Original Cast Returning for Confirmed 'Wet Hot American Summer' Netlix MiniSeries

Fans of David Wain and Michael Showalter's Wet Hot American Summer have good reason to celebrate. For years a sequel to the cult comedy hit has been hoped for by its die-hard fans, and while one won't be hitting theaters an 8-episode miniseries has finally been confirmed for Netflix with much of the original cast.

This deal has been in the works for months and now is definitely happening. How do we know? Because filming has already begun with Wain directing, having co-written the scripts with Showalter. The film was best known for being the launching pad for future stars, and many of them will be returning. According to Deadline that list includes Elizabeth Banks, H. Jon Benjamin, Michael Ian Black, Bradley Cooper, Judah Friedlander, Janeane Garofalo, Nina Hellman, Ken Marino, Zak Orth, David Hyde Pierce, Joe LoTruglio, Christopher Meloni, A.D. Miles, Marguerite Moreau, Amy Poehler, Paul Rudd, Marisa Ryan, Molly Shannon, Showalter, and Kevin Sussman.

The original film opened in 2001 and was a complete bomb; nobody saw it and less got its absurd brand of humor. But it has grown to cult status over the years as much of the cast have gone on to become much bigger stars. What we don't know is anything about the plot or how much time each castmember will have on screen. Wet Hot American Summer was an ensemble set in 1981 on the last day at a Jewish summer camp where the frisky camp counselors engage in all types of wild behavior. Hopefully this won't be another Arrested Development which Netflix revived and was too disjointed to resemble the series fans loved.

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Review: Gregg Araki's 'White Bird in a Blizzard' starring Shailene Woodley and Eva Green

NOTE: This is a reprint of my review from the Sundance Film Festival. White Bird in a Blizzard is available now On Demand.

It's easy to dismiss White Bird in a Blizzard as Shailene Woodley's Havoc, the Anne Hathaway yawner that showed her frisky, naked side in an attempt to break The Princess Diaries stigma she was trapped in. While it may have worked for her, obviously it did, Woodley has always been mature beyond her years, and so as she flashes her nude bod and embraces her character's raw sexuality, it doesn't seem like such a wild step for her; more like a natural progression. It helps that the film is directed by Gregg Araki, whose films usually have more going on beneath the surface than just stories of teen angst and sexual yearning.

White Bird in a Blizzard is based on the novel by Laura Kasischke, adapted by Araki and spruced up with his penchant for the surreal and slightly dysfunctional. Part mystery, part languid coming-of-age story, the film is set in the 1980s, a period that seems to be a particular favorite for Araki, although his hold over the time is purely surface in this case. Vivacious high school student Kat Connors (Woodley) comes home one day to find her totally unhinged mother Eve (Eva Green, at her insane best) fully dressed and sleeping in her room, appearing totally unaware of her surroundings. There's tension between them, but not the normal tension between a parent and child. There's sadness and a touch of hatred on both sides; nothing like the outright venom Eve holds for Kat's father, Brock (Christopher Meloni, tightly coiled), a sad-sack pushover who doesn't seem to know how to handle a house full of strong-willed women. Within a few days, Eve has up and disappeared without a trace or a good-bye note.

The mystery of Eve's disappearance is never far from Araki's attentions, but it lurks in the background of a story that's mainly about Kat's angry steps into womanhood. The chain-smoking, skimpy outfit-wearing Kat knows what she wants, and has no problem going after it. She's literally dating the boy next door, a shirtless dunce (Shiloh Fernandez) who suddenly seems disinterested in sex. So Kat gets what she needs elsewhere, banging the studly cop (Thomas Jane) investigating Eve's disappearance. Kat has no problem going into the gory details of their carnal encounters, describing them in earnest to her best friends (Gabourey Sidibe and Mark Indelicato), a pair of outsiders who happily eat up her stories with a spoon.

We come to learn that Kat used to be overweight, but has shed the pounds and is only now coming to realize her powers over men. But as we watch her develop into a sexual vixen, flashbacks walk us through Eve's deteriorating mental state. Eve wants to be youthful and adventurous again, and sees Kat as a vampire sucking the life right out of her just as much as her boring marriage. As she becomes more erratic, it only becomes more suspicious that nobody seems to be all that concerned about her disappearance. With a slightly out-of-phase tone that's less his "Teenage Apocalypse" trilogy and more Mysterious Skin meets Twin Peaks(Laura Palmer herself, Sheryl Lee, makes an appearance), Araki explores ideas of body image and female identity with an unusual spin, backed by all of the director's favorite '80s pop hits. But Araki has a difficult time mustering up a lot of energy for the story at times, punctuated by pointless therapy sessions between Kat and her shrink (Angela Bassett). It takes forever for things to get moving, and even when they do it often doesn't seem to be going anywhere until Kat's past and present converge in a twist that David Lynch would be proud of, even if it comes out of nowhere.

