dax shepard Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Sometimes you really need to be careful what you wish for, or at least where you steal coins from. In February, Jessica posted about the new Disney romantic comedy When in Rome, which will star the electric detective Kristen Bell. She will play a real estate agent in New York City who heads to Rome for her sister's impulsive marriage. There, she picks coins out of a "fountain of love" to try to find the romance out of her reach, and when she heads home, she finds a lot of mens waiting for her. Now surprise, surprise, Variety reports that Jon Heder and Dax Shepard have signed on for roles.

Oh, yes -- they're both potential suitors for the lucky Bell. Heder will take on the role of a street magician who tries to win her love with his..."talents," and Shepard will play "a self-absorbed suitor who falls under the spell and chases the girl." I must say -- these weren't the sort of choices I was imagining. Perhaps instead of finding all the possible men she could date, Bell will get a serving of Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered. Where's Logan when you need him?

Oh wait! The Hollywood Reporter has more on the story, saying that Josh Duhamel and Anjelica Huston have also signed on. Bell has been saved -- they say that Josh will be the romantic lead. Huston, meanwhile, will be Bell's boss, who is the curator of the Guggenheim.

Still... I miss Veronica Mars.

Moviefone is hosting our first look at the new trailer for Baby Mama, starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Looking to capitalize on the very-hot-right-now pregnancy theme, Tina Fey plays a successful (yet still single) businesswoman who's having trouble getting pregnant on her own. When she learns how expensive a surrogates fee can be ($100,000), she begins to explore other options ... like allowing a sleazy-looking slacker (Poehler) to carry the baby for her. What follows appears to be a pretty cute buddy flick co-starring two of the funnier and more talented comedic actresses working today. I especially like the scene with Dax Shepard (who plays Poehler's husband/boyfriend), and I hope he shows up more than a few times throughout. Sigourney Weaver, Greg Kinnear, Maura Tierney and Romany Malco also star, while Michael McCullers (of Austin Powers fame) wrote and directs. Baby Mama will arrive in theaters this April 25, and you can check out the trailer above or head on over to Moviefone to watch it in glorious HD.

To be fair, Employee of the Month is not a bad movie. It's just not a very good one either. Pic, which takes place in a Costco-like store called Club Super, feels a lot like its setting; the cast, the jokes and the story all come in bulk with very little quality attached to them. Dane Cook (who's recently made the transition from world's most popular stand-up comedian to that dude who stars in mediocre films) plays Zack, a guy who still lives with his grandma, has no car and never aspired to be anything more than box boy at the local Club Super -- a job he's owned for years.

While Zack has perfected his underachiever status, Vince (Dax Shepard) is the complete opposite. As a cashier (known to have the fastest hands in the Southwest with a 9.1 pass-through rate), Vince has won employee of the month 17 times in a row. At the beginning of the film, the employees of Club Super are told that if Vince wins the prize for a 18th time (a new store record), he will be awarded with a brand new Chevy Malibu. Vince wants that Chevy. In his mind, he deserves that Chevy. Thus, his mission is set: win employee of the month one more time and all of his wildest dreams will come true. And things are great ... until she shows up.

Indie film Smother is getting underway with Liv Tyler, Dax Shepard and Diane Keaton signed to the flick. Inferno Distribution will finance and produce the pic with Jay Roach's Everyman Pictures. The script was penned by Tim Rasmussen and Vince Di Meglio, and is about a 30-something guy who is fired from his job just as his wife wants to have a baby and his overbearing mother moves in with them. Di Meglio will make his directorial debut with the film. The scribes have another project in IMDb listed as Untitled Rasmussen and Di Meglio Project, about a "Southern father meeting his three daughters ethnically diverse boyfriends for the first time at Thanksgiving." That project has been sold to Warner Bros and David Dobkin (Shanghai Knights, Wedding Crashers) attached to direct.

The Pleasure of Your Company, which premiered at Toronto, has been picked up by MGM for North American distribution. The romantic comedy, written and helmed by Michael Ian Black, stars Jason Biggs (American Pie) and Isla Fisher (Wedding Crashers, I Heart Huckabees). MGM also recently acquired Werner Herzog's Rescue Dawn, and is set to distrib The Weinstein Company's Bobby and Harsh Times.

Speaking of the Weinsteins, TWC has also pegged Tony Leondis to helm animated CG pic Igor, which will focus on a mad scientist's assistant. Script is being written by Chris McKenna. Leondis previously scribed other animated flicks including The Prince of Egypt and Home on the Range.

