Matthew Lillard Joins Trouble With the Curve

This is a case of weird timing.

Caught a rerun of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit last night – don't judge, it was late, I was tired and nothing else was on. The second-banana special guest of the week (Carol Burnett was the Big Kahuna) was Matthew Lillard. Maybe it was the extra rolls on his cheeks or his pervert-looking mustache. But Lillard disappeared into that character without an ounce of Stu from Scream or Shaggy.

So it was weird to see on EW this morning low and behold, Lillard landed a plum role co-starring next to Clint Eastwood and Amy Adams in Trouble With the Curve. The drama, not directed by Eastwood but Robert Lorenz (When was the last time he starred in a vehicle that he also didn't helm?), centers on an a baseball scout trying to come to grip with going blind and taking his estranged daughter on a scouting trip. Lillard will play a rival scout.

He's currently appearing in The Descendants, a film on its way to several Oscars (for its star George Clooney and possibly its director Alexander Payne) and getting the actor back into the limelight for the first time in quite a bit.

Joel Edgerton – Great Actor, Now Screenwriter

Who knew?

That's what makes people like Joel Edgerton great. They can pull a rabbit out of their hat when you had no idea they were a magician to begin with. We knew the guy could act his way out of a paper bag (See: Animal Kingdom and Warrior). Just had no inkling he could write his way out too and the guy remains so low-profile in the public eye that this doesn't feel like a case of a production company just buying a spec from the sheer "hotness" of an actor's career.

THR says the Aussie thesp sold his spec script One Night Stand to New Regency closing the deal at the tail end of last year. The trades describe it as "an honest look at a man and a woman in the aftermath of a one-night stand."

Hence the title, I guess.

The Power of Chuck Norris - Making Expendables 2 PG-13?

I hate it when someone falls back on, "You just don't get it, man!" as their point to a rival argument’s counter-point. But I’m gonna be that guy and tell Chuck Norris he just doesn't get it.

You see, Norris gave an interview with Gazeta (and translated by Expendables Premiere) explaining certain drawbacks to participating in The Expendables 2 before the producers, so keen to have him involved, caved in to his requests before signing up:

"In Expendables 2, there was a lot of vulgar dialogue in the screenplay. For this reason, many young people wouldn't be able to watch this. But I don't play in movies like this. Due to that I said I won't be a part of that if the hardcore language is not erased. Producers accepted my conditions and the movie will be classified in the category of PG-13."

The point of the first Expendables was to make a movie harkening back to another time; when action movies were stuffed like a Thanksgiving turkey with muscled-up, manly-man tough guys (like Norris in the Delta Forces and Missing in Actions) in the hero and villain roles, violence, and yes, language. That's what made it so appealing for three out of the coveted four-quads in August 2010.

Norris isn't being a jerk here. It's a reasonable request, truth be told. But he's simply missing the point of the whole enterprise to begin with.

Brandon Routh In The "Crooked Arrows" Trailer

A mixed-blood Native American, Joe Logan, eager to modernize his reservation, must first prove himself to his father, the traditionalist Tribal Chairman, by rediscovering his spirit. He is tasked with coaching the reservation’s high school lacrosse team which competes against the better equipped and better trained players of the elite Prep School League.

Joe inspires the Native American boys and teaches them the true meaning of tribal pride. Ignited by their heritage and believing in their new-found potential, coach and team climb an uphill battle to the state championship finals against their privileged prep school rivals…will they win?

Crooked Arrows is modeled upon the consistently successful underdog sports movie popularized by Mighty Ducks, Bad News Bears, Hoosiers, and Bend It Like Beckham–set in the fresh, contemporary worlds of Native American reservations, prep schools, and lacrosse…

Just Jared

Rugrats Fake Trailer is the Creepiest/Awesomest Thing You'll See Online

Leave it to Funny or Die (via Pajiba) to visualize how a live-action Rugrats movie could look and constructed as a psychological thriller involving the murder of Grandpa Pickles.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that fake trailer is why the Internet was invented.

"The Woman In The Fifth" UK Trailer

Based on Douglas Kennedy's novel, the film revolves around an American who has fled to Paris in the wake of a scandal that cost him his job as a film lecturer at a small university. He takes up with a widow who might be involved in a series of murders.

