Jennifer Aniston has joined the cast of a new comedy called She's Funny That Way from veteran director Peter Bogdanovich, Variety reports. This will be Bogdanovich's first film since 2001's The Cat's Meow. The story follows a Broadway producer (Owen Wilson) trying to turn a former prostitute into an actress. Aniston plays a therapist whose mother is in rehab for alcohol. The cast also includes Jason Schwartzman, Eugene Levy, Kathryn Hahn, Brie Larson, and Cybill Shepherd. Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbauch will serve as executive producers. She's Funny That Way's original title was Squirrel to the Nuts. They should change its name back to that in addition to changing [...]
After popping up in a diverse selection of movies in the 90s (Swingers, Jurassic Park 2, a Psycho remake), Vince Vaughn became a household name in the early 2000s when he began collaborating with a group of comedic actors that the media irritatingly dubbed “the Frat Pack.” (Don’t blame me, I wasn’t part of the media yet when that term was coined). This group, which also contained folks like Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller, and Owen Wilson, dominated the big-screen comedy industry in the pre-Apatow era, with Vaughn and his buddies constantly popping up in each other’s films. While this comedy clique doesn’t seem quite as tight as it was [...]
Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner has cast Zach Galifianakis and Owen Wilson to star in his upcoming dramedy film You Are Here, and Amy Poehler is potentially on board too. The movie's about a weatherman who's "forced to get his own life in order" when his best friend does the same, and while not set in a 60s advertising agency, it will likely inspire many hazy midday imaginings of Amy Poehler and Owen Wilson in gorgeous outfits making snappy remarks about how little they care for civil rights. I mean, Zach Galifianakis is already even Draping in this photo. Talk about MEANT TO BE.
Lost Roles is a weekly column exploring what might have been in TV and film comedy, taking a different comedian, writer, or work each week and examining the casting possibilities and career moves that almost came to be.
The late 80's were a stagnant era in comedy. Besides Letterman and SNL's Hartman-Carvey resurgence, there wasn't a whole lot happening. The Larry Sanders Show, Conan, Seinfeld, Bill Hicks, The State, Mr. Show, The Simpsons, and The Onion were right around the corner, but things were looking pretty dismal at the time. Death took John Belushi and Andy Kaufman from us, while ex-SNL’ers like Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd, and Chevy Chase, [...]
Here's the first trailer for The Hall Pass, the latest comedy from the Farrelly Brothers. They've never really reached back up to their peak of 90s grossout hits like There's Something About Mary, Dumb and Dumber and Kingpin, and I'm not sure this will be the movie to get them there. That being said, Jason Sudeikis can make up for a whole lot, and the rest of this cast looks pretty excellent as well. Especially JB Smoove and Richard Jenkins, who are finally in a movie together.