Three-time Oscar nominee Frank Darabont, currently listed on IMDb as writing and directing an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, has optioned rights to the book Rescue Me, He's Wearing a Moose Hat : and 40 Other Dates Over 50, a comedic memoir by Sherry Halperin about her misadventures reentering the dating world after being widowed at the age of 51. Halperin will co-produce on the project.

(Ed's note: All links to Variety and The Hollywood Reporter stories require a subscription to read the full piece, but you can get a free 14-day trial from Variety.)

The latest film from Mike Judge, Idiocracy, is not at all the unfunny flop that you might expect from its very limited release this weekend. I saw the film in a full theater in South Austin, with an audience that laughed frequently and appeared to be quite entertained by it. Afterwards, I watched Austin Movie Show gather people's reactions, and I didn't hear a single negative remark.

Idiocracy's plot, although slim and occasionally propped up by voice-over narration, holds up better than that of Judge's previous feature, Office Space. Military slacker Joe Bauers (Luke Wilson) and hooker Rita (Maya Rudolph) sign up for a top-secret experiment to be frozen in suspended animation for a year. Due to a mix-up with the officer in charge (whom I believe but can't confirm is one of the Bobs from Office Space), they aren't thawed out for 500 years. In the interim, the intelligence of American society has been decreasing -- we've become a nation of total nitwits who sit around watching TV shows like Ow! My Balls!, and movies consisting of a naked ass farting for two hours (called, appropriately enough, Ass). When it's discovered that Bauers has the highest IQ in the country, he's appointed to a Cabinet post and expected to solve, well, everything.

A few changes have been made to the release dates for some upcoming films. So, in case you're interested in that sort of thing (admit it, you're a release date nut!), stick around and check out the following:

• Those of you itching to catch Jessica Simpson ruin another movie with her horrible acting skills won't have to wait as long anymore seeing as the release date for Employee of the Month has been moved up from September 29 to September 15. The comedy (which currently sports some brand new posters) also stars Dane Cook and Dax Shepard.
• No one knows what's going on with the upcoming Pulse, except that the film has swapped more dates than Lindsay Lohan. Originally, pic was supposed to hit theaters on July 14, only to have its release pushed back to September 8. Now, it seems they've settled into August 8, though, with still a month to go, chances are this puppy will be heading somewhere else. We'll keep you posted.
• The supposed last martial arts-related film in Jet Li's career also has a new release date. Yeah, and Sean Connery is really retiring too. C'mon Jet, you'll be back kicking ass in no time -- just admit it already. Li's Fearless has been pushed back to September 22 after originally settling down to an early August bow.
• Man, and here I was really looking forward to a new werewolf flick. Seriously, I was. I like werewolves. They're cute. Anyway, something is up with the new flick Skinwalkers, as its release date has been pushed back from December to sometime in April 2007. Either production is running long or the filmmakers want to wait until the season's change and the sun stays out longer. Yeah, that joke failed. I'm out of here.

Odds and ends from Friday:

• Even though summer is right around the corner, it's never too early to talk Christmas films. Kristin Davis, Alia Shawkat and twins Sabrina and Kelly Aldridge have signed on to co-star in the family comedy, Deck the Halls (previously known as All Lit Up). Pic, which also stars Matthew Broderick and Danny Devito will tell of two neighbors who go to war over the excessive decorating of one's house for Christmas. As always, somewhere along the way, everyone discovers the true meaning behind December's electric bill.

• New Line has thrown Dax Shepard into the starring role of their corporate comedy, The Retreat, with Tom Brady set to direct. Story will center on a Chicago Cub's hotdog vendor who lands a corporate job and climbs to the top by utilizing his knowledge of selling franks. Yeah, I don't get it either. Anyway, after learning on a company retreat that he's being targeted by a disgruntled employee, Dax must do something about it ... or risk everything!

• When asked recently who his dream cast would be for Rush Hour 3, director Brett Ratner threw out the name of basketball player Yao Ming as someone he's extremely interested in. Why Yao? Well, Ratner wants to re-create the fight scene from the Bruce Lee film in which he fights Kareem Abdul-Jabbar ... but he wants to do it in reverse. Yeah, I don't get it either. Also on the Rush Hour dream team are Aishwarya Rai, Gong Li and Tony Jaa. Unless he throws Brad Pitt into the starting lineup, I can't see this group making it to the playoffs.