Neighborhood Watch is a script that has been in development at Fox for some time, beginning with the period when it was going to be a Will Ferrell vehicle. The story centers on a small neighborhood watch organization that really exists so that dads can get time away from their families. Things get complicated and dangerous when the group uncovers a dangerous and otherwordly plot.
Pete Segal was the last director attached to the project, but it has been seemingly fallow for a few months. Now Akiva Schaffer, a veteran of SNL and Lonely Island member, has been offered the director’s chair by Fox, and Ben Stiller is reportedly interested in playing the lead as a follow-up to Brett Ratner’s Tower Heist. The fact that Neighborhood Watch is produced by Shawn Levy, who directed Ben Stiller to great financial success in the two Night at the Museum Movies, probably doesn’t hurt the possible deal. Read More »
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What is Page 2? Page 2 is a compilation of stories and news tidbits, which for whatever reason, didn’t make the front page of /Film. After the jump we’ve included 29 different items, fun images, videos, casting tidbits, articles of interest and more. It’s like a mystery grab bag of movie web related goodness. If you have any interesting items that we might’ve missed that you think should go in /Film’s Page 2 – email us!
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The slightly sci-fi comedy Neighborhood Watch has been kicking around Fox for a couple of years. Once a Will Ferrell project, it was rumored as a possible Zombieland follow-up for Ruben Fleischer. But Peter Segal is now attached to direct, and Superbad co-writers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg have been hired to rewrite. Read More »
Kevin Smith announced the opening round of casting for his film Red State while at Comic Con, and the biggest name is one that probably isn’t known to a widespread audience, but will mean a lot to hardcore film fans. Michael Parks (From Dusk Till Dawn, Kill Bill) has been cast in one of the lead roles. Red State is loosely based on the Westboro Baptist Church — that’s the bunch of hardcore loonies who protest left and right with signs like ‘God Hates Fags.’ The church is led by Fred Phelps, and Parks’ role will be loosely based on Phelps.
We might not expect to know a lot more until the film is actually shot, as Smith has said that “this time I’m just trying to just do it differently where I’m like ‘let’s kind of quietly make the movie and see what happens.’” In other words, this one is on the DL until it’s in the can.
After the break, casting news for Seann William Scott, who has two potential hockey comedies coming up, including one by Kevin Smith. Read More »
Dave Gross and Jesse Shapira are busy. They’re teaming with Youth in Revolt producer David Permut to make Pictures of You, the Joshua Friedlander script that was on the 2007 Black List. The teen-oriented romantic comedy will complement another funny picture Gross and Shapira have in the works: Goon, a hockey comedy written by Jay Baruchel and Superbad‘s Evan Goldberg. Read More »
Some small superhero news today. First up is a weird bit of casting. According to EW, Cameron Diaz has been offered the female lead role in WB’s Green Hornet, where she’d be opposite Seth Rogen, working for director Michel Gondry. That’s a weird offer…maybe a couple years after The Mask it would have made sense, or even around the Charlie’s Angels era. But Diaz has fallen into the romcom zone, and it’s more difficult to see it working now. Nothing against Diaz; it just seems like a weird fit. But then, we know very very little about this film. Maybe Rogen, co-writer Evan Goldberg and Gondry have come up with something no one expects, where she makes more sense.
And then there’s some Spider-Man 4 news. Hit the jump for more. Read More »
While doing press for next month’s shock-and-awesome Jody Hill comedy, Observe & Report, Seth Rogen put up a new quote regarding his superhero caper, The Green Hornet. He told Collider that filming is set for late June, and vaguely elaborated on director Michel Gondry‘s vision for the 2010 could-be blockbuster…
“Me and Evan [Goldberg] have actually approached him with ideas like maybe we could do something like this…you could do some of your weird people made out of string and shit like that. He’s like, ‘No, I don’t want to any of that. The fact that you think I want to do that drives me crazy and makes me never want to do anything like that again.’”
Seth Rogen’s 4th grade grammar teacher sighs (also: is jealous). I still find the dumbfounded early reaction to Gondry’s involvement more surprising than the news itself, not that Rogen doesn’t play into it. There’s a dapper, Chinatown-lite sensibility to the character proper that can be gleamed in Gondry’s more bolstered video work, like Beck’s “Deadweight” for example. Per the plot, Rogen added that he is now “embracing” the tenets of an origins story, which is not a bad idea considering that, unlike Batman, the general public is unawares.
Stephen Chow will no longer be directing Columbia Pictures’ big screen adaptation of The Green Hornet after all. Apparently he has stepped down due to “creative differences”. It’s likely that Chow butted heads with the studio or producers/screenwriters Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Chow is still attached to play the Hornet’s sidekick Kato.
The studio is on the search for a new director and still plans to begin production by Spring for the announced June 25th 2010 release date. Variety says that a new director could be attached by year’s end (which is just a couple weeks away).
I actually think this is a bit of good news for the project. While I’ve certainly enjoyed Chow’s films, I am not interested in his take on this superhero franchise. I have never believed that Chow’s over-the-top style comedy would be a good fit for this project. What do you guys think?
The crime-fighting character was created by Fran Striker and George Trendle, who also created The Lone Ranger, for a radio serial that launched in 1936 on WXYZ Detriot. The series detailed the adventures of millionaire publisher Britt Reid, a debonair newspaper publisher by day, crime-fighting masked hero at night, along with his sidekick, Kato. The series has had several incarnations, including a film series, comic books, and a live-action 1960′s TV series that starred Van Williams and introduced Bruce Lee to U.S. audiences.
