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Michael Cera Finds a New Teen Slacker for FX Series

By Dawn Taylor (Subscribe to Dawn Taylor's posts), Posted Aug 27th 2010 9:48AM
Filed under: Comedy, Deals, Movie News, Cinematical
The bafflingly poor box-office showing for Scott Pilgrim vs. The World has led some to wonder if the problem is "Michael Cera burnout" -- that audiences are a tad weary of seeing Cera play the same laid-back, wry, doe-eyed teen in role after role. Well, get ready for Michael Cera to change gears and show a side you've never seen before! Okay, not really. The Wrap reports that Cera's developing a TV show for FX entitled "13th Grade" about ... wait for it ... a high-school graduate who seeks to improve his life after being dumped by his girlfriend.

Executive-producer Cera will not, surprisingly, be taking on the main role himself, but will appear in a cameo in the pilot. One of his producing partners, Emily Kapnek, was consulting producer on NBC's "Parks And Recreation" and a co-executive producer for seven episodes of the first season of HBO's "Hung." Kapnek and Cera are writing the pilot with Derek Waters and Paige Gullivan.

Check out this short version of "13th Grade" created by Water and Gullivan for an idea of what to expect -- it looks a bit like what you'd get if you jammed "Community" into a wood chipper with Scott Pilgrim:
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'Hangover' Writers to Tackle Office Party Hijinks

By Dawn Taylor (Subscribe to Dawn Taylor's posts), Posted Aug 17th 2010 9:03AM
Filed under: Comedy, Deals, Movie News, Cinematical
I've never been to an office party that's spun wildly, hilariously out of control. Growing up, it was the sort of adult experience that was promised to me by the movies: that I would get a "real job," work at a desk, and that at Christmas everyone would drink, chase their secretaries, and later regret kissing a co-worker under the mistletoe. (Yes, I now realize that I thought being an adult would be an endless episode of Mad Men.)

Sadly, those of us who have worked in offices and attended countless workplace holiday parties all know that the out-of-control Christmas gathering is a rarity. Yet the idea lives large in myth and legend, and shall be celebrated in a new film currently under construction by writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore -- who mined gold from the Vegas bachelor-party concept with The Hangover -- to be directed by Blades of Glory filmmakers Will Speck and Josh Gordon.
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Scott Bakula Announces 'Quantum Leap' Movie ... Minus Scott Bakula

By Dawn Taylor (Subscribe to Dawn Taylor's posts), Posted Aug 9th 2010 2:32PM
Filed under: Fandom, Cinematical
I know I'm not the only one who still harbors a deep, abiding crush on the Quantum Leap-era Scott Bakula. So I know I won't be the only one doing a fangirl squee-dance over late news that Bakula told a Comic-Con audience that a brand-spanking new Quantum Leap movie is in the works.

Via the Syfy Network's Blastr blog, Bakula sat in on a con panel titled "A Leap of Faith-A Quantum Leap Retrospective" and told some 600 attendees that, although he knows that he and co-star Dean Stockwell are a bit long in the tooth to pick up their characters where they left off, he's involved in the project with series creator Donald P. Bellisario. But will that involve screen time?

According to Bakula:
The good news is that Don is working on the film script and has a big time Hollywood producer who wants to do it ... It's about time. But what I always thought would happen, happened ... [that he's now too old for the role]. But Dean and I will have a part in it somehow.

Don did say that as he was writing, he told me he was having trouble, 'getting you and Dean out of my head.' But I know he will do it.
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An Early Clip from Sundance Pot-Com 'HIGH School'

By Dawn Taylor (Subscribe to Dawn Taylor's posts), Posted Aug 2nd 2010 7:33PM
Filed under: Comedy, Sundance, Trailers and Clips, Trailers and Clips, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical
Oh, the dizzying frontiers of youth, and the important stages of maturity. Your first steps, your first words, your first kiss ... your first marijuana cigarette. Not that I, personally, would know anything about that. But, you know, I watch a lot of movies.

In the soon-to-be-released HIGH School, valedictorian Henry Burke (Matt Bush) smokes weed for the first time with his stoner buddy Travis (Sean Marquette), then panics when his school principal (Michael Chiklis) announces he'll be instituting drug testing. So the boys steal drugs from a local dealer named "Psycho Ed' -- played, believe it or not, by Adrien Brody (right) -- with the plan that if they get the whole school to test positive, they won't get nailed for smoking weed.

