From Movieline's international desk comes a dispatch from Malaysia -- that shining beacon of dignity, tolerance and spirituality where now, at last, it's all right for gay characters to appear in mainstream films. Hooray, right? Wait, there's more coming over the wire, hang on... Oh. This sucks.
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You wouldn't know from the first 10 minutes of Greenberg that it is -- or ever could be -- a Ben Stiller film. Blame it on Greta Gerwig, the 25-year-old indie muse making her mainstream debut in Noah Baumbach's nervy comedy. Starring as Florence, a young woman slogging through post-collegiate malaise as a personal assistant to a wealthy L.A. family, Gerwig embodies a sort of ethereal ennui before meeting her spiritual (and possibly romantic) match in Stiller's narcissistic-creep title character. The veteran actor may usurp the story in the end, but from the start -- a walk in the Hills, a drive through Hollywood, the routine of deference, servitude and resilience -- Gerwig hand-tailors the narrative with a lilting sincerity arguably never before seen in a Baumbach film. Attribute what you will to the touch of Baumbach's wife and story collaborator Jennifer Jason Leigh, but it's Gerwig's optimism and resolve that take the day. "You like me a lot more than you think you do," she tells Greenberg late in the film, daring to suggest that even when it's all about him, it's really about her. Which, of course, it is.
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· A few more details have emerged about Rosie O'Donnell's return to the daytime talk-o-sphere. Instead of letting a studio produce the project, O'Donnell will form an independent production company with syndication vets Dick Robertson and Scott Carlin for the venture. And contrary to reports that Rosie might succeed Oprah, entertainment insiders maintain that many ABC stations have already planned to replace Oprah with local programming. Even if they hadn't, the Disney-owned network is reportedly not eager to welcome back O'Donnell, who stirred up The View's pot and veered into controversial political territory during her last few seasons on ABC's Rosie O'Donnell Show. [THR]
Christian Slater finds humor in security systems, Starz revisits Arthurian mythology, and more TV Bites after the jump.
· Jennifer Connelly and Greg Kinnear have joined the cast of Salvation Boulevard, with Marisa Tomei in talks to join them for the story of a hippie-turned-born-again-Christian on the run from the congregation of his megachurch, to which the ex-Deadhead poses some kind of threat. Pierce Brosnan, Jim Gaffigan and Ed Harris committed to the film previously; George Ratliff (Joshua) co-wrote and will direct. Praise the Lord, etc. [Variety]
Rebecca Hall throws Will Ferrell out, two-thirds of Team Antichrist contemplates a reunion, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
The idea hit me first when I was watching John Cusack in 2012. Yes, it was weird that the actor had lent himself to a role that required him to shout and fake-drive a lot against blue screen, but what was stranger was that even his barely sketched character seemed cribbed from his recent films: he played a limo driver, as he did in Identity, and an author, as in 1408 and Martian Child, who tried to bond with his estranged progeny by taking them on a trip, kinda like in The Contract and Grace Is Gone. But, sufficiently mindblown by 2012's spectacle and moments of giraffe emotion, I forgot about the seeming sameness. That was, until this week's Hot Tub Time Machine.
Welcome to Movieline's new daily feature, where we step into the wayback machine, hit the "I feel lucky" button, and revisit events and people, tremendous and trivial.
And wouldn't you know it, the very day we start is the 115th birthday of the movies! After the jump... See! Workers leave their factory! Thrill! As... industrial... functionaries... exit... their place of... employment! Plus! The flop that was SelectaVision and birthday best to James T. Kirk.
Comic-book movies are the gold standard and studios did pretty well out of westernizing J-horror. So could a combination of the two -- multiplex manga movies -- be a new license to print money? DreamWorks is still shaping their live-action 3-D remake of Ghost In The Shell and now Warner Bros. -- who're already developing a two-part live-action adaptation of 1988 landmark Akira with The Hughes Brothers -- are reportedly adding Bleach to their slate.
