I know that studio attempts at "viral" internet marketing are a dime a dozen these days, but you should watch this. It's funny.

Swing Vote, due August 1st, presents the wildly improbable scenario that a United States presidential election comes down to one politically apathetic New Mexican's choice, leading the candidates -- an incumbent Republican played by Kelsey Grammer and a Democratic challenger played by Dennis Hopper -- to converge on his tiny hometown and court like they've never courted before. The obvious marketing hook: a campaign ad! Actually four of them, two by each candidate, all targeting Kevin Costner's Bud Johnson. My favorite one is above; the rest are here and here.

I like these because they're done with some nuance; I particularly enjoyed the parodies of real-life candidates' disingenuous tendency to "swing to the middle," decimating whatever convictions they previously claimed to hold to pander to "moderate" swing voters. The folks behind these videos take that to its absurd conclusion, of course, with the Republican uncomfortably embracing gay marriage and the Democrat haranguing his opponent about not being pro-life enough. The latter's the video I've embedded at the top of the post -- it cracked me up.

[hat tip: Cinema Blend]

Cinematical has just received a whole bunch of new images from the upcoming film Swing Vote, starring Kevin Costner, Kelsey Grammer, Dennis Hopper and Paula Patton. I'm loving the concept behind this one -- imagine if an entire presidential election somehow came down to one vote ... and it was yours. That's exactly what happened to Bud Johnson (Kevin Costner), a simple man living a simple life -- and Swing Vote follows Bud, as well as his 12-year-old daughter, when they're suddenly thrust into the national spotlight.

Grammer and Hopper play both presidential candidates, while Nathan Lane and Stanley Tucci chime in as their campaign managers. Additionally, a whole mess of real-life personalities will pop up -- like Larry King, Bill Maher, Arianna Huffington, Tucker Carlson and more. With the country stressing out over our current presidential election, it'll be nice to take in a sweet comedy that pokes fun at this ridiculous process and the even more ridiculous people who take part in it. Can't we just elect an average guy ... like Bud?

Check out the gallery below for a slew of brand new pics from the film. Swing Vote arrives in theaters on August 1.

Any good performance is made up of myriad subtle nuances that go into turning an actor into his or her character. There's only so much costuming and makeup can do though -- certain roles just require a particular accent to make it work. Some actors are known for their uncanny ability to pick up and drop accents at will. If you are Meryl Streep, for instance, sometimes you go and learn a whole new language just to make sure you get it right. Occasionally actors take the plunge and decide to do an accent to just show off their acting chops, or to prove that they are serious artists and not just, "movie stars." Others take on a role that requires an accent, and then just seem to hope we'll overlook how badly they mangle it. The unfortunate actors on this list may have aimed high (or not), but they all missed the mark. And in some cases, they almost managed to take out the entire film solely with their bad accents.

1. Kevin Costner - Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

No list of bad accents would be complete without the granddaddy of all bad performances; Kevin Costner as Robin of Locksley. This 1991 stinker cast the corn-fed Costner as a British Lord with a penchant for thievery and social justice. But in spite of Costner's revolving door of accents, the film still went down as one of the biggest box-office hits of 1991, second only to Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Costner has also conceded that he never really had the time to work on a real accent (You don't say? We'd never have guessed ...). With a budget of $48,000,000, you would have thought they could have spared a few bucks for a dialect coach. But perhaps worst of all is that this film is responsible for unleashing Bryan Adam's unholy power ballad "Everything I Do" on the world and ruining wedding receptions forevermore.

2. Val Kilmer - Alexander

Now I know what you are going to say, how could I overlook Angelina Jolie and her laughable 'Gypsy-Russian' hybrid? But Kilmer as the one-eyed King Phillip gives Jolie a run for her money in the laughable accent department with his Leprechaun-inspired Irish/Welsh brogue. Director Oliver Stone has plenty to answer for when it comes to his epic drama. The wig selection alone deserves some serious mea culpas. But, this is a list about accents after all, so we go straight to Stone's decision to hide Colin Farrell's natural Irish accent by surrounding him with what sounds like a chorus of Lucky Charms spokespeople. Jolie might have been over the top, and writhing with snakes, but Kilmer still stands out as a bad accent and a horrible stylistic choice all rolled into one.

All the way back in July of 2006, Cinematical first mentioned the romantic comedy How I Met My Boyfriend's Dead Fiancee, which has since become the briefer, easier-to-say Over Her Dead Body. Starring Eva Longoria, the flick is about a female psychic (Lake Bell) who falls for a skeptic (Paul Rudd), and then has to deal with his dead ex-fiance (Longoria) -- a pissy ghost who doesn't want them getting together. (Yes, this is very similar to Ghost Town, which I told you about the other day.) The romcom was written by John Tucker Must Die scribe Jeff Lowell, and is the writer's directorial debut.

Now Variety reports that the comedy has been picked up by New Line, and we'll get to see it on February 1st. I'm pretty psyched -- while Rudd gets a lot of roles these days, they're almost always in that darned supporting realm. He pops on, throws out some highly-quotable lines, whips up some memorable moments, and then backs away while the stars take over. Hopefully this will be a notable lead for him, or the gateway to more leading work. Isn't it about time? He's come a long way since Overnight Delivery, so it's time he gets some love!