Eva Green doesn't get a ton of screen time but she's a dominating presence even though her performance is pure camp in the Mommie Dearest mold. She'd tower over everyone if it wasn't for Woodley, again showing remarkable range from insecure teen to confident woman. It's a role that may turn off some of her fans, especially those who know her from the ABC Family days, but at least Woodley has chosen worthy material to make such a bold step. White Bird in a Blizzard lacks momentum as a tawdry mystery, but it's worth seeing for Woodley, Green, and Araki's intoxicating sense of mood.

 Rating: 3 out of 5

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New Trailer for Gregg Araki's 'White Bird in a Blizzard' Starring Shailene Woodley

You wept for her in The Fault in Our Stars and cheered for her in Divergent, but in White Bird in a Blizzard you may be a little bit turned off (or turned on) by the character Shailene Woodley plays. Directed by Gregg Araki, the guy who gave us the "Teenage Wasteland" trilogy in the '90s and helped re-establish Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a serious actor with Mysterious Skin, the film gained a lot of attention at Sundance due to the hypersexual performance by Woodley and the Lynch-ian tone established by Araki.

Following on the recently released poster a new trailer for White Bird in a Blizzard has been released and if nothing else it shows a side of Woodley nobody has ever seen until now. Woodley plays teenaged Kat Connor, a girl just maturing into womanhood, who is coping with the sudden disappearance of her unstable mother, played by Eva Green in full psycho mode.  Christopher Meloni plays her hapless father, while Thomas Jane is a local cop and sexual conquest, while Shiloh Fernandez is her dim-witted boyfriend who simply isn't enough man for her. Angela Bassett co-stars as a therapist while Gabourey Sidibe is Woodley's best friend. Despite the clear Twin Peaks influence the film doesn't totally live up to what Woodley and Green deliver, saying in my review that it "lacks momentum as a tawdry mystery". How audiences react to Woodley here is going to be very interesting because it could have some blow back on her bigger studio projects.

White Bird in a Blizzard hits VOD on September 25th and theaters October 24th.

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Musings: What romantic-comedy mockery does “They Came Together” do best?

You can tell that director David Wain wants his new film, They Came Together, to be as iconic as his most famous work, Wet Hot American Summer. The intent soaks the film, manifesting in every crazy aside, every use of Christopher Meloni, and every bizarre sex scene. They Came Together is Wain’s attempt at recapturing the weird magic of Wet Hot American Summer, but it doesn’t quite work—you can’t strike ridiculous lightning twice. (Check out Travis's review here.)

Nevertheless, stars Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler—as Joel and Molly, respectively—give it their all, and for as much as the film feels like an overly long sketch jammed before the 1 a.m. cutoff on Saturday Night Live, there are moments here as memorable as Meloni and his can of vegetables. If you’re going to end up seeing or renting They Came Together this weekend, do it for these five moments.

+ “He’s handsome but in a nonthreatening way; vaguely but not overly Jewish.” “Molly is the kind of cute, klutzy girl that sometimes will drive you a little bit crazy, but you can’t help but fall in love with her.” One of the first things They Came Together does well is introduce the main characters played by Rudd and Poehler, and could they have been more spot-on in their generalizations of romantic-comedy protagonists? Absolutely not. Especially if you’ve ever seen Rudd play a romantic lead, like he did way back when in Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo + Juliet” – Paris basically defined “handsome but in a nonthreatening way.”

+ Amy Poehler shaving her face. In an early sequence, a split-screen shows Rudd and Poehler getting ready for their days in a similar fashion—singing along to the same song in the shower, for example—and then Rudd shaving his face … while Poehler also shaves her face. It’s so stupid, but her cutesy, grinning face as she smears shaving cream all over it has stuck with me since.

+ Jason Mantzoukas’s beard. The thing should get its own IMDB credit. Whether he’s trying to tame it down as a candy-company executive or letting it look all crazy while he’s in costume as a vampire, it’s a thing of beauty. Bless this man’s commitment to growing, and keeping, insane facial hair. It’s almost as important to the film as Michael Ian Black’s greasy sideswept hair and orange tan—because if you’re a romantic-comedy villain, that’s just how you look. That’s just true.

+ “That’s the point of view I represent!” says Kenan Thompson, who plays the token married and token black friend to Rudd’s Joel. If only all movies were this upfront about their casting quotas.

+ That time Joel pulls a cheeseburger out from behind the ear of Molly’s-never-before-mentioned son, who immediately calls him “Daddy.” We’re so used to seeing romantic-comedy protagonists try to charm children onto their side, but at least Wain abandons the change route—who even uses coins anymore?—and goes straight for the grilled-meat option. I keep hoping someone will pull this move on me someday. I would love them for the rest of my life. 

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Review: David Wain's 'They Came Together' Starring Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler

Normally, when David Wain is at the peak of his comedic powers he's also at his most bizarre.  His seminal comedy hit Wet Hot American Summer is incredibly ridiculous, offbeat, and distinct in the way that many consider it a classic, while others will probably never get it. Most recently, Wain has been dabbling in more mainstream efforts such as Wanderlust and Role Models, but his latest film They Came Together is a poor attempt to reclaim his indie cred by tearing to shreds the most conventional genre of all: the romantic comedy.

That's right, the old rom-com, which everybody can admit is stale and painfully formulaic. That seems to be the entire point of Wain's film, which stars the bulk of his 'Wet Hot' cast, with Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler in the lead roles as a couple whose love follows a familiar step-by-step path. The problem is that Wain isn't especially clever in pointing out the silliness behind the infamous "meet cutes", contrived romantic obstacles, and phony emotional entanglements that litter romantic comedies. We're all in on the joke right from the beginning, and Wain struggles to make that one joke fly for more than 20 minutes, much less the 83 minute run time.

The whole set-up is basically ripped from You've Got Mail; perhaps the stick by which all formulaic rom-coms will forever be measured. Molly (Poehler) and Joel (Rudd) are at a restaurant on a double date with a bored married couple (Bill Hader and Ellie Kemper), when the dinner conversation turns to how they met and fell in love. All the standard genre tropes are rolled out in a fashion that is initially hilarious because we all recognize them: Molly is an awkward but lovable candy shop owner, so innocent and pure and she gives all of her profits to charity. Joel is nominally her perfect match, but he works for a huge corporation planning to open its own store right across the street and put Molly out of business. When the two meet, of course they are instant enemies despite the obvious physical attraction, but soon they overcome the tension with the help of their stereotypical ethnic best friends.

It's obvious that Wain and his talented cast are having a lot of fun with this, and the film is at its best when it ventures into ludicrous tangents that feel separate from the rom-com shaming. Wain favorite Christopher Meloni co-stars as Joel's money-grubbing boss, and his embarrassing toilet misadventures at a costume party are a highlight. Joel has his group of racially diverse buddies (including SNL vet Kenan Thompson and The State'sKen Marino) who all play basketball (badly) and act as Joel's voices of reason. While these scenes are funny and clever in their own way, you can almost hear the gears grind to a halt during a torturous, repetitive sequence between Joel and a bartender over the phrase "You can say that again". It's one of those scenes that starts off funny, becomes tiresome, but never goes back around to being funny again, and you know that's what Wain was hoping for. The film's weak double-entendre of a title should tell you there's nothing subversive going on here; every joke is pretty obvious.

Unfortunately, there are too many moments just like that one. There comes a point when Hader and Kemper's characters begin to grow weary of the overlong tale, and it's a pretty good reflection of how the audience will feel at that point. Satire is a tough beast to tame, and while some of Wain's jokes are obviously meant to be terrible, surely not so many were designed to fall as flat as they do. Rudd, who has been in more than his share of lame romantic comedies, plays along with the gags and pokes fun at himself most of all. He and Poehler make for a great pair, one that wouldn't be too surprising if they were in a straight-up rom-com at some point, but they just don't have enough material to work with. As a fan of The State and Wet Hot American Summer, They Came Together feels like Wain flailing desperately to reclaim that old magic but finding it simply isn't there.

NOTE: This is a reprinted review from the Sundance Film Festival.

