Superbad Express a reality?

Photoshop, woo!

Let me start off with some background info — ever since the immense success of last summer’s “Superbad,” studio execs. have been shoving the idea of a sequel down Seth Rogen’s and and his writing partner Evan Goldberg’s throats. So far, they haven’t bitten, and I’m proud of them for that; they had a vision (a vision that left no room for a sequel) and the executed that vision.

It’s not that Rogen is against sequel, because he isn’t. He has expressed interest in continuing the wacky adventures of Dale and Saul, the protagonists from the world’s first stoner action comedy, “Pineapple Express.” So, during the press junket for his newest flick, Rogen jokingly stated he wanted to do some crazy hybrid of the two, where Seth and Evan butt heads with Dale and Saul.

No one took him seriously. Initially, that is.

But there’s been an odd amount of talk behind this supposedly joke project. First Judd Apatow talked about the mashup sequel at a Comic Con screening of “Pineapple Express.” If there wasn’t some serious consideration to what the internet wizards and movie blog gurus are now calling “Superbad Express,” I don’t think it’s likely that Apatow would have brought it up in front of such a geeked up crowd (pun intended. The joke being that Comic Con is jam-packed with thousands of geeks. Get it?). People take the news and such they hear at Comic Con very seriously, so I doubt Apatow would just throw some meaningless jargon out there.

And now, one more dude behind “Pineapple Express” has jumped on the  Let’s Talk About This Shit bandwagon. James Franco, who is a surprisingly great on-screen pothead, brought up the idea in an interview with the MTV Movie Blog. Here’s what he said:

“Even before ‘Superbad’ came out, I think the studio was trying to get [Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg] to write a sequel, but they really didn’t want to write a sequel. I guess the kids would go to college or something like that [that was the studio’s idea],” Franco said. “And so, an answer to that was to do a ‘Superbad’/’Pineapple Express’ crossover, an unprecedented crossover movie with two directors, Greg Motolla and David Gordon Green, each directing half of the movie and somehow these characters get together, which doesn’t make sense at all, but could work.”

And he even let some potential (albeit pretty obvious) plot lines slip…

“I could sell them [the characters from ‘Superbad’] something, but I think we’d want some action, so you know, somehow the kids get in trouble somehow and we have to get them out of it,” Franco mused. “And Seth plays characters in both movies, so somehow we’d have to kill one of them off.”

Dude. If this if really going to happen, I’m about to get super excited, and not just because the quality of the first two flicks — Franco hit the nail on the head when he said this would be an “Unprecedented crossover.” Screw “Freddy vs. Jason” and “Alien vs. Predator,” this is two great movies at the height of the popularity that both realistically have franchise potential. I think combining the two (which will probably infuriate studio execs, seeing as how “Superbad 2” and “Pineapple Express 2” would probably make more collective money than a movie that combines the two ideas), Rogen and Co. are really experimenting with the sequel, a concept that really hasn’t been shaken up or altered in a really long time.

Plus a movie with Michael Cera, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen and James Franco all trying to steal the screen from each other? Get outta here, that sounds kick ass.

The viral marketing for Gentlemen Broncos is hilarious

Jared Hess, the creator of the awkwardly hilarious “Napoleon Dynamite” and “Nacho Libre,” has been hard at work putting together his new flick, “Gentlemen Broncos.” Let me just say that as soon as a heard that the project was about a “fantasy author who discovers that legendary novelist Ronald Chevalier has ripped off his supposed masterpiece titled ‘Yest Lords,’ ” I knew it would kick serious butt. Think about it — Hess thrives on creating the most awkward situations and interactions between characters as possible. Nothing screams awkward like a dual between fantasy fiction writers. If Hess can turn in another killer script (I really liked “Nacho Libre,” although a lot of people saw it as a letdown), There’s no doubt in my mind that “Gentlemen Broncos” is going to be freakin’ hilarious.

Everything I’m hearing about the movie is good news so far. First off, Jermaine Clement (pictured in his get-up from “Gentlemen Broncos” above), who you may know from “Flight of the Conchords,” is staring as Ronald Chevalier, the professional fantasy fiction writer mentioned above. If you haven’t seen, “Conchords” or Clement’s silver-screen debut “Eagle vs. Shark,” you won’t understand why I’m so happy to see him cast in a Hess movie. Clement’s talents and strengths as a comedic actor make him a picture-perfect candidate to star in one of Hess’s films. He’s got this uncanny ability to portray a semi-dislikable character in such a way that you want him on the screen as much as possible. He’ll no doubt steal the show in “Broncos” as a douchebaggy fantasy writer.

