News has been slooooowly trickling out about Judd Apatow's directorial follow-up to Knocked Up -- or maybe it just seems like it because there's so much curiosity about the project. Back in March we knew literally nothing other than that it would star Seth Rogen, Adam Sandler, and Apatow's wife Leslie Mann. At the start of the month, Rogen and Sandler revealed the movie would be set in "the world of stand-up comedy," and that it would have serious dramatic elements. A few days after that, we heard rumors that Eric Bana was circling a role in the film. Today, Apatow's people officially made public the film's title -- Funny People -- and the rest of the ensemble cast: Eric Bana, Jason Schwartzman and, unsurprisingly, Jonah Hill.

Since people will be doing double-takes when they read "Eric Bana," the Variety article takes pains to point out that Bana began his career in stand-up comedy, and even starred in a pair of sketch comedy series in Australia, before breaking out in Chopper. I had heard that before, but since Bana seemingly hasn't cracked a smile in his entire film career, it remains very weird to me.

No new plot details were revealed, so expect another post in a couple of days when someone decides to let slip another tidbit.

Some have said that The Darjeeling Limited is a movie for Wes Anderson's fans. While that description is fairly accurate, it also suggests that this is some sort of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back project -- a self-indulgent film only for those filled with Anderson adoration. While it does tap into the magic that brings fans to the filmmaker -- the rich colors, quirky characters, and strange introspection -- it is also a study of grief, and a film that perfectly embodies the importance of charisma and chemistry.

As Erik Davis wrote in his NYFF review, it's hard to see Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman, and Owen Wilson as brothers, but from the minute they come together on screen, each mannerism and look makes them seem immediately comfortable with each other, as if they are actually related and intimately familiar. It doesn't matter that they all look incredibly different. Brody slips into Anderson's world fluidly, and the three leads play off each other, making the quirk not only palpable, but subtly genuine.

Today we salute the military veterans who have either served in wartime or in peace. I think technically Veteran's Day specifically honors war veterans, but I don't see why the non-combat military personnel needs to be excluded. Still, in the movies, it's the war vets that are most memorable, and on this holiday, I'd like to present my list of seven favorites.

Obviously this list isn't comprehensive -- in fact, I don't feature any examples of the now-stereotypical Vietnam vet character, which would include Tom Cruise in Born on the Fourth of July or Gary Senise in Forrest Gump. This is just a list of characters, positive and negative, that I prefer and which I think somewhat represents the wide and diverse scope of war vets.


"Homer Parrish" from The Best Years of Our Lives (1946, William Wyler)

About fifty years before Robert Zemeckis was digitally removing Gary Senise's legs to make him the disabled vet Lt. Dan of Forrest Gump, William Wyler directed a real amputee veteran named Harold Russell as the handicapped character Homer Parrish in this movie about the difficulty of coming home following World War II. Russell actually won an Oscar for his performance as Parrish, a former high school quarterback who returns to his childhood sweetheart, with whom he's engaged and for whom he no longer feels good enough. The actor/character has hooks for hands and appears in some sappy, obligatory scenes where he has trouble with them, but he ends up a guy that is beloved more than pitied, and it's almost easy to forget he has the handicap, especially after hearing him play piano with the false limbs.

It's been eight months since we started awarding prizes to our weekly Insert Caption contest winners, and we've given away everything from DVD box sets to a guitar to underwear to an HD DVD player. But this week we're presenting our most excellent prize to date: a trip for two to the beautiful country of India, courtesy of our friends at Jet Airways and Fox Searchlight.

That's right, the writer of our favorite caption for the photo below from Wes Anderson's new comedy The Darjeeling Limited will win their own five-day, four-night Indian adventure (airfare and four-star hotel included) for themselves and their favorite friend or family member (or Cinematical blogger/Moviefone employee). The best part? You will not be asked to train a single employee or customer service rep while there. So scroll on down the page, check out last week's winners of our Knocked Up contest (they win DVDs, a dartboard and more), then click on the "comments" link and give us your sharpest, wittiest, funniest, awesomeist caption possible. And for those first-time players, bookmark this link here and come back and play every weekend. Our Darjeeling winner will be announced next Friday, October 12 at 4 PM EST.
Good luck!

UPDATE: WINNER ANNOUNCED! Click Here

Winners from last week's Knocked Up contest:

1. "Ummm... No, I didn't know it was Bastille Day. " -- Michael L.

2. "Just when I think you can't get *any* dumber, you go and do something like this... and TOTALLY REDEEM YOURSELF!" -- Peter S.

3. "Exactly how much pot have you smoked today?" -- Curt T.

