There is, despite countless American Pie and Road Trip spin-offs arguing otherwise, an art to shaping R-rated comedies. Rawdog raunchiness and “F-bombs” alone don’t equate to laugh-a-minute genius.
Take a movie like Good Boys. Gene Stupnitsky’s hilarious adolescent comicality boasts heart, message, and humor in the precisely right places. Lesser creators would’ve leaned heavily on cursing “tweens” thinking with their pre-pubescent naughty parts, yet Stupnitsky and co-writer Lee Eisenberg dare to focus on a heartwarming story about coming of age with sixth-grade understanding, and then fill in the anecdotal kinky playthings and pornography gags. Read More »
Brie Larson is tearing up the box office right now as the latest member of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but her young Room co-star Jacob Tremblay is about to lead a movie of his own.
Tremblay stars in Good Boys, a new comedy produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg that follows a young boy whose attempts to learn how to kiss before an upcoming party spirals into “an odyssey of epically bad decisions.” Check out the red-band trailer below.
Read More »
After breaking out in the hit drama Room, young Jacob Tremblay has become quite the popular little actor with audiences. His run on the red carpet during awards season for the aforementioned Oscar-winning film make him a beloved celebrity and his recent turn in the tearjerker Wonder made him even more endearing. But now he’s going to get a little naughty.
The 11-year old Tremblay has signed on to star in Good Boys, a new R-rated comedy at Universal Pictures about a group of four 12-year old boys who play hooky from school and “embark on a day-long adventure fraught with comedic peril.” And the talents on the page and behind the camera offer some hope that this will be a hilarious romp. Read More »
Posted on Thursday, June 20th, 2013 by Angie Han
Maybe Paul Feig hasn’t cornered the market on R-rated female-led comedies after all. Sony is moving forward with a sequel to 2011’s Bad Teacher, with Jake Kasdan returning to direct. Star Cameron Diaz is still working out her deal, but it’s expected that she’ll come back as well.
While the first Bad Teacher failed to live up to its comedy potential (IMO, anyway), it did gangbusters at the box office with a $216 million worldwide take. To put that into perspective, that’s more than either Horrible Bosses or 21 Jump Street made ($209 million and $201 million, respectively) but less than Bridesmaids did ($288 million). Get all the details after the jump.
Read More »
Almost everything Stephen Merchant touches turns to comedy gold. The Office, Extras, Life’s Too Short, An Idiot Abroad: all shows that are hilarious and well-received across the globe. Merchant’s next show aims to do the same with one small difference. He didn’t co-create this one with Ricky Gervais.
On September 29, Merchant steps out on his own with Hello Ladies, an HBO comedy about a lanky British man (played by Merchant) on the prowl in Los Angeles. The actor/writer/director co-created the show with Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, two of the writers behind the American version of The Office. Check out your first glimpse at the show below. Read More »
Dan Aykroyd is as sick and tired as you are when it comes to Ghostbusters 3. For years he’s been not only answering questions about the proposed film, but actually developing it for free in hopes one day it would get made. That’s all he wants, to get a movie made, and he’s had to constantly change his concept with new writers coming aboard and his co-star, Bill Murray, refusing to play ball.
Then, several months ago, it seemed like the film was ready to go. Things quickly cooled off and that seemed to be the final straw. Aykroyd has had it. He’s now publicly given Sony an ultimatum about making the film.
In an interview with Esquire, the co-creator, co-star and de-facto mouthpiece for the successful franchise not only calls for Sony to make the film now, or forever hold their peace, he talks about the scripts Office writers Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg did, the one by Etan Cohen, Bill Murray’s non-interest and potential ideas for sequels. Why would he talk about sequels to a movie that hasn’t been made yet? Because he all but guarantees a nine-figure hit if Sony makes the movie. The guy is on a marshmallow man fueled rampage and I love it. Read his quotes below.
Read More »
Posted on Tuesday, July 24th, 2012 by Angie Han
There’s a little bit of everything in today’s batch, including a new trailer, new pics, some casting info, and some industry drama. After the jump:
- Laurence Fishburne is in talks for Bryan Fuller‘s Hannibal
- Check out the not-so-monstrous Mockingbird Lane cast
- NBC’s new offerings for the fall season will debut early online
- Flip through promo pics from Dexter‘s seventh season
- Watch Claire Danes go crazy in a new trailer for Homeland
- HBO picks up a pilot by UK Office co-creator Stephen Merchant
- Modern Family‘s contract negotiations delay production
Read More »
Briefly: Bad Teacher is out on DVD this week, and to celebrate, director Jake Kasdan and writers Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg have been announced as the creative team on a new untitled comedy for Sony. While we don’t have a title, Deadline does offer a plot synopsis: “After a Supercuts manager advises his best friend to break off his engagement, he unexpectedly falls in love with the jilted fiancee, testing both his new romance and his friendship.” Realism!
And, by the way, Stupnitsky and Eisenberg are the guys who wrote the main draft of Ghostbusters III, and Deadline repeats the oft-cited report that Sony won’t make the movie without Bill Murray and that he hasn’t read the script or made any effort to get a contract signed. In other words, GBIII is stalled as it ever was. Maybe they can get Murray for this Supercuts movie.
Posted on Thursday, June 23rd, 2011 by Angie Han
There’s probably a good movie to be made from what Bad Teacher‘s working with, but sadly, this is not that movie. On paper, I love the idea of Cameron Diaz playing a hilariously, irredeemably selfish teacher who’s mean to her students, with a supporting cast of seasoned comedians to back her up. In practice, despite some genuinely funny gags performed by talented, funny people, Bad Teacher never manages to rise past mediocrity.
Read More »
Cool Posts From Around the Web:
When we last left the long and arduous development-hell known as Ghostbusters III, everything hinged on the shoulders of one man: Bill Murray. A script by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky was reportedly sent to Dr. Peter Venkman himself a few months ago and Sony will only move ahead with the movie if Murray signs off on it.
The latest update is that there is no update. Murray supposedly hasn’t even read the thing yet. But two men with knowledge of the film have recently spoken out about the situation. Producer Joe Medjuck attended a screening of Ghostbusters at Arclight Cinemas in Hollywood last week and co-writer Eisenberg spoke at his alma mater Connecticut College. Each offered their thoughts on the current state of the film.
Hit the jump to read their quotes about Murray, developing the script, watch a video of the Q&A and see the full fan-made poster glimpsed above that was created by “Gh0stbuster.” Read More »
