With the reign of Pixar ever-so-steadily slipping (2011 marks the first year that the studio released a new film, Cars 2 in this case, that was not nominated for Best Animated Feature), it looks like another studio is looking to capitalize on original and appealing ideas. DreamWorks Animation is now casting for their next original film, Me & My Shadow, which will center “on Stan, a shadow who yearns for a more exciting life than being attached to a timid human named Stanley Grubb. When a crime in the shadow community puts both of their lives in danger, Stan is forced to take control of Stanley, thrusting both of them into an adventure featuring a shadowy villain, who intends to lead a rebellion to take over the human world.” The studio has cast Bill Hader as shadow Stan, with Josh Gad as his scaredy-cat human Stanley and Kate Hudson as Stanley’s real world love interest. While the film’s plot is cute enough already, the studio is also looking to branch out with a bit of a gimmick that ties into it – the film will be made up two different kinds of animation. The “shadow world” will reportedly be hand-drawn, while Stanley’s “human world” will be CG. Alessandro Carloni will make his directorial debut with Shadow, but his resume includes a very encouraging sign – he was head of story on DreamWorks Animation’s thoroughly excellent How to Train Your Dragon. The script will come from Tom J. Astle and Matt [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

It’s time to crank up the Ol’ Dirty Bastard, imbibe in your favorite – LEGAL – activity, and start the baby making. In this week’s Commentary Commentary, we’re hitting up one of the best comedies of the past 10 years, Knocked Up. Aside from being one of the dozen films that have made Judd Apatow a vigintillionaire, apart from being the film that landed Seth Rogen on the A-list, the movie is just damned funny. Heart-warming, of course. What would an Apatow movie be without heart? Well, it would probably be You Don’t Mess With the Zohan, but we’re not even going to mention that abomination here. Just ignore that previous utterance of the title. Anyway, back to Knocked Up, Apatow has amassed a solid line-up for his commentary track. Rogen and co-star Bill Hader are on board to deliver their own stories and insight into the making of the film. Something tells me the commenting under the influence didn’t stop with last week’s movie. That Rogen sure likes to partake. He’s always stoned. And funny. Mostly funny. But one might have a hand in the other. So here’s what we learned from the commentary track to Knocked Up. Cue the ODB!

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr gets in his car and hits the road with a can of NOS energy drink and his shaved head. Too bad his car is a 2006 Dodge minivan with collapsible seats and a back-seat DVD player for the kids to use. He didn’t stand a chance in the street racing against Vin Diesel and Paul Walker. After recovering from the cold, hard truth that The Rock stole his look for Fast Five, Kevin goes stag to Prom and suffers through the direct-to-DVD theatrical release of Hoodwinked Too!: Hood vs. Evil.

While attending the first-ever Comedy Awards Bill Hader stopped to have a chat with MTV cameras and gave up a few details about the Les Grossman spinoff of Tropic Thunder that has been rumored for a while. As it turns out, the project is not only still going forward, but the script has been completed. Hader says that Michael Bacall, one of the screenwriters on last year’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, wrote the script and that, “he’s told me some really funny scenes from it.” When the Grossman film was first reported last June, Neil Miller posited whether or not the character would be rich enough in story to anchor his own film, with the ultimate theory being that Cruise had enough clout to gather together the talent to make it work. I’d say that with the hiring of Bacall to write the script, this scenario is looking very possible. I loved what Bacall and Edgar Wright were able to do with their Scott Pilgrim adaptation, and I’m interested in seeing something of his that’s original. Factor in that Cruise has enough enthusiasm for the Grossman character to have already revisited him for vignettes leading up to the 2010 MTV Movie Awards, and I’m sure they chose very carefully when deciding who they wanted to write the script. Hader, at the very least, seems to already be confident in the project. He has gone on record as saying, “it’s gonna be great.” So, yeah, an actor has told MTV [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr starts a new regimen of drugs that comes in a clear little pill. The guy on the street corner told him that it would unlock the full potential of his mind, and he assured Kevin it was FDA approved. Why would this guy lie to him? While waiting for the drugs to kick in, Kevin decided to take a trip across the American southwest and search for skinny little aliens with fat man voices. He knows he’s safe, even if he’s picked up by the cops, because he’s retained a dead-sexy lawyer who runs his practice out of the back of his Lincoln Town Car.

There’s an old hobby that most everyone shares of creating dream teams. Maybe it’s figuring out the best possible basketball players to toss onto one roster (which dominates the Olympics in the 90s), maybe it’s thinking up physics-defying, time-travel-based bands which see Robert Plant playing with Buddy Rich and Townes Van Zandt, maybe it’s seeing some of the best in the comedy business come together to merge styles and create a movie. Paul is what it’s like when worlds collide. The dry, awkward humor of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost coming together under satire and humanistic comedy of director Greg Mottola with a healthy blend of Kristen Wiig, Seth Rogen, and Jason Batemen in tow. The results don’t explode into orbit, but the movie is as enjoyable as any other standard road trip comedy out there.

