Tag Archives: saturday night live

Justin Timberlake has joined the cast of Columbia Pictures’ comedy Bad Teacher starring along with Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel, and Lucy Punch, it was announced today by Doug Belgrad and Matt Tolmach, presidents of Columbia Pictures. Eric Stonestreet from “Modern Family” and Molly Shannon have also joined the cast of the comedy, which centers on an irreverent middle school teacher. Directed by Jake Kasdan and written by Lee Eisenberg & Gene Stupnitsky, the film is produced by Mosaic’s Jimmy Miller and begins production later this month.
Commenting on the announcement, Belgrad said, “With Justin, Molly and Eric, joining Cameron, Jason, Lucy and the rest of this dream comedy cast, we couldn’t be more excited about this movie. We love what we’ve seen of Justin’s performance in David Fincher’s The Social Network and he is a perfect match for this role.”
Justin Timberlake will play a key role as a substitute teacher, the scion of a watch fortune.
The comedy is being overseen at Columbia by Belgrad and Jonathan Kadin. For film related endeavors, Timberlake is represented by Rick Yorn, Jennifer Davisson Killoran, WME and Ziffren Brittenham LLP.
JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE has gained great acclaim for his acting roles. He has won two Emmy Awards related to appearances on “Saturday Night Live” including Outstanding Music and Lyrics for the highly memorable SNL Digital Short “Dick in a Box.” He will next star in Columbia Pictures’ The Social Network for director David Fincher as Sean Parker, the co-founder of Napster. Timberlake has also starred in such films as the crime drama Alpha Dog, Black Snake Moan, and Southland Tales. He also voiced a starring role in the animated hit Shrek the Third.
MOLLY SHANNON spent six seasons as a member of the repertory company on “Saturday Night Live,” primarily known for the eclectic characters she created, such as Mary Katherine Gallagher. She is also praised for her parodies of Courtney Love, Liza Minnelli, Monica Lewinsky and Meredith Vieira. She was most recently seen in the NBC comedy “Kath & Kim” and Lifetime’s movie “More of Me,” starring opposite Steven Weber. Her feature film credits include a moving performance in Mike White’s Year of the Dog, as well as Gray Matters, Shut Up & Sing, Evan Almighty, Little Man, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Superstar (portraying everybody’s favorite Catholic schoolgirl, Mary Katherine Gallagher, a [...]

Universal Pictures announced today that “MacGruber,” the comedy based on Will Forte’s recurring “Saturday Night Live” character, will open one month later than planned: Friday, May 21, as opposed to Friday, April 23. This pits “MacGruber” against Paramount’s “Shrek Forever After,” which already had claimed that weekend. 
 
In “MacGruber,” Forte plays a clueless soldier of fortune who somehow has earned the rank of Green Beret, Navy SEAL and Army Ranger. On his latest mission, he faces off against Dieter Von Cunth (Val Kilmer), and is assisted by Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe) and Vicki St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig).
Also receiving a release date is Universal’s “Fast Five,” the fifth installment in the “Fast and the Furious” franchise. Vin Diesel and Paul Walker return in their starring roles for the latest adventure. The movie hits theaters on Friday, June 10.

BY STAFF
Comedic talents Sacha Baron Cohen, Jason Bateman, Steve Carell, Tina Fey and Ben Stiller will help bring laughs to the 82nd Academy Awards®, telecast producers Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman announced. This will be the debut appearances for Baron Cohen and Bateman. Stiller has appeared on five previous Oscar telecasts, Carell has presented on three and Fey made her debut last year.
Baron Cohen, who is known for creating outlandish characters, came to national attention in 2003 on the HBO series “Da Ali G Show,” in which he played the title character. His film credits include “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,” “Borat Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” “Sweeney Todd The Barber of Fleet Street” and “Bruno.”
Bateman is in the Oscar-nominated film “Up in the Air” and is attached to several upcoming projects. His other film credits include “Juno,” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” “Hancock” and “State of Play.” He previously starred in the comedy cult hit “Arrested Development.”
Carell will be seen next in “Date Night” and recently completed work on “Despicable Me” and “Dinner for Schmucks.” His other film credits include “The 40 Year-Old Virgin,” “Evan Almighty,” “Dan in Real Life” and “Get Smart.”
Fey came to prominence as a regular on “Saturday Night Live” and currently stars in, produces and writes for “30 Rock.” She will be seen next opposite Carell in “Date Night.” Her other film credits include “Mean Girls” and “Baby Mama.”
Stiller recently completed work on “Meet the Fockers Sequel” and is attached to several projects. His film credits include “Empire of the Sun,” “Reality Bites,” “Flirting with Disaster,” “The Royal Tenenbaums,” “Meet the Fockers,” “Night at the Museum” and “Tropic Thunder.”
Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2009 will be presented on Sunday, March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network beginning at 5 p.m. PT/ 8 p.m. ET. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

