Nov 3 2009 Say Your Prayers, Berenstain Bears: You're a Movie Now
Hollywood anthropologists have stumbled upon a new relic from your youth to CGI into real-world scenarios! USA Today reports Shawn Levy, the man responsible for making museum displays attack/befriend Ben Stiller, is producing a live-action/CGI adaptation of your favorite pompadoured, ursine children's book characters, The Berenstain Bears:
Writers have yet to be hired, but Levy says he wants the film to be an original story incorporating details from some of the more popular Berenstain books."I'd like the film to be un-ironic about its family connections but have a wry comedic sensibility that isn't oblivious to the fact that they're bears," Levy says. "The comedy comes from this bear family coexisting in a more recognizably real world."
Levy compared his vision of the film to the tone of Will Ferrell's Elf, which had a sweet, earnest hero who clashed with his cynical surroundings. "I think the movie will be witty but never sarcastic," he says.
Elf worked because Will Ferrell appeared normal to members of the real world, making his eccentric behavior bewildering to normal people attempting to interact with him and amusing if not tiresome to those of us in on his origins. How is this going to work like Elf? The Berenstain Bears are fucking bears. Papa Bear walks out of the house, someone is eventually going to say, "Holy shit, that's a bipedal bear with a hairdo dressed like Bob Vila! Call the police!" Is this film going to take place in some bizarre otherverse wherein human-like bears are acceptable but naïve bears that strictly obey a '50s family structure and ethics code with strict gender roles are weird? This picture book concept has suddenly become really confusing.
Oct 1 2009 Hugh Jackman To Play Boxer, Robot Boxer Trainer
Hugh Jackman, our premiere song-and-dance-man/clawed-superhero, is in talks to join the ridiculous robot boxer movie Real Steal.
The Shawn Levy-directed film would reportedly star Jackman as a Rocky Balboa-esque down-and-out fighter making a comeback. Except, you know how Rocky had to train hard to fight a younger, tougher opponent? Instead of that, Jackman would be training a boxing robot, in order for that boxing robot to fight another boxing robot. It's that kind of comeback. A real man-finds-redemption-through-fighting-robots story.
Dreamworks is hoping to get the film shooting by May, and John Gatins and Levy currently are working on the third draft for the script in preparation. Keep at it, guys. With seven months until production, I know you'll figure out a way to make it believable when, inexplicably, the robot refuses to fight and Jackman has to put on a robot disguise and win the match, earning the respect of his son and himself (and robotkind).
Sep 16 2009 Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots: The Movie (Unofficially)
Night at the Museums director Shawn Levy has signed on to direct Real Steel, a film--sadly, unassociated with Shaq's Steel--that will make you wonder how no one had yet thought to combine the Terminator and pugilism:
[T]he "Steel" story line takes place in a near future where human boxing has been outlawed, and heavy, humanoid robots slug it out in the ring instead. Into this world step a father and his estranged teenage son, who train an extraordinary fighter.
Wait, so in the future robots have to be trained to fight? What happened to programming them to be natural fighters and then having them flip through a boxing book super-fast like in Short Circuit? That seems like a step backward in boxing robot technology. Unless, à la Rocky IV, maybe evil programming and accelerated book reading is what only the Russian, Aryan boxing robots do.
Apr 14 2009 Wahlberg, Franco, Others Plan for 'Date Night'
Looking to out-starstud his previous star-studded, night-themed efforts, Night at the Museum director Shawn Levy has added several more notable names to his upcoming comedy, Date Night:
Wahlberg and Franco have signed on for supporting roles in the Shawn Levy-helmed comedy for 20th Century Fox. Leighton Meester, Common, Taraji P. Henson and Kristen Wiig have also boarded the project.Penned by Josh Klausner, comedy revolves around a married couple who find themselves in harm's way after their routine date night goes horribly awry.
Wahlberg plays a successful and crazily buff securities expert who flirts with Fey's character. Franco portrays a not-too-bright conman and petty criminal. Meester is onboard as the couple's babysitter. Henson plays the one good cop who believes the couple is in danger, and Common portrays a villain. Wiig, who worked with Fey on "Saturday Night Live," rounds out the cast as the actress' best friend.
I just hope I'll be able to believe Mark Wahlberg as a muscly security guy after seeing him so convincingly portray a science teacher in The Happening. It can get so hard to reconcile all the varied, often implausible hats worn by Wahlberg.
Wahlberg, Franco join 'Date Night' [Variety]
Aug 15 2008 Steve Carel and Tina Fey Are Having a Terrible Date
Hey, a comedy starring Steve Carell and Tina Fey? Sounds like someone has been watching the only parts of NBC's primetime schedule that don't make you want to die. This could be good, right? Nope:
Steve Carell and Tina Fey are set to play a married couple in "Date Night," a 20th Century Fox comedy to be directed by Shawn Levy.Josh Klausner wrote the script, based on an idea by Levy, whose 21 Laps will produce. Story follows a couple who find their routine date night becomes much more than just dinner and a movie.
Levy, who is shooting Fox's "Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian," intends the pic to be his next directing assignment.
If you didn't catch that, Date Night is being directed by the man responsible for choking the final breaths out of Steve Martin with Cheaper by the Dozen and The Pink Panther, giving us our first taste of Ashton Kutcher-married-as-comedy with Just Married, and making Night at the Museum and its upcoming sequel. In other words, Carell and Fey will be the slices of bread holding together a shit sandwich.
Carell, Fey ready for 'Date Night' [Variety]
