I'd certainly put myself in the human starring role too, but more on that in a little bit, because the best possible news to start off this particular Tuesday would have to be the possibility of more "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

For my money, there isn't anything funnier on TV, and hasn't been for at least the past 10 years. Larry David's mix of eventually sweet but very bitter along with the way is just comic perfection, so any news of an eighth season would certainly be welcome.

And being an ornery showman, David offered only the slightest hint it might happen when he recently showed up at the TV confab PaleyFest.

After shooting down the possibility of a movie (thank God for that), he finally got around to saying "I think there's a pretty good chance" and "We're working on a couple of things."

Not much to work with there, but since baseball season is almost here, it's all about hope around here, so here's hoping he gets busy on this soon, and stay tuned until the end for the reason HBO is going to get me to re-up very soon.

And now back to the lead. If I were somehow the person writing a new Muppet movie, you can certainly bet I'd cast myself in it as the human lead, which is apparently just what "Freaks and Geeks" vet Jason Segel has done.

Though the plot of the new Muppet movie he wrote with buddy Nicholas Stoller is still under wraps, we do know it's called "The Greatest Muppet Movie Ever Made" and it's being directed by James Bobin of "Flight of the Conchords." Apart from that, it will of course be about the Muppets reuniting for a big show (what else, after all?), and Segel will apparently be the human who leads the effort to reunite them. That all sounds like nothing but fun to me, so get on with it already!

Scorsese's "Hugo Cabret" taking shape quickly

It can be maddeningly difficult at times to figure out what exactly Martin Scorsese will work on next, but with the cast taking shape seemingly instantly, we can now be certain it is "The Invention of Hugo Cabret." And having read and adored this "children's" book, that's definitely good news to me.

The book itself by Brian Selznick is about an orphaned boy who ends up living in the walls of a Paris train station with his uncle, and operating the station's clocks when his uncle is too drunk to do so. Along the way, he encounters filmmaker Georges Melies and his mechanical men and, well, it's just gets more and more fun from there.

Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen has signed on to play the station inspector, and Sir Ben Kingsley will reunite with Scorsese to play Melies (if you haven't seen "Shutter Island," by the way, you're about to miss your chance ... I thoroughly enjoyed it.) As far as the kids go, Asa Butterfield, who had the misfortune of starring in the simply dreadful "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," will play our young hero, and that foul-mouthed hit girl Chloe Moretz will play the female lead, Isabelle.

There's certainly a lot of fun stuff for Scorsese to play with here, so definitely bring it on.

Inside the mind of Michel Gondry

It can be even harder to tell what's up with Michel Gondry, but since I almost always dig whatever finally springs from his overactive imagination, it's worth keeping track of.

He is, of course, now shooting "The Green Hornet," starring Seth Rogen (yes, really) from a script by the "Superbad" duo of Rogen and Evan Goldberg. You can count me as mildly intrigued by that, but it's with what might come next that things really start to get interesting.

He says that after that will come the indie drama "The We & The I," which is based on his own book, "You'll Like This Film Because You're In It: The Be Kind Rewind Protocol." I haven't read that, but probably will soon, and here's what Gondry had to say about the flick:

“It’s about the group effect, how people in groups transform when the group is dislocated, because everyone jumps out of the bus at different times, there is a smaller group and how the relationships evolve. .. it’s kids on a bus, it’s more like a social thing. It’s not [well-known] actors, it’s going to be kids from a school in the Bronx. I love kids and just [regular] people too because they are not polluted by the medium. They come as they are and they have beautiful stories to tell, so I want to show that.”

Not sure what in the world all that will produce, but his music videos (mi hermano gave me a collection of them for Christmas a few years ago, fantastic viewing) and "Dave Chappelle's Block Party" have shown he can have some real fun with crowd dynamics. After that, thankfully, things just keep getting odder and odder.

He's also working with funnybook writer and "Ghost World" scribe Daniel Clowes on some kind of time travel movie which would somehow star Ellen Page (remember her?) Called "Return of the Ice Kids," it's apparently about a group of teenagers who invent a kind of water that makes you hear music (believe me, I couldn't make this stuff up if I wanted to.) Here's a bit of what he had to say about Page's role in it:

“I’d like to do a movie of this size with my own story, which would be quite amazing. But we’ll see. I’m developing a screenplay with a writer right now about kids who travel [into] the future by mistake and a machine [that] keeps people younger… ehhh, it’s complicated to explain…Ellen Page is supposed to be the main character…She’d play Nancy, a young woman who participates in the discovery and changes the world.”

Also on Gondry's apparently indefatigable mind is an animated movie called "Megalomania," which he's been working on since 2007 with Clowes and his son, Paul. Here's what he had to say about that:

“It’s about three kids who discover how to create energy from hair. And they shave everyone on the planet. The rich people wear and rule the world. So the rich people wear wigs and the poor people are just bald. And they want to make a better world, but the maker — which is sort of based on my son — is a horrible dictator…"

And here's what he has to say about his son:

"I didn’t want him to be the son of me, I want him to be his own person. I always saw him as an individual from the first second he was born. I always appreciated from him from how different he was from me. He’s very well dressed and stylish and much more confident then me. He’s street smart.”

The film is currently set to star the voice talents of Steve Buscemi, Seth Rogen, and Juliette Lewis. And like I said, though it certainly be frustrating to keep track of all that, it's very often well worth it when you see what he finally comes up with. Stay tuned.

OK, after that, all I have today is a trio of videos, starting in honor of today's big release of the Drive-By Truckers' new album "The Big To-Do." It's the band's first album of all new material in a few years, and having listened to it streaming for the last week or so, I can tell you it's a grand rock record well worth a few bucks if you dig that kind of thing. The guys (and gal) are apparently releasing webisodes about the making of each track, which is more than a bit of overkill, but the first one at least, for the sensational Mike Cooley track "Birthday Boy," is very entertaining. Enjoy, and go buy the album too!



And finally today, two videos for David Simon's New Orleans series "Treme," which is finally coming to HBO (along with my money) on April 11. It stars "The Wire" vets Clarke Peters and Wendell Pierce, Melissa Leo of "Homicide" (and a lot of other things), and even somehow Steve Zahn and John Goodman too. It takes place three months after Katrina, and I think you'll agree that in at least these short glimpses, he and co-creater Eric Overmyer have really captured the city's rhythm. Enjoy, and have a perfectly passable Tuesday. Peace out.

Baseball season is almost here again, and even for someone who still cheers rabidly for the perpetually suffering (and almost all deserved, unfortunately) Baltimore Orioles, it's the best reason all year of every single year to celebrate.

And what could make the 2010 baseball season even better than it's sure to be? How about a month-by-month soundtrack updating the state of the season from some of alt-rock's (or whatever the hell you want to call it) best singer/songwriters.

In 2007, appropriately enough at a communal stadium urinal, fuzz guitar man extraordinaire Steve Wynn (if I had to pick just one, probably my favorite rocker around) and Young Fresh Fellows/Minus 5 vet Scott McCaughey met, and from that soon was born, thankfully, the Baseball Project.

So, what in the world is that? Well, it's just two really talented dudes, along with longtime Wynn drummer Linda Pitmon, getting together to write and perform really fun, totally fuzzed out odes to the world's greatest sport (with all apologies to the runner-up, soccer.) In July of 2008 they put out their first album, "Vol. 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Qualls," which I just bought this morning (after the head's up from mi hermano, who luckily has an actual good team, the Twinnies, to cheer for along with the O's.) It's just full of all kinds of fun songs about baseball, including odes to Curt Flood,Satchel Paige, Sandy Koufax and others, including a great Spanish ditty about Fernando, and even tracks called "Ted F***ing Williams" and "The Yankee Flipper."

If you've never heard of Steve Wynn, I really probably can't do justice to how great he is in writing, so why not listen to a bit of the Baseball Project yourself? The group has just released the first of its monthly ditties for this season, appropriately enough titled "All Future and No Past." In the perfect spirit of eternal hope that greets each new season, it's a tribute to the league's most long-suffering teams, so the Pirates, Royals and, of course, Orioles all get prominent play. I'm not sure they're right that "The Orioles' recent woes are deceiving," but it's a new season, and that means that for one day at least, the Orioles will be in first place in the American League East by sheer force of alphabetical order.

Click the widget below to listen to "All Future and No Past," and keep a look out on ESPN's The Life for the tracks to come once a month throughout this season (and yes, I can almost guarantee I'll post them all here, too.) Enjoy, have a great rest of the weekend, and unless you somehow cheer for the Red Sox or Yankees, keep hope alive!

Due to people and their relations being sick, it's just been a tough week for me and my co-workers, but when I saw this yesterday I immediately told everyone within talking distance, because whose day isn't at least a little bit better with news about Harold & Kumar?

It seems that Collider.com, for which I occasionally contribute, had an interview with John Cho, and along with a lot of news I skipped over about his TV show "Flash Forward" (which I do watch), he revealed the blissfully silly news that filming on "A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas" will indeed begin in June, with the movie set for release in time for Jesus' next big day.

Neil Patrick Harris will apparently be back, and even though he as far as I know might still work for Barack Obama, I'd have to assume Kal Penn will too (otherwise, why watch?) That's easily the news that just made my rather mundane Thursday.