BY TODD GILCHRIST
Freaks and Geeks collaborators Judd Apatow and Paul Feig are set to reunite for the first time for an upcoming film cowritten by starring Saturday Night Live member Kristen Wiig. According to Variety, Feig will direct and Apatow will produce the yet-untitled project for Universal Pictures, where Apatow has enjoyed a successful relationship as producer and director on such films as Knocked Up, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and The 40-Year-Old Virgin.
Following his tenure as the co-creator of Freaks and Geeks, Feig worked as co-executive producer and director on several episodes of The Office, directed episodes of multiple television series including Arrested Development, and in 2006 helmed the family comedy Unaccompanied Minors. Wiig has been a cast member of SNL since 2005, and has since appeared in numerous movies, including Knocked Up, Adventureland and the upcoming MacGruber. She wrote the script for the film with longtime partner Annie Mumolo.
Variety indicated that Universal was expediting pre-production in order to start shooting as soon as this spring, but offered few details about its subject matter, which supposedly revolves around women “competing to plan a friend’s wedding party.”
To read more at Variety.com

BY STAFF
The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival is thrilled to announce the complete features lineup for this year’s Festival, March 12 – 20, 2010 in Austin, Texas. Over the course of nine days, 119 features will screen at the festival, with 55 of those having their world premieres at SXSW 2010. These films were selected from a record 1,572 feature-length film submissions composed of 1,206 U.S. and 366 international feature-length films.
Among the major films added to the lineup are: Rogue’s MacGruber, from director Jorma Taccone; Mark Duplass’ Cyrus, Bernard Rose’s Mr. Nice, Tim Blake Nelson’s Leaves of Grass, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Micmacs, Michel Gondry’s The Thorn in the Heart, Alexandre O. Philippe’s The People vs. George Lucas, Shane Meadows’ Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee, Steven Soderbergh’s And Everything Is Going Fine, Matt Harlock and Paul Thomas’ American: The Bill Hicks Story, Mike Woolf’s Man on A Mission, Jacob Hatley’s Ain’t In It For My Health: A Film About Levon Helm, Mark Landsman’s Thunder Soul, Daniel Stamm’s Cotton, Chris D’Arienzo’s BARRY MUNDAY, and Floria Sigismondi’s The Runaways. They join previously announced films such as Opening Night film Kick-Ass, as well as narrative features Cold Weather and Elektra Luxx, and documentaries Hubble 3D, Lemmy, SATURDAY NIGHT and The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights.
“It was an incredibly competitive year with record submission numbers, and although we had to make really tough decisions, we are extremely excited about this lineup. I’m in awe of the talent on display throughout all the sections,” says Film Conference and Festival Producer Janet Pierson, “We feel we’ve achieved a great balance that continues our tradition of screening films across all budget lines and styles, and we take particular pride in witnessing the evolution of SXSW alumni as well as the vitality of fresh voices.”
The festival’s main competition categories once again find 8 Narrative Features and 8 Documentary Features, vying for their respective Grand Jury Prizes. The Narrative Feature Competition includes: Brotherhood, directed by Will Canon, Dance With The One, directed by Mike Dolan, Earthling, directed by Clay Liford, Helena from the Wedding, directed by Joseph Ifantolino, The Myth of the American Sleepover, directed by David Robert Mitchell, Phillip The Fossil, directed by Garth Donovan, Some Days are Better than Others, directed by Matt McCormick and Tiny Furniture, directed by Lena Dunham. The Documentary Feature Competition includes: Beijing Taxi, directed by Miao [...]

Blake Lively, star of “Gossip Girl,” hosted a SNL skit with Kenan Thompson playing Tiger Wood’s wife in a hilarious 4 minute segment that mocks all of his “accidental” affairs. With the recent Woods’ headline news, it’s no surprise that he was the topic of the latest SNL skit and it looks like SNL got all the details right with this one.
Watch it here: