Also in this TGIF-tastic edition of The Broadsheet: Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze are ready to party like it's 1999... a Boardwalk Empire scene stealer gets up to series regular... I survived 127 Hours and all I got was this lousy website... and more ahead.
So there's good news and bad news to report this beautiful Friday morning. The bad news: Studios mostly hate you today. The good news: There are more than enough new-release alternatives to keep you occupied throughout the weekend -- assuming, that is, that you aren't previously committed to Christmas shopping and/or anything else that will keep you miles from the multiplex. Don't overbook your days off just yet, though...
The teaser for Paul revealed the setup of this geek-wet-dream-alien-road-trip-comedy (sure to soon be a profitable Hollywood sub-genre), and now the full trailer gives a glimpse at the follow-through. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are still hilarious, but the trailer as a whole is kind of a mixed bag. Well, unless you just can't get enough alien dick jokes. Then it's a home run.
Between 1964 and 1966, Andy Warhol filmed a series of silent, black and white 16mm short films called "Screen Tests" that featured his hip friends like Lou Reed and Yoko Ono sitting around and doing very little for seven-minute uninterrupted takes. In celebration of their new exhibition of the Screen Tests, the Museum of Modern Art has a launched nifty interactive feature that allows you to create your own 90-second version of these screen tests. Check out some clips from the original tests for Dennis Hopper, Salvador Dali (in all of his upside-down glory) and Nico for inspiration after the jump, then go wild! And by "go wild" I mean just sit there.
As much as I still resent Blockbuster Video for using predatory pricing to put every local video store that I loved out of business, their ordeal is just getting sad. For their first advertising campaign since 2007, the currently bankrupt company ignored our suggestions and instead opted to brag about getting new releases 28 days before Netflix and Redbox. Now NCR, which operates Blockbuster's kiosks nationwide, has shot that selling point down by making a deal with Warner Brothers that requires Blockbuster to wait the same 28 days. Ouch.
· At least that is what Movieline HQ is assuming after reviewing this year's Oscar poster, which appears to be the blandest advertisement for any award show in recent history. Maybe the Academy just wasted all of its originality when choosing James Franco and Anne Hathaway as this year's co-hosts? [Hollywood-elsewhere.com]
In James L. Brooks's new romantic comedy How Do You Know, Owen Wilson co-stars as a loopy, commitment-phobic major league pitcher who romances Reese Witherspoon's character (to the best of his ability) during a low point in her career. How did Wilson get to a point in his career where he is acting opposite Oscar winners (Witherspoon, Jack Nicholson) in an Academy Award-decorated scribe's script? Movieline charts the eight roles that lead Owen Wilson to this point.
"Breaking News: actor Morgan Freeman has passed away in his Burbank home." That was the tweet sent from @CNN earlier this afternoon, one that was quickly refuted. "Not true," said Morgan's rep to our sister site Hollywood Life. "His production partner Lori McCreary is speaking to him now as I type." Phew! For its part, CNN is taking this mistake in stride; first they deleted the offending tweet, and then wrote this: "CNN did not report Morgan Freeman death. Rumor is false. CNN will aggressively investigate this hoax." Er, good call. [Hollywood Life]
Well, then! Warner Bros. announced today that George Clooney will replace Robert Downey Jr. in Alfonso Cuaron's highly anticipated -- and perhaps actually happening -- Gravity. Clooney will co-star alongside Sandra Bullock in the space drama, though his part is of the supporting variety. What does this mean for that report about Clooney's involvement in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. with Steven Soderbergh? Perhaps another addition to the Ridiculous Casting/Development Rumors list is needed. [Deadline]
Stars, they're just like us! They even exchange gifts with their co-workers at the holidays, no matter what differences they may have had over the course of the year. (Louis will still be getting a tasty bit of salt water taffy even though he knows what he did.) What kind of gifts did comedy icon Chevy Chase get his friends on the cast of Community? Tweets Movieline friend Gillian Jacobs: "Chevy gave us all cat urine detectors for the Holidays. No joke." Cat urine isn't a joke, Gillian; now the next time you get a used carpet, you'll be protected. [@GillianJacobs]
· Not sure what would qualify as more depressing: That someone spent a good portion of their day creating this nearly six-minute montage of various film and television characters saying some variation on "we're not in Kansas anymore," or that there were enough instances of the famous Wizard of Oz line in film and television to warrant a six-minute montage. Either way, we probably lose. Click ahead to watch, Toto, then stick around for more Buzz Break.
Just over the transom at Movieline HQ comes word that Duncan Jones' Source Code will have its world premiere at the opening night of South by Southwest on March. The twisty, science-fiction hybrid stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a soldier who keeps reliving the same train bombing with the hopes of finding the cul -- BOOM. Just over the transom at Movieline HQ comes word that Duncan Jones' Source Code will have its world premiere at the opening night of South by Southwest in March. The twisty, science-fiction hybrid stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a soldier who keeps reliving the same train bombing with the hopes of finding the cul -- BOOM. Just over the transom at Movieline HQ comes word that Duncan Jones' Source Code will have its world premiere at the opening night of South by Southwest in March. The twisty, science-fiction hybrid stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a soldier who keeps reliving the same train bombing with the hopes of finding the cul -- BOOM. Joke, killed. (Bows.)
About that time Winona Ryder met Mel Gibson: "I remember, like, fifteen years ago, I was at one of those big Hollywood parties. And he was really drunk. I was with my friend, who's gay. He made a really horrible gay joke. And somehow it came up that I was Jewish. He said something about 'oven dodgers,' but I didn't get it. I'd never heard that before. It was just this weird, weird moment. I was like, 'He's anti-Semitic and he's homophobic.' No one believed me!" Oven dodgers? Good lord, Mel. [GQ]
Seems like this sad year of Hollywood deaths isn't going down without a fight: Acclaimed director Blake Edwards passed away this morning at age 88, with wife Julie Andrews and his children by his side. Edwards was a force, with 46 television and film critics to his name, including such classics as Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Pink Panther, Days of Wine and Roses, 10 and Victor Victoria (the latter two which both featured Andrews). Just recently, Andrews dropped out of a PBS New Year's celebration because of her husband's health problems. [Variety]
Word just over the transom at Movieline HQ reports that the new owners of Miramax Films will partner with the studio's founders, Harvey and Bob Weinstein, to develop a set of sequels and TV projects mined from the Weinstein-era Miramax library. And hoo boy, have they chosen some interesting ones.
FILM NEWS 
