12.18.08: Judd Apatow's stand-up support group, Keanu's a space cowboy, Terry Gilliam news, and more

Current Hollywood comedy king Judd Apatow is two-for-two with his feature directing projects (The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up).  His third film, Funny People, treads the dangerous "comedy about comedians" waters which have sunk Hollywood's biggest ships in the past. So he's calling in some of the stand-up world's heavy hitters to support the A-listers heading the cast. Sarah Silverman, the reclusive Norm MacDonald, Andy Dick and Dave Attell (arguably the best live comedian working today) are set to back up Adam Sandler and Seth Rogan. (/Film)

SHANKMAN.  ADAM SHANKMAN.

Hairspray director and So You Think You Can Dance? guest host Adam Shankman has lined up two new projects. Bob The Musical "centers on a mild-mannered man who suddenly hears the 'inner song' of people's hearts after being struck on the head", while the apparently non-musical Sinbad takes the tale of the classic adventurer and his crew as they search for Aladdin's lamp. (Variety)

ODDS AND ENDS

• Why, it seems like just yesterday I was poo-pooing the notion that Christopher Nolan had gotten to the casting stage on Batman Hunted*, and now here comes Film School Rejects with breaking news of not just one, but THREE new villains plus none other than Johnny Depp in a surprising behind-the-scenes role. I'd spill the beans here, but when someone scores a scoop this big they deserve all the glory, and all the clicks.

• Japanese space cowboy bounty hunters? Paging Keanu Reeves, who tells MTV that he's dabbling in early pre-production on an adaptation of Cowboy Bebop, the popular Japanese anime.  Quoth Neo, "“It’s got so much style to it, and that’s part of its appeal. That kind of Old West, bordertown, low-tech science fiction aspect.”  You know, like Firefly. (I kid the anime-niacs.)

• Who's going to play Tony Stark's daddy in Iron Man II? Latino Review has the (possible) scoop. Hint: it rhymes with Bim Flobinns.

• You want new publicity stills? We've got your new publicity stills right here.  Boo ya –  Inglorious Basterds (sic). Watch out, here comes Mickey Rourke in crime thriller 13.  Too hardcore? Here's some Kristen Bell in When In Rome, which "tells the story of an ambitious young New Yorker (Bell), disillusioned with romance, who takes a whirlwind trip to Rome where she defiantly plucks magic coins from a “foolish” fountain of love, inexplicably igniting the passion of an odd group of suitors" – Dannny DeVito, John Heder, Will Arnett, and Dax Shepard. "But when a charming reporter (Josh Duhamel) pursues her with equal zest, how will she know if his love is the real thing?"

• But that's not all.  Check out Bruce Willis looking... leathery in a new still from Surrogates, the graphic novel adaptation in which "FBI agents investigate the mysterious murder of a college student linked to the man who helped create a high-tech surrogate phenomenon that allows people to purchase unflawed robotic versions of themselves – fit, good looking remotely controlled machines that ultimately assume their life roles – enabling people to experience life vicariously from the comfort and safety of their own homes."

• There are also childhood-raping, dullsville G.I. Joe posters over at io9.

• You won't find a film geek alive today who doesn't (heart) the eternally troubled Terry Gilliam, director of many beautifully imaginative films including Brazil, 12 Monkeys, and the underrated The Fisher King.  Bad luck and lackluster projects have dominated the last several years of his career; most recently the death of Heath Ledger during the filming of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus led to a quickie rewrite of the film to allow for four different actors (Leger, Colin Farrell, Jude Law and Johnny Depp) to play what was originally written for one.  But we fans still hope that each time Gilliam leaps into a new project it will be the leap back into cinematic glory. So rejoice, one and all, at the news that he is developing a "smaller" film entitled The Zero Theorem with a professor from the University of Central Florida.  There are no plot details as of yet, but really... he had us as Zero Theorem. (Film Ick via io9)

• In more career revival news, Barry Sonnenfeld is returning to the feature arena for the first time since 2006's abysmal RV with action comedy The How-To Guide for Saving the World.  The plot, which feels a tad too similar to Sonnenfeld's own Men In Black films, is "centered on an instruction manual for saving the world left behind by a secret group that protects the Earth from alien invaders but is wiped out." (Variety)  (While we're here, why doesn't Sonnenfeld's Addams Family Values not get more love? Significantly better than the first film in the series, it's absolutely deserving of Gremlins II-level cult status. Alas.)

• TR2N to be shot/rendered entirely in 3-D, a la James Cameron's forthcoming Avatar. w00t! (AICN)

• Love Dennis Quaid and/or Zhang Ziyi? Speak Italian? Then this international trailer for The Horsemen will make your day. "Dennis Quaid plays a recently widowed detective who discovers a shocking connection between himself and the suspects in a serial killing spree linked to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse."

*Not actually the name of the next Batman film.  Unless it is.