Editorials > FilmWad Breaks it Down: Thursday September 20

"Old" was the word of the day. Starting with the announcement that veteran comic actors like Leslie Nielsen, Jeffrey Tambor, Christopher McDonald, Marion Ross, and Brent Spiner were joining the cast of Superhero!, a new spoof from Craig Mazin, who wrote Scary Movie 3 and 4.

Next, two old movies are being remade. George Cukor's 1939 comedy The Women, which starred about half of the popular actresses of the day, is being remade by Diane English with about half of the popular actresses of… well, the late 1980s. The Wild Geese is being remade as well, but no cast has been recruited yet to our knowledge.

Then it was announced that Brett Ratner and Chris Tucker (who is looking old) want to do a film about the relationship between Frank Sinatra and his valet set in the 1950s and 60s. I'm assuming Frank Sinatra must have gotten into a lot of car chases or something, otherwise I don't see why Ratner's the guy for this job.

New Line wants to do a period piece as well. They're producing Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal. This film is about a Nazi double (or triple?) agent and is being produced by Tom "I love World War II" Hanks.

Lastly, the John Cusack-starrer Stopping Power is back online after being shut down for insufficient funding. Not exactly an "old" story, unless you consider the fact that they'll be three weeks older than they should have been while shooting the film.

The first trailer of the day is for Drillbit Taylor. A movie coming out in a short while that may be one of the first to prove that Judd Apatow is only human. I've certainly got nothing against the guy and he's really been on fire lately. Superbad, Knocked Up, The 40 Year-Old Virgin. Great, funny, profitable stuff. But Drillbit Taylor, though advertised as "from the guys who brought you Knocked Up and Superbad," is being directed by Steven Brill, the guy who brought you Without a Paddle, Mr. Deeds, and Little Nicky, the latter two known for being two of Adam Sandler's lesser comedies. Hopefully that won't matter as Seth Rogen and Kristofor Brown are the writers (along with John Hughes in disguise according to IMDb). But with all that said about the pros and cons of the creative team, the trailer doesn't look very funny.

The other trailer is even less funny, though on purpose. It's for Reservation Road, which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival to mixed reviews and opens across the country on October 19th. The cast is full of talented folks such as Joaquin Phoenix, Jennifer Connelly, Mark Ruffalo, and Mira Sorvino, and is directed by Terry George of Hotel Rwanda. Despite all that, it's a hell of a suspension of disbelief that the man who kills Phoenix's son ends up being his lawyer. The acting is no doubt top notch, but that plot conceit might be too much to accept.