Spielberg Pegg(s) Frost for Tin Tin

Apparantly Spielberg requested a meeting with Simon Pegg about whether he and frequent costar Nick Frost would be interested in playing characters called the Thompson Twins in Tin Tin. Here's how they're described on the Tin Tin wiki: "Thomson and Thompson (Dupont et Dupond) are two bumbling detectives who, although unrelated, look like twins with the only discernible difference being the shape of their moustaches. They provide much of the comic relief throughout the series, being afflicted with chronic spoonerism, and are shown to be mostly incompetent in their tasks." Now, while these sound like the perfect characters for Pegg and Frost to play, won't their extreme difference in appearance be a problem? It seems as though part of the humor is that they're exactly the same save for the stache. This news makes me scratch my beard a bit. I suppose since its a motion capture film, the can edit what the two look like, but I thought the point of motion capture was that the characters will actually look like their real life counterparts? Maybe not for this project though.

Edgar Wright, the amazing update Wizard!

Wizarduniverse.com snagged an interview with one of my favorite writer/directors, Mr. Edgar Wright. This fella's got the goods ladies and gents. His television and film career have made him a staple of any geek collection, and his upcoming projects seem to affirm that image. In the interview, Wright talks a bit about what's going with his Scott Pilgrim adaptation, starring Michael Cera. I guess he's adapting all six books for the movie, which, although I haven't read the series, sounds like a good idea to me. I think strict adaptations are great, and for a lengthy, involved series like Preacher I think it's necessary. But Scott Pilgrim sounds to me like the kind of project that if anything, should go the route of Sin City, and do a few of the books as one movie that could stand alone, and then if its successful, do the rest of the series as another movie. As Wright points out, Pilgrim isnt Harry Potter, it doesn't seem to have the necessary elements or fan basis to warrant a film per book and all the work that would have to go into five sequals. It also sounds like the kind of story that you could tell concisely, in one film. I dunno about anyone else but that news has me kind of excited.

He also drops some knowledge on Wizard about Ant-Man. Check his quote at the end where he talks about making the uncool, cool. I think this is the perfect frame of mind for Ant-Man. As Wright says, the character is definitely considered D-list by most people. I think this is also just a great storytelling device that should get used more often.

Oh and he also says he and Pegg are hoping to at least work on the script for the final installment of the Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy over the course of the next year. Sweet.

Tarantino's Frenzied Week of Casting

This dude has been all over the place this past week, making tons of casting announcements for his fast-tracked Inglorious Bastards. I get more and more excited about this movie everytime I hear about it. But there have been some bumps that i'm a little bit disappointed about. On the good news side of things we've got Brad Pitt, Samm Levine, and BJ Novak. I'm a huge Pitt supporter as I've said before, and I love seeing him play outlandish characters. I think he's gonna give one of his best performances with Tarantino behind him. And I mean, c'mon, Neal from Freaks and Geeks as a Nazi killer? That's totally fuckin genius. Novak I'm actually a little uncertain about because I don't really like his acting on The Office. He's a great writer, but I think his acting and his timing is pretty lacking. However, I put this on the good news side of things because this is the kind of casting I like, where someone is given the chance to really prove themselves and prove guys like me wrong. I hope Novak does that.

But then there's the not-so-bad-but-still-kind-of-disapointing news of the non-casting of Simon Pegg, and the non-casting of Adam Sandler in favor of Mike Myers. First off, the Simon Pegg news is not too upsetting because while it would have been awesome to see him get the Tarantino treatment, his scheduling conflict is with his new movie Paul, which is apparantly being directed by Superbad's Dave Motolla. This excites me to no end. What really made Superbad work for me was that it was filmed like an indie drama, which I think could work very well for this comic book nerd-road trip comedy. Also, apparantly Pegg and co-star Nick Frost will switch hero-sidekick roles, which I think may be quite rewarding and possibly give Frost the star power he deserves.

The Sandler news is good news in the same way the Pegg news is good news in that his scheduling conflict is with Apatow's new movie Funny People. The cast for that movie is shaping up to be great as well, and it sounds like it will be a nice balance for Sandler, weighing in with comedic and dramatic moments, hopefully much like Big Daddy (in my mind, his most successful movie). However, what the fuck man!? We know he can do some great dramatic work (thank you PT Anderson), so how awesome would it have been to see him really go balls out for a crazy Tarantino character!? And instead they cast Mike Myers (or at least are in talks to)? I mean, yeah it would be great to see Mike Myers come back to the movies and actually do something worthwhile, but 1. I'm less confident in Myers ability to do a great Tarantino role, and 2. I'm just much more interested in seeing Sandler do the Tarantino role. He just seems like he'd fit in for some reason. I dunno.

