It's a familiar tale: Hitch a falling star to a rising talent ... and see what happens. This week's iteration comes in the form of a Variety story that sees Juno director Jason Reitman teaming with Jim Carrey on a new comedy titled Pierre Pierre. The film -- budgeted at a fairly-modest $13 million -- is pitched as the tale of a "self-indulgent French nihilist who transports a stolen painting from Paris to London." In his heyday -- Ace Ventura, The Truman Show, Liar, Liar -- Carrey's salary alone would have exceeded the proposed budget of Pierre Pierre; however, as any viewer of The Majestic, The Number 23 or Fun with Dick and Jane can tell you, those bright days are far in the past.

Pierre, Pierre is going to be released under the Fox Atomic specialty banner, and also features a script from first-time writers Edwin Cannistraci and Frederick Seton. I guess the question I'm pondering is which Jim Carrey will show up -- the tired, makeup-coated hack of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events or the more interested, more invested Carrey of The Truman Show and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? And does new talent Reitman have the skills, and vision, to coax the latter kind of performance out of an actor many consider a fading funnyman?

Well, Gilmore Girl and Traveling Pants star Alexis Bledel no longer has a Ticket to Ride. Instead, an early name change has her getting into The Post-Grad Survival Guide for Fox Atomic's upcoming comedy, and the supporting cast is falling into place. The Hollywood Reporter has posted that Zach Gilford, one of the stars of the television series Friday Night Lights is in final negotiations to play Rory's love interest. Also joining the cast -- Michael Keaton, Carol Burnett, and Rodrigo Santoro (300). Man, I hope this is decent, just to get a chance to see Keaton and Burnett -- hopefully together.

Bledel stars as a girl named Ryden Malby, who has just graduated from college and has "to move back home with her eccentric family while trying to find a job, meet the right guy, and figure out where her life is headed." Santoro is going to play an infomercial director and neighbor who becomes Ryden's friend and confidant, but there is no word on who Keaton and Burnett will play. Considering the eccentric family angle, I'm hoping for some sort of dad and grandma deal -- Carol would be perfect as Alexis' grandmother. As for the neighbor, will Ryden find a lucrative future in the infomercial biz, peddling special fryers, rotisseries, and weight loss products? The possibilities!

Filming will begin on the project this Monday in Los Angeles, under the directorial eye of Vicky Jenson -- director of Shrek and Shark Tale. It'll be interesting to see what she makes of this live action comedy, but really, I'm just psyched for Carol.

For seven years, she was the smartie of Stars Hollow sharing rapid-fire words and pop culture references with her young mom. She dealt with the kooky denizens there, then with the fiery rage of fellow students at Chilton, and then she even lived with them at Yale. But those days are over and Alexis Bledel has to look beyond her Gilmore Girls years. She's already shot the next film in the series about those magic pants that can fit anyone, and has now signed on for her first starring role since the hit show wrapped. As Variety reports, Bledel's got a Ticket to Ride -- and it isn't some sort of feel-good family movie about a girl and her horse, or bike, or whatever she's riding. It's Fox Atomic's upcoming college comedy from Shark Tale helmer Vicky Jenson.

Written by Kelly Fremon, Ticket stars Bledel as Ryden Malby, in a film that will thrust her into fresh, new, and exciting territory. It's about "a college grad who is forced to move back into her childhood home with her eccentric family while she attempts to find a job, the right guy, and some direction in her life." Okay, so really it's nothing new at all. As Rory, she's had lots of experience with eccentric friends and family, and suffering the woes of job-finding, guy-finding, and picking a path. But at least we know she can handle the material. With a $15 million budget, the film will begin shooting next month.

When she is not off fighting injustice during the writer's strike, there is no doubt that Diablo Cody has plenty of work to do in the coming year. The Hollywood Reporter announced that Cody will re-team with Juno director Jason Reitman for the supernatural comedy, Jennifer's Body. Reitman will be producing the flick along with his partner Dan Dubiecki for Fox Atomic, who told THR that "We're here because Diablo's voice and our voice align."

