire movie, and one of the best Marx Brothers moments for me, is the "Take a letter, Jamison" scene. Absolutely priceless.
This is classic Marx Brothers at its best. Yes, it's old, and it's in black and white, but it's still funnier than most movies to be released in the seventy years following it. I think it's a testament to the genius of the Marx Brothers that even today, the movies are still brilliant.
Closing Time . . .
Well, that's it for another week. I've got a big English essay due Friday (or we can hand it in at the exam) which I probably should be working on right now, but nobody's perfect. Anyway, I need some time away from it to . . . brew. Or something. Well, whatever. Be safe, and all you university students, enjoy your final week of classes! Steel 186, Anaconda 74, American Can 138.
