Has this story been reported before?  There’ve been so many Arrested Development movie stories that I can’t remember.  January through March is always a hot time for AD rumors because it’s either that or writing about movies like Season of the Witch (opening today!).  Nic Cage doesn’t even look excited about that one and it’s about witches.  Anyway, the latest on the AD movie is that ol’ Gingerbeard says it’s still happening, but it won’t be his red pubes in the director’s chair. (Too vulgar?)

While in Chicago promoting his new comedy, The Dilemma, director Ron Howard spoke exclusively with ComingSoon.net and teased a small update on the long-anticipated Arrested Development feature film.

“I won’t be directing the ‘Arrested Development’ movie, but Mitch Hurwitz is determined,” he said, “I know we’ve been saying this for awhile, but I’d be really surprised if we didn’t have an ‘Arrested Development’ movie sooner rather than later.” [comingsoon]

Hooray!  Sooner is certainly preferable to later!   Anyway, I’m not super excited about this project because it’d be nearly impossible for it to be anything but a huge letdown at this point, but if it does happen, I’d rather the director not be the guy currently directing an Allan Loeb script about gay cars starring Kevin James.  Hey, maybe they could hire the Photoshop wizard behind the poster:

Look at Kevin James’ forehead, smooth as a baby’s nutsack!  And how they Photoshopped the ice cream cone out of Vince Vaughn’s mouth I’ll never know…

GLAAD raised a big stink about Vince Vaughn’s “electric cars are gay” line from The Dilemma only after Anderson Cooper mentioned it on Ellen, but they were successful in getting the line pulled from the trailer.  GLAAD then demanded that Universal remove the line from the film entirely.  In a rare show of balls from Hollywood, director Ron Howard says the line stays.

“I believe in sensitivity but not censorship.”
“Our lead character of Ronny Valentine has a mouth that sometimes gets him into trouble and he definitely flirts with the line of what’s OK to say. He tries to do what’s right but sometimes falls short. Who can’t relate to that?” Howard asked. “It is a slight moment in ‘The Dilemma’ meant to demonstrate an aspect of our lead character’s personality, and we never expected it to represent our intentions or the point of view of the movie or those of us who made it.”

“I defend the right for some people to express offense at a joke as strongly as I do the right for that joke to be in a film,” Howard said. “But if storytellers, comedians, actors and artists are strong-armed into making creative changes, it will endanger comedy as both entertainment and a provoker of thought.” [CNN]

For a guy directing an Allan Loeb movie, he makes a lot of sense.  Meanwhile, GLAAD’s president had this to say:

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Last week, Universal pulled their trailer for The Dilemma after Anderson Cooper complained about the scene in which Vince Vaughn says “electric cars are gay” (even though Cooper never mentioned the name of the movie and sort of misquoted the line in question).  At the time, Universal said they’d already screened the trailer for members of GLAAD and gays in their marketing department and that no one had had a problem with it.

When the trailer debuted three weeks ago, complaints immediately came in to the studio and its marketing department. But Universal claims that’s when it called GLAAD again  to “double check” there were no objections. The studio tells me that “only then did GLAAD say, ‘This is probably questionable. It’s not a major offense at all. But it’s best not to use it in the campaign so it avoids any questions.’” [Deadline]

GLAAD denies that, but whatever the case, they started to complain about it after the Anderson Cooper appearance. Universal altered the trailer to remove the line, but now GLAAD is taking it a step further with an online petition to have the “anti-gay language” removed from the final movie altogether.  The line in the trailer was “electric cars are gay. …I mean, not homosexual gay, but but my-parents-are-chaperoning-me-to-the-dance gay.”  Meanwhile, ThePlaylist reports that that line had been altered from Allan Loeb’s original script, which said:

“Not homosexual gay… but soft gay, unmanly gay, quiet and small gay” and that “if you’re a real man… you don’t want an electronic car.”

Now, I’m tempted to point out that it’s dangerous to set a precedent wherein what a movie character says has to be screened for PC language, and that if you squint, you might imagine that the point of the line was that the Vince Vaughn character is kind of an A-hole who talks too much and his mouth gets him in trouble, not that he’s a really good guy who never says anything vaguely homophobic, even by accident. 
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Ron Howard’s upcoming comedy The Dilemma, starring Vince Vaughn and an allegedly all-star cast, has a trailer now, and while it promises us classic Kevin James comedy, including “Fat Guy Dancing”, “Fat Guy Making Goofy Faces” and “More Fat Guy Dancing”, it’s pretty special to us because it marks the comedic debut of FilmDrunk favorite and my best friend, Channing Tatum. As always, C-Tates was more than happy to stop by and give us a preview of his new trailer.

