Honestly, I can’t tell which way is up with some of the news coming out of the April Fool’s Day weekend. Does James Cameron want in on a Prometheus sequel? Is the Queen collaborating with 007 for the Olympics? Surely Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels aren’t seriously going to shoot the long-gestating sequel to 1994’s Dumb & Dumber this fall once the Farrelly brothers are done promoting April 13’s The Three Stooges , right ? Well, the first was an April Fool’s joke, and the jury’s still out on whether or not The Sun pranked the blogosphere with their James Bond exclusive. But Coming Soon’s Silas Lesnick pinky-swears that the Dumb & Dumber sequel story is true, straight from the Farrelly’s mouths this weekend at the Three Stooges junket. “We’re getting set to shoot Dumb and Dumber 2 in September,” said Peter Farrelly. “It’s the first sequel we’ve ever done and we’ve got Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels back.” According to Farrelly, he, brother Bobby, and star Daniels were already gung-ho about picking up again with Lloyd and Harry. (Farrelly also seems to discount the studio-made prequel Dumb & Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd , as we all should.) Once Carrey was onboard, the project started moving. “He had just watched Dumb and Dumber ,” explained Farrelly, “and he said, ‘This is the perfect sequel. Let’s do it.'” [ Coming Soon ]
The thing I love about the ramped-up new Rock of Ages trailer is how unapologetically it states what this movie is: A bombastic, cheeky, kitschy, bright-eyed and utterly slick tribute to the decadence of ’80s rock culture, based on the even slicker Broadway hit of the same name. Which of course you already know — but now, with Tom Cruise’s brief singing showcase and pretty much everyone else warbling adapted pop show tunes of their own, Warner Bros. and New Line’s cards are on the table. There can be no ambiguity: You are either in or you are out. In this era of equivocation and overlapping quadrants and being everything to everyone, it’s pretty ballsy when you think about it. That said, I am so, so, so out. Your mileage may vary, you tell me. Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
“The King of Twitter is now the King of Apple, as Two and a Half Men star Ashton Kutcher is attached to play Steve Jobs in the indie pic Jobs , which Joshua Michael Stern ( Swing Vote ) will direct from a script by Matt Whiteley. The film will chronicle Steve Jobs from wayward hippie to co-founder of Apple, where he became one of the most revered creative entrepreneurs of our time.” Not to be confused with the other movie about Steve Jobs, which is no doubt courting Jim Parsons as we speak. [ Variety ]
David Lynch has debuted the video for the title track of his album Crazy Clown Time , a thoroughly sick, depraved, tuneless, NSFW, barely watchable/listenable seven-minute romp through the filmmaker-cum-songwriter’s mental miasma. It’s the most literal-minded music video I’ve ever seen, which, with lines about pouring beer on people and lighting one’s hair aflame and running around the backyard, makes for some arresting imagery. As in, I almost can’t believe Lynch made this without getting arrested. Anyway. It’s no ” Firecracker ,” but what is? [via The Playlist ]
How do you come to the rescue of the millions of children who need someone — anyone — to do what they can’t: get their bullies off their backs? Director Lee Hirsch has sounded a call to action with his new documentary Bully , which exposes bullying from the front lines. Opening today, the film follows several kids and families struggling to stop the taunting and violence. Hirsch captures the frustration and helplessness among not only the victims but also their parents, who have lost trust in our modern school system. There’s Alex, 12, who seems convinced his bullies are his friends; Ja’Meya, 14, locked up after brandishing a gun on the bus where she faced her tormenters; and Kelby, 16, whose whole family retreated into isolation after she came out as a lesbian. Also profiled are the families of a teenager, Tyler, and an 11-year-old, Ty, whose bullying-related suicides devastated their communities and served as a wake-up call. If the film is taken to heart, it should be among the catalysts for changing the “kids will be kids” mentality among some educators and other authority figures. On a micro level, parents who participated in the film are speaking out in their communities and persuading kids to protect one another. Hirsch is working on getting his movie into schools, where it can have more influence. After a whiplash-inducing saga over its MPAA rating, initially an R for strong language, Bully will be released unrated in New York and Los Angeles before expanding to other cities on April 13. Hirsch spoke to Movieline about the movement that has grown out of his project, the newly famous Bully kids, and whether minors will go to the theater to see the film. When were you made aware of the rampant bullying going on in schools these days, and what led to your decision to make a documentary about