Screenhead

Good news, everyone!

If you read that in Professor Farnsworth’s voice, you have my sincerest apologies, but it really makes sense.  Seems that what you’ve heard about the Deadpool movie being DOA because Ryan Reynolds decided to jump Marvel / Disney ship and take on the Green Lantern role has been somewhat exaggerated.  Indeed, he WILL still be handling the ring and lantern, but he’ll ALSO be signing up for merc-with-a-mouth duties as Deadpool in the stand-alone that was greenlit not too long after the Wolverine movie cleaned everyone’s box office clock.

Included in the upcoming release will be “loads of killing” and a healthy dose of “breaking the fourth wall”, which is frankly awesome in its own way.  That and I think Ryan Reynolds really IS about the only person with that mix of action hero and comedy figure to handle the part–his George Lutz in the Amityville remake was almost as good as the original.

No word on release dates yet–this sucker’s still downright embryonic–but you can look for it to hit pretty soon, I’d say.

Variety sent me an announcement about an hour ago that Ryan Reynolds has landed the coveted role of Green Lantern, getting the starring role in Warner Bros.’ live-action film based on the DC Comics hero.

Martin Campbell will direct. The studio is still working out the budget, but production is expected to begin in January.

Ryan Reynolds is one lucky guy.

This announcement caps off one successful, star-shaping year for Reynolds, who played Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a performance that prompted Fox to begin development of a spinoff film. Reynolds followed that by starring opposite Sandra Bullock in the romantic comedy The Proposal, one of the top romantic comedies since 1999. The Proposal just passed the $100 million mark this week. 

Reynolds vied for the superhero role along with The Hangover star Bradley Cooper and Jared Leto. The excitement erected for Reynolds in the last week when it was established that he was the only actor whose option was extended.

Picking Reynolds was a smart move because Reynolds carries a mean six-pack, just take a look at Entertainment Weekly’s cover issue for July.

From The Hollywood Reporter comes word that Warner Bros. has shortlisted three stars for the role of the titular superhero in Green Lantern: Bradley Cooper, Ryan Reynolds and Justin Timberlake.

The trio beat out Michael Fassbender, Henry Cavill and Jared Leto for the final list; all of them performed two rounds of screen tests. Apparently, the producer Donald De Line, director Martin Campbell and the studio each have a favorite among the final three, which is why a consensus hasn’t been reached yet.

Even more interestingly, the holding deal on all three actors expired on Monday, meaning they are now free to hook up to other projects, so making a casting decision is an urgent matter for the project.

The film will follow Hal Jordan, a hot-shot Air Force pilot who is inducted into an intergalactic police force called the Green Lanterns. It is scheduled to begin production by the end of the year for release in summer 2011.

What happens if you take a movie that was actually fairly good, take out all the A-list talent, replace it with a bunch of half-baked leftovers and a soupcon of hot chicks, then add in some of the lowest-tier scatological humor to date?  What you should get, unquestionably, is a lousy movie.  But what you get, almost in spite of its truly horrific components, is actually a fairly good movie with plenty of comedy and just enough drama to make you think.

We’re back to Shenaniganz this time around, and they’re in a real mess.  A new restauarant, Ta-Ta’s Wing Shack has opened up across the street from them, and it’s doing horrible things to the numbers at Shenaniganz.  And yet, it’s doing horrible things to the people who work there too.  And as we spend a night with the crews of Shenaniganz and Ta-Ta’s Wing Shack, we discover that they’ve all got a lot of things to think about in their lives, even as their worlds coincide occasionally.

It’s hard to say, with a movie like this, just where exactly you should begin talking about it.  I mean, there’s every reason that you should just blow it off and forget it even exists.  They’re so desperate for people to watch this dreck that they’re willing to include a Hooters knockoff.  That’s really very desperate when you get right down to it.

They lost their big-name talent–Ryan Reynolds and Anna Faris are literally nowhere to be seen here.  Justin Long shows up for a good three minutes to take on the most bizarre role I’ve ever seen him play.   Meanwhile, they’ve kept all the dreck.  Oh, sure, I like Chi McBride and Luis Guzman as much as the next guy, but they aren’t exactly the kinds to hold up a movie.  Okay, maybe Chi McBride could if they’d just give him half a freaking chance but that’s neither here nor there.  I’d like it on record that I still do not find Andy Milonakis funny, despite the fact that he STILL looks like he’s twelve and yet he’s older THAN I AM.

But like I said–though the components here should have made this look like last week’s leftovers, it still manages to come off smelling like a rose.  The whole of the movie was actually worthwhile, with most of the jokes landing easily and pulling off their effect.  I loved when Chi McBride got in there and pulled that really great surprise twist on one of the waiters.  I liked how one of the Ta-Ta’s girls got this really great lecture from a stripper who had gone down virtually the same road that she was looking to go down, and yet she got entirely the wrong point.

And I’m still vaguely mystified by the whole “women love assholes” concept. Trust me, they’ll be harping on this all throughout the movie.

There are lessons to be learned here–perhaps the biggest is to never be too unpleasant with the people who handle your food, because there will be revenge and it will be highly unpleasant. Oh, and stick around past the credits, even if you have to fast forward through Andy Milonakis’ horrible rap song.  Trust me, it’s worth it.

