What About Jim?

Fresh off the lowest point of his career since his Rubberface days, Jim Carrey is poised for a massive late-career comedic breakthrough. He's back on board for the on-and-off Ripley's Believe it or Not, he's joining Steve Carell, Amy Poehler, Will Arnett, Seth Rogen, Isla Fisher, and Jonah Hill voicing Horton Hears a Who, and most exciting of all, he's now attached to star in a new script from Upright Citizen Ian Roberts and writing partner Jay Martel, and surprise, it sounds pretty effin' funny. Me Time would star Carrey as a writer working on a biography for his great-great-grandmother, whose tough-as-nails frontier lifestyle makes him take a hard look at his less-than-masculine lifestyle. The spec script has been picked up by Fox, which doesn't necessarily mean anything, but Carrey's involvement should be enough to propel it into it theaters.

Roberts and Martel have been keeping insanely busy, seemingly sending spec scripts to every studio in America, including Dad Can't Lose for Will Arnett, Worst Friends, and Air Guitar. So far, they've had lots of pick-ups, but there's been no solid production news.

Meanwhile, the second season of Upright Citizens Brigade is finally on its way to stores, and Roberts will join Amy Poehler, Matt Besser, and Matt Walsh at their LA theater this Saturday to record a live commentary for two of the episodes.

LINK

Mystery Science Theater 3000 Returns!...Sort Of

Satellite News, possibly the most active news site ever built around a cancelled series, has arguably the biggest MST3K scoop since its cancellation. Kevin Murphy (Tom Servo), Bill Corbett (post-Comedy Central Crow), and Mike Nelson (uh...Mike Nelson) will release the first in a series of new DVDs on July 10. The Film Crew series will follow three men who are forced to record a commentary track for every movie ever made, thanks to their slave-driver boss Bob Honcho, who keeps their noses to the grindstone in a deep, dark basement while he tracks their progress via speakerphone. Sound ridiculously familiar? Of course it does. Does anyone care? Not really. The Shout! Factory, the wonderful independent DVD archivists responsible for bringing SCTV, Home Movies, and the upcoming Upright Citizens Brigade live discs to the masses, will first drop 1968's Hollywood After Dark on the aforementioned release date, followed later this year by Killers from Space, Giant of Marathon, and The Wild Women of Wongo.

The Film Crew got started recording commentaries for obscure Three Stooges releases in order to increase fan interest, and Mike has spent the last year or so steadily recording MP3-downloadable commentaries for all sort of new and classic films at Rifftrax. Corbett recently sold his script for the major Eddie Murphy vehicle Starship Dave. Volume 11 in Rhino's long-running and messy attempt to release Mystery Science on DVD will hit stores on June 26.

UPDATED: torgosPizza informed us that the Film Crew discs are actually three years old, and are hold-overs from an aborted project with Rhino. All future riffage will be under the Rifftrax umbrella. Thanks Torgo!

Ricky Ghostvais and Ghost Kinnear

Greg Kinnear will grab a familiar plotline from his frequent screen partner Bruce Willis when he plays a dentist who sees dead people in DreamWorks' romantic comedy (?) Ghost Town. Ricky Gervais is also attached to star in an unknown role. Superhero scribe David Koepp, who wrote the screenplay with his Zathura collaborator John Kamps, will also direct, his first trip back to the chair since 2004's abysmal Secret Window.

Gervais recently announced the end of Extras, and appeared with Stephen Merchant and a half-dozen surprise guests in a new spot for the UK's Red Nose Day.

Koepp recently, uh, wrote a draft of the most anticipated fourquel of all time.

Slow News Day: The Onion Gets Bigger, the Networks Go Small

ITEM: The funny-news vets at The Onion have given up on their long-struggling motion picture (they're "no longer associated with that project"), but that hasn't kept them from going live. New streaming segments are continuously added throughout the day, so start tuning in.

ITEM: Chris Kattan has signed on to host a game show in his head. No, wait...it's a real life show on CBS called Game Show in My Head.

ITEM: Jennifer Coolidge, best known for stealing scenes in Chris Guest movies, and for being the original MILF, has signed on to ABC's Family of the Year, which also features Alan Ruck, best known for accidentally breaking his overbearing father's Ferrari.

ITEM: Rob Huebel will play a con man in NBC's new comedy Zip, which hopefully won't distract him much from the fucking-hilarious-looking The Human Giant show for MTV.

