Mel Brooks on Get Smart
The Los Angeles Times has an interesting interview with Get Smart creator (and did I mention comic genius) Mel Brooks. Here are a couple highlights:
“Someone called me up and said, ‘They’re making a movie of ‘Get Smart.’’ I said, ‘Oh, really? What are they going to call it?’ They said, ‘’Get Smart.’’ I said, ‘That was wise.’ Because they did do a movie based on ‘Get Smart’ about 20 years ago called ‘The Nude Bomb’. I said, ‘That’s foolish.’ … I had nothing to do with it. They never even called me! This one, they called me from Day One. They said, “What do you think of this?” Or “What do you think of that?” And I’d say yay or nay. … It’s got a good director, Peter Segal. Wonderful director. The writers were great. The producers were young and aggressive and smart. But the brilliance is Steve Carell. To choose a guy who’s right in the Don Adams groove. You couldn’t get a better guy than Steve Carell. And yet he doesn’t do Don Adams. He does none of his delivery. He just does Steve Carell.”
You can read the full interview on LATimes.com.
Christmas in Wonderland Movie Trailer
I can imagine that someone went around Hollywood pitching this movie as “Home Alone meets Blank Check, but in a mall.” And it’s just that. Christmas in Wonderland is about three kids who just moved to to Edmonton with their Dad. When they go shopping at West Edmonton Mall they find counterfeit cash. They inadvertently help catch the crooks, and later make a discovery about Santa. The film stars Patrick Swayze, Carmen Electra, and Chris Kattan. James Orr isn’t a good director by any stretch of the imagination, but Mr. Destiny is one of my all time guilty pleasures (again, I agree - isn’t a good movie).
Does anyone know if the mall in the trailer actually exists? Is it in Edmonton? Because it sure looks like a lot of fun (the mall, not the movie). I’m surprised to see Yari Film Group are the ones releasing this film, as they are usually responsible for smarter niche films. Check out the trailer thanks to moviefone.
Christmas in Wonderland hits theaters on November 21st 2007.
John Gulager to helm Feast Sequels?
It looks like Project Greenlight “winner” John Gulager might return two Feast sequels. I ran by Gulager while leaving The Mist panel at the San Diego Comic-Con, but didn’t have time to stop and talk. Now I wish I had.
“Feast 2 and 3 are coming together, with [director John] Gulager back,” Feast co-screenwriter Marcus Dunstan told Fangoria. “Neo Art & Logic is producing again, and if they let us get away with the vulgarities we’ve currently scripted, and if we don’t get deported, we just may have the NC-17-rated monsterfest that was only hinted at in the first film.”
From what I understand, feast was a modest success on DVD thanks to it’s low budget. I’m sure if you take Blockbuster out of the equation (due to an NC-17) it would be harder to turn a profit on the sequels. So an NC-17 rating is probably just hype or wishful thinking, but it doesn’t make sense in the business world. UNLESS the studio releases separate R-Rated and Unrated cuts of the film.
I’m also glad to see Gulager is still getting some Hollywood work. He’s actually a pretty good director, despite what the reality show tried to portray. I met and sat with him during a screening of This Film is Not Yet Rated at Sundance a couple years back. Him and his wife were very nice (photo left).
Sigourney Weaver On Avatar: I’m playing James Cameron in the movie
Sigourney Weaver recently talked to the United Press about her role in the ‘not soon to be released’, Avatar. Working on the sci-fi epic meant that she would be reunited with director James Cameron, who made Weaver a household name after they worked together on Aliens back in 1986.
“It was great,” Weaver told reporters in New York Monday. “I’m so fond of him personally. He loves actors; he’s such a good director. … I can’t believe it’s been 20 years. We picked up like we’d never been apart, like an old married couple.”
“We had a long talk about what he had not been doing and what he had been doing and how he really wanted me to do this character,” Weaver recalled. “He had thought about making it a man, as well, but had decided, in the end, that he wanted it to be a woman and he wanted it to be me.
“And it’s such a great — like all of his women characters — it was a great woman character and I teased him because, to me, I’m playing James Cameron in the movie … with his kind of brilliant, scientific approach, driven, idealistic, perfectionistic, but with great heart underneath.”
The character of Ripley in the Alien movies is considered to be one of the most kick ass female characters of all time. Cameron knows how to make his female characters more then just a girl who needs to be saved, or the girl who screams constantly. The fact that Cameron could easily have made the role a man, suggests that Dr. Grace Augustine will not need any help if she is confronted by any aliens in Avatar.