It’s been a while since Bill Hader was gabbing about the slasher film that he is collaborating with Judd Apatow on. Way back in the when he said the movie was called House of Joel, and he described it by saying, “It’s partially Straw Dogs meets Halloween meets Home Alone meets The Monster Squad.” If I didn’t know better, I would say he looked into my mind and stole that quote directly from my deepest fantasies. Recently Hader spilled some more details about the project and where they’re at with its development when talking to The Playlist. Firstly, Hader says that there has probably been a name change, “Well, I’m not sure it’s called House of Joel anymore. I don’t know what’s happening with it exactly. Judd, me, and Jason Woliner are gonna meet in L.A. soon to figure out what the next steps are. It’s a funny, funny script and it’s Judd’s take on a slasher movie. It’s been a long gestating project, but I think it’s worth it because it just keeps getting better.” Better sounds good, but Apatow hasn’t done anything yet other than comedies with a little added heart. What would an Apatow-made horror film look like?

The comedy talent for The Handjob is swelling with Alia Shawkat, Mae Whitman, Donald Glover, Connie Britton, Andy Samberg, Bill Hader, and Johnny Simmons. The film is being written and directed by Bill Hader’s comedian wife Maggie Carey. That’s not to say that he has a drama wife, too. It’s meant to show that she’s also professionally funny. The modifier placement is just weird. Regardless, Hader expounded on the plot to The Playlist recently, saying “It’s about her playing an type-A, studious girl who graduates high school and hasn’t done anything with a guy. The summer before college she decides that she has to find out how to do everything in order to be properly prepared, so she makes a very serious bullet list of everything, like… hand-job, titty-fuck, blow-job, fingering, and just kinda checks one off every time she does it. She’s being the aggressor and is very straight-forward about it, like ‘Okay, so I’m going to give you a hand-job now.’ And the guys are very taken aback about it, especially her straight-laced friends.” Sold.

Bill Hader has been pretty successful in spinning his Saturday Night Live exposure into a film career so far. Chances are, if a comedy was released in the last three years, Bill Hader was probably in it for at least a couple minutes. But usually all he does is show up in a small role, do some of his clueless, uptight, Bill Hader shtick, and then move on to the next one. Now that he’s paid some dues, it looks like the funnyman is finally looking to move in a more serious direction. He’s got a couple movies in the works that not only put him in bigger roles, but also look to allow him to expand his acting experience in different directions. Hader and Hot Rod director Akiva Schaffer are working together on a film called Henchman, which Hader described to The Playlist by saying,  “The film is about two guys who don’t realize it, but they’re two henchman for like the badguy in a Bourne movie and then they slowly figure who that they’re working for the wrong guys, but like doing it in the actual style of a Bourne movie.” Sounds like more of a blending of the action and comedy genres than it does a straight gag fest to me. At first glance, using the Bourne trilogy as inspiration for a comedy might seem strange, but Hader explains, “The aesthetics of a ‘Bourne’ movie, the shaky and handheld camera, that documentary feeling is how they shoot [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

As SNL reaches the zenith of existence by abandoning sketches midway through, an icon of our American fighting forces is being featured in a new non-cursing trailer for his mullet-filled movie. MacGruber, in trailer form, has arrived.

Kevin Carr takes a look at this week’s movie releases, including Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, The Informant! and Jennifer’s Body.

The Fat Guys take a look at Jennifer’s Body even though Fox (that’d be the studio, not the actress) didn’t screen it for them. They also chew on Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, help Matt Damon squeal in The Informant! and avoid Love Happens like the plague.

So you’re not all that excited about a one-off SNL sketch becoming a feature-length film? If it’s R-rated, maybe you should be.

Superbad Director Greg Mottola and company have set up a production blog for his forthcoming flick,Paul, so that fans can keep up-to-date on the filming, download shirtless pics of Seth Rogen and send ice cream cones for Simon Pegg to autograph and send back.

Neil and Kevin wage war on the machines… and McG with some scathing analysis of Terminator: Salvation. Then they move onto the movies that Neil hasn’t seen.

Kevin Carr reviews this week’s new movies: Fast & Furious, Adventureland and Gigantic.

Sometimes movie rumors are started in odd places. And as Russ over at CHUD points out, sometimes even a non-movie related interview can turn out some interesting news — such as the news that Bill Hader may have spilled on ESPN’s The B.S. Report with Bill Simmons.

Another Charles Portis novel has been optioned for a big screen adaptation – this time by Superbad and Adventureland alumni Bill Hader and Greg Mottola.

Courtesy of the fine people at Vanity Fair is a gallery titled “Comedy’s New Legends,” which features some beautifully-inspired photography of whom VF considers to be the important cultural heroes of contemporary comedy, with a brief discussion of how and why they have attained that status.

Having already seen and reviewed Greg Mattola’s Adventureland at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, I can easily say that there are some naughty bits to this film. And luckily for all of you, the marketing masters over at Miramax have assembled all of those naughty parts and placed them conveniently into the following redband trailer.