it? The drive to make the documentary film is that I was bullied as a kid, so it’s very much a piece of my narrative. You know it’s bad, and I had talked about it over the years with people and sort of sensed that it’s a problem greater than my own. I didn’t really understand until we saw the extent to which people were affected by this, to the millionth. It’s funny you ask that because I feel like I dish out these statistics as if I’ve know them forever, but actually there was a process of discovering how big this really was. Then you start doing the math and thinking, if 13 million kids get bullied a year, and you start adding that up from generation to generation, there’s a lot of folks that have this narrative, that have a story, when it comes to bullying. So all those things came together when we started getting into it. Now it’s been three years that I’ve been working on this. It’s interesting you asked me that, I hadn’t thought about that. Did you have any problem getting kids or parents to participate in the film? No, not at all. We shot so many more stories than we were able to include in the final version of the film. We had people reaching out to us. We reached out to a lot of families. It was so different, because we filmed kids like Kelby, where they were outwardly looking for somebody to hear their story and share their outrage, and then Alex, who we very much stumbled upon while being allowed to film inside this school and see how adults and folks were handling certain situations. I wasn’t surprised by the willingness of people, because I remember that feeling of wishing someone would listen to me. I thought it was really brave of Ty’s friend to admit that he’d been a bully at one time. I wondered if you considered putting more kids in the film who shared that side of the story. I had. I think ultimately the narrative of this film is it tells the story of families that are on the victim side, and so you just settle into a world where you’re seeing what they see, as they see it and they deal with it. Ultimately it became less about, “what are the arguments on this side and that side, and what’s this position and that position,” or a full, drawn-out exploration of the psychology of bullying, but rather it became about telling five stories. We didn’t even know how many stories we were going to tell as we shot it. We were just looking to tell stories that allowed you to walk in the shoes of the kids and families who were dealing with this. Now that the Weinstein Company is releasing the film unrated, how do you imagine kids seeing the movie? Do you think they’ll be going to the theater or seeing it in school? We still have school districts reaching out to us every day. We’re in discussions for how to facilitate that. We have a goal of a million kids seeing the film. On their own and with groups. Within their schools and with organizations. Engaging on our website, bullyproject.com , and participating in the movement. We want to have real engagement. That’s the goal now. I think we want to be able to support viewers after they see the film with how they can be involved, how to make a difference. How to do anything from stand up and how to make that meaningful and supportive, to how parents navigate the school system when they’re advocating on behalf of their kids. I think that’s a long-winded answer to say that yes, I really do think that kids are going to come see this film. I think we owe a lot of that to Katy Butler for inspiring hundreds of thousands of teens to sign this petition , and it’s also thanks to so many of the celebrities who have spoken out for the film. It’s exciting. You’re talking to me the day before it opens. I can’t wait to see what happens. Have you seen any positive changes in schools since you started the project? In Alex’s school? In any school, or in any aspect of it, actually. Have you seen anything positive happen as a result of just making the film and building the website? I feel like, how do you measure half a million signatures and people sharing their stories? I think that’s impact. How do you measure the thousands of people that have written on our wall? People are supporting each other and writing to each other and building a community that feels like it’s turning into a movement. I feel that the film has already had impact in ways that I couldn’t have dreamed. I think that already the conversations are rich and deep that people are having about bullying at their schools, about what the climate and culture are like in their community. I think that those conversations are happening, and that’s change, that’s transformation. It’s very exciting. Do you have any plans to do follow-ups with the kids from your film? I don’t have time to do a follow-up film of any kind, but I am in touch with all of the families on a regular basis. Certainly Alex and his family, in particular, and we see them all the time, with Kelby and her family. They come to screenings. They’re doing press. Alex went and argued before the MPAA with Harvey Weinstein. These families are like my second family now. They mean the