Everyone knows a rumor is just a rumor until it shows up in the trades. But let’s not forget that most of the news in the trades comes via publicists. So we can’t always buy what these reports say anyway. So, even though The Hollywood Reporter has announced what we’ve been hearing for a long, long time — that an Arrested Developmentmovie script is in the works — many of us remain skeptical.
Worse than skeptical, though, I’m also annoyed. I get over being teased very quickly, and I’m at the point where I really don’t even want there to be an Arrested Development movie. Honestly, I didn’t really care for one to begin with, but I would have at least been more interested in seeing it had it been made a couple years ago. But it’s been 3 and a half years since the final episode aired, and I’m seriously content with the Bluth’s story being over.
Unfortunately, Hollywood can’t ever let things end well; they have to overdo every good thing. I wish the short run of Arrested Development could just be accepted the way British TV shows are accepted, with few seasons (series). Sure, we Spacedfans would love to know what’s going on with Tim and Daisy ten years after they first became flatmates, but isn’t it actually enough, if not much better, that Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright were able to break out and give us other amazing things to watch them in/do (if only Jessica Hynes, nee Stevenson, was doing more films rather than being a domestic).
Isn’t anybody else sufficiently happy with seeing Jason Bateman have a career again? Isn’t anyone simply thankful that the show introduced us to Michael Cera, Alia Shawkat and Tony Hale, each of whom is doing other enjoyable things these days? Can we just let go of the idea and remember Arrested Development as a classic show that we can continue to revisit on DVD? No movie is going to be good enough after so much anticipation anyway.
Check out what other film blogs are saying about this “news” after the jump: …Read more
Even though some of last year’s Comic-Con secrets were leaked to the web ahead of time, the 2007 SDCC was a huge deal as far as revelations go. Whether it was the unveiling of Karen Allen’s involvement in Indiana Jones and the Then-Still-Not-Subtitled Fourth Installmentor cast updates for Watchmenand Star Trek or a bit of clarification on what the hell that Cloverfieldmovie was, Comic-Con 2007 left us super excited and highly anticipatory for the next year of movie releases.
But after a quick glance, the 2008 convention doesn’t seem like it will have as many big announcements. There should be plenty of new footage shown from movies like Watchmen (making its second Comic-Con round) and The Spirit(hopefully there’s some better looking stuff than the most recent trailer gave us), but what secrets are set to be let out of the bag?
Here’s 10 things I hope they reveal over the next few days:
Arnold Schwarzenegger is back in Terminator Salvation- If this really happens, I’ll be flabbergasted. But a guy can hope, at least for official word on a cameo. And there’s no better place than Comic-Con for a confirmation to happen. Well, I guess if Warner Bros. could keep it a secret until the movie opens next May, then that would actually be better. But that’s impossible nowadays. …Read more
After being extremely jealous of anyone out in L.A. who attended last month’s “Dante’s Inferno” program at the New Beverly, I’m glad that I now get to enjoy something new and Joe Dante-related. Even if it only has to do with characters from his films.
Yes, those are THE Gremlins appearing in a British ad for BT Group (if the YouTube is down, visit the link for another format). Complete with Mohawk, the trademark giggles and Jerry Goldsmith’s theme song. And they’re not selling Direct TV!!! This ad actually adds to the franchise in a way that respects my childhood. Take that, Christopher Lloyd and Sigourney Weaver!
Two newly announced collaborations are making my birthday a very special one. In one corner we have the casting of Michael Cera in an Edgar Wright film, which seems almost like an intentional gift from a regular SpoutBlog reader. The only thing missing is the news that this film will also feature the Muppets, a plot involving an Objectivist teleporter and a 3-year-old Star Wars fan. The Cera/Wright team-up is titled Scott Pilgrim’s Little Life, and structurally it sounds like Wright’s Shaun of the Dead. Based on Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novel Scott Pilgrim Volume 1: Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life, and scripted by Wright and Michael Bacall (Manic), the story involves a “young slacker” (Cera) who must defeat the evil ex-boyfriends of the girl he loves in order to win her heart. As if Cera couldn’t win any girl’s heart just by doing nothing.
See the video above for the first sorta collaboration between Wright and Cera (and Jonah Hill).
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 arecynically 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 Developmentand Sex and the Citycharacters. Imagine the pointlessness a future X-Filesremake/adaptation compared with the immediate cinematic extension we received. Or live-action versions of The Simpsonsor South Parksomewhere down the line rather than the big-screen supplements.
Edgar Wright has been linked to an adaptation of the Marvel superhero Ant Man since before even Shaun of the Deadwas made. Surprisingly, he’s still attached to the project, a feat that is rare in Hollywood. But since Ant Man is a lesser character in the Marvel Universe, there seems to be less of a rush to get him up on the big screen. However, last week Wright told Empire that he has at least completed a screenplay after all these years, and he is taking a meeting (undoubtedly with someone from either Marvel Studios or Paramount) about the movie this week. The writer-director, who last gave us Hot Fuzz, is still unsure what his next gig will be, though he seems to have it narrowed down to Ant Man and another comic adaptation titled Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life, the plot of which sounds more in line with Wright’s penchant for comedic gore.
While I eagerly anticipate anything that Wright serves up, I’m especially interested in the Ant Man adaptation. In an interview with Moviehole last year, Wright mentioned that part of the project’s original appeal was the obscurity of the character. And I would have to agree that certainly it would be less stressful and more fun to adapt a comic without the same kind of fanbase as a Batman or X-Men. You could pretty much have free reign as far as what to do with him. It’s pretty much the opposite of Ang Lee trying to do something interesting with the Hulk, a comic book character that everyone is familiar with. Sure, there are times when you may have a popular property and an inventive filmmaker and it can work, as it did with Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins. But that was like a miracle. I’d hate for Edgar Wright to adapt a property that is on its own highly anticipated, because if it failed, it would be doubly disappointing. So, all I can do is hope that this supposed meeting goes well.
Variety had a blurb over the weekend about Trailers From Hell. The site, recently lauched by producer Elizabeth Stanley, invites genre directors (known on the site as “grindhouse gurus”) to record commentary over trailers of their favorite B-movies of yore. The trailers can be watched with or without commentary, on the site or on the “Fun Little Movies” channel on Sprint cellphones and on the iPhone.
So far, the content on Trailers From Hell looks great. They’re spectacular trailers, they’re three-minute hyper-speed Hollywood history lessons, they’re dish-fests. Mick Garris disses Robert Zemeckis for his over-indulgent shooting methods; Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright wonders how anyone could find “Austin Powers that funny when something like Danger: Diabolique is the real deal, and is for my money as funny as Austin Powers.”
Five trailers are available on the site now, with five more in the works. I’ll definitely check back to see what Mary Lambert has to say about Village of the Damned.
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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Everyone knows a rumor is just a rumor until it shows up in the trades. But let’s not forget that most of the news in the trades comes via publicists. So we can’t always buy what these reports say anyway. So, even though The Hollywood Reporter 
