Scott Pilgrim: The Last Airbender

Sometimes clips need an introduction, and sometimes they really don't, so I'll just say perhaps Edgar Wright's flick (but probably not) and almost certainly M. Night Shymalan's would have been better if they had just mashed things up as this clip does so brilliantly. Enjoy.

Easily the funniest thing I've seen so far today (though it's only 7 a.m.)

OK, David Fincher's "The Social Network," about the invention of Facebook and set to come out Oct. 1, is certainly one of the five or so movies I'm most looking forward to this fall.

After all, I love movies about American ingenuity (and have a probably way-too-lofty spot in my heart for Francis Ford Coppola's "Tucker"), and with a script by Aaron Sorkin you're pretty much guaranteed it will be whipsmart. And the trailers so far have been pretty universally brilliant, especially the clip featuring that piano-based cover of Radiohead's "Creep."

Now, having said all that, why not make fun of it? After all, what exactly was invented here anyway? Though I'm on it and check it fairly often, Facebook certainly has its mockable features (can anyone explain to me exactly what "Farmville" is?), and the clip below jumps all over it with a faux trailer for "Twitter: The Movie." It's funnier than any more words from me could make it, so enjoy the clip and then the original trailer it so sharply skewers, and if you're so inclined, stick around for the trailer for what should be a first-rate documentary. Enjoy.





I have to admit that I've never read "Freakonomics," the bestseller by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, but I've read selected chapters, and it does have some interesting things to say about causality. I particularly enjoyed the chapter about corruption in sumo wrestling (certainly a burning issue for our times), and the segment on abortion and crime rate is as enlightening as it is simply disturbing. So, you can certainly put the six-segment documentary based on it, which will feature those two chapters, on my fall list too. It's a collaborative effort from directors Heidi Ewing, Alex Gibney, Seth Gordon, Rachel Grady, Eugene Jarecki and Morgan Spurlock, and here is the first trailer I know of. Enjoy, have a great weekend, and certainly go see "Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World." Peace out.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. the effect of video games on movies

Complaining about the influence of video games on movies makes me feel more than a little like the old guy yelling, "Hey you kids, get off my lawn." And besides, this summer at least, I'm not all that sure it's a bad thing.

Now, to be clear, I'm certainly not talking about movies based directly on video games - I can't think of the last one of those that was any good. In fact, movies "based" on another medium, particularly '80s TV shows, generally raise a red flag for me (with this summer's "The A-Team" being a welcome exception ... what a big blast of fun.)

Instead, I mean movies that take on the feel of playing - or even better, somehow being in - a video game, with this summer's best example so far being Christopher Nolan's "Inception." Until being knocked from the No. 1 perch last week by the seriously funny and well worth seeing "The Other Guys," Nolan's flick rode a long winning streak to already more than $227 million at the domestic box office in spite - or perhaps because, your choice - of a plot that, like the best of video games. presents a puzzle with level after level of challenges for viewers.

And if all Nolan's tricks don't quite add up in your mind, you're far from alone. It took me two viewings to accept that even if everything he's cooked up doesn't add up perfectly (and I'm fairly certain it was never designed to), it's still pretty much a masterwork both visually and in terms of storytelling.

In an interview with the L.A. Times, Henry Jenkins, a professor of communications, journalism and cinematic arts at the University of Southern California, explained the game influence of "Inception" perfectly: " 'Inception' is first and foremost a movie about worlds and levels, which is very much the way video games are structured. Games create a sense that we're a part of the action. Stories aren't just told to us. We experience them."

Just how much more of an appetite is there for this interactive kind of filmmaking? That gets a major test this weekend with the release of "Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World," which packs the double geek bona fide of not only looking just like a really good video game but also being based on a fairly obscure series of graphic novels (and yes, though I'm well aware I should really be too old for "comic books," I have read the first two installments of this, and it has a visual and verbal wit that should be just right in Edgar Wright's flick.)

Like "Inception," the tale of Scott Pilgrim is indeed also a quest with many levels, in this case battles with "seven evil exes" to win the heart of Ramona Flowers. Even with a love story of sorts at its core, I'll be curious to see how "Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World" fares in a busy week that also contains all the action you can stand (and probably much more) with "The Expendables" and Julia Roberts starring in a more conventional romantic saga directed by "Glee" creator Ryan Murphy, "Eat, Pray, Love."

