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Should the Zack and Miri Title Change For Wal-Mart?

BuzzSugar — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 16:30:24 -0800

Yay: The Zack and Miri Make a Porno DVD will hit shelves next Tuesday, Feb. 3! But on Wal-Mart's shelves the title may look a little bit different. Wal-Mart requested that director Kevin Smith change the title on the DVD covers so the word "porno" isn't there, and Smith has agreed to do it. Here's more:

Smith said Weinstein Co., which released the film Oct. 31, has complied with Wal-Mart's request and created new DVD covers for the retailer, but the director worries that some unsuspecting customers will be fooled when they see the shortened title.

[Smith said,] "I mean, at least with the word 'porno' in the title, you can kind of give people a warning about what they're in for."

That's a good point, really - is it actually doing anyone a service to take the word "porno" out of the title? Or is it understandable that Wal-Mart would want the DVD cover to not include that word?

Photo courtesy of The Weinstein Company

Weekend Reading: The History of Sundance

BuzzSugar — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 07:30:05 -0800

This year marks the 25th anniversary for the Sundance Film Festival, which is about as long as some of us have been alive. It's easy to take for granted the fact that this festival held in a snowy little Utah town wasn't always the influential mega-event it is today. Recently the LA Times had an interesting retrospective about the festival's origins and the way it revolutionized independent film.

Some interesting nuggets:

Steven Soderbergh's debut feature film is partly responsible for the festival's success. Director Bryan Singer reminisces, "Sex, Lies, and Videotape made guys like me go, 'If I can get into the Sundance Film Festival, I'll have a shot at a career.'"
Aw, Kevin Smith was working as a convenience store clerk when he brought his little movie Clerks to Sundance. He says of the heady experience, "It was basically me showing up in Utah and the Mormon God saying, 'I am going to grant you every wish you ever had, including some you never thought of.'"
Also, Smith tells the reporter that Clerks was made for $27,575.
Originally the festival was called The Utah/U.S. Film Festival but after Robert Redford's gang took over in 1989, some changes were made. "Organizers began to shift the festival's focus toward contemporary films that took storytelling risks."
The article asserts that "nobody embodies the go-for-broke moviemaking ingenuity now commonly associated with Sundance entries more than. . . Robert Rodriguez." Apparently Rodriquez (director of Desperado, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Sin City) raised money for one of his movies by "volunteering for experimental clinical drug testing." Hard core.

Photo courtesy of Sundance

Zack and Miri Make a Porno: Shockingly. . . Sweet

BuzzSugar — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 08:15:08 -0700

Don't get me wrong: Zack and Miri Make a Porno is extremely disgusting at times. But I expected that. I didn't expect it to be quite so sweet or touching (in the emotional way, gutter mind). I'm a huge Kevin Smith fan (as you may have noticed from my Comic-Con coverage of him), and this latest product of his dirty, dirty mind does not disappoint. It's one part sex jokes, one part sweetness and eight parts F-bombs. It's certainly not for everyone and it's not going to go down in history as a cinematic tour de force, but it is hilarious and raunchy and oddly sweet.

Zack (Seth Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) have been best friends since childhood, and now they room together in a Pittsburgh apartment. They're not the most ambitious pair, and when they run out of money, they need to come up with some fast cash in order to pay the rent and bills. Thus, they decide to make a porno. Their friend Delaney (Craig Robinson, just as funny as he is on The Office) helps with casting, and soon four more (including real-life ladies from the world of adult entertainment, Traci Lords and Katie Morgan) join the project and the group is on its way to making a pornographic movie. But things get a little complicated (see? I could have used the word "sticky," but I didn't because that would have been gross) when these two just-friends decide to have sex together on camera. The main joke seems to be that pesky things like emotions and love get in the way of great, entertaining porn. For more on why I so enjoyed this movie, read more.

As I said, I like Kevin Smith's stuff in general, but this movie is on a different level, due in large part to the outrageously endearing lead duo. And here is an example of a male-female, lifelong friendship that honestly rings true, as opposed to other attempts like, say, the absurd relationship at the heart of Made of Honor. Seth Rogen seems like a guy you might legitimately be friends with, and it's so easy to relate to the funny and kinda weird Elizabeth Banks. They're just so dang lovable! So it stands to reason that in the movie, they would love each other.

Smith gives a lot of credit to Judd Apatow for having paved the road for mainstream acceptance of this style of comedic movies, films that theoretically could be called romantic comedies, but with humor so raunchy you gag a little sometimes. And it's true: With the success of comedies like 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, audiences have been exposed (har-dee-har) to this kind of humor in an appealing way and with likable actors like Steve Carell and Seth Rogen. But I actually think Smith is even better at this than Apatow is. His stories are set in places like New Jersey and Pittsburgh, for Pete's sake. There's just something beautifully unkempt and down-to-earth about these characters, and this somehow makes the funny funnier, the dirty dirtier, and the sweetness that much sweeter.