world to me, and it’s been awesome to get to spend a year with them. Other people are putting cameras in front of them, but it’s not me. I wonder if years down the road we’ll hear from them. I think there would always be an interest in hearing how they’re doing. The families are going to have to make a decision about whether they want this press to continue. For them, boy, this was unexpected, right? I had a sense that maybe we would do some press. It’s been extraordinary for me. I couldn’t have seen this, but for them, it’s been a confusing and extraordinary ride. We just give them as much support as we humanly can. I’ll always be in their lives, and I feel that in my film work I always develop strong bonds with the people that end up in my films, my subjects. It always matters that they see the film and that they’re part of the process and that that relationship stays strong. That comes through in the film. I’m so proud of them — in particular, because I see them so often, Kelby and Alex — because they’ve become advocates. People are writing me and saying, “Can you please send this to Alex? He’s my hero.” It’s incredible. It’s harder for the families that have lost kids. That’s … I … I think about them a lot because they have suffered such an ultimate loss. And they’ve embarked on a new path of advocating for kids and inspiring kids. They’ve been incredible advocates. I’ve seen that a lot with families of kids who have committed suicide that’s been linked to bullying. Can you imagine that sense of injustice that they feel? No. No, you can’t. I can’t either. They’re so engaged, and they’re such powerful advocates. I see many of these families doing such powerful work out in the world. Bully opens today in New York and Los Angeles, with additional cities to come on April 13. Read Stephanie Zacharek’s review here . [Photo: Getty Images]
The Tribeca Film Festival has announced The Avengers as the closing-night selection of its 11th annual event, where Joss Whedon’s summer superhero blockbuster will have its New York premiere on April 28 — and for a good cause, according to Marvel and fest organizers. “Honoring the spirit of the Tribeca Film Festival, the screening will allow the opportunity for Marvel’s The Avengers to celebrate everyday heroes from police agencies, fire departments, first responders and various branches of the U.S. military,” reads a statement just over the transom at ML HQ. “These local heroes will have an opportunity to attend the screening and meet the cast.” Marvel Studios’ producer Kevin Feige adds: “We all know and love our iconic Super Heroes, but when it really counts, it’s our real-life heroes who save the world every day by making it a better place for all of us.” Whedon, meanwhile, reacted with customary cheekiness: “Showing at Tribeca is both an honor and a double homecoming for me, who grew up in Manhattan, and for the movie, which wrapped production there. I’m thoroughly psyched to be closing the festival with our intimate little think-piece.” More to come at Movieline as Tribeca gets underway next month. Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
What’s the Film : Citizen Ruth (1996), available on DVD and Hulu Why it’s an Inessential Essential : The premise — one woman’s attempt to have an abortion turns into a national debate and bidding war — was a bold choice out of the gate for writer-director Alexander Payne. Citizen Ruth is his first feature film, and like his subsequent work, it has a biting wit, absurdities from every corner, and deeply flawed characters. Ruth (Laura Dern) is a dim-witted screw-up who is pregnant for the fifth time; her four offspring have been placed elsewhere because of her addiction to inhalants. When she is charged with a felony for huffing “patio sealant,” the judge coerces her to terminate the pregnancy. In jail, she meets anti-abortion crusaders who start a tug-of-war with pro-choice rivals over the unborn child, who becomes widely known as Baby Tanya after a clinic doctor manipulates Ruth into imagining keeping it. Tackling this tricky subject matter, Payne found an unreal story to tell, except that part of it was real. In the DVD commentary, he and co-writer Jim Taylor reveal that the plot was inspired by the true story of a woman who was offered money by anti-abortion and pro-choice camps to honor their respective wishes for her fetus. The parallels to reality don’t stop there. In one of Dern’s best unhinged moments, Ruth screams at two overzealous medical staffers at a clinic, who then pull out all the stops and force her to watch a video of abortion footage. That seems far-fetched, though maybe not in places like Arizona, where a lawmaker recently proposed a bill that would require women to watch an abortion before having one. The state representative, Terri Proud, calls her idea “(The) Reproductive Games.” Truth is catchier than fiction. Why We Recommend It Now : Released in 1996, Citizen Ruth resonates today, of course, because the issue of affordable health care has evolved into a fight over reproductive rights. Although Baby Tanya, were she real/alive, would