I can just imagine how the pitch went for this one. Writer Jeff Lowell (John Tucker Must Die) says, “I’ve got this idea for a movie that’s like Ghostexcept that in the end Demi Moore falls in love with Whoopi Goldberg. Nah, just kidding, I’ve got this really serious project in mind, very artsy, something that will lift me out of my sitcom-based pattern.” And then the New Line execs say, “Umm. Yeah, so we want to do your Ghost movie, but it has to be more heterosexual.” And Lowell says, “Oh, that was just a fake idea that I was going to propose as a parody to be used on Family Guy or The Simpsons.” Then New Line flashes a suitcase full of money at Lowell, says they’ll even let him direct the movie, and the deal is done. The result: Over Her Dead Body, a movie that seems so ridiculous that it just might work as a parody of itself.
And I hope that Paul Rudd sees how silly the movie is and decided to star in it ironically (just as he appreciates the irony of how his bride died). Because, really, the guy is better than this Ghost meets The Heartbreak Kid kind of paranormal situation comedy. Aren’t there about a hundred Judd Apatow movies in the works that he can at least do a supporting role in rather than play the lead in a movie that features the old chestnut of a scenario in which somebody walks in on another character who seems to be talking to themselves but who is actually conversing with a ghost/angel/etc.? OK, I’ll admit that the “here, catch” scene is pretty funny, despite also being an old joke, and I always enjoy a good mustard and ketchup on the nice dress gag, and I’m glad to see nobody fell in a ditch or walked into a pole in this trailer. But despite the continued appeal of slapstick and discomfort humor, will the public really be interested in yet another ghostly romantic comedy — they didn’t seem too interested in Just Like Heaven, and that starred American sweetheart Reese Witherspoon — especially one that treats the recently deceased so disrespectfully?
I just got a press release informing me that there’s going to be an event at the Austin Film Festival tonight, featuring Glenn Gordon Caron, the creator of Moonlighting (for what it’s worth, he also directed the Warren Beatty/Annette Benning remake of An Affair to Remember, which makes him the last film director to work with Katherine Hepburn). Caron is scheduled to “present a hand picked episode from his acclaimed series Moonlighting as well as an episode from his unaired series Fling, starring Brooke Langton and Amy Sedaris.”
Moonlighting is one of my ultimate guilty pleasures, so if I was in Austin right now I would be genuinely excited to attend this event. But check out the image they put in the release to promote it:
That image is a pretty strong example of why, even though I’m totally a fan, I find watching Moonlighting today to be somewhat unsettling. Why do relics of the 80s like this somehow seem “older” than anything from the 70s?
Paramount Vantage has delayed the worldwide release of The Kite Runner until mid-December, so that they can transport the film’s young, Afghani stars, who believe they may be in danger if they stay in their home country while the film is being released, to the US. 12-year-old actor Ahmad Khan says he was not aware that he was to play the victim of a rape in the film until the day the scene was shot, and though the finished scene is not graphic, Khan and his family are concerned about cultural repercussions.
In more release date shuffling, Leatherheads, George Clooney’s latest directorial effort, has been pushed back from December to April. The official line is that Clooney, can’t juggle finishing the film with his duties shooting the next Coen Brothers film and promoting Michael Clayton, all the while recovering from a broken rib. Elsewhere, there are whispers of re-casting and reshoots.
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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