Big Screen Little Screen

I was actually hoping for Kristen Wiig, as Tina Fey, as Sarah Palin.  Wrap your mind around that.

Change we can all believe in: Clive Owen, Matt Damon, and Daniel Craig are the new Stallone, Schwarzenegger, and Gibson - slimmed down, but jacked up on brain steroids (comparatively speaking) for the new wave of action that’s at worst, slightly above the labotomized norm. (Though we’ll have to pretend that Clive’s Shoot’Em Up never happened).

The International - trailer: Clive Owen and Naomi Watts. Directed by Tom Tykwer. Scheduled release: February 13, 2009.

A no torrent, no iTunes guide to the broadcast and cable networks that are getting it right

Season 2, Episode 1: Joan and the Xerox

First commissioned by Rich Sommer (Harry Crane) of Mad Men to create a Christmas card for the cast, illustrator Dyna Moe has continued to post new works for every episode of this season on Flickr. (via Fraktastic)

Incidentally, Rich Sommer has a blog.

Wes Anderson’s first project with Imagine Entertainment will be a remake of the French comedy Mon meilleur ami, directed by Patrice Leconte in 2006. Anderson will definitely write the screenplay for the Universal/Imagine picture, and looks likely to direct it. (Variety)

The original film starred Daniel Auteuil as Francois, a bad mannered, selfish lout that learns the harsh reality of his assumed friendships - his colleagues tell him that he has no real friends. One a bet to prove them wrong, Francois goes on a hunt for old acquaintances that will accept him as a best friend, eventually leading to potential buddy status with a Paris taxi driver.

Sooner in the pipeline for Anderson is his animated adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox - with voice work by George Clooney and Cate Blanchett - scheduled for a 2009 release. (via Skeet on Mischa)

David Strathairn, Alan Alda, Jeff Daniels, Mary-Louise Parker and Paul Rudd have all signed on to join James Franco (as Allen Ginsberg) in Howl, a retelling of Ginsberg’s life during the mid-1950s release of his classic book-length poem and the obscenity trial that followed. Documentarians Rob Epstein (The Times of Harvey Milk) and Jeffrey Friedman (The Celluloid Closet) will jointly write, produce and direct the story. (Hollywood Reporter)

In occasional fits of hyperbole over the years - I know that at one point or another, I’ve called out all of these shows as the best on TV: Six Feet Under, Deadwood, The Wire, The Sopranos, 30 Rock, and The West Wing.

Along with those, Jason Kottke finds that the following have all been singled out as The Best Show on Television by writers, TV critics, and bloggers over the past decade: Mad Men, Lost, Friday Night Lights, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Battlestar Galactica, Arrested Development, Studio 60, South Park, Veronica Mars, and as if it was even up for debate, Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Dallas Cowboys.

The best show on television, all of them - Kottke

Filmed just months before the presidential election in 2004, Slacker Uprising serves as both documentary and self-portrait of Michael Moore as he toured colleges throughout the country, aiming to woo non-voting “slackers” to the voting booth by offering care packages of underwear and free ramen noodles in exchange for attending engagements of his rolling pep-rally-slash-concert tour.

The tour was met with resistance from conservative groups that sought to prevent Moore from making university stops by both offering donations to the schools if they cancelled his events, or by theatening legal action and Moore’s arrest.  The documentary itself was also met with less than enthusiastic reviews last year (many saw it as a clumsy vanity project) and failed to be picked up by a mainstream distributor. Now though, Moore has teamed up with Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Films to release Slacker Uprising for free via digital download during a three week window beginning September 23rd, just prior to a proper DVD release with additional bonus features. Whether Moore opted for the giveaway route as a new opportunity to be a catalyst for change in the Oval Office, or merely because the film was a clunker, is up for debate. (via Film Junk)

Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, writers and executive producers of NBC’s The Office, have been commissioned by Columbia Pictures to revive the 24-year-old Ghostbusters franchise.  The revamp is said to bring the orginal gang - Bill Murray, Dan Akryod, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson - back into the fold. (Variety)

As if Jennifer Aniston, Matthew Broderick, and Tina Fey’s dream guest star, Oprah weren’t enough, Gossip Girl co-stars Blake Lively and Leighton Meester will join the Lemon Party over at 30 Rock this upcoming season. EW reports that he two will be featured in a high school flashback as classmates of Lil’ Liz Lemon in a class reunion themed episode that will reveal a Mean Girls angle to Liz’s past. (via Goldenfiddlr)

Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates, seen here selling churros, discounted dress shoes, and moist and chewy things.  Extra credit if you can find a joke in there, anywhere. (Gizmodo)

“Talk about comebacks. After many years in the wilderness and being considered MIA professionally, Mickey Rourke, just like the washed-up character he plays, attempts a return to the big show in “The Wrestler.” Not only does he pull it off, but Rourke creates a galvanizing, humorous, deeply moving portrait that instantly takes its place among the great, iconic screen performances. An elemental story simply and brilliantly told, Darren Aronofsky’s fourth feature is a winner from every possible angle.”

Todd McCarthy’s early review out of The Toronto International Film Festival

Starring Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch, and James Franco, this is Gus Van Sant’s retelling of slain Gay Rights activist Harvey Milk’s story. Milk became the first openly gay man to be elected into office in the U.S. as a member of San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. His life and career were previously covered in Rob Epstein’s 1985 documentary, The Times of Harvey Milk. Scheduled release: November 26, 2008.

Milk trailer

Besides the in-the-works HBO pilot for David Simon’s post-Katrina New Orleans series entitled “Treme,” featuring The Wire alums Wendell Pierce (Detective Bunk) and Clarke Peters (Lester Freamon) - loyal viewers will be relieved to know that another cast favorite, Michael Kenneth Williams (Omar Little) also won’t be out of sight for much longer. YESORNODC notes that Williams can be found later this month in Spike Lee’s World War II epic, Miracle at St. Anna and the latest Cormac McCarthy adaptation - John Hillcoat’s The Road, coming late November.

Kevin Smith rents out the specially priced Judd Apatow Cast Bundle and retains the services of Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks, Craig Robinson, and some honest to goodness porn stars. Scheduled release: October 21, 2008. (via Rope of Silicon | Rotten Tomatoes)

HBO has shipped the pilot for Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball’s new southern vampire drama True Blood to brick and mortar Blockbuster stores for free rentals before the proper air date next Sunday. (AZ Night Buzz)

Ball talks up the development of the series in this behind-the-scenes look (11 minutes).

It’s gradual. (via Hollywood Elsewhere)

In a recent interview with Q Magazine, Flight of the Conchords duo Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie suggested that the upcoming second season of their HBO series will be the last. (New Zealand Herald) Season 1 was easier to produce as they had songs already written for albums and concert performances, but new material for the new season hasn’t come as easy. Said Clement, “We’ve got a lot of half-songs… an album’s worth of beginnings of songs.”

McKenzie added, “The second series seems to me like it would be a good end to the show. I feel like another 10 [episodes]… that will be enough.” Season 2 is slated to air in early 2009. (via TV Squad)