But that's not all New Line has picked up. The company has also nabbed Kevin Costner and Ivana Banquero's The New Daughter. However, that hasn't even begun production yet, so we won't be seeing it for a while.

This is one of those bits of news that I believe to be premature: a sequel to Dances with Wolves is being produced, titled The Holy Road. Based on the novel by Dances author/screenwriter Michael Blake (who is again adapting his own work here), the movie will focus on Lt. John Dunbar, aka Dances with Wolves, and family 11 years after the original story takes place. Interesting announcement, but the reason it's too soon to report is that we can't appropriately care about the project without mention of Kevin Costner. Variety somehow avoids even naming the actor-director, who won Best Director and Best Picture Oscars for the first movie. Never mind that The Holy Road replaces Costner as director -- that should have been a point to address at least -- but there's not even a comment about how the production would love to cast the guy in the role. This could simply be a sore subject, or simply an attempt to distance this project from the original, especially considering Variety mentions Comanche, the Native American tribe portrayed in Blake's novels, rather than Sioux-Lakota, which are represented in the 1990 movie. Aside from Blake, it doesn't appear that anyone involved the first time around is back for the sequel.

Costner's replacement at the helm is Simon Wincer, director of the McMurty miniseries Lonesome Dove and its prequel, Comanche Moon, which hits your television at the end of the year. He also did other TV westerns, including the recent Spielberg-produced Into the West and the L'Amour adaptation Crossfire Trail, as well as the Australian western Quigley Down Under. So, he certainly knows the genre. But none of that really matters to The Holy Road if Costner isn't Dunbar/Dances. And of course, Mary McDonnell needs to reprise her role as Stands With a Fist, who is still married to Dances and has three children with him. The main plot of The Holy Road follows her being kidnapped, along with her youngest, by white rangers. Hopefully we get to watch Costner as the husband who runs to her rescue, and not some poor substitute. By the look of things, though, I'd say we'll have to settle for a double replacement.

After exploring Pan's Labyrinth, Ivana Baquero decided to sign on for her first English-speaking role back in April, another thriller called The New Daughter. The project comes from a short story by John Connolly, and it was adapted by John Travis. Now, months later, they've got a director, Luiso Berdejo, and they've finally found her pops. It's... Kevin Costner? He's going to play a dude named John James -- "a single father who moves to a farm with his two kids after a painful divorce. Soon, his daughter (Baquero) starts behaving ominously, and Dad begins to suspect that the burial mound in a nearby field might have something to do with it." Pet Sematary and The Exorcist... For little children!

Anyhow, I know that Baquero is talented; does this talent also already include pitch-perfect accents? Or did they live overseas until the divorce? Or maybe she was adopted right before the parental split and got the short end of the stick -- what with new families, divorce, and then some sort of demon possession. Costner is just about the last person I ever imagined for the role of Ivana's dad. Unless he is the one who needs a new accent. I don't know. Whatever the case, it should be interesting. The Upside of Anger is probably my favorite Costner role, at least, it's the first one I really liked him in, so I can only imagine what Baquero can bring out in him. Production is slated to begin next year.

The biggest story surrounding the midsummer release of the odd and messy but ultimately satisfying thriller Mr. Brooks centered around Kevin Costner's resurgence and willingness to play a killer (though personally I'm more impressed he's managed to resist playing another baseball player now for two years and counting). But Earl Brooks, the wealthy business owner and Portland "Man of the Year" honoree who dabbles in homicide on the side, isn't cut from the same cold-blooded vein as Patrick Bateman or Mickey or Mallory. He's constantly at odds with himself, and is largely let off the hook by the presence of his bloodthirsty alter-ego/invisible friend Marshall, who takes the shape of an aging William Hurt. The poor guy's got a devil on one shoulder but no angel on the other. To that effect, Mr. Brooks feels far less festive than American Psycho or Natural Born Killers, and is in some ways more surprising, even if Costner didn't do the film's suspense any favors when he spoke pre-release about making multiple Brooks movies (perhaps Mr. and Mrs. Brooks is next?). The film has plenty of other "lovable mess" qualities to it. It's overplotted: whereas Dane Cook's wannabe-slayer Mr. Smith is a necessity, a separate storyline involving an escaped convict is pure overkill. It's campy: Brooks has a secret lair, for one. And something about Demi Moore playing a multimillionaire who daylights as a cop screams bad Verhoeven. The film also inexplicably morphs into a John Woo movie for one bizarre action sequence. That all said, there's not a single dull moment to it.

Bonus Points: There's endless joy time for the serial killer enthusiast here: This disc comes with deleted scenes, commentary from director Bruce A. Evans his co-writer Raynold Gideon, and featurettes called The Birth of a Serial Killer: A Look at the Writing of Mr. Brooks, On the Set of Mr. Brooks, and Murder On Their Minds: Mr. Brooks, Marshall & Mr. Smith.