Oh and in Ummm...Really?-casting we have Eli Roth. What?

Anyone got any opinions about all this casting? Anyone feel as strongly as I do about the Sandler/Myers thing?

Trailers abound

So I found some suhweet trailers that were posted this morning, all thanks to cinematical. There are two, character centric trailers for the Coen Brothers new comedy Burn After Reading. The funnier of the two is definately Clooney's, I love seeing him play a buffoon.


While I love Brad Pitt, especially when he plays whacky, outlandish characters, he looks.... I dunno... like he's trying too hard in this or something. Although I'm just going to assume there's a lot of great scenes from him that the trailer is simply lacking. The rest of the cast is superd (both female leads always make me laugh) especially Mr. Malkovich. He is a force to be reckoned with on the screen. I think it's gonna be great to see this great cast interract with each other under the pen and direction of the incomparable Coen Brothers.

So on a completely different note, Scott Weinberg over at cinematical has been raving (and ranting) about this new zombie-comedy called Dance of the Dead (I couldn't embed the trailer, age restricted, hit up IGN for it). While I admit I had reservations about this at first (I've still only seen Shaun of the Dead, no Fido yet) because I thought these were just a slew of bad copy-cat direct to dvd type films (although, as Weinberg ranted, this is a direct to video release) now, having seen the trailer, I'm very excited. When those kids come marching down the hall, and especially when one responds "We're the Sci-Fi club, we're here to rescue you" I almost cheered, and I was only watching the trailer. This seems like the perfect combination of every nerds high school fantasy (saving all the wretched assholes that made their life a living hell from actual living hell) and actual zombie thrills.

Let us know what you think about these upcoming films. Are you excited, not at all... I mean the Coen Brothers, come on!

A Bro's Film Analysis: Pineapple Express

So tonight I went to a party at some people I don't know's house. I don't know why I keep going out to these parties, I think deep down it's in hope that a.) either I'll meet a gorgeous girl and fall in love or b.) that I will meet some like minded life-long friends. Usually what occurs is the much more frequent c.) I sit bored out of my mind on the couch trying to make eye contact with the 3 other people that I know and wait for them to give me the much awaited "Are you ready to go?" line. I find that each party I go to leans towards one extreme. Reciently either the more creative types (where they have heavy opinions on everything and I get intimidated to jump in with my opinion) are having a party or on the oppisite side of the spectrum to put it simply, bros. I'd much rather be uncomfortable at an elitist artsy party than a bro party. Tonight, I was at a bro party. There's just something so phoney about the whole needing to be macho thing that pisses me off. I get it, you can drink more beer than a camel can drink water, awesome. I am a man confident enough in my own manhood to be able to let loose and not care if I seem feminine ever. And what I hate more than anything is how for some reason I get talked to as if I am in some way... less? I guess you could say that... You know like you're just their "pal" or "buddy." And for some reason since this is the image being given of me, I tend to perpetuate it with acting more meek and small. It just happens.

Anyway, as I was sitting there on the couch watching the bros play beer pong they started to talk about Pineapple Express (it also upsets me that bros like all the Judd Apatow movies, seeing as they all seem to be from the nerds perspective, ah well). As they proceeded to discuss the film the only real analysis they could come up with was to relate the film to other movies. One bro said it was "A mix between Shaun of the Dead and Grandma's Boy" while the other bro felt it more akin to "Cheech and Chong and Air Force One." First off... Cheech and Chong... Okay, I'll accept that. Freaking Shawn of the Dead, Grandma's Boy, and Air Force One? Really? As far as I can remember there were no zombies or hijackers involved in Pineapple Express.

I think what is really upsetting me here is that I go to a party in hopes I will meet interesting people, for a chance to interact, to not do what I would ordinarily being doing: watching movies at home. When I finally get out I get stuck with people that actually feel that in some way Air Force One and Pineapple Express are somehow similar other than the fact that to some capacity both movies have action and some guns. Where are all you people that I do want to meet and talk to? You are all sitting at home doing what I would be doing if I wasn't at the party! People, we need to get out of our homes for a little bit and interact, maybe throw some of our own party where ridiculous people need not come. It's not even about having poor taste in movies really. You can have the complete opposite taste in films as me, just have some intelligence and don't be a duesche bag (or a bro). So my challenge to all you other interesting worthwhile people is to get out more so I can meet you and be your friend and we can have our own party's where it's cool to just throw in a movie and actually pay attention to it.