WaltBecker Tagged Articles at Cinematical

While attending a midnight showing of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra last week, we got a surprisingly diverse group of trailers attached to a movie that's based on a kid's property, but has no shortage of impaled skulls and throwing stars to the eye sockets (but it's bloodless, Prince Caspian-style, so it's okay!).

The one that got the biggest rise out of the audience was that of Old Dogs, from the director of Wild Hogs (get it?) and starring Robin Williams and John Travolta as swinging bachelors suddenly saddled with kids to care for and forced, one would gather, to learn new tricks (get it?). And lo, the audience did howl, and lo, I did slouch further and further into my seat. A kid is hit in the head by a ball! Williams loses depth perception after the brats mix up his meds! Seth Green is being cuddled by a gorilla that gets angry if he doesn't sing for it! John Travolta gets pecked in the head by aggravated penguins! Sweet Charlie Chaplin's ghost, that there's a knee-slapper!

I think Bernie Mac is a really funny guy (am I the only person who liked Head of State?), so it's always disappointing to see him under-utilized. This summer alone, he was on screen for maybe three minutes in Transformers, and I barely recall him speaking in Ocean's Thirteen. Mac's best work -- from his hilarious-simply-eating-an-orange performance in Bad Santa to his surprisingly effective dramatic turn in Pride -- makes me think the dude might have a few truly great performances ahead. I'm not so sure his latest film will prove my point, but his role in Old Dogs does sound like it could be pretty amusing. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Mac will play "Johnny Lunchbox -- the Elvis, Bono, and Beatles of children's entertainment all wrapped up into one super-charismatic puppeteer."

Mac joins an already pretty stacked supporting cast that includes Matt Dillon, Seth Green, and Mrs. Travolta -- Kelly Preston. In Old Dogs, which we told you about here and here, John Travolta and Robin Williams play "best friends and business partners whose lives are turned upside down when they find themselves taking care of seven year-old twins." Sigh. I can imagine the pitch meeting now -- "It's exactly like Three Men and a Baby..." (The studio executive's face lights up and he claps his hands together) "...but with only two men instead of three..." (studio executive frowns disapprovingly and stops clapping) "...but with two kids instead of one!" (Studio executive jumps to his feet, ecstatic, and asks if there will be poop jokes). "Baby, it's all poop jokes!" (Studio executive pulls a blank over-sized novelty check from behind his desk and hands it over).

Put Seth Green behind the camera (as a writer and/or a voice actor), and I absolutely love him. However, when I have to look at him in front of the camera, part of me wants to punch a part of him (with the exception of Airborne -- I love that movie). Perhaps it's just me, but there's something about Green as a live-action actor that irritates the hell out of me. But maybe he's just choosing the wrong roles (Without a Paddle? Rat Race? Josie and the Pussycats?). That being said, The Hollywood Reporter tells us that Green has joined the cast of Old Dogs -- another comedy about a couple of guys whose "lives turn upside down" when they're put in charge of 7 year-old twins. Oh, the comic potential just oozes from this sucker.

John Travolta and Robin Williams have already signed on to play the male babysitters, while Green will play "an executive with the global marketing firm run by Travolta and Williams' characters as they are closing a big deal with a Japanese conglomerate." HR adds: "He is eager to prepare for his move to Tokyo and show off his Harvard MBA and Japanese cultural skills." Wild Hogs director Walt Becker will helm, with Matt Dillon, Travolta's wife Kelly Preston and daughter Ella Bleu Travolta also starring. (I believe part of Travolta's deal stated that his entire family would get roles too.) Disney will shovel this one out at some point next year (based on the success of Wild Hogs, I'd say we should expect it to be a summer release), while plans are already in the works for a Wild Hogs sequel. Aside from Mr. Mom (which is one of my all-time favorite Michael Keaton roles), I've never been a fan of this concept. I mean, how many diaper-changing gags are there? However, Williams always has the ability to shine when he's given room, and so this film should definitely appeal to the mass audience. But will the critics like it? Something tells me no one gives a crap about what they think.

Disney definitely has old man, animal fever. We posted last month that the company was so confident about Walt Becker's Wild Hogs, that they were going to do a similar middle-aged romp, again with John Travolta, named Old Dogs. However, Erik's wish for the Smiths to join the Travoltas in the buddy comedy isn't going to happen. Will already has his own dueling dads film to shoot -- the upcoming Time Share. So, who do you get to team with Travolta? According to Variety, you look to funny man, Robin Williams. It makes sense. Not many actors are as goofy as Williams, and he loves his family films.