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Sundance Review: Gregg Araki's 'White Bird in a Blizzard' Starring Shailene Woodley

It's easy to dismiss White Bird in a Blizzard as Shailene Woodley's Havoc, the Anne Hathaway yawner that showed her frisky, naked side in an attempt to break The Princess Diaries stigma she was trapped in. While it may have worked for her, obviously it did, Woodley has always been mature beyond her years, and so as she flashes her nude bod and embraces her character's raw sexuality, it doesn't seem like such a wild step for her; more like a natural progression. It helps that the film is directed by Gregg Araki, whose films usually have more going on beneath the surface than just stories of teen angst and sexual yearning.

White Bird in a Blizzard is based on the novel by Laura Kasischke, adapted by Araki and spruced up with his penchant for the surreal and slightly dysfunctional. Part mystery, part languid coming-of-age story, the film is set in the 1980s, a period that seems to be a particular favorite for Araki, although his hold over the time is purely surface in this case. Vivacious high school student Kat Connors (Woodley) comes home one day to find her totally unhinged mother Eve (Eva Green, at her insane best) fully dressed and sleeping in her room, appearing totally unaware of her surroundings. There's tension between them, but not the normal tension between a parent and child. There's sadness and a touch of hatred on both sides. Nothing like the outright venom Eve holds for Kat's father, Brock (Christopher Meloni, tightly coiled), a sad-sack pushover who doesn't seem to know how to handle a house full of strong-willed women. Within a few days, Eve has up and disappeared without a trace or a good-bye note.

The mystery of Eve's disappearance is never far from Araki's attentions, but it lurks in the background of a story that's mainly about Kat's angry steps into womanhood. The chain-smoking, skimpy outfit-wearing Kat knows what she wants, and has no problem going after it. She's literally dating the boy next door, a shirtless dunce (Shiloh Fernandez) who suddenly seems disinterested in sex. So Kat gets what she needs elsewhere, banging the studly cop (Thomas Jane) investigating Eve's disappearance. Kat has no problem going into the gory details of their carnal encounters, describing them in earnest to her best friends (Gabourey Sidibe and Mark Indelicato), a pair of outsiders who happily eat up her stories with a spoon.

We come to learn that Kat used to be overweight, but has shed the pounds and is only now coming to realize her powers over men. But as we watch her develop into a sexual vixen, flashbacks walk us through Eve's deteriorating mental state. Eve wants to be youthful and adventurous again, and sees Kat as a vampire sucking the life right out of her just as much as her boring marriage. As she becomes more erratic, it only becomes more suspicious that nobody seems to be all that concerned about her disappearance. With a slightly out-of-phase tone that's less his "Teenage Apocalypse" trilogy and more MysteriousSkin meets Twin Peaks (Laura Palmer herself, Sheryl Lee, makes an appearance), Araki explores ideas of body image and female identity with an unusual spin, backed by all of the director's favorite '80s pop hits. But Araki has a difficult time mustering up a lot of energy for the story at times, punctuated by pointless therapy sessions between Kat and her shrink (Angela Bassett). It takes forever for things to get moving, and even when they do it often doesn't seem to be going anywhere until Kat's past and present converge in a twist that David Lynch would be proud of, even if it comes out of nowhere.

Eva Green doesn't get a ton of screen time but she's a dominating presence even though her performance is pure camp in the Mommie Dearest mold. She'd tower over everyone if it wasn't for Woodley, again showing remarkable range from insecure teen to confident woman. It's a role that may turn off some of her fans, especially those who know her from the ABC Family days, but at least Woodley has chosen worthy material to make such a bold step. White Bird in a Blizzard lacks momentum as a tawdry mystery, but it's worth seeing for Woodley, Green, and Araki's intoxicating sense of mood.

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Sundance Review: 'They Came Together' Starring Amy Poehler and Paul Rudd

Normally, when David Wain is at the peak of his comedic powers he's also at his most bizarre.  His seminal comedy hit Wet Hot American Summer is incredibly ridiculous, offbeat, and distinct in the way that many consider it a classic, while others will probably never get it. Most recently, Wain has been dabbling in more mainstream efforts such as Wanderlust and Role Models, but his latest film They Came Together is a poor attempt to reclaim his indie cred by tearing to shreds the most conventional genre of all: the romantic comedy.