Photos courtesy of The Weinstein Company

Watch, Pass, TiVo or Rent: Zack and Miri Make a Porno

BuzzSugar — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 05:30:25 -0700

Kevin Smith's upcoming movie Zack and Miri Make a Porno has seen its fair share of controversy. First, Smith had to fight for an R-rating instead of NC-17, and then the movie poster was changed to stick figures after the original one was deemed too racy.

But all this controversy is probably a good thing for this comedy starring Seth Rogan and Elizabeth Banks as friends who try their hand at adult filmmaking when money gets tight.

From what I've seen of the previews, it looks pretty funny. But it will also be crass and likely cringe-inducing and I know Smith's shtick isn't for everyone. So I'm curious if you'll head to theaters over the weekend to see this with a live audience or do you prefer for these kinds of comedies to come out on DVD and watch with friends? Or maybe you have no desire to see Seth Rogen make a porno at all?

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Do Red-Band Trailers Make a Movie More Appealing?

BuzzSugar — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 07:30:04 -0700

I'll admit that I can be susceptible to the appeal of a red-band trailer (a trailer made for mature audiences, often including profanity or racy content) when it comes to certain movies. For instance, when I saw that Kevin Smith's upcoming comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno had a red-band trailer, I was super excited. It's not so much about shock value as it is the chance to see what this movie, in all its raunchy Smith glory, is truly going to be like.

But not all of these trailers have that effect on me. I haven't been rushing to watch the red-band trailer for the little indie flick Good Dick, for example.

I think the first red-band trailer I was interested in was for Superbad last year. Nowadays it's becoming an increasingly popular tactic, as marketers look to generate buzz with a little online provocation. Do you find that the appeal of a movie goes up with these trailers?

New Zack and Miri Make a Porno Trailer: So Wrong It's Right!

BuzzSugar — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 08:30:33 -0700

So here it is: the "red-band" - aka "super inappropriate for work, especially if the sound is on" - version of the trailer for Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno, one of the 13 movies I'm most excited to see this Fall. There's actually not too much in there all of us adults haven't heard before in a Rogen flick (you know, a lot of f-bombs and explicit language used to describe both male and female genitalia). And since Smith fought hard for and won the right to give this movie an R rating instead of NC-17, we know the movie will never get all that crass.

Still, it's . . . about making a porno. So you'll probably laugh a lot when you see this but will feel pretty dirty afterward. In addition to learning that best friends and roommates Zack and Miri (Rogen and Elizabeth Banks) are having trouble making the rent, we meet some of the other cast members, including the scene-stealing Craig Robinson as their friend who auditions women for the porno and a character played by Traci Lords named "Bubbles" who has an interesting, uh, trick.

Like I said: totally unsuitable for work (unless of course you work in porn), or with kids around, or even puppies and kittens peeking over your shoulder. It is dir-tay and I thought twice before posting - but then I felt inspired by the words of young Silver on 90210 who waxed philosophically that it's a blogger's duty to make trouble. The movie's set to hit theaters on Halloween. To check out the trailer just read more.

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Buzz News Roundup, 8/6

BuzzSugar — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:30:49 -0700

Mark Ruffalo will make his directorial debut on the film Sympathy for Delicious, which will also star James Franco, writes ComingSoon.
The novel The Dogs of Babel will be adapted for the big screen, Variety reports.
A new Parents Television Council study has found that TV portrays sex between married people as boring, TV Week reports.
AMC is developing a new political thriller TV series about a "secret society that controls the world's political stage," TV Guide reports.
According to E! Online, Kevin Smith has won his appeal to get an R rating (rather than NC-17) for his raunchy comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno.

Hollywood Reporter has the news that the spoof book Drink, Play, F@#K will be made into a movie.
Variety writes that DreamWorks has taken down the Tropic Thunder promotional website simplejackmovie.com for being offensive to the mentally challenged.
Eli Roth, director of the Hostel movies, will star in Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards, reports Zap2It.

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EW's Filmmakers Panel With Smith, Apatow, Snyder and Miller

BuzzSugar — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:30:03 -0700

Entertainment Weekly held a few "Visionaries" panels at Comic-Con that brought together some of the greats in the TV, movies and comic book worlds. At the filmmakers panel, it was mostly a kick to see Kevin Smith, Judd Apatow, Zack Snyder and Frank Miller all at one table. It turned into the Smith-Apatow comedy hour, but that seemed to suit the audience members (myself included) just fine. Check out some of the highlights below.

