Since we were kids, we knew the taxman was a bad guy. If we didn’t get the message from the lyrics of The Beatles, or the wolfish version of the Sheriff of Nottingham in Disney’s Robin Hood, then we learned through the very real anguish our parents suffered every year, mid-April. As we grew up, we likely heard comedians joke about the IRS, and every character but Jesus appeared to be unforgiving of any person who’d take a job in tax collection. Occasionally we’d see iconic IRS agents, such as the one Charles Lane plays in Capra’s film of You Can’t Take it With You, but even when memorable and enjoyable, they are still mostly identifiably villains. In Abbas Kiarostami’s first film, The Report (Gozaresh), the “hero” is a tax collector, yet he’s involved in corruption and beats his wife. Still hardly classifiable as a good guy, it would seem.

However, with all the movies made around the world in all the years of cinema’s existence, there had to be some films with likable taxmen, so we dug deep and desperately and just barely found ten such characters (admittedly, some are a stretch). While you struggle last minute with your 1040 today, you might not have much appreciation for a list of good guy taxmen, but we don’t care, because hopefully our celebration of these characters will keep us from getting audited anytime soon. Or, if we must get a visit from the IRS agent, we can hope we’re sent one like these men and woman:
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Between the new Vanity Fair spread starring his comedy troupe (which includes his wife) and official word that he’s producing Ghostbusters 3, Judd Apatow is the talk of the Internet today. Eric D. Snider, in a new post at Cinematical that is apparently unrelated to either bits of news, even discusses Apatow’s potential status as this generation’s John Hughes. Considering some bloggers refer to the stars of the Vanity Fair feature as the “Frat Pack,” despite that term’s origins being with another set of actors (though Apatow’s pals do overlap and have been deemed “Junior Varsity” members), there may be weight to Snider’s claim.

Whatever Apatow’s group is called (Vanity Fair simply yet prematurely labels them “Comedy’s New Legends”), their leader is certainly ruling over a large part of Hollywood these days, enough that he’s sure to appropriate more than just the Frat Pack name before he’s done with his reign as King of Comedy. Now that he’s borrowed the talent of Adam Sandler (for this summer’s Funny People) and is about to take charge of even older SNL alum (for the next Ghostbusters flick), what could stop him from hiring Anthony Michael Hall or Shirley Maclaine in order to align himself with even the “Brat Pack” and “Rat Pack,” respectively?

We’ll just have to wait to see how much Apatow will ultimately conquer. So, for the time being, let’s take a look at what the blogosphere is saying about him and his crew today:

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Way back in November, a Hollywood Reporter Sundance prognostication story alerted the world to Paper Heart, a “part-documentary, part-scripted comedy” starring Michael Cera and his real-life girlfriend Charlyne Yi. The trade said the film’s sales agents were hoping “to limit advance word, presumably in the hopes of making a splash a la Sundance phenom Napoleon Dynamite.”

Said sales agents must have been really upset that the Reuters-syndicated trade wrote a big story about the movie weeks before the festival lineup was even announced, thus ensuring that this project previously known to virtually no one would not only suddenly become the hottest ticket of the festival, but that its extreme hotness would be telegraphed in publications potentially read by the suburban teenagers who will make up its target post-Sundance ticket-buying audience. Let’s all shake our fists in frustrated solidarity: darn you, Hollywood Reporter!

Anyhow, now that the cat’s out of the bag and Paper Heart is en route to its big Saturday night premiere at the Racquet Club, the question on everyone’s minds is this: Who is this young lady who has landed Hollywood’s Most Eligible Bachelor Best Known For His Role in A Comedic Teenage Incest Subplot?

Her YouTube channel has some answers.

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• We’ve been teased about it for so long, but finally The Hollywood Reporter has confirmation that an Arrested Development movie is seriously happening. Series creator Mitch Hurwitz will write the screenplay and direct the film apparently with help from Ron Howard, who will also produce through Imagine Entertainment. Fox Searchlight will distribute. Here is SpoutBlog’s suggested plotlines for the film, originally published a year ago, in case Hurwitz is stumped for ideas.
• Also moving forward is the DC Comics adaptation Captain Marvel, which is now at Warner Bros. with Get Smart’s Peter Segal still directing as part of a new first-look deal with the studio. Before we get to hear shouts of “Shazam!” on the big screen, though, Segal will be helming a faux biopic titled Liam McBain: International Tennis Star and Proper English Geezer.
• Twilight supporting player Anna Kendrick reportedly beat out many young actresses, including Ellen Page, for the female lead role opposite George Clooney in Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air. Hopefully there are no hard feelings in case Reitman ever wants to reteam with Page for Juno 2.
• John Malkovich, who made his feature directorial debut six years ago with The Dancer Upstairs, announced he’s making a documentary about the plight of migrant children titled Triple Crossing. Mexican actors Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna are producing.
• Twilight will unsurprisingly be the box office champ this weekend, especially now that it’s reportedly finally acquiring interest from boys, too. Maybe because that’s where all the girls will be?

