Mike Mitchell Tagged Articles at Cinematical

You will see this headline pass through your Google readers and your Twitter feeds today: "Mike Mitchell to Helm Monster Squad." Your heart will race, your skin will flush with fury, and you'll set off to your favorite site (hopefully it's Cinematical) to pound out your anger via your keyboard. Not another remake! Not The Monster Squad! But here's where I can reassure you. Calm down. It's not Fred Dekker and Shane Black's Monster Squad.

Let's let your heart rate settle back to normal. Is it? All right then. According to The Hollywood Reporter and its misleading headline, Mike Mitchell is indeed directing a film called Monster Squad for Warner Bros. Like Dekker's film, it too is a supernatural comedy. But unlike Dekker's film, it once boasted the title Nightcrawlers, and was based on a spec by Brian Lynch.

It's reportedly changed plotlines numerous times. Variety notes that it was once centered on an international organization of children who have made it their mission to combat the monsters under the bed. (Familiar!) Michael Arndt rewrote the script to star a neurotic father who must face down childhood monsters. Warner Bros is keeping the current version by Brad Copeland under tight wraps, but it doesn't take much to suppose it deals with "monsters" and a "squad" that deals with them on some level. All teasing aside, this is good news because it means Warner Bros has opted for an original (but undoubtedly reminiscent) idea over their rival Paramount, who was toying with a remake as of last year.

It's very popular to hate on princesses right now thanks to Disney and their frenzied marketing, but there's nothing wrong with a good fairy tale once and awhile, especially if they're served up with a bit of snark. So, I have some hope for Once Upon a Time, an Enchanted sort of story that's being set up at MGM. It's moving pretty quickly too. The script was snapped up in March, and now The Hollywood Reporter says that Mike Mitchell is coming on board to lend his Shrek-honed skills to the fantasy flick.

The story follows three famous princesses: Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and Cinderella, who have settled down in domestic bliss with their Prince Charmings, and are prepared to live happily ever after. But the Charming Brothers go missing (clearly, they're charming, but they lack street smarts) and our pretty sisters-in-law must team up, and set out to save their true loves. But a woman's job is never done, and they also have to save their fairy tale kingdom in the process.

It's a live action film, and THR notes that MGM is aiming for a Shrek and Enchanted level of satire. This almost feels like a Shrek spinoff, as all three princesses keep getting more and more screen time in the neverending ogre franchise. Hopefully it'll mix the best of Shrek with a dash of Ever After and Enchanted, and give girls some new princess costumes to wear on Halloween. Ones with swords.

Yes, yes, I'm still in Austin. I'm like that annoying loser who refuses to leave the party even though your girlfriend is clearly vacuuming and it's slowly getting sunny outside. (I actually stayed a few days longer so I could visit with some good friends, if you must know!) Anyway, it just dawned on me that even though we've brought you tons of SXSW coverage, you're still missing out on one very important component: The intro shorts! Every festival has 'em. They're brief mini-flicks that introduce the festival, credit the sponsors, and basically set the tone for the screening. (Sometimes.)

SXSW has always had some good "intro shorts" (my favorite is an old, strange one with Jeff Goldblum), but this year they were particularly amusing. They were put together by Mike Mitchell, Kent Osborne, Dan Brown, and Charlie Sotelo (among others) -- and through the magical power of "embedding," you can enjoy them without visiting some grungy other website. We'll start with my favorite:


Obviously this is a spoof of good ol' Glengarry Glen Ross, but by the time the film festival was winding down, me and my movie-geek posse were quoting this short non-stop and chuckling like morons. ("Brass balls!" Ha!) Check out the rest of the promos right after the jump!

Later this month we're getting our next helping of the green, health-promoting ogre, the parfait-loving donkey, the bubbly Fiona and the cute yet sneaky Puss in Boots. But time is a-ticking and to keep up with this Shrek-every-three-years schedule, DreamWorks is already gearing up for Shrek 4 to come out in 2010. In March, Christopher Campbell shared that the next sequel will be in 3D, as part of DreamWorks' plan to only release features with the extra dimension as of 2009. Tim Sullivan has already penned a script for the sequel, which has also gotten a rewrite by Josh Klausner, scribe of the horror film The 4th Floor.

Speeding ahead, The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Mike Mitchell is currently in negotiations to direct the next installment. The director has a varied, but applicable resume for the task -- he helmed the original Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, some television animation like an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants and my personal favorite -- the superhero high school movie, Sky High. I'd rather see him tackle a sequel for Will Stronghold, but Shrek's got a lot more box office power out there -- after the first film got an impressive gross of $484.4 million worldwide, the second did almost doubly well with $920.7 million. Whether the next two sequels do as well, that remains to be seen. I'm just wondering how long this franchise will continue. Will we get Shrek 9 in 2025? It's been Mike Myers' main gig for years now, so I wouldn't be entirely surprised.

Seeing as you'll be reading my review of Evil Aliens later this week, I figured why not stretch out the intergalactic theme and include it within this week's Eat My Shorts. I mean, who doesn't like to watch a film about aliens? They're weird, foreign and mysterious creatures that, depending upon who you ask, may or may not exist in real life. Personally, I am of the opinion that aliens are out there somewhere, waiting for just the right time to come down to earth and start their own professional ping-pong league. Heck, there's a lot of money to be made in ping-pong and I'm sure those little dudes are up there paying attention.

Life is more fun when you're a believer. If anything, one can use an alien's presence to explain missing homework, a clogged toilet or why next weekend will not be a good time for the in-laws to pay a visit. All kidding aside, we adore our aliens and love watching them up on the big screen accompanied by millions of dollars in special effects. However, aliens also play a big role in the world of short films as well. Be it animated or live-action, I'm consistently amazed by the quality of alien-related shorts online and available to watch right now ... for free.

This week, all of the following films have something do with aliens and were found rather quickly by typing in a few keywords and surfing the net. As always, if you'd like to see a particular short film featured on a future edition of Eat My Shorts, feel free to send all links, tips and suggestions to shorts AT cinematical DOT com. In the meantime, let's go watch some shorts ...