Tony Hale Tagged Articles at Cinematical

How strange it is to think that a comedy isn't brash enough or absurd enough or funny enough (okay, that one's not so strange), but the truth about The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard is that, while it is brash and absurd and funny in fits and starts, it also seems to lose its nerve as it goes on, running low on laughing gas and coasting to a stop or whatever it is that auto-minded metaphors for auto-minded comedies do.

A wheeler and dealer even in grade school, the now-grown Don Ready (Jeremy Piven) sells cars like nobody's business when somebody's business is in trouble, and that's just the predicament that Ben Selleck (James Brolin) finds himself in. Ready's entourage includes the likes of Ving Rhames, Kathryn Hahn and David Koechner; I'll leave you to guess which of the three is the willful slut. Selleck's staff includes Ken Jeong, Tony Hale and Charles Napier; I'll leave you to determine which of those three suffers most at the racist outbursts of another (hint: not Hale).

The way casting announcements and pics of a pudgier Matt Damon had come down the pike, one had every reason to think that Steven Soderbergh's The Informant! (now with exclamation point) was going to skew more serious than its newly debuted trailer sells.

It's not that there's anything wrong with telling the real-life story of a bi-polar whistle-blower (Damon) with a more decidedly comedic bent, but 'thriller', this does not scream. Then again, maybe Soderbergh just wanted to lighten things up after the epic Che and the austere The Girlfriend Experience, and if that's indeed the case, things do seem to be heading more towards the Ocean's Whatever lark end of his spectrum.

Although most sites seem to have The Informant! with an October 9th release date, the trailer and the page around it (you know, with the 40-Year-Old Virgin-like possible poster art) both state September (in line with a 9/18 date we've seen floating around elsewhere). Either way, I suspect that an appearance at one of this fall's high-profile festivals will help assure us that the film does indeed merit its especially enthused punctuation and that the Damon does indeed merit his schlub-tastic appearance.

The question now is not where, but who. With the announcement that Universal and Illumination Entertainment have nabbed the rights to transform the Where's Waldo? book series into a live-action film suitable for the entire family, with global appeal, naturally we started thinking about who could play the character on the big screen.

We're thinking someone tall, lean, and a little nerdy. Whoever plays Waldo has to look good in a red-and-white shirt, a hat, glasses -- and must know how to wield a mean walking stick. Here are the top five names that come to mind, and why (listed alphabetically):

• Jim Carrey. Accustomed to playing literary characters, especially beloved children's tales, plus proven worldwide box office appeal.
• David Cross. Looks good in glasses; would bring an unpredictable, possibly psychotic and sinister edge to the character.
• Tony Hale. Yes, like Cross, another Arrested Development alumni; brings the "nutty" factor into the equation, plus it's hard to keep your eyes off him even when he's standing still.
• Hugh Laurie. Not too nerdy, true, but he might be the best of all, acting-wise; wields a nasty walking stick on House; amazing comic abilities just waiting to be tapped.
• Rainn Wilson. Versatile, manic energy, can intentionally disappear into the background on The Office -- and definitely has got the bespectacled thing down.

What do you think? Who could play Waldo?

Mice have enjoyed a great ride in the movies. The animated variety first rose to prominence thanks to Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse in the late 20s, enjoyed a rebirth as heroes in the late 70s and 80s with The Rescuers, The Secret of NIMH, The Great Mouse Detective, and An American Tail, and overflowed into live-action territory a few years later with Stuart Little. More recently, Flushed Away was a superior entertainment about a spoiled upper-class mouse who must learn to survive in the wild and wooly sewers, while the superb Ratatouille gave a rat a rare favorable turn in the spotlight as a culinary artist.

Adapted by Gary Ross (Pleasantville, Dave) from the award-winning book by Kate DiCamillo, The Tale of Despereaux features both a rat and a mouse in leading roles, but the self-described fairy tale is much more than a slapdash character study of two rodents. The setup makes it sound like a cousin to both Flushed Away and Ratatouille: a disgraced rat must learn to survive in a dark dungeon, a mouse develops a friendship with a human, and gourmet soup features prominently. Yet as the tale unfolds, it deepens and broadens its themes to a welcome degree. Though it never climbs too far above average and too often embraces the familiar, Despereaux remains a gentle and nurturing children's story, imparting lessons without being too condescending to its audience.

While Despereaux is aimed squarely at the little ones, adults may enjoy the top-notch animation and appreciate the above average performances by a celebrity voice cast (Matthew Broderick, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Watson, Tracey Ullman, Robbie Coltrane, Kevin Kline, William H. Macy, Stanley Tucci) that is well matched to the characters they play, which is a rare pleasure indeed.

Disney has Pixar. Fox has Blue Sky. Paramount has, for now, Dreamworks. As seemingly the last studio to get into animated features, Universal has offered up the trailer for their maiden effort, The Tale of Despereaux, over at Yahoo! Movies.

Based upon the 2003 Newbury Award-winning novel by Kate DiCamillo, the film follows the adventurous antics of Despereaux (voiced by Matthew Broderick), a mouse with large ears and - I'm just guessing here - an even bigger heart, as he bucks the status quo of cowardice that seems to have imprisoned his kind to a fearsome existence.

Besides being an animated tale of a brave rodent with a tongue-tricky title and thus fated to merit comparison to those which have recently set lofty standards for similar fare, this project genuinely looks and sounds pleasant enough for all its yay-for-being-yourself familiarity. Besides, there's only more hope to be had when we're looking at a voice cast that includes the likes of Broderick, Kevin Kline, Dustin Hoffman, Sigourney Weaver, Stanley Tucci, William H. Macy, and Tony Hale, not to mention a Harry Potter veteran or two.