And in easily the craziest news out there this morning, it seems that we can get used to seeing "Avatar" in some form in our movie theaters for a very, very long time to come. It seems the box office king of the world is now adding new scenes (to what was already a pretty freakin' long movie) for a theatrical re-release this fall. You know, I call it crazy, but then again, I just might spring for this, 'cause it was an awful lot of fun.

In other James Cameron news that doesn't interest me in the least but will surely intrigue other folks, he also let it spill that "Titanic" is getting its inevitable 3-D upgrade, and will probably be out in its shiny new form in 2012. I'll admit it: Not only did I just not think the movie was all that great, but the thought of all that water raging toward me in 3-D just gives this wimp the heebie-jeebies.

Noyce books more spy games

If I had to pick a single favorite director, it would probably be Alfonso Cuaron, but if I ever made a list of 10 (and may just do that soon), these next two guys would certainly make the cut.

Phillip Noyce nets this distinction largely on the strength of two fairly recent movies, his sublime remake of the Graham Greene novel "The Quiet American" and the even better South African movie "Catch a Fire."

His next movie will be the spy flick "Salt," starring Angelina Jolie as a CIA spook accused of working for the Russians. I predict that will be the at least slightly surprisingly monster hit of the summer when it comes out July 23, and it seems that Noyce himself is already booked for more spy games.

He's been tapped to helm the spy thriller "Wenceslas Square," based on the short story by Arthur Phillips. It's set in Prague in the late Cold War era and revolves around a young CIA officer and a beautiful Czech spy.

What I'd really like to see him direct is that adaptation of Philip Roth's "American Pastoral," but that seems to be on hold, perhaps forever. In the meantime, I love me some spy games, so bring all this on.

McCarthy rounds out cast for "Win Win"

Another definite directing favorite around here is Thomas McCarthy, who along with starring in the final season of "The Wire" has helmed the great little flicks "The Station Agent" and the even better "The Visitor." He's booked his next project as "Win Win," and it's taking shape very quickly.

With shooting set to start Monday in New York (not, apparently, in Atlanta, as I somehow was led to believe), Fox Searchlight has announced that Melanie Lynskey, Bobby Canavale and, yes, even "Arrested Development" vet and extremelyfunnyguy Jeffrey Tambor will join the already unveiled Paul Giamatti and Amy Ryan in the flick.

So, what's it about? Well, written by McCarthy in an at least semi-autobiographical tale, it's about a struggling attorney (Giamatti) who moonlights as a high school coach. He becomes the legal guardian of an elderly client, and when the old man's teenage son runs away, Giamatti's character's family ends up taking him in. The lad goes on to join the wrestling team and, well, you can imagine it will get pretty uplifting from there.

But, in the hands of McCarthy, I'd imagine pretty darn entertaining and insightful too, so definitely keep your eyes on this one.

Franco brothers set their sights on Bukowski tale

Anyone who'd been here before knows that I have a more than slight hetero man-crush on James Franco, and admit it, who in the world doesn't? The dude's just cool, and even though I think he's still an NYU student of some kind, he doesn't seem to ever stop working.

Among his latest projects will be adapting the Charles Bukowski semi-autobiographical novel "Ham on Rye" as a feature film with the help of his brother, Dave. Word so far is only that they're writing this, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear that James Franco will also play Bukowski's alter ego, Henry Chinaski, and maybe even direct the movie too.

He's most recently directed a documentary about "Saturday Night Live" that will debut at this year's SXSW festival.

OK, hopefully that lived up its billing, because it was indeed about as much news as I have time to cram in this morning. I'll leave you with the first trailer I know of for "Shrek Forever After," which will be the fourth installment in the franchise when it comes out, oddly enough, on my birthday, May 21. I didn't care much at all for the second and third movies, but the first was a hoot, so I'll take a chance on this. Enjoy, fear the turtle, and of course have a wonderful weekend. Peace out.

OK, I get way too obsessed about movies that won't come out for a long while around here far too often, but you can officially pair this one with Danny Boyle's "127 Hours" as the two I'm most looking forward to in the somewhat near future.

Clint Eastwood has just signed on to direct the biopic of J. Edgar Hoover that is being developed by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard's Imagine Entertainment, from a script by "Milk" scribe Dustin Lance Black.

When I first heard that news, my first thought was wouldn't it be fun if Dirty Harry played Hoover, but of course he's far too old by now. It certainly would have been amazing, though. As for who can do it now, Billy Crudup did a much more than passing job in Michael Mann's rather criminally underrated "Public Enemies," so he should certainly be a candidate, but my money would be on them going with a relative unknown to play at least the young Hoover.

As for the subject himself, there can't be many more fascinating - albeit widely reviled - figures of the 20th century, on the one hand creating the FBI and taking on all kinds of gangsters while on the other hand, well, apparently cross-dressing at homosexual orgies (not that there's anything in the world wrong with that.) A complicated dude to say the least, and after what Black did with the life of Harvey Milk, I'm confident he's given this the full treatment it requires.

And, frankly, I have to admit that Eastwood's never been one of my favorite directors, mostly due to his complete aversion to subtlety. That said, I've seen "Gran Torino" three times now and like it more each time (though, and if you still haven't seen this but want to, PLEASE SKIP TO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH, did he really have to die in the shape of a cross? Sheesh.) I'm fairly certain the man has at least one more great movie in him, so here's hoping this is it.

In much lighter and hopefully funnier news, though I gave up actually smoking pot at least 15 years or so ago (though mi hermano and I tried it during a stop in Amsterdam during the 2006 World Cup, just to make sure I never need to again), I've always loved stoner movies, and I think I always will, especially with this cast.

Jason Segel of "How I Met Your Mother" (and, of course, "Freaks and Geeks," which I try to mention at least once every day) and Ed Helms of "The Office" have signed on to star in "Jeff Who Lives at Home," a stoner comedy from the Duplass brothers, Mark and Jay, which will begin shooting next month in Louisiana.

The flick chronicles a day in the life of two brothers, one a stoner who lives at home (Segel, natch) and the other a dude who has things more together but is very overbearing (Helms, natch again.) Just in case that wasn't enough funny for you, Judy Greer is about to join in too as Helms' character's wife. Nice.

Like I said, I'll always be hooked on good stoner flicks, so certainly count me in for all of that. And all I have after that today is a trio of videos (actually, that's not quite true, because some genuine "Mad Men" madness turns up at the end too.)

First up comes the music video for the Runaways' song "Cherry Bomb," performed by the movie's stars, Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart. Actually, I have no idea if Stewart actually learned to play the guitar, but that's certainly Dakota singing, and as anyone who's been here before knows, you can count me as being in the camp that thinks "The Runaways" is somehow not going to completely suck when it finally comes out April 9. Enjoy.



You know, I've met more than a few Canadian people in my already fairly long life, and I say this with the utmost respect and kindness, but Canadians really are some odd birds. Just in case you needed further proof, check out this trailer for "Suck," which unfortunately looks like it will live up to every ounce of its title's promise. It does, however, somehow star Iggy Pop, Henry Rollins, Alice Cooper and, yes, even, Moby, so it's at least worth watching the trailer. Not too oddly at all, I checked the IMDB but was unable to find any kind of release date for this, which is probably on DVD in some form already. Enjoy.



And finally (well, before the "Mad Men" goodness, at least), here's the newest trailer for Ridley Scott's "Robin Hood," which will be out to assault all your sense and sensibility on May 14. I still can't yet see any way this is going to be any good, but I've been wrong at least once today already I'm sure, so enjoy the trailer.



And, really finally, even though I'm far too old and, well, everything to ever play with dolls, who could resist at least looking at these Mattel creations based on the characters from "Mad Men"? If you have more disposable income than me and want something funny to put on your mantel, you certainly could do a lot worse. They go on sale in July for a rather ridiculous price of $75 each! Anyways, enjoy the photo, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday. Peace out.

I've been pretty much amazed by the reaction to Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland," with critics pretty much split right down the middle. Well, you can certainly count me in the pro category, something you can rarely say about Burton's remakes.

Unlike "Planet of the Apes," which was just a lifeless mess, and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," which he just made into a perverted pile of trash, I found "Alice in Wonderland" to be nothing but charming, largely because Burton restrained all his worst impulses. I was a little worried when Alice first managed to walk out into Wonderland (or, as he calls it, Underland) and there were those two little flying creatures battling, but he mostly managed to resist cluttering the world with too many oddities and just let the story tell itself.

What comes next, however, just might be way beyond the pale. This is just at the beginning of rumor stage, but when it's this bad, I feel duty bound to spread it around (as if I would really have any power to stop it.)

There really does seem to be no limits to what will be engulfed by the 3-D beast, so someday I should probably manage to stop being surprised by this lunacy, but I just assumed no one would have the hubris to think they could remake "The Wizard of Oz," right? Apparently not.

According to the Los Angeles Times, with Harry Potter set to end soon and considering the rather amazing opening weekend for "Alice," Warner Bros. is seriously eyeing jumpstarting one of two updated "Wizard of Oz" scripts knocking about to make it a 3-D spectacle. Remember, I'm just the messenger here.

