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.

AICN today is claiming confirmation on rumors that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost would play the Thompson Twins in Steven Spielberg/Peter Jackson’s Tintin movies.  A TimesOnline article would seem to corroborate. 

…Pegg trots over to the motion-capture set for the ET director’s latest project – the first in a trilogy of Tintin movies. [Spielberg to direct the first, Peter Jackson the second]  “Steven’s smoking a stogy, cap on head, like he’s always been since I was a baby [?],” Pegg says, shaking his head in wonder. “I shook his hand and chatted about films. He gave me the motion-capture camera, and I had a play around with it. Then he said, ‘Hey, maybe you and Nick Frost could play the Thompson Twins.’ In Tintin. A Spielberg movie. To work with him is beyond .. . ” He trails off, lost for words.

I don’t know much about Tintin other than that it’s a Belgian cartoon from like a billion years ago that’s been made into a couple different TV series and everyone seems to care about it.  You might also wonder how Ginger Pegg and Fatty Frost will play twins.  The answer is that the film will be motion capture, so they’ll be sort of animated.  Also, the Thompson Twins weren’t twins either.  In fact, there were three of them.  In conclusion, the 80s were stupid.

This is the first trailer for The Boat That Rocked, about a British pirate radio station operating from a ship in the North Sea in the 60s.  It’s got a great cast – Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Nick Frost – and the trailer was going great until about the thirty second mark.  That’s when someone walks into a lamp pole.  And it’s not like he’s distracted or looking the other way and then all of a sudden, pole – he’s just walking up the block looking straight at the pole and then he just walks right into it, and it makes a big dong sound. And we’re supposed to laugh. It’s 2008, and a joke that they not only wrote and filmed, but thought was so good that they used as a representation of the rest of the movie, was about a guy who hits his head on a pole.

“Hmmm, we need a joke on page 63 of the script.  It’s been a while since anything funny happened.”

“Okay.  How bout if Bob slips on a banana peel?  No wait, we’ll drop an anvil on his head.  Yeah, an anvil.  With a horn sound effect?”

“You’re f-cking fired.”

Nikki Finke reports that the planned American adaptation of hit British show Spaced produced by McG (original post, Simon Pegg’s response) is no longer happening. 

Despite all the buzz, and exec producer McG, and a "phenomenal cast", Spaced is a no-go, I’m told. FBC just turned thumbs down on the WBTV/Wonderland pilot, which was adapted from the successful British TV series.

I’m not sure what FBC stands for – I was thinking Fellatious Blonde Chicks, but then the thumbs down part wouldn’t really follow.  In any case I’m guessing this fell through right around the time the people involved actually watched one of McG’s movies.

People were pissed they were doing an American remake of The Office – luckily they got Steve Carell to star and everything turned out alright.  But can you imagine an Americanized version of a beloved British show with McG at the helm?  Why, we’d be laughingstocks – and just when they’d finally stopped rubbishing us for our ridiculous habit of not wearing white wigs in court.

Back in ’99, those guys from Hot Fuzz (Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and director Edgar Wright) were doing a show in the UK called Spaced. In October, it was announced that Hollywood’s it douche McG would be producing an American remake. This weekend, Simon Pegg released a statement about the remake and he doesn’t sound too happy. Here’s an excerpt (yes, there’s actually more of this): 

My main problem with the notion of a Spaced remake is the sheer lack of respect that Granada/ Wonderland/Warner Bros have displayed in respectively selling out and appropriating our ideas without even letting us know. A decision I can only presume was made as a way of avoiding having to give us any money, whilst at the same time using mine and Edgar’s name in their press release, in order to trade on the success of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, even professing, as Peter Johnson did, to being a big fan of the show and it’s creators. A device made all the more heinous by the fact that the press release neglected to mention the show’s co-creator and female voice, Jessica Hynes (nee Stevenson). The fact is, when we signed our contracts ten years ago, we had neither the experience or the kudos to demand any clauses securing any control over future reversioning. We signed away our rights to any input in the show’s international future, because we just wanted to get the show made and these dark days of legal piracy seemed a far away concern. As a result, we have no rights. The show does not belong to us and, those that do own it have no obligation to include us in any future plans. You would perhaps hope though, out of basic professional respect and courtesy, we might have been consulted. It is this flagrant snub and effective vote of no confidence in the very people that created the show, that has caused such affront at our end. If they don’t care about the integrity of the original, why call it Spaced? Why attempt to find some validation by including mine and Edgar’s names in the press release as if we were involved? Why not just lift the premise? Two strangers, pretend to be a couple in order to secure residence of a flat/apartment. It’s hardly Ibsen. Jess and I specifically jumped off from a very mainstream sitcom premise in order to unravel it so completely. Take it, have it, call it Perfect Strangers and hope Balkie doesn’t sue. Just don’t call it Spaced. [Source]

I probably would’ve just called McG fat and made fun of his horrible movies and ridiculous facial hair, but you know these Brits and their obsession with "sounding intelligent" and "being articulate".  Anyway, nice burn there, college boy.