Earlier this week it was announced that “Fight For Your Right Revisited,” a short film written and directed by Adam Yauch, would premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Now, thanks to Stereogum, we’ve got a photo of Seth Rogen, Elijah Wood, and Danny McBride, who are presumably playing Mike D, Ad-Rock, and MCA. The cast also includes Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, and Jack Black, and while we don’t know anything about the plot, we do have this tagline: “After the boys leave the party.” We’re intrigued. Click through if you need to refresh your memory on the original clip.
Today at Flavorpill, we tried to understand the multiple levels of symbolism at work in Katy Perry’s Simpsons cameo. We looked at famous skylines made out of old computer parts. We wished that TRON: Lebowski was getting a theatrical release. We met the female filmmaker spearheading the “film sleepy” genre, which actually sounds even more boring than mumblecore. We listened to Billy Joel’s entire catalog, all at once. We were intrigued by Adam Yauch’s “Fight for Your Right Revisited,” a short that is playing Sundance and features Elijah Wood, Danny McBride, Seth Rogen, Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, and Jack Black in its cast. We clapped our hands in excitement over the latest installment of Edith Zimmerman’s super hilarious Letters to the Editors of Women’s Magazines. We appreciated this comprehensive roundup of all of the Hulks on Twitter. And finally, we were surprised to hear that James Franco has an underwear line. But probably not as surprised as he was.
Forbes has come out with a list of Hollywood’s most overpaid actors for 2010. To do this they looked at the 36 highest-earning actors in the movie business and compared the actor’s pay with what their last three films made earned (with a cutoff date of June 1, 2010). The resulting number comes in the form of amount the studio has made for every dollar they paid the star (for example, for every dollar Will Ferrell was paid, his last three films returned an average $3.35). Click through for the top 10 and our slightly over-the-top analysis.
Like most of the world, we’ve been closely following Conan for what feels like forever. Now, with the premiere just under two weeks away, they’ve announced who the new show’s first guests will be, namely Seth Rogen, Jack White, and the winner of Conan’s special-guest poll (in all likelihood, Jack Nicholson). Later in the week he’ll be visited by Tom Hanks, Jack McBrayer, Soundgarden, Jon Hamm, Charlyne Yi, Michael Cera, and Julie Bowen. Not bad for cable! Considering that when he took over The Tonight Show his first guests were Will Ferrell and Pearl Jam, we see this more diverse lineup of celebrities as a big improvement. That said, we’ve got to question his affinity for ’90s alternative rock. [via Vulture]
Simon Pegg and his frequent co-star Nick Frost team up as both writers and actors in Paul, what looks like a parody of your typical road trip buddy comedy. Naturally the “best buddies,” a pair of comic book geeks traveling near Area 51, encounter a smoking alien (voiced by Seth Rogen), and that’s when the “trip of a lifetime” really begins. Jason Bateman plays a stern-faced, Men in Black-esque government agent, which should be hilarious (director Greg Mottola helmed a few episodes of Arrested Development), and the cast is rounded out by Kristen Wiig and sci-fi staple Sigourney Weaver. Despite an all-star ensemble, the success of this movie will rest heavily on Pegg and Frost. If internet rumors are to be believed, we need to wait for the red band trailer for the majority of the Superbad/Hot Fuzz/Shaun of the Dead-style laughs. Which makes sense. Check out the teaser after the jump and let us know what you think.
Between his art projects, his stint on General Hospital, and his newfound literary career (oh yeah, and his highly successful film work…), James Franco is constantly all over the news. Just today, we read about him starring in a book trailer and bringing Jeffrey Deitch along for the second round of his magical GH adventure. Considering that he’s got hands in cinema, literature, TV, and visual arts, we’re going to go ahead and crown Franco the new King of All Media. So, how did he come to dominate the news cycle? Perhaps it has something to do with folks he’s chosen to collaborate with, befriend, or simply name check. After the jump, we look back at the 10 people we think have been most influential in boosting Franco-mania to unprecedented levels.
The trailer for The Green Hornet has just about everything you see in most caped crusader movies: explosions, gadgets, a pretty girl (Cameron Diaz), a high-octane hard rock soundtrack. But it also stars Seth Rogen as a party boy turned crime fighter and features Christoph Waltz, who scored a well-deserved Academy Award last year for his performance in Inglourious Basterds. Oh yeah, and it’s directed by Michel Gondry. We’re certainly intrigued by this glimpse at The Green Hornet, but we’re also betting it’s going to be a whole lot quirkier than this crowd-pleasing trailer. Let us know what you think in the comments.
When we read that Gilligan’s Island, a show that we grew up watching reruns of on TBS, was being adapted for the big screen by Warner Bros., we did not approve. ArtsBeat’s initial stab at casting the pic, along with the news that producers are eyeing Michael Cera to play Gilligan, didn’t help. But then we had a brilliant realization: How much fun could this remake be as a Frat Pack movie? After the jump we cast the fictional, Judd Apatow-directed version. Let us know if you think it could actually work.
Brace yourselves, sci-fi geeks: According to Variety, Ridley Scott will be directing the long-discussed Alien prequel for FOX. “It will precede that film, in which the crew of a commercial towing ship returning to Earth is awakened and sent to respond to a distress signal from a nearby planetoid. The crew discovers too late that the signal generated by an empty ship was meant to warn them.” Sigourney Weaver has stated that she can’t imagine being involved with any prequel — and can’t imagine how Scott can be on board either. Read More »
Despite a relatively good US run, things have turned out a bit odd for the kids flick Monsters vs Aliens. To begin with, the Dreamworks film didn’t play so well overseas, bringing in just $177.1M in foreign markets, as opposed to the studio’s Madagascar which pulled in $339.1M overseas. Equally odd is the decision to release the film on DVD on the rather inauspicious September 29, well ahead of the Christmas-time boom. Read More »
