Last month, a New York Times article focused on the Wall Street worries over Pixar’s Up. The film lacks commercial appeal, apparently, because it features a 78-year-old protagonist. This is no country for old men (on the big screen), claim the experts. “We doubt younger boys will be that excited by the main character,” says one analyst quoted in the piece.

Even if kids were that anti-elderly (and we don’t believe they are), we can point to many other accessible elements of the film, from talking dogs to a young co-protagonist who serves as an identifiable gateway for adolescent viewers, that allow the target demographic to enjoy the animated film in spite of the cantankerous codger at its center.

Chances are, though, the little ones will also enjoy the character of Carl Fredricksen (voiced by Ed Asner), maybe enough for them to seek out their own elderly person to assist (whether or not its for a merit badge). We’re hoping that it additionally leads to a greater cinematic appreciation of old men. But not just because, as Alonso Duralde writes at MSNBC, we have a shortage of realistic films about old folks. Rather, primarily because we think there’s a number of other old man protagonists that young audiences would like. Meet ten of them after the jump.
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Are you one of the many sci-fi and comic book geeks who’d be more interested in Push were it not for Dakota Fanning? Sure, the precocious child star is now a teen actress (she’s about to turn 15), yet that probably makes you even more worried about her appearance in the movie. But what can you do? She’s literally everywhere this week – voicing the title character in the animated Coraline and starring in two new video releases, Hounddog and The Secret Life of Bees, both of which were released Tuesday. In the tradition of child actors continuing careers into adolescence, it’s only a matter of time before she ruins a movie that would have been better without her.

We’ll have to wait until this weekend to see if that time is now, with Push, but in the meantime let’s take a look at some of the past offenders in this tradition. Most of the following former child actors (our definition: actors that began their career below the age of 13) have done great things in their adulthood, but each has done at least one film that could have been better without him or her. You may disagree with some of these picks, and you may think we’ve forgotten some (was Christian Bale really the worst part of The Dark Knight? did Mary-Kate Olsen’s disturbing kiss with Ben Kingsley take away from The Wackness?), so do share your own thoughts on former child stars below. We just ask that you keep your comments somewhat tasteful and law-abiding.
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• At least three SpoutBlog commenters will be happy to learn that Notorious screenwriter Cheo Hodari Coker is next adapting Bill Adler’s book on Run DMC, Tougher Than Leather. Two weeks ago, when I responded to the Biggie Smalls biopic with a list of 5 Dead Rappers Who Need a Biopic, I excluded Run DMC’s Jam Master Jay on account he was a DJ, not a rapper. But SpoutBlog readers nevertheless pointed out my error and suggested he and his group get a biopic anyway.
• Another screenwriter goes from one bio to another: A Mighty Heart scribe John Orloff is next scripting the Ian Fleming film Fleming.
• Two of this year’s Oscar nominees are teaming up for a movie that certainly won’t garner them future Academy attention: Slumdog Millionaire scribe Simon Beaufoy will rewrite the existing draft of the Amy Adams vehicle Leap Day, a lame-sounding romantic comedy that should appropriately only play in theaters on February 29, 2012 and then disappear for at least four years.
• Who knew Bicycle Thieves screenwriter Suso D’Amico is still alive? The 94-year-old Oscar-nominee will receive the WGA’s inaugural Jean Renoir Award next month and will be celebrated at the WGA Awards, held February 7. Thank goodness she can finally belong to a club that would honor Diablo Cody before recognizing one of the greatest female screenwriters of all time.
• Twenty years late, Ron Howard’s Parenthood is being adapted into an hour-long TV series for NBC. The network previously aired a short-lived TV version of the film in 1990 (it starred a young Leonardo DiCaprio in the young Joaquin Phoenix role), but this new show will have more time to focus on parenting challenges in “this post-Facebook, post-iPod world.”
• If there are any big Chronicles of Narnia fans left out there, you’re going to get your third movie after all.

Boyle. Fincher. Howard. Nolan. Van Sant. No alarms, no surprises. indieWIRE has the historical analysis that reminds us that last year, the DGA nominated Sean Penn for Into the Wild and the Academy swapped him out for Jason Reitman, but, you know … unless whatshername who was fired from Twilight makes a big surge super quick, it seems unlikely that anyone’s going to get an Oscar nomination this year for nabbing $100 million+ of teenage girl allowance. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say the Best Director Oscar nominations will probably look a lot like this.

