Welcome to “Trailer Park,” our regular Friday feature where we collect the week’s new trailers all in one place and do a little “judging a book by its cover,” ranking them from worst to best and taking our best guess at what they may be hiding. This week’s eleven trailers include several peeks at next summer’s blockbusters, which are presumably rolling out in front of the big holiday releases. But there are some smaller (and stranger) titles hiding in there as well; check ‘em all out after the jump. Read More »

Lars von Trier is a great filmmaker, but he doesn’t seem like the kind of guy you’d much like to hang out and have a drink with. Aside from all that Nazi stuff, his films tend to traffic in the grimmest possible subject matter: he’s tackled rape, slavery, the death penalty, paralysis, and genital mutilation, so it somehow seems logical that his latest picture, Melancholia (on demand now, in theaters Friday) is about nothing less than the end of the world.

Apocalypses are a popular topic for filmmakers — though most are more interested in the narrative possibilities of the post-apocalyptic world than the event itself. Melancholia distinguishes itself by being something of a pre-apocalyptic picture, delving into the anxiety and fear of those who are awaiting the earth’s possible collision with a foreign object (timely!). After the jump, we’ll take a look back at a few of our favorite cinematic apocalypses. Read More »

There are an abundance of reasons to put “see Moneyball” on your weekend to-do list: First film since Capote from director Bennett Miller; Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillan adapting a Michael Lewis book; Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Wright, and Chris Pratt (aka Andy Dwyer) in supporting roles; the baby blues of one William Bradley Pitt. And then there is our old friend Jonah Hill, who has taken the opportunity here to make the leap we’ve come to expect from any comedic performer of note: the transition to “serious acting.”

Now from the looks of the trailer, it doesn’t appear that Hill is exactly doing Hamlet — Moneyball is a fast, witty, seriocomic drama, allowing Hill some comedic opportunities within a larger and more serious context. That is one way to go; there are others. After the jump, join us for a look at the strategies that Hill’s predecessors adopted in making their move towards drama, and how they fared.

Read More »

1. Last night Stephen Colbert debuted his new Jack White produced-single on The Colbert Report. Watch a clip of him performing “Charlene II (I’m Over You)” with some help from the Black Belles here, and if you live in New York, head over to 10th Avenue and 30th Street, where Colbert and White will be selling copies of the 7″ starting at 11am.

2. MGM is planning to reboot WarGames, with Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses, The King of Kong) attached to direct. Considering that the 1983 original, which starred Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy, was a movie about the Cold War, we wonder if they’re planning to shift its focus to the Middle East to make it feel more relevant. [via Variety]

3. Remember how we told you yesterday that the beefy Winklevoss twins had dropped their case against Facebook? Well, it turns out that it was because they are launching a brand new suit that will determine whether Mark Zuckerberg “intentionally or inadvertently suppressed evidence” during settlement proceedings. [via The Daily Beast]

4. Word has it that the lovely Emma Thompson may write the screenplay for the Will Smith/Jay-Z film adaptation of Annie that will feature Willow Smith in the titular role. Seriously guys, is there any way this movie can fail? [via Vulture]

5. We suppose it was bound to happen eventually, but it looks like Cars 2 will be Pixar‘s first “rotten” movie on Rotten Tomatoes — not that what the critics think will affect sales of tickets/merchandise tie-ins. [via Slashfilm]

Bonus link: World’s Most-Wanted Hacker Says He’s Never Felt Safer

1. Musician Michel Martelly — the presidential candidate supported by both Pras and Wyclef Jean — has won the runoff election in Haiti, taking in nearly 68 percent of the vote to defeat former first lady Mirlande Manigat. [via Vulture]

2. “I believe the writers are six weeks away from a draft. I know a little bit. But I don’t know — the fellas went off and cooked it up. I don’t know what happened when they put the elements together. When we last got together [in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey], part of it was that Bill and Ted were supposed to have written the song that saved the world, and it hasn’t happened. So they’ve now become kind of possessed by trying to do that. Then there’s an element of time and they have to go back.” – Keanu Reeves talks to MTV about Bill and Ted 3

3. Will Smith and son Jaden will co-star in a yet-to-be titled sci-fi adventure flick for director M. Night Shyamalan about “a young boy who navigates an abandoned and sometimes scary Earth 1,000 years in the future to save himself and his estranged father after their ship crashes.” [via PopEater]

4. More exciting Record Store Day news: Jerry Lee Lewis will perform at Third Man Records’ Nashville stage for a live concert LP that will be produced by Jack White and released by the label. [via TwentyFourBit]

5. The Flaming Lips’ musical based on Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is in the early stages of production with Des McAnuff, who co-created the stage version of Tommy, at the helm. Says Wayne Coyne: “It’s really become a perfect combination of my fantastical robot-world vision and [McAnuff's] little, internal, humanistic version of what that music is.” [via Guardian]

Bonus link: Human Centipede: The Musical!

