I'm sure you've all heard about the upcoming Ghostbusters video game (we've talked about it here and here), and how this was as close as we were going to get to a Ghostbusters III since, well, it was an all new story and all four Ghostbusters (Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson) were reprising their roles (in voice form) for the game. Not only that, but Annie Potts, William Atherton and Brian Doyle-Murray lent their voices too. Sadly, both Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis did not join the party. The script for the game was written by Ramis and Aykroyd (who wrote both Ghostbusters live-action movies), and, well, a lot of your favorite ghosts (like Slimer, Gozer, Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and Vigo) will make an appearance, along with a brand new enemy.

All that being said, the game's trailer can be seen up top -- and it features that totally retro '80s trailer voice with scenes from the live-action movies alongside those same scenes in the video game. Very cool stuff. The game itself (which I believe hits stores on October 14th) looks pretty damn cool, and if this is the only sequel we're going to get, then, well, I'm game. How about you?

[via Spout]

Funny story, actually: growing up, my dad would always take me to the movies, and sometimes he just wasn't all that concerned about those pesky MPAA ratings. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he did. I got to see a lot of great movies. But it is also why I saw Heavy Metal at the tender age of six. My dad saw the voice cast of John Candy, Eugene Levy and Harold Ramis and thought it couldn't be that bad ... but boy was he wrong. So you can imagine my amusement when Variety announced that David Fincher is going to head a film 'inspired' by the cult classic.

The original was released back in 1981 and was based on sci-fi and fantasy stories that were published in Heavy Metal magazine over the years. First published in the US in 1977, Metal was known for its over the top sex and violence. The update will definitely follow in the footsteps of the original film (and avoid the pitfalls of the 'sequel' in 2000), and will be an R rated animated film consisting of about eight or nine segments.

Fincher will only direct one of the segments in the film. Other segments will be helmed by Kevin Eastman (co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and Tim Miller. Miller's Blur Studios will also handle the animation for the film. Fincher, Eastman and Miller will produce with Paramount, and the rest of the directors are expected to be signed soon. So what do you think about an update? Can Fincher pull this off? Or are images of chicks riding polar bears with flaming swords best left to van art?

So I've spent the past couple days holed up in Shreveport, Louisiana (of all places) visiting the set of The Year One, directed by Harold Ramis, produced by Judd Apatow and starring Jack Black, Michael Cera, David Cross ... and a whole bunch of nutty lunatics. Unfortunately, I cannot talk about how insane that film is going to be just yet (but I will, eventually, because there's soooo much to talk about), however I am allowed to dish on a few of the interviews we conducted -- two of which were with Michael Cera and David Cross. We already know there's been talk of an Arrested Development movie taking place at some point in the near future, and Jason Bateman recently chatted up the flick on the Oscar's red carpet saying it was all but a done deal and the script was being written. But was he biting off a bit more than he could chew?

Seems so, because both Cera and Cross haven't heard a peep about the film. When Cera was told they were supposedly working on a script, he looked stunned -- spitting out an "Is this true? Really? Well [Jason Bateman] would probably know more about it than I would." Would he want to do it? "Um, yeah, I think so. Yeah, I would love to do it ... it'd be fun." Says Cross, "I've been hearing about this since the day [the show] got canceled. Nobody's talked to me. I know nothing. Zero. The only thing I've seen is what's on the Entertainment Weekly website ... which I've never seen." On whether he'd be interested in reprising his role as Tobias, Cross said, "As long as I don't have to paint myself blue or wear a fatsuit, I'd love to. I would do that in a heartbeat. That was a really fun character to do, and it'd be great to work with all those guys again. I'd do it in a second."

So the good news is the guys desperately want to make an Arrested Development film -- now all that's left is for someone to actually call them and ask.

In January, Olivia Wilde joined Harold Ramis' new comedy, The Year One. Her oh-so-lucky role -- Princess Inanna, Jack Black's love interest. Now, there's a number of geek dudes I could get into, but the goofy Black is not one of them (unless we're talking the really old-school days when he was on All-American Girl). Nevertheless, he'll get to sauce it up with her in the film, let her live up to her name, and it could be very, very risque, considering what she told MTV.

It appears that Inanna isn't just some random princess, but the princess of Sodom. Oh yes -- that whole Sodom and Gomorrah thing, and the root of that lovely word -- sodomy. Wilde says: "Michael Cera and Jack Black go on this journey, and they are searching for the meaning of life...they meet all these characters you'll recognize from the bible. It's all these brilliant references to historical things..." Just how much they reference S&G -- the towns infamous for being destroyed by God for their rampant lasciviousness -- she doesn't say. However, she does say: "There'll be a hint towards [the lead characters falling for me], then Jack Black and I come together. It's really funny what we do, and what happens next."

