First, he gets a mainstream comic actor to act in a contemplative art house narrative with Punch-Drunk Love. Now, he's putting two of them on a stage. According to cigarettes and red vines, Paul Thomas Anderson has written and directed a play in Los Angeles with Saturday Night Live stars Maya Rudolph (Anderson's partner) and Fred Armisen. It premieres at the Largo on August 5, but specific details about plot remain unrevealed. Still, the prospects of seeing Anderson's eerily detached style in a live performance are intriguing, to say the least. As Slashfilm points out, the production has a few logical attachments to the filmmaker's past: Anderson directed a short film for SNL back in 2000, and Rudolph starred in Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion, which Anderson may or may not have ghost-directed in parts.

Now that Anderson has proven he can craft epic period pieces of the raunchy (Boogie Nights) and morose (There Will Be Blood) kind, he's reached a point where audiences will basically allow him to take them wherever he wants to go. The dynamics of the stage, however, differ greatly from those of the cinema. Since the name and subject matter are a mystery, there's a lot left to the imagination. Will Anderson allow Rudolph and Armisen to unleash their comic potential? Or is that a milkshake I hear brewing?

Just when it seemed like Al Gore couldn't reassert his international stature any further comes word that An Inconvenient Truth is getting turned into an opera. Seriously. Currently in planning stages for the 2011 season at Italy's Milan opera house, the new work will undoubtedly carry the same tone of global peril that the erstwhile vice president enforces in the film, although one imagines they'll probably do away with some of the dry Power Point material. It's not the most practical choice for an adaptation, that's for sure: The way it's assembled in the film, Gore's lecture manages to engage a diverse audience, while the guy comes off as assertive and witty, which makes you wonder what sort of president he would have made -- but that singular charm doesn't necessarily translate into the sort of theatrics demanded by a massive stage spectacle.

It's too early to get any sense for the final product, but for now, the conceit sounds like ridiculous fodder for a Saturday Night Live sketch, and it's hard to envision anything but a parody of the source (consider the infamous case of Jerry Springer: The Opera). Personally, I can see the revamped An Inconvenient Truth taking a cue from Wagner's Ring Cycle and setting the stage ablaze around the main character in a horrific look-what-might-happen finale as a team of green-friendly celebrities chant "Give us Gore" from stage left, their pathetic words drowned out by a deafening orchestral surge ... but maybe that's pushing it.

Amy Poehler certainly didn't look pregnant when she showed up for a chat at the Apple store in Soho last weekend (as part of a series of talks taking place during the Tribeca Film Festival), but in retrospect, the Baby Mama star had the sprightliness of a gal with a special secret. Along with moderator and Saturday Night Live co-star Fred Armisen, Poehler really worked the room, gently mocking the crowd ("I think all these guys are waiting to get into the Genius bar") while slipping in occasional hints that she actually has an authentic strategy behind her career.

"I would like to do more serious acting," she said, not mentioning her recent voiceover work for Hoodwinked 2: Hood vs. Evil. "I've been doing sketch comedy for a long time, and it'd be nice to turn the volume down a little bit and try other stuff. I have a secret desire to be on Law & Order, but I wish I could be on an old Law & Order, with Jerry Orbach." Armisen, somewhat facetiously, said he would never tire of comedy. "It's like eating to me," he claimed.

When I told a friend of mine that I was heading to a screening of Baby Mama, he immediately replied: "Oh, the Saturday Night Live movie?" Hmm -- well, sort of. The comedy -- which premiered at Tribeca and goes wide this weekend -- was produced by SNL honcho Lorne Michaels, and stars show veterans Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. On the other hand, it's not based on an SNL sketch, and doesn't feature any characters from the show.

Baby Mama's pre-release reputation as a "Saturday Night Live movie" probably isn't helpful: movies falling into that category don't have the best track record in the minds of people who pay attention. At the same time, the show has contributed a lot to the movies, mostly in its capacity as a breeding ground for comedic talent. This installment of Cinematical Seven collects films with an SNL connection that have actually been good, or in some way significant. I limited the pool to the last ten years; we all know that The Blues Brothers and Wayne's World are classics that started out as SNL sketches, but what has the show done for us lately?

An upwardly mobile career woman wants to have a baby -- but she's fertility-challenged; so she enlists the help of a surrogate, who's unexpectedly free-spirited, immature, quick to speak her mind and nothing at all like the aspiring mama-to-be.