Slow News Day: Zombies, Ninjas, Aliens, Yada Yada Yada

ITEM: The fine folks at Toonzone report that Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro-Am will hit PS2s this fall. Not much else is known, except that it involves Master Shake and Meatwad wreaking havoc on Frylock's distinguished golf course, and that it will be a character-packed racing game akin to Mario Kart.

ITEM: Ed Helms will play one of the tiny alien commanders who overtake Eddie Murphy's body in the upcoming Starship Dave. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Banks will play Murphy's human love interest. You should probably hedge your bets on this one since it's coming from the infamously obnoxious Norbit director Brian Robbins, but keep in mind that Mystery Science Theater 3000 vet Bill Corbett wrote the script.

ITEM: TV Shows on DVD is "99% sure" that the eighth season of Seinfeld will be released on June 5. It's the first season without Larry David, but don't let that stop you; it features man hands, yada yada, Kenny Rogers' Chicken Roaster, the muffin tops, and more.

Three Cheers for Three Moderately Amusing Trailers!

Up first is what seems like the one millionth Simpsons Movie trailer, and the first one that seems to really hammer the real movie clips instead of all the previous teasers, which mostly seemed more like standalone pre-movie short films.



Next we have Jamie Kennedy's Kickin' it Old Skool, which tells the story of a young champion breakdancer who knocks himself into a coma and wakes up in present day and has to come to terms with the fact that he grew up in the 80s, a decade already more outdated than the one that preceded it. It's unknown if the archaic trailer narration is trying to replicate that particular era, or if it's just that bad. As for the movie itself, it seems to just be harvesting joke ideas from Big, Austin Powers, and everything in between, but it still manages to squeeze in some half-decent jokes, like the fact that the hero's main regret about being in a coma for 15 years is that he missed the sequels to his favorite childhood films. Further hope for the film lies in the more-than-capable supporting cast which includes Christopher McDonald and Ferris Bueller's Alan Ruck.



Speaking of rip-offs, we wrap up with Eagle vs. Shark, the hyped-up New Zealand comedy starring one half of the popular musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords. Nearly every notice for the movie makes comparisons to Napoleon Dynamite, which makes all too much sense now that this new trailer is out, which features gawky absurdist characters, bright retro colors, wacky doodles, and even nunchucks. The blatant similarities are pretty unfortunate, since on its own terms it looks like it has some pretty damn funny stuff, mainly coming from a subplot where the NZ Napoleon takes his new girlfriend with him to try to murder his former high school bullyer.

Slow News Day: Whitest Kids, MST3K, Milonakis, Michael Ian Black, Catherine Keener, and Jane Curtin

ITEM: Remember when we talked to you about the new Whitest Kids U’Know show a while back? Well, don’t forget to watch the premiere tonight, unless of course you already caught in when it randomly aired a week ago unscheduled. Of course, if you’re like us and the rest of the world, you’ve barely even heard of Fuse TV, so you might have to settle for this mess of funny clips instead.

ITEM: According to Satellite News, the eleventh volume in the large, random, confusing, and unwieldy Mystery Science Theater 3000 DVD collection will be released on May 15, with the episodes The Ring of Terror, The Indestructible Man, Tormented, and Horrors of Spider Island, plus several shorts and features. Meanwhile, Mike Nelson and company continue their audio-riffage project Rifftrax, most recently taking on Terminator 3.

ITEM: The third season of The Andy Milonakis Show will premiere on iTunes and every other wacky new digital download service in the world on March 20, a full month before the premiere airs on MTV2. New episodes and exclusive shorts will continue to release digitally throughout the new season, which unfortunately hasn’t yet announced what hot new guest stars will be out-weirding each other this time around.

ITEM: Apparently Michaels Ian Black and Showalter are returning to Comedy Central with a new show called Michael Ian Black Doesn’t Understand. Somewhat ironically, there’s no more information on it at this time.

ITEM: Catherine Keener has joined Robert DeNiro, Bruce Willis, John Turturro, Sean Penn, and Stanley Tucci in Barry Levinson’s potential late-career-booster What Just Happened?, a reflexive comedy based on the life of legendary producer Art Linson.

ITEM: Famed ignorant slut Jane Curtin has signed on to producer Brian Grazer’s sitcom adaptation of the popular “work is hard!” memoir, Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office.

