Michael Lembeck Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Ah, another week, another jumble to the calendar -- specifically, to 20th Century Fox's release slate.

According to Box Office Mojo, the studio has moved The Tooth Fairy back from November 13th to next January (because where else are you going to stick a Dwayne-Johnson-as-hockey-player-as-tooth-fairy outing?), and Wes Anderson's The Fantastic Mr. Fox has moved back a week from 11/6 to 11/13 as their choice contender for the family dollar. This now places it right after Disney and Robert Zemeckis' A Christmas Carol (really, the first week of November?) and just before Warners' Cats & Dogs sequel (really, the second movie of Cats & Dogs?).

I'm not sure how much Johnson's recent Race to Witch Mountain cost, but I can't help but think that he'd like to outperform that film's good-not-great $60-ish million gross, and January could be just the grounds to do that in. (Paul Blart: Mall Cop opened within a week of the proposed new date and has raked in... almost $144 million? Yep, over $140 million.) Mr. Fox, on the other hand, is a mainstream proving ground for the ever-quirky Anderson, and with a voice cast that includes George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, and Anjelica Huston, let's hope it has reason to top the $28 million gross of that last animated adaptation of a Roald Dahl book, 1996's James and the Giant Peach.

But of course, none of that matters, because the real news is that Sandra Bullock's apparent psychological thriller rom-com All About Steve has found itself a home on September 4th. Sure, it's a little early in the awards season to stake a claim, but I'll leave the for-your-consideration campaign in their hands...

In what is shaping up to be either a colossal train wreck or an inspired piece of lunacy, Southern belle Ashley Judd has joined the cast of the upcoming comedy Tooth Fairy as the titular character's girlfriend. Before (some of) you get your hopes up that a major studio production will feature a lesbian relationship, read on to learn how the superb dramatic actress figures into the story.

Dwayne Johnson was signed by 20th Century Fox for Tooth Fairy back in February, as Monika reported. He was to play "an ordinary man who's brought in to try to save the tooth fairy kingdom," though I prefer the unofficial synopsis that has found its way onto IMDb: "Tess is a 6-years-old girl who is very dissapointed when Derek (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) tells her that the tooth fairy isn't real." (Misspellings not mine.) Talk about high concept!

Variety now clarifies that Johnson will be playing a minor league hockey player nicknamed The Tooth Fairy, no doubt because he has a habit of knocking out opponents' teeth with his rough play. Judd will be playing his girlfriend, a single mother of two children, no doubt a romantic relationship that will help tame the Tooth Fairy's violent ways, especially when one of Ashley's children loses a tooth (just guessing here). You can probably write the rest of the story as predictably as two of the credited writers. Production starts in October under the direction of sitcom vet Michael Lembeck.

No, it isn't April Fools Day yet. Now hearing this news, that The Rock was going to be the Tooth Fairy, led me to Bad Santa visions. Or, maybe a bit role in some weird dream sequence -- all the fairy tale people played by muscle-rippling ex-wrestlers. Then again, The Rock is pretty big on his feel-good roles, so it could just be straight up tooth saving -- and that's just what it seems to be. Variety reports that Dwayne Johnson is going to star in an upcoming project called The Tooth Fairy for 20th Century Fox. And these are the pens behind it -- Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandel, plus Joshua Sternin & Jeffrey Ventimilia. Ganz and Mandel wrote Splash (Oscar nom), Spies Like Us, Parenthood, City Slickers...

If you're wondering how on earth The Rock could play the dainty, tooth-sneaking fairy, I have two words for you: Michael Lembeck. That not enough? He's the director behind the second and third sequels of The Santa Clause. To top that off, the Variety description goes right along with any logical assumptions made, based on Lembeck: "Johnson will play an ordinary man who's brought in to try to save the tooth fairy kingdom."

Does that mean he won't become the fairy and just help the fairy keep her kingdom, or are they about to get really progressive and slowly morph the beefy star into the petite dental icon of our youth? Production will begin this August.