As for the overall trend of interactive movies, brace yourself for more, because it's not going away any time soon (there's even, of course, a sequel of sorts to "Tron," "Tron: Legacy," coming in time for Christmas.) And as for me, well, as long as the ride continues to be thrilling, I'll just be enjoying it while it lasts.

For Friday, a treasure trove of clips

Actually, with "The Other Guys" opening today and getting generally very good reviews, let's start with easily the craziest news I could find this morning, and it's about director Adam McKay.

In what would have to be a pretty big reach for the Gary Sanchez production company he runs with Will Ferrell, it seems that McKay has hired screenwriter Jesse Armstrong, co-writer of the sublime satire "In the Loop" (rent that immediately if you somehow haven't seen it), to pen the script for a biopic of Lee Atwater. And if you like political film at all, you know how potentially good this news is.

And just in case you've forgotten about Atwater, he was a prominent GOP strategist who, while he didn't quite engineer the rise of Republicans in the South, certainly channeled their power for George H.W. Bush and others to take advantage of (and, by the way, created that "Willie Horton" ad - remember him?) Far from my favorite dude in history, but certainly a colorful character, and Armstrong should have plenty to work with in all the dirty tricks he pulled in a successful career in politics. Stay tuned.

OK, after that today, it's indeed all about clips, and I've got four or - depending on the time - five that caught my eye this morning, starting of course with "Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World." Though surely a gimmick, this interactive trailer that lets you click anywhere in it while it's running to get little nuggets of info about the flick is also extremely addictive as a time-waster. Enjoy, and certainly go see the flick when it opens next week.



Next up, if you have to make movies in 3-D, what more noble use could there be than to shoot a dude being catapulted high into the air in an outhouse? That's right, the "Jackass" boys are back on Oct. 15, and they really will be in 3-D (hence the title, "Jackass 3D.") And I'm certainly not afraid to admit that the antics of Johnny Knoxville and his crew are just the perfectly silly thing to get me laughing on a Saturday afternoon, so I'll be there to see it. Enjoy.

Jackass 3D

Trailer Park Movies | MySpace Video

And speaking of satire, there's one coming up that, if it's done right and with no mercy, could be really funny. Called "Butter," it takes on the 2008 Democratic presidential primary and takes it into the competitive world of butter sculpting (yes, really, I couldn't make that up.) In the flick, set to come out sometime next year, Jennifer Garner plays an ambitious butter sculptor in the Midwest who finds her rise challenged by a young black girl with a talent for the art (if you can really call it that.) I'm already laughing at the possibility for funny here, so enjoy this five-minute behind-the-scenes clip from Entertainment Tonight, which thankfully doesn't contain its usual habit of talking over all the footage.



It's been so long since the last "Narnia" movie, and they really just do have such an old-fashioned feel to them (even with all the nifty special effects), that it's pretty easy to forget all about them, but I liked "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" quite a bit, and "Prince Caspian" was even better, so you can certainly count me as amped for the third installment, "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader," set to come out Dec. 10. Here, straight from the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" DVD and courtesy of Narniafans.com, is the the second trailer I've seen for the flick. Enjoy.



And finally, the transition from swelteringly silly summer to more prestigious fall should start early this year with Anton Corbijn's "The American," set to come out Sept. 1 and star one George Clooney. This is only a brief TV spot, but the flick, starring Clooney as an American assassin who gets one final assignment to complete in Italy before retiring, is one of the movies I'm most looking forward to for the rest of this year, so enjoy, and have a great weekend. Peace out.

Only you can stop the virus that is 3-D

In the race to discover the most despicable use of 3-D technology yet, James Cameron's plans for a 3-D Black Eyed Peas concert movie (if that is still on) have now been surpassed by an even more ridiculous idea.

Now, before I spew any venom, let me say that I'm a very middle-aged dude, so far from the target audience for anything about Justin Bieber (though I really did enjoy that German TV clip in which when, asked to say something in German, he replied, "What is German?")

However, even a few of his most devoted teen and tween fans might scoff at this: A 3-D biopic about the 15-year-old singer's life, to be released next February and somehow be directed by Davis Guggenheim, who made "An Inconvenient Truth." Yes, really. Now, I suppose it's possible that his 15 years have been filled with enough drama and suffering to make a feature length movie work, but I somehow have my doubts.