In the just-released clip (after the jump), Travis presents Henry with his first joint, and sways him to smoke with the promise, "Getting high, it's like freedom. Smells, tastes, feelings -- they all become, like, uh, four-dimensional." Ah, to be a teenager again! I mean, don't do drugs, kids. Ahem.
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Teen Dressed as The Joker Sets Fire to School, Awaits Sentencing

By Dawn Taylor (Subscribe to Dawn Taylor's posts), Posted Jul 30th 2010 3:02PM
Filed under: Cinematical
An Irish court has ruled on the case of a teenager who dressed as The Joker and set fire to his school in 2009. Christopher Clancy, 19, of Cherrywood Grove, Clondalkin pleaded guilty to arson.

According to the Irish Independent newspaper, when he was arrested last year Clancy said that he burned the school "because it is run by hypocrites and I didn't like the way they treated my friends." Therefore, he filled six large gas cans, cut his way through a wire fence to get onto the school grounds, smashed a glass door, poured gas all over a corridor and set it on fire.

From the Independent:
When gardai [Irish Police] arrived at the scene they noticed a man dressed "in a purple suit, with green hair, a white face and red painted lips".

"He was dressed up as The Joker from 'Batman'," said Gda Ganny. "He then told us to go around the corner and we would see what he had done."

Clancy had video-recorded the burning building on his mobile phone and had planned to send the video clip to his friends.

He told gardai [Irish police] he had left the school five months previous to the arson attack and "that's when I planned the attack".

He purchased the jerry cans over a five-week period and hid them in the bushes near the school. He bought 100 litres of petrol from a nearby petrol station.

He told gardai: "I am glad I did it because the people will realise they can't treat students as sub-human."
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Redbox Now Offering Blu-ray Rentals for 50 Cents More

By Dawn Taylor (Subscribe to Dawn Taylor's posts), Posted Jul 30th 2010 12:45PM
Filed under: Distribution, Home Entertainment, Features, Movie News, Cinematical
In a few months, you'll be able to pick up a Blu-ray rental with your Big Mac -- Redbox has announced that they'll soon be offering $1.50-per-night Blu-ray rentals at a number of their kiosk locations.

Home Media Magazine reports that Redbox president Mitch Lowe, serving as keynote speaker at the snappily named Entertainment Supply Chain Academy Edge Conference, told the assembled masses that the depressed economy has been good for the bargain-priced Redbox.

"There's been a big change in customer behavior," Lowe said."They're being much more frugal." Of course, it looks like that won't stop them from tagging an additional, premium charge of 50 cents per night on those Blu-ray discs, which won't cost Redbox appreciably more to stock than standard DVDs.

Lowe also told the conference that, although DVD sales are down, Redbox renters are more likely to buy new movies than non-Redbox customers -- a point he made to rebut industry claims that Redbox's cheap rentals hurt sales of new DVDs.

So, what do you think? Is it worth half again as much to rent Blu-ray? Is Redbox taking advantage, or are they offering additional value by stocking two different formats?

Review: Ramona and Beezus

By Dawn Taylor (Subscribe to Dawn Taylor's posts), Posted Jul 23rd 2010 4:33PM
Filed under: Comedy, Theatrical Reviews, 20th Century Fox, Family Films, Reviews, Cinematical

Many, many people grew up reading Beverly Cleary's kid-lit books about Henry Huggins, Ramona Quimby and their adventures on Klickitat Street. It should be no surprise that a film adaptation has been created; the only surprise is that it didn't happen earlier. Fans will note there was a Canadian TV show based on the characters in the 1980's, but until now Ramona and her pals have stayed off the big screen.

So it's a bit of a shame that Ramona and Beezus is so limp. In the interest of full disclosure, I'll admit that I somehow managed to never read any of the Huggins/Quimby oeuvre, but I've been assured by those who did that all of the essential plot points are solidly drawn from the source material. And the young actress cast as Ramona, Joey King, is smart and expressive and delightful, and likely to become the next go-to kid in Hollywood. While it's a tad strange to see Bridget Moynihan cast as the mother is a film like this (and with John Corbett as the dad!) but that has little to do with the tone of the film. No, it's just that Ramona and Beezus feels a little ... off.
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