Back in October, Erik had reported that Megan Fox (the dream girl of pubescent boys everywhere) had signed for the lead in the teen comedy – and just as a side note, am I only one who thinks Fox looks like a little old for high school? Fox will star as a small-town Minnesota cheerleader who starts killing local boys after she becomes possessed by a demon. So if that wasn't weird enough, then "Her 'plain Jane' best friend must kill her, and then escape from a correctional facility to go after the Satan-worshiping rock band responsible for the transformation." Cody herself describes the script as "Juno but with cannibalism and evisceration." I don't know about you, but that description alone has sold me on the film.

Reitman and Dubiecki seem eager to have Cody on board, telling THR, "We want to make unusual films, and anything that turns a genre on its ear interests Dan and I. And if you look at 'Bonzai,' 'Juno' and 'Jennifer's Body,' they bring a new voice to genres people are very aware of." Jennifer's Body is set to start shooting later this year and is aiming for a 2009 release.

First off, on behalf of all the teenage boys out there, I'd like to raise my glass and officially congratulate Megan Fox on finally landing another role. Mazel Tov! The Transformers hottie has signed on to star in Jennifer's Body, written by the extremely hot (and I'm talking hot like she's very busy lately) Diablo Cody (Juno). The Hollywood Reporter tells us Fox Atomic pre-emptively picked up Cody's spec script last week, Fox is in negotiations to star and Mason Novick is onboard to produce. While all you dudes out there might be itching to see Fox back up on the big screen, minds might change once I tell you what this sucker is about.

Apparently, they're describing this one as "similar in tone to Heathers and Beetlejuice," and it will revolve around a cheerleader (Fox) who, at some point during her perfect life, becomes possessed and begins killing boys. Ouch. At that point, her best friend must find a way to stop her. As of right now the best friend has not been cast, but Atomic really wants to get this one out before a possible strike takes place. Since Cody's scripts so far fall into a comedic category, it should be interesting to see what the gal does with a thriller. Funnily enough, as hot as Cody is (Juno has lots of buzz coming off the fest circuit, she adapted How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, and set up the female-driven comedy Girly Style at Universal), none of her films have arrived in theaters yet. But trust me, once they do, we'll all know exactly who Diablo Cody is. And if you'd like to get to know her a little better now, check out Cinematical's recent interview with the scribe.

New screenwriter Justin Ware is just rolling in the successful pitches and writing gigs these days. He's the pen behind American Summer, the comedy I told you about in February. Remember the oh-so-charming premise? A pool cleaner (Matthew Lillard) slacks around cleaning the pools of the rich while his parents think he's going to school at Harvard. When his apartment is fumigated, he moves into an empty mansion and pimps out an escort he knows. That production just wrapped, and he already has three other projects in the works -- Adrenaline, Amazing Girls, and Handymen.

Now The Hollywood Reporter has posted the next project added to his ever-growing list -- an original comedy pitch called Wake Up Call, which will be produced by Smallville creators Al Gough and Miles Millar. Unfortunately, they say almost nothing about the plot, other than describing it as "a high-concept comedy along the lines of Wedding Crashers." Does that mean a similar wedding-crashing premise, or just the general idea? Perhaps the flick will focus on some guys who don't crash weddings, but instead randomly give wake-up calls to people in the neighborhood? Or people who make the wake up calls at a hotel. Or maybe some dudes who need a wake up call about their stagnant lives. Considering the writer and the title, what's your best guess?

I already love the sound of this movie because, essentially, it's the story of my life (circa three years ago). And, for some odd reason, Fox Atomic seems to think my life is worthy of the big-screen treatment, as they've gone out and picked up the novel The Average American Male by Chad Kultgen, a former Weekly World News writer. Here's how The Hollywood Reporter describes the story: "Average's" unnamed narrator is a man in his late 20s who hangs out with his friends and girlfriend, plays video games and holds an insignificant job. He reveals to readers his racy thoughts on his girlfriend, watching porn, his disgust with people in general and that he should either live life alone or bite the marriage bullet." It's freaky how similar my life was to the one of this so-called "unnamed narrator," although I was never much of a porn fan. And I don't know who this Chad Kultgen guy is, which means there's no way this book was based on me. Or was it, Chaaaad???