As regards 3-D overall, and in case you couldn't tell already, I pretty much thoroughly hate it, The Wrap had an interesting set of numbers this morning about the gimmick's failing arc at the box office. Now, this isn't entirely fair, since I don't think anyone expected the "Cats & Dogs" sequel to make a ton of money, but the chart below is still very telling. Enjoy.



An $80 million opening for "Alice in Wonderland" (which, unlike a lot of people, I quite liked, IN 2-D) down to the dismal bow of "Cats & Dogs"? Now, that's a progression that has me hopeful, but The Wrap's article quickly doused those hopes with a big dose of reality. Here's an excerpt:

“I think the overall message isn't that 3D is a fad or that it’s going away, but I’m not sure we’re moving to a point where 50 percent of the box office is derived by 3D ticket sales as some of the bulls currently believe,” BTIG Research analyst Richard Greenfield told TheWrap.

With, as the New York Times noted Tuesday, nearly 60 3D releases queued up for the next two years, the “bulls” can still be found in herds back in Hollywood. In fact, the flurry will continue this weekend, when Disney releases “Step Up 3D.”

Now, I'm perfectly able to simply skip "Step Up 3D," and with "The Kids Are All Right" somehow opening at my local multiplex this week, I can even see a good movie, but 60 3-D movies in the next two years? Sheesh. All I can say is keep hope alive, because only you can stamp out the scourge that is 3-D, and it all starts with simply saying no.

OK, that was a lot of bile for a Wednesday morning, so why not some actual good news about a movie I really want to see instead? Edgar Wright's "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" finally drops next week, and I'm totally amped for it.

As part of the appropriately aggressive marketing push, Cartoon Network's [adult swim] will air a short animated film titled "Scott Pilgrim vs. The Animation" in two installments between midnight and 12:30 a.m. Aug. 12. The short will cover Scott's relationship with Sex Bob-omb drummer Kim Pine, and will feature the voices of Michael Cera and Alison Pill from the movie. And for those of you who, like me, are rarely up at that trouble-making hour on a school night, it will re-air on Friday the 13th (yes, again), the day the movie comes out, on both Adultswim.com and its facebook page. Nothing but groovy there.

And since I have a bit more time, there are some other TV tidbits out there today that are pretty juicy.

As "The Office" embarks on its final season with Steve Carell's Michael Scott as the boss of Dunder Mifflin, it seems he'll tangle with Timothy Oliphant, star of the great F/X Western of sorts "Justified" and just one of my favorite actors.

According to TV Guide, he'll have at least a two-episode run as a rival paper salesman who angers Michael and Dwight by stealing away their customers. In my mind, that's already funny.

And speaking of Westerns, they certainly seem to be getting new life on TV these days, and that's welcome news in my little corner of the world. AMC is now developing a period drama called "Hell on Wheels," which follows the story of a former Confederate soldier who ends up working on the transcontinental railroad in the Nebraska prairie as he hunts down the Union soldiers who killed his wife. Juicy. And in the latest casting news, Reel Fanatic favorite Colm Meaney has signed on for the role of Thomas “Doc” Durant, a businessman determined to make his fortune building the railroad.

The final bit of good TV news today is that FX has, somewhat surprisingly, picked up a second 13-episode season of "Louie," starring the comedian Louis CK. I'm only really surprised because, while I like it quite a bit, it certainly is a dark and bitterly funny brew, so not exactly designed to appeal to a broad audience.

And I'll leave you with this nugget from the latest Ebert Club newsletter, an enjoyable read every time it pops up in my e-mail box. It seems that BBC1 is either airing or has aired a series of three 90-minute episodes of "Sherlock," a take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories set in modern-day England (and hopefully more than a bit better than that mess with Robert Downey Jr. last year, and I have to assume, next year too.) In the best news of all, the series, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch (great name there) as Sherlock and Martin Freeman (of the original "The Office" - see, synergy) as Holmes, will be aired on PBS as part of its Masterpiece series early next year. Enjoy this short clip from the series, and have a perfectly bearable Wednesday. Peace out.

Emblematic of this summer: A 9 percent fresh flick

How bad have the movies been this summer? This morning, I was struck by two signs.

First, the idea that "Jonah Hex" would be this year's first (that I know of) "zero percent fresh" movie at Rotten Tomatoes. Think about that for a second. Of all the people in the world who call themselves critics, they couldn't find one to say this comic book flick starring Josh Brolin and Megan Fox doesn't just suck?

