Dan Fogler tells moviehole that director Kyle Newman has an idea for a Fanboys sequel that would see the characters from the first film to go on mission to crash the set of Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones in Australia.
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Fanboys director Kyle Newman has signed on to helm a big screen adaptation of the cult comic book series Emo Boy. Published by Slave Labor Graphics, and created by by Steve Emond. The first two graphic novels were released in 2006 and 2007, and are currently available on Amazon for $11.16 each. The book description follows:
“Poor Emo Boy! He’s unpopular, and unloved. He has no family. Not only does he need to deal with things like pondering suicide and questioning his sexual identity, but on top of that he’s got these emo super powers that only seem to bring destruction and disaster, causing everyone to hate him more than they already do!”
According to THR, the project is being described as being in the tone of “Napoleon Dynamite,” “Harold and Maude” and “Zoolander.” Emo music is also expected to be a main component of the film.
I very much enjoyed Fanboys, but Newman’s style is rather obvious and on the nose, and this project seems like it needs to be a bit more subtle and sarcastic in its intentions. That said, I want to root for Newman, especially after The Weinstein Co put the guy through so much shit over the last few years.
Earlier this week The Weinstein Co announced that they would be moving their Star Wars geek road trip comedy Fanboys back once again to February 6th 2009. Set in 1998 the film, starring Jay Baruchel, Dan Fogler, Sam Huntington, Chris Marquette, and Kristen Bell is a heart-warming comedy that follows a group of young, passionate Star Wars fans on a cross-country quest to break into George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch and watch “Star Wars: Episode 1- The Phantom Menace,” before it’s released. I got the chance to finally see the film at Fantastic Fest 2008, and while it’s not a great film, its the type of movie which will be insanely enjoyable to anyone in the fanboys niche, and in its best moments, its a love letter to fandom.
The theatrical poster, which premiered on Cinematical, is a parody of the Judd Apatow posters. This might be funny if all the other comedy films didn’t already steal this style already. The poster comes off as derivative rather than funny. This is the latest example of The Weinstein Co botching the marketing of this film. If I were them I would have commissioned Drew Struzan to create a poster based of the New Hope design. I know that wouldn’t be original, but at least it would be interesting. Also, there are so many interesting characters and actors in this film (heck, I think Seth Rogen plays three or four different characters), but we don’t see one of them on the poster. WTF?
I’ve heard many stories about the behind the scenes problems which pushed the release of Fanboys back again and agin, but having just left a screening of the finished version, a director’s cut by Kyle Newman, I can assure you that the problems have been greatly exaggerated. You have a very marketable cast, and a film which seems like an extremely easy sell to the target demographic. I think the problem is that The Weinsteins were hoping for an American Pie type film with mainstream appeal, but they instead have a movie aimed at a very targeted niche. But lets not forget, George Lucas has been able to make tons of money off this targeted group of fans.
After high school, Eric (Sam Huntington) ditched his Star Wars fanboy friends for a job as a car salesman, and now finds himself ready to take over his father’s franchise of car dealerships. When he learns that one of his former best friends Linus (Chris Marquette) has been diagnosed with Cancer and only has months to live, he convinces his former friends (Dan Fogler, Jay Baruchel) to go on a road trip to break into George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch, so that Linus could watch Star Wars: Episode I before he dies.
The film is your typical teen road trip film, laced with so many Star Wars references you’ll probably want to see it twice to take them all in. There are conversations about how Boba Fett is like Michael Bay, style but no substance, and arguments about if Luke really had a thing for his sister. The series of adventures include a stop in Riverside Iowa (the future birthplace of Captain Kirk) to fuck with Trekkies. Kristen Bell plays Zoe, a girl with feisty Princess Leia-like attitude who works at a comic book store, and is well versed in everything from Star Wars to video games. Basically, she’s a fanboys wet dream.
Seth Rogen has triple duty, playing a trekkie (who seems perfectly modeled after Gabriel Köerner from Trekkies), a Star Wars tattooed pimp, and a Star Trek alien who they run into while in Las Vegas. At one point in the film, one version of Seth Rogen fights another version of Seth Rogen on the big screen. Epic! Ethan Suplee plays Ain’t It Cool News’ Harry Knowles, and there is a bevy of other cameos which include Billy Dee Williams, Danny Trejo, Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, Craig Robinson, Lou Taylor Pucci, Carrie Fisher, Danny McBride, and William Shatner playing himself. Ray Park (Darth Maul) even has a cameo as a THX security guard.
