Sacha Baron Cohen, Will Ferrell to Star in Judd Apatow’s Sherlock Holmes
Sacha Baron Cohen will play Holmes, and Will Ferrell, Watson, in a comedic take on Sherlock Holmes for super-producer Judd Apatow. To avoid confusion, last month we reported on Guy Ritchie’s forthcoming, unrelated “Bond-like” take of Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic English sleuth for Warner Bros.
No director is attached, and the flick, which see the two comedic stars re-teaming for the second time after their smash, Talladega Nights, is untitled at this time. Etan Cohen (Idiocracy, Tropic Thunder, no relation to Sacha) is writing the script for Columbia Pictures.
If it were not for the involvement of Judd Apatow and Etan Cohen, I could easily see this project wandering off into the realm of broad family comedy and “hang glider hi-jinks.” Talladega Nights, which Apatow produced, has its “low brow” and “class-ist” detractors, but there is some really smart, subversive comedy and writing therein. Also, Walker Texas Ranger. It’s tied with Stranger Than Fiction as my favorite Will Ferrell film thus far, and if Ferrell and Cohen can once again match or top their performances, their Sherlock Holmes could conjure Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein…or Beavis and Butt-Head. All counts of “Apatow-fatigue” aside, we’re looking forward to this one either way.
via Variety
Eddie Murphy Retiring? Dismisses Beverly Hills Cop 4
We all know that Eddie Murphy will end up on screen again—whether as a jivin’ animal, an obese person near a pool, in a third sequel to June ’09’s awful-sounding NowhereLand, or (hail mary) Inglorious Bastards. But the man who made Buckwheat even bunnier just announced to Extra (classy) that he’s throwing in the towel when it comes to feature films…
“I have close to 50 movies and it’s like, why am I in the movies?” he said, adding, “I’ve done that part now. I’ll go back to the stage and do standup.”
All for it. A (hypothetical) HBO-special with a rowdy blessing from Chris Rock is just what the guy needs. But what about Murphy’s planned Beverly Hills Cop 4 with Brett Ratner and a poor guy dressed up as “PG” who’s contractually obligated to wave and wave…
Murphy, 47, said that while a “Beverly Hills Cop 4″ flick was in the works, he didn’t want to do it, because “the movie wasn’t ready to be done.”
But will he still put on his Axel Foley body suit anyhow? Murphy’s tiny alien family comedy, Meet Dave (above), opens and possibly flops on July 11th, and he’s currently filming A Thousand Words with Brian Robbins, who directed Meet Dave and Norbit and, uh, Good Burger and The Show concert film with Biggie Smalls. Yeah, it’s probably hopeless, unless there’s a Rosetta Stone for the F-word. Oh yeah, it’s called Eddie Murphy Raw. Hopeless.
via FirstShowing
Queen Latifah Demands Royalty
Queen Latifah showed her face, and now she wants to be shown the money.
The Oscar-nominated actress has sued a small production company for allegedly failing to compensate her after she made a cameo as “Mrs. Christmas” in a 2007 indie film.
According to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, California-based financier Perfect Christmas Productions agreed to pay Latifah $275,000 for her role in the family comedy The Perfect Holiday (not to be confused with Last Holiday, in which she starred as a mousy office worker who finds out that she only has weeks to live).
The film, which also starred Terrence Howard and Gabrielle Union, grossed $5.8 million last year.
Who is in Robert Rodriguez’s Shorts
Robert Rodriguez always has like five projects going at the same time. He’s been hard at work “developing” Barbarella (or trying to convince the studio to give him the money to make it with his future wife Rose McGowan in the lead) and just announced a TV show called Women In Chains (also starring Rose McGowan), which he’s pitching to various networks, but his next feature film to go into production will be… drumroll please…
Shorts is a family comedy adventure that follows an 11-year-old boy who is hit in the head with a rainbow-colored rock that grants wishes to anyone who holds it. Chaos erupts in this small suburb where “all the houses look the same and everyone works for Black Box, manufacturer of the ultimate communication and do-it-all gadget.” Sounds more Spy Kids or The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D than Grindhouse or Sin City. Jon Cryer, William H. Macy, Leslie Mann and James Spader have signed on to star. I’m surprised Rodriguez didn’t try to squese McGowan into this project as well. Rodriguez, always a one-man show, will direct based on his own screenplay, and serve as producer, director of photography, editor, visual effects supervisor and, who knows, he might even provide the score (not yet confirmed). But what else is new?