See full image and read all captions

There are many iconic pairings of actor and director: DeNiro and Scorsese; Bogart and Huston; Mifune and Kurosawa; Depp and Burton. One of the best recurring collaborations, though, is Bill Murray and Wes Anderson. The comedic actor appears in almost all of Anderson's movies (maybe one day he can be digitally imposed into Bottle Rocket a la Jabba in Star Wars), including The Darjeeling Limited, which opens tomorrow. I haven't seen the new movie yet, but I did read a great piece about Anderson in this week's New York magazine, and I have to say that Murray and Anderson were made for each other. Whether it is true or not that the filmmaker really had to deliver a suitcase with $14,000 in cash from Murray to a guy named Luigi is beside the point; the story just proves the duo have a fun sense of humor that can involve the other at any given time.

That's why it isn't surprising to learn that Murray will be voicing a character in Anderson's stop-motion-animated film, The Fantastic Mr. Fox (and I don't mean because Murray would avail his voice to anything). MTV Movies Blog chatted with Anderson about the film, which is still a few years in the making, and got other confirmations on its cast of voices. Yes, George Clooney is definitely on board as "Mr. Fox", and also Jason Schwartzman is doing a voice, too. There is no mention, however, of Cate Blanchett or Angelica Huston, both of whom are said to be part of the film. It also wasn't revealed which characters Murray and Schwartzman would be doing. The Fantastic Mr. Fox will be Murray and Anderson's fifth movie together (and Schwartzman's fourth with the director, if you count shorts), and will likely be far from the last. The film also reunites Anderson with his Life Aquatic co-writer Noah Baumbach; the script is based on the book by Roald Dahl.

Early buzz hasn't been too nice to Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited, which opens this week, on the 29th. But does it really matter, at least, if you're a fan? I remember hearing a lot of bad things about The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, but Wes still caught me hook, line, and sinker. This time around, things are up in the air. Beyond some crappy response to the film, fans were dealt a blow when Fox announced that the prequel short, Hotel Chevalier, would not screen in its regular release like it did during festival screenings. However, Apple is coming to the rescue, at least for fans in selected cities, according to indieWIRE.

Lucky fans in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and LA will be able to see the short in all of its 12-minute glory, tomorrow, September 25, at 9 pm. Sweetening the pot even further -- Anderson, Jason Schwartzman, and Natalie Portman will be at the SoHo store in New York, and co-writer Roman Coppola will make an appearance at the Chicago store. Darjeeling is about three American brothers, Schwartzman, Adrien Brody, and Owen Wilson, who head to India on a spiritual quest and then find their journey veering into unexpected territory. Chevalier is a prequel to the story, which stars Jason and Natalie in a Paris hotel room -- the end of their love, and the prologue of the journey.

Jason Schwartzman has been in some very funny and unusual films during the past few years. I'm particularly fond of his work in the terrific Rushmore, I Heart Huckabees and the recent Marie Antoinette. He's also a talented musician and songwriter, in additional to being an actor -- his former band, Phantom Planet, being one of my favorites. But as much as I like Phantom Planet, I'm glad Schwartzman chose to devote his time to acting instead of music. That way, I can continue to enjoy his work in some new upcoming films.

According to Production Weekly, after Schwartzman finishes up working on Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited opposite Owen Wilson and Adrien Brody (which our own Kim wrote about before) he will segue into a co-starring gig opposite Ben Stller in director Todd Louiso's Marc Please Experience. The film, written by Louiso and Jacob Koskoff, will feature Schwartzman in the title role of Marc Please and as details on the plot are somewhat scarce at the moment, I'll go out on a limb and say that at some point during the film, Schwartzman's character needs to experience something -- perhaps provided or motivated by Stiller's character? And maybe he even needs to face conflict and some sort of crisis that needs to be resolved? Or, something like that.

I may be off on the details, but judging by director Louiso' last film, Love Liza, I expect this new film will be more of an intense drama and less a feel-good comedic romp. Although, his film before that was a comedy short called The Fifteen Minute Hamlet, so I guess anything's possible. No matter what, we'll eventually find out the real story as production on Marc Please Experience is set to begin in March. As always, when more details emerge we'll bring 'em to ya right here at Cinematical.

Imagine that you are a 14-year-old girl, part of a wealthy and powerful family, and you're sent to a foreign land, to marry a man you've never met in the name of peace and power. Everything is foreign to you: The codes, the rituals, the etiquette. And you're saddled with a single expectation: Produce a son who will be the heir to the throne; everything else you might do or might want is irrelevant. This is Marie Antoinette's story.
 
Unfortunately, it's not the story in Marie Antoinette -- or, rather, while those elements are in Sofia Coppola's new film about the historic French Queen, they're not its focus. Actually, the question of what, exactly, is Coppola's focus is a good one: Marie Antoinette takes a historical, epic story and doesn't really focus on the historic or epic parts of it, choosing instead to show us pretty images and lavish production values.

The Superficial has screen caps from a frankly disturbing outtake from David O. Russell's I Heart Huckabees. If just thinking about watching Jason Schwartzman suckle on Dustin Hoffman's giant (fake) manbreasts makes your stomach churn, you probably don't want to click through ...