Splitsider

Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant are stepping out of the screenwriting circle and into the directing triangle with horror comedy Hell Baby, starring Rob Corddry and Leslie Bibb as a young couple who have a…hell baby. Lennon and Garant will also star as "the Vatican's elite exorcism team" called in to defeat the demon seed.

Corddry and Lennon are always funny onscreen, but you have to admit that Lennon and Garant's screenwriting record (Night at the Museum, Night at the Museum 2, The Pacifier) may be focused more on making money than producing amazing movies. But maybe as directors, the pair will have more direct [...]

Just for the record, Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant understand that you loathed Herbie: Fully Loaded. They embrace that reality, they take it into themselves, and they release it back out into the universe before diving into a giant pool of gold doubloons ala Scrooge McDuck. Scott Wampler over at Collider interviewed the former members of The State about their new book Writing Movies For Fun and Profit: How We Made a Billion Dollars at The Box Office and You Can, Too!, and they have excellent advice for those among us who'd rather sell The Pacifier than starve to death in a Starbucks bathroom trying to sell our [...]

I am so charmed by Anna Faris in the What's Your Number? trailer that I will look past the egregiously unnecessary voice-over ("Is it possible….that I'm not going to topple over a balcony in this heinous bridesmaid's dress?"). As soon as you find out that Faris's Ally faked a terrible British accent for an entire relationship, all is forgiven. "I went full Borat," she laments. Desperate to keep her bone buddy count equal to or less than 20, Anna's charisma and promising dialogue is enough to enliven a plot based on the Victorian moral code and delicate sensibilities ascribed to all men in most rom-coms. Also, hello, whatever [...]

In order to raise money for the LA Food Bank this holiday season, the crews at Comedy Deathray and Funny or Die put together this touching update of "We Are the World," 25.75 years later. Featuring Kurt Russell, Sarah Silverman, Al Yankovic, Thomas Lennon, Paul Scheer and loads of others, it's a real star-studded affair.

Every year during TV's pilot season (it's happening right now!), each network develops three times as many shows as it actually needs, seeing what works and what doesn't before deciding which shows to pick up. While most of the rejected shows are turned down for a reason, every once in a while, TV networks let a show slip by that could have turned into something special. Let's take a look back at 10 TV series that networks passed up, including the shows that spun off Spinal Tap and Between Two Ferns, the community college comedy that's not Community, and a show that's been described as "Reno 911! in space."

Blackbook did a interview with the wonderful Thomas Lennon in advance of the release of Bad Teacher, in which he has a small role. He gives some advice to young writers and comedians looking to get their break, and it's very good. First, on being a full-time comedy writer: If you have to force yourself to find time to write, it’s not going to work out. If you don’t feel like writing, it’s never going to work out, I guarantee it. Hemingway did a lot of crazy shit. He was catching marlins, and punching people, and going to bull-fights. He still wrote like a motherfucker. So you should [...]

The Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant episode of Life After Film School is available on Hulu, along with many other excellent screenwriter interviews that will be eating your free time this weekend. The pair lays down some serious screenwriting wisdom in between reminiscing about costumes taken from Moulin Rouge, Teddy Roosevelt quotes and the eye patch Lennon wore after getting beaten "almost to death" while in film school. A few gems they share about their process includes:

Deadline reports that Ben Stiller will star in Rentaghost, a movie based on a British kids' show of the same name. It's also the children's show with the bleakest view of the afterlife. Russell Brand was originally set to star in the film as “Fred Mumford, a recently deceased loser who feels he can find work for ghosts whose lives were as failed as his." So it sounds like he's in hell, right? Running a spooky temp agency sure doesn't sound like Heaven.  In the new version penned by Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant, Stiller's starring role will instead be that of "an American turnaround consultant [...]

I mean, the cover alone! Not to mention these blurbs:

"These two guys are the reason Night at the Museum won so many Oscars" – Ben Stiller

"These guys are proof that with no training and little education, ANYONE can make it as a screenwriter." – Paul Rudd

"These guys probably ripped off everything in this book just like they do in all their screenplays. That would explain why it's actually kind of good." – Ed Helms

"Ben and Tom are a great fit for me. I love working with talented writers and then telling people everything was my idea. This is a great book, that I pitched to [...]

Tom Lennon and Robert Ben Garant, of The State and Reno 911! fame, have signed on to write The Wee McGinty, a movie that sounds absolutely absurd and amazing: The premise: the height-challenged wish-granter loses his memory, and settles in with a group of Chicago firefighters. That bliss is threatened when he is discovered by his paramilitary leprechaun brethren. Among the pyrotechnics: a wish-off that involves a fire-breathing Doberman.

OK! I'm on board, where can I buy tickets? In addition to writing the movie, Garant will direct and Lennon will play "a major supporting role."