Strangely, that’s all you can really say about Still Waiting.  It’s not the best dish on the menu, by far.  But it’s not really that unpleasant, either.  It’s probably a better rental than anything.

Ryan Reynolds  will take on a grittier role than he’s ever done before in his next film role where he stars in Buried. He plays a civilian contractor who’s kidnapped in Iraq, and then wakes up buried in a coffin in the desert, armed only with a cell phone, a candle and a knife.

Reynolds is going right into production this month in Barcelona.

Variety says that Reynolds chose to go the indie route as a way to stretch his acting ability in a movie with a claustrophobic premise, and one in which he holds the screen through most of the picture.

"Firelies In The Garden"

In ” Fireflies In The Garden”,  Academy Award-winning filmmaker Dennis Lee guides a major ensemble in this unforgettable family drama of reconciliation. Oscar-winner Julia Roberts is the focus of the story playing a badgered family matriarch who has put the needs and desires of her family, particularly her cold, demanding husband (Oscar-nominee Willem Dafoe), above her own. Roberts’ unexpected death brings her entire family together and sets off a series of flashbacks that reveal how the seeds of unhappiness were planted years earlier.

“Fireflies in the Garden” reveals that, while family is hard to live with, it is impossible to live without. Starring Julia Roberts, Willam DaFoe, Emily Watson, Ryan Reynolds and Hayden Panetierre. Currently showing the the UK but rumors say after a long wait, the movie will now be released to US audience on June 19, 2009 on a limited engagement.

I rather like this cover, very good looking guy, that Ryan Reynolds is, but would have preferred a whole body shot versus a three-quarter.  Click on EW’s cover and you’ll see a full body shot of Reynolds waving super-water guns.  You will also find out about his latest film with Sandra Bullock.

Reynolds presents his picks for favorite movie, TV show, band, and book – plus a great new idea for a musical.

 Must Movie:       Being There

Must TV Show:   Intervention

Must Band:       The Be Good Tanyas

Must Book:       The Tale of the Unknown Island, by Jose Saramago

Must Videogame: N/A “I don’t really play videogames,” he says.  “Is there a way to waste more f—ing time? The Internet’s enough.  The last videogame I played was Ms. Pacman.”

Must Website:   The Huffington Post

Must Gadget:    The Kindle

Must Scapegoat for the Moral Decline of Modern Society: Jon & Kate Plus Eight “I find that whole situation to be horrible and awful.  Every time I see the headlines, I begin an inner hurricane of throwing up.  I wanna see Jon & Kate Plus Eight, the Musical.  Jon versus Kate.  I wanna see four kids on one side, and four kids on the other, snapping menacingly to music as they walk toward one another.”

Out doing promotion work for The Proposal, which opens next Friday, Ryan Reynolds sat down with MTV to talk about his upcoming Wolverine spin-off movie Deadpool.

"I get to be the authentication police, in a weird way," he said, noting that the studio hopes to make an authentic movie and that they want to make it as close to the source material as possible. This is ironic, because the Wolverine Deadpool is anything but Deadpool.

Reynolds added that “Merc with the Mouth” will be back in all his glory, and that he will have the scarred-up face and the suit.

No release date for Deadpool has been set yet.

Despite universal hatred for the film incarnation of Deadpool, it seems that Hollywood is riding high on the cash cow franchise that is the X-Men, and is currently working on making a film starring Ryan Reynolds.

Thankfully, Deadpool’s film will be inspired by the comics version of the character, who is a talkative, annoying, naïve and amazingly awesome mercenary in the X-Men comics. Hitfix talked to Reynolds about the potential film, and here’s what he said:

“Well, I’m intimately involved with it. We’re just trying to break a story right now and figure out who the villain is going to be and all that stuff. But, it’s going to be just like the comic books. I’m gonna have a messed up face and you may see some flashbacks of Wade earlier in his life, but primarily what you see is what you get in the comics and that’s the goal. And there is no better place to draw material from then the comics which are incredible.”

Ryan Reynolds is attached to reprise Deadpool, the whipping, smart-cracking mercenary in X-Men Origins: Wolverine as a spinoff from the box office winner.  

Deadpool’s character is described as “the merc with a mouth.”  If you are one of the few people who didn’t’ see the film, Reynolds played the character that lived up to his description in Wolverine until the end, when the movie deviated from the comic book persona, imbuing him with several superpowers and sewing his mouth shut according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Of course, Reynolds would regain the ability to use his mouth again while the movie goes back to the roots of the character known for his slapstick tone and tendency to break the fourth wall.

Again if you saw the movie, you’d know that the Reynolds’ character was disfigured in Wolverine.  We can only speculate at this time how much the studio would want to deal with the looks of the character. Reynolds’ is a handsome dude, so let’s see his good-looking kisser producers.

Here is a little bit of behind-the-scenes scoop from the Reporter.  Apparently, producers had decided on a Deadpool spinoff early in Wolverine’s production, which is why Reynolds was cast for the part. The actor was brought back in the month before the movie’s release to shoot one of two “Easter egg” scenes that appeared after the end credits. The scene showed Deadpool alive, even though when last seen on the screen audiences saw him appear to be dead.

The magic of movies amazes me.