The fascinating part of this story is that interest in the book rose considerably after publisher Harper Perennial produced three one-minute videos promoting it on YouTube. Each one got increasingly more popular, and with more than one million views, book sales went up. For those of you interested in watching said videos (which do contain some harsh, sexually-explicit language -- just so you're warned), you can check them out here, here and here. I found them to be pretty damn funny (especially that third one), and they should serve as a message to those aspirings looking to get your self-published project a little buzz. Go to YouTube! And be creative! Betty Thomas (John Tucker Must Die) has hopped onboard to produce, as well as possibly direct, and there's currently no word on who they're thinking about casting as The Average American Male. Heck, I'll do it!

If you're not a fan of the style of comedy popularized by people like Seth Rogan and Judd Apatow, it's probably not going to be a good year in comedy for you. Variety reports that Fox Atomic has purchased the comedy pitch Harvey and Marky: A True Story of Friendship and Betrayal. Jarrad Paul and Andy Mogel are behind the script, and "the story revolves around childhood friends who hit a crossroads in their relationship when the shy Marky gets a girlfriend and becomes more independent. This devastates the very domineering Harvey, who in turn hires a fake girlfriend to compete with his old friend" -- If nothing else, at least this film has a few parts for the girls to play; since most comedies lately aren't known for their inclusion of the opposite sex.

The comedy duo has been making some deals with Warner Bros. for the comedy property Himelfarb, and they have also been hired for production work on the Jim Carrey comedy Yes Man for Warners, starting production this October. Paul began his career as an actor, and has worked on everything from Beverly Hills 90210 to the *college crisis flick Kicking and Screaming. Paul started writing in 1998; his first (and only)credit was on two episodes of Stargate SG-1, so who knows how good his comedy skills are. The same goes for Mogel, who worked as a grip once back in 1997, and will make his feature debut with Harvey and Marky. Luckily, on board to produce the buddy comedy are Peter Principato and Paul Young. Young and Principato were the production team behind the Reno 911 flick , the upcoming Will Arnett comedy Space Invader, and another Jim Carrey flick, Me Time -- so at least they have some experience when it comes to cranking out comedies for the boys.

*Correction: Jarrad Paul appeared in the 2005 soccer comedy with Will Ferrell.

Despite the fact that I find the 'comedy styling' of Will Arnett pretty hilarious, I just think that most directors don't know quite what to do with him. I mean, it's not like he can keep doing Will Ferrell sports comedies forever. So here's hoping that Andrew Currie has figured out how to make the most of Arnett's particular style of smarm. The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Arnett's latest project (and there are plenty of them), Space Invader, has just secured Currie to direct. Currie was responsible for the Zombie laffer Fido back in 2006, so he has some experience with slightly "out-there" comedy. The story was inspired by the recent astronaut scandal, the "NASA Love Triangle". At this point I'm just wondering how they are going to work in the diaper jokes.

The script was written by Mike Lisbe and Nate Reger. The first-time screenwriters have mainly worked in TV, although the bad news is they were responsible for Just Shoot Me. Arnett is producing Invaders for Fox Atomic and seems to be keeping busy by creating his own starring vehicles -- Ryan's exclusive about Matchbreaker is just the latest of a series of deals for the comedian. Arnett has also just sold a pitch to Paramount with Dax Shephard about two hot tub salesmen in Japan, called Get em' Wet. Invader stars Arnett as "Doug Huggins, the son of a NASA legend, who is terrified of flying. When Huggins learns that his girlfriend, a rising aeronautic star, has been chosen to fly to the International Space Station with Stamp, a spaceman who is God's gift to space travel, he must overcome his fears and travel to space to win her back." Probably not the strongest concept, but hey, it's better than that "two guys in a hot tub" idea, don't ya think?

