Still from ‘Firehouse Dads’

Word from Variety is that Vince Vaughn will following his starring turns in The Internship, Delivery Man, and Business Trip by co-starring with Will Ferrell in Daddy’s Home. Dammit, you know what this means?! It means we were wrong about Vince Vaughn’s next film again! We pride ourselves on being able to come up with Vince Vaughn vehicles at the drop of a hat. Previously, our suggestions included:

Campus Cops
Seat Fillers
Brewery Tour
Campsite Crashers (aka Ranger Dad)
Firehouse Dad
Cold Callers
The Podcast
Casual Friday
Resident Dadvisor
Grillmasters
The Expense Account
Rave Dudes
Busmen
Adult Kickball
Backpackers
Party Bus Drivers
Online Daters
The Car Pool
Valets
Booze Cruise
Hostel Crashers
Alumni Weekend
Bed and Breakfast Bros
Groupon Getaway
Daytona Dads

What, not good enough for you, Hollywood? This is bullshit.

Will Ferrell has been attached to star for some time with Etan Cohen directing. Ferrell and Adam McKay are producing for Gary Sanchez productions.
The story follows a mild mannered radio exec, played by Ferrell, whose life gets chaotic when his wife’s ex-husband, played by Vaughn, re-enters the picture and he must compete to vie for his step-children’s affections.
Cohen, Brian Burns, Adam McKay and Chris Henchy are writing the script.
The film has been set up at Paramount for some time while the script was being done. The idea is for Vaughn to do this film before jumping into New Regency’s comedy “Business Trip” which he signed on to last month. [Variety]

Ah, the old two-guys-trying-to-one-up-each-other plot. Basically, The Campaign, but with Vince Vaughn instead of Zach Galifianakis, and children instead of voters. I’ll say this, the world would be a better place if people in the real world cared that much about the affections of the their stepchildren. I wrote a more realistic version of this story and it was just called “Shut Up, Stupid.”

“The beast with two backs,” get it?

When I first heard about Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, a movie about a grown-up Hansel and Gretel who go around shooting witches, from Will Ferrell’s production company and the director of Nazi zombie movie Død Snø (Tommy Wirkola), I thought it sounded like a perfect parody of the “dark fairy tale” trend – see Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, The Raven, et al. Hell, it was so accurate a parody, Michael Bay’s production company announced plans for a dark Hansel and Gretel movie around the same time. Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters stars Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton, and was originally scheduled for release March, 2012, which has since been pushed to January 25th, 2013. The red-band trailer is below, and my parody assumption may have just been wishful thinking, because it seems schlocky, but mostly pretty straightforward.

Read the rest of this entry »

It was 2009 when we first heard about Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, a film starring Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton, whose plot you can guess from the title. If it was a Michael Bay or Paul WS Anderson production I’d say it sounded like the worst thing ever (and Michael Bay did indeed want to make a gritty Hansel and Gretel movie at one point), but when it’s Will Ferrel and Adam McKay’s production company Gary Sanchez producing a film by Tommy Wirkola (of Død Snø fame), you hope that it’s well-directed satire. Of course, Hollywood has a way of turning a send-up into a straightforward movie about the thing you were trying to send up (The Change-Up, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter). You can decide whether that’s happened with Hansel after the jump. It looks slightly more tongue-in-cheek than Abe Lincoln Vamp Hunter, but not overtly comedic either, and the fact that it’s being dumped into theaters in January seems to indicate that the studio doesn’t think too highly of it. But Karl Hungus gets head butted in it, so there’s that.

Read the rest of this entry »

Will Ferrell plays Armando Alvarez in Casa De Mi Padre, a film almost entirely in Spanish, and about as close as it gets to a perfect concept. To promote the soundtrack, which just released a track listing (with the title track sung by Christina Aguilera), Funny or Die is hosting the video for “Yo No Se,” in which Ferrell, Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite (Efren Ramirez), and a fat guy who kind of looks like Horatio Sanz (Adrian Martinez), sing about not knowing why the moon rises or why the blue flower grows (“Why does the blue flower grow?” “Yo no se.”). When you think about it, it’s sort of like the Mexploitation version of ICP’s “Miracles,” which was itself sort of like a violent clown rap version of “What a Wonderful World.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Today brings us (thanks to IMPA) a new poster for the Will Ferrell-and-Adam-McKay-produced Spanglish comedy, Casa De Mi Padre. They promise it will be “The funniest movie you’ll ever read,” which is a bold statement, considering Schindler’s List also had subtitles (*slide whistle, banana peel*). Anyway, I just checked my sweatpants, and yup, I’ve still got a big boner for this. Though I confess, I’m probably the ideal audience. My stepdad is Mexican, and my high school was 70-some percent Mexican, so I feel like I know all of their secrets. I’m basically the Mexican whisperer. And there are few things I’d enjoy more than Will Ferrell mocki– er, celebrating their culture for 90 minutes.

Casa De Mi Padre opens March 16th, which leaves plenty of time to add in more Cholombian sideburns. (It already has pointy boots, thankfully).

Read the rest of this entry »