Just how far they will push it, and how over-the-top it becomes, remains to be seen. It's currently filming in Shreveport, Lousiana, and we should find out next year when the comedy hits theaters. In the meantime, hop through the jump and watch The Professor Brothers video about Sodom and Gomorrah to whet your appetite for sexy destruction.

At the age of 30, Jason Reitman has directed a half dozen short films, two narrative features, and an episode of The Office. He has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Achievement in Directing. He is beyond the usual Hollywood definition of "hot": he is, thanks to the runaway success of Juno, superheated, like the molten core of the sun.

At the age of 30, his father, Ivan Reitman, had directed one short film and two narrative features (the immortal Foxy Lady and Cannibal Girls). At that point of his career, it is safe to say he was as far from "hot" as possible: he was as cold as the far side of the moon, at least as far as Hollywood was concerned. Three years later, the success of Meatballs, especially in relation to its budget and its recognition as the one that made Bill Murray a film star, warmed things up for the senior Reitman, in much the same way that Thank You For Smoking would later warm up his son's career, raising expectations.

Thus it's interesting to compare Ivan Reitman's follow-up, Stripes, with his son's follow-up, Juno. Strictly in financial terms, Stripes was comparable to Juno, earning $85 million in 1981, a year in which only nine films broke the $50 million mark. (To be fair, Juno's budget, at $2.5 million, was only 1/4 of Stripes' reported budget.) Stripes wasn't nominated for any Academy Awards and Ivan has never been nominated, so that gives a leg up for Jason, but that's more a reflection of the Academy's malleable taste than any intrinsic merit. Though Stripes is remembered as a broad, mainstream comedy, I'd argue that it's just as edgy and independent as Juno, and displays some of the same borderline reactionary leanings as the newer film.

For someone relatively new to the business, actress June Raphael is already making a decent name for herself. She's popped up in the Dixie Chicks' flick,* Shut Up and Sing, played Mark Ruffalo's wife in Zodiac, and has a few more films on the way. However, she's also found time to pen the upcoming flick Bride Wars (the one that pits Kate Hudson against Anne Hathaway), and now The Hollywood Reporter posts that she's in final negotiations to co-star with Jack Black in Harold Ramis' biblical comedy -- Year One. If her negotiations wrap up nicely, she'll play Maya, a woman who gets into a little romance with two men in her village, one of them being Zed (Black). Oh, lucky her!

It seems that the group who signed on earlier this month with the McLovin' Christopher Mintz-Plasse are still in final negotiations -- Oliver Platt, David Cross, Vinnie Jones, and Juno Temple. So with all these casting announcements, we know that Black will get his love on with his laugh on, while presumably battling another man for the sexy girl's affections (maybe Cross?), that Platt will be a high priest, and Jones will be a head palace guard. How all of these people fit together is anyone's guess since the Ramis/Apatow gang are still being beyond secretive with the story. Still, do we need to know that much to go see it? It's looking to be another great geek fest. Black's work has been iffy lately, but rejoining Michael Cera and McLovin' with him, and all under Harold and Judd... I'm game!

*Kudos to Peter for noticing that this isn't the Dixie flick, but another that once had the same name.

Though he still hasn't lined up his next directing gig, Judd Apatow is slowly creating a comedic empire. His latest producing effort, Year One, has added five new faces to its cast -- and The Hollywood Reporter tells us one of those faces just happens to be McLovin himself, Christopher Mintz-Plasse. Joining Mintz-Plasse in the comedy will be Oliver Platt, David Cross, Vinnie Jones and Juno Temple. Production on the film is set to begin this January in Louisiana and New Mexico, with Harold Ramis onboard to direct off a script written by Ramis, Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg (both of whom have written several episodes of The Office). Jack Black and Michael Cera also star.

All we know about the story at this point is that it's a comedy set in biblical times. HR says Platt is in talks to play a platform-shoe-wearing high priest (love that description!), while Jones will tackle the role of a head palace guard named Sargon. No word on who Cross, Temple and Mintz-Plasse will play, though I assume the latter will take on the role of biblical geek? So far Apatow has found success with comedies set in today's world, around characters we can all relate to. It should be interesting to see his group take on a project set in biblical times, though anything with Jack Black and Michael Cera in the lead automatically garners my interest. But here's the big question: Who will Will Ferrell play in a cameo role?

The boys are officially back ... but, sadly, they'll only be in videogame form for now. According to Variety, Vivendi Games has struck a deal to turn Ghostbusters into a videogame franchise, with the first title set to hit streets in the fall of 2008. All four Ghostbusters -- Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Bill Murray and Harold Ramis -- have signed off their voice and likeness rights, while Aykroyd and Ramis will write a story for the game that takes place in the early '90s, following Ghostbusters II. For fans of the movie franchise (and, seriously, who's not a fan?), this could potentially be very cool. Aykroyd has been trying to get a Ghostbusters III off the ground for a long time now; at one point, he was considering a CGI flick to continue the story without having to ask a bunch of old timers to strap on the proton packs for another live-action go-round.

