It's going to be hard to follow Superbad, but as we've previously learned, Greg Mottola is going to give it a try. He's already working on his third film, Adventureland, which at least has that goofy-cool compound-word title thing going on, just like Superbad. Of course, this seems to be a theme that goes all the way back to Mottola's first feature, The Daytrippers, and so the similarity can't promise that the new movie will be anything like Superbad (not that The Daytrippers was bad; it just wasn't Superbad). Then again, if Mottola really wanted to ride the Superbad train he would have tried to get Adventureland made with Judd Apatow as producer, and he probably would have cast Michael Cera in the lead. Instead, according to The Hollywood Reporter, he's got Jesse Eisenberg (The Squid and the Whale), who also has a great awkwardly comic manner but is certainly underrated compared to Cera. Joining Eisenberg are two more people who had nothing to do with Superbad: Ryan Reynolds (Van Wilder) and Kristen Stewart (Panic Room).

Eisenberg will star as a college graduate who has to take a job working in an amusement park rather than go on a European vacation (he should have worked at Epcott, which could have been a compromise). Stewart is a tomboy (isn't she always?) co-worker who he falls for. Reynolds' role is a bit confusing. He's apparently an aspiring rock star (too old) who is, and I quote both The Hollywood Reporter and Variety here, "the icon of cool to all the kids working at the park." Does he also work there? Is he playing a concert there? Are all the kids working at the park really that uniform? I'm not sure. Mottola wrote the presumably autobiographical script (it's set in 1987, around the time he would have graduated from college) and The Door in the Floor's Ted Hope and Anne Carey are producing. Adventureland begins shooting next month in Pittsburgh (at Kennywood?).

I admit, you have to be a certain kind of person to fully enjoy and understand a Todd Solondz film. Personally, I became a fan of his after watching Happiness and saying to myself, "Holy crap, that was disturbing, yet oddly enjoyable." Most, if not all Solondz films deal with obsession, and he does a wonderful job of unearthing the inadequate emotions found in his characters.

Remember that scene in Happiness where Philip Seymour Hoffman was treating his body as if it were an amusement park? Or, in Storytelling, the, um, interesting scene between Selma Blair and her professor? Solondz is a master at making us feel uncomfortable. However, that's often why his films never get much press. Just recently, Solondz announced his next film which, for the time being, is called The New Todd Solondz Film. Partnering, once again, with producer Ted Hope (Happiness, Storytelling), Solondz admits his next film will serve as sort of a companion piece to Happiness and Welcome to the Dollhouse. He says, "Many of the characters from these movies unexpectedly beckoned to me, and so I have explored new ways of developing and enlarging their stories, with the intent to recast them from a fresh perspective." Seeing as those two films are my favorite of his by far, I'm certainly excited to see where he goes with this. You?