One project, called "Oz," is being pushed by Temple Hill, the folks behind a little series called "Twilight," and has a script by Darren Lemke, a writer on the upcoming "Shrek Forever After." OK, bad, but maybe not awful. But wait ...

The second potential project, which seems to be paralyzing my fingers so I have trouble even writing it, skews a lot more twisted, with "A History of Violence" scribe Josh Olson penning a version that focuses on - yes, really - a granddaughter of Dorothy who returns to Oz to somehow fight evil. Not surprisingly. "Spawn" creator Todd MacFarlane, who has had a twisted Dorothy fetish for years now, would be involved in this in some kind of producing capacity.

Now, I can certainly understand the temptation here. A potential tentpole with the perfect heroine, and all that nifty 3-D to boot, but really? Where to start ...

My main beef with all of this - and believe me, I could go on for quite a while - is that the original "The Wizard of Oz," in an admittedly antiquated way, is plenty twisted itself already. It certainly doesn't need to be any darker or odder or anything else than it already is.

If anyone has a lot more power than me, please stop this as soon as possible. And from here on out today, it's all good news, I promise, including two simply sensational musical offerings at the end.

De Niro to play Vince Lombardi

If you're gonna do a grand sports biopic, you probably can't find a better match in my book than Robert De Niro and Vince Lombardi, the Green Bay Packers coach who led his team to five NFL titles. De Niro has signed on to play the role on the big screen for ESPN Films, with a script to come from Eric Roth, who wrote the screenplay for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."

Now, I've made clear my pretty intense dislike (not hate, note) of that David Fincher flick, but I seriously doubt Roth will be able to "Gump" this up the way he did Fincher's movie.

And as for ESPN Films, I've tuned in for their TV film series when the subject interests me. The Len Bias flick was pretty great until it veered off course at the end to proselytize about the legalization of drugs, and that little movie about the U. of Miami was nothing but fun. The flick about Jimmy the Greek was intriguing, but that ridiculous voice over that was supposed to represent the voice of the oddsmaker almost made it unwatchable.

What all the TV offerings have had in common, however, is that they're about as shallow as a half-filled kiddie pool, but I'd have to think Roth will get into a much more fleshed-out portrait of Lombardi here, and I'll certainly turn out to see it when this hits in that dead weekend before the Super Bowl in 2012 (great timing there.)

Two seriously funny ladies returning to TV

The only thing missing from the great news that Will Arnett was reteaming with "Arrested Development" co-creators Mitchell Hurwitz and Jim Vallely for a Fox sitcom to be called "Wilde Kingdom" was word of who would have the rather onerous task of being subjected to his obnoxious advances.

Well, it seems that Felicity herself, Keri Russell, is about to sign on to play the co-lead, which would be nothing but cool. In the show, Arnett would play a Beverly Hill jackass (natch) who falls in love with a charitable, tree-hugging woman (Russell) who can't stand his lifestyle or values.

Sounds like fun, and really, just the further adventures of Gob Bluth, and what could be wrong with that?

In other TV news at least tangentially related to "Arrested Development," Judy Greer has been tapped to star opposite David Krumholtz in another Fox comedy pilot, "Tax Man."

In the show, Greer is set to play a former Morgan Stanley secretary, nicknamed "the Terminator," who joins an IRS office in Fresno, Calif., staffed by enthusiastic eccentrics.

Greer is seriously funny in just about anything she does, and though Krumholtz has made a steady living for years now on "Numbers," which I've never seen, you may remember him from way back when as Neal Schweiber's big brother Barry on "Freaks and Geeks," so this is definitely one worth keeping an eye out for next fall.

New music video from She & Him

I know at least one semi-regular visitor to this site, Bob Connally, is jazzed about there being a second She & Him album out this week, and I am too.

For anyone who doesn't know, She & Him is a nifty little collaboration between Zooey Deschanel and plugged-in folkie M. Ward, and their first album, "Volume One," was just thoroughly charming, so I'm looking forward to more of the same with "Volume Two," which is due out March 23 (not yesterday, as I was hoping before an alert reader corrected me.) In the meantime, enjoy this first music video for the song "In the Sun," which with Deschanel and friends dancing their way through high school hallways is just a perfectly sweet diversion. Enjoy.



And, much better, next week will bring the release of a new Drive-By Truckers' album, "The Big To-Do." Even better than that is that it's currently streaming for free, and all you have to do to hear it is click on the player below. My first impressions? It's a solid rock record that falls somewhere between good and great. It could certainly use more Mike Cooley and less Shonna Tucker, but the Cooley song "Birthday Boy" and Patterson Hood tracks "Drag the Lake Charlie" and "The Wig He Made Her Wear" are first rate. Enjoy, and have a perfectly endurable Wednesday. Peace out.

As I sit here in my blue jeans and Catholic University sweatshirt, really as about as glamorous as I ever get, I can't help but wonder how in the world I ended up reviewing a documentary about the inner workings of U.S. Vogue.

For anyone who doesn't know, The September Issue is a behind-the-scenes look at all the work that goes into producing the magazine's biggest annual issue, which clocks in at a rather amazing 800+ pages, and its stars are Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour and creative director Grace Coddington. And though it could have easily turned into a vanity piece designed to refute the fictionalized portrait of Wintour in The Devil Wears Prada, it's instead an engaging portrait of the creative process.

Given how completely vacuous the world of high fashion most often is, it's easy to forget how much work goes into it (though certainly many - me among them - wish these talented people would use their considerable passion for something more productive.) And the real joy of R.J. Cutler's documentary comes in watching these strong personalities emerge as the pivotal annual issue of Vogue is put together.

Rather than present this as a traditional, talking heads style documentary, Cutler wisely lets his camera flow freely through the office, giving this a genuine energy. At the magazine and in the movie, it all begins and ends with Wintour (or, as U.S. Vogue editor-at-large Andre Leon Talley rather disturbingly calls her, "Miss Wintour" - it just made me shudder a la Driving Miss Daisy.) How much time you have for The September Issue will rest largely on how much you like her, since she dominates just about every frame of this.

Perhaps it's a reflection of my personality, but I ended up growing to like her quite a bit. I've never had much time for bosses who tried to sugar coat things - something of which you could never accuse Wintour. She can genuinely kill with a smile, but also gets directly involved in the careers of young designers in whom she believes. If she threw coffee in the face of an intern or something else really atrocious, Cutler's camera didn't capture it (and I seriously doubt she would be stupid enough to do that on camera.)

After thankfully brisk biographical intros to Wintour and Coddington, the movie quickly gets into a behind-the-scenes look at compiling the titular issue, and this is at its most interesting when Wintour and Coddington clash about just what will appear in between all the ads for dresses that cost way more than I pay per year in rent. Their professional and personal relationship, which has developed over many years, is fascinating, vacillating between genuine respect and rivalry, with Coddington pushing for more and more lavish shoots and Wintour often dismissing all her hard work, sometimes with only a cursory glance.

The real accomplishment of Cutler's movie just might be showing that, behind all its empty glamor, there is not only a lot of hard work going on here, but some real artistry too. He lets it slowly develop, but when you see the finished product, especially in Coddington's grand jazz-era shoot that anchors the issue, it's hard not to be impressed. And this being fashion, there's plenty of campy humor too, especially at the expense of cover girl Sienna Miller, whose hair and teeth take a beating from Wintour.

As far as extras, they certainly didn't hold back, but it's the very definition of overkill. It has deleted scenes which, if you actually watch them all (as I dutifully did), run as long as the movie itself, but how many times can you really watch Wintour talk about fabric with a designer? Buried in all this are two genuine gems, Wintour speaking at the funeral of her former assistant, Isabella Blow, who committed suicide (and not, in case you're wondering, while she was in Wintour's employ), and Talley addressing the graduation ceremony of a NYC beauty academy, which appears to genuinely move him.

The bottom line: Even if you're a jeans-and-t-shirt guy like me, there's still plenty to like in R.J. Cutler's The September Issue.

And I'll leave you today with the new trailer for "Iron Man 2," which apparently premiered on Jimmy Kimmel's show last night, but that was long after this working man had gone to bed. Enjoy the trailer, and have a perfectly passable Monday. Peace out.

For all its faults (and farms and mafias and whatever the hell else people waste their good time with), Facebook can - extremely rarely - actually be the source of really good news, as is the case here.

And yes, call me a geek, goober, gleeb or whatever else you might want to, but I am a fan of "Futurama" on Facebook, and really, why not? It rarely produces anything worth reading, but yesterday came these two back-to-back posts:

Futurama Heads up, Futurama fans! All new episodes of Futurama begin this June on Comedy Central!
Futurama Oh, and one more thing: we're bringing back the ENTIRE original cast.

Now, anyone who's followed the saga of the show's return to Comedy Central knows that the second part has news that's at least good as the first. When Fox started on reviving the delightfully fun animated sci-fi series, it originally fired all the voice actors after they asked for a raise, and planned to proceed with a roster of scabs, meaning anyone with any kind of conscience would have to boycott this.

Well, as you can tell, common sense (or more likely pocketbook sense) eventually prevailed, and so "Futurama" will indeed be back in the only form it should in June, so huzzah to that!

OK, after that today, there's a lot of silly stuff, surely starting with this:

"Police Academy" to enroll new class

Before I write anything else about that, I should probably punctuate it right away with a yes, really.

