Each year some of the commercials from the biggest brands during the Super Bowl are directed by big name filmmakers (remember Ridley Scott‘s classic Apple “1984″ Super Bowl ad). The 2012 Super Bowl commercials feature spots directed by Todd Phillips, Bobby Farrelly, David Gordon Green, Miguel Arteta, Noam Murro, Craig Gillespie, Matthijs van Heijningen Jr., Joe Pytka, Jake Scott, Fredick Bond, Peter Berg and others. After the jump I’ve collected 18 of the tv spots directed by big screen talent, breaking down who directed what.
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I wasn’t planning to write about Gallery1988′s first annual “Is This Thing On” art show as it really has little connection to movies or television (or so I thought… the above piece featuring Judd Apatow mashed-up with the infamous Star Trek Tribbles episode is a fine example of this). The show, co-sponsored by FunnyOrDie, features over 100 artists, each creating pieces that are portraits of their favorite funny people, both beloved comics of yesteryear and emerging superstars.
The line up of comedians depicted include: Chris Farley, Will Ferrel, Richard Pryor, Don Rickles, Paul Reubens,Tim & Eric, Nick Kroll, Demetri Martin, Chris Rock, Whitney Cummings, Jon Lovitz, Sam Kinison, Bill Murray, Woody Allen, Colin Quinn, Bill Hicks, Howard Stern, Judd Apatow, Chris Hardwick, Marc Maron, Scott Auckerman, David Spade, Andy Dick, Lenny Bruce, Adam Sandler, Amy Sedaris, Lisa Lampanelli, David Cross, Andy Kaufman, Christopher Guest, Mr. Show, Rob Corddry and Children’s Hospital, Gilbert Gottfried, Jeffrey Ross, Bill Cosby, Bobcat Goldthwait, Tracy Morgan, Roseanne, Patton Oswalt, Dave Attell, David Wain and Wet Hot American Summer, Will Forte, John Candy, Lilly Tomlin, Phil Hartman, John Belushi, Mel Brooks and Young Frankenstein, Chevy Chase, Louis CK, Norm MacDonald, Flight of the Conchords, Jim Carrey, Reggie Watts, Steve Martin, Larry David, Rodney Dangerfield, Mitch Hedberg, Ellen DeGenerous, Margaret Cho, Steven Wright, Conan O’Brien, David Letterman, Richard Lewis, George Carlin, UCB Theater LA, Upright Citizen Brigade (TV show), Human Giant, Sasha Baron Cohen, Gallagher, Dana Carvey, Jon Stewart and The Daily Show, Danny McBride, Carrot Top, Greg Giraldo, Donald Glover, Zach Galifiankis, Charlene Yi, Andrew “Dice” Clay, Chris Elliot, Jon Lovitz, Artie Lange, Doug Benson, Redd Foxx, Ben Stiller, Ricky Gervais, Dave Chapelle, Chelsea Handler, Aziz Ansari, Eddie Murphy, SF Sketchfest, Cheech & Chong, Sarah Silverman, Stella, Jerry Seinfeld, Robin Williams, Brian Posehn, Charlie Murphy and Kids In The Hall.
The show is ongoing until January 29th 2011 in the Melrose Gallery 1988 location. Hirt the jump to see some of my favorite pieces of art from the exhibition.
What happens when actor Michael Richards meets The Blacks or Krazee-Eyez Killa? Talk about Trial and Error. I’m pretty sure we’ll be satisfied by the results this fall, as the four cast members of Seinfeld are reuniting for multiple episodes of HBO‘s Curb Your Enthusiasm. While this marks Richards’s first appearance on the uncensored and legendary sitcom of Larry David (Seinfeld co-creator), Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus have all appeared to play and send-up themselves during Curb‘s six-season run. According to EW, the cast hasn’t appeared together on a scripted TV series since their show’s underwhelming finale 11 years ago.
It’ll be veddy cool to see the old sparks fly inside the Bald One’s neurotic, mishap-prone world; but I’m possibly more excited just to see Leon (J.B. Smoove) talk shit and lady advice to Larry again. Let us know what you and Bill Gates think in the comments.
Last month we had the opportunity to sit down with Jerry Seinfeld and talk about his new film, Bee Movie. Here is a transcript of that round table interview.
