StrangersWithCandy Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Wow, I didn't even know there were THAT many. Holy crapola! The fine folks over at Rotten Tomatoes are currently counting down the top 50 TV adaptations of all time, in honor of both Get Smart and Sex and the City. Before we mention a few, here's how they played it: "... these movies are remakes of TV series (i.e. Starsky and Hutch), mini-series (Pennies from Heaven), or sketches (The Blues Brothers). We've also included big-screen adaptations that utilize the series' principal cast members (the Star Trek movies, the Adam West Batman). We've omitted films that, despite having TV incarnations, are derived from other sources (thus, no Superman), but have included others (like The Addams Family) that are best remembered as TV shows." In other words ... they mean business.

Down toward the bottom, you have films like Strangers with Candy, The Rugrats Movie, Josie and the Pussycats and The Naked Gun 2 1/2. I won't reveal their number one pick, but the top ten includes memorable favorites like The Simpsons Movie, The Fugitive ("You find this man!"), Serenity and South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.

I'm just impressed they managed to throw together 50 half-decent TV-to-Movie adaptations. That, in and of itself, has to be worth some sort of Emmy nod (or would it be an Oscar nod?). Check out the entire list over at Rotten Tomatoes ... and let us know your favorites below.

David Letterman: Voice of a generation. National treasure. Documentarian? Yes, the man who almost single-handedly shaped my sense of humor when I was a teenager is backing a documentary about five young people running for office in their communities. Cameras will follow them around through Election Day, five weeks from now.

As reported in Variety, the film (as yet untitled) is being funded by Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants. The candidates, all 18 except for one 20-year-old, are running for city council or mayor in their various communities; SlashFilm has more details on who they are and where they live, if you're curious.

Despite Letterman's involvement, the film is not expected to be a comedy, nor is it meant to mock the subjects. On the contrary, Letterman said in a statement that he admires them: "When I was their age I was still delivering papers on a paper route, and I wasn't even very good at that."

The film has some serious liberal street cred. It's being directed by Michael Moore's former assistant Jason Pollock and produced by Lawrence Bender, who also produced An Inconvenient Truth (and, somewhat less relevantly, most of Quentin Tarantino's films).

Worldwide Pants was initially set up specifically for Letterman's talk show back in the NBC days. Since then, always acting under Letterman's direction, it has produced TV shows such as "Ed," "Everybody Loves Raymond," and "The Bonnie Hunt Show." The company has only made one theatrical feature so far, the cult hit Strangers with Candy, in 2005.

[via SlashFilm.]

Recent Theatricals

Accepted -- Quick and painless late-teen college about a bunch of slackers who fabricate an entire university before things get nutty. Not awful, but not all that funny either (Extras: director/cast commentary, featurettes, music videos, deleted scenes, gag reel, etc.)

Brothers of the Head -- The creators of Lost in La Mancha go the mockumentary route with this story of conjoined-twin rock stars. Yeah, you heard me.

John Tucker Must Die -- Teen movies must stop: A bunch of girls get revenge on the campus womanizer. How nice. (Director's commentary, featurettes)

King Kong: Extended Edition -- Because Peter Jackson's remake wasn't already long enough, they added another 13 minutes back in. (Filmmaker commentary, 3-hour documentary, 38 MORE minutes of deleted scenes.) OK, I want this.

The Da Vinci Code -- Admit it; you were bored by it. (Ten featurettes.)

Catalog Picks

Forbidden Planet: Special Edition -- The classic sci-fi grand-daddy (which was based on The Tempest, dontchaknow) gets re-issued in a normal SE and a swanky LE that comes with a Robby the Robot toy! (Documentaries, deleted scenes, lost footage, random fun.)

The Green Mile: Special Edition -- Frank Darabont's second Stephen King adaptation (after The Shawshank Redemption) pales in comparison to the first, but the chemistry between Tom Hanks and Mike Duncan is still pretty effective. (Director commentary, deleted scenes, feature-length documentary, featurettes.)

Maniac Cop -- It's about a cop -- who's a maniac. It comes from Bill Lustig (Maniac) and Larry Cohen (The Stuff), plus it stars Tom Atkins, Richard Roundtree and Bruce Campbell. Not saying it's a good flick, but if you know these names you'll have fun with Maniac Cop. (Filmmaker commentary, featurette, interviews.)

Direct-to-Video

Raptor Island -- I've never seen it, but it stars Lorenzo Lamas & Stephen Bauer, was written by the guy who did Megalodon, and is about an island full of velociratpors. See it quick, before Raptor Island 2: Raptor Planet hits the Sci-Fi Channel!

Strangers With Candy -- Apparently it's got some kind of cult fanbase. I'll have to give SWC a whirl sometime, but everyone tells me to start with the series first. (Filmmaker commentary, 18 deleted scenes.)

Attention, Amy Sedaris fans: it might soon be time to get militant. Fimoculous pointed us to this Strangers With Candy website, which is spreading the rumor that the feature based on the Comedy Central series might not hit big screens at all. Strangers premiered at Sundance last winter to rabid fan noise and little other attention. Warner Independent had been planning to open the film on a few screens in late October, but have apparently removed the Strangers page from their website, and the film is nowhere on their list of upcoming releases. A source at Warner Independent told Jerri Blank.com that the film has been completely wiped from Warners' slate. What's up with this? Admittedly, the post-Sundance critical buzz wasn't stellar, but the picture obviously has a built in audience. And, with March of the Penguins, the summer's biggest indie hit, under their probably-not-cinched-too-tight belts, you'd think the big-studio indie arm could afford to take a chance.