Okay, seriously ... that title isn't a joke. Fox Atomic invited us to have "Bacon with Kevin Bacon" at Comic-Con for a movie he's in called Death Sentence. Granted, putting those together in the same sentence makes it appear worse than the Bataan Death March, but it was actually a lot more pleasant. Although a more apt title would have been "Bacon Without Kevin Bacon," because he wasn't at the breakfast. We did manage to catch up with him later, though.

We were treated to the promised bacon (along with other breakfast acoutrements) and some footage from Death Sentence. Kevin Bacon stars as Nick Hume, your average, boring, subarbanite "nerd" (as Bacon calls him) whose life changes dramatically when he witnesses his son being murdered. After that, things click into revenge mode, and before long Bacon is a badass, hunting down the gang who did him wrong. However, it's not like a switch gets flipped and he's instantly a commando. He slowly builds from hockey dad to serial killer, although by the end of the footage we saw, he has a shaved head and is a fairly expert hand with a shotgun.

With "geek" stuff like comics, sci-fi, and horror taking over the mainstream, ComicCon has become one of the biggest film events of the year. The studios really take it seriously, and this should be an excellent week for major film announcements. Today, the fairly new studio Fox Atomic, an offshoot of Fox targeting the 17-24 demographic, announced what festival goers can expect from them this year. It looks like their biggest push is for the upcoming revenge thriller Death Sentence. There will be an online sweepstakes to win a 1969 Ford Mustang featured in the film, starting when ComicCon opens its doors tomorrow. If you can't make it to the festival you can enter at the official movie website, http://deathsentencemovie.com, up until the film is released on August 31st. Death Sentence stars Kevin Bacon as a man out to avenge his son's death, and co-stars John Goodman and Kelly Preston. James Wan (Saw) directed. Bacon, co-star Garrett Hedlund and Wan will be signing autographs at ComicCon this Saturday at 3PM.

Also, be on the lookout for a contest to win a Fender Stratocaster guitar signed by the cast of the upcoming comedy The Rocker. You can read more about that movie here and here, it tells "the story of a failed, over-the-hill drummer who is given a second chance at fame." Rainn Wilson plays the drummer and Christina Applegate will be his love interest. Only in the movies, folks! Fox Atomic is understandably putting a big focus on their graphic novel publishing arm at ComicCon as well. Signings and giveaways are scheduled for Joe Harris and Stuart Moore's The Nightmare Factory, due out on September 4th, as well as their film-based graphic novels -- 28 Days Later: The Aftermath by Steve Niles and The Hills Have Eyes: The Beginning by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray. It looks like just about all of the artists and authors will be in attendance. We've got all sorts of ComicCon news, announcements, and goodness coming your way from San Diego (which, of course, is German for "whale's vagina") all this week and through the weekend, so stick around and stay classy.

Here's the new poster for The Comebacks, Fox Atomic's ragtag football comedy starring David Koechner (the sportscaster from Anchorman) and Carl Weathers (Rocky; Happy Gilmore), directed by Tom Brady (The Hot Chick) and written by sitcom vets Joey Gutierrez and Ed Yeager. To view the poster bigger, click on the image above. It reminds me of a few movies. One is Necessary Roughness. Like that movie, The Comebacks features a girl who plays football (Noureen DeWulf). That definitely isn't her in the poster, though. It looks more like Kathy Ireland, who appears in that forgettable football film from 1991.

The poster also reminds me of Committed. Back when I worked for a Manhattan art house, we were asked to take down the Committed poster from the wall of the managers' office because it could potentially cause a sexual harrassment suit. Nevermind that the poster had already been in public view inside and outside the theater. I have a feeling that this poster for The Comebacks would be even worse for the workplace. I can't even imagine it being displayed in most multiplexes. It isn't too lewd, but it's always good to play it safe these days.

The horror debate has been simmering for a while now, not just between movie bloggers and fans, but amongst bigger names in the biz. Earlier this month, Joe Carnahan threw up a big ol' rant about torture porn on his website. Then Stephen King added his two cents to the discussion, and said of a BTK Killer film*: "It makes me feel creepy just to think about it. It's almost like exploiting murder for the sake of murder." Finally, the other day, Ryan posted about Eli Roth's MySpace rant that R-rated horror was in danger. Now the simmer is becoming a full-fledged boil, and we've got news about the increasing backlash.