The whole panel was super bawdy and raunchy, mostly due to Smith and Apatow making dirty jokes about each other. And then there was the smiling, friendly-faced Zack Snyder, who awkwardly bumbled out an answer to a question, after which there were about three beats of silence before Smith said, "Thank God your visuals are so strong, man." Smith later marveled at how awesome Snyder's Watchmen looks, saying he could die once he sees that movie.
Apatow talked about his raunchy comedies: "You have to find out: how much penis can you show in a movie without clearing an entire room?" Meanwhile, Smith nodded, deadpan, like he totally understood.
Smith: "I go with my gut, but my gut has lied to me in the past, like, when my gut said, 'Yeah, Jersey Girl's a great idea!'"
Frank Miller: "Very early on I learned I was incompetent at anything else. So I started to make comic books."

More on comics, geek culture, and how comedians differ from rappers (according to Apatow), if you read more.

Smith said he knew a while ago that it was only a matter of time before the comic book movie trend exploded. "Why not mine some of the most creative material ever, that's already been around for 50, 60 years? I think geek culture is here to stay. Thank God for Quentin Tarantino."
When asked whether he might attempt a different kind of movie than those he’s been making, Apatow answered in the negative, stating "There will be no movie with fairies and goblins. . . who can't get laid."
When asked about their influences, Apatow immediately said - without a trace of irony - Kevin Smith. "He laid down the track. I saw Clerks and I was like, ‘You can do that?!'" Smith reached over and gathered Apatow into a hug.
Apatow, babbling: "Comedians are not like rappers. Rappers kill each other and comedians like each other…" A few beats of baffled silence ensued before Smith asked, "Did you just step out of 1989? When was the last time a rapper killed another rapper?"
Frank Miller, on direct-to-internet content and advice for aspiring filmmakers: "Find the places the censors haven't found yet. Cause as much trouble as you can."

Lucy Lawless Tells Kevin Smith What's What at Comic-Con

BuzzSugar — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:30:22 -0700

I would have wanted to attend a panel on women in the sci-fi, horror, and comic book genres anyway, but the fact that it was moderated by Kevin Smith just sealed the deal. And I didn't realize I was in for such a comedy show. Smith was, as one might expect, hilariously droll, sarcastic, kinda bitter but not quite hostile. But that Lucy Lawless (you may know her as Xena, and/or D'Anna Biers on Battlestar Galactica) is sassy! She's gregarious and smart and has an incredibly cutting sense of humor that she used to repeatedly take Smith down. It was informative, but also one of the most entertaining panels I've attended yet.

In addition to Lawless, the other panelists included Jaime King (Sin City, The Spirit) Pia Guerra (the awesomely smart and creative illustrator of a comic that I'm slightly obsessed with right now, Y: The Last Man) and producer Gale Anne Hurd (Terminator, Punisher: War Zone).

Smith asked each of the ladies some prewritten questions (not written by him, and clearly not questions he was happy asking) about their experiences as women in such fanboy-dominated universes. To see what they had to say, read more.

Lawless referenced Sigourney Weaver multiple times as both an influence on her as an actor and in terms of Weaver being a pioneer of sorts for women in the sci-fi genre.
Jaime King admitted that doing her first horror movie was "sort of traumatizing," and that as much as she was supposed to try and detach from it all, it still seemed real.
Lawless said that the key to great female characters in these genres is "all in the writing," and that if people want to see more quality characters, they need to write quality characters for women. At this, Pia chimed in to say that the great writing of female characters requires writing them as "humans first."
Jaime King said she read a comic book aloud to Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller when she auditioned for Sin City. She thinks some people have a misconception of what Miller is like, and she said he's "actually a very gentle, caring, loving man."
At Gale's mention of Aeon Flux, the crowd went crazy cheering. It was nice to hear this character so warmly appreciated.
In response to the question, "Would you like to see more female directors in these genres?" of course Lawless, King, and Guerra all of course said "yes," and encouraged women to "step it up." Actually, Lawless said aspiring directors should "get off your arse, use your digi [camera], and do it your own self."
When asked who his favorite female character of all time is, Kevin Smith replied, "God." So, yeah. I'm kind of in love with that Kevin Smith.

First Look: Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno

BuzzSugar — Fri, 30 May 2008 16:30:10 -0700

Kevin Smith is not exactly known for good, clean fun and the trailer for his next film Zack & Miri Make a Porno is no different. Because of the pornographic, uh, nature of the film, the crass dialogue in this trailer is like a regular Smith script on crack.

I'd like to reenact for you my reactions while watching this:

Ha!
Hahaha!
Oh...ew.
OK, seriously, gross.
OMG! Sick!
No, he did not just say that. Wow, yes, he did.

So, do not watch this at work with the sound turned up and make sure the kids are safely tucked away in another room because while the trailer doesn't show anything explicit, Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks carry on an extremely graphic conversation. According to the IMDB description, "Lifelong platonic friends Zack (Rogen) and Miri (Banks) look to solve their respective cash flow problems by making an adult film together. As the cameras roll, however, the duo begin to sense that they may have more feelings for each other than they previously thought." Awww. . .?

The film is set to be released on Halloween. To check out the trailer for yourself, read more

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