It seems as if Anna Kendrick is on a mission to prove to us that she’s the most versatile, multi-talented actress working in Hollywood today. Not just content to turn heads and get an Oscar nomination for her performance in Up In the Air, Kendrick has also been a tween idol in the Twilight series, made us laugh in the strange and hyper-stylized Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, straddled the line between comedy and jerking tears in 50/50, and she’s even set to prove that she can sing in the upcoming Pitch Perfect. When all is said and done, she will have appeared in five films over the course of this calendar year, and all signs point to the fact that she won’t be slowing down any time soon. Case in point, Deadline Deering has word of a new project that has scooped her up as its star, an indie comedy going by the name of Drinking Buddies. Set to be largely improvised and shot in Chicago later this summer, Drinking Buddies stars Kendrick and Ron Livingston (Office Space) in a story that’s said to be about a “fun and flirtatious friendship that goes off the rails.” It’s being directed by king of the micro-budget comedy, Joe Swanberg (Hannah Takes the Stairs, Nights and Weekends), and it will also star Olivia Wilde (that chick from your dreams) and Jake M. Johnson (New Girl, Safety Not Guaranteed) in undisclosed roles.

If we’re being honest with ourselves and one another, we can all just admit to having both seen and enjoyed an episode of Glee at one point. For some, the enjoyment lasted beyond one episode. But the feeling is the same, and it’s not hard to understand why those darn kids love to watch singing, dancing stereotypes fight with the full force of school pride. Plus, those songs are catchy. It’s all part of what makes Pitch Perfect an interesting little project. That, and the fact that it’s led by Up in the Air star Anna Kendrick, who can apparently sing and rap and play the bad girl who just changed schools and it looking to find her way (even after she’s found her rape whistle). According to this first trailer, Beca (Kendrick) finds her way into an a cappella group performing girls-against-boys style all the way to Regionals, or something along those lines. With a script from 30 Rock writer Kay Cannon, there’s a palpable self-aware element shown off in the trailer. This movie knows that it’s premise is ridiculous, and it shall subvert at all turns. Mostly in the form of Rebel Wilson, who played one of the creepy roommates in Bridesmaids. Go ahead, watch the trailer and tell me you didn’t get a few laughs out of her performance.

Pregnancy and childbirth are nothing new. In fact, there are few things less new than humans reproducing. It’s been done before. But Kirk Jones’ What to Expect When You’re Expecting accurately captures the inherent selfishness of expecting parents,and their individual “journeys” to the delivery room (and beyond). Unfortunately, even when gifted with a large, mostly eager cast, Jones is also saddled with a script from Shauna Cross and Heather Hach (working off of Heidi Murkoff‘s guidebook of the same name) that is deeply uninterested in providing much variety in their work. The effect is simple one – the film itself is deeply uninteresting. While What to Expect continually reminds its viewers that pregnancy and childbirth are miracles, unique and thrilling gifts, Cross and Hach have concocted one of the most bland, basic, and unadventurous scripts in recent memory.

According to a press release, CBS Films has rounded up a fantastic cast for the upcoming movie Get A Job – which taps into the zeitgeist with frightening precision to tell the story of a group of college graduates struggling to find work alongside a father who is, surprise, also trying to find work. Why is it so exciting? For one, Bryan Cranston will be playing that father. For two, it’s being directed by Dylan Kidd – who may not be a household name, but should be after his hip indie flick Roger Dodger which paired a young Jesse Eisenberg with a brilliant Campbell Scott. For three, the rest of the cast features Anna Kendrick, Miles Teller (Rabbit Hole, Project X, How’s that for diversity?), Alison Brie, Brandon T. Jackson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Nick Braun, and comedian Jay Pharaoh. That’s three great reasons to get excited about this project. Some are even multi-partite. That’s how serious this is. Also, Pharaoh’s character is named Skeezy D, so there is clearly genius at work here. Great to see CBS Films pull something excellent out of the hat here.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly movie news column that is celebrating Monday Funday with what amounts to a bunch of shenanigans. Don’t worry though, we’ve slipped in at least one legitimate piece of news. We’ll get to that shortly. We begin tonight with something found a few weeks ago via Warming Glow, where an image from the Twitter account of Charley Koontz, best known as Fat Neil on Community, shows that Executive Producer Dan Harmon is just as bitter about Community‘s ratings as the rest of us. Seriously, who is the Nielsen Family? In other news, I hope Dan Harmon never changes.

Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) has a pretty good life. He works in Seattle as a producer for a public radio station, his best friend Kyle (Seth Rogen) is always good for a laugh, he lives happily with his girlfriend Rachael (Bryce Dallas Howard), and best of all, he’s exceptionally healthy. An odd back pain sends Adam to the doctor where he discovers he’s suffering from a late stage tumor. The diagnosis shocks him at first as he’s spent considerable time exercising, eating healthy, and avoiding alcohol and drugs, but he quickly moves to anger…because he’s spent considerable time exercising, eating healthy, and avoiding alcohol and drugs. His tumor is a rare type, and while he weighs his options including chemotherapy and surgery he discovers the unofficial odds on his survival over the next few months are fifty-fifty. There’s a one in two chance he’ll be dead before his next birthday. That pretty good life soon collapses around him as he’s forced to face the reality of both his life and death. His journey will expose certain truths about himself, his family and friends, and even a few strangers, and it might even give him a new pick-up line for the ladies… Imagine if Funny People was a comedy. Then imagine it was filled with wit, heart, and an honesty about the relationships we form throughout our lives. Now stop imagining, because that movie you’re picturing is 50/50.

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr is all giddy because apparently Joseph Gordon-Levitt has decided to copy his signature hairstyle. Undeterred by folks telling him Gordon-Levitt shaved his head to play the role in 50/50, Kevin tries to lobby other Hollywood actors to copy his image. Unfortunately, What’s Your Number? star Chris Evans refuses to grow a huge belly and Dream House star Daniel Craig just won’t latch onto Kevin’s charming American accent.

You know how that show Glee came out, focused on a bunch of teenage melodrama and cheesy stage show covers of popular music, and then became ridiculously successful? Well, Universal caught wind of that too, and now they’re looking to distribute a new film called Pitch Perfect, which will focus on the world of college level a cappella groups. Just think of it as Glee, the college years. The film is based off a non-fiction book that was written by GQ’s Mickey Rapkin and will be directed by Jason Moore who, in addition to being a stage director, has directed episodes of TV shows like Dawson’s Creek, Everwood, and One Tree Hill. The story follows a goth girl who attends the same college where her father teaches (which is extremely embarrassing for a goth girl), and who has a hard time adjusting to college life, until she discovers she has a great voice and then becomes the secret weapon of the school’s female a cappella group. Being a red-blooded American male, everything I’ve just written about this movie pretty much makes my blood run cold. Forget monster movies, slashers, and what have you; this could possibly be the set-up for the most terrifying horror movie ever conceived of. Except for one little detail that keeps me from writing this whole project off as simple schlock being peddled to teenage girls: Anna Kendrick is in negotiations to play the goth girl (do goth girls even exist anymore? I’m out of the

If you think that making a Space Invaders movie is the most desperate attempt Hollywood has made to tie a new film to a pre-existing property lately, you might have need to think again. Making headlines in the film world recently has been the upcoming movie What to Expect When You’re Expecting, which is a feature film adaptation of a pregnancy manual by Heidi Murkoff. So many actresses have been announced for this thing, one at a time, that it’s starting to reach Hunger Games levels of casting announcement fatigue. Perhaps appropriately enough, their latest addition to the cast is an actress who will be appearing in The Hunger Games as well. Elizabeth Banks is said to be joining the film as a first time mother who has already built an empire writing books about her breast-feeding methods. There is some indication that despite her so-called expertise, the experience of actually having a child herself is one that she’s not ready for. Banks will be joining a cast that already includes Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, Brooklyn Decker, and Anna Kendrick. The film is being directed by Waking Ned Devine’s Kirk Jones, from a script originally by Heather Hach and re-written by Shauna Cross. I can’t say that this is one that I’m looking forward to, but the inclusion of quality actresses like Banks and Kendrick is starting to make it look like it could have some potential. We shall see. [Coming Soon]

