Movie news on your iPhone today!
Advertisement
Coverage of what is truly interesting in the film world

TOP STORY:

Muppet Movie for Adults. Trade Roughage 10/15/08

Christopher Campbell
By Christopher Campbell posted 1 year ago
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati
  • Reddit
  • Ma.gnolia
  • YahooMyWeb
  • Facebook
  • StumbleUpon

  • Not that adults can’t already appreciate Muppet movies enough as they are, but The Jim Henson Co. has a new film in the works that will primarily be for grown-ups. Described as being a little Avenue Q mixed with a little L.A. Confidential and Pulp Fiction, the movie will be set in a world where humans and puppets co-exist (umm, like any other Muppet movie, uh huh), in which the latter are considered second-class citizens (still kind of like any other Muppet movie) and become victim to a series of murders (ok, there’s the adult part). Titled The Happyland Murders, this seemingly Muppets version of Who Framed Roger Rabbit will be directed by Brian Henson (The Muppet Christmas Carol).
  • This should be the year to debut hot political films, not announce them, but Fox Searchlight has reportedly acquired the rights to Allen Raymond’s memoir How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative, which has been adapted and will be directed by Billy Ray (Shattered Glass).
  • The boys of Peter Billingsley’s Couples Retreat have now been assigned wives: Jason Bateman gets Kristen Bell; Vince Vaughn gets Malin Ackerman; and Jon Favreau somehow gets Kristin Davis. The plot has all these pairings headed to a tropical island in order to save their marriages. There should really be an official genre called Romantic Fantasy Comedy for this one to be classified as.
  • In more typical romantic comedy genre news, Amy Adams will star in Leap Year as an uptight woman who wants to follow Irish tradition and propose to her boyfriend on February 29. The script, from the writers of Made of Honor, is described as being like It Happened One Night. I’m sure.

Sex And The City Movie: For The Discerning Woman Who Likes To Get Drunk At Chain Restaurants

Karina Longworth
By Karina Longworth posted 1 year ago
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati
  • Reddit
  • Ma.gnolia
  • YahooMyWeb
  • Facebook
  • StumbleUpon

houlihans.pngStuart Elliot at the New York Times reports on some of the many branding deals New Line has arranged to cross-promote the upcoming Sex and the City movie. There are basically two types of deals being made. On the high end, the producers of the film have inserted luxury brands into the narrative, based on what the actual characters might consume; Mercedes-Benz, for instance, has created a special limo for Mr. Big and a giant SUV for Samantha (insert penis substitute joke here). But then there’s a passel of more plebian-oriented brands looking to siphon some SATC cred to sell their products to the film’s target audience. Which is, apparently, suburban moms who tend to have a little too much too drink at faux-upscale family restaurants. Behold:

When it comes to products helping to promote the coming film based on the popular TV series Sex and the City, it seems the sky is the limit. Better make that the Skyy is the limit, as in Skyy vodka, which is being named the “official spirits sponsor” for the movie. Among the tie-ins are drinks made with Skyy to be served at Houlihan’s restaurants and named after characters like Carrie, Samantha and Mr. Big.

Well, at least New Line (or whatever corporate faction is handling these deals at this point) seems to understand a good half of their audience. Let’s just assume The Mr. Big cocktail recipe will make it to the gay bar circuit on its own and sweep up the other half.