With its eye on the year-end holiday season, The Tale of Despereaux is scheduled to hit theaters on December 19th.

I have to hand it to the wardrobe people for Steven Soderbergh's The Informant since it's not easy making a guy who normally looks like this look like such a schlump. The Bad and Ugly have posted some behind-the-scenes photos for the comedic thriller, and even though there is nothing earth shattering going on, they are definitely a step up from the other pics floating around out there.

The Informant is based on the true-life novel by Kurt Eichenwald. The story revolves around Mark Whitacre (Damon), a rising star at the agriculture conglomerate, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM). At the urging of his wife (who had threatened to go to the FBI), Whitacre spilled the beans to an agent that he had been involved in a price-fixing scam with other major corporations over the food additive, lysine. As if that wasn't enough of a story, it was later revealed that Whitacre (one of the most high profile, whistle-blowers in history) was suffering from Bipolar disorder and had defrauded millions from ADM.

For such serious subject matter, it came as a bit of a surprise when casting announcements first went out for the film and the list was chock-full of comedic actors (including Scott Bakula and Tony Hale). Soderbergh later confirmed that the film was going to be a "dark comedy", which makes sense because Damon is a pretty funny guy, and a great straight man. Soderbergh has just begun filming on location in Decatur, Illinois and there is no official release date, but The Informant is expected to arrive in theaters in 2009.

Last night I had a chance to attend a party at the very cool Delta Lounge located on Main Street here in Park City. Gen Art and Delta were celebrating their second annual short films competition by throwing a party and awarding one lucky filmmaker with ten grand and two round-trip international plane tickets. Not a bad deal if you ask me. The film that won, Ctrl Z (or Control Z), was pretty damn funny. Basically, the finalists are narrowed down to five and then passengers on Delta flights (as well as online visitors) vote for their favorites. Ctrl Z featured the ever-so-funny Tony Hale (of Arrested Development fame) who, while working in his cubicle, discovers that by clicking the Ctrl Z button on his keyboard he's able to go back in time. Things escalate to a very hilarious conclusion, and we congratulate writer-director Robert Kirbyson on his win.

The host for the evening was actress Cheryl Hines, who you might remember from Curb Your Enthusiasm or last year's Waitress. She's also in a film called The Grand, which I loved, and kind of geeked out on her over. According to Hines, The Grand will finally see the light of day this March (fingers crossed). The party was hoppin', the drinks were flowin', and yours truly had a badass time. Check out our gallery below for photos from this event.

Bites for your Thursday:

• Tony Hale hasn't gone anywhere, but I'm sure that I'm not the only one who misses his work as Buster Bluth on Arrested Development. Frankly, I miss all their work, although I'm still glad George Michael Cera has been unleashed into the world of film. Anyway, according to Variety, Hale has signed on to co-star with Jeremy Piven in his car salesman movie -- The Goods: The Don Ready Story. The film also boasts the likes of Ving Rhames and Kathryn Hahn. The film will slip into high gear this Monday in Los Angeles.
• He co-starred as Memnon in The Scorpion King, his name is floating around James Bond rumors, and now Steven Brand has found himself more presumably action-infused work. Variety reports that he's not only got himself a regular role on a television series (Samurai Girl), but he's also got a part as "Boyd" in Jada Pinkett Smith's upcoming film, The Human Contract. As IMDb describes it, the drama is about a businessman with a dark secret who gets caught up with a stranger who convinced him to dump his life for another lived with "reckless abandon." I wonder if the stranger wears a red suit, horns, and a tail, carries a pitchfork, and is small enough to sit on his shoulder as well...
• Ah, Alan Blumenfeld. To some, he's the good-natured rabbi from Gilmore Girls. To others, he's the super bad guy Molly didn't want to find on Heroes -- the man otherwise known as Parkman's dad. (Bit of trivia: He also played Greg Grunberg's dad on Felicity.) Now Variety reports that the actor has a part in Righteous Kill -- that 2008 action flick with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. Will he be a good guy, or a bad guy? I'm guessing on the latter, since the cast is already full of cops. We'll be able to find out some time in 2008.

Okay, first it seems that we have another name change for the upcoming Jimmy Fallon indie film, Rockett. When Erik first posted about the movie, it was Eliot Rockett, joining the SNL alum with super Razzie winner Sharon Stone. Then, it became Rocket when Tom Arnold, Lucy Liu and Ileana Douglas joined the cast. Either that was a typo, or the filmmakers decided to go back to the titles roots and it is now called Rockett. With the extra "t" comes two extra cast members -- Jordana Spiro and Tony Hale.

You might recognize Spiro from the TBS series My Boys, which she stars in, but I remember her as the kidnapped girl in the Buffy episode entitled Reptile Boy. She has been cast as Fallon's childhood sweetheart, who he reconnects with after he returns to his hometown. (While devoted to his work, Fallon's character can't commit in his personal life, and then returns home when his estranged father has a stroke.) Anyone want to bet that Fallon finds that he can commit to Spiro? Then, we have Mr. Hale, who I'm sure everyone remembers from his stint as Buster Bluth on Arrested Development. He will play Fallon's childhood best friend. So, now we've his childhood links as well as Stone as Fallon's mother, Arnold as his father, Liu as his girlfriend and Illeana as... I'm not sure, but her character is "Christine Jacobson." Fallon definitely has a a good cast around him, so maybe this will be more like Almost Famous for him, and less like Taxi.