Striking a balance between humor and humility is one of the toughest things to do in any form of storytelling, but just with this trailer, director Jonathan Levine and a cast that includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, and Anna Kendrick look like they’ve done just that. Plus, they’ve done it while mocking the big baddie of the disease world. Formerly titled I’m with Cancer, 50/50 is a title that keeps the odds of the main character living front and center (even if they basically spoil that point in the opening part of the trailer), and the rest is filled with heads being shaved with questionable trimmers, therapy sessions, and foolish attempts at cancer-based pick-up lines.

Rapturepalooza – a movie where Anna Kendrick and John Francis Daley (Freak and Geeks) team up to go fight the antichrist (who is, of course, played by Craig Robinson) – already sounds brilliant. High concept comedy, especially where the end of the world is in the mix, never fails to excite. Fortunately, Variety is reporting that the movie now has Rob Corddry, Rob Huebel and Thomas Lennon on board for the possible destruction of all reality as well. It’s great news, but it’s hardly surprising. Comedies like this tend to draw in names from the same extended group of comedy veterans that continue banding together to take smaller roles or cameos in each other’s projects. Still, here’s hoping that Thomas Lennon plays an old fashioned guy. Could other State members be far behind from signing on?

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr takes a gander at the demographically delineated movie selection this weekend. The ladies have Julia Roberts finding herself in Eat Pray Love. The dudes have Sly and the action family Stallone with the much anticipated The Expendables. And the fanboys fresh from Comic-Con have the high-concept slug-fest Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Sorry to all the teenage girls out there. You’ll just have to go see Eclipse at the dollar theater this weekend.

As I mentioned last night when I wrote about the new Scott Pilgrim vs. the World clip, I didn’t watch a moment of the 2010 MTV Movie Awards. However, I am told that a few interesting and fun things happened. Tom Cruise out-dressed Jennifer Lopez, Twilight out-awarded its Summit Entertainment cousin The Hurt Locker, and the always funny Ken Jeong out-dressed both Katy Perry and Christina Aguilera. Not bad for the movie world equivalent of the Special Olympics.

As promised, Universal Pictures has released the first trailer for Edgar Wright’s upcoming comic book adaptation Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, which is based on an awesome series of books by Brian Lee O’Malley. And as we see here in the trailer, this isn’t what some might expect out of a comic book movie — but it is certainly what fans of Scott Pilgrim might expect out of a Scott Pilgrim movie.

This year’s nominees in the Best Supporting Actress category run the gamut from a feisty lingerie-wearing mistress to a monstrous, abusive excuse for a mother, and while this category is usually pretty hard to predict, I’m thinking this year not so much. Here are the nominees for best actress in a supporting role.

The future isn’t so “up in the air” for Golden Globe nominee Anna Kendrick, nor is it whack for The Wackness director Jonathan Levine.

Kevin Carr sits his chubbiness down and sees if Avatar, Did You Hear About the Morgans? and Up In the Air can make the grade.

Kevin and Neil find themselves in a pickle… both have seen all the movies this week, and they generally agree. This doesn’t stop them from taking a few pot shots at each other as Kevin accuses Neil of being a bigot against eight-foot-tall blue aliens.

Paramount Pictures has started up a pretty cool new website in support of the release of Up in the Air, Jason Reitman’s spectacular film about Ryan Bingham (George Clooney), a man who lives his life on the road.

‘Up in the Air’ is Jason Reitman’s first flat-out masterpiece.