Kind of proud of how dumb this graphic looks...
A couple of stars and producers got to talking over the weekend, and while individually there’s not much of note, it’s worth keeping you up to date on it all together.
• Speaking with Total Film, Jason Segel had a few things to say about the new Muppet film he’s behind, which used a tricky little trailer to announce itself to the world a few weeks ago (even if the surprise was immediately ruined in headlines and tweets by virtually every outlet online).
He mentioned that he was simultaneously excited and frightened when he got the gig, knowing that he’d be fulfilling a dream but required to live up to the hopes of all the other fans like him out there. More importantly he discussed the tone he’s worked to make the film to take…
“The big goal for me was just to do credit and justice to the legacy that Jim Henson and the rest of that family created… It harks back to the late ‘70s, early ‘80s. That’s the Muppets we grew up with and the ones that I loved. So I think to some extent the surprise will be how faithful it is to the tone of that original.”
• Jim Carrey is out on the trail for the execrable-looking Mr. Popper’s Penguins, and he was asked by Coming Soon about following up any of his old franchises. He had this to say…
“We’re talking about maybe returning to some old characters that everyone has been asking abou… There’s Bruce Almighty and we’re talking about maybe another Dumb and Dumber.”
Carrey likely has plenty of high-concept family comedy scripts sitting around, but it’s not unreasonable to think he might try and hook a new generation on the more retarded (and penguinless) side of his act with another Dumb and Dumber. I’d say it’s almost a certainty that he’ll eventually dip back into the God-market with a return to the Bruce character, which made an enormous amount of money (just under half-a-billion worldwide in 2003), and could certainly do so again with a less monumentally expensive sequel featuring the original star.
• Producer John Davis spoke with Collider about the Predator franchise, and he had no problem making sure we know that he’s still cashing big checks from it (he’s been involved with each film), even if the monsters need to “rest a bit” before returning to the big screen.
“Tom Rothman said this to me, “Man, they all seem to make money.” I get a big check every year on my net points off of the original Predator. You know how hard it is to get net points on a studio movie, right? It was hugely profitable. It far exceeded its revenue on DVD than in theaters by three or four times… I think in terms of right now, it needs to rest for a couple of years. I can’t see why if we can’t be clever we can’t reinvent it again.”
Well, I think they’ve still go to reinvent it the first time before they can do it again, but whatever he says. I remain baffled that anyone has retained love for Rodriguez’s slickly bland jump-start of the franchise, which featured virtually no new or interesting concepts propping up competent (and only competent) action. It’s not bad, but literally any moment you could spend watching Predators, you could just spend watching Predator and be better off. That’s the worst kind of remake/reboot/sequel from where I’m sitting. Regardless, it sounds like the creatures will be dormant for the time being, while the Alien franchise gets classed up a bit by default with Scott’s totally-not-a-prequel-guys Prometheus.
Check out the original interviews for more- but let us know if any of these films, franchises, or potential sequels interest or disgust you….
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