That's right, the old rom-com, which everybody can admit is stale and painfully formulaic. That seems to be the entire point of Wain's film, which stars the bulk of his 'Wet Hot' cast, with Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler in the lead roles as a couple whose love follows a familiar step-by-step path. The problem is that Wain isn't especially clever in pointing out the silliness behind the infamous "meet cutes", contrived romantic obstacles, and phony emotional entanglements that litter romantic comedies. We're all in on the joke right from the beginning, and Wain struggles to make that one joke fly for more than 20 minutes, much less the 83 minute run time.

The whole set-up is basically ripped from You've Got Mail; perhaps the stick by which all formulaic rom-coms will forever be measured. Molly (Poehler) and Joel (Rudd) are at a restaurant on a double date with a bored married couple (Bill Hader and Ellie Kemper), when the dinner conversation turns to how they met and fell in love. All the standard genre tropes are rolled out in a fashion that is initially hilarious because we all recognize them: Molly is an awkward but lovable candy shop owner, so innocent and pure and she gives all of her profits to charity. Joel is nominally her perfect match, but he works for a huge corporation planning to open its own store right across the street and put Molly out of business. When the two meet, of course they are instant enemies despite the obvious physical attraction, but soon they overcome the tension with the help of their stereotypical ethnic best friends.

It's obvious that Wain and his talented cast are having a lot of fun with this, and the film is at its best when it ventures into ludicrous tangents that feel separate from the rom-com shaming. Wain favorite Christopher Meloni co-stars as Joel's money-grubbing boss, and his embarrassing toilet misadventures at a costume party are a highlight. Joel has his group of racially diverse buddies (including SNL vet Kenan Thompson and The State'sKen Marino) who all play basketball (badly) and act as Joel's voices of reason. While these scenes are funny and clever in their own way, you can almost hear the gears grind to a halt during a torturous, repetitive sequence between Joel and a bartender over the phrase "You can say that again". It's one of those scenes that starts off funny, becomes tiresome, but never goes back around to being funny again, and you know that's what Wain was hoping for. The film's weak double-entendre of a title should tell you there's nothing subversive going on here; every joke is pretty obvious.

Unfortunately, there are too many moments just like that one. There comes a point when Hader and Kemper's characters begin to grow weary of the overlong tale, and it's a pretty good reflection of how the audience will feel at that point. Satire is a tough beast to tame, and while some of Wain's jokes are obviously meant to be terrible, surely not so many were designed to fall as flat as they do. Rudd, who has been in more than his share of lame romantic comedies, plays along with the gags and pokes fun at himself most of all. He and Poehler make for a great pair, one that wouldn't be too surprising if they were in a straight-up rom-com at some point, but they just don't have enough material to work with. As a fan of The State and Wet Hot American Summer, They Came Together feels like Wain flailing desperately to reclaim that old magic but finding it simply isn't there.

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First Trailer for 'White Bird in a Blizzard' with Shailene Woodley and Eva Green

Now that Sundance has revealed its full festival slate of movies, there are a few that arrive with considerably more buzz than others. One that will surely open to jam-packed screenings is Gregg Araki's White Bird in a Blizzard, which has Shailene Woodley, Eva Green, Gabourey Sidibe, Thomas Jane, Christopher Meloni, and Shiloh Fernandez starring in the adaptation of Laura Kasischke's novel.

With its debut now only a couple of weeks ago, the first trailer has been released, suggesting this is Araki more in Mysterious Skin territory than Kaboom. Woodley plays Kat Connors, a young woman whose life is upended when her troubled mother (Green) sudden disappears. It's a little odd seeing the 33-year-old Green playing mom to the 22-year-old Woodley, but otherwise this looks extremely promising.

Araki will be shopping for distributors when White Bird in a Blizzard plays at Park City next month.


White Bird In a Blizzard Trailer VO by Sébastien Boulogne

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First Look at Shailene Woodley and Eva Green in Gregg Araki's 'White Bird in a Blizzard'

She may have already earned a Golden Globe nomination and won an Indie Spirit Award, but things are only just now starting to really blow up for Shailene Woodley. Now that the whole Spider-Man thing seems to be behind her (she's clearly not ever coming back), she has a potential Hunger Games-sized blockbuster in Divergent on the way. But at the same time she's also sticking to smaller indie projects that have helped cultivate a devoted audience, such as this year's The Spectacular Now and the upcoming adaptation of The Fault In Our Stars. One film that many seem to be overlooking is Gregg Araki's White Bird in a Blizzard, and we're getting our very first images from it.

