It’s not too surprising to learn many movie bloggers aren’t fans of Mad Men. They’re movie geeks, not TV viewers, and they probably spend their Sunday nights re-watching favorite horror flicks and Dark KnightDVD extras. That’s why a lot of sites commenting on the news that Jon Hammis joining Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punchfocus on the movie and the Watchmendirector more than on the actor. Which is fine for now, even if it makes the casting decision seem questionable, because ultimately this career move is going to help Hamm acquire fanboy fans, and that’s one thing he needs in order to truly become the next George Clooney.
After all, Clooney’s first major film role after becoming a star on TV’s ER was Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s vampire picture From Dusk Till Dawn. And Snyder’s movie isn’t too far off, regardless of the fact none of us really know what Sucker Punch is going to be like other than maybe a Return to Oz knockoff. That movie will bring Hamm to Comic-Con, which will potentially gain him more followers who think he’d be perfect for a Supermanmovie (Clooney played Batman soon after FDTD). And so on.
Many Mad Men fans might prefer for Hamm to concentrate on dramatic roles as he segues into a movie career, but like Clooney, Hamm is likely better suited for genre films and silly comedies first. He certainly has shown he enjoys and can do comedic acting via 30 Rock, SNL and a FunnyorDie sketch that already got the geeks’ attention with his portrayal of Lex Luthor. Might he try being cast in a Coen Brothers film next? Or should he reconnect with the makers of The Ten and make David Wain & co. his goofball collaborators instead?
The only Clooney career step I’d like Hamm to avoid is the big budget, non-geek-centric action movie. He doesn’t need a Peacemakeror a Perfect Storm, and we kinda hope he got that sort of thing out of his system with The Day the Earth Stood Still. Plus, Hamm is already entering the film biz later than Clooney. When he was Hamm’s age, Clooney’d already made two of his best films, Out of Sightand Three Kings.
Let me know what kind of films you’d like to see Hamm do and what you think would be good for him to do. Before commenting, though, check out what some other film bloggers are saying about his latest film choice after the jump:
We at SpoutBlog love Jon Hamm tremendously, but we don’t get to write about him much because we’re primarily a film blog and don’t feature much discussion of either Mad Menor 30 Rock(we’ve slipped praise into posts hereandthere, of course). Fortunately for us, Hamm has made a new video for FunnyorDie.com, in which he references movies. Specifically, he portrays Lex Luthor and alludes to plot points from Superman: The Movie, Superman Returns and even Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.
And as if this video (watch it after the jump) weren’t funny enough, we can now hopefully look forward to Hamm appearing in more Judd Apatow-related comedies — at least if the guys at Vulturehave any influence. Or, maybe Hamm could actually be cast in a future Supermanmovie (was this video a response to requests for Warner Bros. to make him the new Man of Steel?), as either hero or villain — or both!?!?
Again, check out the clip and what other bloggers (some TV bloggers, but whatever) are saying about it after the jump:
Better watch out, better not carry too much cash, I’m telling you why: Santa Claus is strapped financially, too, this year, and he’s on a mugging spree. That’s David “Champ” Koechner as the bad Santa and Jessica Biel in the sexy elf (or is it a Mrs. Claus?) costume in this new FunnyorDie exclusive. But Santa doesn’t need currency, you say. He’s magic! Perhaps, but this holiday, people are likely referencing the Kinks’ song “Father Christmas” and asking him for money rather than “silly toys.”
Interestingly enough, I saw in The Hollywood Reportertoday that FunnyorDie actually just received a whole lot of money for Christmas (or Hannukah, or whatever it celebrates). That means we can look forward to a new year filled with plenty more comedy shorts, whether they be as brilliant as the Prop 8 musical or as uninspired as today’s clip (which is mostly only good to Biel’s fans). I guess it’s a given that humor prevails in bad times, but it’s also telling for our future that while many longtime industries are in need of bailouts that online video sites are netting secret investments.
Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s video sharing site FunnyOrDie exploded over the summer with The Landlord, a one-joke short featuring Ferrell and a little girl with a dirty mouth. But the site has been widely criticized lately for failing to sustain the high levels of traffic delivered every time Ferrell is featured in a clip. A Hollywood Reporter piece last week pegged Landlord as both a blessing and a curse for the infant start-up: it attracted a huge amount of attention, but Ferrell and crew didn’t have enough quality content in the vault to keep visitors around, and though they’ve solicited successful contributions from stars such as Eva Longoria and Bill Murray, since there’s no compensation involved, no one with a Los Angeles mortgage to pay can afford to devote too much time to it. The conclusion: FunnyOrDie needs to pull from a wider talent pool in order to survive.
This week, they’ve expanded that talent pool with one key name, although whether or not it’ll solve Funny’s core problem is still debatable. In the clip above, Ferrell and McKay welcome Judd Apatow, writer/director of Knocked Up and producer of SuperBad. It’s a clever clip, clearly referencing if not the THR story specifically, then the general buzz that FunnyOrDie needs to become a money-making business, or die. But will Apatow, the busiest comedy producer in town, really prove to be a reliable fount of content?
A recent USA Today article called “Funny business going on online” (such a Mc Paper headline) quotes Bob Odenkirk, who created and starred in the HBO series Mr. Show. Odenkirk predicts that professional comedy is what’s next for online entertainment.
Odenkirk says professional comedy series, delivered in short bits over the Internet, is the logical progression from the user-submitted pranks and candid-camera clips so popular on sites such as YouTube and Revver.
“You’re going to see a lot more of these conscious pieces of performance, something that’s written and there’s an idea and a character
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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We at SpoutBlog love Jon Hamm tremendously, but we don’t get to write about him much because we’re primarily a film blog and don’t feature much discussion of either Mad Men or 30 Rock (we’ve slipped praise into posts here and there, of course). Fortunately for us, Hamm has made a new video for FunnyorDie.com, in which he references movies. Specifically, he portrays Lex Luthor and alludes to plot points from Superman: The Movie, Superman Returns and even Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.
