11.20.08: Night at the Museum sequel pics, White House butler's story goes to Sony, and more

Night at the Museum has a legion of haters, but it was cute enough (as a rental, at least, which is how I saw it) and "Gum gum dum dum?" can still be heard around my house from time-to-time.  In any event, it made oodles of money, and USA Today has the first official pictures from the Smithsonian-set sequel, showing Stiller with under-appreciated SNL star Bill Hader (who is playing General George Custer).  I happened to walk by Hader and his posse the other week, and the man has presence.  By which I mean, I'm 6' and he's apparently only 6'1", but he gave the impression of being much taller. I guess that's what you call charisma. (The above photo is not from the sequel.)

THURSDAY TRAILERAMA

• Tim Burton gets all the credit for A Nightmare Before Christmas, but Henry Selick is the man who actually directed the now-classic flick. Selick's artisanal dedication to the nearly lost art of stop motion animation serves as a wonderful counterpoint to the slick computer-generated wonders that we've grown accustomed to since the dawn of the Pixar age.  His latest film, Coraline, unites Selick with modern fantasy master Neil Gaiman, and by the looks of the new trailer  it's a wonderful pairing.

• There is a sub-genre of usually teacher-centric films in which a "noble white person" swoops into the lives a minority group and "saves" them.  Regardless of the veracity of the stories, the problem with these films is that seemingly 10 of them get made for everyone 1 about minorities saving themselves without outside help.  You can argue that, sure, a certain portion of the white audience needs a surrogate character in order to watch a movie of this kind at all, and for a movie to make money it helps to attract that audience.  Hence the discrepancy.  But still, it's all a bit silly and tiring after a while.  There's an offshoot of this sub-genre in which WWII-era Jewish people are saved by noble goyim – that would be "non-Jews". Schindler's List is the most famous example, and now Good looks to continue the trend (although whether anybody actually gets saved is questionable – I've skipped the reviews for fear of spoilers). Ed Zwick's forthcoming Defiance actually focuses on Jews saving themselves, but unfortunately the buzz on the film is not great, and let's face it – the quiet layer of anti-Semitism that still exists in this country (thanks, Henry Ford!) would limit the film's box office potential, anyway.  (Sigh.)  Wake me when they remake Raid on Entebbe.

ODDS AND ENDS

• Western comic book hero Jonah Hex was to have transitioned to the big screen courtesy of star Josh Brolin and directors Mark Nelvedine and Brian Taylor (Crank).  "Was" being the operative word, as the directors have departed and Brolin may be getting cold feet.  Alas.  Covered many places, but we like CHUD's summation.

• "Rosie Perez, Craig Ferguson and Arsenio Hall will join Christina Ricci for the CG-animated feature The Hero of Color City... thesps will lend voices as a group of crayons fighting to save their multihued city." You think any of these folk would participate if they actually had to show their faces on the screen?  Um... yes, I bet they probably would.  Well maybe not Ricci. (Variety)

• On November 7th The Washington Post published the bittersweet story of Eugene Allen, an African-American who worked as a butler at the White House for more than 30 years.  It became a media sensation, and it was only a matter of time before someone swooped in to make Eugene's story into a movie – that someone being Sony Pictures.  Hmmm... given the amount of time the film needs to cover, I'm thinking Jaime Foxx for Allen. We'll see. (Variety)

• Disney and IMAX are teaming to bring 5 3-D movies to the giant screen, starting with 2009's Robert Zemeckis/Jim Carrey version of A Christmas Carol. (Variety)

• As a 30-something white guy it's hard to pronounce 50 Cent's name/handle/tag/whatever without coming off as a total doof.  Either you say it like it's written and risk sounding ignorant, or you attempt his preferred "Fiddy" variation and sound like a yuppie poser.  So it's a good thing I'm working in a written medium.  Anyway, Mr. Cent has joined the cast of a British gangster thriller called Dead Man Running, which also stars Brenda Blethyn, Danny Deyer, and Monet Mazur as part of what must be the most alliterate ensemble in recent history. (Empire)

• The recently screened Star Trek footage screening may be getting all the glory, but Terminator Salvation is also doing the sneak-peak thing.  io9 has the details.  Beware spoilers.