EtanCohen Tagged Articles at Cinematical

No super-successful comedy series can stay away for long. Back in April, ShoWest brought news that the aliens were coming back for Men in Black 3. There was no word on which stars would return, or anything other than the faintest murmurings of a plan, but now things are coming together. THR's Risky Biz Blog reports that Etan Cohen, the scribe behind Tropic Thunder, will pen the script while director of the first two, Barry Sonnenfeld, returns for the third bout.

With a script and director slotted into place, naturally, the next question revolves around Will Smith. As of now, the actor has no solid plans to return, but buzz says he is interested. As for Tommy Lee Jones -- his involvement is "uncertain." Smith has nothing pressing right now, so he's wide open (save from helping along his son's blossoming career), and Jones has only got two in-development features in his future.

Read the rest at SciFi Squad

So I'm not going to waste anyone's time by decrying the decision to make major motion pictures out of board games; Lord knows enough time and ink have already been devoted to that topic. But, regardless of what you may think about Hollywood's creative choices (or lack thereof), I know most of you were curious as to what exactly movies based on Monopoly, Candy Land, and Ouija Boards were going to be about. Thanks to MTV, we now have our first taste of Hasbro on the big screen.

First up is Ridley Scott's Monopoly, which is probably the strangest in the bunch because you wouldn't necessarily pair the macho director with a film about real estate. It gets stranger, though, because the movie isn't just Jumanji with land transfer taxes. Instead, Goldner tells MTV, "The whole world is about the financial markets...Pamela Pettler who's writing this great script about real people kind of playing a real-life game of 'Monopoly,' not the board game, although they're icons of the game. And then you really get the idea why this story could make sense right now." ... And I don't think I'm alone in saying that would be the first thing that does make sense since the film was announced.

Next up is Candy Land. Monika already brought us the news in February that Tropic Thunder writer Etan Cohen was at work on a script, but today MTV finally gave us a peek at what's planned. Goldner told MTV, "Imagine if you took that basic idea of going to a better place, and then allowed the audience to go to that same place together. But then you come to find out, like every other place that's promised to just be all better and all sweets and candy, you come to find out there's actually some controversy there as well." Controversy and candy canes? I guess it helps to imagine Pleasantville with gumdrops.

After the jump find out what Goldner had to say about the spooky game flick, Ouija.

I shouldn't be surprised. None of us should. If Monopoly is going to become a feature film, what isn't? The door has been opened, the path has been made, and now we're getting more board game feature film action.

Variety reports that Universal Pictures is getting ready for a journey to Candy Land. The Hasbro game will get morphed into a feature film by Tropic Thunder scribe Etan Cohen, and will be directed by Kevin Lima, who most recently brought us Enchanted. "The tyke-friendly board game isn't as obvious an inspiration for a movie project as those other Hasbro brands, but the studio has tapped talent adept at comedy and family fare." No shee-it. But that movie has already been made, under the Willy Wonka moniker.

Clue, now that made sense. A murder mystery with quirky characters is perfect for the big screen. Monopoly? That's just silly. And Candy Land? Oh, come on. At this rate, we'll have an Uno, a Rummy, and a Tiddlywinks game in no time. After that, well, Tic Tac Toe -- you better watch out! Anyone want to make bets on the next childhood board game to get the feature treatment?

Okay ... the lady is officially possessed with nuptials -- but at least this time it's about running away from them. On the heels of Rachel Getting Married and Bride Wars, Anne Hathaway is adding another wedding-centric production. Variety reports that she's just signed on for a new rom-com called The Fiance.

Instead of being stringently tight-arsed about a wedding date with Kate Hudson, she will star as a woman who cancels her wedding and breaks off her engagement to try and find herself. But since her ex-beau is the seemingly "perfect fiance," her parents try to get them back together, which blocks her from moving on.

Disney originally picked up the project (and dropped it) before Warner Bros. got their hands on it, which doesn't necessarily bode well, but there is a bright side. First, Etan Cohen (Tropic Thunder) is penning a rewrite. Second, Burr Steers will direct it. Relative of Gore Vidal, this is the guy who wrote and directed the excellently dysfunctional indie Igby Goes Down. That's enough to keep me optimistic. How about you?

Columbia Pictures is prepping a comedy in which Sacha Baron Cohen and Will Ferrell will play iconic characters Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, respectively. Already you know if you're going to see this movie or not, right? Count me in the 'definitely interested' pile, but then I'm one of the only people who thought Semi-Pro was freakin' hilarious, so maybe I'm just a sucker for Will Ferrell. And Sacha Cohen as Sherlock Holmes? That sounds potentially priceless. Like Peter Sellers caliber funny. (Maybe.)

Comedy flick gold-miner Judd Apatow is (of course) on board as a producer, but the director has not been specified just yet. (Nor has the name of the movie, come to think of it.) The screenplay comes from Etan Cohen, he of (still funny) Idiocracy and the upcoming (hilarious-looking) Tropic Thunder. As Variety so capably points out, Mr. Cohen and Mr. Ferrell worked together recently (not to mention humorously and very profitably) in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

More info on this comedy project as it becomes available, but I would like to take this opportunity to recommend a very underrated 1988 comedy called Without a Clue. The gag there was that Dr. Watson (Ben Kingsley) was actually the brains of the operation, whereas Sherlock Holmes (Michael Caine) was nothing more than a drunken buffoon of a stage actor. Funny little flick, but I refuse to buy the DVD because it's Pan & Scan only. Which is disgusting.