By this morning, however, it was up to a more robust 9 percent fresh, with three or so "positive" reviews, one of which had the following summarizing phrase: "You could do worse than this and if you have been going to the movies this summer with any regularity, you most likely already have." Nothing like a ringing endorsement, eh?

And secondly, the Hollywood Reporter, in apparent seriousness, ran the following headline: "Early Oscar Contenders Scarce." Really? Having seen my fair share of stinkers already this year, I didn't have to take the time to read that article.

However, I do still try to be a glass half full kinda guy, and along with the U.S.A. playing Slovenia this morning in the World Cup, there is, on the opposite end of the spectrum, a "100 percent fresh" movie opening this weekend, Pixar's annual offering, "Toy Story 3." The closest thing I've seen to criticism of that so far is that it's a roller-coaster ride that never lets up. Sounds like summer to me, and I'll be going to see it in glorious 2-D (because I already wear glasses, and don't need to pay $3 more or so just for a second pair, thank you very much) this afternoon.

And speaking of potentially great movies, Edgar Wright's "Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World" just keeps looking better and better as they keep releasing trailers. I suppose it could be overload by the time this finally opens in August, but with as thoroughly fun as it looks to be, I'm nowhere near that point yet. My favorite line in this latest international trailer: "Prepare to die, obviously." Enjoy, watch the U.S.A. this morning, and have a perfectly pleasant weekend. Peace out.

A black Spider-Man? Hell yeah! Plus, "Scott Pilgrim" vs. the rest of the summer

I pledged to myself a few weeks ago that I wouldn't join any more groups on Facebook. I mean when you're a member of something as life-alteringly important as "Keep Rex Daisy on the 1st Ave. Wall", where else is there to go?

There are still a few things, however, I find interesting enough to latch onto without being asked to by friends like radio DJ and former Rex Daisy member Jason Nagel (though I'm afraid I'm considering dropping my Orioles feed, because, frankly, I'm not sure I can take the daily reminder that, yes, they've managed to lose another game.) And Donald Glover as Spider-Man? There's something I can get behind.

When it was first announced that Sam Raimi had quit the "Spider-Man" franchise and later that the entire cast would be jettisoned in favor of a reboot, that's when I lost just about all interest. Even when "500 Days of Summer" director Marc Webb was announced as the helmer of this project, it still didn't make it anything but a bad idea in my mind.

Given all that, how can you get me interested again? Well, how about a black Peter Parker for starters, and why the hell not? Especially since "Community" star Glover, who has launched his own lobbying campaign to at least get the chance to audition for the role, would be just about perfect for it. If you watch "Community" you know he's a funny guy, and he's certainly the right age for this. And you can tell from the eagerness he brings to this that he's clearly a Spider-Man fan.

So, you can count me as entirely on board with this idea, which would at least make the notion of a new "Spider-Man" franchise more stomachable (and yes, I'm well aware that's probably not an actual word.) If you're a twitter kind of person, you can sign on to #donald4spiderman, which apparently was the "third highest trending" feed (whatever the hell that means) on Monday night. Or, if you're a rube like me who resists Twitter, you can sign on to his facebook page here (and trust me, it's at least worth a visit if only to see the hilarious photos of him as Spidey in various poses.)

I've just moved "Mystery Team," which Glover stars in and wrote along with his DERRICK comedy cohorts, to the top of my Netflix queue, but it tells me there will be a "short wait" for it, so who knows when that will be coming.

All I've got except for that today is the second trailer I know of for "Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World," and it's even better than the first one. It looks like Edgar Wright has simply put together a really fun and funny movie that will hopefully breathe some life into what has so far just been a disastrous movie summer when it finally comes out in August. Enjoy, and have a perfectly passable Tuesday. Peace out.

Will there be any truly great movies this summer?

You know, I really do try to keep things positive around here, but given both the almost complete failure of "Iron Man 2" (well, not financially, of course) and the relative dearth of truly good movies that have preceded it this year, I think it's a fair question to ask: Will there be any great - or at least really good - movies in wide release this summer?

