I know that studio attempts at "viral" internet marketing are a dime a dozen these days, but you should watch this. It's funny.

Swing Vote, due August 1st, presents the wildly improbable scenario that a United States presidential election comes down to one politically apathetic New Mexican's choice, leading the candidates -- an incumbent Republican played by Kelsey Grammer and a Democratic challenger played by Dennis Hopper -- to converge on his tiny hometown and court like they've never courted before. The obvious marketing hook: a campaign ad! Actually four of them, two by each candidate, all targeting Kevin Costner's Bud Johnson. My favorite one is above; the rest are here and here.

I like these because they're done with some nuance; I particularly enjoyed the parodies of real-life candidates' disingenuous tendency to "swing to the middle," decimating whatever convictions they previously claimed to hold to pander to "moderate" swing voters. The folks behind these videos take that to its absurd conclusion, of course, with the Republican uncomfortably embracing gay marriage and the Democrat haranguing his opponent about not being pro-life enough. The latter's the video I've embedded at the top of the post -- it cracked me up.

[hat tip: Cinema Blend]

Cinematical has just received a whole bunch of new images from the upcoming film Swing Vote, starring Kevin Costner, Kelsey Grammer, Dennis Hopper and Paula Patton. I'm loving the concept behind this one -- imagine if an entire presidential election somehow came down to one vote ... and it was yours. That's exactly what happened to Bud Johnson (Kevin Costner), a simple man living a simple life -- and Swing Vote follows Bud, as well as his 12-year-old daughter, when they're suddenly thrust into the national spotlight.

Grammer and Hopper play both presidential candidates, while Nathan Lane and Stanley Tucci chime in as their campaign managers. Additionally, a whole mess of real-life personalities will pop up -- like Larry King, Bill Maher, Arianna Huffington, Tucker Carlson and more. With the country stressing out over our current presidential election, it'll be nice to take in a sweet comedy that pokes fun at this ridiculous process and the even more ridiculous people who take part in it. Can't we just elect an average guy ... like Bud?

Check out the gallery below for a slew of brand new pics from the film. Swing Vote arrives in theaters on August 1.

With this latest bit of information, I can't say that my hopes are any higher for the indie satire, An American Carol, which seems to now be called, simply, American Carol. In February, I posted about the film that's coming our way from David Zucker and Myrna Sokoloff. I noted that Zucker has classics like Airplane! under his belt, as well as stinkers like some Scary Movie sequels.

Kelsey Grammer is starring as a different sort of Scrooge -- one entrenched in current American culture. Now The Hollywood Reporter posts that country star Trace Adkins has signed on to get ghostly in the project, which is also boasting cameos by Jon Voight, Leslie Nielsen, and Dennis Hopper. It's not Trace's involvement that has me unimpressed. It's this description: "The singer will play the Spirit of Christmas Future (aka the Grim Reaper), who uses his musical abilities to help Scrooge avoid a tragic end."

I never thought it would happen, but it looks like Tim Allen has finally gotten sick of his kid flicks and goofy entertainment, and is looking for a little variety. First came the half-family, half-adult Wild Hogs. Now he's got some older fare on the horizon that's being topped off with his feature directorial debut. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Allen will helm and star in Crazy on the Outside, an indie adult comedy that's looking to cast Ray Liotta, Carrie-Anne Moss, Julie Bowen (Boston Legal), and Kelsey Grammer in co-starring roles (they're all in negotiations).

Written by Judd Pillot and John Peaslee, the indie will focus on an "ex-con who finds his life outside of prison to be much crazier, especially once he enters his sister's world." There's no word on who will play who, but if Allen has the con role, he'll get to tap back into his bad-boy early days. Whatever the case, it'll be nice to see him without the Santa suit, and doing something indie with a fun cast. This could be his jump to more work behind the camera, but considering that his only other directorial credit is an episode of Home Improvement in 1999, I don't think this will be a career shift.

Yes -- once again, Kelsey Grammer will play Scrooge. And no, I'm not talking about Frasier, but rather the bonafide holiday sourpuss. However, it's not going to be your everyday Dickens. Variety reports that the actor has signed on to play a modern-day Ebenezer Scrooge in the indie satire An American Carol, which will take on current American culture -- "particularly Hollywood." (Will menace-to-the-road Britney run over Tiny Tim or something?) The man behind all of this is David Zucker; he will direct the comedy from a script written with Myrna Sokoloff.

Production is scheduled to begin on the 28th, which might have made me giddy for casting announcements and details 15 years ago, but not so much now. Zucker is one of those guys who makes me buy into that whole "selling your soul for success" idea. Now, I'm not trying to insinuate that he's some devil worshipper or anything, but it's amazing how many directors of funny, classic films take nosedives or head down failing comedic mountains. How do you lose that much of your funny? Is it just that comedy success is luck rather than having a firm grip on how to be funny and satirical?