But Clement isn’t the only promising evidence coming from the “Broncos” camp.

Recently, Hess and Co. unveiled their on-the-viral-marketing-bandwagon campaign, consisting of ronaldchevalier.com, which highlights Clement’s character’s many triumphs as a writer, and it’s freaking hilarious. There’s not a whole lot up yet, but the one video they have up is terrific:

I love it, but I know a lot of people won’t. “Napoleon Dynamite” had its fifteen minutes of fame, but Hess and his downright oddball characters and awkward situations are off-putting some. In my opinion, what he does is incredibly creative — no else has come even close to tapping the awkward energy that his movies thrive on, and its refreshing to see a different, more intelligent sense of humor, especially with Hollywood pumping out gutbusters like “Epic Movie” right now.

I giggled like an idiot when I saw “Napoleon,” along with everyone else. I giggled like a moron when I saw “Nacho Libre,” although it seemed like no one else got the joke, and I’d be willing to bet dollars to donuts I’ll be rofling all over the place when “Broncos” finally drops sometime in 2009. I just hope I’m not the only one laughing again — I want to see Hess develop was a writer and director.

Since when does Jake Gyllenhaal look like a huge douchebag?

Nothing I write before posting the first picture of Jake Gyllenhaal as the Prince of Persia in the upcoming movie… “The Prince of Persia” will pull in readers any more than my very accurate headline. So I might as well cut this suspense crap and just copy n’ paste the damn thing already. But be warned: the douchebaggery you’re about to see may may be too much for readers that are faint of heart, especially those of which are or have been Gyllenhaal fans before this:

“Which way to the Creed concert, brah?”

Ok. I may have been a little harsh back there, but I’m really not happy that this movie is happening. One, Gyllenhaal is a really good actor, a guy who is above these big-budget franchise-type flicks with big explosions and bad puns and weak plot lines. This is Donnie Darko, the Scene Kid messiah, and now look at what he’s so shamelessly reduced to — a bad-wig-wearing idiot with a handkerchief tied around his waste. With the budget that this movie has, could they have at least hired a semi-competent costume designer? Has this turned into a rant yet? Just wait:

Secondly, I want to take some time here to address a fad that I really want to die as quickly as possible, which should be quite soon seeing how not many of these flicks have been blockbuster. That fad is, of course, the video game adaptation.

Let’s have a quick rundown of some of the video game movies of yesteryear: “Doom,” starring The Rock. Lame. Anything by Uwe Boll — all of which make me throw up in my mouth a little bit. Lame. That one Mario Bros. movie. SUPER lame. “Hitman,” “Resident Evil,” “Silent Hill” and on and on and on — they all suck huge amounts of balls.

The only movies which I’ll admit to being OK, and the only ones which were big hits were the two Angelina Jolie-fueled “Tomb Raider” movies. Then again, those movies could have been absolutely terrible, but it’s still fun to watch Jolie kick loads of butt for 90 straight minutes.

Here’s the problem — no matter how badly the Hollywood Machine may want to force a video game into a nice and bankable silver screen translation, the transition from PlayStation 3 to MoviePlex will never be a smooth one. Books, television shows, people’s lives and experiences, these are things that can be accurately translated to film because they have more rigid structure; all the director has to do is follow the story line set up before it. Sure, my vision of how a “Harry Potter” movie can differ greatly from the actual director’s, but I can at least see where he’s coming from, because we both read the same book and had roughly the same experience in doing so.

But with a video game, my playing experience could be vastly different from yours — You could have unlocked secret rooms and missions and fought the bosses with a whole different strategy. You could pay much more attention to the plot or just decide to go around and kick ass. You could play the game or, like “Grand Theft Auto 4,” just go around and blow shit up to see the slow-motion death scenes. My point is, a video game is what you make it, because you have complete control to manipulate the outcome. Most games, in all honesty, have really, and I mean really, dumb plots. Does it matter when you’re busting shit up with your latest laser gun upgrade? No. Does it matter when Gyllenhaal is shootin’ ’em up with said laser gun, and all you get to do is shit back and watch this trainwreck in front of you, while all the plot holes and general stupidity of the story arc become glaringly obvious to you and everyone else watching the movie? Yes. It matters a great deal.

