LisaKudrow Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It's time to go back into the memory banks a little bit. Remember when Richard Kelly started Darko Entertainment back in September of 2007? The first movie slated to hit production was Dirty Girl, with this psychological thriller called The Box slated to be movie numero dos. Now we're about to see what Kelly has in store for us with his third film, and Dirty Girl vanished into the ether ... until now.

The Hollywood Reporter posts that the movie is still in the works -- now in the hands Ideal Partners, Killer Films, and Paris Film -- and has got its cast: Juno Temple, Sally Hawkins, William H. Macy, and Lisa Kudrow. Marking Abe Sylvia's feature directorial debut, the film focuses on "a high school tramp who runs away with the school's gay, fat kid in his homophobic dad's stolen car." Got all that? Variety chose to lighten the impact a bit by describing it as a film revolving around "a high school tramp who pairs up with a shy and overweight gay teen. Together, they set off to find her real father in California."

Temple is the lead as "dirty girl" Danielle, Hawkins is playing her "reformed slut" mother Sue-Ann, Macy is Sue-Ann's Mormon fiance, and Kudrow will play "Clarke's mousy repressed mother." Let's assume Clarke is the gay teen, and I'll go out on a limb and saying Jeremy Dozier is playing him. THR doesn't mention him at all, and Variety doesn't list his role, choosing to focus on the parental units.

Keep reading -- this ain't all of it, folks.

When word about Easy A, otherwise known as The Scarlet Letter hits high school, it didn't sound like the most desirable or charming comedy -- a young woman pretends she's promiscuous to get ahead. (yay) But now ... Well, now there's a killer cast merged with a plot summary that could easily make this a must-see film.

Variety reports that the comedy will, more specifically, follow a high school girl (Emma Stone) who, "after being ostracized by a false rumor she's loose, uses the rumor mill to her advantage, pitting puritanical students and teachers against their liberal counterparts." And who will some of these people be? Oh, just Lisa Kudrow, Alyson Michalka, Thomas Haden Church, Patricia Clarkson, Stanley Tucci, Penn Badgley, Cam Gigandet, Malcolm McDowell, and Daniel Bird. How's that for a supporting cast? The fact that this is a teen comedy and not some star-ridden ensemble drama makes the roster all the more impressive.

Production kicks off on June 9, and hopefully that means we'll get to see how it all turns out sooner rather than later. But for now -- who are the puritans, and who are the lascivious liberals? Any guesses?

I'm not really a dog person, myself. I prefer cats. I like cats that sleep a lot and purr and occasionally do something adorable, like trying to rip your arm off. However, I did like most of the dogs in Hotel for Dogs, especially the lead canine character, Friday the fluffy white mutt. For the most part, these dogs don't have human qualities forced upon them but are funny and sweet in a naturally canine fashion, and they run circles around the human characters in more than one way.

Friday is owned by two children, Andi (Emma Roberts) and Bruce (Jake T. Austin). The kids have been traveling from foster home to foster home since their parents died, and apparently foster parents are all mean cusses who don't allow pets, so they've been hiding poor Friday in the woods and backyards and alleys and such for three years. Friday nearly ends up in the hands of Animal Control, and as we well know from movies and TV, anyone associated with the pound is evil and sadistic. So the little dog ends up taking matters into his own, er, paws (I hate writing phrases like that) and finds his own family -- two strays who live in an abandoned hotel. One thing leads to another, and suddenly Andi and Bruce realize that there's plenty of room in this once-fancy hotel that no one seems to care about for a lot of dogs that no one else seems to care about, either.

While the husband and wife team of Kieran and Michele Mulroney wait for their Justice League script to finally make it to the big screen, the duo won't be sitting around idly. Instead, they will make their feature directing debut with an indie movie titled Paper Man, which they also wrote together. According to Variety, the film is a "coming-of-middle-age comedy" about a friendship between a failed author and a teenager, and the project was developed through the Sundance Institute's screenwriters and directors labs. Jeff Daniels, who did his best work recently as a successful novelist in The Squid and the Whale, has been cast as the author. The teenager part has apparently not been filled, but Daniels will be joined in the film by Ryan Reynolds and Lisa Kudrow in unspecified roles.