Sound a little like ... Juno? Well, sort of, only sort of not, since Baby Mama was written and directed by veteran Saturday Night Live scribe Michael McCullers -- and, most importantly, stars former and current SNL regulars Tina Fey (as the career woman) and Amy Poehler (as the free-livin' surrogate). Expect more laughs, more physical comedy, less indie music -- and of course, a whole bushel of Fey and Poehler, two of the most gifted comic actors working today.

OK, so maybe the Juno reference was a stretch (it's Monday, cut me some slack). It's more like if Liz Lemon wanted to have a baby and hired ... well, any character Amy Poehler's ever played. It's Fey's first big-screen starring role, and we're eager to see what she does with it when Baby Mama opens on April 25.

Fey and Poehler have signed on to interview each other for Moviefone's Unscripted series, and we need your questions to make it happen. Please submit a question for either Tina Fey or Amy Poehler (or double your chances, and submit one for each!) by this Friday, April 11; then come back here on April 21 to see if your question made the cut. Don't forget to include your first name and the city and state where you live. Good luck.

In case you missed Saturday Night Live this past weekend, the hilarious Jonah Hill hosted ... and he co-starred with Andy Samberg and James Downey in the above digital short. SNL has gone through its problems over the past few years, but they seem to be kinda, sorta turning it around a bit -- especially when it comes to the digital shorts they air each week. Here, Jonah sits down for a chat with SNL star Andy Samberg to clue him in on a little news -- namely that he's been dating Andy's father. Hilarity (as well as a pretty nasty make-out session) ensues.

Additionally, since I'm a nice guy and all, you can head after the jump for another clip from the same episode -- one that features Jonah Hill as a pretty vocal six-year-old who's dining at the local Hibachi joint with his father (as played by Bill Heder). I enjoyed that one more than the digital short, but I'm a sucker for Jewish humor. Enjoy!

In case you haven't heard, Michael Cera hosted Saturday Night Live this past weekend. Of course, thanks to the writer's strike, the show couldn't be taped and broadcast into your homes. Instead, it was more of an improvised affair, taking place in the Upright Citizens Brigade theater rather than at Rockefeller Center. I wish I could have seen it; in fact, I wish someone had put some videos of the reportedly racy sketches on YouTube. Unfortunately, nobody did.

But while attempting to find a video of the event, I came across another video of Cera, from his performance in Steal this Movie. It's been a long time since I saw this Abbie Hoffman biopic, and I never noticed after Cera became famous that he was the kid in the movie playing Hoffman's son, America, at age 7-8. Looking at the scenes now, it's almost as though Cera was doing his usual deadpan tantrum schtick way back when. Look at how much he hates paper -- first crumpling up a letter, then throwing envelopes on the floor -- it's hilarious. Of course, in the context of the movie, he's not supposed to be funny. But with those ridiculous round glasses and those overalls, how could anybody have taken him seriously then, let alone now.

Legendary performer Robert Goulet died yesterday morning at the age of 73. Goulet was hospitalized last month in Las Vegas, where he was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a rare but rapidly progressive condition. The crooner passed away while awaiting a lung transplant at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He failed to meet the criteria for the transplant. His physician, Doctor David Kipper, says Goulet was surrounded by his family at the time of his death. Goulet's wife of 25 years, Vera, tells CNN he was in good spirits to the end, telling doctors "Just watch my vocal cords" right before they inserted a breathing tube.

Goulet gained international fame in 1960 playing Sir Lancelot in Broadway's Camelot, with Richard Burton and Julie Andrews. His popularity grew through Las Vegas concerts and performances on programs like The Ed Sullivan Show. Many in my generation know Goulet best for his tongue-in-cheek comedic performances. Goulet played a role in several of my favorite comedies -- he was Maxie Dean in Beetlejuice, pitch-perfect as the villainous Quentin Hapsburg in The Naked Gun 2 1/2, and had a hilarious guest bit in Scrooged. He was also the singing voice of Wheezy the Penguin in Toy Story 2, and sang at Bart's treehouse casino on an episode of The Simpsons. And of course, the guy became hip all over again when Will Ferrell started doing an insane Goulet impression on Saturday Night Live. In fact, this Goulet sketch -- "Red Ships of Spain" -- is responsible for the hardest laughter I have ever experienced.

