There was internet tug of war of sorts when there was a report from Sundance saying The Green Hornet feature might not take the flight into production this year, but then Seth Rogen kindly let us know that everything was going to plan.

Now a big push forward for this project has manifested itself via tons of separate updates. My first finding of the news came from the official Sony Pictures Twitter as well as film industry periodical Production Weekly. Variety even went and tossed up this pitiful blurb (which may be expanded by the time you click) that confirms director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Be Kind Rewind) will helm The Green Hornet starring Seth Rogen. Gondry was said to be attached to a Green Hornet project back in the 90's with George Clooney and Jason Scott Lee set to star and Robocop writer Edward Neumeier scripting. Now it looks like the project has made its way back into his hands.

This film now has my full attention. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is one of my favorite films, and while Be Kind Rewind was sloppy and slow I love how much of a labor of love it was for Gondry (the Sweded films were just magical). His style is charming, full of passion, and simply fresh in a medium becoming incresingly formulaic. I can't wait to see his take on an action film such as this.

Labels: Green Hornet, Michel Gondry, Seth Rogen

Well the 81st Academy Awards have come and gone as you may have seen from our list of winners from yesterday's ceremony. But with the show taking on a new face and having so many changes throughout, I only thought it appropriate to go through some of my favorite highlights of the night. Overall it wasn't a spectacular ceremony as the Oscars are always a bit dull, but it could've been way worse without a comedian at the helm.

I must say though that while Hugh Jackman put on some spectacular musical performances and really showed his theatrical chops, what really was annoying was his constant reference that "The musical is back!" It's always back at least once a year. Along with that, I have to say that he didn't really do much hosting. Will Smith was practically on the stage longer for the technical awards presentation. These new additions and formatting didn't really revamp the show (it was still slow and mostly boring even for a movie buff) but that doesn't mean there weren't things to enjoy from the ceremony

Before I go on with the list of pros from the show, I have to comment on the actual awards themselves. Basically there were no real surprises. After all, I had 10 correct predictions out of the 11 I made on here (Damn you Best Foreign Film).

But the one award that there's a lot of backlash and seemingly unnecessarily so, is that Mickey Rourke didn't get Best Actor. Let me just say that I had all my eggs in the Mickey Rourke basket for a long time, but changed my tune after I saw Milk. Sean Penn's performance was one for the books. In speaking with some friends, I slowly came to change my mind in that Rourke's performance, while stirring, isn't too much of a departure from his real life. He had a lot of inspiration to pull from in his own life for those emotions on screen. That's not to discredit his performance because putting that much heart-wrenching drama into a character is not easy. But Sean Penn's portrayal of Harvey Milk was just a complete departure from anything he's done before. I was pleased with this outcome, and don't think that the Penn-Hate-Train has any steam,.

Anyway, here's some of the stuff I really dug from the ceremony:

• The opening musical number was really fun. The stage pieces and progression through each film was like watching Michel Gondry tackle the Academy Awards with his patented "Sweded" production quality straight from Be Kind Rewind. It was great to see Jackman comment on The Dark Knight for fanboys, especially as a star of comic book movies himself
  
  
• The 2008 Film Yearbook montages were edited together so meticulously. I can't imagine going through the hours of films and coming out with those montages which so brilliant play off one another. Each cut made the films interact with each other and it was just fantastic. There are some low quality captures of these montages for the Action and Romance movies of 2008 here and here (one is mislabeled on YouTube but it's the correct video). Comedy received a special treatment we'll highlight below.
  
  
• Very cool presentation method for the acting nominations. Having a previously awarded actor or actress prepare a personalized nomination sort of speech was slightly long winded, but was also a personal touch to the usually borning nomination reels. You can see the nominations presented by 20 other actors for Best Actor/Actress and Best Supporitng Actor/Actress right here
  
  
• Tina Fey and Steve Martin presenting the awards for adapted and original screenplays had some of the greatest laughs of the night. Also I always love seeing the clips with the script content superimposed over them like they were subtitles.
  
  
• This commercial for Jimmy Kimmel's show featuring Tom Cruise. It's not Oscar related. Big whoop, wanna fight about it?
  
  
• Will Smith screwing up reading the teleprompter and making a reference to Boom Goes the Dynamite. Oh to be Internet famous!

Finally my most favorite part of the entire ceremony is the video I've embedded below that highlights the comedy films of 2008...sort of. It's an original short by Judd Apatow featuring Seth Rogen and James Franco as their characters from Pineapple Express. All I have to say is Janusz Kaminski needs to do more comedy...you'll see what I mean.

What did you guys think of all the changes and new approach to the show?

Labels: 81st Academy Awards, Academy Awards, Awards, Hugh Jackman, James Franco, Judd Apatow, Oscars, Seth Rogen, Steve Martin, Tina Fey, Will Smith

Here's the uninspiring and plain one sheet for the upcoming April comedy Observe and Report, starring Seth Rogen. While this poster looks lazily slapped together (the picture of Rogen looks like it was part of another worse poster design and just cut and paste into a tattered paper template) I can't stress enough how much I don't want this movie to get lost in the shuffle simply because a far more exhausting and mind-numbing film called Paul Blart: Waste of Time was released beforehand. With an R-Rated MPAA stamp this almost ensures Observe and Report as a higher caliber of comedy. You can check out the trailer we posted a couple weeks ago as well to gauge for yourself.