With a November 12 start date, we'll probably be seeing this before we see Justice League, even though Paper Man probably won't reach theaters until 2010, following a premiere at Sundance that year. Of course, we can at least hope Variety doesn't have the full plot details, and Paper Man is actually a supehero movie, too. Perhaps either the author or the teen has the power to take on the characteristics of paper (he'd always win in a fight against rock-like individuals such as The Thing, but lose to Scissors Man), hence the superhero-like title. Unfortunately, there's more likelihood that the teen is a gifted writer and Daniels becomes his mentor, Finding Forrester style.

Here's a stat that may or may not blow your mind: According to Box Office Mojo, Sex and the City has grossed $312 million worldwide. Yup. $312,533,654 to be exact -- for a movie based on a hit HBO show that went off the air a few years ago. Since we all know what happens when Hollywood gets a look at those kinds of numbers, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to predict what the future holds: plenty more TV-to-movie adaptations. We're practically guaranteed another Sex and the City flick, and earlier today Monika brought us news that the long-rumored Friends movie might be moving forward.

Honestly, why wouldn't it move forward? You're telling me Matt Leblanc, whose last credit on IMDb is Joey, is holding out for a massive paycheck? Same goes for Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer, Courteney Cox and Jennifer Aniston, with the latter being the only one getting decent big-screen work (though, truth be told, she's about two movies away from becoming yesterday's news). The others are all showing up in bit parts, directing films that don't go anywhere and/or trying desperately to make the TV thing work again. Fact is, together they're a pot of gold. Apart and, well, we don't really care, do we?

But could a re-emergence on the big screen revive these careers? Could they somehow find a way to take the cutesy sitcom and turn it into a feature film people would actually want to see? Could Friends: The Movie make more money at the box office than Sex and the City? And should we care?

Back when I posted about television shows hitting the big screen in February, I included a joke Matthew Perry made about how the cast of Friends were "trying to organize a thing soon," but he meant a dinner, not a movie.

Did he, in fact, mean a movie? We can take this with a grain of salt right now, but The Daily Mail says that a film based on the popular series has gotten the green light to start filming in the next year and a half, with all of the actors interested in reprising their roles -- Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow, and David Schwimmer.

Basically, it's all said to be due to the success of Sex and the City, and their source says: "she [Aniston] and Courteney have already talked this summer about what they want out of a Friends movie, and if deals can be made with them, everything else can fall into place rather quickly." The rest of the piece has a bunch of particulars about money, and how the show is at the top of the TV-to-screen list.

Whether it's true or not, it makes sense. But do you want to see the friends reunite?

Moviefone has just debuted the first Hotel for Dogs trailer (watch it above or over on Moviefone in glorious HD), starring Emma Roberts, Don Cheadle, Lisa Kudrow and Johnny Simmons. Based on Lois Duncan's 1971 children's book of the same name, Hotel for Dogs tells of two mischievous orphans who hole up and attempt to hide dozens of stray dogs in an abandoned hotel. God bless these kids, because I currently have one dog and she's more than a handful. Imagine taking care of an entire hotel full of dogs ... and having to feed them, bathe them and, well, clean up the poop! Hate the poop! Hate picking up the poop! Why do dogs have to poop all the time? Who knows, but I do love the way the kids in this film deal with the poop issue and it's given me a few new ideas. The flick actually looks pretty cute and cuddly, especially if you're an animal lover or a young kid ... or a young kid who also happens to be an animal lover. Check it out above.

Hotel for Dogs barks into theaters on January 16, 2009.

OK, so the music snob in me is not thrilled that someone like David Bowie would appear in a teen romance with a High School Musical star. But, luckily I don't take these things all that seriously and I'm sure I'll get over it. Variety reports that the music legend is currently in talks to star in the musical Will. Todd Graff (Camp) co-wrote the script with Josh Cagan and Graff will also direct.

The coming-of-age story centers on an outcast teen who befriends a like-minded girl who regrettably also runs with the popular crowd. Vanessa Hudgens plays the popular girl Sam, who after struggling with a stutter, has finally made it to the cool table. Liam Aiken will play her socially inept band mate. Remember this is a musical, so the story doesn't stop with the usual 'opposites attract' teen romance. The two then go on to "form an unlikely bond through their shared love of music. They assemble a like-minded crew of misfits and form a rock group to perform in a battle of the bands competition at their school."

