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:
There’s a new Muppet special premiering on NBC tonight called A Muppet Christmas: Letters to Santa. So, because I’m a Muppet-loving fool, I figured it appropriate to feature Jim Henson’s creations once again in the Clip of the Day. This isn’t some kind of marketing ploy, though, and anyway I couldn’t find any clips or ads specific to the new program. In order to make this post more film-related, I initially thought about sharing a scene, preferably a musical number, from The Muppet Christmas Carol, but I wrote enough about my love for that movie last year for another site.
So, I’ve used this as an opportunity to finally showcase a brilliantly edited music video for a song called “All Through the Night” by Brooklyn r&b group Escort (despite their retro disco sound, they’re a current band, interestingly featuring former members of the popular Boston ska band Skavoovie and the Epitones). It’s not a legitimate Henson production and it doesn’t have to do with the holidays — unless your holidays consist of making love to Muppets all through the night — but it’s one of the best videos I’ve ever seen on YouTube.
One of the things on my Christmas list this year, by the way, is to hear of a definite production start for Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller’s planned Muppet movie (and I’d also like Segel’s Muppets-related “Dracula’s Lament” song from Forgetting Sarah Marshallto receive an Oscar nomination). And if those guys can find a way to fit some Muppet disco into their film, I’ll be their biggest fan.
Last week, while I was still exhausted from my first real SXSW experience, news broke out that actor/writer Jason Segel (of TV’s Freaks and Geeks and How I Met Your Motherand the upcoming movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall) is planning a new Muppet movie. Though the announcement likely figured into my subsequent quick recovery, I wasn’t in good enough health to write about it at the time. Fortunately, now there’s more details, courtesy of MTV Movies Blog, and I’m even more giddy than before. As I figured, Segel is looking to the original Muppet flicks, specifically The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caperand The Muppets Take Manhattan, which were more centered on the Muppets themselves (rather than having them dropped into pre-written classics like A Christmas Caroland Treasure Island) as they simply set out to put on a show. And as I hoped for, Segel, who is already writing the script with his Marshall co-writer/director Nick Stoller, says he’s planning for a great deal of cameos, particularly from those actors we’d all assume would be involved.
Segel revealed plans to similarly enlist big-name cameos for the flick; in fact, he’s already approached several members of the Judd Apatow stable that includes Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Kristen Wiig and Paul Rudd. “All of our friends that I’ve brought it up to are pretty excited by the prospect of it. Everyone loves the Muppets; they’ve got a warm place in most people’s hearts,” he explained. “We want a lot of cameos. You look back at Charles Grodin, Charles Durning, there were just such great performances in those movies.”
How esteemed is Judd Apatow right now? Apparently enough that he can manage to get blow job jokes — visual and verbal ones — on national television. The new trailer for Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which Apatow produced, premiered this week on Access Hollywood, and has the most obvious fellatio gestures I’ve ever seen permitted on anytime NBC, let alone pre-primetime NBC. Did nobody at NBC/Universal (which is also distributing the movie) notice? Or did they think the old ladies who watch Access Hollywood wouldn’t notice? Well, the execs didn’t really have to worry, because if you actually look at the version of the trailer shown on the air, it ends before the blow job jokes. Regardless, people who watch the show may have decided to go to the Access Hollywood website and watch the trailer again. This time wondering what’s so funny about a newly acquired necklace.
So, did nobody at the MPAA notice or get the jokes? This trailer may not be put on television in its entirety, but it’s certainly going to be playing to theater audiences comprised of all ages. I guess in relation to the general content of Apatow’s movies, as well as his R-rated viral videos and red-band trailers, this ad is considered pretty tame.
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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There’s a new Muppet special premiering on NBC tonight called A Muppet Christmas: Letters to Santa. So, because I’m a Muppet-loving fool, I figured it appropriate to feature Jim Henson’s creations once again in the Clip of the Day. This isn’t some kind of marketing ploy, though, and anyway I couldn’t find any clips or ads specific to the new program. In order to make this post more film-related, I initially thought about sharing a scene, preferably a musical number, from The Muppet Christmas Carol, but I wrote enough about my love for that movie last year for another site.
