While Dinner for Schmucks might sound like a bad high-concept premise — guy has to find a schmuck so he can impress his boss at their annual make-fun-of-schmucks dinner — from a borderline director — Jay Roach of the Austin Powers and Meet the Parents movies — it also has one of the best casts ever assembled: Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, Zach Galifianakis, and our lord and savior Bruce Greenwood forever and ever a-men.  The question is, will the awesome cast outweigh the sort of lame premise which sports no less than five credited screenwriters?

The film is a remake of the french comedy film Le Diner de Cons. The movie co-stars Ron Livingston, Bruce Greenwood, Jemaine Clement, Stephanie Szostak, Jeff Dunham, Rick Overton, and Zach Galifianakis. [via /Film]

Yes, YES! Yes, huh? NO! maybe, yes.  Honestly, I just want to see the movie where Bruce Greenwood finishes washing that horse, is that so much to ask?

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(Playing maracas in marching band... braces... this. kid. rules.)

The internets are all abuzz today with the news of a fourth Austin Powers movie, something Mike Myers has been talking about writing for two or three years now. But before we all start deepthroating our shotguns, keep in mind that today’s news came from this MTV interview with Austin Powers 1-3 director Jay Roach:

“[Star Mike Myers is] working on ideas for it, people are definitely talking about it and I’m all good for it,” Roach said matter-of-factly. “I love those characters.”

“Mike gave me my first shot directing on ‘Austin Powers 1.’ Just said, ‘Hey, you should direct this movie,’ when I hadn’t directed much of anything. So I love that group of people, and what could be better than going back into that.”

That’s it. To recap, Mike Myers is writing Austin Powers 4 (which we already knew), and now the director says, hypothetically, he might be up for directing a movie that no one has any plans to make yet.  And keep in mind, here’s what the NY Times said about Myers’ last movie, which, based on its worldwide gross, lost $21 million.

A whole new vocabulary seems to be required. To say that the movie is not funny is merely to affirm the obvious. The word “unfunny” surely applies to Mr. Myers’s obnoxious attempts to find mirth in physical and cultural differences but does not quite capture the strenuous unpleasantness of his performance. No, “The Love Guru” is downright antifunny, an experience that makes you wonder if you will ever laugh again.

A little high brow for my tastes, but I think he liked it.

(Daddy, why do they use communion wine to test the mattresses?)

Variety repots that Zach Galifianakis is in negotiations to join the cast of director Jay Roach’s upcoming comedy Dinner for Schmucks. The flick would team Galifianakis opposite Steve Carell, Paul Rudd and Lucy Punch. Per Variety:

Based on the 1998 French film written and directed by Francis Veber, “Schmucks” centers on the most pathetic guest to ever grace one man’s weekly dinner gathering. Galifianakis will play an assistant manager of a mattress store who is dating Carell’s ex-wife.

Hang on, did you just say “assistant manager of a mattress store”? Sweet, that’s exactly what the girl in my basement and I thought you said. Personally, I can’t think of a more simplistic-yet-effective character description than to say that someone is the assistant manager of a mattress store. You see, several years ago, when I arrived by ship to Los Angeles, I was excited at the possibilities of what lay before my fellow minorities and I. But what we eventually failed to receive in opportunity, the city of L.A. more than compensated for with it’s over saturation of mattress super stores and their advertisements. Seriously, after 8:00pm on Hollywood Boulevard, you can score a California King almost as easily as crack rock.

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