The cast also includes Lisa Kudrow (who really does deserve to work more; the woman is hilarious), and Scott Porter (Friday Night Lights). Bowie is still in negotiations, so there is no word on which character he would be playing in the film. Part of me hopes it will just be a cameo, à la Zoolander. Will is set to start shooting in Austin, Texas in February and should hit theaters (with or without Mr. Ziggy Stardust) later this year.

With production set to begin next month, the Hotel for Dogs is about to turn off its vacancy sign. In June, I alerted you to the project when Thor Freudenthal was tapped to direct Lois Duncan's children's book from the '70s, about two orphaned teens who hide stray dogs in an abandoned hotel. After getting a director, Eric Roberts' offspring, Emma Roberts, was tapped to star as one of the kids, and then Don Cheadle signed on to play the orphans' social worker. Now we've got much of the cast in place, although there's still no familial cohort for Roberts in sight.

Topping the recent additions is Friends alum Lisa Kudrow, fresh off the upcoming Butler/Swank romance, P.S., I Love You. She will play the foster parent of the two dog-loving kids, which will be a bit of a contrast to her other upcoming work -- she's going to produce and star in a black comedy called Intense Girl Scouts. The other new cast member is Johnny Simmons, who recently hit the screen in Evan Almighty, and who is already set to play the young Denny Colt in The Spirit. Since the brother spot is still open, Simmons will be playing Roberts' crush.

They don't have too much time left, so hopefully they pick a co-star soon. Otherwise, it'll be mighty weird to see Roberts act with an imaginary person, and it will be an entirely different story. Instead of a feel-good tale of two kids and some cute canines, she'd be talking to people who aren't there and surrounding herself with dogs -- first step, foster, second step, asylum!

It's Wednesday, and you know what that means -- time for The Write Stuff! This week Cinematical spoke with screenwriter Captain Mauzner. Mauzner has an interesting perspective on screenwriting because he's written two major films based on true events and actual people. He co-wrote 2003's Wonderland -- the story of the infamous "Wonderland Murders," which starred Val Kilmer as legendary porn star John Holmes. And he wrote last year's Factory Girl, the tale of Edie Sedgwick (played by Sienna Miller), Andy Warhol (Guy Pearce), and a Dylanesque "Musician" played by Hayden Christensen. We spoke about Mauzner's scripts, process, and the trickiness of writing scripts based on fact.

Cinematical: Are you working on anything right now?

Captain Mauzner: I am working on something right now, yeah. I'm adapting a book. It's a small book, it's called The Food Chain, by Geoff Nicholson. A friend of mine runs a small company and I'm adapting it with the hopes of directing it. It's kind of about food, sex, and cannibalism. Revenge, food, sex, and cannibalism.

Cinematical: Well, alright!

CM: It's a little dark comedy. It's fun. And what was nice about it was -- I've written so many things and a lot of them are true life stories, and they all seem to be about kind of deplorable human beings. And I think that my comfort zone is really kind of in the dark side -- the drug addicts, the deviants. And I think that as I've kind of gotten older and left that world myself, I guess you could say I've become less and less interested in it. You see these movies like Wonderland and Factory Girl and you could say "oh, they're like an argument against doing drugs." But I know for myself, there's always a glamorizing element to it. And as much as you want to say this is the downfall of these people, which it is -- and obviously there's nothing glamorous about the drug lifestyle, or the party lifestyle because it does lead to bad things. But just the act of writing about it or making these the main characters or trying to explain these people, I feel like that somewhat glamorizes it, or at least in my mind it was very glamorous. I had a very romantic notion, at like 14-years-old I discovered Bukowski and I was kind of off to the races. So I think that as I get older I'm ready to move on to maybe something light and happy. My family's always like "Why can't you write something that we can take Grandma to?"

Cinematical: So do you find when you're writing about drugs and debauchery, that you're not looking to condemn it and point a finger, you're just looking to present it and let the audience decide?

CM: Absolutely. I'm not looking to condemn it at all. I'm not looking to be moral about it. I believe in experimentation. I believe in doing kind of what you want and not having anybody else tell you what to do. I think that my fascination with it is always the "why." Why do people do this? I think that's kind of the fun of being able to do those kind of things is that you can live kind of vicariously through these people, and try to figure out the "why" without being judgmental.