Let the rehabilitation of Lance Armstrong begin? The Hollywood Reporter reports that Ben Stiller and his producing partner Stuart Cornfeld have commissioned screenwriter Clay Tarver to write a sequel to Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, and I think it could be a key public-relations opportunity for the disgraced Tour de France cyclist. more »
The Watch (nee Neighborhood Watch) truncated its title to avoid conjuring the February killing of Trayvon Martin and its plot contains no major similarities to the teen's controversial death. But in the wake of the Aurora, Colorado mass shooting — which may have spawned at least one would-be copycat thwarted today in Maryland — some of the violence-based laughs in the Ben Stiller-Vince Vaughn comedy might hit too close to home for some moviegoers.
more »
Walking out of The Watch, Saturday Night Live writer Akiva Schaffer’s garrulous but indistinctive sophomore directing effort, a young woman in front of me complained to her friend. “What do you even say about that?” he’d asked. “I have no idea,” she said. She only had to write up a list of the movie’s pros and cons, and even then she could think of but one item for the former column.
A caped crusader. A city wiped clean of criminals. A madman with a doomsday device who terrorizes the populace until average citizen heroes step forward to help save the day. Batman? Nope! On the heels of The Dark Knight Rises, Movieline takes a look back at 1999's Mystery Men, new to Blu-ray, in the latest installment of Inessential Essentials.
more »
Man, tip your cap to the marketing crew at 20th Century Fox, which redirected one of 2012's most unfortunate current-events overlaps into a completely revised angle that it probably should have pursued in the first place. Behold: the new and improved teaser for The Watch, complete with introduction by star Vince Vaughn.
more »
Undoubtedly there will be tons of photographers and screaming fans outside as Ben Stiller, Jessica Chastain, Chris Rock, Martin Short, Jada Pinkett-Smith and David Schwimmer ascend the steps at the Palais des Festivals for the world premiere of their latest film. And it will be the best look at them that the crowd will have all night, particularly since they won't be onscreen — the movie is Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted.
more »
High five to Fox for pulling their bullet-ridden Neighborhood Watch marketing materials from Florida theaters this week following the February killing of Trayvon Martin. Trying to get as much distance as possible from the teaser's emphasis on grown men Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill, and Richard Ayoade stalking and finger-shooting suburban kids is a good idea and a sensitive move -- not to mention a no-brainer necessity, PR-wise -- so the studio's forthcoming campaign will likely focus on the film's "broad alien-invasion comedy" elements. But even four months from now, will it be too soon for Neighborhood Watch to make fun escapism out of vigilante violence?
more »
While promoting Tower Heist during a recent television interview, Eddie Murphy took a moment to forecast that he will be the most awful Academy Awards host of all time. (Has he seen last year's ceremony co-hosted by Anne Hathaway and James Franco?) Click through to watch Murphy repeatedly cut off his Tower Heist co-star Ben Stiller to predict just how bad his Oscars show will be. Spoiler alert: It ends with a powder blue suit and a golden statuette shower.
In addition to giving the Gaddafi assassination the ol' Taiwanese 'toon treatment, the good folks at Next Media Animation have processed the recent Avengers trailer through their kooky CG filters. The result? One and a half minutes of hilarious superhero (and gyrating ScarJo) action that imagines the titular crime fighters are called to assemble to battle the evil, cell phone-hacking, nude pic-distributing Loki. There's no way the actual movie will be this entertaining. Stick around for more Buzz Break!
The latest trailer for Tower Heist is out, and not a minute too soon as Universal prepares to undertake Hollywood's most adventurous journey yet on the VOD frontier: Releasing Brett Ratner's comedy to on-demand audiences just three weeks after its Nov. 4 theatrical opening. Exhibitors are pledging boycotts, pundits are wringing their hands, and competing studios are paying extra close attention to how it could all affect them. All of which misses the bottom line for viewers, which is: How much???
This past May, Ben Stiller gave us hope that a sequel to Zoolander could still happen...if only Paramount would approve the script. And now Owen Wilson is teasing fans of the 2001 modeling comedy by offering some clues about his character's role in the much-anticipated Twolander. "Hansel, he's fallen on hard times," Wilson told MTV. "There's been a disfiguring injury." When pressed for further explanation, the actor offered one hint that could help unlock the sequel's plot. Put on your most fashionable detective hat and join us after the jump to help us solve this modeling sequel mystery.
Another day, another set of publicity stills from upcoming movies for all of us to wrap our snarky heads around. Peek into the distant future (all the way to fall 2011) and help Movieline figure out what's going on in these images from Brett Ratner's tower heist flick Tower Heist, Tate Taylor's period novel adaptation The Help, and John Singleton's Abduction, AKA Taylor Lautner Gets $7.5 Million to Play Tom Cruise.
FILM NEWS 
