I wasn’t shy about loving Adventureland, not that anyone paid attention to me judging by its $16 million gross in eight weeks. Nonetheless, it was a moderate success given its sub-$10 million budget, and Director Greg Mottola’s follow up sounds… uh… even awesomer.
Seth Rogen, Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader and Jane Lynch have joined the cast of “Paul.” The road trip laffer [die in a fire. -ed.] also stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.
Pegg and Frost, who wrote the script, will play two science-fiction fanatics on a road trip whose conspiracy dreams come true when they trek to Area 51 and encounter the title character, an escaped alien. Rogen will provide the voice of the alien. [Variety]
Anyone else thinking what I’m thinking? That they should shoot this as an homage to Mac & Me? Hey, bros, I just flew 1500 light-years from Xylon 4, and boy am I thirsty! Now who wants to party? *air guitar* ….So just me then? Carry on.
Adventureland, written and directed by Superbad director Greg Mottola, opens tomorrow.
Adventureland is an 80s period flick that feels like a classic 80s movie, of the kind of coming-of-age films I grew up on, before puberty turned me ugly and bitter at 17. It doesn’t do broad comedy as funny as Knocked Up or Superbad, but it never tries to. Instead it harkens back to a period of filmmaking when you didn’t have to make the audience laugh every five minutes, because you had something to keep them entertained besides laughs – charm, a compelling story, real characters, and in this particular case, a certain glowy nostalgia. And it’s just nice to see a movie that’s more than jokey set pieces stuffed into pre-written scenes or comedians riffing on stock characters.
Dazed and Confused director Richard Linklater said not too long ago, “It’s tough. Unless it’s a tentpole, sequel, remake, or over-the-top comedy, the studios aren’t interested. The slightest level of irony or intelligence and, boom, you’re out of the league, you’re done.”
Luckily Mottola was in a unique and charmed position: coming off Superbad, a movie he directed for hire that ended up grossing $170 million worldwide on a $20 million budget. He’d had his semi-autobiographical script for Adventureland ready to go all along, but Superbad gave him the clout to shop it around until he found someone who’d let him do it the way he wanted. The result is a sort of indie-major, a movie made for less than $10 million with neither arthouse pretensions nor bullshit blockbuster gloss. It feels much more like John Hughes or Tommy Boy than Judd Apatow or Jody Hill or Adam McKay.
We are the Co-en Bro-thers… don’t get a-long with o-thers…
The ever-prolific Coen Brothers are set to adapt True Grit, the 1968 Charles Portis novel that already spawned a film adaptation for which John Wayne won an Oscar in 1969.
Not a traditional remake, the Paramount film will be more faithful to the Charles Portis book than the 1969 pic. Portis’ novel is about a 14-year-old girl who, along with an aging U.S. marshal and another lawman, tracks her father’s killer in hostile Indian territory. But while the original film was a showcase for Wayne, the Coens’ version will tell the tale from the girl’s p.o.v.
Portis’ book has been described as “Like Cormac McCarthy, but funny.” It was also announced recently that Greg Mottola and Bill Hader are adapting another Portis novel, Dog of the South. Reached for comment, Portis said, “No, it’s great that you’re only just now discovering me, that’s awesome. No really. Heck, I’m only 75. Yup, nothing but silk Depends and extra-virgin prune juice for yours truly. Assholes.”
Adventureland is director Greg Mottola’s follow-up to Superbad, starring the hilariously be-Jewfro’d Jesse Eisenberg and that chick from Twilight who’s apparently some kind of moron. I actually don’t need to tell you most of this, because if you watch the red-band trailer below, you’ll see it in title sequence. It’s nice how they put this together - they made it more a mashup of footage that doesn’t really giveaway the plot or the jokes, just text and brief snippets that sell the movie. It’s kind of a coming-of-age, teen sex comedy set in a theme park, based on Mottola’s own experience. Ha, “coming of age,” I just got that. And then I came.
Read the rest of this entry »
(click the Widescreen button to remove the sidebar)
Okay, it’s not a Superbad sequel, it’s actually called Adventureland, and it’s director Greg Mottola’s follow-up to Superbad, based on his own experience working a crappy summer job at an amusement park in the 80s. That it’s set in 1987 is apropos, considering Superbad is the most feel-good 80s style movie I’ve seen in a long time. It wasn’t always laugh out loud funny, but it always had that sense of fun that you got in movies like Ferris Bueller or Tommy Boy, where even jokes that didn’t make you laugh still made you smile. And yeah, maybe that sounds queer, but screw you, so’s your face.
Anyway, Adventureland stars that dude with the stupid hair, the timid chick from Twilight, my love Kristen Wiig, and Ryan Reynolds, who naturally plays “the handsome cool guy”. It must suck always getting typecast like that.
