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Is Will Ferrell Taking a Step Back? Today in Film Bloggery 10/16/09

Christopher Campbell
By Christopher Campbell posted 3 weeks ago
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Oftentimes a big star will be humbled by a few flops and he/she will take a step back to work on a smaller project or two before making another attempt at something as unnecessarily expensive as Land of the Lost. Is this what’s going on with Will Ferrell, though? According to Variety, he’s signed on to a little comedy called Everything Must Go, a title which could be attributed to his recent bombs, including The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, which he produced and tried to help sell via a much-publicized cameo.

But this is no Winter Passing or Melinda and Melinda. Yes, Everything Must Go is an “indie,” but it still has a budget of $10 million and it’s still a high-profile sitcom sort of movie. I’m sure it will be less goofy than his major studio vehicles, but we’re not looking at one of those cases where a Jim Carrey or Adam Sandler starts doing dramatic roles and acquiring (ultimately unsubstantiated) Oscar buzz. Not that Ferrell doesn’t have it in him.

Still, the only thing Ferrell needs to learn after this past summer is that he should stay away from huge budgets and silly sci-fi concepts and stick with Adam McKay-directed comedies (and the like). No bigger, no smaller. Fortunately, next summer’s The Other Guys will come along at just the right time to remind us what we like our Will Ferrell movies to be like.

Check out what other film bloggers have to say about Will Ferrell’s seemingly retreating career move after the jump:
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Land of the Lost Defended. Today in Film Bloggery 06/05/09

Christopher Campbell
By Christopher Campbell posted 5 months ago
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I haven’t yet seen Land of the Lost. I’m too busy hangin’ with my grandma in Arizona and trying out D-Box Motion Code seats (Grandma didn’t accompany me for that experience, unfortunately). But the truth is, I wasn’t planning on seeing it, despite my regular appreciation for Will Ferrell vehicles. After today, however, I’ve changed my mind, and I plan to check out the TV adaptation as soon as I return to NYC.

Why should I bother, given the abysmal 25% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and the sad score of 32 at Metacritic? Because I trust the few positive reviews and defenses I’ve read on the movie blogs this afternoon. And to let the positive spin possibly influence you, I’ve quoted and linked some of these recommendations after the jump:
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Michael Douglas as Liberace?? Trade Roughage 09/11/08

Christopher Campbell
By Christopher Campbell posted 1 year ago
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  • Michael Douglas will portray Liberace in a biopic written by Richard LaGravenese (The Fisher King) and directed by Steven Soderbergh, which is only slightly less bizarre than the news two years ago that Nicolas Cage was to produce and star in a Liberace film written by the partners in parody Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg (Disaster Movie). Soderbergh’s project will also involve his Ocean’s series producer, Jerry Weintraub, and Matt Damon, who will portray Liberace’s purported lover, Scott Thorson.
  • The second deal announced this week regarding a sci-fi version of The Fugitive: this one is titled Karma Coalition, and it’s different from the Tuesday-announced project, in that it involves the end of the world rather than time travel, and it’s written by the lead singer of an indie rock band (Shawn Christensen of stellastarr*).
  • Please tell me the Bugaloos are next! Just as Kevin reported from Comic-Con, the Sid and Marty Krofft show Sigmund and the Sea Monsters will indeed be made into a feature film from Universal, which also recently adapted the Kroffts’ Land of the Lost.
  • By rereleasing The Dark Knight in January, Warner Bros. plans to make sure Academy voters don’t forget about Heath Ledger’s posthumous Oscar nomination.

Comic-Con 2008 Complete Coverage

Karina Longworth
By Karina Longworth posted 1 year ago
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Thus concludes our coverage of the 2008 Comic-Con International. If you missed anything, here it all is:

‘Land of the Lost’ Thankfully Avoids CGI

Christopher Campbell
By Christopher Campbell posted 1 year ago
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It’s bad enough that Hollywood has to remake all of my childhood memories (yes, I admit my childhood memories are mostly TV shows and movies from the ’70s and ’80s). But when they go and use CGI rather than actors and completely alter the way I remember things (man, that sucked how the Who’s the Boss movie featured a computer generated Mona), I just get so upset I could rant on a blog. So, imagine my relief when I saw this official photo from the set of Universal’s Land of the Lost in today’s USA Today.

Yes, those Sleestak look just as you remember. Only darker, more detailed, and a little (just a little) less like a costume with a human inside. But as much as I’d like to salute director Brad Silberling both for respecting my childhood and for shitting on CGI (which is still just too lazy a tool these days), the choice seems mostly to do with retaining the show’s cheesiness. Anthony Breznican writes for USA Today:

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This Listicle is Event-Sized: Trade Roughage, 10/10/07

Karina Longworth
By Karina Longworth posted 2 years ago
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  • fred-durst-limp-bizkit-photograph-c10041720.jpgIt’s hard to pick a single line to isolate from this Variety story about the soon-to-be-in-production fourth Terminator flick–I LOLed throughout. Is the the part where the film’s budget is described as “event-sized”? Maybe the part where the producers shamelessly hint that Governor Schwarzenegger will make a cameo? Or, maybe the meticulous breakdown of the Terminator chronology, ending with financier Derek Anderson’s insistence that “this is set in the future, in a full-scale war between Skynet and humankind” (phew!) Actually, everything you need to know is contained in the proposed title: Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins.
  • Brad Silberling will direct Will Ferrell in a big-screen adaptation of Land of the Lost. The project, which is categorized as an “event comedy” (when did ‘event’ become an adjective?) is set up at Universal, who took a bath on their last “event comedy”, the bloated Evan Almighty. Thus, the Lost budget “was recalibrated from $125 million to $100 million in order to earn its start date.”
  • Rejoice! Fred Durst’s directorial debut The Education of Charlie Banks is FINALLY coming to theaters and DVD! Caption that photo however you see fit.