January 27, 2006
Robin Williams Plays Teddy
Does anyone think Robin Williams is still funny? Apparently, the creators of Night at the Museum do, because he's been cast in the Ben Stiller comedy. The film, which also stars Carla Gugino, Kim Raver, Mickey Rooney, and Dick Van Dyke, tells the story of a bumbling security guard that unlocks a curse in a museum, making the displays come to life. Williams will play Theodore Roosevelt, who is awakened from one of the museum's exhibits.
Hollywood's nailed the casting of a film yet again. While Roosevelt was the first American to win a Nobel Prize, famous for the quote, "Speak softly and carry a big stick," and a key figure in creating the Panama Canal, Williams often jumps on chairs spouting a chain of impressions, and was a key figure in creating Mrs. Doubtfire and Bicentennial Man. The two couldn't be better matched.
Previous Entries
No More Toy Story 3
Now that Pixar and Disney have become one, John Lasseter and Ed Catmull announced to the Disney animation department that they are no longer producing Toy Story 3. The news comes from a forum, where the author claims:
They said that sequels should only be made if there is a really great story that demands it, and should be the domain of those who created the original film.
In other words, if Pixar wants to make a sequel to its films, it will. If Disney Feature wants to make a sequel to its film, it will. But the two will not cross.
That's a shame real shame. I think Toy Story was one of the few cases where the sequel may actually outshine the first. I can only assume the third film would have been even better, and a fourth even better than that, and so on and so on. Until eventually, after 150 or so, they're getting so good that God has to physically intervene, because we're just getting "too close."
CHEck This Out!
Benicio Del Toro has been spotted for the first time in his full Che garb on the set of the biopic of the same name. Let me admit, straight up, I've never seen an actual photograph of Che Guevara, but Del Toro does look pretty close to the shirts people kept wearing back when Rage Against the Machine was popular. Granted, I've also never seen the actual shirts, but I think I saw a parody shirt once where that Super Mario character was Che, and I can imagine how this might look something like what that might have been imitating.
Ultra Coming To CBS
Barbara Hall, creator of Joan of Arcadia and writer on Judging Amy has a new pilot in the works called Ultra:
"Ultra," from CBS Paramount Network TV, revolves around a female superhero who must contend with saving the world while pursuing a life as a single girl in the city. In the comicbook, which parodies celeb magazines, Ultra's alter ego, Pearl Penalosa, is a semi-icon who graces billboards advertising popular products.
Normally, I'd stop listening right after I hear the words "writer on Judging Amy," and this was no exception. I think the rest said something about a woman reading a magazine.
Bambi 2 Preview Is Boring
In an attempt to create a "buzz," Disney has posted a long preview of its February 7 release, Bambi 2. A deer and a rabbit making cute growls for ten minutes may somehow be interesting to children or the mentally ill, but seriously, it was terrible. The only notable section comes near the end, where Bambi provides a strong moral example by preventing domestic abuse between two deer.
Disney may think they can lure me into buying this movie to recreate the sorrowful emotions it brought out in my youth, but they weren't counting on the fact that it no longer takes movies to make me cry. That's right, Disney, I already cry through the majority of my day. Sometimes through the night, too!
Weezer Is The New Velvet Underground
To the delight of college students from 1995, members of Weezer will be playing The Velvet Underground in the upcoming Edie Sedgewick biopic Factory Girl. Lou Reed will be played guitarist Brian Bell, while drummer Patrick Wilson will take on John Cale.
With the deprecating things Lou Reed has already said about Factory Girl, I can only imagine what he's going to say about this casting. Actually, I can also tell you what I imagine:
Lou Reed sips coffee at breakfast in a posh, New York loft. The phone rings.
Lou: Lou Reed here.
Agent: Lou, it's your agent. Weezer is playing you in that movie you hate.
Lou Reed spits coffee. Smoke shoots out of his ears.
Lou: Not cool!