Ex-Extras

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant have decided to turn down BBC's offer for a third season of their beloved, award-winning Extras. This comes as no big surprise, a few weeks after Gervais joked with the AV Club about not ever being able to do more than two seasons of anything. Just like The Office, everything will be wrapped up neatly with an extra-long Extras special, which is now in the early stages of development. It will almost definitely feature more real-life celebrities making fools of themselves, but there's no word on whether they'll be pulled from Gervais' recently announced dream team, which includes Mel Gibson and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Gervais has also stopped doing his interview series Ricky Gervais Meets..., reportedly because of his bizarre chat with Garry Shandling, which was either a complete disaster or an amusing tribute to the awkward conversation seen on both men's shows. There's no word on ehether his already-taped discussions with Jerry Seinfeld and pre-meltdown Michael Richards will ever air.

Meanwhile, there seem to be no set plans for the duo's future, but Gervais is continuing to perform his live stand-up show Fame, recently adding a mess of dates at the Hammersmith Apollo in London, after selling out three shows at the Royal Albert Hall.

Slow News Day: Fatty Black, Pregnant Poehler, Hawaiian Freak, Preview Pie

ITEM: Jack Black is the latest actor to join Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder, playing an overweight comedian named "Fats." One can only hope the movie's other jokes play on a slightly higher level.

ITEM: Austin Powers scribe Michael McCullens will make his directing debut with Baby Mama, in which Tina Fey hires Amy Poehler as a baby surrogate to avoid taking maternity leave. Hopefully that promising casting can eclipse the dumb-ass title, not to mention the plot, which is not only bland and predictable, but also strangely similar to SNL co-star Will Forte's recently wrapped script for The Brothers Solomon.

ITEM: Jason Segel, still best known as the lovelorn drummer of Freaks and Geeks, has lined up his first leading film role in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, a romantic comedy about a guy who decides to get over his break-up blues with a Hawaiian vacation, only to find his ex traveling to the same island with her new beau. Kristin Bell of Veronica Mars will play the titular role. How did Segel land the gig after years of wacky sidekick background acting? Well, he wrote it himself.

ITEM: The anticipated dramedy Waitress, written and directed by the late Hal Hartley protege Adrienne Shelly, finally has a trailer up. Unfortunately, it looks like an obnoxious, cutesy retread of every other uber-Southern indie flick you've ever seen, but will hopefully be saved by the comic talents of Nathan Fillion and Cheryl Hines.

Larry David Roundup

It's hard to decide which is the more bizarre Larry David news item this week: the fact that he inadvertently saved a man from the electric chair or the fact that he and his daughters will be playing themselves on a Disney Channel kiddie sitcom starring Billy Ray Cyrus' daughter.

In Exhibit A, we have a man who spent five months in prison for the murder of a 16-year-old girl before he uncovered outtake footage from the beloved "Carpool Lane" episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm which clearly show him looking on and eating a Dodger dog at the time of the crime, 20 miles away from the victim. The man wandered over to the set to watch as soon as he heard they were filming one of his favorite shows at the game he was attending, proving that good taste in comedy can save your life.

And in Exhibit B, David has signed on to appear in the live-action pop-star fantasy Hannah Montana, starring the non-legendary "Achy Break Heart" singer cum PAX TV doctor Cyrus and his daughter. David's daughters are apparently big fans of the show, and will appear with him on the episode.

In less strange but much more potentially awesome news, Steve Coogan has signed on to play David's psychiatrist in at least one episode of the upcoming Curb season, which also stars Vivica A. Fox as a hurrican refugee living with Larry and Cheryl. The new season is expected to start some time this fall, and may very well be the last (though he seems to say this every season).

And finally, as Spiderman 3's release date draws nearer, it seems fairly clear that reports of David's remark about filming a cameo was, as suspected, a great big joke.

While we're on the subject, have you seen Larry's appearance from last year's Earth to America special, produced by his real-life wife? Judging from its ratings, you probably didn't, so why not check it out now?

Matt Besser Walks With Me

Fellow comedy reporters The Coming have posted an info-packed interview with Matt Besser, who has been keeping himself so busy that we can't stop posting features about him. Among the major revelations is that he'll be playing the guitarist in John C. Reilly's faux hit band in Jake Kasdan and Judd Apatow's biopic spoof Walk Hard, and that he's Kanye West's official improv coach for his upcoming untitled HBO mockumentary created by Larry Charles. Futhermore, he's writing a new film called Safety First for pal Amy Poehler.