The song “I Thought I Lost You,” from the soundtrack to Disney’s animated Bolt, is intended as an innocent duet between a young girl and her pet dog, and lyrically there’s not one hint that it’s anything more, but that doesn’t stop me from thinking there’s something terribly creepy about the above music video. Maybe it’s that villainous goatee that John Travolta is sporting. Or maybe it’s just weird to think of the purpose of the song and then imagine Travolta being the beloved pet of Miley Cyrus. The only thing worse, perhaps, would be if Billy Ray Cyrus were the voice of the film’s title character.

And that reminds me of the also relatively creepy duet from Duets, in which a father and daughter (played by Huey Lewis and Gwyneth Paltrow) perform Smokey Robinson’s “Cruisin’” at karaoke. Now, that song is certainly more sexual than the Bolt track. But either way, it’s just a song, right? What kid hasn’t innocently sung a love song duet with his mom or her dad? Or performed a karaoke rendition of “Afternoon Delight” with his or her aunt or uncle?

For a great episode of Arrested Development that deals with the subject of creepy dueting, check out another clip after the jump. And for a potentially more appropriate, cartoon rendition of “I Thought I Lost You,” go see Bolt when it opens on November 21.

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It’s been almost two weeks and Hancock has grossed almost $350 million, so it’s time to start the academic discussions — with spoilers, of course (anyone who wants to avoid knowing the “twists” should discontinue reading now). Maybe it’s just the film scholar in me, but I have been desiring a good analysis of the film’s allegorical meaning since viewing the less-than-perfect superhero movie last week. While others may feel that the movie is hardly worth reading into (especially over-reading, as I’ve always felt my M.O. to be) or that it’s too obvious that the first half is really about the role of the U.S. as a superpower, I’m nevertheless eager to figure it out.

Basically, I’ve been wracking my brain trying to understand where the allegory goes, or was meant to go, once Charlize Theron’s character is introduced as Hancock’s super-powered wife. Does she somehow fit in with or in response to Hancock’s representation of America (the patriotic name, the eagle emblem on his uniform, etc.)? I’m still at a loss, but I’ve come up with 5 possibilities (some a lot less likely than others) for what screenwriters Vincent Ngo and Vince Gilligan intended for her character to be.

1. The United Kingdom - So sue me if part of my reasoning is inspired by Theron’s role on Arrested Development, in which she also seemed to be harboring a secret from beau Jason Bateman (if only Hancock had stolen Jeffrey Tambor from Hellboy II, it could have been considered a reunion), but if Hancock represents America, then Mary (Theron) is some other superpower, right? I don’t recall any hints that she signifies the Soviet Union, so she must be a stand-in for the British. Is her desire to be a housewife representative of a desire by the British to no longer be a world-stomping empire? Is Mary’s defending of the French boy a nod to Britain-France relations in contrast to U.S.-France? But then is the movie also saying that the UK and the U.S. are less powerful when united together? History would say otherwise.
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Our friends at The Playlist are expressing skepticism over Jason Bateman’s latest claim that the Arrested Development movie is “in the works,” but at the very least, Bateman’s insistence on talking the thing up in spite of a total lack of hard evidence that the movie exists is a fascinating example of how not-quite major stars can use the press to their advantage.

When Bateman first mentioned the thing, on the Juno press tour, the press went nuts––probably primarily because 90% of Arrested Development’s devoted fan bas consists of bloggers and journalists. Juno had an unusually long press cycle for a studio film, beginning at Telluride and continuing straight through Oscar night, and for about a week, its fourth billed star was able to temporarily hijack the attention and steer it towards his dream project. He’s essentially doing the same thing with Hancock: he again has a supporting role, but any little crumbs he has to offer about an AD movie (and the couple of sentences dropped here are less than substantial) are far more interesting than anything he could say about the joys of working with Will Smith.