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Twilight will be firmly in his sights if he's to host the MTV Movie Awards but even so, Aziz Ansari faces some tough decisions. Which jokes are too obvious? Too offensive to the Twi-hards who'll make up a large chunk of the audience? And now -- breaking! -- there's the bummer of your foil spoiling the laughs by 'fessing to exactly what much of the over-16 population of this planet has been saying for a few years.
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According to the Los Angeles Times blog Show Tracker, Parks and Recreation MVP and all-around comedy king, Aziz Ansari is in "final negotiations" to host the 2010 MTV Movie Awards, airing live on June 6 at Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City. Justin Bieber better grow eyes in the back of his head. [Show Tracker]
Maybe Tim Burton should plan on directing The Addams Family in 3D after all. For a third straight week, Alice in Wonderland topped the box office in dominating fashion and it now ranks as Burton's highest grossing movie ever. Congrats! No such praise is necessary for The Bounty Hunter co-stars Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler, but despite what you've read, the opening for their film wasn't that disastrous. Find out why—and see the rest of the top-five—after the jump.
Whether or not Ben Folds is actually the infamous Chatroulette piano player known as Merton (and he's probably not), that doesn't mean he can't have some fun. Last night at a concert in Charlotte, North Carolina, the singer performed a tribute to Merton in front of 2000 people. The video, as Movieline editor Seth Abramovitch said in an e-mail, is "something awesome." Watch after the jump!
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Even on its co-productions, Marvel Studios can't seem to catch a break. Fresh off the controversies surrounding Captain America (have you heard about those?), now comes word that the flagship franchise, X-Men, has hit some choppy waters. Possibly. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, director Bryan Singer and producer Lauren Shuler Donner discuss all things Men with the glowing optimism of two people who made massive fortunes off the trials and tribulations of Wolverine and his friends. The big takeaway is that Singer is returning to the franchise after a two-film absence for X-Men: First Class (written by Gossip Girl and Chuck executive producer Josh Schwartz), a prequel to the 2000 original. And there's even talk of him directing a sequel to Wolverine and a fourth X-Men film. Though of the latter project, Singer demurred, "Hold that one off for just a little, I'm fixated on the other one [First Class] right now." This should all be great news, except for one Giant problem: a prior engagement.
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Forget health care reform. The big news last night came from Grey's Anatomy executive producer Shonda Rhimes. Via her Twitter feed, the feisty showrunner announced that the upcoming season finale is "a serious game-changer for every single character." Cue: ominous thunderclaps! Assuming this missive means something horrible will befall Katherine Heigl's Dr. Izzie Stevens—Rhimes does seem to take a certain delight in getting rid of actors she has a problem with by disposing of their characters in awful ways; see: T.R. Knight's George getting hit by a bus—what other "game-changing" surprises could be in store for your favorite Seattle Grace/Mercy West characters? To the speculation!
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Hot Tub Time Machine: A well-respected cultural touchstone? Maybe! In the last week alone the ridiculous time-travel comedy has gotten a rave review from Jeffrey Wells (in typical Wells fashion, he said that anyone who doesn't find Machine funny is "dead inside") and been mentioned on 30 Rock (though Liz Lemon didn't seem like a fan). And now it even makes an appearance in the Old Grey Lady herself, The New York Times. In today's Arts & Leisure section the film's four stars--John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson and Clark Duke--discuss all things 80s during a roundtable discussion. The questions cover everything you'd expect--Michael Jackson, The A-Team--and the answers range from fairly straight (Robinson) to funny (Corddry) to "trying to hard to be funny" (Duke). And then there's John Cusack...
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Despite the lovely weather around the country—unless you live in the midwest; sorry suckers!—there's a good chance a large number of 'tween girls haven't left the house since 12:01 a.m. this morning. That's because they're too busy watching The Twilight Saga: New Moon over and over again on DVD and Blu-ray! However, unless they were smart enough to travel to their local Walmart, they likely haven't gotten a chance to watch a brand new scene from Eclipse.
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