This was a particularly interesting chart that was a late addition to my career graphs post the other day. Wanted to make sure you saw it, because, you know… creepy.

MOAR TRADE NEWS, NOM NOM NOM

Ben Stiller & Vince Vaughn in negotiations to co-star in Neighborhood Watch. Vince Vaughn hasn’t seemed to care about making good movies in half a decade and Ben Stiller… was in Little Fockers… but hey! Remember Zoolander?  Written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (Superbad), NW is a “sci-fi comedy about a suburban neighborhood watch group that uncovers a plot to destroy the world.” On the possible plus side, it’s set to be directed by Akiva Shaffer (Guy 1, the Ape Sh*t Killer from The Lonely Island), and if anyone can bring back good, dumb comedy (as opposed to the obnoxious, pandering Kevin James sh*t), it’s the Lonely Island guys.  Or it could just be another way for Vince Vaughn to eat food and collect a paycheck. We’ll see. [THR]

Disney is making a movie about The Matterhorn ride. Compared to the thousand other idiotic adaptations in the works, this actually doesn’t seem so bad. At least it has a theme, a setting, and a villain. But hey, didn’t they already make this?  Coincidentally, “The Matterhorn” is my favorite depraved sex practice. …If you don’t know what it is, sorry, bro, I’m not telling. Though it is variously known as a “Stinky Yeti.” [THR]

What did you do to Anna Faris’ hair, you bastards?! (Set pic from Sacha Coen’s The Dictator). A girl who looks like Anna Faris getting this kind of haircut should be grounds for divorce. I know that’s sexist, but I feel like there should be some middleground between “whorish Barbie doll designed for my amusement” and visually insulting attempt to become an old lady. [GettyImages]

Diablo Cody to direct Lamb of God. Writer of Juno and Jennifer’s Body set to make her directing debut in a story about “a young conservative religious woman who loses her faith after a plane crash, decides to go to Las Vegas to live the life of a sinner, and on her journey finds her way back to her faith.” I’ve always said that once you strip away the grating slang and kitschy hipster music, Juno is a solid movie.  But having seen Jennifer’s Body, I wonder if that’s mostly a credit to Jason Reitman. Hard to say at this point, but I am drafting plans for Burnsy, Ufford, and I to write more frat fiction under the pen name “DiaBro Cody.” |ComingSoon|

Kevin Smith Made a Distribution Deal and Sh*t. Read the rest of this entry »

Vince Vaughn has been mailing it in, doing one movie a year and choosing his projects based on which had the nicest spread at craft services or was shooting in Tahiti since around 2005, but now he’s through screwing around. He’s about to make you remember that fast-talking scamp you fell in love with so many years ago.  And by that I mean he’s doing a film called Insane Laws, which definitely doesn’t sound like a poster Tracy Jordan would have in his dressing room on 30 Rock.  Jason Bateman just joined the cast.

Universal Pictures is in early talks with Jason Bateman to star with Vince Vaughn in The Insane Laws, a comedy that will mark the feature directorial debut of screenwriter Jeremy Garelick. Universal picked up the project in March after Sony Pictures put it into turnaround. Neal Moritz and his Original Film banner is still producing it, and Vaughn has been eyeing it for some time. He and Garelick have been close since Garelick co-write the Vaughn-starrer The Break-Up [which, to be fair, was better than it should've been. -Ed]. Garelick also did uncredited script work on The Hangover. The plan is for Bateman and Vaughn to play longtime best friends, who’ve shared everything, from college to the time both got married and had kids at the same time. Cut to when those kids are away at college, and, unbeknownst to their parents, falling in love. The best friend relationship is sorely tested when the daughter of Vaughn’s character gets pregnant. The actors just did a read-through of the material, and it could be in production by the fall. [Deadline]

Well I for one can’t wait for “The Insane Laws.”  I just hope it doesn’t jeopardize some of the other Vaughn-Garelick projects.  Projects such as “Women Be Shoppin’,” “The Deal with Airline Food,” “Men Trying to Watch the Game,” “Half Jewish, Half Italian, ALL CRAZY!”, and “Can You Imagine If Hurricanes Was Named After Sistaz?  Y’all Better Hide When Hurricane Shaniqua Come Around! She Be Comin’ After You Wit’ Her Shoe.”  That one has Martin Lawrence attached, obvi.

In yet another story that would work better as satire, Vince Vaughn is set to join Insane Laws, from the writer of The Break Up.  Ooh, in-law jokes.  Timely.  WOMEN BE SHOPPIN’, YO.  In related news, we’ve now reached the point in Vince Vaughn’s career when The Break-Up seems like one of his better movies.

Universal is in negotiations to pick up The Insane Laws, a relationship comedy from writer-director Jeremy Garelick, out of turnaround from Columbia. The project will act as a starring vehicle for Vince Vaughn.  Based a bit on Garelick’s own life, Insane Laws focuses on two best friends and how their lives are impacted when their grown children fall in love, with one man’s daughter becoming pregnant by his best friend’s son. [HollywoodReporter]

The Insane Laws?  The Insane Laws.  Why, that sounds so wacky, my computer threw a tomato at me when I typed it.  This whole thing sounds like a Smothers Brothers sketch.

Now I realize this is going to sound farfetched, but apparently there’s more than just a few ways to burn through a large amount of money very quickly: purchasing excess amounts of black tar heroin, investing poorly in a sh**ty rapper’s vodka company, cramming all that money up a body cavity -or, if you happen to reside in Hollywood, you can always just grossly overpay the star of your next big (supposed) blockbuster. Yeah, that’s also a great way to get rid of a bunch of cash -but just how much money constitutes a bunch? Well, in an apparent attempt to answer that question (and inspire mass suicides everywhere) Forbes just released their 2010 list of Hollywood’s Most Overpaid Actors. You know, just to really help put into perspective how truly underpaid you are at your day job. And just to lay any rumors to rest, neither Nic Cage or Billy Zane made the list this year, sorry.

To formulate their list, Forbes first started with the 36 highest-earning actors from Hollywood. To qualify, during the past five years, each actor would have to have starred in, at least, three films that opened in more than 500 theaters. After this initial categorization, they then began to factor in various other details like penis length and bench press ability.

We used data gathered for our annual Celebrity 100 list to calculate each star’s estimated earnings on each film (including up-front pay and any earnings from the movie’s box-office receipts, DVD and TV sales). We then looked at each movie’s estimated budget [...] and box-office, DVD and television earnings to figure out an operating income for each film.

We added up each star’s compensation on his or her last three films and the operating income on those films, an divided total operating income by the star’s total compensation to come up with a return-on-investment number. The final number represents an average of how much a studio earns for every dollar paid.

Forbes fails to mention how many interns bludgeoned themselves to death with graphing calculators, during the research, but I can only assume the final count was north of ten.

Top 10 Overpaid Actors after the cut.

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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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