Yo girl, check it – peep my new trailer 4 The Dilemma, right? It’s about two homeboys and one is like dying an sh*t, and we gets all serious and mopey, heard? Haha, just kiddin playboy, it’s a comedy, yo. And yo girl, I knows you wonderin, “C-Tates can dance, and C-Tates can be all serious like Martin Lawrence Olivier, but can C-Tates drop some mad humor on my fine ass?” Yo girl, you f*ckin know I be showin mad funny boner, right?

So Vince Vaughn says some white boy sh*t, blah blah blah blah blah, Queen Latifah is some raw sister, son, word is born, blah blah blah blah blah, yo Kevin James is a funny ass mutha f*cka, Paul Blart reprazent, blah blah blah blah blah, Winona Ryder ain’t got no booty, son, I need dat ass like POW POW, heard? But yo girl, check it, you all like, “Yo I’m watchin’ dis trailer and sh*t but I ain’t getting’ wet cuz I ain’t seein no C-Tates” but then BAM! 2:06 C-TATES IN THE MUTHA F*CKIN HEEZYHIZZZZZNOUSE!!!1!

Mad funny, right? But yo girl, they be playin dat Maroon 5 sh*t in the trailer, and I was all like, Yo playboy you need to come correct, right? I’mma play some NWA and be all like STRAIGHT OUT OF COMPTON, WHAT! Never forget where u from, son. Word is born.

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Buried has a new poster out.  I’m offended that “‘Faux-artsy torture porn,’ -Vince Mancini, FilmDrunk.com” didn’t make their precious little list. And also that Ryan Reynolds is wearing a shirt.  For shame. [Collider]

Jim Carrey to star in Mr. Popper’s Penguins.  Mean Girls/Spiderwick Chronicles director Mark Waters will direct Carrey in an adaptation of the 1938 children’s book.  The contemporized plot: “a high-powered businessman suddenly inherits six penguins. As he gets acquainted with his winged roommates, Popper’s life quickly unravels: his swanky New York apartment is turned into a snowy winter wonderland, the deal he’s long been working on is derailed, and he almost lands in jail.  But thanks to his new charges, Popper comes to understand the importance of family – human and otherwise.”  Well that sounds like every comedy ever. “Damn you, penguins! (*record scratch*) You’ve covered my blueprints with snow! (*Trombone fart*) Now I’ll never make that important business meeting with the Japanese!(*sproing*)”  In related news, Tom Cruise has agreed to star in Amyl Popper’s Penguins, “as long as there are no gays in there.” |Deadline|

Maggie Gyllenhaal to star in Victorian vibrator drama. She’ll appear opposite Rupert Everett and Hugh Dancy in Hysteria, a romantic comedy about the London doctors who began treating “hysteria” (“a woman’s irritability, anger or unexplained tears”) with their new electrical device (replacing the previous treatment, a hearty throttling).  Before they could market it, the two would have to withstand a public smear campaign from Thomas Edison, who tried to demonstrate that their product was dangerous by vibrating to death an elephant’s vagina.  Which, coincidentally, is also the medical term for your mother’s condition. |Variety|

Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Adrien Brody rumored for the lead in Fantastic Four reboot.  Screenrant says Fox is looking at Meyers and Brody for the role of Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) and that Amber Heard is in the running for Sue Storm.  According to my sources, the film is still slated to screen as a Who Gives a Sh*t Channel exclusive.  In related news, I think I threw out my back dismissively wanking. |Screenrant|

USA Today debuts first picture from Ron Howard’s The Dilemma.  That’s the one that stars Vince Vaughn as a guy who finds out his best friend Kevin James’ wife is cheating on him, written by Allan Loeb, the guy who wrote The Switch and 21.  Oof. I don’t know how you could possibly make that sound worse.  Says USA Today: “Plus, a sibling cameo tradition continues: ‘Clint Howard has a nice turn.’”  (*screams, dives through plate-glass window*)