ITEM: Edgar Wright, currently touring the country with his so-called "secret"
Hot Fuzz Q&As, has revealed that Fuzz is the second film in a planned trilogy of genre exercises, and that he and
Simon Pegg are already in the early stages of the final entry. Now he's telling Rotten Tomatoes that he might be interested in developing his hysterical
Don't faux-trailer into a feature film that would maintain the same level of European-style horror confusion for 90 minutes. Could
Don't be the elusive third film? Probably not, if
Grindhouse's numbers don't pick up this week...
ITEM: Speaking of poor numbers... yes, the rumors are sadly true.
Andy Barker, P.I. has not only been unceremoniously canned, but the remaining episodes have been immediately ripped from the schedule, and the final two, arguably the best of the series, will air instead this Saturday night while no one's watching (but remember, you can watch all six episodes on NBC's website at any time). Meanwhile,
Raines is still at large.
ITEM: Time for the Daily Apatow News Break.
Ed Helms, of
The Daily Show and
The Office, will co-write and star in
A Whole New Hugh for producer
Judd Apatow, based on an original pitch by Helms and TV writers Jake Fleisher and Ian Berger. It's the story of a depressed failure who gets a much needed ego boost when his friends pitch in to give him a fake success story. Helms just finished off a small role in another of Judd's films (
Walk Hard), which seems to be the only prerequisite to getting your own Apatow Production these days. He'll also appear (as previously reported) in
Starship Dave and
Evan Almighty. Meanwhile, the long-delayed sci-fi comedy
First Time Caller, now known as
I'll Believe You, is finally due to release this September, and features Helms as well as Patrick Warburton, Fred Willard, Chris Elliott, and Helms' former co-correspondent Mo Rocca.
ITEM: Todd Phillips, probably still kicking himself for leaving Borat, is producing
The Chadster, and is all but confirmed to direct as well. If so, he'll be working for the first time on someone else's screenplay, instead of with his own writing partner Scot Armstrong.
Chadster is written by British filmmaker Michael Samonek, and involves a Best Man whose position is challenged when the groom's long-lost former best friend shows up with a bag full of wacky hijinx. No word on the stars, but if it isn't Owen Wilson, Jon Heder, or Seann William Scott, we'll be damn surprised. Meanwhile, word on the street is that there's a new draft of
Old School Dos floating around...
ITEM: Sherwood Kiraly will adapt his own quirky novel
Diminished Capacity into a family dramedy, to be directed by
Oz's Terry Kinney. It's the story of a brain-damaged man, the high school sweetheart he can't remember, and his Alzheimer's-impaired uncle, all traveling to a Cubs game in hope of getting some quick cash off a rare baseball card. Doesn't sound too shabby, actually, especially when
Matthew Broderick, Alan Alda, and Virginia Madsen have just signed on board. See if you can guess who plays who... (hint: Alan Alda is old.)