Labels: Observe and Report, Posters, Seth Rogen

The first trailer for Judd Apatow's upcoming comedy set in the world of stand-up comics, the aptly named Funny People. Of course it's funny but the trailer really strikes an emotional chord too. Along with some great jokes coming from Seth Rogen and Adam Sandler there are some scenes that really pull at your heartstrings and I think this is going to be a real tearjerker. Apatow has a really great way of crafting comedy in the face of life-altering and potentially tragic situations, and this one just takes it to the next level. I can only assume his next comedy will be set during some sort of terrorist attack, and then no one will be able to stop him. Check out the trailer below.

Labels: Adam Sandler, Funny People, Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen, Trailers

In Hollywood there's this sort of phenomena that happens every few years, where two movies are remarkably similar and are released right around the same time. Two will enter, only one will leave. We've seen it with disaster films (Armageddon vs Deep Impact). We've seen it with magician period dramas (The Prestige vs The Illusionist). We've even seen it in family films (Antz vs A Bug's Life). This year there's another of these battles, but luckily these two weren't released so close together, and it's already clear that one will be far superior to the other.

The tragically successful mind numbing family comedy (I can only assume from secondhand remarks, I personally have not and will not see it) Paul Blart: Mall Cop brought in audiences and even got a sequel greenlit shortly thereafter. But there's a far more promising film highlighting the noble profession of the mall cop. That film is Observe and Report.

The plot synopsis from IMDB: At the Forest Ridge Mall, head of security Ronnie Barnhardt (Seth Rogen) patrols his jurisdiction with an iron fist, combating skateboarders, shoplifters and the occasional unruly customer while dreaming of the day when he can swap his flashlight for a badge and a gun. His delusions of grandeur are put to the test when the mall is struck by a flasher. Driven to protect and serve the mall and its patrons, Ronnie seizes the opportunity to showcase his underappreciated law enforcement talents on a grand scale, hoping his solution of this crime will earn a coveted spot at the police academy and the heart of his elusive dream girl Brandi (Anna Faris), the hot make-up counter clerk who won't give him the time of day. But his single-minded pursuit of glory launches a turf war with the equally competitive Detective Harrison (Ray Liotta) of the Conway Police, and Ronnie is confronted with the challenge of not only catching the flasher, but getting him before the real cops do.

Below we've embedded the Red Band trailer (NSFW) for the film that isn't exactly outright hilarious, but sets up for a film that will be very similar to Pineapple Express in it's treatment of action meeting comedy in a sort of quasi-realistic world. We see Danny McBride in there for a bit, and I hear Patton Oswalt even makes an appearance. But the most intriguing casting choice from me is Michael Peña as what looks to be Ronnie's sidekick. You might remember Peña from his breakthrough role as the locksmith from Crash. I'm really interested in seeing what his comedic talents are like and this is a movie that I'm looking forward to, and hope to see more on it soon.

Labels: Anna Faris, Danny McBride, Michael Peña, Observe and Report, Patton Oswalt, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Ray Liotta, Seth Rogen, Trailers

Over the weekend we snagged a story from Drew McWeeny over at HitFix regarding some negative talk at Sundance about Seth Rogen's upcoming adaptation of Green Hornet getting off the ground. Apparently Seth Rogen wasn't too happy with these reports, and he got in contact with Drew via e-mail to settle the score.

I'm betting Rogen was pissed and maybe even laid into Drew a bit since the only excerpt from this e-mail used is in regards to all the people who are hard at work on Green Hornet and I'm sure that this created a stir among the production team as to whether or not they were going to have jobs. In the e-mail Rogen comments:

"'The Green Hornet' has many people working for it, including production designers, costume designers and many conceptual artists, office staff, etc. [The studio heads] have every intention on making it, and assuming we're able to hire a new director in the upcoming weeks, which seems like a distinct possibility, it should still hit the release date."

Well I'm glad Seth was nice enough to keep everyone in the loop, and it's good to hear that we'll at least get a chance to see how this project turns out. Other good news includes a report over at Ain't It Cool (ironically enough the former stomping grounds of Drew McWeeny aka Moriarity) that while Stephen Chow is no longer directing he is definitely still in for portraying the Hornet's faithful sidekick Kato. Stay tuned for any further developments as they come along.

Labels: Green Hornet, Seth Rogen, Stephen Chow

Ever since the announcement of a revival of The Green Hornet in a new feature length film starring Seth Rogen and directed by Stephen Chow (who would also be playing Kato, the sidekick made famous by Bruce Lee), not much hype about the project had been heard. Then some sad news took away any anticipation certain people may have had when Stephen Chow dropped out of the director's chair. Well it looks like things aren't getting any better with this little insider info straight from whispers at the Sundance Film Festival looked into by HitFix.

Drew McWeeny (yes that's his real name) writes, "Ever since Stephen Chow started to waffle about his participation in the film, I've been hearing rumors that there were major hesitations at Sony. Then at Sundance, I heard several people say that the film was off completely. I spoke this afternoon with a source close to the film, and while they didn't call it completely dead, they did say it is 'highly unlikely' that the film will shoot in 2009 at all."

While I'm not exactly disappointed, it's a bit disheartening to hear this project might put on the backburner. I don't have any nostalgic memories attached to the Green Hornet (and I would contend that not many of today's film bloggers do), but I thought this would be an interesting collaboration of comedy and action (and an excuse for some kind of cool update of the awesome Green Hornet theme). After seeing Rogen take on the action comedy in Pineapple Express I was at least somewhat interested in how this one would turn out. Oh well, I'm sure Rogen has plenty of upcoming projects to keep him busy. You guys have anything to say on the matter?

Labels: Green Hornet, Kato, Seth Rogen, Stephen Chow