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?

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.

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.

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.

What happens when you mix a hot, comedic behind-the-scenes guy, a member of Kathleen Turner Overdrive and the ghost-fighting Dr. Egon Spengler? You get Columbia Pictures' Year One, the latest comedy added to Judd Apatow's production heap. The movie will star Tenacious rocker Jack Black and be helmed by the one and only Harold Ramis. Unfortunately, and annoyingly, there doesn't seem to be any word on what this movie is about. It's a collaboration between Ramis and two writers of The Office -- Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg. Is it the first year of life? Of work? Of a family? Of a space mission?

I'd bet that whatever ultimately comes after the "of" will be good. This production is a Who's Who of Hollywood names. Besides the people mentioned above, there is Arrested Development's Michael Cera (also in Apatow's upcoming Superbad), signed on to co-star with Black, and Owen Wilson, who will executive produce. That means we've got Black coming off some potentially great work like Be Kind, Rewind, the new comedic wonderkid Cera, Ramis who is responsible for everything from episodes of The Office to Groundhog Day and Ghostbusters and Apatow, who is making up for his old, canceled shows everywhere he turns. And of course, since these guys stick with the actors they like, I wouldn't be surprised if the film includes any of Apatow's comedic harem -- Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, Jonah Hill and all the rest of 'em. Methinks Columbia knows where the funny money is -- they're also behind Walk Hard, Pineapple Express and You Don't Mess with the Zohan.