Video game movies take all the fun and great things about games out of the equation, leaving all of the really ridiculous remnants to fill the screen for whatever the excruciating run time happens to be. Ugh, please stop making these.

Nerdiest game ever

Over on Empireonline.com they have a game that I thoroughly enjoyed, but I’m sorry to say it basically cemented by geekiness:

The game is simple — given just one letter from a poster, can you tell which movie’s one-sheet said letter came from. Check it out. It’s really fun to spot the ones you know (I got 20 out of 46. A little disappointing, but there’s some I never would have gotten ever), and when all else fails you can just click on the letter to find out with movie’s poster is giving you fits.

Post you scores below, but don’t cheat!

Brad Pitt signed on for Inglorious Bastards

There has been quite a bit of news in the last couple days surrounding Quentin Tarantino’s potential “masterpiece,” the super-mega-anticipated “Inglorious Bastards.” Today, Variety reports that Brad Pitt, whose name has attached to the rumors about the flick for quite some time, has finally made it official that he will star as Aldo Raine in the World War II epic.

I think Pitt is great for the part, a “Tennessee hillbilly who assembles a team of eight Jewish-American soldiers.” He’s always been a great character actor, from “Snatch” to “Fight Club” to the upcoming “Curios Case of Benjamin Button,” so there’s no doubt in my mind that Pitt will portray said hillbilly perfectly.

Leo DiCaprio, another big name that was rumored to star, seems to have been dropped for consideration, which kind of disappoints me. I think DiCaprio is another one of Hollywood’s truly great actors right now, and it would have been incredible to see he and Pitt share screen time. Whether as friends or enemies (I have yet to read the script, so I’m not sure whether Pitt and DiCaprio’s supposed characters worked together of not), I’m sure their confrontations and such would be very dynamic.

Here’s the most surprising news surrounding “Bastards,” though — Tarantino’s friend and expert in all things horror, Eli Roth, has been brought up as an actor in the movie. What? That really doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. Every time Tarantino has mentioned the project for the last decade (or however long it’s actually been since he started talking up “Bastards”), he has stirred up the crazy, only half-believable casting choices, putting together a dream cast that any director would kill to be a part of. Then when movie actually becomes a reality (primary shooting begins Oct. 13), he goes and casts a director in the movie? Not some Oscar-nominated movie star, like he’s been talking about forever? It seems like such an odd change of plans to me.

Oh well. With or without Roth, this movie is going to kick some serious ass.

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist looks awesome

For those of you — those loyal Movie Chutzpah readers out there — that have been keeping up with my blog since the beginning, you’ll remember my rant about the Hollywood comedic genius of the moment, Michael Cera. In said rant, I acknowledged that, yes, Cera’s pretty funny, but he seems to have been tight-casted into that super-awkward kid role.

I wrote about how people might eventually grow tired of his same-old-same-old, and if he doesn’t at least attempt to change it up once in a while (kind of like Jim Carrey), he may end up becoming the flavor of last week (like Will Ferrell circa “Semi-Pro”). I really don’t want to see Cera fall victim to that fate. I think he’s one of young Hollywood’s bright talents, and his potential for stardom is through the roof. But, then again, he can’t keep playing the same role over and over again.

Well, the trailer for Cera’s new movie (in which he plays, you guessed it, a super-awkward kid), but here’s the thing: I don’t think anyone’s going to get tired of his schtick just yet — from the clip, this movie looks really, really good. Don’t take my word for it; Check it out for yourself below:

First of all, forget Cera’s predictable behavior. This movie actually looks like quite a gamble. I love when movies take worn-out genres — in this case, the romantic comedy — and turn said genre on its side to create something new and exciting. This looks different. Fresh. Not in the same vein as “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” but definitely based on the same idea; Something better, more creative must exist, as fas as rom-coms go. Of course, it will have some of the same elements as a typical Hollywood rom-com, but so did “Eternal Sunshine.” The point is, the idea and (hopefully) the ultimate delivery is presented in such a way that the flick is distinctly different than anything else out right now.

Also, check out the tunes, man. We Are Scientists provide the main track in the trailer?  Hell, yes! I know it’s not necessarily the case, but a good soundtrack usually belongs to a good movie, so that also give me home this film will be good.