Meanwhile, the Upright Citizens Brigade just finished a weekend of filming for a new Shout! Factory DVD release of ASSSSCAT 3000, which previously failed to catch on as a Bravo series. The four taped specials featured all four UCBers, as well as Horatio Sanz, Chad Carter, Sean Conroy, and Andrew Daly, plus improv-launching monologues from Will Arnett, Tom Lennon, Ed Helms, Paul F. Tompkins, and Jen Kirkman. Besser hopes the DVD will do well enough to kick off a sort of UCB/Shout! Factory imprint label where they can release even more footage from their various live output. He also announces that they're working on a new UCB website to feature daily videos and more.

All in all, a pretty good way to stick it to Comedy Central for canceling one of the best sketch comedy shows of all time, don't you think?

Slow News Day: Larry Charles and Bruce McCulloch Go to ABC, Norm Goes to Earl, Various Dumb Cavemen Go to Hollywood

ITEM: ABC, who is reportedly looking to beef up their weak comedy selection, has signed Larry Charles to a 2 and a half year development deal in which he will likely write, direct, and produce a series of original projects, if he can find enough time between shooting an anti-religion documentary with Bill Maher, working with Kanye West on an HBO reality series, and making the Motley Crue biopic.

ITEM: The aforementioned network is also developing Carpoolers, starring Fred Goss, Jerry O'Connell, and Jerry Minor as three guys who...can you guess it?...carpool to work together. Sounds pretty bland, but Kid in the Hall Bruce McCulloch wrote the script for the pilot, which will be directed by the Russo brothers, who helmed many of the best episodes of Arrested Development (+5 points) and the recent film You, Me, and Dupree (-10 points.)

ITEM: According to Norm News, Norm Macdonald will be reprising his deliciously awesome Burt Reynolds impression on an upcoming guest spot for My Name is Earl. Unfortunately, he's also announced that his Court Appointed Lawyer script he wrote for himself and Will Ferrell is dead in the water.

ITEM: Hit-and-miss oddball Adam Rifkin has posted a mess of clips from his new prehistoric comedy Homo Erectus, including the official trailer. Mosey over to his YouTube channel if you like to see guys getting conked in the head a lot, or you want to see David Carradine and Gary Busey continue to drive nails into the coffins of their careers.

ITEM: At the recent WonderCon, Sergio Aragonés revealed that writer Mark Evanier has completed a screenplay for a CGI movie version of Sergio's popular Groo the Wanderer comics, and the rights are currently being negotiated. Please take note that this is the second caveman story in this particular article alone, and the third this week if you count the new ABC show based on those Geico commercials, which we didn't even bother to report on. Either way, we have to reluctantly declare this Comedy Caveman Week at the Comedyblog. Please dress accordingly.

This Week in Funny 3/5/07-3/11/07

Tuesday, March 6:



New on DVD: Borat - Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (click here to buy)
New on DVD: Zach Galifianakis - Live at the Purple Onion (click here to buy)
New on DVD: South Park - The Complete Ninth Season (click here to buy)
New on DVD: Fast Food Nation (click here to buy)
New on DVD: Let's Go to Prison (click here to buy)
New on DVD: The Loop - Season 1 (click here to buy)
New on DVD: Confetti (click here to buy)
Ken Davitian on The View (ABC)

Wednesday, March 7:



Season Premiere South Park: "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson" (Comedy Central)
New The Sarah Silverman Program: “Batteries” (Comedy Central)
Rob Corddry on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS)
Chris Rock on Tavis Smiley (PBS)

Thursday, March 8:

New Scrubs: “My Fishbowl” (NBC)
New 30 Rock: “The Fighting Irish” (NBC)

Friday, March 9:

New in Theaters: The Host

Sunday, March 11:



New The Simpsons: “Rome-Old and Julie-Eh” (FOX)
New The Winner: “Broken Home” (FOX)
New Family Guy: “Bill and Peter’s Bogus Journey” (FOX)
New The Winner: “What Happens in Albany, Stays in Albany” (FOX)
New Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job!: “Chunky” (Adult Swim/Cartoon Network)
New Saul of the Molemen: “Work” (Adult Swim/Cartoon Network)



Live Comedy Watch:

