Nov 13 2009 'Grown-Ups' Trailer: The Bad Boys of SNL Plus Surrogate Have Aged

The trailer for the childhood-friends-reunite-as-adults film Grown-Ups is here. Watching it, I have to think this will probably be a new generation's The Big Chill. Except no it won't, because The Big Chill was college friends, and it never included gags where Jeff Goldblum swings into a tree and comically rolls down a hill. Maybe it's a new generation's Now and Then, without any of the flashback scenes? Or maybe it's just The Bad Boys of SNL Reunite as Dads, and Also King of Queens Is Here Instead of Chris Farley (RIP):

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Oct 6 2009 Oprah Producing Hilarious Racial Film

Oprah thinks the struggle for a white person to form a relationship with a black person is hysterical! (She can't fathom it, because all races and species love Oprah equally.) The talk show host's Harpo Films has acquired the movie rights to Will You Be My Black Friend, a year-old GQ article about a white guy trying to make a black friend, and is somehow making it a "star vehicle" for Chris Rock even though it's about a white person. The Daily Variety says:

The article, a humorous account by senior correspondent Devin Friedman about his clumsy attempt to make friends with people of color, will be developed as a star vehicle for Chris Rock.

Following a cocktail party epiphany that his entire social circle is the same color as he, the white writer made an unabashed attempt to make black friends, down to soliciting prospective pals in a Craigslist ad. The journo discovers that race aside, it is very difficult to make meaningful friends later in life.

Come on. We already have last season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Black People Love Us, that episode of Seinfeld where George takes a black exterminator out to dinner, and Hitch. Can't we move on to white people befriending other races? Inuits? How about Inuits? No one is touching Inuits. Let's see a white person try to befriend an Inuit. As a whitey, I wouldn't even know where to start. Alaska?

Mar 11 2009 'Death at a Funeral' (2010) to Re-Invent 'Death at a Funeral (2007)

Chris Rock has astutely noticed that Frank Oz's 2007 comedy Death at a Funeral was not made this year and does not take place in an urban American setting, and he's out to fix that (via A.V. Club):

Chris Rock is set to star and co-write "Death at a Funeral," a re-imagining of the 2007 comedy, for Screen Gems and Sidney Kimmel Entertainment.

Aeysha Carr will write the script with Rock for a comedy inspired by the SKE-produced original, which was written by Dean Craig and directed by Frank Oz.

Plan is for an ensemble comedy about a funeral ceremony that leads to the digging up of shocking family secrets, as well as misplaced cadavers and indecent exposure. While the original was set in Britain, the new film will take place in an urban American setting.

How closely the Hollywood model resembles the format of my friends and I wasting most of a night playing old Mega Man games. As soon as one guy finishes their attempt, someone else is already swatting at the controls claiming they can do better, only to usually fare much worse. The main difference is that, when Hollywood does it, the result is too often a two-hour waste of time; with us, it's still a wasted two hours, but at least we finally end the tyranny of Gemini Man.

(Thanks, Will.)

Chris Rock rolls with 'Funeral' [Variety]

Feb 11 2009 1992 Cast of SNL and King of Queens Making a Movie

This can't go well:

Kevin James, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider and David Spade are in negotiations to star in an untitled comedy for Columbia Pictures.

Frequent Sandler collaborator Dennis Dugan ("You Don't Mess With the Zohan") will helm, with the studio gearing up for a summer start date.

Sandler's Sony-based Happy Madison shingle, which recently teamed with James and the studio on the box office hit "Paul Blart: Mall Cop," is producing.

Sandler penned the screenplay with "Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star" scribe Fred Wolf. High-concept story is a comedy about five best friends from high school who reunite 30 years later on a Fourth of July weekend.

So what they're getting at is that this is a movie about SNL, but instead of calling it "a popular, weekly sketch comedy program" they're calling it "high school", and instead of Chris Farley it's Kevin James. I can't quite figure out what the reuniting on "Fourth of July weekend" part represents. Maybe a declaration of independence from genuine laughter?

Columbia pic gets Sandler and friends [Variety]