A lot happened over the weekend. Here’s a recap of some of it.
Was DC Comics writer Geoff Johns hinting at a “Justice League” movie announcement at this summer’s Comic Con? it sure sounds that way. Several blogs/movie sites were at WonderCon this weekend in San Franciso and when asked about the possibilities of a Justice League team-up film ala Marvel’s “The Avengers” Johns said, “[I] can’t talk about it yet, but we’ll talk in San Diego.” Let the wild speculation begin! No, but seriously, the George Miller “Justice League” idea was a horrible one — it sounded like a teenage “Twilight” version of the JLA — and we’re so damn glad that didn’t happen. Again, as we’ve said all along, in the post “The Dark Knight” world, super-hero group films can be a risky proposition. Marvel could pull it off, but why get ahead of yourself, DC? Get your “Green Lantern” and “Flash” films off the ground first, but it’s probably worth waiting a beat before you embarrass yourself. You dodged a bullet with Miller’s version, don’t forget that.
Not only is the Christmas-themed “Harold & Kumar” movie set to likely shoot this summer, the creators of the series, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg have decided they want to change gears and will be directing “American Pie 4” Universal’s reboot of their dick-in-pies scatalogical teenage party films that used to star folks like Jason Biggs (whatever happened to his career?), Seann William Scott, Eugene Levy, Chris Klein, Tara Reid and others. So instead, Todd Strauss Schulson (a TV guy who helmed “MTV Whatever Things”) will direct “A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas.” You would think “American Pie 4” would start over, but nope, they’re actually looking to reunite the original cast of the R-Rated comedy.
The hybrid live-action and animated family comedy of “The Smurfs” has actually gone into production and those rumors that Quentin Tarantino was supposed to voice Brainy Smurf? Well, apparently Tarantino was approached, but not deal was made. Jonathan Winters voices Papa Smurf, Katy Perry stars as the voice of Smurfette, George Lopez voices Grouchy Smurf, Kevin James does Hefty Smurf and Alan Cumming will supply the vocals for Gutsy Smurf. Hank Azaria will be playing the villain Gargamel and other actors playing human beings include Neil Patrick Harris, Jayma Mays and Sofia Vergara. Anton Yelchin joined the voice cast today as Clumsy Smurf.
Bob Odenkirk, the genius actor/writer behind “Mr. Show” with David Cross, is working on a new screenplay which he calls, a (sort of) update of “Annie Hall.” I’m a big fan of Woody Allen’s movies, and it’s kind of it is an homage a bit to Annie Hall,” he said in Marc Maron’s WTF podcast (via Vulture), “But with a girl as the main character trying to find somebody, and you know it’s different, it’s not a, it’s just I used the tone and structure in a very general way to write this movie, and it’s called ‘Annie Jenkins.’ ” Odenkirk is also on “Breaking Bad,” but doesn’t seem to have broken out as much as his “Mr. Show” pal has (though he also guest appeared on “Arrested Development”), but here’s to hoping, because he was rather genius on that show.
A third “National Treasure” film is in the works. Super producer Jerry Bruckheimer confirmed the news to HitFix late last week, but we all expected it really since Nicolas Cage will need the dough to deal with those tax issues. Carlo Bernard and Doug Miro, the duo who wrote Bruckheimer’s “Sorcerer’s Apprentice”, and penned “Prince of Persia” will be handling the writing chores.
20th Century Fox’s “Diary of A Wimpy Kid” did well enough that the studio has already greenlit a sequel. The film cost around $15 million and has made $46 million so far in two weeks of release. Modest, but effective.
Ok, so there’s another Kinks films in the works and one not made by Julien Temple, the man behind rock movie classics like “The Great Rock & Roll Swindle,” “The Filth & The Fury” and most recently “Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten” (though his film was originally going to be doc, it appears it will now be a dramatic feature). Well, sort of. This new documentary, called, “Do It Again,” sounds like a fan made doc and it’s about trying to reunite the great British Invasion band. Someone might want to tell director Robert Patton-Sprull that Dave Davies had a stroke a few years ago and is probably not reuniting in that band anytime soon.
“The Big Bang Theory” TV star Kaley Cuoco will star in the live-action/CG-animated comedy “I Hop” that already stars James Marsden as an unemployed slacker who injures the Easter Bunny’s son (voiced by Russell Brand) and must help him recover.