3/5: Maria Bamford at Dennison College in Dennison, OH
3/6: Zach Galifianakis at University of Central Florida in Orlando, FL
3/6: Doug Benson’s I Love Movies with guest Mary Lynn Rajskub at UCB Theatre in LA
3/6: Doug Benson, Andy Kindler, and Andrew Daly in Comedy Death-Ray at UCB Theatre in LA
3/6: Ron Lynch and Craig Anton in The Idiots at Steve Allen Theater in LA
3/7: Bob Odenkirk, Paul F. Tompkins, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Greg Fitzsimmons, Jen Kirkman, Derek Waters, Mike Phirman of Hard ‘n Phirm, and Jimmy Pardo at You’re Welcome at Mbar in LA
3/7: Todd Barry at Opolis in Norman, OK
3/7: Eugene Mirman, Bobby Tisdale, and Reggie Watts in Invite Them Up at Rififi in NYC
3/7: Stephen Lynch at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, NE
3/7: Tig at University of Wisconsin in Madison, WI
3/8: Todd Barry at the Cavern in Dallas, TX
3/8-3/11: Marc Maron at the Improv in Chicago
3/8: Stephen Lynch at Moore Theater in Seattle, WA
3/9: Jerry Seinfeld at Murat Theater in Indianapolis, IN
3/9: Zach Galifianakis at Crystal Ballroom in Portland, OR
3/9: Todd Barry at Emo’s Lounge in Austin, TX
3/9: Stephen Lynch at Aladdin Theater in Portland, OR
3/10: Bill Cosby at L.J. Willians Theater in Visalia, CA
3/10: Zach Galifianakis at Moore Theater in Seattle, WA
3/10: Todd Barry at Walter’s on Washington in Houston, TX
3/10: Paul F. Tompkins in the Thrilling Adventure and Supernatural Suspense Hour at Mbar in LA
3/11: Stephen Lynch at the Warfield in San Francisco, CA
3/11: Free ASSSSCAT at UCB Theatre in NYC
3/11: Free ASSSSCAT at UCB Theatre in LA
3/11: The Whitest Kids U’Know at Pianos in NYC

Slow News Day: Ken From KAOS, South Park: Smaller, Streaming, and Uncut, Plympton Draws High, Rajskub Lets the Sunshine In, Surely Not Theatrical

ITEM: The Get Smart movie continues to rack up major casting brownie points as they sign Borat's chubby co-star Ken Davitian as an agent of KAOS, Maxwell Smart's evil foil.

ITEM: The 11th season of South Park starts March 7, and as a new bonus, the uncut versions of the episodes will be available from iTunes six days after the television broadcast, begging the question of what could possibly not make the air on a show that has already been allowed to say "shit" 162 times, and to show Jesus shitting all over the place, and a lot of other...shit.

ITEM: There's a trailer up for Bill Plympton's latest animated feature, Hair High, a high school zombie comedy with a crazy awesome voice cast that includes Dermot Mulroney, Sarah Silverman, David and Keith Carradine, Beverly D'Angelo, Ed Begley Jr., Michael Showalter, Justin Long, and fellow 'tooners Matt Groening and Don Hertzfeldt.

ITEM: Mary Lynn Rajskub has joined Alan Arkin and Steve Zahn in the dark comedy Sunshine Cleaning, which will probably use the phrase "indie sleeper" in its marketing.

ITEM: Paramount is thinking of doing some rush-job DTV sequels to The Naked Gun and Airplane! Zucker, Zucker, and Abraham aren't officially on board, but it's a fairly safe bet since they've announced their interest in the past, and it's an even safer bet that Leslie Nielsen would return, since he's been toiling in Videoland for years already.

Will Mike Judge Ever Work in This Town Again?

The infamous Britney-baiting tabloid site TMZ.com claims to have insider information that Mike Judge has set up his next film project at HBO Films after tearing it away from Fox due to the horrible way they treated his cult non-hit Idiocracy. This is obviously great news, except that the story is filled with so many inconsistencies, oddities, and factual errors that it's hard to know if they just got some wires crossed. First off, they call the film Meet in the Freezer, when it's long been known to be Meat in the Freezer, and they claim that Judge co-wrote it with Got Milk? ad director Clay Tarver, when it's long been known that it was written with frequent collaborator Etan Cohen and actor Steve Zahn. And most surprisingly, they claim that Judge is only producing the film for Tarver to direct, which just seems highly unlikely after statements from Judge that he plans on becoming a full-time feature director, not to mention his vast passion for the "hunting porn" the project is based on.

Meat follows two former department store gun salesmen who begin a quest for a large albino buck in order to rescue their reputations during hunting season. Unfortunately, the woods are filled with dozens of amateurs who would love to bag the game for themselves, plus there's a gang of protestors moping around, one of whom one of the heroes has a crush on.

TMZ claims Anna Faris has done a table read for the hippie chick and is the favorite for the role, but you should probably take that and everything else in this article with a healthy grain of salt.

One thing we can tell you for sure is that Judge's King of the Hill will resume its eleventh season on March 25.