Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar recently announced he’s working on an American TV series based on his Oscar-nominated film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. While it seems odd for Fox Television to be interested in adapting a 21-year-old foreign film to the small screen, the age of the source material is hardly surprising given the fact that both NBC and ABC are similarly working on new shows based the 1989 ensemble dramedy Parenthood and 1987’sThe Witches of the Eastwick, respectively, for the fall.

Is this the beginning of a trend? We hope so, and we’re even going to lend TV producers a hand by suggesting ten other 1980s movies that would make interesting shows. To make it a little less random, though, especially given how many appropriately sitcomish films were released in the decade, we have limited our selections to one per year. If you have any additional ideas, please pitch them in the comments section below.
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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.

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 Marshall to 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.

Check out the awesome music video after the jump.

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This week, thanks to The Rocker, we can add another fictional band to the long list of music groups created solely for the movies. They’re called Vesuvius, and they’re an ‘80s hair band with a hit song titled “Promised Land.” As part of the film’s marketing, the track was offered as a free download for play on Rock Band (see the clip above). But if you ask me, the wrong tune was used in the promotion. Another song from the soundtrack, also credited to Vesuvius, is called “Pompeii Nights,” and it’s definitely the better of the two.

I’m not surprised, though. While most people favor the songs of Spinal Tap, a once-fictional band that has become popular enough to evolve into a “semi-fictional” performing act, I’ve preferred such gems as “The Whites of Their Eyes” by PEZ® People, from The Big Picture. Also co-written by This is Spinal Tap’s Christopher Guest and Michael McKean, and sung by McKean, this song is apparently so underrated that I can’t even find an audio sample, let along a YouTube clip of the fake band’s music video, which was directed by fictional filmmaker Lydia Johnson (Jennifer Jason Leigh).

Fortunately, for the benefit of this list, the rest of these under-appreciated tracks have a few fellow fans.

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Even though some of last year’s Comic-Con secrets were leaked to the web ahead of time, the 2007 SDCC was a huge deal as far as revelations go. Whether it was the unveiling of Karen Allen’s involvement in Indiana Jones and the Then-Still-Not-Subtitled Fourth Installment or cast updates for Watchmen and Star Trek or a bit of clarification on what the hell that Cloverfield movie was, Comic-Con 2007 left us super excited and highly anticipatory for the next year of movie releases.

But after a quick glance, the 2008 convention doesn’t seem like it will have as many big announcements. There should be plenty of new footage shown from movies like Watchmen (making its second Comic-Con round) and The Spirit (hopefully there’s some better looking stuff than the most recent trailer gave us), but what secrets are set to be let out of the bag?

Here’s 10 things I hope they reveal over the next few days:

1. Arnold Schwarzenegger is back in Terminator Salvation - If this really happens, I’ll be flabbergasted. But a guy can hope, at least for official word on a cameo. And there’s no better place than Comic-Con for a confirmation to happen. Well, I guess if Warner Bros. could keep it a secret until the movie opens next May, then that would actually be better. But that’s impossible nowadays.
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The last clip I posted, before taking a week off, was Muppet-related. And now, rather than digging through all the viral marketing and other cine-centric videos I’ve missed during my vacation, here is yet another clip that is Muppet-related. The video presents a year-old performance of “Count’s First Day of School” by The Dead Hensons, a Muppet cover band from the Bay Area. Unfortunately the group doesn’t appear to play too often (according to their website, after this May 2007 set, they only played twice again, in August 2007 and May 2008).

So why share this clip? Well, besides the obvious, that it’s important to note that a Muppet cover band is no less necessary or serious than any other cover band (IMHO, Paul Williams is one of the greatest songwriters alive), this is also a chance for me to recommend that Jason Segal and Nicholas Stoller consider giving The Dead Hensons at least a cameo in their upcoming Muppet movie. If you’ve seen Segal and Stoller’s Forgetting Sarah Marshall, you might agree with me that this song is like a bridge between that film and the new Muppet movie, because Dead Hensons frontman Ryan Beebe is very Segal-esque (at least he appears so in this poor-quality clip) and this performance is kind of like the Dracula musical song from Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

For more enjoyable Muppets covers, check out the Dead Hensons’ MySpace page.

I would love to continue from yesterday’s clip of the day, and spotlight more of those clever Hellboy II: The Golden Army promos (here’s another one with Lipton; and another one; here’s one with “Wolf” from American Gladiators; here’s one with Zachary Levi of TV’s Chuck; and another one; here’s one with TV’s Ghost Hunters).

BUT tomorrow is Independence Day, aka the 4th of July, and that means it’s time for MUPPETS. Specifically the most patriotic Muppet of all: Sam the Eagle, who presents us with a rendition of “Stars and Stripes Forever” performed by Beaker, Animal, the Swedish Chef, Bobo the Bear, a penguin and some chickens. Sam also recites part of the Declaration of Independence, Crazy Harry provides the fireworks and Statler and Waldorf show up for some criticism. Forget the hot dogs and the red, white and blue boxer shorts; this is all you need to make your holiday complete.

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Here is a film from 1965 of a young Jim Henson and friends lampooning their process of making commercials for Wilson’s Meats. It only goes to show how far downhill the Muppets have come. And how much more mature they were in the beginning.

I present it to you now, because in anticipation of the next project from Jason Segal and Nicholas Stoller (respectively the writer and director of this week’s new release Forgetting Sarah Marshall), which happens to be a Muppets feature, I hope there is some pre-Muppet Movie stuff taken into consideration as possible inspiration.

This particular film is a sort of sequel to this other one, which features more actual Muppets on screen, but I kind of prefer the Monty Pythonesque feel of the one I’ve featured above. But definitely watch both.

[via Fark.com]

• Mick LaSalle asked us last week what movie we would like to be inside (instead of Beowulf, which we can sort of feel like we’re in). Personally, I think being inside The Wizard of Oz would be awful. I might even prefer The Wiz, and I’d hate to be in The Wiz. I’d even prefer to hang out with Fred Savage in The Wizard, and I don’t play video games. My answers: anything Capra (well, almost anything — no Why We Fight docs); anything Marx Brothers; anything Muppets; anything Miyazaki; Amelie; Close Encounters of the Third Kind; The Goonies (why not?); and What Dreams May Come (the movie was bad; the setting was beautiful).
• In honor of me writing more about Enchanted than Karina ever would dream of, I present Rob’s review from his I don’t like Renee Zellweger blog, to show I’m not the only blogger addressing such mainstream fare. Like me, Rob found the movie to be “uninspired,” though he was apparently “disappointed” (I had a low expectation to begin with) and even notes that Amy Adams might have another chance at an Oscar (she’s cute, but ultimately annoying — though differently than she was in Junebug). Anyway, shockingly, the movie currently has a 100% approval on Rotten Tomatoes. We’ll see if that lasts. If only more of us bloggers were writing about it …
• Apparently if you have a video clip of yourself negatively reviewing a 20th Century Fox release, the studio will have it removed, despite it being neither illegal nor their place to do so.
• Are long movie titles bad for box office? Only when they’re abbreviated as diseases. “Cholera” = bad. “Pirates”; “Narnia”; “Harry Potter” = good.
• iTunes seems to have screwed up its exclusive release of Ed Burns’ Purple Violets. It seems available now, though, so I can’t verify the blunder. Scott at CinemaTech shares his experience, at least.
• I love t-shirts, and I love this design, but weren’t there movie adaptations before 1920?