After his critically acclaimed box office smash The Love Guru (NY Times review: "The Love Guru is downright antifunny, an experience that makes you wonder if you will ever laugh again."), Mike Myers has decided to take his career a whole new direction.  Just kidding, he’s doing another Austin Powers.

I’m told that Mike Myers has started writing Austin Powers 4 which will be an homage to his father. "It’s very personal with a father and son theme loosely based on his own life," an insider tells me. As Myers has previously said, this fourth installment of the super spy spoof movie series will focus on Austin’s arch-villain Dr. Evil, who was based on Blofeld of the Bond films. But what hasn’t been known is that the AP4 plot is really about Dr. Evil and his son (introduced already as Scott Evil, played by Seth Green).

Wow, someone in Hollywood has daddy issues?  Surprising.

There’s no deal in place yet but New Line is panting after No. 4 despite Myer’s recent box office bomb, The Love Guru, for Paramount. But does Myers realize he may no longer be a draw? (Probably not. Before the pic opened, he reportedly made diva demands from Conan O’Brien staffers last month for stupid stuff like Twizzlers and raspberry seltzer.) [DHD]

I think demanding Twizzlers has less to do with not realizing you’re no longer a box office draw and more to do with not realizing you’re not six.  But I’m excited for this, I’ve always wanted to see a real sappy, tear-jerker Austin Powers movie.  Maybe Fat Bastard could reveal that his overeating stems from being sexually abused as a child, or Goldmember could deliver a heartfelt speech about anti-Semitism. 

Director Lexi Alexander was conspicuously absent from the Comic-Con panel for Punisher: War Zone, with producer Gale Ann Hurd explaining her absence as “she’s on her honeymoon”.  This left many to wonder if she’d been kicked off the project. Harry from AICN claims Alexander has been “kicked to the curb”, and that the rap metal soundtrack in the red-band trailer was actually the studio’s idea. 

Lionsgate isn’t necessarily known for calming down. They’ve decided to market it HARD CORE – and they’ve decided to jettison the composer for the film in lieu of loud thrashing metal, because nothing says PUNISHER like raspy amps. 

Meanwhile, FilmSchoolRejects has an inside source of their own: 

* Lexi Alexander is not officially off the project, but she has been pulled away from it at this point.
* The problems began after Lexi turned in a cut for the first trailer that was not to the studio’s liking. When confronted about it, Lexi’s reaction was “childish” and unpredictably erratic. Apparently she has been making negative comments on her own personal blog about the production, even going as far as to compare working with the studio to an episode of Hell’s Kitchen. Now, when you go to LexiAlexander.com there is just a picture of the “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil monkeys,” her blog entries have been removed. So take that for what it’s worth.
* Currently, producer Gale Ann Hurd is spearheading an effort to get the film re-cut and make it more presentable for its release on December 5.
* Reportedly Hurd has brought in the editing team of The Incredible Hulk (which includes Rick Shaine, Vincent Tabaillon and John Wright).
* While it is clear that Marvel is gung-ho about delivering a quality product to the big screen in December, if the production cannot be salvaged it could lead to a limited release and a bigger DVD release.

I don’t have an inside source, because who really gives a shit.  If they really wanted to salvage this movie, they’d bring Dolph Lundgren back.  He and Tony Jaa could be partners… and they could work with a monkey… who can… smell… vampires.  Yeah. Dolph Lundgren and Tony Jaa battle evil with the help of their vampire-sniffing monkey.  Who knows sign language.  Come on, you know that would be better than this.  

At some point, Darren Lynn Bousman must have crept into my nightmares because he has somehow managed to combine almost everything I hate into one movie, as this recently released clip from Repo! The Genetic Opera can attest.  Dudes wearing bondage gear?  Check.  Stars Paris Hilton? Check.  Dialog delivered via song?  Check.  Music an unholy hybrid of shitty electro goth grunge and old-timey, call-and-respond showtunes?  Check.  Repetition?  Check.  Repetition? Check.

I wish I hadn’t watched this clip, it’s sure to give me nightmares.  Sure to give you nightmares?  Sure to give me nightmares.  And damn Paris Hilton is a really shitty actress.  A really shitty actress?  A really shitty actress.

Kevin Costern’s Swing Vote is getting into the viral marketing game, recently releasing these campaign videos for the two guys running for president in the movie, Donald Greenleaf (Dennis Hopper) and Andrew Boone (Kelsey Grammer).   I can understand them seeing the awesome Tropic Thunder viral campaign and wanting to compete, but this is just sad. I’m pretty sure viral marketing isn’t supposed to make you hate anything associated with it.  These videos look like what happens when the owner of the local car dealership directs his own commercials.  In fact, I think Fred and Sharon made these.

Not much is known about Rob Zombie’s Tyrranosaurus Rex, other than that it’s about "a wrestler on the run from a biker gang from hell", and that the Alex-Horley-drawn concept art is pretty badass.

At first I was a little freaked out by the size of Grizzly Adams’ man boobs, but it won me over with the tagline: "FUCK THE WORLD".  Subtle but effective, I think.