Another bit of exciting news from Jason Bateman [again via MTV Movies Blog] regarding the Arrested Development movie: “the ball has started rolling down the hill again.” Okay, so it’s not too exciting, nor is it revelatory in the least, but at least he says all the creatives are on board. Meanwhile, the actor also commented on his role in the American movie adaptation of the British TV mini-series State of Play, which, combined with MTV’s other post about the American TV series remake/adaptation of the British TV series Spaced, has me putting a little thought into the subject of theatrical spin-offs versus movie adaptations.

Certainly those of us who are fans of a series would rather see it continued with all original talent on board (even if we are cynically fearing the result) than see it adapted into a movie version many years down the line, whether the approach be faithful or parody or an attempt at both. Try to imagine another cast playing the Arrested Development and Sex and the City characters. Imagine the pointlessness a future X-Files remake/adaptation compared with the immediate cinematic extension we received. Or live-action versions of The Simpsons or South Park somewhere down the line rather than the big-screen supplements.

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• Kristin Thompson weighs in on the “I Drink Your Milkshake” phenomenon. “But great art has always been subject to humorous treatment and tends to come through unscathed. Marcel Duchamp stuck a mustache on a reproduction of the Mona Lisa and put it in a museum, and the act is considered a daring stroke of avant-garde art…The internet has accelerated such of manipulation of artworks and made us more aware of them, but its not new—and it is inevitable.”
• Michael Musto reports from last night’s Film Forum screening of Sidney Lumet’s unlikely “lovely chick bonding” flick, The Group. Arrested Development fans, cover your eyes: according to Musto, Jessica “Lucille” Walters says she was ” desperate to play the Candice Bergen lesbo part.”
• I wasn’t the only one to watch Amy Winehouse on Sunday night and think “didn’t Judy Garland already make this movie?” Via Radar.
• The strike may be over, but UnitedHollywood isn’t. The WGA’s unofficial bloggy club house is warning that comment management will be slow for a while while the site preps a relaunch.

I apologize for linking to a misrepresenting, jokey MTV Movies Blog post for the second day in a row, but I figured, despite the teasing headline, that I could use it to bring up an important point. The Arrested Development movie, which is all but definitely greenlit at this point (hopefully Keith Olbermann is convincing enough), may not be able to involve all our favorite actors, characters or inanimate objects from the series. And that needs to be … okay. Maybe Franklin, the ventriloquist dummy, really has been lost since the show was canceled, and won’t make it to the big screen. But even if the production is able to make a new Franklin puppet, it could choose not to. This doesn’t need to be like the final episode of Seinfeld (or even of Arrested Development, when you think about it) and feature every beloved part of every season.

Personally, although I loved Karina’s post about the five suggested plots for the movie, I am one of the huge Arrested fans who would rather not have a movie. The show had its run, it more or less tied everything up in the final episode and it is done. I imagine there is something interesting (and hilarious, of course) that the ensemble can do together in a feature-length film, but no matter what the result, it is likely to be a disappointment, whether it lacks Franklin or Judy Greer or anything/anyone else, because in the end it’s just some people trying to exploit another product with a built-in audience. By now it’s the same thing as making a movie based on G.I. Joe. But with less work for the casting department.

I would rather highlight conventional foreign films like Captain Abu Raed than conventional indie dramedies like Patrick Sisam’s The Year of Getting to Know Us, but I can’t seem to find any better trailers for movies playing at Sundance today. So, here’s a look at one of the more mainstream selections screening at this year’s festival. It has a lot of the generic traits typically found in star-studded Sundance darlings, such as the dysfunctional family, the dying parent and the homecoming plot. In many ways it’s like Garden State (Sundance class of 2004) all over again, but instead of having the main character meet an annoying new love interest, he already has a live-in girlfriend of three years who he reluctantly allows to finally meet his family. I spy a last-minute airport scene in there, too. Good job on the unoriginal ideas there, Sisam (or is that co-writer Rick Velleu or short-story writer Ethan Canin’s contribution?).

The Year of Getting to Know Us has two things going for it. However, both are subjective points that only I might appreciate. The first is that it co-stars Arrested Development’s Tony Hale as Jimmy Fallon’s hometown buddy. While his character can’t possibly be as funny as Buster Bluth, I’d be willing to give Hale a chance to prove he has talent beyond his beloved television role. The second point is that it has a joke about Fallon having to rent a PT Cruiser. As someone who has been assigned a PT Cruiser before, I can relate to the embarrassment. Is it really that common a model for car rental companies? Whether or not it indeed has universal appeal, I think the bit is pretty funny, especially with Hale’s comment about the car being for girls (he should have said old ladies, though, because my grandma drives a PT Cruiser).

