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
Sam Raimi And J.K. Simmons Talk Spider-Man 4
Spider-man trilogy director Sam Raimi spoke to SHH about Spider-Man 4. Would come back to direct? Has he read the script? And how does he feel about recasting?
“James Vanderbilt is writing the script and I’m excited to read it. I think it’s going to be done in a few months,” Raimi told us, adding, “I’m hoping it’s as great as our discussions were about it and I’m hoping it feels right for me because I love Spider-Man. I’m hoping I’m well rested enough to embrace it and I’m hoping Sony wants me to do it. If all of those things come together, I would love to do it. There are a lot of unknowns about the future.”
And how does he feel about re-casting key players if needed? “I’d hate to re-cast anybody in the future, I can’t imagine that.”
In other Spidey news J.K. Simmons who plays J. Jonah Jameson, editor-in-chief of the Daily Bugle, spoke to IESB about the fourth Spider-Man movie.
“I spoke to Tobey in, I guess it was February… sort of awards season time,” said Simmons. “and, y’know, he’s certainly amenable to doing some more and hopefully we’ll be able to get everybody back and make another good one.”
…if Sam were not the director but was, still had a hand in it then I would certainly have a reasonable amount of faith in it. You know? Obviously if he’s the director I’m there a 100%. If he’s not involved at all, which I think is VERY unlikely, then it would be a situation that I would have to think about. But if he’s involved, hopefully directing or at least as a producer then I’m pretty confident that it would be something that I want to do. Plus they pay money.
The Simpsons are SuperBad: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg to Write Episode
Superbad scribes Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg are writing an episode of The Simpsons.
“We called The Simpsons and asked if we could write an episode. Evan actually met James L Brooks at a party and James said he really liked Superbad so we thought there’s our in. Maybe we could ask to write a Simpsons,” Rogen revealed to Collider. “We went in and pitched them like 5 ideas and surprisingly they hadn’t done some of them. And…yeah…we all sort of settled on one during the meting and then we went out and wrote an outline and they gave us notes on it. Then we re-wrote the outline.“
They’re currently writing the script which is due in a couple weeks. I’m not sure how long the animation process takes on The Simpsons, but I’m better we won’t see this episode until next season. Both Rogen and Goldberg listed The Simpsons as one of their top inspirations.
Edward Norton Not Given Writing Credit For The Incredible Hulk?
According to IESB, Zak Penn has been given the sole writing credit for The Incredible Hulk, despite the fact that Edward Norton re-wrote his draft. It is well known that one of the only reasons Norton agreed to do Hulk were if he had creative input, in this case re-writing the script.
The IESB contacted Zak Penn’s office to ask about the credit. They confirmed Penn will be receiving sole writing credit on the film.
Universal reps are saying, “WGA determined the writing credit not Zak or Edward or Universal or Marvel. WGA always determines final writing credit for our films right before the film comes out. Up until that time, we include the writers on the project to date.”
A call to the WGA got this response, “Zak Penn is receiving sole credit for story and screenplay.”
Apparently, there was arbitration, which is quite common since two screenwriters were listed. The WGA sided with Zak Penn.
In my opinion it wouldn’t be hard just to give them both credit. I’m not a WGA script expert but it would seem the logical and fair thing to do. It’s not as though the script had input from many writers such as Catwoman (14 writers in total). In cases where there are lots of writers then I suppose this process of choosing is better, but when only two writers have worked on the script it would see, fair to credit both.
If everyone from the catering ladies to the lighting guys get credited than surely one of the writers should get credit somewhere.