We weren’t entirely sure whether it was an April Fools joke when we read over the weekend that Justin Bieber and Ashton Kutcher are to star in a movie together – it’s apparently going to be called What Would Kenny Do?, and features Ashton as an older version of Justin, somehow projected back in time to advise his younger self on how to survive the trials of adolescence. The Guardian published an amusing piece suggesting that this might well turn out to be the worst buddy movie ever, but the duo would have to beat some pretty stiff competition — namely, the disastrous pairings we’ve collected after the jump. (We’re omitting on-screen couples here, because that’s a whole new can of worms, and because there’s only one clear winner in that category: Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez.)

Read More »

1. Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark finally has a new ending! According to ArtsBeat, “The new finale includes a freshly conceived flying sequence where the character Peter Parker/Spider-Man is airborne, flying around the Foxwoods Theater in a triumphant manner, according to a member of the production team. This person spoke on condition of anonymity because the producers did not want details of the finale given away.”

2. Still need proof that the British version is better? MTV is worried that upcoming episodes of Skins may violate federal child pornography statutes, and as a result, executives have ordered the show’s producers to make changes to tone down some of the most explicit content. [via NYT]

3. Andrew W.K. is hosting a “party” at 4chan. The live Q&A on the site is scheduled for February 13 at 7 pm. [via NYO]

4. Robert Downey Jr. has dropped out of Oz, the Great and Powerful, Disney’s upcoming prequel to The Wizard of Oz that Sam Raimi is set to direct. The studio is in discussions with Johnny Depp to replace him. [via Heat Vision]

5. Will Smith wants to do a remake of Annie with Willow Smith in the starring role. The Karate Kid reboot made more than $350 million worldwide; we bet this one will perform even better given the fact that Jay-Z is in talks to work on the music for the film. [via Variety]

Bonus link: Winona Ryder Finally Agrees To Sleep With Generation X

1. In remembrance of his death 30 years ago today, Rolling Stone has posted audio clips of its final interview with John Lennon.

2. Aaron Sorkin has some not so kind words for Sarah Palin, Caribou huntress: “…I don’t relish the idea of torturing animals. I don’t enjoy the fact that they’re dead and I certainly don’t want to volunteer to be the one to kill them and if I were picked to be the one to kill them in some kind of Lottery-from-Hell, I wouldn’t do a little dance of joy while I was slicing the animal apart.” [via HuffPo]

3. In spite of the fact that Speed Racer was such a flop, Warner Bros. has tapped the Wachowski siblings to make Hood, a “top secret,” modern update of the Robin Hood tale — and they want Will Smith as their star. [via Vulture]

4. We love Mario Batali’s response to the question “Which living person do you most despise?” from Vanity Fair’s Proust Questionnaire: “Anonymous angry bloggers … all of them.”

5. Listen to a new Björk song that pays homage to her recently deceased friend, fashion designer Alexander McQueen. [via P4K]

Bonus link: 18 Famous Websites As Understood by a Five-Year-Old

Barack Obama, leader of the free world and winner of a Nobel Peace Prize, can now add children’s book author to his resume: Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to my Daughters, a picture book penned by the President, hit bookstores yesterday. Written in 2008 after the election but before Obama took office, the book tells the story of 13 American heroes and heroines, including Albert Einstein, Jackie Robinson, Helen Keller, and Martin Luther King, Jr. But he’s hardly the first celebrity who has delved into kiddie lit. Here are 15 more children’s book authors you might know from elsewhere.

Read More »

A little known fact: We, the world, owe the existence of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to Will Smith’s financial difficulties. In the heady late 1980s, Smith had squandered his earnings from his rap career and was in deep trouble with the IRS when he was approached by a WB executive about starring in a new show, loosely based on his own persona. Smith’s compromise was our sitcom gain: who can deny the hilarity of the smooth-talking Prince’s dancing or his constant goof-ups with partner-in-crime Jazzy Jeff? Over the six years of the show, Fresh Prince was not only fun, it was culturally relevant. A Young Kathy Griffin had her first television break on the show; and the program hosted numerous big name guests, from Oprah Winfrey to Chris Rock. After the jump, our roundup of some of the best guest stars on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Read More »