Dang it's pretty wild how just one little movie has turned Diablo Cody into the most discussed screenwriter since Joe Eszterhas. (I was going to say "...since David Mamet," but he's a playwright first.) The gal has a tons of projects in the percolation stage -- from the Showtime series The United States of Tara to the Fox-heavy thriller known as Jennifer's Body -- and now she's been hired by Steven Spielberg (once again) to turn one of his ideas into a movie. (It's only a matter of time before Spielberg forces Diablo Cody to marry Shia LaBeouf, isn't it?)

According to Variety, the untitled project is a comedy. Oh, also the "studio is keeping story details under such tight wraps that even dealmakers involved with the project were in the dark." That's it. An idea by Spielberg that Cody will adapt. No producers, actors, directors have been announced. And yet ... somehow I know that DreamWorks already has a hit on its hands.

In related news, I think Cody is really cute.

Eddie Murphy. Raw.

That really used to say it all. A comedian known for his brash wit and go-for-broke charm, Murphy used to be willing to say anything to get a laugh. Trading Places. Coming to America. Beverly Hills Cop. Now, he's clearly willing to do anything.

Somewhere along the way, "I believe that children are the future" became not so much a punchline as a personal career credo. He's fallen into the rut of safe family-friendly fare, led on by the likes of Steve "Cheaper by the Dozen 2" Martin and Tim "The Santa Clause 3" Allen, the success of both having come to suggest that the water's quite fine in the kiddie pool. Dreamgirls proved that this man still has a genuine something left in him, and yet, we the world are instead subjected to a little less of that and a little more of Shrek.

Safe. That's what Meet Dave is, and what Murphy never used to be.

For quite a while now, the rumor that Huey Lewis would be performing the theme song for the expectedly hilarious Pineapple Express has been making the rounds, and today... oh, today, it has come to sweet fruition, as the theme song hits first the soundtrack's MySpace profile and then my beating heart.

I can't tell you how much it tickles me to have the sax of the News accompanied by the sound of Huey uttering the word 'chronic'. Then again, I can't tell you how much I'm tickled that we're actually facing a summer movie season that will cap itself off with Huey Lewis doing the theme song for a Judd Apatow-produced, David Gordon Green-directed stoner-buddy action-comedy, followed the week after by Robert Downey Jr. in blackface. Seriously, could you have called that this time last year?

If you don't know why I'm so psyched, I've included the NSFW red-band trailer after the jump, and for those of you who are right there with me, Pineapple Express hits (snicker) on August 8th.

[God bless Spout Blog for bringing this to our attention. I'm tempted to send you guys over a basket full of pineapples just out of principle.]

If you were watching Get Smart this past weekend (and many of you had been) and thought to yourself, "Self, whatever were those two gadget-crafting nerds played by that guy from 'Heroes' and that other dude up to while Steve Carell was off being less funny than he tends to be back home on the television set?," then do I have an answer for you!

And by I, I mean Warner Premiere, the studio's direct-to-DVD arm. See, for over a year now, they've had it up their sleeves to release a spin-off entitled Get Smart's Bruce and Lloyd: Out of Control*, which would correspond to the events of that film's story and arrive on shelves within weeks of that film's release (next Tuesday, July 1, to be exact).

If the official website and its trailer are to be believed, the 71-minute supplement involves Bruce (Masi Oka) and Lloyd (Nate Torrence) as they construct, test, and tweak robotic agent Hymie (Patrick Warburton), who made an appearance at the end of Smart.

Whether it turns out to be actually amusing or just superfluous, the whole deal's a smart move on Warner Premiere's part; I suspect that they just shot stuff amidst regular filming, which in turn cut down both production and promotion costs, as opposed to the relative gamble of dusting off titles such as House on Haunted Hill, The Cell, and The Lost Boys.

Regardless, GS'sB&L:OOC hits shelves on DVD and Blu-Ray - and on-demand - next week.

*Get it? Because Control's the name of the government organization they work within. No, not because they got booted from their Joy Division cover band.

Universal Studios appears to have claimed next May the 15th on which to release Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat follow-up, tentatively titled Brüno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in a Mesh T-Shirt.

That pretty much explains what type of shenanigans Cohen is up to for this stealthily filmed outing, and I believe that it comes across as a remarkable vote of confidence from Universal that they're willing to face off against the likes of a DaVinci Code prequel (which, if the first film is any indication, might be worth a couple of laughs itself).

Sure, Borat did well enough to justify such a prominent spot, but that came out in early November, not the week before Memorial Day. Maybe I'm too adjusted to having my summer comedies laced with special effects or Judd Apatow; who knows, maybe we'll get a blockbuster comedy that gets by on actual ... laughs.

[via Box Office Mojo]

What Silent Bob giveth, Silent Bob taketh away... or, at least, taketh down, which is why one can no longer give the Zack and Miri Make a Porno teaser a look-see until the MPAA gives it the once-over.

The online-only teaser, while filled with writer-director's Kevin Smith expectedly raunchy dialogue, does not actually feature any footage from the finished film, but according to Smith's recent News Askew post, that is a stipulation unseen by the Ratings Board, which must approve all marketing materials for any film.

"We're now officially submitting the teaser to the MPAA for rating," said Smith. "If they approve it, we'll put it back up." He does make a point of mentioning how a mere two years ago, he posted similarly crude internet-exclusive trailers for Clerks II with nary a complaint.