Zucker had some biggies at the beginning -- like the classic, Airplane! In the next decade, he had the Naked Guns, and now we get My Boss's Daughter and some Scary Movie sequels. So far, it sounds like a crapshoot.

At the very least, it can spawn a sequel: An American Carol: Scrooge Goes West.

Has there ever been such a case of 'too little, too late' as The Simpsons Movie? Don't get me started. Anyway, a number of photos from the film have been turning up at various places, some of which appear taken from previously avaliable clips, some not. In this latest batch, we see Homer mushing some huskies up a vertical incline, Ned Flanders being watched by Bart Simpson in a tree outside of his house, an angry mob of torch burners assembled for some purpose, and the baby Simpson confronting a monkey with what looks like a broken baby bottle.

Little is known about the official plot, but the numerous celebrity voices will include Minnie Driver, Erin Brockovich and regular guest stars Kelsey Grammer and Joe Mantegna. In other sort-of Simpsons news, testy actor Harry Shearer, who voices Simpsons characters including Montgomery Burns and Ned Flanders, recently performed a theater piece called 'This Is So Not About The Simpsons' as part of the annual Association of Performing Arts Presenters Members Conference.

Kelsey Grammer, the loquacious actor portraying the Beast in X-Men 3: The Last Stand, recently sat down with Sci-Fi Wire to discuss his thoughts on playing the popular Doctor Hank McCoy. Unlike some actors who have confessed to childhood affinities for the X-Men, Grammer candidly admitted "I don't know much about X-Men except the films, actually." He went on to explain "I was a Thor guy when I was a kid. Thor ... I remember resonating, probably because I was a Norse god in my past. I must admit." He did, of course, do some comic research after being cast as the furry Beast, everything from reading comics to talking with real fans. According to Grammer the best help he received came from his makeup guys, who are "complete fans," working in "the perfect job."

I still have reservations on the casting choice of Kelsey Grammer. The man is a wonderful actor, of course, but just doesn't quite fit in my mind for Beast. He's got the articulate genius thing down pat, but I have trouble picturing him with the power, grace and style of Beast. Who knows, though ... maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. I'm really doing my best to keep a hopeful outlook on this film.

I'd be willing to bet that the ratings for last night's episode of 24 were even higher than usual, what with every fanboy in the country tuning in for the big premiere of the X-Men: The Last Stand trailer (most of them probably prepared to go kill Brett Ratner if the thing was as awful as they feared). So, is it awful? Well, not completely - I'm pretty convinced that, with millions of dollars to make what is basically a 90 second movie, it's almost impossible to have it not be visually impressive. But it strikes me that about 98% of the trailer walks a very, very fine line between powerfully affecting and profoundly silly. Kelsey Grammer with blue skin and fur, wearing a suit? To me, that's hilarious. And the army of mutants? I'm sorry, but it really looked absurd, at least in dramatic long-shot. Also, the one glimpse of Juggernaut is just as silly as the photos led us to believe. That said, however, Ian McKellen is a good enough actor that almost everything he says is convincing, and his scenes keep the trailer from veering completely into "oh dear" territory. While it's true that, as someone who thinks the X-Men movies are simply fluffy fun, I can't react to the trailer with a deep understand of the characters and events depicted there, the fact is that I'm much more representative of the general public than those who can.

It's too early yet (I'm writing this at about 8am EST) for there to be too many reactions around the web, so it's be great to hear from some of you (fanboys and non-fanboys) about this one - are you guys are horrified as you expected, or has Ratner been (ever so slightly) redeemed?

Despite being a highly respected actor in many regards, and a distinguished and amusing gentleman overall, Kelsey Grammer has met with perhaps more criticism than any other casting decision within the X-verse. Grammer recently sat down with the folks over at CBR to discuss the challenges of the role, and his opinions of the film in general. The interview kicks off with a lengthy discussion of the costume work involved, highlighted by his description of his four year old daughter's reaction to him in makeup (she apparently now calls him "Blue Guy") and then moves on to a discussion of Grammer's role in the film and his performance as a popular comic book icon. Grammer discusses the challenges involved with playing a character who already has a built-in fan base with high expectations, saying "Yeah, and you can't live up to those, can you? [Laughs] You just have to put it out there with your soul and your heart, and hopefully people will respond." There's lots of other interesting info in the full interview- I encourage you to check it out here, if you have the time, along with the rest of CBR's great X-Men 3 coverage.

While I enjoy Grammer's work greatly (I loved him in The Big Empty), and I do understand that he could pull of the character on some level, I think I ultimately have to count myself among those that are disappointed by his casting. I can't even entirely pinpoint why – and maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised and find myself eating crow after I see his performance. Apparently, the people involved have been particularly impressed with him; the assosciate producer has been quoted as saying that The Beast is so great in this film that he could have his own movie on the way. Thoughts?