A Hollywood Reporter article claims How Do You Know, the new James L. Brooks romantic comedy starring Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, and Jack Nicholson, cost $120 million (before tax breaks brought it down to $100 million).  Jesus, who planned this, the producers of the Spider-Man musical?

One reason for the price tag is old-fashioned salaries for the pic’s talent: Reese Witherspoon ($15 million), Jack Nicholson ($12 million), Owen Wilson ($10 million) and Paul Rudd ($3 million) received their quotes, and Brooks will earn about $10 million plus backend for writing, producing and directing. That’s about $50 million for the major talent alone.

The cost also was high because of the time Brooks devoted to production and postproduction and his decision to reshoot the beginning and end of the movie. “He’s slow and meticulous,” a person familiar with the production says. [THR]

For comparison, Watchmen cost $130 million, and the upcoming Spider-Man reboot cost $80 million.  But those don’t have Reese Witherspoon, so I guess it’s a wash. Even more amazing than the price tag is that they managed to spend 100 million dollars on this despite REESE WITHERSPOON WEARING THE SAME SHIRT FOR THE ENTIRE F*CKING MOVIE.

For some reason I feel like I haven’t heard anything about this movie before today, but here’s the trailer for James L. Brooks’ rom-com, How Do You Know, which opens in December.  It stars Reese Witherspoon as a lady both Owen Wilson and Paul Rudd seem to be in love with, and why not? She’s a total low-maintenance, down-to-Earth kinda gal, which you can tell because she’s always wearin’ a blue t-shirt.  Will she stick just her head through the collar?  Maybe her head, her shoulder, and a bra strap?  Who knows, bro, chick’s a free spirit.  Spontaneous.  That’s why all the dudes realize they love her after mistreating her for a few years.

Yes, she and Paul Rudd meet in an elevator, and Owen Wilson has hilarious conversations with his glib, chauvinist friends, but for a rom-com, there aren’t nearly as many of the usual idiotic clichés, like Sandra Bullock’s Blackberry getting stolen by an eagle, or Sarah Jessica Parker getting kicked by a cow, or Amy Adams.  If this was your usual sh*tty rom-com, Jack Nicholson, who plays Paul Rudd’s dad, would’ve been talking about sex the whole time, and the joke would’ve been that it’s funny because he’s old.  And then Katherine Heigl would find love when she finally stopped being an insufferable bitch.

According to Vulture, an offer went out to Jack Nicholson to star in CBS Films’ LASt VEGAS, a script insiders say is like an AARP version of The Hangover meets Grumpy Old Men meets no f*cking thanks.

The script comes from red-hot screenwriter Dan Fogelman (Cars, Bolt) [Uh...] , who also penned Warner Bros.’ still-untitled Steve Carell–Ryan Gosling comedy that begins filming next month. VEGAS follows four estranged male childhood friends from the fifties who reunite in Vegas to finally marry off Billy, the lifelong unmarried playboy of the group, who — fittingly — might be played by Nicholson. The conflict comes when both Billy the bachelor and Paddy, the widower of the group, begin vying for the affections of the same lounge singer.

Vulture has a script excerpt of the part that introduces Nicholson’s character (if he does agree to sign on), so you can read that over there.  I imagine the rest of it includes jokes where the old guys sabotage each other by replacing their gold bond with itching powder, putting Ben Gay on the inside of their Depends, and replacing their heart pills with Viagra, or their Viagra with ecstasy, or their ecstasy with Flomax.  Jack Nicholson will be trying to get a boner when all of a sudden he finds his restless leg syndrome cured and gets the urge to recklessly gamble.  What am I trying to say is that there will be a joke about switched pills, because that is literally Hollywood’s favorite joke.

Also: AARP version of The Hangover < LARP version of The Hangover.  Just sayin’.

Den of Geek has put together an amazing list of movie titles that were re-titled for distribution in foreign markets.  I’m a little pissed they didn’t include The Pacifier, which was re-titled Gnome in the Phillipines.  Still waiting for an explanation on that one.  In any case, here is the Chinese portion of their list:

The Full Monty: Six Naked Pigs

The Blair Witch Project: Night In The Cramped Forest

As Good As It Gets: Mr Cat Poop

Boogie Nights: His Great Device Makes Him Famous (Genius. Just genius)

Leon: This Hit Man Is Not as Cold as He Thought

Fargo: Mysterious Murder in Snowy Cream

Austin Powers: Trump Card Big Liar

Deep Impact: Earth And Comet Collide

Knocked Up: One Night, Big Belly

Nixon: The Big Liar

Risky Business: Just Send Him To University Unqualified

Free Willy: A Very Powerful Whale Runs To Heaven

There are plenty more from other countries over at Den of Geek, but for whatever reason, the Chinese titles are by far the best.  My hypothesis is that it’s because the Chinese are batshit crazy.  Also: Mr. Cat Poop was my nickname in high school.   [Thanks to Israeli FilmDrunkard Ohad for the tip]

This came from IMDB/Wenn (thanks to Tyler) so I’m not exactly sure who the original source for this story is, but:

Jack Nicholson has hinted he warned tragic Heath Ledger against taking on the role of The Joker in the new Batman film. Ledger, 28 – who was declared dead at 3:30pm at his Manhattan apartment on Tuesday – publicly declared himself exhausted and sleep deprived in November following the grueling shoot for The Dark Knight. He also revealed in an interview with the New York Times he’d resorted to taking sleeping pills – an overdose of which is believed to be the cause of his death – in a desperate bid to catch up on rest. And Nicholson, who famously portrayed the menacing Joker in Tim Burton’s 1989 movie Batman, implied to the waiting crowd outside plush London restaurant The Wolesley on Tuesday night he spoke to Ledger about his role in The Dark Knight – and warned him about the pitfalls of taking on such a demanding challenge. When asked by the London crowds for his reaction to Ledger’s untimely demise, a defeated Nicholson simply replied, "I told him so."  

Uh, what?  From "This job is hard," to "Dude, you’re totally gonna OD in a bathtub," is a bit of a stretch, no?  Could he have been, er, joking? (sorry)

Asked for clarification, Nicholson held a big yellow funnel up to his ear and said "Eh?"  

UPDATE: As someone pointed out, this version of the story makes a lot more sense.