Michael Lewis is finally writing a screenplay for Liar's Poker. Finally. I've only been clamoring for it for two and a half years. "John Requa and Glenn Ficarra of Crazy, Stupid, Love will direct". Liar's Poker tells the story of Lewis' time as a bond salesman at Salomon Brothers, the firm that pretty much created mortgage bonds. The leveraging of which, you might remember, were at least partly responsible for our current economic troubles. Why wasn't this movie made 2 years ago?

I went through my archives to see how many times I talked about them making this movie. 9 times. 9 times since February, 2009 I've wondered why the movie hadn't been made. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Now what am I going to write about?

Via Stellar

I'm not sure it's worth posting, but we've had a good 3-5 months where no one involved has said the movie ISN'T happening. And now Jeffrey Tambor has added further confirmation to creator Mitch Hurwitz's hints from February. So there's that.

No, it's all going straight, everyone's on board, I know they're writing, and maybe next time this year we'll be having this conversation.

Nerve listed listed Judd Appatow's in order of how good they were and I wasn't sure I agreed so I made my own list. Some of Appatow's movies are REALLY good. Others are REALLY bad.

15. Drillbit Taylor (2008)
14. Step Brothers (2008)
13. Year One (2009)
12. Get Him to the Greek (2010)
11. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)
10. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)
9. Pineapple Express (2008)
8. The Cable Guy (1996)
7. Funny People (2009)
6. Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
5. Superbad (2007)
4. Bridesmaids (2011)
3. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
2. Knocked Up (2007)
1. The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005)

Here's my list annotated with notes and Nerve's original rating:

15. Drillbit Taylor (2008) I don't think I saw this one.
4. Bridesmaids (2011) I definitely didn't see this one, but the previews look funnier than Drillbit Taylor.
10. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007) I wish I liked this one more, but couldn't even finish it.
13. Year One (2009) I didn't realize this was Appatow, but I finished it.
14. Step Brothers (2008) Barely finished.
11. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006) Some chuckles.
8. The Cable Guy (1996) This was a long time ago.
9. Pineapple Express (2008) There's a big chasm between 9 and 8 on this list.
7. Funny People (2009) Poignant. It was better than it looked.
12. Get Him to the Greek (2010) Lots of laughs.
6. Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) Rewatchable.
5. Superbad (2007) Lots of laughs AND rewatchable.
1. The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) I mean, come on.
2. Knocked Up (2007) I'm approaching having seen this one too often.
3. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) Masterpiece.

The movie, based on Max Brooks' book, is finally getting going. I loved the book and am excited for the movie. Robert Richardson, who was the cinematographer on Kill Bill and Natural Born Killers, has begun work in London. Imagining how grisly Richardson will make this movie, based on his previous work, kind of makes me nervous.

I'd probably watch this movie. Just kidding, I'd definitely watch this movie.

Here's GQ taking a whack at the 'dumbing down of Hollywood' genre of articles. I'm pretty sure that I've seen this type of paragraph to describe what movies are coming out, and the GQ article has TWO of them!

With that in mind, let's look ahead to what's on the menu for this year: four adaptations of comic books. One prequel to an adaptation of a comic book. One sequel to a sequel to a movie based on a toy. One sequel to a sequel to a sequel to a movie based on an amusement-park ride. One prequel to a remake. Two sequels to cartoons. One sequel to a comedy. An adaptation of a children's book. An adaptation of a Saturday-morning cartoon. One sequel with a 4 in the title. Two sequels with a 5 in the title. One sequel that, if it were inclined to use numbers, would have to have a 7 1/2 in the title.

In modern Hollywood, it usually takes two years, not one, for an idea to make its way through the alimentary canal of the system and onto multiplex screens, so we should really be looking at summer 2012 to see the fruit of Nolan's success. So here's what's on tap two summers from now: an adaptation of a comic book. A reboot of an adaptation of a comic book. A sequel to a sequel to an adaptation of a comic book. A sequel to a reboot of an adaptation of a TV show. A sequel to a sequel to a reboot of an adaptation of a comic book. A sequel to a cartoon. A sequel to a sequel to a cartoon. A sequel to a sequel to a sequel to a cartoon. A sequel to a sequel to a sequel to a sequel to a movie based on a young-adult novel.

This is a "trailer" for Robot ("Endhiran"), a movie 10 years in the making, starring Rajinikanth as both a scientist and evil robot type thing. Not only is India's most expensive film, but it also enjoyed the "largest worldwide opening for an Indian film.

This isn't a trailer so much as 10 minute splicing of action scenes. I beseech you to watch it, though, because it's worth every damn second.

Via Balloon Juice

Red State is a "religious horror" movie. He's distributing it himself and going out on tour to raise the money for each print ($2500). He's spent the last couple years building himself a media platform from his SModcast podcast, but even before that, he had an extremely active community on The View Askew message boards. I'm fascinated by stuff like this where people decide the value of what they're being offered by major labels, studios, publishers, etc isn't worth the cost. Red State is going on tour, stopping in several cities before it opens officially in October:

We believe the state of film marketing has become ridiculously expensive and exclusionary to the average filmmaker longing simply to tell their story. When the costs of marketing and releasing a movie are four times that film's budget, it's apparent the traditional distribution mechanism is woefully out of touch with not only the current global economy, but also the age of social media.

Here's more of the back story from Twitter. Below are a collection of about 30-50 Tweets he sent out in a mad burst today. I only wish he'd post this stuff to his blog because I have a hard time reading it in reverse chronological order mixed in with other Tweets. If you have that problem too, the full blast is below.
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My favorite movie growing up was Commando, so this trailer for a musical send up resonated in a number of ways. I want to become rich so I can bankroll Commando: The Musical by Jon and Al Kaplan. I remember every single one of these scenes and I was happy they included Arnie gearing up at the Army Navy store. That was always the best scene. Remember when he was just an actor?



Via TDW

You Know What's Cool? Is it this? I don't know. It seems like it might not.