Well, just to prove I'm not a complete cynic, there are at least two that will indeed play everywhere that will surely fit that bill, and I threw in a third that I will certainly make the trip to see when it opens soon in Atlanta. There are, in fact, well more than 10 movies that I want to see between now and the end of August. I'm not usually much of a numbers guy, but I've rated them from 1 to 10 on a scale of just how likely they are to escape from my local multiplex without sucking. If there are any worthy entries that I have just snubbed, please feel free to let me know. Enjoy!

Friday: Robin Hood
The reviews for Ridley Scott's epic prequel (and at 2 hours and 20 minutes, epic I guess it better be) are just the definition of a mixed bag. Roger Moore, not James Bond but a movie critic I always trust, gave it three stars, but most of the geeks I've seen call it a failure. That has me slightly expecting the latter, but at least they decided not to convert it to 3D, and that's enough to make me take a chance on it this Saturday afternoon. Chances of not sucking: 6/10.

May 28: Micmacs
Jean Pierre Jeunet's latest movie is indeed the only one on this list you won't be able to see everywhere in America, but here's hoping that when it finally does get a nonfestival, U.S. release that will mean it comes to Atlanta for at least a week. The flick about a ragtag band of misfits who take on an arms manufacturer looks like it's almost completely suffused with that whimsically fun Jeunet spirit. Judge for yourself with the trailer below. Chances of not sucking: 9.5/10



June 4: Get Him to the Greek
I know there are plenty of people who find him to be thoroughly annoying, but I find Russell Brand's shtick to be very funny, and at least here he's not appearing in a thoroughly unnecessary remake of "Arthur" (yes, really, but at least Helen Mirren will be in it - in the Sir John Gielgud role). Here he continues his Aldous Snow role from the rather average "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," and Jonah Hill is the poor sap who has to babysit him. Chances of not sucking : 7/10 (though I'm probably being at least a bit generous there.)

June 4: Splice
It's entirely possible that I'm just being duped here, but I have a real hunger for intelligent sci-fi, and all signs so far point to this being a bit of that. Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody star in this Vincenzo Natali flick about two scientists who mess around with human DNA and come up with something, well, not entirely pleasant. Odds of not sucking 7.5/10

June 18: Toy Story 3
I may be the only person who thinks this, but Pixar has kinda been on a losing streak of late. Now, keep in mind, I mean that only in comparison to the long string of winners (with "Cars" being the exception) before that. "Up" was far from the best animated movie of 2009 ("Coraline," "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" and "The Princess and the Frog" were all better in my book), and as charming as "Wall-E" was, "Kung Fu Panda" was just a lot more fun. This summer, they've gone with a definite known entity, and though the toys in peril storyline will be gratingly familiar, I'm sure at least the introduction of Ken will be funny. I'll be there to find in GLORIOUS 2D. Chances of not sucking: 8/10.

July 2: The Last Airbender
M. Night Shyamalan? Really? Well, he desperately needs a winner, and he's at least starting with great source material in the wildly entertaining Nickelodeon animated series. He's taking it live action, of course, and bringing Dev Patel and The Daily Show's Aasif Mandvi along, so here's hoping this isn't the total disaster it certainly has the potential to be (hey, the man does have a record here.) Chances of not sucking: 6/10.

July 9: Despicable Me
I'm betting that, with Steve Carell voicing Gru, who wants to take over the world by stealing the moon, this flick will be funnier than "Toy Story 3," but I've been wrong at least once, and probably already today. Enjoy the latest trailer I could find. Chances of not sucking: 7/10.



July 16: Inception
OK, here it is, the make or break movie for this summer, because if this one somehow sucks, we're really screwed. With it being a genuine mindbender from Christopher Nolan starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page, however, I'd say the chances of that are very slim. Not entirely sure yet, but I think this will be my one midnight movie for the summer. Chances of not sucking: 9/10.

July 23: Dinner for Schmucks
This Jay Roach flick has at least two very funny things going for it in Carell and the even funnier Paul Rudd, but there's one big problem: The French original that it will have to live up to set the standard for comedy very high. From what I've seen so far in trailers, they made at least one very big change that doesn't bode well: In the Francis Veber original, they never make it to the titular dinner because they just annoy each other so much, but that will change in Roach's take. Do yourself a favor and rent Veber's "Le Diner de Cons" before going to see this one. Chances of not sucking: 7/10.