While Dogs will be similar to Hogs, Disney still wants more middle-aged men, and are also looking into a Hogs sequel (dizzy yet?). All of the cast are currently in talks to continue the story, and I sort of wish this is the film Williams was signing on for. I can totally see more motorcycle madness with Mork on the roster. In my alternate reality, the film would have a bit of a Grease 2 spoof -- while the old men are sitting on their Hogs at the local convenience store, a mysterious biker with extremely hairy arms bikes around, making all the ladies swoon with his special moves, while they ask: "Who's that guy?" Unfortunately, that's not going to happen.

But that's not all that's in store for Becker, because Disney can't get enough of him. They've also signed him for another film, once Dogs is finished -- an adaptation of his own adventure comedy novel that was published in 1998 -- Link. Where Hogs and Dogs are mid-aged craziness, Link is about a sort of Indiana Jones. However, the twist is that it has "an extraterrestrial origin for some of humanity's best and worst traits." Sound familiar? If this gets off the ground, would Travolta team up with Becker again? He's definitely got some experience with handling alien-derived emotions!

Following his better-than-expected success this past weekend with Wild Hogs, writer-director Walt Becker is the "it" man in Hollywood. And he's got plenty of projects in the pipeline to show for it, including a re-team with John Travolta called Old Dogs, which we told you about last week, and now the twin-rivalry comedy Runts, which he just set up at Dimension. The movie, being co-written by David Drew Gallagher, is about twin brothers who are complete opposites. As in one is a tall, muscular goody-goody with an Austrian accent and the other is a short, balding crook with a Jersey accent? Sounds original.

Sure, I'm being hard on the idea without hearing the entire pitch, but it's hard to take Becker seriously. He claims that he sees things in trailers, meaning his ideas are solely about what can be sold to an audience in a few minutes. On the other hand, Becker and Gallagher came up with the idea for Schooled, a project set to happen at Touchstone that the two pitched in 2005 (probably shocked that nobody had already thought of it.) Schooled sounds like your basic John Hughes comedy, yet it is seen through the eyes of and concentrates on the lives of the teachers. Here's hoping Ben Stein plays a nerdy teacher who tries to woo the popular hot teacher.

Wow, this is awesome. Usually we have to wait for a DVD release to be offered a meaningless (and generally entertainment-free) collection of movie bloopers, but the marketing team behind the motorcycle comedy Wild Hogs has decided to dole out those goodies extra early. Click right here to see if this material makes Wild Hogs look more appealing ... or less. (Still, it's a bit funnier than the trailer.)

Starring Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy, Wild Hogs comes from second-time director Walt Becker (after Van Wilder) and first-time screenwriter Brad Copeland -- a man who has penned a few episodes of Arrested Development and My Name is Earl and must therefore have some talent. Plus the flick seems to have a Ray Liotta cameo, and really, doesn't every movie need a Ray Liotta cameo? The Disney comedy opens on March 2.

If the idea of seeing John Travolta, Martin Lawrence, Tim Allen and William H. Macy do the following things sounds appealing to you, then by all means you should click right -->HERE<-- and watch the all-new trailer for Wild Hogs. Ready for the list? OK...

• Scream at children
• Search for internet porn in a crowded coffee house
• Get hit in the crotch with softballs
• Fall off motorcycles
• Get hit in the neck with birds
• Blow up a bar
• Get hit in the butt by a bull
• Spoon in bed together

Now, far be it for me to judge a movie I've not seen, but I'd be willing to bet my Criterion Edition Brazil DVD that I just described the very best jokes to be found in the whole of Wild Hogs. Aside from the intriguingly odd foursome, there's nothing about this comedy that looks even remotely fresh or appealing. (Plus, the trailer has the one little "wistful" moment, which means the fart jokes and pratfalls will, somewhere around the end of Act II, give way to some really mawkish sentimental crap ... and I've got no patience for pap like that.)

The screenplay comes from first-timer Brad Copeland; the director is Walt Becker, last seen cinematically as the man who helmed Van Wilder. (Yes, it's taken Becker four years to rediscover his muse.) In addition to the four aforementioned knuckleheads, Wild Hogs also promises bit parts from cool folks like Ray Liotta, Marisa Tomei, John C. McGinley and Stephen Tobolowsky. The "City Slickers meets Masters of Menace "opens on March 2.

Wait ... Tobolowsky's in it? Sold!