Parenthood Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Discuss: From Big Screens to Boob Tubes
Filed under: Fandom », Home Entertainment », Remakes and Sequels »
This week marks the premiere of the first of three film-to-television adaptations that will hit our TV's this year. ABC Family will kick things off on Tuesday with their spin of 10 Things I Hate About You, and in the fall, two will follow -- NBC's Parenthood and ABC's Eastwick (based, of course, on The Witches of Eastwick). In honor of this trio of shows, the LA Times has outlined not only the details of the new programs, but also the hits and misses that already litter television history.
The piece notes a few from recent memory, like The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Buffy, and The Dead Zone, but also notes some doozies that you might not remember. Did you ever catch Ferris Bueller co-starring Jennifer Aniston? Dangerous Minds? Baby Talk (an abysmal remake of Look Who's Talking)? One glaring omission -- especially in the wake of Nia Vardalos' return to film -- the shockingly bad My Big Fat Greek Life.
It's usually easy to forget that some films head for weekly programming because they're either too terrible to remember, or so good (Buffy) that they blow the movie out of the water. But with three new ones in one season, methinks we have a new trend on our hands. (One, I hope, won't inspire more Producers-esque remake vortexes.) As we come out of a holiday weekend sluggish and hopefully sated on barbecues and fireworks:
Will you partake in television's latest odes to Hollywood? And what about the ones that have come and gone? Which did you love, and which did you loathe? Or, do you just ignore Hollywood when it heads for the small screen?
Our Favorite Summers: 1989
Filed under: Fandom », Summer Movies »
Has there ever been a summer that proved to be as important – not just personally, but historically - to comic book fans as 1989? Surely the last decade or so has produced its share of must-see superhero adventures, but before Tim Burton's Batman was release on June 23, 1989, the idea of wall-to-wall wallcrawlers was little more than a cobweb stuck to the bottom of discarded studio call sheets. Burton's aggressive, dark reimagining of Bob Kane's iconic character quite literally changed the face of comic book adaptations, and ushered in the era of superhero movies, even if it would take another ten or fifteen years to find the right balance between real-world grit, splash-page heroism, and tongue-in-cheek self-awareness.
Meanwhile, the rest of the summer of '89 was no less exciting, featuring sequels, comedies, dramas and plenty of fare that defied categorization – which, in all likelihood is why it defied the box office gods en route to home-video glory. And while we could no doubt devote countless column inches to recounting every film from that fateful summer, here's a decidedly more svelte list of the entries that most aroused our imaginations and inspired us to suckle at 1989's summer-movie teat.
Discuss: Ron Howard, H.P. Lovecraft and 'Gung Ho'
Filed under: DIY/Filmmaking », Newsstand »
Can I ask you a question: When did we lose Ron Howard? Was it EdTv? How the Grinch Stole Christmas? Did these two films back-to-back force Howard to re-direct his career so that every film he made was either an Oscar-poised drama or a Dan Brown adaptation? Today, Variety tells us that Universal and Imagine Entertainment are now looking to strap Howard down to the director's chair for an adaptation of The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft -- which is a graphic novel from Mac Carter and Jeff Blitz that takes elements of Lovecraft's struggles in real life and combines them with a fantastical element that includes transforming all of his darkest nightmares into reality. Sounds pretty cool and creepy, but is it the type of film we want from Ron Howard? I appreciate that he's looking to play with another genre (even though this kind of story seems perfect for Tim Burton), but am I the only one who would love to see Howard return to comedy? Arrested Development was brilliant, sure, and I really do hope that movie gets made -- but I'm talking along the lines of Splash, Gung Ho, Nightshift or even Parenthood. Heck, Willow wasn't that bad either. Where did Ron Howard's playful side run off to? Since when were we interested in the dark and disturbing side of Ron Howard?
Seriously, are you liking Howard's career choices right now? Do you think he's a good fit for this H.P. Lovecraft comic adaptation, or would you rather see a sequel to Gung Ho?
Scott and Steenburgen Join Apatow's 'Step Brothers'
Filed under: Comedy », Casting », Sony »
It's been quite awhile since we first and last heard about Adam McKay's Step Brothers, an R-rated comedy that will reunite the director's Talladega Nights duo, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly (cementing Reilly's placement in the "Frat Pack") and will be overseen by that film's producers, Judd Apatow and Jimmy Miller. Joining the leads, according to The Hollywood Reporter, is Adam Scott, who recently played the male nurse in Apatow's Knocked Up and Oscar-winner Mary Steenburgen, who co-starred with Ferrell in Elf. In Step Brothers, Ferrell and Reilly play -- what a shocker -- immature guys who become stepbrothers and best friends when their parents marry. Scott has been cast as Ferrell's younger, more successful brother and Steenburgen is their mom. Still no word on who plays Reilly's father, who I assume will be marrying Steenburgen's character. Other cast members reportedly include Andrea Savage (Comedy Central's Dog Bites Man) as Ferrell's therapist, and someone named Katherine Hahn (could it be Knocked Up costumer Catherine Hahn?) as Adam Scott's character's wife.
Steenburgen seems way too young to play mother to Will Ferrell, who is only 14 years her junior, but this won't be the first time such close-age parental casting has occurred (the craziest was Angela Lansbury and Laurence Harvey -- two years apart -- in The Manchurian Candidate). Still, the actress is one of my favorite motherly actresses, mainly thanks to Parenthood and even Back to the Future III -- her schoolmarm character seems like a mom even if she isn't, at least not until the animated series. Now if Apatow could just get her Parenthood husband, Steve Martin, to play Ferrell's step-dad, I could really get behind this movie. Apatow could be just the guy to re-boost Martin's once-funny career.
Harald Zwart Tapped to Direct 'The Pink Panther 2'
Filed under: Comedy », Deals », Newsstand », Remakes and Sequels »
Let me get this right out of the way -- I chose not to watch The Pink Panther (remake, was it?) when it hit theaters back in 2006. As a major fan of comedy, the original Panther flicks directed by Blake Edwards and featuring Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau are, in my mind, comedic masterpieces (with A Shot in the Dark being my favorite). From time to time I'll take in the occasional remake (and, more often, sequel), but there are some films I refuse to go near. Not because they look bad, or because people tell me they're bad -- I choose not watch them simply because I don't want the film to tarnish the awesome feelings I associate with the original work. Thus, I stayed far away from The Pink Panther (starring Steve Martin), so I will not use this space to rip apart a film I did not see.
Instead, I'll bring you news (via The Hollywood Reporter) that Harald Zwart has been tapped to direct The Pink Panther 2 for Columbia Pictures and MGM. The good news? Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel were brought on to rewrite the script; these are the two responsible for gems like Gung Ho, City Slickers and Parenthood. So, knowing they're involved should help boost some confidence. Zwart was the man behind Agent Cody Banks and One Night at McCool's, but let's not hold that against him. Steve Martin will once again return to play Inspector Clouseau, and this time it appears he teams up with a bunch of moronic European detectives to try to stop a massive crime wave. No word on a release date, but the powers that be are eying an August production start.
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