And does anyone wanna guess how many "Police Academy" movies there have been already? I guessed seven before checking at the IMDB to find out that, sadly enough, I was indeed right.

So does the world really need another one? Certainly not, but admit it: You all watched at least the first three of these, and at the beginning, they were insanely funny. They also, however, became less and less so as they went on, which makes this not terribly welcome news at all.

It seems that original producer Paul Maslansky is now hoping to revive what has to the be longest-running film franchise yet with a new class of cadets, but no writer or director has been attached yet (so there's still hope!)

"It's going to be very worthwhile to the people who remember it and to those who saw it on TV," Maslansky said. "It's going to be a new class. We hope to discover new talent and season it with great comedians. It'll be anything but another movie with a numeral next to it. And we'll most probably retain the wonderful musical theme."

I suppose that means that, beyond a cheeky cameo, Steve Guttenberg and that guy who makes all the funny noises will have to look elsewhere for work. And please remember, I'm really just the messenger here.

Carell and Gosling to team up on big screen

Man was last night's "The Office" good. The first half hour or so was the funniest it's been in a couple of years, and poor Pam trying to breast feed her youngin was almost too sweet to take.

And though I certainly enjoy Steve Carell in full manic mode as Michael Scott, I like him in movies when he plays it a lot more low key, as in "Little Miss Sunshine," still his best movie work to date.

What he's signed on for now sounds like something in the latter category, so I'm intrigued. He'll play a father dealing with a marital crisis and his children in an as-yet-untitled comedy for Warner Bros., and, even better, Ryan Gosling will play a suave friend of his who tries to help him through at all (though I've never thought of Gosling as particularly "suave.")

So, what else makes me think this could be really good? Well, it's being directed by the "Bad Santa" team of John Requa and Glenn Ficarra (whose nest movie will be "I Love You Phillip Morris" with Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor), from a script by Dan Fogelman, who I saw way back when on Broadway as the fat guy (I'm one too, so I can say it) in "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee." Keep your eyes on this.

Stone sets sights on "Savages"

I really had no desire at all to see the sequel "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" until I saw the trailer a few weeks back, and it looked really good (yes, trailers really do work sometimes.)

I could certainly be wrong there, and we'll all find out soon enough on April 23. And after that, it seems that director Oliver Stone will next set his camera on Don Winslow's upcoming novel "Savages."

The book is apparently about two friends from Laguna Beach who share a girlfriend and a business selling incredibly good pot. As is probably always the case, that attracts the attention of a Mexican cartel who, after they resist its offer of muscle, kidnaps the girlfriend and holds her for ransom. Certainly sounds like some juicy material for Stone, who can still have wicked fun when he wants to.

Del Toro to play FBI chameleon

I'll still watch Benicio Del Toro in just about anything, but if I ever have the chance to meet the man, I'm gonna demand the five or so hours of my life that I spent watching "Che" back. He was, of course, incredible in it, but what a waste of film.

Now, however, he's set to team up with Steven Soderbergh again for something that sounds much more enjoyable. Soderbergh will executive produce "Making Jack Falcone," which will star Del Toro as Cuban-American FBI agent Joaquin "Jack" Garcia, who successfully infiltrated the Gambino crime family. Man, does that sound like nothing but cool.

OK, to close things out today, I've just got a trio of trailers, starting with an upcoming Jay-Z concert documentary you can actually watch for free (with Facebook again, I guess I'm their pimp today.)

I've been known to tell anyone who will listen that Jay-Z's "The Black Album" is not only the best rap album ever made, but probably the single greatest record of any kind. That may be a bit of exaggeration, but I also really do hold it to be true.

So if all you have to do is become fan of Absolut vodka on Facebook by March 22 to watch a new Hova concert documentary, I suppose I can do that much (and if the vodka adverts become too annoying, simply defriend them later, of course.) The movie will be streaming for free on the Absolut page starting on that date, and here's the trailer (which, unfortunately, really doesn't show too much.) Enjoy.



I had never heard of "Legend of the Guardians" until this trailer popped up on Yahoo yesterday (I just assumed that Zach Snyder's next movie was going to be "Sucker Punch," but I guess I'm wrong again.) After watching this, two thoughts popped into my head: Owls are a heck of a lot cooler than penguins, and here's hoping this will avoid the 3-D bug (which "Sucker Punch" apparently won't) when it comes out in September. Enjoy the trailer.



And finally today comes a new theatrical trailer for "The Runaways," starring Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, and set to come out hopefully everywhere on April 9. In spite of the understandable and valid concerns voiced by semi-regular Reel Fanatic visitor Cullen and other people I've talked to about this, as a big Joan Jett fan, I'm still holding out hope that this is somehow really gonna rock. Enjoy the clip, and have a great weekend. Peace out.

Actually, before we dive right into that, there's a bit of news out there that caught my eye today about what Lee Daniels' next movie will look like.

It would certainly be fun if he got to give a speech at Sunday's Oscars, but that doesn't seem too likely. In the meantime, he's been hard at work on the script for "Selma," which would of course be about the civil rights movement, and he let slip some casting to USA Today. Here's what he had to say:

"I had to do a lot of homework on the script, and I spent a lot of time writing. I feel like I'm caught up a little bit with that. I have to really start casting the movie because we're shooting it soon. The only person I've nailed in for sure is Hugh Jackman. It's all over the place."

Not exactly a natural choice for the lead for an epic about the American South, but we'll see. He's also reportedly at least eyeing Robert De Niro to play George Wallace, which would be rather amazing, when this starts shooting in May. And here's what he had to say earlier about the movie's storyline.

"It's a moment in time in Martin Luther King and LBJ's (life) around the signing of the Civil Rights. It's a snapshot of the march. It's really Lyndon Johnson's story. Martin Luther King is a part of it, but it's really the arc of a man that starts out as a racist who is forced to look at himself in the mirror and then ultimately side with King. It's really a journey of a white cat and how he sneers at tradition and against George Wallace, against everybody, says, 'Uh-uh.'"

Sounds great to me, but I can't see Hugh Jackman playing LBJ. Definitely stay tuned for more on this.

And after that today, it is indeed all about the 10 women whose name alone is probably enough to get me to buy a ticket to just about any movie they make. As is usually the case here, this list actually goes to 12, but I cut off the last two in an act of cruelty mostly due to my lack of time. Those two victims were Anna Kendrick and Audrey Tautou.

So, without any further ado, here goes, in only alphabetical order:

Connie Britton

Though she's done a lot of great TV work through the years, including roles on "Spin City" and "The West Wing," Connie Britton really didn't catch my eye until she stepped into the role of Tami Taylor on "Friday Night Lights," but her impact there was immediate. The show is at its best off the football field when it deals with little moments of everyday life, and the best of those are between Britton and Kyle Chandler's Coach Taylor. It will be a shame to lose her when the show, probably rightly, goes off the air after five seasons, but keep an eye out for her in, because I suppose everyone's gotta eat, the "Nightmare on Elm Street" remake. Yes, really.

Penelope Cruz

Though she can and does play all kinds of roles, I like my Penelope Cruz with two caveats: In Spanish and in a role where she's allowed to be funny. She just seems a lot more natural and at home in her native tongue, and as Woody Allen with "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" and Pedro Almodovar with, well, many flicks, know, she's just an extremely gifted comedienne. Keep an eye out for her next in two movies that will certainly put my "see them in anything" statement to the test: "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" and "Sex in the City 2."

Lauren Graham

OK, anyone who's been here before knows I have a much-more-than-healthy obsession with "Gilmore Girls," and though the show itself had many charms, the attraction is due almost entirely to Lauren Graham. Judging from the almost shockingly good premiere of "Parenthood," no matter what happens to that show, we do know she'll attack the new, somewhat similar role (a single mother again, though divorced this time, and living back at home with her two teen youngins) with the same heart and humor she gave to Lorelai Gilmore. Graham, rather amazingly, has never really managed to find much of a career on the big screen, so here's hoping "Parenthood" gets a solid five-year run or so.

Carla Gugino

It took me a few minutes to remember where I first noticed Carla Gugino, and it was indeed in those extremely silly "Spy Kids" movies, the first of which, at least, is nothing but fun. And that's how I'd describe Gugino overall too, though she's certainly had her share of serious roles too. I really wish "Karen Sisco" had gotten more than the 10-episode or so run it did, because she was great as Elmore Leonard's best character (though J-Lo was also perfect in the same role in "Out of Sight.") For one really good Gugino movie that not many people at all have seen, try "The Lookout," a little heist movie of sorts also starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Jeff Daniels. As for future projects, she should be wild in Zach Snyder's "Sucker Punch," set to come out next year.

Taraji P. Henson

Since it's Oscars week, let's start with one of the most egregious snubs of all time: Though I was happy Taraji P. Henson was nominated for her work in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (pretty much a crap film, though), it was overdue, because she was much, much better as Shug in "Hustle & Flow," in which the sheer desperation in her eyes was burned into just about every frame she stepped into. She was also the only funny person in Joe Carnahan's "Smokin' Aces," no small feat given just how bad that flick was. As seems to be a rite of passage for every great black actress, she's gotten a leading role in a Tyler Perry movie, the mostly satisfying "I Can Do Bad All By Myself," but here's hoping she doesn't now get pigeonholed into these high-drama kinda roles. Unfortunately, among her future roles will be as Jaden Smith's mother in quite possibly the most unnecessary remake of all time, the upcoming "Karate Kid."

