John Melendez Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Could this be the spoof savior? The one that makes us forget about the wretched influx of crappily made spoofs?

The Hollywood Reporter posts that Chevy Chase, Burt Reynolds, Vinnie Jones, Michael Madsen, and "Stuttering" John Melendez have signed on to spoof spoofs with Not Another Not Another Movie. The brainchild of David Murphy, the comedy will star Chase as the head of struggling studio who leaves the gig to his ex-con brother (Madsen). Then, "their equally inept gangster friend (Jones) takes over and assigns a production assistant (David Leo Schultz) to direct a spoof of spoof movies." Burt comes in as "an actor playing the director of the chaotic film within the film."

Oh, but there's more -- the film will be full of cameos that have actors playing themselves spoofing previous roles like Richard Tyson as the villain in Kindergarten Cop and Wolfgang Bodison as the marine on trial in A Few Good Men. James Duval also stars, so maybe we'll see him spoofing Frank the Bunny.

The optimist in me is thinking about all the comic possibilities with Chase, Reynolds, and the rest. But the cynic in me, bred through years of utterly disappointing spoofs, isn't holding her breath. How about you?

So if you look to your right, you'll notice that I chose to take a moment to remember when National Lampoon actually used to be funny. Now you might be asking why, but believe me, after you finish reading about their latest film, you'll be pining for the old days in no time. Variety reports that National Lampoon has purchased the rights to the romantic comedy One, Two, Many. It was written by Tonight Show announcer John Melendez (you might also recognize him as one of Howard Stern's cronies -- better known as Stuttering John). There aren't many details on the story other than the old chestnut about "one man's quest to find the girl of his dreams." Many also stars Bellamy Young (Dirty Sexy Money), Hudson Leick (Nip/Tuck), Jeffrey Ross (Weeds) and Jim Bullock (Kissing Jessica Stein).

Over the years, the reputation of National Lampoon has suffered. After what many consider to be the magazine's heyday in the mid-70's, they hit the movie business with a bang with the now-legendary Animal House. But corporate buyouts hurt the magazine. Since actor Tim Matheson (who played Otter in Animal House) spearheaded a corporate buyout, and then sold it to Dorf video marketers J2 Communications in an attempt to avoid bankruptcy in 1991, there have been some movie high points, but let's face it -- it's pretty much been downhill since 1989. You might think I'm being a little tough on them all, but before you do, just keep in mind that their next two titles are Jake's Booty Call and Electric Apricot: Quest for Festeroo. One, Two, Many is set to hit theaters on April 10th, 2008.