With a videogame version, we'll still see the story Aykroyd had planned for a third installment (I believe one version involved NYC opening up to reveal a hell-ish underground), only we'll get to play along too. Apart from the four original cast members, William Atherton, Brian Doyle and Annie Potts will also be involved. No word on Rick Moranis or Sigourney Weaver just yet. I know some of you will be bummed out by this, but I'm totally up for it -- so long as they create a cool multi-player gaming experience. Just last night, my friend and I were talking about how much fun those old multi-player games were; the kind where you and a friend could sit down in the same space, control different characters and fight your way through a universe together. The last great multi-player game, in my opinion, was Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. If they can create something on par with that (only add a whole lot of Bill Murray dialogue), then they've already sold one game ... to me. What do you think?

Note: Summer is coming to a close, and I don't have the budget to do much traveling. So I decided to take some Vacation time with the Griswolds instead. All this week and next, I'll be reviewing the Vacation movies, one of the most loved (and uneven) comedy franchises in modern film.

I think you're all f**ked in the head. We're ten hours from the f**king fun park and you want to bail out? Well I'll tell you something. This is no longer a vacation. It's a quest. It's a quest for fun. I'm gonna have fun and you're gonna have fun. We're all gonna have so much f**king fun we'll need plastic surgery to remove our goddamn smiles! You'll be whistling 'Zip-A-Dee Doo-Dah' out of you're a**holes! I gotta be crazy! I'm on a pilgrimage to see a moose. Praise Marty Moose! Holy S**t!

-- Clark W. Griswold (Chevy Chase)

Clark Griswold is my father circa 1988. The glasses. The Izod shirt. The too-short shorts. The unrelenting and misguided enthusiasm for all things family. The barely concealed rage. It's all there. What makes National Lampoon's Vacation work so well, all these years later, is that everyone thinks Clark is based on his or her father. Some of the funniest comedy comes from recognition, and this movie is almost like watching home movies from my youth. Except for the dead aunt on the roof of the car, but we'll get to that in a moment.

They assembled a real dream team for this movie, three giants of comedy at their primes. Behind the camera, you've got Harold Ramis, fresh off his directorial debut (Caddyshack -- not a bad start!). He clearly came to play here, and I'd imagine he had something to do with keeping Chevy Chase's tendency to overact in check. The script was written and based on a short story (click here to read it!) by John Hughes, unquestionably the finest film comedy writer of the 1980s. Disagree with me? Take a look at this list of Hughes scripts produced from 1983 to 1990: Mr. Mom, Vacation, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Some Kind of Wonderful, Planes Trains and Automobiles, She's Having A Baby, Uncle Buck, Christmas Vacation, and Home Alone. The man was a god.

Rat pack. Brat pack. Frat pack. Splat pack. Whenever a group of actors and/or filmmakers begin to star alongside each other in a series of movies or unite with a common goal in mind, the entertainment media is usually quick to point out that a new pack has arrived. Over the weekend, as Knocked Up raked in roughly $29 million at the box office (not bad for a comedy facing Pirates of the Caribbean in only its second week), I began to ponder whether Judd Apatow had branched off and started his own pack. This would be a completely new pack, and different from the Frat Pack (which consists of folks like Vince Vaughn, Will Ferrell, Owen Wilson, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson and Steve Carell). The way I see it, the Frat Pack no longer exists; sure these guys randomly show up in the same movies, but it appears they've all handed in their Frat Pack I.D. cards and gone their separate ways.

Which brings us to Judd Apatow, whose pack is far from a Frat -- unless we're talking Revenge of the Nerds here. This pack consists of Apatow, Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, Michael Cera, Jonah Hill, Jason Segal, Martin Starr and James Franco. But that's just the first tier; on the second level, you have Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Harold Ramis. Then, you have potential members who consist of folks like Jack Black and Owen Wilson. I'm probably leaving out a few folks (some writers, etc), but these are the central players; some of which were recent members of the Frat Pack. So, if there is a new pack in town, what do we name it? I'm horrible with names, but I imagine it has to rhyme with 'rat' in order to count and it should, in some way, reflect who these guys are and what their brand of comedy is all about. Fat Pack? But they're not all fat. Geek Pack? Doesn't rhyme with 'rat.' Joke from a Hat Pack? Okay, that's just lame.

So, I ask you: Is there a new Judd Apatow pack, or should they be considered part of the Frat Pack? And, if there is a new pack, help us name it.