I know this means I won’t get to sit at the cool kids table anymore, but I like Tina Fey and Steve Carell. I love 30 Rock (as long as Kenneth or Judah Friedlander and his stupid effing hats aren’t on screen), I think her writing is spot-on 80% of the time, and Steve Carell is just one of those guys who’d have to try really hard to be unlikable. So what happens when you put them both in the same movie? Well, if it’s a Fox movie, it means you get mother-in-law jokes, people hitting their heads, and sound effects lifted from the wacky morning zoo. Oh yeah, it’s called Date Night. It was directed by Night at the Museum’s Shawn Levy, who usually makes kids’ movies, but lucky for him Fox execs can’t tell the difference. Oh hey look, they gave Olivia Munn a two-second cameo. You know, I can think of a few good ways for Olivia Munn to spend a couple seconds.
(*bike horn*)
Our thoughts exactly, Olivia. [available in HD at Apple]
(Wayans reps the west-side shockers while MC Backsweat thumbs his approval)
Hollywood Reporter recently broke the casting news on Will Ferrell/Adam McKay’s The Other Guys, and tucked into a story about the acquisition of Ferrell, Eva Mendes, Mark Wahlberg, and Michael Keaton [HELL YES] was the news that they’d also cast Damon Wayans Jr. (*RECORD SCRATCH*) I’ll grant you that Damon was easily the funniest Wayans brother, but damn, first nephews, now kids? And it seems like the further down you go on the Wayans family tree the less funny it gets. Marlon is to the Wayans clan what the retarded Michael Keaton clone was in Multiplicity. Luckily, the movie does sound kind of sweet aside from that:
After the jump, watch the trailer for Peter Jackson’s new film The Lovely Bones, starring Mark Wahlberg, Susan Sarandon, Rachel Weisz, and Saoirse Ronan. If the movie is any good I’ll be highly impressed because the Alice Sebold book it’s based on is a cheesy, melodramatic mess. Susie Salmon is 14 and in love, you see, and after she gets raped and murdered, she’s up in heaven trying to help her family catch her killer and OH MY GOD I CAN’T STOP WANKING DISMISSIVELY, IT BURNS! IT BURNS! I’d recommend reading Lucky, Sebold’s earlier book instead, a non-fiction account of her own rape when she was 18. It’s kind of like The Lovely Bones, only without the Hollywooden plot and scene stolen from Ghost, and you can read it without fear of spontaneously growing a vagina.
Just Jared posted some pictures of Christian Bale looking like a balding, crack-addicted shell of his former self in Los Angeles yesterday, where he was shooting scenes for The Fighter as Dickie Eklund, a boxer who becomes a balding, crack-addicted shell of his former self (GRR, METHOD ACTING!). Bale stars opposite Mark Wahlberg, with David O. Russell (who was hired after Darren Aronofsky bowed out) behind the cameras. Fun fact: David O. Russell’s freakout on the set of I Heart Huckabees was the Christian Bale Tirade of a couple years ago, so this could be a fun set.
After the jump, see part of the episode of HBO’s “High on Crack Street”, dug up by /Film, featuring the real-life Dickie Eklund. He surprises the interviewer by telling him he used to be a professional boxer, and that he once fought Sugar Ray Leonard. Meanwhile, all I could think about was this chick, and how she probably gives awesome blowjobs. I wonder what it’s like to wake up and look yourself in a mirror and go, “Hey, look at that. I am literally a toothless crack whore.” That must be a crazy feeling. I should ask your mom about it.
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The set of The Fighter, starring Mark Wahlberg as boxer Mickey Ward, now promises to be a volatile place, with Christian Bale signing on for a supporting role and David O. Russell (who famously called Lily Tomlin a c*nt) on to direct.
Pic tells the story of Boston fighter “Irish” Mickey Ward and how he was helped to the world lightweight championship by half-brother Dicky Eklund. Eklund once decked Sugar Ray Leonard and went the distance against the boxing legend before forfeiting his career to drugs and crime. He redeemed himself by training Ward through his Rocky-like run to the title.
Wahlberg will play Ward, a fighter who was losing bouts and was ready to hang up the gloves when his brother came back into his life. Bale will play Eklund, whose drugs and robbery spree drew him a 10- to 15-year sentence in state prison. There, he kicked drugs, became a model prisoner and emerged as a changed man who helped his brother reach the glory that eluded him.
The project first came together with Boston natives Wahlberg and Matt Damon toplining for director Darren Aronofsky. Damon dropped out and Brad Pitt was poised to replace him, but the picture still stalled. Then Aronofsky moved on.
Meanwhile, Wahlberg has continued to train for the pic and is in fighting shape. [Variety]
Aside from the tantrum guy working with tantrum guy angle, David O. Russell’s breakout movie was Spanking the Monkey, about a guy who F’s his own mother, which could give “Say hi to your motha for me” a whole new meaning. It also seems wrong that there’s a character named “Dicky” and Wahlberg won’t be playing him.