Q: Do you find there’s a big difference in the kind of comedy you have to invent?
A: There’s a big difference. Sometimes you can do certain things on stage, or even in a TV series, and people see the look on your face and they know what you mean, so you can get away with certain things. But if you can’t create that look on an animated character, which is essentially a puppet, the line will hit the audience in a very bad way. It’s like different musical instruments. You may be playing the same song, but you pick up a different instrument and it has a totally different feel and sound to it. You have to discover it. Each of these things is like a petting zoo and you’re blindfolded. They want you to take care of this animal, which is your show. But you’re blindfolded. We’re going to put you in a room with the animal, and the food that it needs. And everything it needs is in the room, and you’re in the room with the animal. But you’re blindfolded. So you go into this room and start feeling around for this stuff. Feel a little fur, and you feel a little claw. And you go, “Oh, my God, what is this thing?” This is the great advantage that you have doing a TV series. Say, for example, my series — which is the only one I know anything about — by year four, we knew exactly what this thing ate, when it wanted to go out, how it liked to be petted. What it liked and what it didn’t like. And what makes a movie so challenging — so much more challenging than a TV series, frankly — is that you never get that opportunity. Because you make a TV show and you put it out there and you get a reaction. You go, “Okay, this work. This doesn’t work.” You put out another one. “They like this. They don’t like this.” But with a movie, you get one shot at it. Even though you have test screenings, pretty much, we’re going to put this lemur in people’s living rooms. And, just, bang, they’re going to react to it. I hope I didn’t over-answer your question. [Laughs] This is one of my big things of creative pursuits. You have your idea you want to do, but then you got to figure out what does this thing want to be? You got to let it lead you a little.
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Paramount/Dreamworks just sent us a new batch of photos from Jerry Seinfeld’s upcoming computer animated film Bee Movie. I caught a sneak preview of footage from the film last month, and was surprised at how much I enjoyed myself. I’m usually a very harsh critic of the DreamWorks computer animated films (If only everyone could be like Pixar), but this one actually has more than a few interesting aspects (you can read our previous report at this link). Check out all the new photos after the jump, followed by the film’s official synopsis. As always, click on the images to enlarge.
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Dreamworks has sent us the new poster for Jerry Seinfeld’s Bee Movie. The poster features the Seinfeld-voiced character Barry B. Benson flying through the air, attached to a tennis ball. This is from one of the scenes we screened at a special yellow carpet preview last month. However, if you don’t know the context of this moment, I don’t think it comes off as “funny”. And the tagline “Honey just got funny” is, well, pretty lame. But I still have hope for this film having screened 20 minutes. (Read our report from that screening). Check out the new poster after the jump. Read More »
Today I was invited to a special screening of footage from Jerry Seinfeld’s Bee Movie in San Francisco. Seinfeld and director Steve Hickner were in town to present the footage and do interviews (I’ll be posting the interviews at a later date. I would like to first start off by saying how unimpressed I have been with computer animation outside of Pixar. Pixar seems to be the only company that knows how to craft a story, and create interesting characters. Dreamworks Animation always seemed like a subpar product to me. Yes, even the Shrek films. The 2006 film Over The Hedge was the closest the studio ever got to winning me over, and even that was not “spectacular”.
And the footage I’ve seen so far from Bee Movie didn’t seem to be much different from their past efforts. So to say I went in with the lowest of the lowest expectations, would be right on target. In fact, if Seinfeld wasn’t in attendance, I would have been at an Into The Wild press event in Los Angeles instead (but alas, Jena Malone will have to wait for another day).
Seinfeld opened the show up, after riding on a fake cable car (you know, the ones with wheels) to a yellow carpet. Photo courtesy of Drew Altizer. He told us that he has been working on this film for three of four years, and that the film would finally be finished later this week. I’m still a bit skeptical as to why we were unable to view the almost completed film, instead of clips. But my hesitations would soon be put to rest. Seinfeld recounted the story of how the project came to be. Steve Spielberg asked Jerry if he had any ideas, while having dinner in the Hamptons (oh, how good it must be to be rich). Seinfeld blurted out that he would like to make a movie about Bees and call it The Bee Movie. It was just a joke, but Spielberg thought he was serious.
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