Until the MPAA hands down its formal red-band (or is it yellow-band?) decree, here's a link to our initial post on the teaser's arrival last week -- a post on which the teaser just so happens to still work...

[via /Film]

I absolutely adore Jack Arnold's The Incredible Shrinking Man. I think it's without question one of the finest science fiction movies ever made. Not only does it have an endlessly fascinating story, but the 1957 film is also smart, sad and scary ... plus it has one of the most wonderfully thought-provoking endings I've ever seen. And since I love this movie so darn much, I couldn't stop weeping as I read this recent news piece at The Hollywood Reporter...

Not only is Universal (stupidly) intent on turning The Incredible Shrinking Man into a comedy (because that worked so damn well on The Stepford Wives), and not only are they planning to give the lead role to Eddie Murphy ... but things just got a whole lot worse. First off, the newest screenwriters to climb on board are Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant, two guys who proved their comedy chops on The State and Reno 911 -- and then obliterated those chops by writing the screenplays for Herbie: Fully Loaded, Taxi, Balls of Fury, Night at the Museum, The Pacifier and Let's Go to Prison. Surely these are the men who should re-write one of the best sci-fi movies ever made.

Oh, but it gets even better! Although Keenan Ivory Wayans and Pete Segal had been attached to the project at one point or another, it looks like Universal now wants Brett Ratner to direct this horrid idea. Now, I'm not one of those film nerds who thinks that Brett Ratner is the worst director ever born (far from it, actually), but nor do I think he's all that exciting of a filmmaker. I just can't believe that such a beautiful little sci-fi gem is being morphed into this sort of misguided train wreck.

A few days ago I enjoyed a very conventional comedy called Run Fatboy Run. The film succeeds (to a B-minus degree, anyway) thanks almost exclusively to the contributions of actors like Simon Pegg, Dylan Moran, and Hank Azaria. When you have talented people lugging familiar material around, the result can sometimes be unexpectedly amusing. Such is most definitely the case with Nick Stoller's Forgetting Sarah Marshall, a semi-romantic comedy that covers some of the same ground as The Break-Up and The Heartbreak Kid but does one thing differently: It delivers a lot of laughs.

Produced by the recently very prolific Judd Apatow (The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad), Forgetting Sarah Marshall stars one of the producer's regulars (Jason Segel, who also penned the screenplay) as a TV music composer who is madly in love with his "hot actress" girlfriend. (Her name is Sarah Marshall, obviously.) But when Sarah dumps Peter for a preening British rock star, the sensitive slob of a guy goes into an emotional tailspin. At the advice of his well-meaning stepbrother, Peter decides to take a solo trip down to Hawaii. And ... you guessed it: Sarah and new posh new boyfriend Aldous are already vacationing there! Ack, how comically uncomfortable!

I have a very good friend named Erik Childress, and he's a film critic who's pretty darn demanding when it comes to comedies. He doesn't chuckle easily, but when he finds a flick funny -- he's usually right on the mark. So let's flash back to Sundance 2006: I'd gone off to see something else, but when I met up with Childress for lunch, we had our normal conversation: "What'd you see, how was it, etc.?" And I distinctly remember Erik saying, through a mouth full of french fries, "Foot Fist Way. Surprisingly damn funny." I mentally kicked myself for missing it.

So now! Over two years later! Courtesy of Paramount Vantage, I bring you the first, the funny, the profanity-laden red-band theatrical trailer for Jody Hill's The Foot Fist Way. And, like Erik said about the movie, the trailer is surprisingly damn funny. If the lead knucklehead looks familiar, then you probably remember his brief-but-colorful moments in All the Real Girls, Hot Rod and The Heartbreak Kid. (His name's Danny R. McBride, by the way, and I'd call him the ONLY funny thing in that Heartbreak Kid remake.)

For those who can't be bothered to check out the clip (or are maybe under 18), the flick's about a really goofy Tae Kwon Do teacher. (Hey, the premise works well -- and often -- enough for Will Ferrell.) May 30 is when Paramount Vantage will unleash The Foot Fist Way, but for now you can feel free to peek through the official site and enjoy the R-rated trailer. ("Meditate on that." = hilarious!)

Some people might say that Will Ferrell is coasting, taking it easy, or skirting by on proven formula -- and that may be the case. There's a lot in Ferrell's latest flick, Semi-Pro, that feels like material left over from the comedian's soccer comedy (Kicking & Screaming), his car-racing comedy (Talladega Nights), and his figure-skating comedy (Blades of Glory) -- but it's really tough to complain when a comedian doles out "the same old schtick" when that same old schtick is still pretty damn funny. A recent interview with Entertainment Weekly indicates that Ferrell is pretty much finished with sports comedies, and that's probably just as well. Oh, and for the record: I happen to think Semi-Pro is Ferrell's best sports flick yet -- and probably his most consistently amusing movie since Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.

Semi-Pro marks the popular comedian's first foray into R-rated comedy, at least as far as his "leading man" status goes. So while much of the flick's broad, silly, and slyly absurd humor bounces across the screen, it will all feel very (perhaps comfortably) familiar to Ferrell's loyal fans -- but I'm not ashamed to admit that the inclusion of several F-bombs help to make the flick a whole lot funnier. We don't often get to hear Will Ferrell tell someone to "S his C," but the golden-'froed goofball dives into the potty-mouth material with a lot of enthusiasm. Semi-Pro is not an aggressively raunchy comedy, but it's definitely NOT for the 10-year-old Ferrell fans out there. (Sorry, kids. Go watch Elf again. It's hilarious.)