ComingSoon.Net

International "American Pie" Trailer

All the "American Pie" characters we met a little more than a decade ago are returning to East Great Falls for their high-school reunion. In one long-overdue weekend, they will discover what has changed, who hasn't and that time and distance can't break the bonds of friendship. It was summer 1999 when four small-town Michigan boys began a quest to lose their virginity. In the years that have passed, Jim and Michelle married while Kevin and Vicky said goodbye. Oz and Heather grew apart, but Finch still longs for Stifler's mom. Now these lifelong friends have come home as adults to reminisce about and get inspired by the hormonal teens who launched a comedy legend.

MSN

'Walking Dead' Sneak Peak

We're just a few weeks away from the mid-season premiere of The Walking Dead (the zombie show, not the endless rambling acceptance speeches at the Golden Globes last night) and AMCtv.com was nice enough to release a quick look at a scene from the episode, entitled "Nebraska", which will air on February 12:

Considering the way the last episode ended, does Herschel seriously still need to be convinced of anything?

Ah, ok.  Apparently he does.

AMC, which has also extended the next season of The Walking Dead to 16 episodes, has also premiered this sweet new promo image for the show's midseason return (courtesy of ComingSoon):

I'm looking forward to see some more zombie action on TV again next month.  And honestly, I'm just as excited for it to end, since it will be followed shortly after by the long-awaited fifth season premiere of Mad Men.  Finally!  So long zombies, hello Don Draper!

Holiday Weekend Box Office: January 13-16

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  Contraband - $28.8 million

2.  Beauty & the Beast 3D - $23.5 million

3.  Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol - $14.2 million

4.  Joyful Noise - $13.7 million

5.  Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows - $10.5 million

6.  The Devil Inside - $9.1 million

7.  The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - $8.1 million

8.  Alvin & the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked - $7.8 million

9.  War Horse - $7.1 million

10.  We Bought a Zoo - $6.8 million

Mark Walhberg had a lot of reasons to smile this weekend, as he enjoyed a terrific opening for his new action thriller Contraband, which easily won the extended holiday weekend box office with an estimated $28.8 million.  Despite middling reviews, the film appeared to be the go-to destination for action fans who've already seen the new Mission Impossible movie (although that had another strong $14.2 million weekend), and with an "A-" Cinemascore, odds are good that it will stick around at the multiplexes for awhile during the usually dreary winter box office period.

Nostalgia and a 3D conversion won for second place this weekend, as Disney's Beauty & the Beast was welcomed back to theaters with $23.5 million.  Not counting the extra day for the holiday, it's $17.7 million for Friday-Sunday was well below the $30.2 million that The Lion King opened with last fall, but for a 21-year-old movie that's readily available on blu-ray (and, ironically, in 3D as well), it's still pretty damn good.  Let's see if the 3D re-release goodwill continues when The Phantom Menace returns to theaters next month.

The weekend's other new release, Joyful Noise, did all right over the holiday with $13.7 million.  It's not great, but not awful either. 

If you're looking for awful, look no further than last week's champ, The Devil Inside, which plummeted  77% from last weekend's first place finish.  Bad word of mouth didn't just get out...it appeared to race out like an ebola virus warning.  However, since the movie's reported budget was somewhere around $1 million, it's still a hit.

Next weekend sees the releases of yet another Underworld movie, this time it's Underworld: Awakening, as well as Steven Soderbergh's Haywire, starring Ewan McGregor and Michael Fassbender, and George Lucas' high-flying story of the Tuskegee Airmen, Red Tails.

Yes, There Will Be a Third Series of Sherlock

The prospects of a third Sherlock series appeared on the doubtful side looking at how stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman are headed for bigger things, if you've been following the movie-news beat. That's great for their perspective careers, but the downside is their growing busy schedule and, eventual, salary demands to return put a potential damper on those of you (myself included) who'd rather see the British actors in more Sherlocks and less Hobbits and Star Trek 2s.

Not helping matters was last night's series two finale of Sherlock (either being an overseas Gent watching it on the BBC or like Hicks/Yanks stateside like me had to stream it online – no way I'm waiting till May for PBS to air it). I won't spoil it here...unless you're aware of the source material it was based on, The Final Problem. Needless to say it left many wondering if that was it for this small-screen iteration of Sir Conan Doyle's literary heroes.

Rest assured series three is coming.

Following the broadcast, show-runners Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat went straight to Twitter confirming a third series was given the go-ahead by the BBC. In a move showing smarts of their end, the network commissioned series two and three at the same time. Thus when Freeman almost missed out on The Hobbit and Peter Jackson & Co. had to work out a schedule for both productions to have him, they had to fit in a hypothetical third Sherlock series into the equation.

Past this (Hopefully will be on the airwaves this time next year) my guess is everyone will call it a day and move on. So we'd better enjoy this while we can.