I won't see Adam Sandler's new joint Jack and Jill because I'm a thinking organism, but my defiance is worthless: I've already watched Billy Madison enough times to line Opera Man's pockets with box office dollars for life. He already wins. The mid '90s marked a renaissance in vulgar, idiotic kid comedies (Dumb and Dumber, Tommy Boy, etc), and Sandler's breakthrough Billy Madison -- which barely earned back its $20 million budget -- remains the best of the bunch. Let's jump back in time and yell "O'Doyle rules!" at this loud old gem.
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Any photo of Robert Pattinson is embraced by the Internet, so this week's brand new Cosmopolis stills featuring the Twilight heartthrob were a welcome Web treat. But one of the photos struck me as eerily reminiscent of a classic image from Taxi Driver, which got me thinking about the similarities between Pattinson's upcoming David Cronenberg-directed project and Martin Scorsese's famous De Niro vehicle. Can you spot the likenesses?
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Happy Wednesday! Also in today's edition of The Broadsheet: Darren Aronofsky finally weighs in on the Kardashian divorce... Bargain-basement Captain Nemo adds a leading lady... The unfortunate conservative angle on Ratnergate... and more.
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Never underestimate the power of #RatnerFreeOscars! Just 24 hours after news of Brett Ratner's insensitive remarks about rehearsals (they're "for fags") and his sex life caused critics to protest his involvement in this year's 84th Academy Awards telecast, the Tower Heist director has stepped down as producer.
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At this point, it seems like The Hunger Games will be a slideshow of moody profile portraits and outdoorsy stills, but Lionsgate is determined to prove that it's going to be a real movie -- with another outdoorsy still. Here, Jennifer Lawrence (as the fearsome Katniss Everdeen) raises her bow and arrow to fire. Where's she aiming? Debate with us after the jump.
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Remember Oscar season 2010-11? Remember we had to keep caring about The Fighter? I can't believe how long we had to care about The Fighter. For me it was the Cold Mountain of 2011. The louder you squawked, the better your Oscar chances. Did you wave your hands frantically a lot of the time? Did you steal your accent from an SNL table read? See you at the dais. Anyway, I'm still sore with Mark Wahlberg, and I'm approaching the international trailer for his new movie Contraband with that rancor. It comes out in January, so it has to be laughable. Let's laugh.
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How does the machismo-filled cast of Expendables 2 entertain themselves in between takes on the Simon West-directed blockbuster sequel? Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis pose for photos in abandoned airplane hangars. Chuck Norris updates his Facebook account with shoddy tourist pics in Bulgaria and Jean-Claude Van Damme, it seems, plays with toy guns.
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When Joseph Gordon-Levitt isn't busy playing cops and pimping his HitRECordJoe empire, he clearly spends a lot of time studying the arts. Because, my friends, you don't just learn the lyrics to R. Kelly's "Ignition (Remix)" overnight. I speak from experience. Hit the jump to watch JGL make sweet, dirty aural love to an audience at OSU with his guitar and the R&B stylings of Mr. Robert Sylvester Kelly.
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Jennifer Saunders will begin scripting a feature version of her classic BBC series Absolutely Fabulous sometime next year, after she finishes work on the Spice Girls stage musical Viva Forever in London. Deadline reports that Ab Fab: The Movie will open with "Patsy and Edina waking up hungover in the empty drifting yacht of an oligarch in the middle of the ocean. Even worse, their cellphones can't get a signal." I'm torn -- I want to be excited that the movie's happening, but I can't shake the paralyzing sadness of Ab Fab's most recently aborted revival.
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When Joss Whedon first dropped Angelina Jolie's name while talking up his doomed Wonder Woman project, folks assumed he'd envisioned her in the lead role. Speaking with Rookie Magazine, he clarified: His Diana Prince, Amazon goddess, was merely Angelina-esque in her globe-trotting humanitarian leanings. And in a way, the superheroine would have been saved by love. Whedon explains after the jump.
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Leonardo DiCaprio tried his best to buck Clint Eastwood's reputation as a one-take director but it turns out that his J. Edgar co-star Armie Hammer had a totally difference experience than the leisurely ten-take routine described at last week's press conference. "There would be takes that we did where I was under the impression we were shooting a rehearsal," Hammer told Moviefone. "Or that the cameras weren't even on ... and that's what we used. [...] At one point he was like, "OK, cut, print." And I was like, "Whoa, whoa, Clint, I had my sides in my hands, I thought we were just rehearsing that." [Moviefone]
Of course The Muppets begins with a happy-clappy street symphony that looks like an outtake from Bjork's "It's Oh So Quiet." It's The Muppets, dammit! Perkiness on tap, puppetry on parade. Here, in this opening scene from the new movie, Jason Segel and his Muppet brother Walter don matching suits and sing about lovin' life. Because they do.
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I'm still waiting for anyone from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to bother replying to my request for comment about yesterday's Brett Ratner "rehearsing is for fags" imbroglio, but AMPAS president Tom Sherak has officially weighed in on the controversy: "He knew it was wrong and he issued that response as quickly as any human being ever has. The bottom line is, this won't and can't happen again. It will not happen again." So much for the #RatnerFreeOscars; it was nice to imagine while it lasted.
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Happy Tuesday! Also in today's edition of The Broadsheet: Christian Bale's awards horse enters the gate... A rare unadaptable Stephen King book may yet find its way to the screen... Andy Samberg and NBC draw an SNL lawsuit... and more.
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Very happy news on the wire today: Wendi McLendon-Covey, whose hilarious role in Bridesmaids all but vanished in the film's third act, is set to star in A White Trash Christmas, a Christmas Carol revamp in which a "whiskey-soaked, trashy mother is visited by three ghosts who try to show her a path to a brighter future." While this character sounds like a retread of her Bridesmaids part, I'm always down for a lady-led Scrooged reboot. (A Diva's Christmas Carol, anyone?) This leads us to a larger question: Is McLendon-Covey the unsung hero of Bridesmaids? We provide evidence after the jump.
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