Catherine Keener

Actually, if I had done this in order of preference, I think Catherine Keener would have topped the list. For proof of just how quickly she can take over a scene, look no further than Spike Jonze's "Where the Wild Things Are" (out on DVD this week, I believe). The best part of that rather amazing flick is probably the opening 20 minutes, and what really makes it is the look of love on Keener's face as young Max Records tells her that story about vampires who eat buildings. My two favorite Keener flicks so far are "Walking and Talking" and "Lovely and Amazing," both directed by Nicole Holofcener, still one of the very few directors smart enough to put Keener in a lead role, as she did again last year with "Please Give," which is going in my Netflix queue right now if it's available.

Melissa Leo

OK, I do have a big bias toward anything about and made in Baltimore, but I assure you Melissa Leo and the "The Wire" star soon to appear on this list earned their spots properly. Leo indeed came to everyone's attention as wise-cracking detective Kay Howard on "Homicide," and will thankfully be reunited with David Simon when his New Orleans series, "Treme," hits HBO in April (when I'll have to bite the bullet and reup too.) She had the role of a lifetime with "Frozen River," and I don't think I'll ever forget the fierce but wounded pride she brought to that role. Also keep an eye out for her fairly soon in David O. Russell's "The Fighter."

Laura Linney

If you put a gun to my head and demanded I name my 10 favorite flicks (though I'm really not sure why anyone would do that), I can guarantee you that "You Can Count on Me" would make the cut every time. No movie better captures the dynamic of a truly fractured family, while at the same time capturing perfectly the appeal of Laura Linney. If I had to pick one word that binds together her work here and in great flicks like "The Savages" and "The Squid and the Whale," I think it would be empathy, because she just has a natural gift for making you care instantly about all the characters she plays. If you get Showtime (which I don't), keep an eye out for her soon with Precious herself, Gabby Sidibe, in the series "The Big C," and she'll also appear in "You Can Count on Me" co-star Mark Ruffalo's directorial debut, "Sympathy for Delicious."

Helen Mirren

Just how good was Helen Mirren on "Prime Suspect"? Well, when, among its many just fabulously bad ideas, NBC was actually eyeing a remake of the sublime British police procedural, they were foiled by only one fact: It was impossible to find an actress capable of filling the role of Jane Tennyson. And indeed it is. The journey that Mirren took through all seven incarnations (I believe) of "Prime Suspect" was nothing anything short of riveting, and rather amazingly, the best of all was the finale, "The Final Act." Picking just one or two great Mirren roles is the definition of a fool's errand, but two I keep going back to again and again are "The Madness of King George," in which she was just the perfect foil for the late, great Nigel Hawthorne, and "Some Mother's Son," still the best of all the '90s IRA movies, which is somehow still not available on DVD (a genuine crime, that.)

Amy Ryan

Like Melissa Leo, Amy Ryan first caught my eye walking the beat in Baltimore, playing the key role of "Beadie" Russell on season two of "The Wire." Since then, she's delivered a truly harrowing performance in "Gone Baby Gone" and was just perfectly cast as the new HR director on "The Office" and the only character as goofy as Michael Scott. She'll be on the big screen very soon (perhaps as soon as next week) with Matt Damon in "The Green Zone," but I'm much more excited that she's been cast along with Paul Giamatti in director (and fellow "The Wire" star) Thomas McCarthy's "Win Win," which will be about a homeless teenager who gets welcomed into a family's home and joins the high school wrestling team. I'm probably not doing that plot summary justice, but trust me, it's gonna be great.

And this has certainly gone on long enough, but I'll leave you with a clip from tonight's long-anticipated episode of "The Office," which will at least be the beginning of the birth of Pam and Jim's baby (it's a two-part episode, so I'd imagine we might have to wait until next week to see the little rugrat.) Keep your ears tuned for the words "Burning Man portapotty," and please feel free to add the names of any actresses who you too will watch in just about anything. Peace out.

Roger Ebert has certainly issued some dubious reviews during his long career (I rented "Knowing" on his advice, and man are those two hours or so I'd desperately like to have back), but you certainly can't deny he has an irresistible passion for movies.

I first fell in love with his work when I saw him on TV with the late, great Gene Siskel reviewing "Hoop Dreams." I had never heard of the movie at the time, and neither had I then or since heard someone just get so incredibly amped up about a single movie (and this time, thankfully, he was dead right.)

Recently, of course, Ebert has been suffering from cancer that has left him unable to say much of anything. Leave it to Oprah, of course, to land his return to speaking - with the help of modern technology - as he did on yesterday's show about Sunday night's Oscars.

Below is a clip of him with his wife, Chaz, unveiling his new voice tool for the first time - followed by, at least until it gets pulled down, the first portion of his Oprah appearance. And, like I said, I defy you to not get at least a little choked up when watching this, as I surely did this morning. Enjoy, and have a perfectly passable Wednesday. Peace out.

The first big questions that popped into my head when I heard of the movie "Women in Trouble" were who in the world is Sebastian Gutierrez, and how in the world did he get Carla Gugino, Connie Britton, Adrianne Palicki, Emmanuelle Chriqui and Marley Shelton to all star in his movie?

And, more amazingly, how did he get them to play a pregnant porn star, two call girls and a stewardess about to join the mile high club in an airplane toilet, among other colorful characters? Well, having watched this, I'm still not sure how he managed to pull any of it off, but I can tell you that what he came up with is a little indie comedy that borrows extremely liberally from Pedro Almodovar and Robert Altman.

Fitting the campy style of humor that Gutierrez's movie thrives on, "Women in Trouble" opens with a shot of Carla Gugino in a nun's habit, looking solemn, and it's only as we slowly pan out that we find she is, in fact, a porn star acting out a scene. And at its best, his very dialogue-heavy flick straddles the line between funny and simply tasteless, occasionally finding time to squeeze in some genuine moments of humanity for its very talented, almost all-female cast.

On the seamier side, Gugino plays a porn star who finds out as the movie opens that she is pregnant. Adrianne Palicki, who's best known so far for playing Tyra on "Friday Night Lights," plays one of her co-stars who also dabbles in prostitution, and Emanuelle Chriqui is a fellow hooker who throws Palicki's character work when ever she encounters jobs that requires two women.

Into this mix throw Connie Britton as a very high-strung woman who carries around a big family secret she's keeping from her sister, who's having an affair with the husband of her psychiatrist, and you get the idea that Gutierrez has a taste for drama, and piles it on pretty high throughout.

He attempts to weave the stories of these women together in the style of the late, great Robert Altman, but too often uses the most contrived tricks to accomplish it. It's cringeworthy as Gugino's and Britton's characters come together, yes, as they get trapped in an elevator (though, on the most piggish of levels, they both look great as they strip down to their undies in an attempt to beat the heat.)

And like Pedro Almodovar, Gutierrez does have an ear for writing colorful characters for women, though you still have to wonder how much he actually values them when - many times more than once - his camera stops for several seconds on the ample decolletage of one of his assembled beauties.

That said, his screenplay does mine his often seamy subject matter for some genuine humor, at its best in Palicki's character's tendency to blurt out malapropisms (I won't tell you exactly how it comes up, but be sure to look for for the words "immortal whore" - and try not to laugh out loud when you hear them.) He's just as prone, however, to just plunge right through any semblance of taste, as when the same character delivers a speech about her dog and cunnilingus (I'm not making that up, and I won't tell you any more about that to spoil it either.)

But he does manage to write some genuinely moving moments for his best two stars, Gugino and Britton, who for my money match feminine beauty with exceptional acting skills more than any other two women working today with the exception of perhaps Helen Mirren and Laura Linney. It's in moments like this that you can see just how he managed to lure so many great actresses to take part in this madness and, amazingly, to even talk Gugino into starring in a sequel about the further adventures of her character, Electra Luxx.

As far as DVD extras go, they're truly minimal here, consisting of only a "behind the scenes" feature that is actually only Gugino and Palicki riffing on whether or not they're wearing panties (funny enough in itself), a teaser trailer featuring all the ladies cavorting in a swimming pool (which does at least fit the spirit of this) and "deleted scenes" that are actually just five speeches that various minor characters make to the psychiatrist (though, amusingly, that does include Elizabeth Berkeley, somehow.)

Overall, "Women in Trouble" is the definition of a mixed bag, but clocking in at only 84 minutes or so, it's a genuinely diverting little movie that's well worth a rental if you take your humor with a much larger than usual slice of talented beauties.

P.S.: For anyone who happened to end up here by mistake because the word "porn" appears in this review a few times, my apologies - I'm afraid you'll have to look elsewhere for that.

Although there's certainly no way this will raise more money for Haiti than the new "We Are the World" confab, I'm just as sure the folks who turned out for that didn't have nearly as much fun as these guys (and gal) did.

Now, when you're talking about a party convened by drunkard's saint Shane MacGowan, things could have certainly gone South very quickly. As you'll see from the video below, his view-askew all-star gathering of sorts to croon Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put a Spell on You" actually turned out something remarkably listenable - and even bordering on good.

