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]

Alcon Entertainment has announced that they are in final negotiations to acquire the rights to the world of Blade Runner and elements from the short story that inspired the film, Phillip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” With these rights they could make any number of sequels, prequels, or spinoffs of the 1982 classic. I can hear groans in the back of the room already, but one thing that Alcon producers would not be allowed to do is the dreaded straight remake, and as a matter of fact company co-founder Broderick Johnson says, “we never would want to remake it”. I’m not sure if he can be trusted though, if I were ever to write a screenplay for some sort of college comedy I would probably name the jerk head of the jock fraternity Broderick Johnson. He may be setting us all up for one big cinematic wedgie. But taken at face value, all of the quotes coming out of the Alcon camp are saying all of the right things. They seem to be focusing less on the marketing potential of a potential franchise and more on the storytelling potential of Blade Runner’s rich mythology. Co-founder Andrew Kosove explained to 24 Frames, “The risk is not just getting a movie made but coming up with a story that really justifies coming back to one of the great science-fiction stories.”

In honor of the release of Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, Josh Radde walks you through the world of movie spinoffs, taking on the good, the bad and the downright awful.

We decided not to make the headline: Writer Steps into Puss’ Boots or some variation thereof because every other outlet is doing that.