SteveCarrell Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Don't worry -- this post isn't about heaping Leave it to Beaver on the ever-growing remake pile. (Especially because one was made in 1997! -- SW) In fact, this new project is one to keep an eye on.

The Beaver, written by Kyle Killen, topped the Black List in 2008, with Steve Carell in line to star. Now the Risky Biz Blog reports that Carell is out, and Jim Carrey might be working his way in. What could possibly be good enough to top the List and attract both Steve and Jim? How about the story of a down-on-his-luck toy manufacturer who becomes way too close to a beaver hand puppet he finds, "treating it as something close to a human creature with human feelings"? Still not enough? How about the fact that it's been compared to both Being John Malkovich and Lars and the Real Girl? Methinks Jim might be a wee bit perfect for the part.

One would imagine that a project like this would get a kickass director right away, but Anonymous Content is still shopping around since Jay Roach said no. And they've even got one heck of a surprise in the mix: Jodie. Foster. I don't know how the woman behind Little Man Tate and Home for the Holidays got to wanting this gig, but word has it she's one of the contenders. Everything might be up in the air right now, but you can be sure that we'll let you know who signs on the dotted line whenever the news hits.

Bringing TV properties to the big screen is a dicey proposition; for every success, there's a fistful of failures that didn't make the cut. (Hands up if you remember I Spy. ...) But gathered in Hollywood for a press conference, the stars and creative staff of Get Smart were relaxed and calm, fielding questions about everything from the tricky business of mocking intelligence in a post-9/11 world, what it takes to play a bad guy, and what it's like to make out with Steve Carell.

The cast was asked if they actually went back to the '60s TV show to get a sense of playing their parts; each of them had a different answer. Steve Carell explained "I didn't want to do an impersonation of Don Adams; I figured there was no way to improve upon what he had done, and I thought the more I watched of him, the more inclined I would be to do an impersonation, because he was so good, so definitive in the role; so no, I sort of backed off."

During the opening of Get Smart, the new big-screen re-visitation of the '60s spy spoof TV show created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, we're shown a montage detailing the mighty workings of the modern intelligence apparatus; covert microphones, satellite communications intercepts, frantic translation, secretive meetings. As top analyst Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell) walks the streets of Washington to the hidden headquarters of the secret agency where he works, listening to intercepted conversations to better understand the plans and thoughts of America's enemies, his iPod switches over ... to Abba's "Take a Chance on Me." Spies, it seems, are people too.

And pause here to think about the challenges facing any director who wants to make a spy comedy in our modern times. If you depict spies as too competent, the audience unconsciously fears for their civil liberties; depict spies as too incompetent, the audience unconsciously fears for their lives. Make the film's threat to the free world too credible, and the film's more scary than silly; make the threat to the free world too fantastic and foolish (as in the earlier Get Smart big-screen project, 1980's The Nude Bomb) and the film's more goofy than gripping. The makers of the new Get Smart seem to have thought about this, and have transformed the character somewhat from Don Adams's nasal know-nothing in the '60s TV show; as played by Carell, Smart is a bright, dedicated, insightful analyst for the secret agency CONTROL who dreams of being a field agent. And Max learns he's passed the field agent's exam with flying colors; still, his boss The Chief (Alan Arkin) rejects Max's request for transfer to field work because he needs Max behind a desk.

That, above, is Get Smart's international trailer. It's been circling the net like mad, and it seems like I'm not the only one who is disappointed. I loved the earlier, brief "element of surprise!" clip -- Ken Davitian's face was so non-plussed... It was perfect! I giggled when Steve Carrell's Maxwell Smart tried to get out of the phone booth. This time around, I grinned a little, and still laughed at the "surprise" clip, but the rest left me antsy.

I won't go so far as to say I hated it, but I don't have the level of excitement I had before. I'm hoping that maybe, just maybe, this is the fault of the trailer. Warner Brothers -- the original spots were great. Sure, they weren't a long trailer that showed every important scene from the movie, but maybe that's a good thing. If you can capture the feel of a film in one brief moment, and make the audience laugh and anxiously wait to see the rest, you don't need to barrage them with clips of the whole film.