• We’ve been teased about it for so long, but finally The Hollywood Reporter has confirmation that an Arrested Development movie is seriously happening. Series creator Mitch Hurwitz will write the screenplay and direct the film apparently with help from Ron Howard, who will also produce through Imagine Entertainment. Fox Searchlight will distribute. Here is SpoutBlog’s suggested plotlines for the film, originally published a year ago, in case Hurwitz is stumped for ideas.
• Also moving forward is the DC Comics adaptation Captain Marvel, which is now at Warner Bros. with Get Smart’s Peter Segal still directing as part of a new first-look deal with the studio. Before we get to hear shouts of “Shazam!” on the big screen, though, Segal will be helming a faux biopic titled Liam McBain: International Tennis Star and Proper English Geezer.
• Twilight supporting player Anna Kendrick reportedly beat out many young actresses, including Ellen Page, for the female lead role opposite George Clooney in Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air. Hopefully there are no hard feelings in case Reitman ever wants to reteam with Page for Juno 2.
• John Malkovich, who made his feature directorial debut six years ago with The Dancer Upstairs, announced he’s making a documentary about the plight of migrant children titled Triple Crossing. Mexican actors Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna are producing.
• Twilight will unsurprisingly be the box office champ this weekend, especially now that it’s reportedly finally acquiring interest from boys, too. Maybe because that’s where all the girls will be?

It seems appropriate to follow yesterday’s footage of Oliver Stone’s W. with the international trailer for Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon. Both films are about leading candidates for worst U.S. President of all time (well, after we discount Harding, Buchanan, Jackson, Pierce and a number of others). And each has a subject that apparently inspired the year’s biggest blockbuster, The Dark Knight.

Weeks ago, in an opinion piece published in The Wall Street Journal, mystery author Andrew Klavan basically stated that Batman is George W. Bush in the comic book adaptation. Today, Gabe at Videogum jokingly wrote, “just from watching this trailer, I learned that Richard Nixon was the inspiration for Batman’s voice in the Dark Knight.” Now, the question is, will either of these comparisons help their respective films ride the success of TDK? Oh, and how does Entertainment Weekly’s caricature of McCain as Batman figure in?

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• Sex and the City made almost $56 million over the weekend––almost twice what tracking would have indicated as late as Friday morning. Pamela McClintock says the debut “mystified Hollywood and shattered the decades-old thinking that females — particularly older ones –can’t fuel the sort of big opening often enjoyed by a male-driven event pic or family movie.” I’m mystified that Hollywood––or anyone––could believe that they could spend that much money promoting that beloved a brand and not see results.
• Transformers won the big award of the night at last night’s Attempt to Remind Children Who Mike Myers Is Three Weeks Before The Release of His New Movie MTV Movie Awards.
• Bryce Dallas Howard is in talks to replace Charlotte Gainsbourg in that new Terminator movie. Yes, Charlotte Gainsbourg was apparently going to play John Connor’s wife in that new Terminator movie. Good thing the daughters of men who were famous in the 70s are interchangable!

A number of stories from Juno press confabs fueled rumors last week that Jason Bateman is trying to jump-start a movie based on his much-missed FOX comedy Arrested Development. Keith Olbermann, who admits to being friends with at least three ex-AD cast members, passed along a statement from the actor and series creator Mitchell Hurwitz, confirming that the movie is “something [they're] very interested in doing, but only after the writers’ strike, and only if the powers that be approve.”

For those not in the know, AD starred Bateman as Michael Bluth, the one sort-of together member of a high-profile Southern California family, whose real estate tycoon patriarch (Jeffrey Tambor) has been thrown in jail whilst awaiting trial on charges of (among other things) building mansions for Sadaam Hussein. Michael Cera, Bateman’s so-hot-right-now Juno costar, played his son on the show; Will Arnet, Portia DiRossi and David Cross rounded out the cast.

I was a huge Arrested Development fan (I wrote this much-misread post about the show in spring 2005), but I was also fairly satisfied with the series’ conclusion. I sat down to try to imagine/divine possible plotlines for a movie, but because there was very little that I was dying to see resolved, I decided to call in some reinforcements. I sent out emails to some bloggy friends, I trolled Facebook looking for fans. Then, weirdness: for every AD fan who happily offered up an idea for The Bluth family’s big screen debut, another essentially refused to comment. It looks like there’s a decent contingent of AD fans who really don’t want to see the show they love ruined by a false, cinematic extension–and really, having seen the careless cash-in that is the Sex and the City trailer, can you blame them?

In any case, between my own fixations and those of three blogger friends, after the jump I manage to cobble together a list of five pretty promising potential plotlines for this not-yet-even-greenlit Arrested Development movie. These aren’t prognostications, just narrative directions that actual AD fans would like to see explored. Toss out your own thoughts in the comments.

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