July 23: Salt
Phillip Noyce makes the short list of my very favorite directors largely on the strength of three flicks: "The Quiet American," "Catch a Fire" and "Rabbit-Proof Fence," but before making that trio of winners he was also quite adept at producing solid spy thrillers, including "Clear and Present Danger" and "Patriot Games." The latter should serve him well with this flick, which stars Angeline Jolie as Evelyn Salt, a CIA agent accused of being a Russian spy. Chances of not sucking: 7.5/10.

Aug. 13: Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World
Along with "Inception," this is the other flick I'm most looking forward to for this summer. Having read a couple of the Scott Pilgrim funny books, I'm confident that Edgar Wright is the right man for this, and that Michael Cera is too as our titular hero who has to battle the seven exes of his would-be paramour, Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead.) As you can see from the trailer below, Wright's flick will at least look like nothing else you'll see this summer. Chances of not sucking: 9/10.



Aug. 13: Tales from Earthsea
This, unfortunately, won't be a Hayao Miyazaki movie, but any summer offering from Studio Ghibli is reason enough to rejoice for me. This one is actually directed by Miyazaki's son, Goro, and is based on the novel by Ursula K. Leguin. But will the master himself manage to make another movie? Nothing listed yet at the IMDB, but certainly keep hope alive, because his last one, "Ponyo," was simply fantastic. Chances of not sucking: 8/10.

Aug. 20: The Switch
The last time I took a chance on an August comedy almost entirely because Jason Bateman was in it, I was thoroughly burned with "Extract." I do, however, have enough of a reservoir of goodwill for the man to take a chance on this turkey baster comedy that also stars Jennifer Aniston, though not with terribly high hopes at all. Chances of not sucking: 6/10.

And there you have it, my guide to summer 2010. Please feel free to add any wide-release movies you think I might have slighted, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday. Peace out.

Coco's long, strange trip heads to TBS, and I'm with him

The first thing I thought when I heard yesterday that Conan O'Brien had spurned the advances of Fox for more money and, let's face it, surely more job security at TBS, was man would be it great to see another "Late Shift," this time about the rather tawdry adventures of CoCo and the soon-to-be-vanquished Jay Leno (hey, one can dream, right, even though he's clearly more indestructible - but much less funny - than a cockroach.)

If you've never seen that HBO movie, it detailed the war between Leno and David Letterman, and just how Dave ended up walking over to CBS, with comic precision. I'm sure you can still rent it, and it's well worth it.

And even though any new version of the story would surely make for a kinda rough portrait of both its main players, I think the TBS deal is nothing but a winner for O'Brien, and here's why.

Had he somehow managed to swing a deal for an 11:30 show on Fox, he would have been under the same constant pressure that thankfully killed Leno's 10 p.m. adventure, complaints from the affiliates. They were apparently, and rather amazingly, balking at pulling their "Simpsons" reruns or "Cops" or whatever the hell else they have on at 11:30 now, and frankly, who needs that?

At TBS, for which the motto "Very Funny" has so far only expressed itself in almost constant reruns of "The Office" (which is, granted, indeed just that), he's clearly gonna be the lord of the manor.

Here are the details, as I know them. The TBS deal only started coming together last week, after George Lopez called O'Brien (easily the best thing he's done for comedy in many, many years) and asked him to consider coming to TBS. Under the deal, starting in November, Lopez's show (which, in all honesty, I've never watched in its entirety, but I've seen enough to deem it not terribly funny at all) will move to midnight, easing the way for CoCo at 11 p.m.

The as-yet-untitled show will only air Monday-Thursday (because, after all, who wants to work on Friday if you clearly don't have to?) O'Brien will apparently earn about $10 million a year, roughly what he had been making at NBC, and much more importantly, own the show, a la Dave Letterman. There's not much I can say to sum up just how good news this really is, so I'll let Conan himself do it just about perfectly.

“In three months I’ve gone from network television to Twitter to performing live in theaters, and now I’m headed to basic cable. My plan is working perfectly.”

And you have this promise from me: Though I'm pretty strictly an in bed by 11 kinda guy, I'll gladly stretch that for a half hour at least to make room for your return. Welcome back, Conan.

OK, this is technically supposed to be about movie news, so here are four nuggets I found fascinating this morning, before we wrap things up with a couple short videos that are pretty much guaranteed to make you smile.

Did you see "Date Night"? I did, and while it could certainly have been zanier for my taste, it was still pretty darn funny, even in the none-too-brave-or-new-world that is the new New York, and that was almost entirely thanks to the chemistry of NBC's comedy titans, Tina Fey and Steve Carell, though James Franco and J.B. Smoove were very funny in it too.

