The cool thing about genuinely funny people is that they can get laughs out of doing the same thing over and over and over again. When mere mortals are intentionally repetitive, they usually get punched in the face. On Tuesday night, Paul Rudd appeared on Conan O'Brien's TBS talk show with what he claimed was a clip from the highly anticipated Anchorman 2. "This is going to go crazy viral," said Conan, setting up what has been a running joke between the two men for a while now. more »
Director Paul Weitz wanted Tina Fey so badly for his new movie Admission that he was willing to keep her clothed. "Originally the movie was closer to the book in that it had a couple of legitimate sex scenes in it and I was like 'Urk!'" Fey tells me. "So they were kind enough to accommodate that."
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Though smarter than your average dramedy, Paul Weitz’s forced Admission faces some major identity issues. Tina Fey plays a discombobulated Princeton admissions officer who must confront the limits of her morals when she learns that a potential Princeton applicant might be the son she gave up for adoption. What appears on paper to be an ideal three-dimensional, morally complex role for the quick-witted comedienne backfires in practice, relying on Fey to be funny in a movie that works better serious. Despite offering consolation to the world’s many Ivy League rejects that the gatekeepers sometimes make mistakes, low entrance levels await. more »
This is 40 ends with a title card saying that it's "Based on characters created by Judd Apatow." While this is true — the film's about Debbie (Leslie Mann) and Pete (Paul Rudd), who were supporting figures in Apatow's 2007 hit Knocked Up — it also feels like it might be more accurate for it to declare "Based on Judd Apatow." It doesn't just star his wife Mann, it features their daughters Maude and Iris as her children, and it's not hard to read Rudd's character as an Apatow proxy who's struggling through the world of music instead of, these days, riding high in comedy.
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Indie pic
Celeste and Jesse Forever played Sundance back in January and achieved that much sought-after hallmark of success: an acquisition deal with a big-name distributor - in this case the venerable Sony Pictures Classics. But the movie that had some false starts before shooting began did make it to the screen and if a gala screening of the film last night in New York is any measure, it should see more success. In addition to cast members Rashida Jones (who also co-wrote the film) and Rebecca Dayan as well as writer Will McCormack and director Lee Toland Krieger,
Anne Hathaway,
Paul Rudd,
David Schwimmer,
Amy Poehler,
Aziz Ansari, Andy Cohen and Max Greenfield turned out for the event, hosted by The Peggy Siegal Company and the International Rescue Committee.
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Also in Wednesday afternoon's quick news roundup, The Hobbit is set to premiere in Down Under later this year, Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch complete a "secret" indie and Captain America 2 appears to have found its directors. Also up is news on a network starring Asian Americans and Universal chief Ron Meyer heads to UCLA festivities.
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Also in today's Biz Break: Tim Heidecker's polarizing Comedy finds a buyer, Matthew Lillard's Fat Kid heads to Cannes, an Italian festival war turns even uglier, and more...
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Considering its relatively mundane subject matter -- Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann's Knocked Up characters, Pete and Debbie, go into mid-life crisis mode when age 40 approaches -- there's a deceptive amount of classic signatures in Judd Apatow's This is 40. Yes, I'm talking about dick jokes. And boners and nipples and vagina tree rings and whatever it is that Rudd is gazing at through a mirror without his pants on. In other words: Comedy gold! Right?
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The title of David Wain's latest directorial effort suggests more direction than its urbanite couple George (Paul Rudd) and Linda (Jennifer Aniston) really have. "Wanderlust" indicates feeling an urge to seek out new pastures, but when the pair end up on the road it's only because they've been forced there, unemployment sending them plummeting out of their Manhattan lifestyle like satellites knocked from their orbits. George works in an office and Linda has so far just bounced from whim to whim -- her most recent unsuccessful venture is a documentary about penguins with cancer -- and the two have scraped together the cash to buy what their real-estate agent euphemistically calls a "microloft" in the West Village. They can't sell the tiny apartment, and they can't afford to keep it when George loses his job and HBO turns down Linda's film for being depressing (and not sexy depressing), and so they end up slinking down to Atlanta in defeat to stay with George's bullying brother (Ken Marino) and stumbling across bed and breakfast/commune Elysium on the way.
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"Inconceivable!" With a single word, unveiled at the close of last month's live-read of The Apartment, Jason Reitman launched AOUS (that's Anticipation of Unusual Size) for the December 15 installment in his brilliant LACMA/Film Independent series. Few films are so magical, so beloved, so instantly and indelibly quotable as The Princess Bride, Rob Reiner's 1987 fantasy-comedy, written by William Goldman, about a princess and her pirate and those involved in and affected by their adventure. And few live-read casting choices could be as inspired as Reitman's: Paul Rudd in the Westley role originated by Cary Elwes, Cary Elwes in the Humperdinck role originated by Chris Sarandon, and, performing the part of the Grandson first portrayed by Fred Savage over two decades ago... Fred Savage.
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