Craig Zobel Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Napoleon Dynamite, also known as Jon Heder, is certainly keeping himself busy with surprising roles. Who ever would have thought that he'd don skates and take on some male-male ice skating action? But this news -- it's even more brow-raising. Eons ago, back in 2006, Erik posted about how the guy was whipping up a project called Loudermilk with his brothers, Dan and Doug. Erik mused about scientific experiments and trading places with milk, but the reality is just as wacky -- he's going to become a superhero ... sort of.

The Hollywood Reporter posts that Craig Zobel has signed on to rewrite Chris Bowman's script, and they've finally released the plot. The flick will center on a Napoleon-like "oddball who becomes contaminated with a substance that gives him what might arguably be considered superpowers." It's both a blessing and a curse for the dude -- but at least it's not a magnetized mix-up Jack Black-style. The Heders seem quite into Zobel's "cinema-verite style," but the guy has also got a certain Internet celeb under his belt -- he's the co-founder of Homestar Runner.

This seems to be just one low-budget comedy of many on the way for Heder and his brothers. Does the world need more Dynamite? How about if a little Strongbad is included in the flavor?

This is a great week to catch up with a few indies that came and went quickly in theaters. Craig Zobel's Great World of Sound burst out of Sundance last year with positive notices -- check GreenCine Daily's roundup -- and our own James Rocchi named it one of the ten best of the year. The basic premise is that two music scouts go on the road in the American South to look for acts to sign. In James' original review, he described it as "funny and vital and tough." Magnolia's DVD includes an audio commentary and deleted scenes.

If Feast of Love had nothing else to recommend it, it would deserve recommendation as director Robert Benton's latest work. As Jeffrey M. Anderson commented, Benton's melodramas (Kramer vs. Kramer, Places in the Heart, Nobody's Fool) "almost always hit home." Feast of Love "focuses on several couples in a Portland college community," he wrote. "These characters may live in a college town, but in love, everyone has something to learn." Morgan Freeman, Greg Kinnear and Radha Mitchell star. MGM's DVD looks bare, with just one feature evidently on board.

Director Allan Moyle returned to his roots (Pump Up the Volume, Empire Records) to make Weirdsville, in which stoners, Satanists and drug dealers commingle. In her TIFF review, Monika Bartyzel called it "fun, endearing, and quite fluid for a stoner comedy. It's also recognizably Canadian (the drug dealer is into curling), but still completely palpable for wider audiences." Wes Bentley and Scott Speedman star. Magnolia's DVD includes an audio commentary and 14 featurettes: behind the scenes, making of, and interviews.

Ah, the wonderful, tasty gobble of a turkey -- brined birds and sausage stuffing have helped to make Thanksgiving one of my favorite holidays, due to its delicious, gluttonous ways. I wish I could tell you that this indie flick is going to be a rousing film to watch after the bustle of Thanksgiving football, but it looks like this is just a political turkey. The Hollywood Reporter has posted that Plum Pictures has signed on for Craig Zobel's Turkey in the Straw, which he co-wrote with Barlow Jacobs and will direct.

Turkey is a black comedy set in the South, but instead of focusing on Paula's home cooking and strange marshmallow, yams, and coconut balls, it's about "a race for county commissioner in a small town that takes an unexpected turn when one candidate shoots the other." I'll be completely on-board with this if they take the Zell Miller route and demand a duel, because sometimes there's nothing funnier than a little taste of reality to instigate the fiction. Whatever the case, production is set to begin in early 2008 in South Carolina.

This film was picked up by Plum the same day that Zobel's last film, a music satire called Great World of Sound, nabbed three Gotham nominations. Considering the fact that it already won the three other awards that it has been nominated for, methinks we'll be hearing a lot more about Zobel, Sound, and this Southern Turkey in the future. But you might have already seen his work -- he's one of the Homestar Runner guys, and invented Strong Sad and Pom Pom.