So, even though their movie somehow lost out to that "Clash of the Titans" remake (which I still haven't seen, and probably won't), it shouldn't come as much of a surprise at all that they're already making plans to team up on the big screen again. According to the L.A. Times, Fey and Carell will appear together in something called "Mail-Order Groom," which was apparently at least partly penned by Fey's hubby, Jeff Richmond.

In the comic premise, Fey would play a lonely woman who orders the titular "Mail-Order Groom," only to get, in the form of Carell, not exactly what she bargained for. I'm laughing at that already, and I can't really see any way in which this won't come together extremely quickly. Stay tuned.

And, keeping things in comedy for another second or two, Vulture has apparently gotten its hands on the script for "A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas," and shared what it will be about. Personally, I thought Kal Penn and John Cho started to lose their comedy buzz more than a little bit by the end of "Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay," but I'll never get too old for good stoner comedies, so here's hoping they deliver with chapter three this Christmas.

Here's what it will be about, according to Vulture: Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg’s script tracks down Harold and Kumar 10 years after the events of the second film. Now in their 30s, Harold is married and living the idyllic family life while Kumar lives in their old apartment and has just had his license suspended for smoking weed. More importantly, Harold is drug-free, but all that’s about to change when Kumar drops by and burns down a special Christmas Tree — soon enough, the two are on the road to find a replacement.

Excellent. Throw in Neil Patrick Harris and all kinds of fun drugs, and I'll certainly be there.

After that today, things get a little more serious in the form of news about what Froggy directors Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud are cooking up as their followup to "Persepolis" (before it just gets crazy with word of what exactly happened to Craig Brewer, remember him?)

If you haven't seen the animated movie "Persepolis," there really are very, very few rentals I can recommend higher. Based on the Satrapi graphic novel of the same name, it's all about her life growing up in Iran and Europe, and it's just an amazing bit of filmmaking. For the duo's next project, they'll again turn to a Satrapi illustrated novel (which I'll certainly now have to read) called "Chicken with Plums."

All I know about it so far is that the movie will again be about Iran somehow, but this time they will be working in live-action rather than animation, and actor Mathieu Amalric will be one of the stars. In any format, Satrapi and Paronnaud just make movies (or rather, so far, a movie) I love watching, so definitely keep your eyes on this one.

OK, just to end on a crazy note, before a couple of short videos, does anyone remember Craig Brewer? He managed to direct what has become without exaggeration one of my all-time favorite movies with the rap-and-roll fable "Hustle & Flow" and then the simply bizarre "Black Snake Moan" before just about completely disappearing.

Well, know he's back, but not in any kind of form I could have predicted. It seems that whichever big studio had the bright idea to remake "Footloose" has now hired Brewer to direct it, from a script he wrote himself. The project was originally in the much more predictable hands of "High School Musical" director Kenny Ortega (who actually directed quite a few episodes of "Gilmore Girls" too, oddly enough) with Chace Crawford of "Gossip Girl" to star in the Kevin Bacon role (thus sealing his fate in the six degrees game), but now both of them are gone. Brewer, I suppose, makes this a little more interesting, but mostly it's just a depressing tale of just what a guy's gotta do to eat these days.

But enough of that depressing stuff. "Glee" returns tonight, and that's more than enough reason to go out with two things that just made me smile. First up comes a band I had admittedly never heard of called Anamanaguchi (and forgive me, guys, if I'm somehow misspelling that) performing what will apparently be the theme song for the upcoming "Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World" video game. The movie it's attached to is already surely getting more buzz than it needs, and I'll be doing my very insignificant part to contribute to that, but as for this, it's just two minutes or so of punk-pop bliss, which is just about what I at least needed to start off a Tuesday morning. Enjoy.



And finally today, this 15-second only but still extremely foul (remember, I did warn you) commercial clip for "Kick-Ass" just about perfectly encapsulates what will hopefully be its primal appeal. It's sublimely not safe for work, so if you watch it without headphones, you have only yourself to blame. Enjoy, and have a perfectly bearable Tuesday. Peace out.

You see, but you do not observe: A glimpse of "Sherlock Holmes"

Actually the best news out there today is further proof that, despite the ascendancy of a new generation and Barack Obama, there are still some areas in which grumpy old men, of which I'm rapidly becoming one, still rule the Earth.