The above was me trying to convince myself that it's the trailer, and not the over-all movie. I don't think I did a good job, but what do you think? Do you like this international trailer? Do you think the movie will be good?

The weekend gross for Evan Almighty was $32.1 million, far below the studio's projections and less than half of the opening weekend of it's predecessor, Bruce Almighty, in 2003. The film opened on over 3,600 screens and according to Nikki Finke, was well-received in the South and Mid-West, did fair business on the West Coast and Mountain regions, but did poorly on the East Coast and in Canada, where religious-themed movies don't seem to go over quite as well. Interestingly, Evan Almighty wasn't the only big story this weekend -- Stephen King had his biggest opening weekend ever with 1408, which sailed on good reviews and word of mouth into a second-place position, bumping off Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer with $20.1 million.

The biggest loser of the weekend might have been R-rated horror films. 1408, which is PG-13, had one of the biggest horror openings in a while, and was noticeably more successful than Eli Roth's torture-fest, Hostel: Part II. Roth recently ranted on his MySpace page that R-rated horror was in jeopardy, and that if movies like his weren't supported, they would go away. The studio lemmings will not miss this weekend's 1408 surprise, and, if they are persuaded that PG-13 is the wave of the future, they might put the kibosh on any number of R-rated horror films in the works. The next big test for R-rated horror will likely be Rob Zombie's Halloween, which is opening in late August. If that movie tanks as well, you can probably say goodbye to real horror for a long time.

If what Nikki Finke says is true -- that Evan Almighty needs to clear $500 million worldwide to really get into the black -- then I guess it's no wonder that director Tom Shadyac has embarassed himself so mightily during the film's promotion. The interview he did with Christianity Today, posted on their site on Monday, is pandering on an almost superhuman level. It's so fascinating to read, in fact, that I'm going to give you an official spoiler warning right here: don't read any further if you want to savor every line for yourself. In response to the fairly straight-forward question "What do you want people to take away from Evan Almighty?" Shadyac responds "Hopefully they'll walk away entertained. But also, I think we all have this 'idolatry of magnitude,' thinking that if we don't do something huge for the world that we haven't done anything. We forget the story of the widow's mite ..." Yes, he parable-checks.

He also offers up the following: "Someone asked me the other day, 'What's the biggest influence on your filmmaking career?' And they started naming filmmakers. I went 'Naw, it's Jesus actually.'" I guess, now that he mentions it, I do see the comparison between the two. Jesus included a lot of Ace Ventura-style slapstick in his early films, and some of the camerawork in The Nutty Professor is very Christ-like. Most of the rest of the interview is a lot of painful-to-read jousting, as the interviewer keeps trying to get Shadyac to label himself and the film as sort of 'by Christians, for Christians,' and Shadyac keeps trying to slip away with hippie-dippie statements about Jesus being his hero, and so forth. He says that he responds to the Sermon on the Mount, "to this guy who talked about loving your neighbor and loving your enemy. I know what's moving me and I know what I want to be true to in my work. And if people pigeonhole me for that, I don't really care." Brave, dude. Brave.

Are you super-anxious to see Get Smart? Are you bouncing in your seat, anxiously crossing out the days on your calendar until the film comes out? If so, you might want to find a new hobby since it isn't even coming out until next year. However, for you fans and the rest who might be mildly curious, we've got our first image of the film. It isn't much, but it shows the two important pieces that must be good for the film to have any chance at success -- Steve Carell's Maxwell Smart and Anne Hathaway's Agent 99. The said photo is tiny to the right, but you can click here to see it in all its glory.

