Amy Adams, Chris Cooper and Rashida Jonesare in negotiations to join the Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller scribed Muppet movie which is still without a title.
The project, which is gearing up for a November shoot, is one of a few options Adams was eyeing before signing on. The film is a big one for Disney, as it's a return to a franchise that hasn't been on the big screen in quite a few years. Over the summe, a table read for the film was held at Pixar withfilmmakers John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, Michael Arndt, Bob Peterson and president Ed Catmull, all on hand to lend their input and make sure everything was right. From what is being revealed of the parts the actors are attached to, it looks like the show biz world setting that we gleaned in an early script review remain's intact. The film will find the Muppets reuniting to put a show to save the studio. Jones will play an ABC executive, Adams will play the girlfriend of Segel's character, helping him reunite the Muppets for the show while Cooper has the meatiest role as the villain (sweet) "who wants to buys the studio to dig for the oil hiding underneath it and who never thought the Muppets were funny to begin with."
James Bobin ("Flight Of The Conchords") will direct the film that is aiming to hit theaters on December 25, 2011.
It's not that we don't like Jack Black. We do. When he's on comic form, like in "School of Rock" or "Tropic Thunder," he tickles our funny bone, and he's capable of surprising dramatic range when he wants to be. And it's not that we don't like writer Nicholas Stoller, who's proven with the likes of "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and "Get Him To The Greek" that he knows his comedy.
But in a season promising the painful-looking likes of "Burlesque," "The Next Three Days," "Yogi Bear" and "Little Fockers," few films looks to be as wretched as 20th Century Fox's "Gulliver's Travels." The buzz is fairly poisonous, with the usually-pliant Comic Con audience booing the clip they saw, the trailer looks hideous, and the marketing materials, including the new poster that Fandango premiered over the weekend, continue to make the film look like one of the films-within-a-film in "Tropic Thunder" or "Funny People."
Indeed, there seems to be something of a belief among general audiences that the film is fictional: anecdotally, an advert for the Orange cellphone network currently running before every film shown in the UK, featuring Black (watch it below), has made friends think that the film is a specially-created spoof, rather than an actual release — possibly the definition of "Gulliver's Travels." Maybe we'll be pleasantly surprised: the cast is quite strong, with Jason Segel, Romany Malco, TJ Miller, Catherine Tate, Billy Connolly, Amanda Peet, Emily Blunt and Chris O'Dowd (although Blunt was forced to take the role through contractual obligations to Fox, and we tend to take against anyone that forces our beloved Emily to do anything against her will...). But with "Monsters vs. Aliens" director Rob Letterman in the chair, we wouldn't count on it. "Gulliver's Travels" opens December 22nd, when the sound of cash registers ringing will drown out the sound of Jonathan Swift spinning in his grave.
Amy Adams is a wanted woman and we can't say we blame the filmmakers and producers who covet her talents. After taking off almost a year to have a baby, the actress is ready to get back to work and now has to weigh some serious offers.
The first one, and perhaps the most enticing as it could endlessly enjoyable, is one from Jason Segel and Disney regarding his 'Untitled Muppets Movie' (sometimes known as simply, "The Muppets," formerly known as "The Greatest Muppet Movie Of All Time") which is due Christmas 2011. Segel want Adams to co-star next to him in the picture which needs to start shooting soon if it wants to make its targeted release date. Having already worked in the realm of animation — "Enchanted" — she more than demonstrated that she could carry a tune (the 'Muppets' film will surely have songs in it and Segel is a songwriter as well), Adams seems like a perfect fit for the material, but she does have other gigs to consider.
Cameron Crowe — who is getting divorced from his wife of 22 years, Nancy Wilson, bummer — wants Adams to play the zookeeper role alongside Matt Damon in the adaptation of "We Bought A Zoo" which is also scheduled for a Christmas release in 2011 which essentially means it too is vying for her attention. Damon plays a widowed man who buys a dilapidated zoo as a condition of purchasing a beautiful country estate. Lastly there's Dreamworks' "Welcome To People," which is the directorial debut of Alex Kurtzman, one half of the writing duo (along with Roberto Orci) responsible for the "Star Trek" and "Transformers" films thus far. The Dreamworks family drama recently picked up Chris Pine for the lead — a man who loses his father to cancer and then must deliver the $150,000 inheritance to his half-sister — and they're eying Adams for this sibling role; a struggling mother and recovering alcoholic. EW reports that her participation in 'The Muppets' movie seems optimistic, but nothing has been set in stone yet. Adams is apparently on a short list of women who are also contenders for the "We Bought A Zoo" gig.
Amy Adams, Chris Cooper and Rashida Jones are in negotiations to join the Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller scribed Muppet movie which is still without a title.