As you'll see, the vocals are handled by sometime Pogue MacGowan, Nick Cave, Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders and Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream, and if you stick around to the end, you'll find none other Johnny Depp contributes a passable guitar solo too.

And all this madness is meant to benefit the Dublin-based charity World Concern as it works to help rebuild Haiti, so if you like the song, consider buying it when it goes on sale later this month.

There's indeed a whole lot of fun stuff out there today, but the best and oddest of all just might be that there's a horror remake opening this weekend that I'm gonna take a chance on seeing.

"The Crazies" is at least slightly intriguing because it was shot about 20 minutes from my house, but that's really not enough to snag me. Two good reviews from sources I trust, however - Collider and HitFix - are, so I'll be there Saturday afternoon, 'cause I just love smart horror.

OK, in news that might just impact somebody besides me, easily the best of all is that Angelina Jolie has bailed on a "Wanted 2" (did the world really need that?) and instead signed on for something much, much better - an Alfonso Cuaron sci-fi movie (huzzah!)

"Gravity" will be about a woman (Jolie, natch) who is the sole survivor of a space mission, desperately trying to get home to Earth and her daughter. Sounds a bit like Duncan Jones' "Moon" (for which Sam Rockwell certainly should have gotten an Oscar nomination), but anyone who's seen Cuaron's "Children of Men" knows he can work wonders with good sci-fi, so definitely keep your eyes on this on.

Before that, however, I seem to remember reading something about Cuaron making an odd road movie of sorts starring Daniel Auteil and Charlotte Gainsbourg (a definite crush around here.) Indeed, IMDB lists him also working on that flick, "A Boy and His Shoe," but with only a vague 2012 release date so far.

Will there really be a funny Farrelly brothers movie?

I certainly have my doubts about that, but there's no question that they've somehow assembled a first-rate cast for "Hall Pass," which is shooting this week in Atlanta, if I'm not mistaken.

Starting with a base of Owen Wilson and someone named Jason Sudeikis, they've this week or so added HBO vets Stephen Merchant and J.B. Smoove, and even more recently Alyssa Milano and Christina Applegate. The latter two certainly need no introduction, but comedy fans will know Merchant as Ricky Gervais' comedic partner in crime, and Smoove played Larry David's brother-in-law, Leon Black, on "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

But what in the world is this all about? Well, Wilson and Sudeikis play two lucky dudes whose wives (Milano and Applegate, perhaps) give them passes to engage in extramarital shenanigans. Merchant and Smoove will play two of their buddies.

Not the most promising of premises, but with that cast I'm relatively optimistic about a winner here.

Farina joins Mann pilot at HBO

Although I'm most excited about the return of "The Wire" creator David Simon (with the N'Awlins series "Treme," coming in April, when I'll return to HBO too), what Michael Mann and David Milch ("Deadwood") have cooking up for the station sounds like an awful lot of fun too.

Dennis Farina has now signed on to star in "Luck," which Mann is directing at least the pilot of from a script by Milch. The show centers on a man who, after just getting released from prison, teams with his longtime chauffeur and muscle (Farina) to craft a complex plan with a crooked jockey (John Ortiz) to fix races at a racetrack.

I love the ponies, and Mann has a real talent for developing a seamy sense of place, so I'll definitely be tuning in for whatever comes of all of this.

Demme to head back to Haiti

Though Jonathan Demme makes usually-great movies of all kinds, I think his documentaries are the best of all. And since the single best of those is "The Agronomist," about slain Haitian activist Jean Dominique, it only makes sense that he would turn his thoughts and camera to the country at this troubled time.

Actually, his route back to the country this time intersects with one of his other documentary passions, music. Demme had been planning a documentary about Arcade Fire (new album coming very soon, huzzah!), whose founding member Regine Chassagne is Haitian. He and the band were set to head to Haiti to shoot something music-driven the very morning the quake struck, which of course changed his plans entirely. Here's what Demme had to say about his new course of action.

"My personal feeling was, those who go down two months or three months from now, with a specific mission in mind, will be valuable in their own way, as the people that are going now. So I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go within the next six months, but I haven't been yet."

He's certainly right, there. Though the people of Haiti needs just about everything, what they'll need months from now is continued attention from the rest of the world, so here's hoping Demme follows through on this and even makes a movie about it too.

And a bit closer to home, Demme is apparently now working on the documentary "Right to Return: New Home Movies from the Lower Ninth Ward," about the most devastated neighborhood in New Orleans after Katrina.

Broken Lizard signs Universal deal

Though the juvenile antics of the Broken Lizard comedy troupe certainly aren't for everyone (Nell Minow knocked me, perhaps correctly, for including "Super Troopers" in my list of the 100 best movies of the '00s), they just make me laugh almost every time they put something out.

Their latest flick, "Slammin' Salmon," didn't manage to play anywhere near me, so I'll have to just watch it on DVD, but now comes word that the guys have signed on for two movies that will hopefully play a lot wider with the help of Universal.

The studio has picked up "Rogue Scholars," a college comedy revolving around five unruly professors played by the members of the troupe, plus an additional as-yet-untitled Broken Lizard flick to follow. Like I said, I'm a devoted fan of "Super Troopers" - for which they are still promising a sequel someday - so I'll follow these guys just about anywhere.

A new flick for Ed Helms

Though he's surrounded by plenty of very funny people. Ed Helms has slowly and steadily developed into the best character on "The Office" with the Nard Dog, so any word of him appearing on the big screen is welcome in this little corner of the world.

He'll next be seen hopefully everywhere as an insurance salesman in Miguel Arteta's "Cedar Rapids," due out this year. And now comes word that he's signed on to star in something called "Central Intelligence" for director Dean Parisot (who, yes, really did direct "Galaxy Quest" back in the day.)

The flick is about an accountant (Helms) who reconnects with an old friend via Facebook and finds himself sucked into a world of espionage (I always knew that Facebook was nothing but evil, but yes, I'm on it.)

That sounds like nothing but funny to me, so definitely stay tuned to this one.

And finally, what in the world is "Harold and the Purple Crayon"?

Though I had never heard of it until about a year or so ago, it's apparently a fairly classic children's tale by Crockett Johnson, and has already been made into a movie and short TV series.

The first I had heard of it, however, was in a New York Times magazine profile of Spike Jonze in which he revealed he was at work on another movie version of this when he thankfully got sidetracked by "Where the Wild Things Are" (I still say the single biggest Oscar snub this year is that even in the field of 10, that didn't get a Best Picture nomination. Criminal.)

Now comes word that the book is coming to movie life again, this time with the help of "Where the Wild Things Are" author and national treasure Maurice Sendak as a producer.

The story apparently follow our hero Harold as he uses his magic purple crayon to retreat into his own fantasy world, but soon realizes that he’s been selfish with his crayon and so uses it to help his parents and others, and even go on a mission to Mars.

This will be a CG-animated affair, with no director attached yet, but why not Mr. Jonze himself? Sounds like it would be world of fun for him, and I know for sure he'd love to work with Maurice Sendak again.

OK, this has certainly gone on long enough today, so I'll just wrap it up with a couple of clips. The first is for a flick called "The Good Heart," set to come out in at least some urban portions of the world on April 30. It caught my eye because it stars Reel Fanatic favorites Brian Cox and Paul Dano. The flick tells the story of Lucas (Dano), who attempts suicide and meets bar-owner Jacques (Cox) while in the hospital. The two quickly form a friendship and Lucas starts to work in Jacques' bar. Enjoy the trailer.

The Good Heart trailer from zik zak on Vimeo.

Actually, make that only one clip, because although there's a new international trailer out there for the "Karate Kid" remake starring Jackie Chan and Will Smith's offspring, I've decided to just ignore that monstrosity from here on out. Peace out.

It's probably good for my fairly under control blood pressure that as I'm first hearing about this idiocy, it also comes with word that NBC has - for now at least - shelved this monstrosity, and for the best possible reason.

Yes, the network whose last big brilliant idea was putting Jay Leno in prime time five nights a week (how'd that work out, guys?) was actually considering a remake of the sublime BBC police procedural "Prime Suspect."

And I can certainly understand the temptation. For sheer intensity matched with characters you actually care about, only "The Wire" and - at its best - "NYPD Blue" have even come close to matching "Prime Suspect" on this side of the pond, and almost all of the credit for that has to go Dame Helen Mirren.

Of all the characters of the last 20 years or so, on big screen or small, very few have been taken over as completely as Helen Mirren dived directly into the role of Jane Tennyson and made it entirely her own. And it's apparently their belated realization of just how impossible it would be to replace her that finally led NBC to abandon this madness.

Unable to find the right actress for this, NBC has now shelved it until at least June, and here's hoping forever. If I had to name one actress who could pull this off, the only name that even comes to mind is Anjelica Huston, but as great as she is, I can't even see that working, if God forbid she'd even be interested.

And if you've somehow never seen "Prime Suspect," I can't recommend it highly enough. If you want to get started, the beginning would be best, but if you only want to watch one, No. 3, with David Thewlis and Ciaran Hinds in a truly tawdry tale about child murder and serious police corruption, is the best of all in my book.