So, as far as my rant goes, I’m going to lay off Cera for a while. At least until he makes a bad movie, or a movie in which his little awkward-thing doesn’t work well.

sidenote: I think this might be the first Cera-related internet post that didn’t mention “Superbad” once. Maybe he’s starting to work his way out of the shadow of that hilarious picture.

Wasn’t The Mummy 3 terrible enough?

OMGz, a yeti!!!1!!1 lolzzz

I have no problem admitting that I thoroughly enjoyed the first film in the “Mummy” trilogy. Heck, even the second one was entertaining for what it was — a mindless summer blockbuster. But there’s no one who can disagree that after the second flick, the whole franchise went sour. The Jumping of the Proverbial Shark happened with (and I totally don’t blame you for shoving this bomb out of your memory) “The Scorpion King,” featuring The Rock as, well you guessed it, a half-man, half-bug, all-badass that …. uh, I’m actually kind of pleased with myself for not knowing anything more about that film.

And that brings us to the not-so-long-awaited “The Mummy 3: Tomb of the Something or Other.”

I haven’t seen it, yet. Well, probably ever, and for good reason. I really don’t usually listen to critics, but when something is pulling in reviews this overwhelmingly bad (there are only 11 positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, accumulating in whopping 9 percent on the tomatometer) I can’t help but believe that this movie is a steaming pile of, yeah you get the picture.

Do I feel bad trashing a film that I haven’t seen, nor do I ever intend to see? No. As soon as Brendon Fraser growls that super-cheesy cliche, “here we go again,” in the film’s trailer, I feel that I have free reign to dump as much negative sentiments on this movie as possible.

Anyway, even after “Mummy 3” limped to a second place finish behind “The Dark Knight,” which took home its third straight No. 1 box office draw, the producers are still licking their chops at the possibility for another atrocious sequel. Via Cinema Blend:

“By taking The Mummy out of Egypt and putting it in China, by exploring a different approach to the quest for immortality, we now have it clear that the Mummy franchise can travel,” (director Rob Cohen told them. … “If we want to go to Mexico or we want to go to Peru, we can because there’s a cultural truth there of the mummies and these beautiful cultures.”

STOP. For the love of all things holy, stop while you’re at near-rock bottom, because there’s still room to fall. And I guarantee yet another sequel has nowhere to go but even farther in the shitter than “Mummy 3” dove. The Cinema Blend article gave a pretty huge spoiler about the future of the franchise (which I won’t give away on the off-chance one of you actually wants to see “Mummy 3”), but let me just say this — this is a clear case of some studio exec. slipping in a useless and absurd plot twist in order to set up another movie.

Dammit, movies like this are just plain frustrating. Even when they don’t own the box office, the production companies still want to pump them out. If the public’s not paying to see “Mummy 3” isn’t proof enough that we don’t want a fourth one, want else can we do to stop its production?

The MPAA hullabaloo surrounding Zack and Miri comes to a close?

If you haven’t heard by now, Kevin Smith, director of such vehicles for Dick n’ Fart jokes as “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” and “Mallrats,” recently appealed the MPAA’s decision to give his new movie, “Zack and Miri Make a Porno,” the ultimate Kiss O’ Death, and NC-17 rating. And guess what?

The good guys won! For once, the good guys actually won. That’s right — Smith and his usual cronies of no-gooders — Scott Mosier, Jason Mewes, Walt “Fanboy” Flanagan and the rest of those goofballs — actually got the revision board to not only watch “Zack and Miri,” but also coaxed them into reversing the MPAA’s initial decision, sans script changes, major editing and the like. Smith has dealt with this situation before. “Jay and Silent Bob” had to have a few crude jokes cut, but this time around, Smith debauchery will be shown on the silver screen, uncut and glorious, just as he intended.

This isn’t even the first time the MPAA has gone hay-wire over “Zack and Miri.” A while ago, Smith released a short, totally ad-libbed teaser trailer for his upcoming flick, which featured Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks holding, uh, auditions for the porno. As soon as the MPAA caught wind of the unauthorized trailer, it came off the interwebs forever.

My initial thoughts about the new rating are as follows:

• It makes total sense

The only difference between an NC-17 and an R-rating is that children under 17 can see R-rated movies if accompanied by a parent or guardian. That’s it. And although this movie — which undoubtedly incorporates terrible language, nudity, sex-related topics and whatever other forms of mature content Smith can cram into two hours of film — may very well deserve a harsh rating, the MPAA has consistently regarded movies on a case-by-case basis, with no strict guidelines as to what makes a movie PG-13, R, etc. I mean, no one can argue that “Titanic,” and maybe even “The Dark Knight,” could have garnered R-ratings, and I’m sure those aren’t the only two movies in history that the MPAA seems to have made a special exception for.