be old enough to have a Sweet 16 party this year, not much has changed in the public discourse. Payne skewers the radicals on both sides, who are largely motivated by impressing their leaders — Tippi Hedren, for example, as a mother/god figure to the lunatic pro-choice activists. Their behavior is over the top, but their ideologies still echo. Among the points the movie makes so nicely is that extremists tend to lose sight of the real people and issues involved. When Sandra Fluke testified about hormonal birth control, the point she made — that the drug treats medical conditions — was lost once Rush Limbaugh piped in and turned Fluke into an abstraction and a “prostitute.” Ruth is unfit to be a mother, yet a contingent of crazies think she should take a stab at parenthood, aided by 15 grand, because somehow it’ll just all work out. There’s something to be said for laughing so we don’t cry, and Citizen Ruth allows us to do that. The DVD has few extras, but it does feature a revealing commentary track from Payne, Taylor, Dern and production designer Jane Ann Stewart. Explaining that the film doesn’t take sides, Stewart says her team strived to make both camps look a little foolish. Payne gets to the heart of the matter, saying, “Jane, you asked me, ‘Is nothing sacred?’ And it’s true. Everything is sacred, and nothing is sacred. Everyone is open for being examined as a human being.” Other Interesting Trivia : Payne says the film’s limited release was probably the reason he didn’t receive one threatening letter over it, though he was concerned about potential violence at the time from groups like the Army of God. Dern recalls a conversation with the women who ran Planned Parenthood in Texas, who called her to say how much they loved being mocked in the film. Also, let the end credits roll a couple minutes for a hint at Ruth’s fate. PREVIOUS INESSENTIAL ESSENTIALS The Last Temptation of Christ The Sitter
It has come to this for “unaccompanied” teenagers desperate to see the unrated Bully : “An AMC spokesman said it will indeed allow that, but only if the child presents a signed permission slip from a parent, either via a form letter made available by the theater or an improvised note on a standard piece of paper. The move is an apparent attempt to support the film — AMC executive Gerry Lopez has two teenagers and has been vocal about its importance — while still paying deference to the Motion Picture Assn. of America and its ratings system.” Related: Is Harvey Weinstein just recycling tricks from his Kids playbook ? [ LAT ]
This just in at ML HQ: Esteemed Mad Men creator and occasional director Matthew Weiner will make his feature filmmaking debut with You Are Here , to co-star Owen Wilson and Zach Galifianakis in a “funny, charming, and deeply honest film about who we were, who we are, and discovering the power to embrace life, no matter how much you screw it up.” There is also a road trip! And possibly Amy Poehler! Read on for full details from producer Gilbert Films. ========= LOS ANGELES, March 28 — Gilbert Films announced today that their next theatrical film project, YOU ARE HERE, will start production in May 2012 in North Carolina. The film, written and to be directed by Matthew Weiner (creator of Emmy and Golden Globe winning series MAD MEN, writer/executive producer of THE SOPRANOS) will star Owen Wilson (MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, WEDDING CRASHERS) and Zach Galifianakis (THE HANGOVER, DUE DATE). Discussions are underway for Amy Poehler (PARKS & RECREATION) to co-star. Weiner will be making his big screen debut after having directed numerous episodes of the award-winning MAD MEN through its five years of production. Gary Gilbert, Scott Hornbacher, and Jordan Horowitz will produce. Lionsgate is handling international sales. Local weatherman and freewheeling bachelor Steve Dallas (Wilson) and bi-polar man-child Ben (Galafinakis) are childhood best friends who embark on a road trip home after Ben discovers that his estranged father has passed away. Once there, Ben is shocked to learn that his eccentric father had big plans for him and he’s inherited a whole lot more than his father’s money. As Ben struggles with his new responsibilities, his friendship with Steve is tested by the complications of his inheritance, his sister Terry’s (Poehler) ambition, and Steve’s desire to be with his father’s beautiful young widow Angela. YOU ARE HERE is a funny, charming, and deeply honest film about who we were, who we are, and discovering the power to embrace life, no matter how much you screw it up. “This movie has been my passion for eight years and to see it come together with Owen and Zach and Amy is a dream come true,” said Weiner. “I can’t wait to get started because the movie is about everything I care about and I’m tired of reading it out loud to my friends.” Noted Gilbert: “We are thrilled to finally bring this project to the screen. Matt is one of the brightest creative minds in television, and we are confident that this project will solidify the same reputation for him in the world of narrative film.” ###
