Justin Theroux Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I feel like Justin Theroux is becoming some kind of muse to the masses, gently introducing them to the offbeat and cool before moving onto something else. The majority of American moviegoers probably don't know his name, but they feel his influence. Someday, every man in America will start wearing fedoras again, and not really know why. The reason will be Theroux. But first, he plans to hook everyone on Air Guitar, and introduce the masses to the offbeat world that cherishes the talent.

Variety reports that Theroux has signed on to produce Paramount's Air Guitar, a story centered around the self-consciously ironic world of air guitar championships. The project has been in the works at Paramount since 2006 or so, and is cobbled together from the 2006 documentary Air Guitar Nation and Dan Crane's book To Air Is Human. Screenwriting duties originally belonged to Ian Roberts and Jay Martel, but they now are the sole responsibility of Mike Lisbe and Nate Reger. That's all we know about the project so far, except that it'll probably involve a lot of kicks, devil horns, and suggestive tongue movements by its stars. (Does anyone ever do the famous Mick Ronson & David Bowie guitar move? I hope so.)

Paramount hopes that Air Guitar will capitalize on the current be-your-own-rock star popularity of Guitar Hero and Rock Band. I think you're seeing the start of a trend, and that Air Guitar championships will become staples of your local clubs until every frat boy has drained the ironic cool out of it. By then it won't matter, because Theroux will have moved on, and quietly introduced something else into the mainstream. As we ponder what that might be, I've embedded the 2007 trailer for Air Guitar Nation below the jump. Watch it, so you can smile knowingly when people in your office start talking seriously about air guitar.

Oh, the wiley and elusive bad guy. The masses might wonder why guys and gals always fall for the bad boy or bad girl, but let's face it -- evil looks irresistibly good on the big screen, and it's hard to settle for the vanilla world of reality when evildoers make life look fun. We're supposed to follow the good guys -- cheer for the hero -- but then the nemesis sweeps in and steals all the thunder.

Sometimes, they steal it before the film even begins. The Hollywood Reporter posts that Justin Theroux has joined Your Highness. David Gordon Green's comedy follows Danny McBride's lazy prince as he sets out to save his father's kingdom. Theroux will be "Leezar, an evil wizard with a bejeweled magical staff" who kidnaps the virginal princess (Zooey Deschanel) -- bride of James Franco. Luckily, he doesn't steal Natalie Portman's character, because there is no way that a princess would be fighting her way out of Theroux confinement to be with McBride. Heck, even with Franco, I'm already rooting for Leezar.

It was only a matter of time. Justin Theroux started his behind-the-scenes career normally enough by directing 2007's Dedication, an indie that had a limited release before heading to DVD. But then he grabbed a pen and exploded into the mainstream, writing both Tropic Thunder and Iron Man 2. So what comes next? A more high-profile directorial gig, although not quite as epic as his Thunder and Iron, with big shoes to fill.

Variety reports that Theroux will helm the upcoming comedy Chief Ron, and according to The New York TImes, Ron Howard used to be attached as director. It's also a weird little project. It seems that there's a blue-eyed, blonde-haired man who claims that he has native Mohegan heritage, and fought his way through court for the right to build a casino in upstate New York (which is currently being built). The trade also says he's a conman, although I'm not sure how that fits in since this is a real guy and story, one who considers himself and his tribe "the last of the Mohegans." To top things off, it's written by Jordan Roberts -- and there's no word on whether there's a relation.

Had this been a Theroux project from the start, it might be easy to imagine what this project will be like, but moving from Ron to Justin, I'm at a loss. Anyone have any ideas?

Seeing as it's a slow news day, let's check in with Justin Theroux, who's hard at work penning Iron Man 2. The cool people of UGO did a nice interview with him, where he talks all about Tropic Thunder, Iron Man 2, and even a little bit about The Avengers.

Theroux says the script is around "the first draft" and is chugging right along with input and notes from Robert Downey Jr. The writer was quick to dismiss rumors that he was involved in the Terrence Howard/Don Cheadle change-up, that his script will reflect it in any way, or that the role of War Machine will be scaled down. "No, that's all nonsense. Whatever their reason is, I'll leave that up to Marvel. We're writing the thing, virtually the same for Rhodey that we would for any actor. We're really taking what's going to be the most interesting story for the fans, and what are they going to enjoy watching. And who ever's in that part is going to have to play that part and make it work ... I haven't met Don, and I think I'm going to in a little bit and I think once I get a better sense of his voice and also hear what he has to say about what he likes about the character and just pick his brain a little bit, then we'll obviously start to tailor it to him."

Theroux is also unsure what Gwyneth Paltrow's status in the sequel is -- he's "planning like she is there" but has no confirmation as to whether she will return. Will we end up with a new Pepper Potts? Will Tony Stark look around and see strangers replacing those he knew and loved in the first film? Because that would send any man to the bottle!

Despite the heavy hints in Iron Man that Jim Rhodes, best friend to Tony Stark, would come to play War Machine in a future film, it won't be Terrence Howard reprising his role as Rhodes in the forthcoming sequel, but rather Don Cheadle. According to the Hollywood Reporter, there hasn't been a formal announcement by Marvel Studios about it, but the casting swap appears to have come as a result of money matters (natch).

Returning still are stars Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow, in addition to director Jon Favreau, as Justin Theroux, fresh off the success of Tropic Thunder, currently tinkers away at the script. Last month, amidst the press blitz for the Iron Man DVD, Favreau confessed to wanting to incorporate both 3-D and IMAX technology in the making of the sequel (to which the world collectively replied "[BLEEP] yeah!").

Alas, it remains for the Paramount/Marvel number-crunchers to determine in which format exactly we'll see Downey Jr. and Cheadle team up come the summer of 2010.