First, the Hills Have Eyes' studio Fox Atomic is apparently taking a step back from the horror biz. B-D says that the only horror flick that is currently being made by the company is a PG-13 remake of The Entity -- an interesting choice for youth-friendly fare, as it's a supposed-to-be-true story about a woman tormented and sexually molested by an invisible demon. BD speculates that no one should hold their breath to see the next 28 Days Later installment, which was planned to work up to 28 Years Later.

But that's not all: B-D also points to a recent chat between MTV and Brittany Snow, the Hairspray actress who just shot a remake to Prom Night -- or rather, a re-invention: "It's just taking the same name as Prom Night the original, but it's a different script. It's actually more in the vein of Fear, with Reese Witherspoon and Mark Wahlberg." Yeah, yeah. But here is the kicker: "It's more of a thriller. There's no blood, guts or gore." On the one hand, I could ask why they'd bother to refer to it as a remake of the 80's slasher film, when there's no blood and an entirely different script. On the other -- is this backlash going overboard? And what does this mean? Will the victims fall all old-school cowboy style, with a grimace and an exaggerated collapse?

I'm all for a radical shakeup and rethinking of horror -- in a way where women aren't tortured captives, and with blood and guts that's a little more subdued. Or heck, revive the heyday of fake blood and guts. Instead of insisting everything looks completely real, there's something fun about the Kill Bill 'geysers of blood' style of gore.

*Thanks to Anthony for the correction. The quote wasn't directly about Captivity.

It might be somewhat of an odd pairing, but that's the one they're going with. The Hollywood Reporter tells us that Christina Applegate will play a hot mom in the new comedy The Rocker, starring opposite Rainn Wilson. Fox Atomic will shovel this one out, with Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty) directing while Shawn Levy and Tom McNulty produce through their 21 Laps Entertainment. Wilson, who is better known as Dwight from NBC's The Office, will play a failed, over-the-hill drummer in the film who decides he wants another chance at super stardom when the band he was booted from 20 years earlier hits it big. Only problem is he'll have to start from the bottom ... by joining his nephew's (Josh Gad) high school garage band. Look for lots of "Dude, why is our drummer some old, goofy looking guy?" jokes to be present throughout.

Applegate will play Wilson's love interest in the flick; the mother of the garage band's lead guitarist. Okay, that's just weird, although I definitely see the humor in it. HR also reports that Jeff Garlin, Emma Stone, Teddy Geiger, Jason Sudeikis, Jane Lynch and Demetri Martin have been cast in various roles. Wallace Wolodarsky (The Simpsons) and Maya Forbes (The Larry Sanders Show) are currently re-writing Ryan Jaffe's original script, while production is set to begin next week in Toronto. Applegate's career was recently revived (again) after she received a Tony nomination for her performance in Sweet Charity (which I saw and thought she was fantastic); prior to that, she just sort of blended into the background as that cute blonde who looked familiar ("Oh yeah, she was on Married with Children!"). This will mark her first big-screen role since appearing in both Surviving Christmas and Anchorman back in 2004.

We had a good look at the first 28 minutes of this movie a few weeks ago, and it definitely held up to our expectations. There's certainly a lot more gore here than in the first film (and the rest of the movie is a lot bloodier than the first 28 minutes), and there were quite a few pop-out-of-your-seat moments throughout, as evidenced by the number of times that my rear end left the seat. Just to prove I'm not particularly susceptible, the people around me all leapt at the appropriate moments as well.

28 Weeks Later isn't so much a sequel in action as it is in spirit. It is literally 28 weeks after the breakout of the rage virus, and the population of mainland Britain has been wiped out and the country has been declared safe and an America led NATO force is responsible for repopulating the city of London. They've re-established water and power, have operating public transportation, and apparently even the taps are flowing at a local pub that has been re-opened. It's been declared good enough to allow 15,000 people to start repopulating the country, and that number is growing with every new arrival.