Beyond the picture, we've also got some news on what this whole remake will entail. Being an update instead of a stuck-in-time remake, director Peter Segal had to find a new force for the pair to fight since communism fell. That force: bureaucracy. "We try to show the disconnect between government agencies as we saw right after 9/11 when the CIA and FBI weren't really communicating." But have no fear, remember that we reported that Terrence Stamp and Ken Davitian have the reigns of KAOS? In the film, KAOS is blackmailing the US by threatening to give other bad guys launch codes for nuclear weapons, so Smart has to find the bombs, stop them and save the world as well. However, he will be doing so with his mentor, Agent 99. That's right, I said mentor. To acknowledge the rise of feminism since the original, the movie will have an origin story about how 99 is a veteran spy who guides the Smart newcomer. I'm not sure how they'll pull that off without seeming ridiculous, but I'm holding out hope.

About a year ago I was sure that Rob Corddry would be the next big thing to come out of The Daily Show. But now it looks like Ed Helms could pass him by. While Corddry waits around for his new show The Winner to get canceled (if it hasn't been killed already), Helms is busy setting up a good amount of decent movie gigs, including a starring role in A Whole New Hugh, which he will co-write and which Judd Apatow will produce. The movie, which was pitched to Universal by Helms, Jake Fleisher and Ian Berger, will be about a guy who gains confidence thanks to three friends who make him appear successful.

I'm glad for Helms, though I don't see him having enough appeal to be the next Steve Carell. I am also surprised by his sudden rise because the last thing I saw him in was Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story, in which Corddry starred and Helms merely had a cameo. What likely has helped Helms' success is his obnoxious run on The Office, co-starring with Carell, his former Daily Show cast mate. Other upcoming movies Helms can be seen in include Evan Almighty, where he'll again be supporting Carell, Starship Dave and Walk Hard, which stars The Office's Jenna Fischer. Both he and Corddry have parts in Harold and Kumar 2, so maybe he could give his old friend some tips on breaking out.

It had been awhile since we heard anything about the Get Smart movie, and I was kinda hoping that it wasn't actually being made. But as Erik reported almost a year ago, Steve Carrell is in fact bringing Maxwell Smart to the big screen in an adaptation directed by Peter Segal and written by Matt Ember & Tom J. Astle. Now Agent 86 might have a partner, as Anne Hathaway is about to be cast in the role of Agent 99. And production is set to begin in March, just as soon as Carrell is done shooting the current season of The Office, which picks up in January after the actor finishes up on Dan in Real Life (the guy apparently never takes a vacation).

With both Mel Brooks and Buck Henry still alive, I can't believe that this movie could really be written by a duo other than them -- not that I think they'd write it. I just simply can't imagine that it will have any of the zany tone that the TV show had. That said, I am pretty happy with the casting so far. I can't think of a better pair than Carrell and Hathaway to play the characters originated by Don Adams and Barbara Feldon, respectively. They better not mess it up with whoever they get for The Chief.

I guess there's not much chance of the movie being as bad as the '90s Get Smart series starring Andy Dick (and Adams and Feldon) nor could it be as awful as the Inspector Gadget movie (the cartoon was like a spin-off of Get Smart and featured Adams' voice).

Two high profile comedic actors, Steve Carell and Jim Carrey, are all set to join forces for the second time, having already starred together in the 2003 hit Bruce Almighty. The catch is, technically, neither of them will actually be seen on the screen. As it turns out, the union of these two comedians will not be seen, only heard, as they plan to team up for a big-screen adaptation of Doctor Seuss' famous children's classic Horton Hears a Who for 20th Century Fox. Remarkably, this will be the first time Carrey has lent his voice to a CGI character -- but not the first time he's done a Doctor Seuss adaptation (remember the Grinch film?). As far as who plays who, Carrey will voice Horton, while Carell will speak for the tiny mayor.

I imagine many of you out there (including myself) have particularly fond memories of Horton Hears a Who. And oddly enough, I find myself rather excited by the idea of a CGI version of it. It'll be interesting to see if they can successfully stretch it out into a full length movie, and I expect I'll be in the theater to check it out. What do you think?