He will be missed. Head over to Goulet's personal website for more information.

Like Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, you goofed around with your best friends in grade school; perhaps, like them, you even extended that goofball camaraderie into high school and university and beyond, as they did. It is, however, fairly certain that you and your friends -- unlike them -- did not parlay that lifelong tradition of laughter into a series of virally infectious internet shorts (released under the banner "The Lonely Island") that earned you jobs at a cultural-institution sketch comedy show and then into the star, director and co-star roles in a major-studio motion picture. But, sitting around a gleaming table at a San Francisco four-star hotel, Samberg, Schaffer and Taccone still give the impression they're goofing off and trying to make each other laugh instead of promoting a major motion picture -- and that easy sense of friends-and-fun is up on the screen in Hot Rod. Samberg stars as would-be stuntman Rod Kimble; Schaffer took the director's chair; Taccone plays Rod's younger stepbrother (and videographer) Kevin. The threesome spoke about stuntwork, getting beaten up by your idols, the unavailable-on-DVD '80s epic Rad -- and much more; Cinematical's questions are indicated.

Cinematical: Let's start by talking about those Saturday Night Live digital shorts -- what did you learn from those that you were able to apply to Hot Rod, and what working habits did you have from those that were no help whatsoever making Hot Rod?

Akiva Schaffer: Well, the first part's easier to answer than the second part ...

Andy Samberg: Oh, the second part's easier ...

Akiva Schaffer: Well, I'll take the first part and you take the second! This is gonna work out great! ... And what you just saw happen pretty much answers the first part, which is that -- and it kind of goes before even the shorts, (even the pre-SNL shorts), since we decided to move to Tinseltown , as we call it, and tried to make it. ...

Andy Samberg: We do NOT call it Tinseltown!

Akiva Schaffer: We do ...

Jorma Taccone: I just found out recently it's called 'Los Angeles.'

Andy Samberg: He would give the DMV his address and say 'Tinseltown, USA."

Akiva Schaffer: But, doing all those shorts, I was amazed how much on the set of a movie, once you realize what the 200 people around you are actually doing, and you know their names and you're not as intimidated by the buzzing around of the 200 people -- the wardrobe people are just worrying about wardrobe, the lighting people are just worrying about lights -- how much it would actually boil right back down to the three of us and a couple of friends. Once everything got quiet and it was time to actually shoot, there was really, actually, kind of no difference between doing a short and doing this thing in terms of (how) you're just trying to make the little scenes work. It gets very small right after it gets very big.

While surfing online this afternoon, I stumbled upon three pretty funny videos and wondered, "Gee, some of the readers over at Cinematical might enjoy these." Okay, I lied -- first I wondered whether or not I had any food in the fridge, and then came the videos. Check it out:

• Lots and lots of buzz is surrounding a few of the performances in Todd Field's Little Children, but did you ever wonder what the little children are saying about Little Children? Granted, the film itself is in no way targeted towards little children, but there is this comical teaser trailer over on YouTube called Little Sam's Promo for Little Children. Basically, it's just some kid telling us what the critics had to say about the film, but for some reason it made me laugh ... in that, "am I laughing because it's funny or because I'm really really bored" kind of way. [via MCN]
• We already brought you one fake Apocalypto trailer, in which its creator merged the Mel Gibson film with that Zach Braff film, The Last Kiss. Well, Saturday Night Live (God bless their little hearts for still trying to be funny after all these years) came up with their own fake trailer. And, although they're extremely late to the game with the anti-Jew jokes, it's still better than 94% of the crap that show shovels out each week. [via Hollywood Wiretap]
• It's not just audiences who are pissed about spending money on the recent horror flick Turistas, the people of Brazil (where the film was shot) are all up in arms over the nature of the pic and are afraid it will prevent people from visiting. Of course there's your standard boycott from one group, and Paris Filmes (the indie distributor releasing Turistas in Brazil) has already said they will show a text before each screening that claims Paris "is against anything that harms the image of Brazil." To further the protest, some folks got together to create this animated cartoon called Turistas 2, which reverses the roles and shows what happens when two Brazilian tourists visit America. As you can imagine, hilarity (and President Bush) ensues. (Note: Foul language included within) [via MCN]