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
Cohen, Ferrell Feel Right at Holmes With Apatow
Here’s an elementary bit of casting.
Sacha Baron Cohen and Will Ferrell are set to star as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in the latest addition to the Judd Apatow canon, a comedy inspired by Arthur Conan Doyle’s tales of the brilliant snuff-sniffing sleuth and his reliable partner in crime-solving.
Tropic Thunder scribe Etan Cohen is penning the script for Columbia Pictures. Apatow and manager Jimmy Miller will produce.
“Just the idea of Sacha and Will as Sherlock Holmes and Watson makes us laugh,” studio copresident Matt Tolmach told Variety. “Sacha and Will are two of the funniest and most talented guys on the planet, and having them take on these two iconic characters is frankly hilarious.”
The funnymen last acted togetherand memorably made out inTalladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, which earned them an MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss.
Ferrell, who has very few sports left to skewer on the big screen, will return to theaters July 25 in the Apatow-produced Step Brothers, while Cohen is currently shooting Bruno, featuring the flamboyant Austrian fashion reporter character he cooked up for British television. Presuming no one goes on strike, Bruno is slated for a May 15, 2009 release.
Tropic Thunder Pours Out the Booty Sweat
Paramount Pictures is hoping Booty Sweat leaves a good taste in America’s mouth. (We know, it felt disgusting just writing that.)
The studio has announced plans to market a real version of the aforenamed energy drink that can be spied periodically throughout the upcoming Ben Stiller-directed comedy Tropic Thunder, starring Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black as actors who get left behind in an actual war zone after ticking off the director of the war film they’re supposed to be acting in.
While product tie-ins and increasingly viral marketing campaigns are nothing newwhat would McDonalds and Burger King do without Disney, hobbits and superheroes?Paramount believes that by actually creating a usable product to promote an upcoming film, not to mention one that will compete against Rockstar and Red Bull, they’ve broken the mold.
“Not to my knowledge has this ever been done before,” Paramount’s president of consumer products, Michael Corcoran, told Advertising Age. “We’re very excited, because it has the potential to live for quite a while, well beyond the film.”
Products such as Brawndo: The Thirst Mutilator, the crops-killing Gatorade-like substance in the 2006 Mike Judge comedy Idiocracy, have hit stores before, but usually not until long after a film’s release, once fans are more familiar with the concepts. Brawndo just debuted in December, while Sex Panther, named after Paul Rudd’s most outré cologne in Anchorman, won’t be on shelves until September, and the film premiered in 2004.
But you’ll actually be able to chug a can of cherry-tinged Booty Sweat while watching Tropic Thunder, which rolls into theaters Aug. 15.
It will be available in two different cansone designating an urban flavor that will pump up a “brotha’s ass right-pronto” and the other promising simple energy for a more staid crowdin college bookstores, the retail outlets Hot Topic, Wherehouse and Coconuts and through Amazon.com. A few hundred thousand cases have been produced so far.
Paris Hilton Treats Dad to Father’s Day Dinner
Paris Hilton Treats Dad to Father’s Day Dinner
With sister Nicky nowhere to be seen, Paris Hilton took it upon herself to treat dad to a special Father’s Day dinner at Mr. Chow in Los Angeles on Sunday night (June 15).
Wearing a white, floral-print Japanese tea dress with purple heels, the hotel heiress, her mother Kathy and little brother Conrad escorted papa Rick in for a meal accompanied by gifts.
In related news, it appears that Paris isn’t the only Hilton that loves the spotlight - as her 49-year-old mother has landed a cameo appearance in Ben Stiller’s new summer comedy Tropic Thunder, in which Kathy plays Tom Cruise’s wife.
“She filmed last winter and didn’t even tell her kids because she wanted to surprise them,” a set insider told In Touch Weekly.