July 16th became the new Christmas this year, when Eugene revealed the scribe for the Iron Man sequel -- Justin Theroux. Really, the actor's inclusion is a nice metaphor for why I like the first Iron Man to begin with -- it's a wonderful mixture of sexiness, smarts, and charm. (I mean, heck, I accepted him as my personal saviour.) So now we're getting more, in capable hands, and one Mr. Jon Favreau shared some details during a live web chat with LA Times readers.

First off, Favreau says that he's currently working with Theroux on the first draft, and they're playing with who the villain of the next pic will be. I imagine that this decision might be influenced by visual possibilities, as Favreau is also presently working with a storyboard artist and costumers. From there, Jon has a take on Mandarin, "that allows us to incorporate the whole pantheon of villains. The whole 10 Rings thing in IM 1 was a good tease for it," muses over the possibility of a female villain, and confirms that #2 will focus on the aftermath of Tony's "I am Iron Man," statement.

Best of all, Favreau says that things are coming together smoothly with "fewer casting issues" than the first round, so I imagine we will start getting casting notices soon, and with that, an idea of what villains ol' Tony will face.

Oh wait. Here's one last piece of food for thought from Favs: "Sam Rockwell could've been a cool Tony if not RDJ." What say you, Cinematical readers, could Rockwell have pulled it off? And of course -- who do you want Iron Man to face this time around?

We end the week with all kinds of intriguing possibilities and rumors -- try to contain your joy at the Ghostbusters 3 bit, especially if you're at work. We can't have your employers finding out you're reading Cinematical on the clock!

• Bill Murray is at Fantastic Fest, undoubtedly partying with our writers and promoting City of Ember and at the film's Q&A, AICN's Kraken (a stellar guy) asked the question we all wanted the answer too -- would Murray return for Ghostbusters 3? Murray thinks the scriptwriters (borrowed, you'll remember, from The Office) are off to a good start, that enough time has passed to heal the Ghostbusters 2 wounds, and he would definitely be open to playing Peter Venkman again. In fact, his enthusiasm for the franchise was rekindled by recording the voice for the upcoming video game -- and he had even been singing the theme song in public. There's video of Murray's answer up at AICN, so check it out, and get your hopes up.
  

• One of the questions surrounding Iron Man 2 was its change-up on the writing front. Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby weren't returning, their job was taken by Justin Theroux, and we all frowned a little inside. But MTV has the scoop that they're unavailable for Iron Man 2 because they're working on something else for Marvel. Fergus wouldn't specify what, he just dropped maddening hints. "There are some really juicy [movies] that we are very much talking intensely with Marvel about ... We're interested in working on a bunch of these other Marvel projections and everything in the Marvel canon is fair game. We have a lot of ideas about all this, but until they officially ask us to come do one of these we'll keep our mouths closed about the actual ideas. It's moving along nicely but nothing official yet. But, yes, we are planning on working on some of those movies. That much I'll say." At this point, all of the Marvel movies have writers -- and impressive ones at that. Either they're replacing someone, or it's a new character altogether. Guess away.

Considering the lengths to which the Tropic Thunder gang went to sell all of their Hollywood fakery, it comes as little surprise that the mock making-of Rain of Madness does exist beyond a mere trailer (embedded above, and probably not kid-friendly) and website. However, while I'm sure it'll be included on the eventual DVD, who's really going to wait that long when it's currently available as a free iTunes exclusive?

That's right: for thirty minutes and zero dollars (yep), one can follow filmmaker Jan Jürgen (co-writer Justin Theroux, acting as if making Werner Herzog's Werner Herzog were making Hearts of Darkness) as he chronicles the expensive chaos that went behind making the movie within the movie. Star/director/co-writer/probable caterer Ben Stiller explained in a recent press release: "We wanted to do a fake documentary about the making of the movie within the movie which is called "Tropic Thunder" -- not the actual movie "Tropic Thunder". The fake documentary focuses on the real movie's fake director, and what happens to the fake cast before they go into the real jungle. It's pretty straightforward."

Well, I know who I am. I'm the dude playing the dude currently downloading this S.O.B. Any of you who follow suit, share your thoughts below.

For those concerned commenters, I'm well aware that Werner Herzog did not, in fact, direct Hearts of Darkness. However, Mr. Theroux is behaving as if he were Mr. Herzog and, as such, proceeded to make a film not unlike the doc actually made by Fax Bahr and George Hickenlooper.

What I didn't know was how to directly link to any items made available through the iTunes store. I still don't, but I do appreciate the considerate ones below who were both helpful and tactful in passing the direct iTunes link on - namely, Niraj and not the exceedingly impatient Marcos.

Oddly enough we're told it's Justin Theroux, who's making his screenwriting debut with Tropic Thunder a bit later this summer. Yes, that would be the same Justin Theroux who played the immortal role of Adam Kesher in Mulholland Dr. and the badass Irishman Seamus O'Grady in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. The trade piece breaking the story gives no hint of why Marvel Studios thought of Theroux for the project, and I couldn't find out anywhere else, but I'm sure someone will give an interview soon enough.

Last year, Theroux directed an indie called Dedication from someone else's script, starring Tom Wilkinson and Billy Crudup. It got mediocre reviews and I missed it, despite my eagerness to watch anything with Wilkinson. If a career change is what the actor was after, he certainly got it: writing Iron Man 2 is a pretty plum gig. Can you imagine?

Of course, I tend to doubt that the sequel -- which is set for release in April, 2010 -- is going to wind up with just one screenwriter when all is said and done. Theroux's draft will probably be reworked, retouched and polished a dozen times. But it's cool that the actor-turned-director-turned-scribe will at least take a first crack.