Based on Laura Kasischke's novel, the film boasts a solid cast of Woodley, Eva Green, Chris Meloni, Gabourey Sidibe, Angela Bassett, and Shiloh Fernandez in the coming-of-age story of Kat Connors, who learns to deal with life after her mother suddenly disappears. As the images suggest, there's more going on here than just a simple "missing persons" case as Kat is haunted by vivid dreams of something terrible.  Not that we should ever expect Araki to make a "simple" movie about anything.

It's still a little early for a release date on this one, but if it premieres at Sundance like Araki's films usually do, expect a distributor to pick it up.

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Chris Meloni joins 'Sin City: A Dame to Kill For'

Chris Meloni may have spent twelve years as the aggressive cop Elliot Stabler on Law & Order: SVU, but I'm guessing it will be his experience as the deranged bisexual inmate Chris Keller on HBO's Oz that informs his next role. Deadline reports he's joined the cast of Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, where he'll be playing one of the boys in blue.

Thumbing through any of Frank Miller's Sin City comics, or just going back and revisiting Robert Rodriguez's great film, you'll note that the cops are easily the most corruptible, violent, and nasty people in town, which is where Meloni's Oz background comes in. No further details have been given, although the role is described as one of the leads, and it makes me wonder if he's playing Mort, one of the two detectives who are a major factor in the central story involving Ava Lord.  Mort becomes romantically involved with the scheming seductress, before things get violent as they always do.

Casting is moving full steam ahead now, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt coming aboard last night. Josh Brolin is still being eyed for a role, along with other past cast members like Clive Owen and Bruce Willis. Rosario Dawson, Dennis Haysbert, Jamie King, Jamie Chung, Mickey Rourke, and Jessica Alba are confirmed to star when Sin City: A Dame to Kill For opens on October 4th.

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Christopher Meloni, Eva Green, and Gabourey Sidibe join Gregg Araki's 'White Bird In A Blizzard'

Say what you will about controversial west coast filmmaker Gregg Araki, but he's helped elevate a lot of young stars' careers to the next level. His "Teenage Apocalypse" trilogy featured early appearances by Rose McGowan, Ryan Phillippe, Heather Graham, Mena Suvari, and more, while he also gave Joseph Gordon-Levitt his first serious dramatic turn in 2004's Mysterious Skin. His next film, White Bird In a Blizzard, will star another fast-rising talent in Shailene Woodley(The Descendants), and he's building a great cast to go along with her.

Already co-starring Shiloh Fernandez, Araki has now added Eva Green(Dark Shadows), Gabourey Sidibe(Precious), and Christopher Meloni(Law & Order: SVU) to star in the film about a young woman who sees her life turned upside down when her mother disappears. Expect there to be a lot more to it than that considering this is an Araki flick.

Meloni has a couple of big films coming up, appearing in the Jackie Robinson biopic 42, and also in Zack Snyder's Man of Steel. Sidibe can be seen now in Seven Psychopaths, and Green will star in 300: Rise of an Empire. [Deadline]

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Christopher Meloni to play the bad guy CEO in rom-com spoof, 'They Came Together'

Although he spent 12 years on NBC's long-running Law & Order: SVU, to me Christopher Meloni's best work has been with HBO, where he played the deranged Chris Keller on the prison series, Oz. He recently returned to the network as a recurring character on True Blood, and has been wrapping up a number of movie projects as well. He'll appear in Zack Snyder's Man of Steel, and has a major role in the Jackie Robinson biopic, 42. Meloni makes for a fantastic bad guy, and now he'll get to try and destroy Amy Poehler in the rom-com spoof, They Came Together.

Poehler plays Molly, a small candle/knick-knack store owner whose business is being threatened by a major corporation, run by Meloni's villainous CEO of CorporateCo Corporation and Co., Inc. Paul Rudd is Joel, who works for the company trying to shut Molly down, which initially causes conflict, but since this is a romantic comedy they are destined to fall in love by the movie's end. Co-written and directed by David Wain, they've been adding a number of stellar comedic supporting players into the mix. Cobie Smulders, Ed Helms, Jason Mantzoukas, Max Greenfield, Noureen Dewulf, and Michael Ian Black are all a part of the impressive cast.

The only thing that could make this better is if they managed to get Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan to make fun of themselves in the film as well. Fat chance of that happening. Production on They Came Together should begin shortly. [THR]

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