Other New DVD Releases This Week (Oct. 23)
Meet the Robinsons
Hostel: Part II
Fido
Home of the Brave
Into Great Silence
Nearing Grace
Saw III: Director's Cut
A Clockwork Orange: Special Edition
O Lucky Man: Special Edition
Hostel: Director's Cut
Wild Style: Anniversary Edition

Well he might not have his Capone yet, but Brian DePalma is still determined to bring his Untouchables prequel to the big screen. MTV Movies Blog reports that DePalma will likely make The Untouchables: Capone Rising his next film. DePalma tells MTV that they still have not cast their Capone (played by Robert De Niro in the original film), but that he was looking for an actor with "...that street animal sexuality" -- and this just might be me, but Nicolas Cage is not the first person to come to mind with that particular description (although, I guess it doesn't matter now). Gerard Butler (300) is attached to play Jimmy Malone -- a role made famous by Sean Connery (I can still picture the overacting 20 years later... "You wanna know how to get Capone? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. *That's* the *Chicago* way"). But, it did get the man his only Oscar, so you can never tell.

DePalma told MTV that the story will focus on "[Jimmy Malone]'s relationship with Capone during Capone's rise". News of a prequel first emerged around this time last year; so here we are a year later, and not all that much has been accomplished. DePalma did make assurances that the film would be keeping as much of the original feel of the 1987 flick as possible, saying, "I would like to use a lot of the original music from 'The Untouchables,' (which means the amazing score from Ennio Morricone will return) and the original locations in Chicago." I wonder if that will include giving the cast some snazzy costumes from Armani again. Until DePalma finds his Capone, though, he probably won't be 'rising' anytime soon.

Disney might be the last studio I'd trust to get behind a political comedy, but Disney's Touchstone Pictures has picked up distribution rights for Swing Vote, an indie starring Kevin Costner that began filming last month. In the movie, Costner plays a single father whose vote will determine the outcome of a Presidential election. Disney chairman Dick Cook likens the film to a Capra classic, which hopefully doesn't mean it will be as bad as Disney/Hollywood's Mr. Smith sorta-remake, The Distinguished Gentleman.

As the candidates, Dennis Hopper is the Democrat contender and Kelsey Grammar is the Republican (in my imagination: Frank Booth vs. Sideshow Bob -- who would be the better Prez?). As reported previously, the cast also includes Stanley Tucci, Nathan Lane, George Lopez and little Madeline Carroll. Variety now adds Judge Reinhold (hopefully as a Supreme Justice -- "Mr. Reinhold's Courtroom"!), former Brat Packer Mare Winningham, NASCAR racer Richard Petty (as himself) and Willie Nelson (returning to political comedy after his great cameo in Wag the Dog). The IMDb also lists Deja Vu's Paula Patton in a major role.

You may remember that Disney refused to distribute Fahrenheit 9/11 due to its politics. Sure, Swing Vote is likely very far from being so specific in its attacks or its comedy -- it may not even be meant as a relevant or biting satire -- but I'm still surprised the studio would want to touch anything political. Costner, who is co-producing and financing Swing Vote, considers himself a conservative, so maybe the movie is closer to Disney's interests. But then again, CelebPolitics.com rates the actor as "somewhat liberal" and he's reportedly been voting for Democrats since the mid-90s (he's registered as Independent). I guess real politics don't need to come into play with a comedy like Swing Vote and I'm simply letting my mind wander with regards to all this information. The movie, which is scheduled for release next year (in time for the 2008 elections, perhaps?) was co-written by Jason Richman (Joel Schumacher's terrible Bad Company) and Joshua Michael Stern, who is directing.

OK, so it's a pretty slow news day, but I think one of the cool things we movie bloggers do is shine a light on titles that might have been underrated, overlooked and plain old dismissed. Bruce Evans' Mr. Brooks didn't blow many doors down at the multiplexes ($33 million worldwide gross) -- nor did it wow the critics all that much (56% positive at Rotten Tomatoes) -- but I dug it. Maybe it's just the novelty of seeing Kevin Costner, Dane Cook and William Hurt in the same movie ... or maybe it was the collective presence of Demi Moore, Reiko Aylesworth, Danielle Panabaker and (rowr!) Marg Helgenberger that kept me enraptured.

All I know is that (aside from one really nagging complaint) I really liked the movie. In it, Costner plays a seemingly normal upper-class family man -- but inside his brain lives a psychotic who looks a lot like William Hurt. And together they do very terrible things. You'll rent it, you'll like it. Thank me later. Demi Moore plays a millionaire police detective. You'll have a ball.

According to DVDActive.com, Mr. Brooks will hit DVD on October 23 courtesy of MGM Home Video, and the disc will come packing a few solid goodies: Evans and longtime collaborator Raynold Gideon will provide an audio commentary (together the duo penned the beautiful Starman, the lovable Stand By Me ... and ... Cutthroat Island), several deleted scenes (with optional commentary), three featurettes and the theatrical trailer. (And hopefully an alternate ending that doesn't ... never mind. Forget I said anything.) Lastly, what's up with that lame-ass DVD cover? I thought the theatrical poster was pretty damn cool.