The Year of Getting to Know Us premieres this evening at 6:15 PM at the Eccles Theatre. It is also playing tomorrow night at 11:30 PM at the Prospector Square Theatre and on Saturday afternoon at 3:30 PM in Salt Lake City.

Despite what Stephen Colbert says in the video above, Will Smith has not confirmed that he’s a Scientologist (nor has he denied it, of course). All that happened was that, according to the Daily News, Will Smith distributed cards promoting the Church of Scientology personality tests. Now, that may sound like Smith is attempting to recruit people, which isn’t something that a non-member would necessarily do, but the I Am Legend star has only so far claimed to be a “student of world religion” and has only really proven himself to be a good friend to Tom Cruise and a non-committed supporter of this particular religion (including donating thousands of dollars to Scientology programs).

So if Scientology is but one of the many world religions Smith is a fan of, where is the news that he’s handing out bibles and other religious promotional materials? Well, even if he was doing that, the news would still highlight this event because of how the media treats Scientology. Actually, I’m surprised the story hasn’t been covered more widely than it has been. Could it be that the media companies don’t want such potentially career-damaging news to be covered because they depend on Smith to save their Hollywood-centered butts? After all, Smith is currently the second biggest movie star in terms of box office gross, and it would be a shame if he suddenly became the sort of box office poison that Tom Cruise is now considered to be.

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A number of stories from Juno press confabs fueled rumors last week that Jason Bateman is trying to jump-start a movie based on his much-missed FOX comedy Arrested Development. Keith Olbermann, who admits to being friends with at least three ex-AD cast members, passed along a statement from the actor and series creator Mitchell Hurwitz, confirming that the movie is “something [they're] very interested in doing, but only after the writers’ strike, and only if the powers that be approve.”

For those not in the know, AD starred Bateman as Michael Bluth, the one sort-of together member of a high-profile Southern California family, whose real estate tycoon patriarch (Jeffrey Tambor) has been thrown in jail whilst awaiting trial on charges of (among other things) building mansions for Sadaam Hussein. Michael Cera, Bateman’s so-hot-right-now Juno costar, played his son on the show; Will Arnet, Portia DiRossi and David Cross rounded out the cast.

I was a huge Arrested Development fan (I wrote this much-misread post about the show in spring 2005), but I was also fairly satisfied with the series’ conclusion. I sat down to try to imagine/divine possible plotlines for a movie, but because there was very little that I was dying to see resolved, I decided to call in some reinforcements. I sent out emails to some bloggy friends, I trolled Facebook looking for fans. Then, weirdness: for every AD fan who happily offered up an idea for The Bluth family’s big screen debut, another essentially refused to comment. It looks like there’s a decent contingent of AD fans who really don’t want to see the show they love ruined by a false, cinematic extension–and really, having seen the careless cash-in that is the Sex and the City trailer, can you blame them?

In any case, between my own fixations and those of three blogger friends, after the jump I manage to cobble together a list of five pretty promising potential plotlines for this not-yet-even-greenlit Arrested Development movie. These aren’t prognostications, just narrative directions that actual AD fans would like to see explored. Toss out your own thoughts in the comments.

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Lately I’ve been a little worried that my creepy, old-lady crush on Michael Cera (star of Superbad, which opens today, and which Vulture has dubbed “the greatest movie of all time”) is starting to become a problem. I take some comfort in the knowledge that I’m not the only one. In her Salon review of Superbad, Stephanie Zacharek called Cera a “gangly sweetheart”; Carina Chocano described his performance as “surreally loveable.”

But that’s nothing compared to the clip above. It’s the creation of YouTube user ilovemichaelcera, who appears to be a teenage girl named Allison. Allison’s synopsis of this clip, her sole contribution to the YouTube canon, reads as follows: “i love him watch trhis dont be disturbed.” Allison packs so much into 28 seconds that it’s hard to isolate a favorite part, although I’ve now watched it ten times in the last ten minutes, and the part where Allison puts her head on Cera’s TV cousin/paramour’s body cracks me up every time. Allison, honey — I’m not disturbed. I wish I was.