Here's hoping that this NBC "idea" gets aborted for good, and from now on today it's all about a trio of clips that at least managed to catch my eye this morning.

First up comes a clip from the upcoming flick "Date Night" featuring Tina Fey, Steve Carell and, in this clip, a shirtless Marky Mark. Even though NBC's current king and queen of comedy would seem to make a dream team on the big screen, I somehow just can't get all that excited about this. I just get the sinking feeling it's gonna lack any of the truly manic appeal of "After Hours" in chronicling a supposedly "wild" night in NYC. Anyways, enjoy the clip.



Next up comes a TV spot for something I'm much more excited about, "The Runaways." On paper, the idea of Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning playing rockers Joan Jett and Cherie Currie just sounds dreadful, but the buzz about this out of Sundance was mostly positive, and it really does seem music video director Floria Sigismondi has come up with something that will rock when this finally comes out March 19. Enjoy.



And finally today comes a surprise that made me genuinely laugh out loud. I've never found Jimmy Kimmel all that funny at all, but Tracy Morgan can really do no wrong in my book (yes, I'm really gonna go see "Cop Out" just to see how funny he can manage to be in it, even though the reviews are dreadful.) In this clip I have to assume appeared on Kimmel's show sometime this week (after my school-night bed time, of course), he and Morgan make a rap video, and it's absolutely as silly as you might imagine. Here's hoping that Kimmel's turn as Lil' Jim puts the final nail in autotune. Enjoy, and have a perfectly bearable Thursday. Peace out.

There's just a ton of news out there today (or perhaps yesterday, but it's new enough to me), but let's just start with the worst of all and get it over with: George Lopez has signed on to star in a big-screen version of "Speedy Gonzalez." Just take that in for a second before moving on.

Now, I understand that Hispanics need to get all kind of roles and want that to happen all the time, but can you have a worse comedic role model than the very obnoxious Lopez or a more stereotypical role for him to jump into? Sheesh.

Just in case you're curious about the "plot" of this monstrosity, it will be a live-action/CGI animation hybrid from the director of "Garfield" (this just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?) about how Speedy becomes a race car driver.

OK, enough bile to start the day. It can only get better from here, I promise.

Freida Pinto to join forces with Tarsem

It really seems like every other movie coming out nowadays has something to do with Greek gods, and I'll probably skip just about all of them except for this one, because I'll see just about anything directed by Tarsem.

If you have seen "The Fall" (and if you haven't, why the heck not?), you know he's as capable of telling a great story as he is of delivering something visually stunning, and now he's got a great leading lady for his next project, "War of the Gods."

The story follows a young warrior Theseus as he leads his men into battle with the immortal Greek gods to - of course - save mankind. Freida Pinto is set to play Phaedra, an oracle priestess who joins Theseus on his quest.

Like I said, these movies quickly all run together for me, but Tarsem is without exaggerating a genius, and Freida Pinto is the kind of beauty I'd probably pay to watch eat a bag of chips, so I'll definitely be keeping my eyes on this one.

The Coens find their young leading lady

Remakes usually make me cringe as much as anyone, but these next two are just so crazy that I can get behind them unconditionally.

First up is the Coen brothers' take on "True Grit," set to come out in December and almost certainly net them another Best Picture nomination in the next field of ten.

Why a remake of "True Grit"? Well, the original movie is great in itself, but the novel by Charles Portis is even better, with a lot of humor to mine that the Coens should take full advantage of.

Already announced for the stellar cast are Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Josh Brolin, and now its just been announced that newcomer Hailee Steinfeld has been cast in the essential role of Mattie Ross, the 14-year-old who, along with an aging U.S. marshall and another lawman, tracks her father's killer in hostile Indian territory. I've included a picture of her since I really had no idea who she was, but the Coens' take will apparently focus much more on Mattie's view of the story, so this really is the key part. Count me as thoroughly jazzed for this.

Stephen Chow to channel Bruce Lee

I'd normally greet any news of a Bruce Lee movie remake with nothing but a sneer, but Stephen Chow is both certifiably insane and just as fun, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on this.

Chow has just signed on to make his Hollywood acting/directing debut with something called "Tai Chi," which is at least loosely to be a remake of sorts of Lee's "Way of the Dragon."

Like the original, it will tell the story of a Chinese immigrant (Chow, natch) working as a dishwasher in Chinatown who also just happens to be a Tai Chi master. He hides those skills until he's forced to stand up to gangsters who oppress his fellow immigrants.

This sounds like nothing but fun to me, and the kind of flicks Jackie Chan used to make before he joined ludicrous projects like the "Karate Kid" remake coming fast (and, don't say I didn't warn you, there's more coming on that later today.) Definitely keep an eye on this.

A pair of biopics in the pipeline

When I saw this this morning, I tried to think if there's been a Robert F. Kennedy biopic made yet, but couldn't think of one (if I'm wrong, let me know.) He's certainly a ripe subject, and by far the most fascinating of the Kennedy clan in my book, so word about a biopic is certainly welcome.

And Bostonian Matt Damon would certainly seem to be natural choice to play him, as he will for director Gary Ross from a Steven Knight script.

We all know the tragic story, but my favorite RFK moment of all would have to be the speech he gave in the streets of Indianapolis announcing the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Incredibly stirring stuff that should be great to see envisioned on the big screen.

And in even better biopic news, Forest Whitaker let slip in an interview with the indispensable Blackfilm.com that he is directing and starring in a biopic about Satchmo himself, Louis Armstrong. Whitaker certainly has the look for it, and he's becoming a first-rate director too, so this should be nothing but fun.

And there's some great casting news, too

Of all the comedy fronts out there, the best one in my book is what's coming from my adopted South from the mob of Jody Hill, Danny McBride and David Gordon Green. They just view the world with an extremely jaded eye, and deliver their stories, thankfully, without an ounce of sentiment (but often plenty of silliness.)

And now comes word today that Green is about to sign on to direct something that should be the epitome of said silliness, something called "The Sitter," to star Jonah Hill. You've at least got my attention when you describe your flick as a cross between "Superbad" and "Adventures in Babysitting," and this one will be about Hill being forced to babysit three wild kids.

Just about nothing makes me laugh more than children being unleashed as their truly wild and hopefully profane selves, so here's hoping this turns into something genuinely hilarious.

And in semi-related news, fellow Judd Apatow protege Jason Segel is joining something that sounds just raunchy enough to suit him perfectly. Along with the alwaysveryfunny John Michael Higgins (if you don't know who he is, watch "Best in Show" and then get back to me) he's joined something called "Bad Teacher" being directed by Jake Kasdan (as an aside, if you haven't seen Kasdan's "TV Set," do yourself a favor and rent it immediately.)

The flick follows a foul-mouthed, gold-digging seventh grade teacher (Cameron Diaz, somehow) who, after being dumped by her boyfriend, sets her sights on a colleague (Lucy Punch) who is dating the school's model teacher. Add into this mix Segel as a gym teacher and Higgins as the school's principal, and you've got the makings of something that should be nothing but very funny.

And in clearly much classier news, Angelica Huston and Philip Baker Hall are joining James McAvoy, Seth Rogen and Reel Fanatic crush Anna Kendrick in the now-untitled cancer comedy which used to be known as "I'm With Cancer."

The flick, which director Jonathan Levine starts shooting later this month in Vancouver, stars McAvoy as a 25-year-old who learns he has cancer. I have no idea what anyone else will do in this flick, but with a cast like that, it's certainly one to watch out for. Hall, in particular, is a favorite around here who should be a much bigger star by now.

And, finally, a trio of videos

You know, this has already gone a lot longer than I intended when I woke up this morning, but that's what happens when I start the day with a big bowl of coffee.

And for my money, there isn't a funnier (or, not coincidentally, crazier) dude out there today than Aziz Ansari. You can see him on "Parks and Recreation," but thankfully he's also taking his Raaaaandy character from Apatow's "Funny People" to ridiculous extremes. After making a mini-documentary about the Andrew Dice Clay-type comedian (which you can watch in installments on YouTube, highly recommended), Ansari has now teaamed up with TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek to make a Raaaaandy rap album. Yes, really.

And judging from the first single, "Aaaaaaaangry," which you can listen to here, the as-yet-unfinished "mix tape" should just be insanely fun. On this track, he disses everyone from Dr. Dre (first name slowest, last name ever) to the Clipse, and it's just a hoot. Below is a clip of Ansari in character annoucing that the mix tape will be delayed but coming soon, and will certainly be purchased by me whenever that actually happens. Enjoy.



OK, now remember, I did warn you earlier. Next up comes quite possibly the most intelligence-insulating trailer of all time. I'm really not sure where to start with this, but ripping off the "wax on, wax off" bit is probably the worst of all. "Enjoy" the first trailer I know of for the "Karate Kid" remake starring Will Smith's kid, if you dare.



And finally, if for nothing else than to watch out the taste of that monstrosity, here's a promo for "Chuck," which is thankfully finally set to return to NBC on March 1. Since you've got Superman of a sort, Brandon Routh, why not make a "Superman" style promo? Enjoy, and have a perfectly bearable Wednesday. Peace out.

