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Comic Glut: Trade Roughage 04/23/08

Karina Longworth
By Karina Longworth posted 4 months ago
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  • Baby Mama on SpoutPamela McClintock at Variety notes that the fact that Universal is opening two comedies in two weeks––Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Baby Mama––is a sign that the release schedule is over-crowded with comic content. Related: Judd Apatow gets yet another job.
  • James Schamus will adapt the memoir Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, Concert, and a Life, for Ang Lee to direct.
  • MGM has acquired distribution rights to the Simon Pegg comedy How To Lose Friends and Alienate People, which co-stars Kirsten Dunst.

Indy 4 at Cannes: Trade Roughage 02/29/08

Karina Longworth
By Karina Longworth posted 6 months ago
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  • Oh, good: Indiana Jones and the Dorian Grey-ing of Harrison Ford Into Shia LaBouf will premiere at Cannes! Maybe. No one’s seen the thing yet, but according to Variety, “The cast, which includes Harrison Ford, Shia LaBeouf and Cate Blanchett, have already been notified to pack their black-tie outfits for the French Riviera’s red carpet unspooling even though the fest has yet to confirm its official lineup.” Because celebrities pack suitcases 10 weeks in advance.
  • Theatrical exhibition conference ShoWest will confer a special “Freedom of Expression Award” to Ang Lee and James Schamus, for releasing Lust, Caution with an NC-17 rating instead of cutting the film to get an R. National Theater Owners president John Fithian is inexplicably trying to push studios to revitalize the NC-17 market, even though even Lust, Caution made just under $5 million domestically, and in fact was a super-hit in China…where it was cut to appease the censors.
  • Semi-Pro, which opens today, suddenly bears the dubious distinction of being the final release from New Line before the studio is subsumed into the clusterfuck that is Time Warner. It may not exactly send the studio out with a bang: although the comedy is said to be “tracking well among males under 25″ it’s nonetheless expected to “open well lower than Ferrell’s most recent films.”