I had to make such a tough decision last week when offered to attend a screening of either Tropic Thunder or Pineapple Express this coming Wednesday. What the hell does one do in that kind of situation? Both films look hilariously awesome to the tenth degree. I mean, if I could split my movie brain in half and send each part to a different screening, I totally would. But I can't. So I had to make a decision. I won't say which flick I picked right now, because then you won't tune in later this week when I spoil everything! That's right! Every last minute of the movie, right down to the order of the credits. Spoiled!

But anyway, check out a new international trailer for Tropic Thunder up top (or over on the film's official international site). Since it's from our international friends, it might be a little beyond a green band trailer, so keep that in mind office folk. There's not much else to say about this one -- watch it for yourself and tell me it doesn't look out of control. Stiller worries me sometimes because he could be a little too "stupid," but with Downey Jr., Steve Coogan, Nick Nolte, Bill Hader, Justin Theroux, Jay Baruchel and Jack Black in there, I think we'll be okay.

Tropic Thunder blows its way into theaters on August 15.

If the sequel to Night at the Museum wanted to retain the level of accuracy seen with the original, it would have a Chinese actor playing Russian Czar Ivan IV (aka Ivan the Terrible). But while I'm sure there will still be historical errors abound in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, the honor of playing Ivan has gone instead to pale-enough actor/filmmaker Christopher Guest (Best in Show), according to the Hollywood Reporter. And since Guest is actually a far more serious man than you'd expect, despite all those silly mockumentaries he writes and directs, here's hoping he studies his Eisenstein for inspiration.

A bunch of other actors have also joined Ben Stiller in the fantasy film, including Jon Bernthal (World Trade Center) as Al Capone, Bill Hader (Superbad) as General Custer, Alain Chabat (The Science of Sleep) as Napoleon and the franchise's screenwriters, Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon, as the Wright brothers. This makes for a very packed cast, considering most of the first movie's co-stars are apparently returning, including Robin Williams, Steve Coogan, Owen Wilson, Ricky Gervais, Dick Van Dyke, Jake Cherry and Patrick Gallagher, the guy who looked all wrong for the part of Atilla the Hun. Other newbies to the series include Amy Adams as Amelia Earhart and Hank Azaria as Egyptian pharaoh Kah Mun Rah.

The sequel is currently filming in Vancouver, which seems a bit far away from the actual Smithsonian Institute, but reportedly the production will have access to shoot a few scenes in the actual museum, which is located in Washington, D.C. Maybe it will actually look like it takes place there, too.

To be, or not to be Hamlet 2? I was a really bummed when James Rocchi gave Hamlet 2 an iffy review from Sundance this year. I love Shakespeare, and I love Steve Coogan, so the project seemed like a wacky* dream come true. I'm still holding out hope that I'll respectfully disagree with him when the film hits theaters on August 22, but either way, I will always have Steve Coogan's sexy Jesus.

You might remember Erik mentioning "Rock Me, Sexy Jesus" in April. Yes, this is a musical number in the film, which is part of the crappy drama teacher's (Coogan) politically incorrect sequel to Hamlet. And now Yahoo has got most of the song available to check out -- from Be Kind Rewind's Melonie Diaz and her co-actresses singing on a bed, to Jesus coming down from the ceiling and getting his groove on. Seeing Coogan dance around in a white tank and tight jeans is just plain wonderful.

What do you think of Coogan's rockin' sexy Jesus?

*Edited

While I'm still not convinced that North American audiences are ready for the strange genius that is Steve Coogan, at least they will get the chance to have a little taste. The first poster for Andy Fleming's comedy Hamlet 2 has arrived in our inbox (see to the right, and click to enlarge). So in case anyone was confused, the poster (and R-rated trailer) makes it clear that this movie is going to be packed to the brim with poop jokes.

Coogan stars as a hapless drama teacher in danger of losing his job. In an attempt to drum up some interest in his drama class, he writes the sequel to Hamlet. Now, as any good English student knows, everyone dies at the end of Hamlet (oops, 400-year- old spoiler alert), so where can you go from there? It turns out you make a politically incorrect musical with numbers like Rock Me, Sexy Jesus.

Joining Coogan in the cast are Catherine Keener, David Arquette, and Amy Poehler. With comedy talent like that, how can you go wrong? A cut of the film screened at Sundance back in January, and earned the film the highest bidding price since Little Miss Sunshine. But unlike Sunshine, something tells me Hamlet 2 won't be grabbing an Oscar nod.

Hamlet 2 is scheduled for wide release on August 28th.

Back in January, I blogged about the BBC show The Thick of It getting the feature treatment. The film, tentatively titled In the Loop, will be set in the same world as the television show, but it hadn't been determined whether the same characters would pop up. According to the latest post over at The Hollywood Reporter, it seems that the production is going half-fresh. This is particularly noteworthy because the actors are James Gandolfini, David Rasche (United 93), and ... My Girl Anna Chlumsky. Yes, Anna his swam out of the ether and right to BBC remakes!

The film will focus on the inner workings of US and British government agencies and international relations, Chlumsky will play a State Department official, Gandolfini will play a general, and Rasche has signed on to play an undersecretary of state. On the British side of things, Peter Capaldi, Chris Addison, and Paul Higgins from the series are starring with Tom Hollander and Gina McKee.

One of the more buzzed-about flicks coming out of Sundance this year was Hamlet 2, starring the very funny Steve Coogan as a drama teacher who, with no other ideas, attempts to rally his Tucson, Arizona students around a politically incorrect musical sequel to Shakespeare's Hamlet -- featuring a song called (I kid you not) "Rock Me, Sexy Jesus." Hamlet 2 also marked one of first and biggest sales at the festival, with Focus Features snatching it up for a reported $10 million. Was it worth that amount?