In less than two weeks, of course, we get our own fantabulous 3-D animated feature with Pixar's "Up," but perhaps even better was today's announcement that this year's weeknight World Series games will start before 8 p.m., meaning that - even if my Orioles most likely won't have anything do with it - at least the games will hopefully wrap a little closer to my schoolnight bed time.

And best of all, the story I saw on this said Fox won't even take to the air before 7:30 p.m. Less than a half hour of inane Fox pregame (meaning, hopefully, no Steve Lyons, if he's indeed still there) and an earlier game time? I'm in heaven.

And I suppose the most "important" news out there today is that they're finally gonna do a biopic on Martin Luther King Jr. Not surprisingly, such a "prestige" and - in my book - "obligation" movie has attracted big fish Dreamworks and Steven Spielberg, so far as just a producer, but who knows?

The only way you could get me more than even mildly excited about this, however, is to cast the right dude as MLK. Don Cheadle would work OK, but for my money the slam-dunk choice would be Jeffrey Wright (oddly enough, Mos Def would be my second choice, and I actually saw them on stage together once in Suzan-Lori Parks' rather disappointing "Topdog/Underdog.")

You may remember that Wright has already played MLK Jr. once in a surprisingly entertaining but underrated HBO movie, "Boycott," also starring Terrence Howard as Ralph Abernathy and directed by "Homicide" and "The Wire" vet Clark Johnson. The only way to keep my interest in this going would be to bring him back for more.

The order of the day here, however, is supposed to be all about "Sherlock Holmes" and the case of its first theatrical trailer, with a little "Scott Pilgrim" thrown in at the end as a bonus.

When I first heard Guy Ritchie was gonna put his stamp on "Sherlock Holmes," I have to say I was more than a little worried. Now, don't get me wrong: "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and - to a lesser extent - "Snatch" are very funny flicks, but I'm not sure I'd call them clever in the vein of Holmes, and Ritchie's movies since then have been pretty much pure crap (with the possible exception of "RocknRolla," which I'm perfectly willing to concede I just didn't get.)

Beyond the tone, however, I also felt more than a little queasy when I heard rumors about them turning Holmes into some kind of Bond-style badass with exceptional fighting skills. That certainly wouldn't josh with any kind of Holmes I remember or ever want to see.

I suppose, though, with Robert Downey Jr. as our main man, I should have faith, and indeed this trailer does look pretty darn good. As everyone probably knows, Jude Law stars rather oddly as Watson, and as I just found out from the IMDB, Eddie Marsan of "Happy Go Lucky" fame stars as Inspector Lestrade. Enjoy the trailer, and feel free to check back for many more updates on this before it comes out Christmas day.



And, as a bonus of sorts, here's the latest installment of Edgar Wright's video blog about the making of "Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World." The part of me that used to (and sometimes still does) read comic books has to admire the details that he and comic book writer Bryan Lee O'Malley are trying to recreate while filming in Toronto, but you also have to wonder how much any of that is going to matter to anyone beyond the most devoted subset of geeks (of which I still proudly consider myself one.) Anyways, enjoy this latest bit about the making of the flick set to star veryfunnyman Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and, as I just found out today, one of my favorite people in "Rocket Science" star Anna Kendrick. Peace out.

Blog Five - From Comic Book Panel to Screen - Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World from Scott Pilgrim The Movie on Vimeo.

Edgar Wright on "Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World"

Just as I love movies about making movies, I also just like any little real insight into just how the sausage gets made, especially with movies I'm almost certain I'm going to like.

Case in point: "Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World." With Edgar Wright directing the flick based on Bryan Lee O'Malley's comic book about a slacker/wannabe rocker (played by Michael Cera, natch) who wants to date delivery girl Ramona V. Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) but must first defeat her seven evil ex-boyfriends, I'm definitely in.

And now, as he did with "Hot Fuzz," Wright has just started posting weekly video blog posts at the flick's official site, and the first one is embedded below. Edgar Wright is an extremely funny guy, and it's just fun to watch his stars doing calisthenics and some kind of sword fighting in the background as he's talking about the movie. The flick itself is set to come out sometime near the end of this year. Enjoy, and for sure go see "Observe and Report" today! Peace out.


Blog One - Introduction - Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World from Scott Pilgrim The Movie on Vimeo.