Comedy Central Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Comedian Dana Gould has been around for a long time; I still remember him from his days on The Ben Stiller Show. Since then, he's appeared in a number of random TV shows (Roseanne, Seinfeld, The Nanny) and films (Mystery Men, Dumb and Dumberer) -- to a point where he's become the guy who looks familiar in an old school kind of way, but it usually takes a few minutes for your brain to find the name. More recently, the dude has found moderate success writing for that Simpsons cartoon, but now Variety tells us that Gould has sidled up next to two different projects; one of which is a feature film for Warner Bros. called Alternadad. Based on Neal Pollack's memoir, pic will apparently follow a man who attempts to stay "hip and relevant" as he prepares to become a father. (Why do I automatically envision a scene in which some dorky guy tells a bunch of neighborhood kids to "talk to the hand?")

The other project you ask? Well, that one was set up at Comedy Central as a Shaun of the Dead-type zombie laffer about a group of post-apocalyptic survivors trying to move on with their lives. It's called The Last Larry. Says Gould, "It's a very traditional sitcom set in the world of a zombie holocaust. I felt fairly positive after I pitched it that I wouldn't hear a lot of 'Not that idea again.' " So it's like Everybody Loves Raymond ... except "everybody" is dead. I dig it. Gould added that his goal is to create a show that combines Shaun and Battlestar Gallactica. If he can do that -- and succeed -- I'd be very impressed. Gould will write both projects, as well as serve as exec producer on The Last Larry. Here's hoping at least one of the two survives ...

If you, like me, are addicted to Comedy Central's Reno 911! and simply cannot wait till Reno 911: Miami hits theaters on February 23, then you may have a chance to see the film early (like, today) for free. As part of MySpace's Black Carpet Screening Series, Reno 911!: Miami has officially arrived in Boston, Phoenix and Seattle for one showing tonight at 7:00PM. Yes, it's only a few hours away, but if you've got nothing to do and you live even remotely close to these theaters, why not waste a few hours laughing your ass off?

Of course, there's one catch -- you must have a MySpace page, because your admission ticket is a print-out of your MySpace page. "But Erik, I don't have any friends, and so I never signed up for a MySpace page." It's cool, don't worry, I have a MySpace page and I don't have any friends -- simply sign up for one (it's free!) and print that sucker out. If a free screening to a movie that's not coming out for another month isn't enough incentive to skip another round of exciting American Idol auditions tonight, then you should also be aware that, supposedly, a member of the cast will be stationed at each screening. Free advanced screening. A member of the cast in attendance. And all you have to do is hit the print button at the top of your computer screen? Seriously, why are you still reading this -- go now! Get on down there ... remember, it shall be first come, first serve. Oh, and definitely let us know what you thought about the film afterward.

A list of participating theaters is waiting for you after the jump.

Ah, YouTube we hardly knew ye. The video upload site grew rapidly into a site big and bad enough to make Google sit up and take notice to the tune of a $1.65 billion buyout last month, largely because YouTube kind of overlooked the whole issue of who actually owned the stuff people were uploading to their site. Hence, users would upload the funniest bits from shows like The Daily Show, The Colbert Report -- the kind of stuff people actually want to watch -- in addition to the plethora of videos like that fascinating footage of ripping off a nasty fungal-infected toenail, or a banana spider munching a grub (okay, that one was actually kinda cool). Now that Google and its deep pockets are in the game, though, the rules are changing.

These are good times for comedian Demetri Martin. In just a few years, the Yale graduate and NYU law school dropout has won a comedy award at Edinburgh's Fringe Festival, scored a high-profile gig writing for Conan O'Brien, worked as a Daily Show correspondent and also starred in his own Comedy Central special. Oh, and he's sold two comedy pitches to major Hollywood studios -- I'd say that's a pretty good three-year run.

The first pitch, which sold to Dreamworks earlier this year, was entitled Will and will be executive-produced by Scot Armstrong, one of Old School's writers. Pitch number two, called Moon People, was just bought by Columbia and sounds potentially very cool, assuming it's been placed in the correct hands. The movie will detail the struggles of "a group of people who return to assimilate on Earth years after they were sent to colonize the moon." Nice, huh? Martin himself will write the screenplay and then hand it over to Ali G Show writer-director James Bobin to direct.

OK, this is most definitely TVSquad's territory, but there are three reasons I'm posting it here too:

1. You will not find a bigger Futurama geek than yours truly. Seriously.
2. I'm so excited I feel like kicking back with a can of Slurm.
3. The news deals with movies in a very cursory fashion.

Short version: Comedy Central, a network I now love so much that I've promised to name my first son Comedy Central Weinberg, has signed a deal to produce 13 brand-new episodes of the beloved sci-fi series, and they'll be bringing back the entire creative team and voice cast. How awesome is that??!? The new episodes won't be ready until 2008, but I don't care. Just the fact that we have some new episodes on the horizon is enough to make me cancel my trip to the nearest suicide booth.

So what's this tenuous movie connection I mentioned? Well, not too long ago, Futurama voice actor Billy West mentioned that Fox would be producing a series of direct-to-video Futurama movies. Apaprently that plan is no more, seeing that the gang will spend the next year banging out just over a dozen new episodes! Yes! In your face, Fox! You cancelled yet another show that turned out to be mega-profitable for someone else. Good job, meatbags!

For a much better breakdown on the very exciting Futurama news, check out TVSquad, which is where all good TV news ends up eventually. Heck, even Bender himself stopped by The Squad to celebrate the good news!

Reno 911!, the brilliantly stupid Comedy Central cop series that make people who think they're above that sort of thing laugh until milk comes out of their noses, is coming to the big screen. Thank you, Paramount and Fox. The movie, which starts shooting later this month, will take our heroes to a police convention in Miami Beach - during spring break, of course. It's not all boobs and beer, however: "When the convention center is bio-attacked, it's up to Reno's "finest" to save the day." Woo hoo! I may be alone in this, but I cannot wait for this sucker - forget Snakes on a Plane, man, this is now at the top of my list.

Directing the movie will be Robert Ben Garant, who co-created the series; he and the other co-creators also wrote the script. All of the stars from the series seem to be on-board so don't worry, friends, Dangle will appear in all his glory.