You know, as those "Pirates" movies keep getting weirder I just lose more and more interest, but Rob Marshall, director of the upcoming "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," has at least come up with one thing to get me intrigued.

Ian McShane, Al Swearengen himself, is about to sign to to play Blackbeard, the legendary pirate who piloted the ship Queen Anne's Revenge. With Penelope Cruz already on board as a definite case of trading up from Keira Knightley, I think that just might be enough to get me to buy a ticket for this.

And in another bit of news that interests me (and life's frankly just too short to spend any time on things that don't), details are starting to emerge on just what "Gilmore Girls" creator Amy Sherman-Palladino is cooking up now for the CW.

Yes, I realize I'm far too old to watch this stuff, but at its rare and best (as with "Gilmore Girls"), the station occasionally offers shows that cater to folks over the age of 15, which will hopefully be the case with this. "The Wyoming Project," which needs to start by getting a better name very soon, will star someone named Sean Faris as a 22-year-old dude who inherits a Wyoming ranch and the custody of his three younger sisters. What made "Gilmore Girls" so great was the keen eye for familial relations combined with a genuinely quirky sense of place, so here's hoping she can do at least something close to that magic this time around.

And after that today, all I have left is the first episode, in its entirety, of something Spike Jonze and David Cross teamed up to create for British TV. If that sounds like a dream team to you, than you're with me, and as you'll see from this trio of YouTube clips containing the first episode of "The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret," they don't disappoint.

I'm not sure what British network this is on, but be warned, whichever one it is certainly isn't afraid of profanity, which spews from the mouth of Will Arnett, who also stars in this, almost as freely as it did from Peter Capaldi's Malcolm Tucker in "In the Loop." Definitely watch this with headphones if you're at work, and have a perfectly pleasant Tuesday. Peace out.

Just a quick report today fueled by a large cup of Jittery Joe's java, because I'm soon off to see "Shutter Island" and then go to see Jack McBrayer host a screening of "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" as part of the Macon Film Festival (crap film, but should still be fun night.)

Before all that fun, however, there are a couple of bits of intriguing news out there this morning.

Though the "Arrested Development" reunion diehard fans most want to see would have to be the tremendously long-gestating movie, any project that reunites creator Mitch Hurwitz with Will Arnett - a k a Gob Bluth, of course - on TV in the meantime has to be good news.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hurwitz and "Arrested Development" co-executive producer Jim Vallely are close to signing a deal to create a single-camera, half-hour series for Lionsgate TV to be aired on Fox, with Arnett to be the main star. The show, in what sounds rather suspiciously (but welcomely) like the further adventures of Gob Bluth, would be about a "rich Beverly Hill jackass" who falls in love with a charitable tree-hugging woman who can't stand his lifestyle. Come to think of it, it sounds an awful lot like "Curb Your Enthusiasm" too, but either way, it should be just insanely funny.

Hurwitz and Arnett have reunited on TV once before since the end of "Arrested Development," but calling their very-short-lived animated series "Sit Down, Shut Up" a disaster would be far too courteous. Here's hoping this new project comes together and works out a lot better, but doesn't keep Hurwitz and Vallely away from that "Arrested Development" flick for too long.

There's other news this morning about Thomas McCarthy, who, if I were ever to get around to listing my 10 favorite directors (actually, sounds like fun), would definitely make the roster somewhere in the middle of the pack.

Along with starring as that seriously unscrupulous reporter on the final season of "The Wire" (reminder, David Simon's New Orleans series "Treme" premieres on HBO on April 11!), McCarthy has directed two perfectly sublime indie flicks, "The Station Agent" and the even-better "The Visitor." And now comes great word about the cast for the new project he's developing for Fox Searchlight.

Paul Giamatti and Amy Ryan (double huzzah!) have joined the cast of "Win Win," which McCarthy is writing and directing as a semiautobiographical tale about a teen runaway who is taken in by a suburban New Jersey couple and joins the local high school's wrestling team (McCarthy wasn't the runaway, but rather one of his teammates.)

If that sounds suspiciously like a white, suburban "Blind Side," so what? I'd have to assume Giamatti will play the wrestling coach and Ryan the mother who takes the kid in, and with McCarthy guiding this it all sounds great to me. Shooting is set to start in the Garden State in April.

And by the way, did you know McCarthy is an Oscar nominee, for his contribution to the screenplay of "Up"? Congrats!

All I have after that today is a slew of clips from "Cop Out," courtesy of Collider.com. I'm still not convinced that Kevin Smith's hired hand flick is gonna be any good, but it should provide the ultimate confirmation that Tracy Morgan really can be funny in anything. Enjoy, and if you're headed to the big Macon Film Festival event tonight with Jack McBrayer at the Cox Capitol Theatre, I'll see you there. Peace out.

The fifth annual Macon Film Festival kicked off yesterday and gets into a real groove starting today, so if you're gonna be in town this weekend, there's really no excuse not to turn out for a few events (you can find the full schedule here.)

The fun things on the menu today include a special screening of "The Candidate" (my single favorite political film, by the way), hosted by Illeana Douglas, granddaughter of one of the movie's stars, Melvyn Douglas. Illeana Douglas will then host a screening of her own latest project, the Web-based series "Easy to Assemble."

That's going on at the Cox Capitol Theatre, while also downtown today at the historic Douglass Theatre, Richmond Riedel's "Target Practice" will be among the movies screened (around 7 p.m. or so, if I got the message he sent me right.) Though you could never call it high art, this debut feature from Riedel about a group of outdoorsmen who encounter a band of terrorists on a camping trip (yes, really) plays out as an updated "Deliverance" of sorts and is just a heck of a lot of fun.

Saturday's Marquee event will certainly be the Q&A session with Macon native Jack McBrayer. It's unfortunate that he can't bring a better movie than "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" to screen, but in the "30 Rock" star's defense, I suppose he really hasn't appeared in that many movies yet (and at least he didn't bring "Talladega Nights"!) The movie isn't awful, though, and the Q&A should be a blast, so if you turn out for this at the Cox Capitol, you'll certainly run into me.

But the real highlight of this year's fest will be Sunday's closing night feature, Scott Teems' debut feature "That Evening Sun," easily the best movie I've seen so far this year. This movie has a number of connections to Macon, with the great Ray McKinnon having visited a previous Macon Film Festival to present his Oscar-winning short film "The Accountant" (a spectacular work) and Macon native and "True Blood" star Carrie Preston also appearing in a key role in "That Evening Sun" as the wife of McKinnon's character.

In fact, the greatest strength (among many) of "That Evening Sun" is its genuinely (and welcomely) Southern ensemble cast led by national treasure (and I mean that wholeheartedly) Hal Holbrook, who, believe it or not, gives a performance even better than his work in "Into the Wild."

He stars as Abner Meecham, who as the movie opens is slowly dying of boredom in a nursing home his son shunted him into. Seemingly on a whim, Meechan decides to seek out the farm that until recently had been his, and as is the fact with many Southerners, was his greatest point of pride.

After somehow making it back there, however, he finds his son has rented it out to a truly mean class of redneck played by McKinnon (the kind of character he revels in playing.) The movie evolves from there as a battle of wills between the two as Holbrook's Meecham takes up residence in a shack once intended for servants and refuses to leave until McKinnon and his family do (living as I do in a cottage - not, note, a shack - that surely once housed servants, that hit home with me.)

I'm probably not doing this great little movie justice with my description of it, but it's just a genuinely Southern tale, the likes of which we haven't seen since "Sling Blade," although "Junebug" came close too. The story, adapted by Teems from a short story by William Gay, just unfolds at a naturally entertaining pace, and I guarantee you'll be riveted as this slowly evolves from extremely quotable (Holbrook is a hoot) to something much more intense. Do yourself a favor and turn out for this Sunday night at the Cox Capitol Theatre.

OK, after all that today, all I have is a trio of clips. First up comes a short bit from the animated "Ricky Gervais Show," which just hit the air on HBO. As you'll see, it's essentially an animated version of the podcasts he shares with partner in crime Stephen Merchant and sidekick Karl Pilkington. Pilkington is a seriously funny dude, but as you'll see from this clip, it doesn't really translate all that well to animation, so I'll be HBO-free until David Simon's "Treme" hits the air, hopefully by April (a quick visit to the IMDB confirms April 11 - huzzah!) Enjoy.



Next up is a featurette of sorts for Noah Baumbach's "Greenberg," set to open with Ben Stiller as its main star April 1. I simply adored "The Squid and the Whale" and even stuck with Baumbach (unlike anyone else I know) through "Margot at the Wedding," but I have a feeling this one is just going to test my patience with the angst of white dudes (I get enough of that from myself, thank you very much.) Anyways, here's hoping I'm wrong and this turns out to be worth turning out for. Enjoy the clip.



OK, with this last one, you certainly can't say I didn't warn you, because it's a sure case of saving the worst for last. Of all the pre-release items that have been spit out to promote Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland" (finally coming March 5), this video for "Underground" by Avril Lavigne is easily the most distressing. I suppose I'm just far too old to enjoy this, but if you dare, click on the clip to see Avril go down the rabbit hole and encounter Johnny Depp. Enjoy, have a great weekend, and if you happen to live anywhere near Macon, please do come out for at least a few Macon Film Festival events. Peace out.

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