Because of that, I think the MPAA should have taken “Zack and Miri” into special consideration. To me, the name of the movie provides any and all warning that parents will need. The freaking word “Porno” is in the title — if that doesn’t raise some kind of red flag, neither will ratings or DVD-package labels. The name “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” will make parents more skeptical than an R-rating, and I’m guessing the number of under-17ers that see this movie won’t drastically change now as opposed to if the movie was released as an NC-17 movie.

No, the NC-17 wouldn’t have done much to help keep kids from seeing the movie eventually. All it would have done is kill any chance the movie had of even making its production costs back. NC-17 movies not only restrict the audience, they also are restricted from advertising in certain places (i.e. television) at certain times, which would have negated any chance Smith had of getting the flick out there. Basically, there’s no way the Weinstein brothers would have released an NC-17 movie. It just would have been stupid — instead, Smith would have been forced to cut any “obscene” reference in the flick, thus limiting his original vision.

• All of this might end up helping Lunch Box in the end

No one outside of Smith’s cult following of fanboys and comic-book-reading geeks (I say that jokingly. I’m a huge Smith fans, and I don’t fall in either category, or at least I don’t acknowledge that I do) was really talking about this movie before all of this mess happened. Well, during the brief, albeit terrifying, NC-17 rating, it seemed as though this film would be trapped in developmental hell. Now, the flick is R-rated and everyone everywhere is talking about the movie and the controversy surrounding it (in this case, I really think controversy is a really good thing), which will no doubt (at least, I hope) help this thing in the box office. Smith has never had a B.O. smash, and the more the general population talks about and becomes aware of “Zack and Miri,” the more likely it will have bankability. I know people are going to be curious to see it after so much fuss about the ratings and such. Plus the film drops in October, so there’s not really the risk that people will totally forget about this controversy before it comes out.

UPDATE: I found that teaser trailer I was talking about earlier. Apparently, someone snuck it onto YouTube before the MPAA forced Smith to get rid of it:

Haha, “ass-wise… things going in there?” This movie is going to be hilarious.

Back from Lollapalooza

There in the raft — that’s Greg Gillis, he of mashup-excellence Girl Talk fame, and somewhere among that hoard of eager and hyped-up hipsters is me, dancing like a complete moron and sweating until my clothes, completely drenched, almost weighed as much as I do. As I speculated before I left, I didn’t make-do on the promise that I would come back with a bunch of information about some of the indie world’s favorite movies, but I did find out that Gillis loves “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” and the ever-trippy “2001: A Space Odyssey.” That’s kinda cool, huh?

And if the picture up top doesn’t accurately portray the craziness Girl Talk triggered with just a laptop and hundreds of illegally used samples, this video will:

I could keep making you super jealous. I saw Rage Against The Machine rock so hard, they had to halt their set for several minutes in order to calm down one of the most riled-up crowds I have ever seen. For you rap fans out there, Lupe Fiasco and this little-known hip-hopper named Kanye West, put on some ridiculous shows in their native Chicago. After Spank Rock, the Black Keys, Iron and Wine, What Made Milwaukee Famous, Chromeo, The Kills and a myriad other kick ass bands later, I returned to Ann Arbor, exhausted and fulfilled. Oh yeah, and I was like thirty feet from Radiohead. No big deal or anything.

So, I’ve spent two straight weekends in Chicago — subsequently away from the internet — and thus, the speed at which I was pumping out posts on this Movie Chutzpah thing has hit a wall. Well, I’m here to promise you, that I’m getting back to it ASAP. I won’t lie — it’s like running. Once you stop, it’s really hard to get going again, but I really enjoy keeping this blog, so expect me to get back to my latter days of uber-movie-blog productivity in due time.

Weekend of mayhem and music

I’m in Chicago, getting pumped up for Lollapalooza, which starts tomorrow. I’ll try to post as much as possible, maybe at night when I get home, but I’m really not expecting too much. I’ll probably be dead tired after 12 straight hours of music. So, I’m sorry in advance for the lack of updates, loyal Movie Chutzpah readers.

I do have press tent access, so maybe I’ll get to talk to a few bands about their favorite movies and so on and so forth during the eweekend.