The film is not perfect, nor is it even on par with the best the teen comedy genre has to offer. Some of the problems include a kid dying of cancer who shows very little (if any) signs of sickness, a poorly developed romantic subplot, and a scene in a gay biker bar which should have been completely exorcised from the completed film. Oh, and Dan Fogler is painfully annoying. If only they had cast Jonah Hill or Tyler Labine instead. But the target audience of Star Wars fanboys and comic book geeks will surely eat it up. In it’s best moments it is a love letter to fandom and friendship.
/Film Rating: 7 out of 10
Weinstein’s To Release New Kyle Newman Cut of Fanboys!
Posted on Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 by Peter Sciretta
Fanboys creator and co-screenwriter Ernie Cline has confirmed my report from last month that director Kyle Newman has been brought back to recut Fanboys.
“I’ve just received word that the director Kyle Newman has just completed a new cut of the movie with the original plot intact, and that it’s the version that will be released later this year,” Cline told UGO. “We’re hoping that the Weinstein Co. announces the release date soon.”
So there you have it. I’m guessing they will have something to announce at Comic-Con next month.
It appears that The Weinstein Co has brought director Kyle Newman back on board to make the final cut of Fanboys. The New York Times ran a story a couple weeks back about Microsoft. Newman worked on a short film / advertisement for the Redmond-based software company. Apparently no one in the movie sector read the article because buried somewhere in the advertising section. Thankfully /Film reader Iron Monger spotted it, because hidden inside the article was a one-line quote from Kyle himself:
“I have been brought back into the editing room to work on a final version,” Kyle said. “All the key people are back. That’s all good.”
So there you have it. It appears that Kyle Newman has officially returned to work on a final version of the film. No word on if the movie will get a theatrical release or go direct-to-dvd. Although if I were The Weinstein Co, I’d at least test the waters with a limited theatrical release. A fanbase is certainly there, but can TWC convince them to see it after all the shit they pulled?
photo credit: Flickr
Bad news for the Star Wars fans, the much anticipated Kyle Newman road trip comedy Fanboys has been delayed, yes – again. TheForce.net published the following letter from the director:
“Fanboys has been delayed. As a Star Wars fan, I am devastated. Fanboys is the love letter to the greatest movie franchise of all time. And this year marks the 30th Anniversary. I wanted the film to be my gift back to Star Wars and to the fan community. But ultimately the shift in release will be a good thing for the movie. We made Fanboys for under five million dollars. And the studio has given us the go-ahead to do the things to it that we couldnt do with our initial limited schedule and budget. There are one or two hilarious things that I wanted to shoot and they are giving me the funds to do it. Which is great!!! As a filmmaker, it’s not often someone says — here’s more money – what else do you want to do? But that’s the situation we are in. Unfortunately, I dont get the actors back together for four months! (The one drawback to having such a hot young cast at the top of their game.) But rest assured fans won’t escape Fanboys this year. We kick it off with our presence at Celebration IV in a big way (sneak-peaking scenes, releasing our prequel comic book and teaser poster)… then we will heat things up at the San Diego Comic-Con in July. And from there we just keep building toward January. I am so excited to unleash this movie. It’s going to be huge!”
Last week we relayed a quote from Fanboys star Chris Marquette, who claimed that the film had been delayed due to sound effects rights and a cameo from Clerks director Kevin Smith.
“Kevin Smith had seen it, and [he] came in and was like, ‘Oh, man. I love it.’ So they let him write and direct one of his own scenes in it. So they added that in,” co star Chris Marquette revealed. He went on to also blame George Lucas for the film’s delay.
We were extremely excited to receive an e-mail from Kevin Smith, who added a little needed clarification.
“That’s not exactly true. Scott Mosier, my longtime producer, was brought in to reedit the flick. Based on his involvement, I jumped in for a quick cameo during a re-shoot day that’d been scheduled long before I’d ever seen the flick. While I did write the scene, I didn’t direct it,” Smith wrote. “The flick’s good – I don’t wanna give the impression it’s not.”
“I just wanted to make sure I didn’t get credit I didn’t deserve, as far as directing my scene; that was Scott Mosier (as Kyle [Newman], the director of the flick, was busy on the Revenge of the Nerds remake during the Fanboys pick-ups). I only got the chance to be in the flick because Harvey Weinstein asked me to do the cameo during the pick-ups re-shoot.”
So there you have it, direct from the Kevin Smith’s keyboard.
