Mar 3 2009 Alexander Payne Preparing Alexander Payne All-Star Line-Up for Latest
Election star Reese Witherspoon, Sideways star Paul Giamatti, and Sacha Baron Cohen--who hasn't been in any Alexander Payne movies, upsetting my all-star theory--have agreed to star in Downsizing, a new film that sounds like Honey, I Shrunk the Kids as a romantic comedy:
Alexander Payne is putting the finishing touches on the social satire "Downsizing," a script about miniature people, and has put together a big-name cast.Paul Giamatti, Sacha Baron Cohen and Reese Witherspoon have all committed to star in the film, which would likely land at Fox Searchlight, where Payne has a first-look deal.
Giamatti, who teamed with the director on "Sideways," is aboard to star as a man low on money who decides he can have a much nicer life if he undergoes a process to shrink himself.
Witherspoon, whose career took off after starring in Payne's "Election," would play a woman Giamatti meets on his journey as a miniature person. Baron Cohen would play a pint-sized foreigner.
Well, obviously Sacha Baron Cohen is the foreigner character. He has so many great, mildly-offensive accents in his arsenal, it would be a crime not to make him the foreigner character. The real question is if Jack Nicholson or a naked Kathy Bates will be unlockable secret characters.
Alexander Payne is 'Downsizing' [Variety]
Dec 23 2008 'Monsters vs. Aliens' Trailer
Dreamworks has released another trailer to its next unremarkable, celebrity-voiced CGI effort, Monsters vs. Aliens. It's no Steven Seagal v. Vampires, but what is?
Nov 4 2008 'Monsters vs. Aliens' Trailer: Classic Match-Up
Monsters versus aliens: classic match-up. Brute size and strength versus advanced technology. Unless we're talking about Aliens aliens, then it's brute size and strength versus acid blood and a smaller mouth inside the normal mouth. And sometimes are greatest "monsters" are in fact man (HITLER!). Still though, classic match-up, and it's just the battle you'll find inside DreamWorks' aptly-titled CGI comedy, Monsters vs. Aliens. Here is the trailer:
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Sep 15 2008 'Four Christmases' Trailer is Pukable
In the grand tradition of Meet the Fockers, The In-Laws, Monster-in-Law, et al, Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen, and Jon Voight join the ranks of aging celebrities exploited as wacky in-laws in Four Christmases, a movie you'll probably be forced to watch with your family this Christmas. In this grating ensemble comedy, Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn play a couple forced, for reasons not entirely explained, to consecutively visit each of their zany divorced parents over the holidays. Like the presence of the word "disaster" in the title of Disaster Movie, I feel the decision to include an "I'm going to puke" scene in Four Christmases will be a regrettable one that makes the inevitably lackluster reviews almost too easy to write.
Mar 11 2008 First 'Monsters vs. Aliens' Shot in ULTIMATE 3-D
DreamWorks has passed along some new information about upcoming kiddie-style B-movie, Monster Aliens, including the above shot of a giant gaunt woman and some monsters, a cast list, and the bitter threat of even higher ticket prices.
Reese Witherspoon as Susan Murphy, a modern-day California girl who has the bad luck to be hit by a meteor on her wedding day and grows to be 49 feet, 11½ inches tall (a wink at 1958's The Attack of the 50-Foot Woman). Captured by the military, she's renamed Ginormica.Joining her giantess to fend off Rainn Wilson's evil alien Gallaxhar are Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D. (Hugh Laurie), the jellylike B.O.B. (Seth Rogen) and the half-ape, half-fish Missing Link (Will Arnett). Kiefer Sutherland speaks for Gen. W.R. Monger (get it?), and Stephen Colbert is the president.
Good to hear Rogen could find time from being in every other comedy to join this, and that they were able to nail several quirky television actors popular with hip, young demographics--hearing the voices of House and Dwight Schrute should distract me from the mediocre attempt at one-upping Pixar--but what's the deal with the higher ticket prices?
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