Well, Moviefone just debuted an R-rated (aka Red Band) trailer for Hamlet 2 that, truth me told, looks kinda funny. Unfortunately, I did not have the chance to see it at Sundance, so all I have to go on is James' not-so-nice review, AICN's very nice review and word of mouth, which, so far, seems to be fairly positive (see more praise from Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone). Hey, any film that features the Devil making out with the President of the United States during a wacky theatrical production of a sequel-ized Shakespeare play is okay in my book. Hamlet 2 stars Coogan, Catherine Keener, David Arquette and Melonie Diaz. It was directed by Andrew Fleming and it's due out in theaters on August 22.

Whatcha think?

I really think that if Tropic Thunder lives up to our expectations, this may very well be the "Summer of Downey." For starters, I'm already sold on Iron Man, and believe me, it has nothing to do with a love of men in big metal suits. Paramount Pictures has released three new character posters for the action comedy and there is just something about Downey's whacked out expression that brings a smile to my face. Although to be fair, I'm steering clear of the whole 'black face' debate until I actually see the movie. Especially since it seems a little early in the game to start crying "racist" when no one has even seen Downey's performance yet.

Thunder was written and directed by Ben Stiller, who also stars as a spoiled action star cast in a big budget war flick that is spiraling out of control. Tired of dealing with spoiled stars and unruly locations, the director (played by Steve Coogan) decides to drop his actors in the middle of a real armed conflict in hopes of adding some 'verité' to the film. Of course, the actors are all clueless of the fact they are no longer in the cozy confines of a movie set and wackiness ensues.

So place your bets: Do you think Tropic Thunder is going to be this summer's big comedy? We'll find out if Stiller can live up to the hype when the film opens in theaters on August 15th. Check out larger versions of all three posters, plus additional photos from the film in the gallery below.

Now that we have all gotten over the initial shock of seeing Robert Downey Jr. in 'black face,' we can all settle down and direct our attention to all of the other reasons why Ben Stiller's action comedy Tropic Thunder is going to be pretty high on the list of must-see summer flicks. Slash Film now has two new pictures from the comedy with the whole cast in tow.

Stiller came up with the idea of Tropic Thunder while he was working on Empire of the Sun with Steven Spielberg. Thunder centers on a group of spoiled actors making an expensive Vietnam flick. Inexplicably, the group find themselves in the middle of a real war and they are forced to become real live soldiers. The all-star comedy cast includes Stiller, Jack Black, Matthew McConaughey (in a part originally intended for Owen Wilson), and Steve Coogan as the wacked-out "Dennis Hopper in Apocalypse Now" role.

While these photos may not be as much fun as the teaser that was just released, I'm sure this is just the first of many media releases for the film. If you are over 18, I highly recommend checking out the teaser -- with possibly the best tag line for an action film in the history of the movies. If not, you'll just have to figure out how to sneak into the theater with the rest of us when Tropic Thunder lands in theaters on August 15th.

I may not be too thrilled with the thought of male modeling sequels, but I'm itching to see what Ben Stiller makes with his first directing gig since Zoolander. The flick is Tropic Thunder, and that image above is part of the first look released by Entertainment Weekly. This time, the focus is actors, and the comedy follows a group "of self-indulgent stars cast in the modern equivalent of Apocalypse Now." However, the director (Steve Coogan) and writer (Nick Nolte) get fed up with them and ship them off to the jungle to fend for themselves.

Meanwhile, Stiller and those involved are hoping this comedy doesn't start an uproar.

Hamlet 2 was one of the first -- and biggest -- sales at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, claimed by Focus Feaures for a reported $10 million. And after finally seeing it -- at a press screening added to the schedule near the close of the fest by virtue of the buzz and the biz -- I had one of those moments where one feels totally disassociated from the second half of the phrase 'show business.' Maybe it was late in the fest, and I was overloaded; maybe Hamlet 2's comedy, if I had seen it at a public screening, would have gained mass and momentum from the presence of a more mixed audience instead of my seeing it with the rag-tag remnants of the press corps who saw it Friday afternoon. Maybe Focus have bought themselves the next Little Miss Sunshine, a wacky, sprawling-cast comedy that will have a lively, lucrative life after the festival. But after watching Hamlet 2 -- a shoddy and indulgent mass of bits from other movies with a shapeless, shameless performance by British comedic actor Steve Coogan as its unfixed center -- I wasn't thinking of Little Miss Sunshine or Once or any of the other Sundance success stories of the recent past. I was thinking of Happy, Texas -- the most recent and memorable example of a big-money Sundance sale where the excitement about the film crumpled as the movie descended from the elevations of Park City.

Directed by Andrew Fleming (Dick, Nancy Drew) and co-written by Fleming and Pam Brady (South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Hot Rod), Hamlet 2 revolves around Tuscon, Arizona drama teacher, Dana Marszh (Coogan). Marszh is a fairly silly man as written -- name-dropping his time on the set of Mrs. Doubtfire in a futile attempt to impress his students, staging film-to-theater productions like Erin Brockovich, oblivious to the fact his marriage to his wife Brie (Catharine Keener) is crumbling under the featherweight burden of his own meaninglessness. Coco Chanel said that one of the secrets of style was to take one thing off before you leave the house; I wish someone had applied that maxim to Coogan's performance. Dana roller-skating around Tuscon because he can't afford a car is potentially amusing; Dana roller-skating around Tuscon in a caftan -- so as to improve his fertility, as Brie wants a baby -- takes Dana from 'potentially amusing' to 'definitively over-the-top.'