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Ted Zee

Premiere of the second, and likely final season of Flight of the Conchords, via Funny or Die. Larger Version. Sorry, U.S. only, and the video is only scheduled to run through Sunday.

The broadcast premiere airs on HBO on January 18th.

Just a note that activity will be relatively light over the next few days as we work to relaunch this sucker with new…everything.

When done right, they pique curiosity and heighten the anticipation level, but the added value in great one-sheets for great films comes in unraveling them months and years later when you think you have all the answers.

40 Exquisite Independent Film Posters - Smashing Magazine (via yewknee’d)

DVD endorsement: Andrea Arnold’s Red Road (2006) knocked my socks off - washed, repackaged, priced them - and placed them back on the sales floor.

What do you get when you assemble a comedy team of Amy Poehler, Parker Posey, Rachel Dratch, Amber Tamblyn, Will Arnett and Jane Lynch?

A direct-to-DVD release. The trailer for Spring Breakdown says available now, but is it now now, or later now? And if it’s now now, where? (via Film Junk)

New Terminator Salvation trailer (via Goldenfiddle)

“The first conference was a pep talk intended for me. This was going to be the big movie for Paramount. This picture would save Paramount. I love that kind of stuff – it makes me feel important and I work twice as hard. We talked casting. I suggested Marlon Brando for the role of the Godfather. They were kind to me but I got the impression my stock had dropped 50 points. Al Ruddy suggested Robert Redford for the role of Michael, and I didn’t care how nice a guy he was, his stock dropped 50 points.”

The Godfather author Mario Puzo on how he came to write the record setting bestseller and screenplay for the film, how he pushed for Brando, Al Pacino’s early struggles in casting (and how Coppola kept him on despite the studio’s wishes), and the trouble with Frank Sinatra - an excerpt from the new, 700 dollar Taschen coffee table book, The Godfather Family Album, featuring over 400 previously unseen images from the set by photographer Steve Shapiro.

How They Shot The Godfather - Daily Mail (via HuffPost)

His top 20, in alphabetical order: Ballast, The Band’s Visit, Che, Chop Shop, The Dark Knight, Doubt, The Fall, Frost/Nixon, Frozen River, Happy-Go-Lucky, Iron Man, Milk, Rachel Getting Married, The Reader, Revolutionary Road, Shotgun Stories, Slumdog Millionaire, Synecdoche New York, W., and Wall*E

Another favorite is Guy Maddin’s My Winnipeg, plus five documentaries he ranks “in equal first place”: Encounters at the End of the World, I.O.U.S.A., Man on Wire, Standard Operating Procedure, and Trouble the Water

The best films of 2008… and there were a lot of them - RogerEbert.com

Tell me this doesn’t look like a good time. Sure, Stephen Chow immediately comes to mind, but don’t let comparisons get in the way of admiring Nikhil Advani’s Dehli to Shanghai flattery by Bollywood seasoning. Scheduled release: January 16, 2009.

Chandni Chowk To China trailer (via Coming Soon)

The site relaunch for Interview Magazine (December 2008 issue) yields Jack White with Cate Blanchett, Spike Lee talking up Martin Scorsese, David Cronenberg and Charlie Kaufman, Brigitte Lacombe with Christopher Doyle and Wong Kar-wai, Thurston Moore with Spike Jonze, Gus Van Sant, Josh Brolin, more, more, and more still. (via GreenCine)

Related: The A.V. Club with renowned set and costume designer, Wes Anderson.

What are the requirements for viewing this site? (via The Apartment)

(Slashfilm image)

Sundance - or more specifically, the corporate entities that cast a shadow upon the Park City festival - they like Michael Cera and what he represents: a bit aloof but playfully so, untarnished, attracts young audiences who aren’t clinging to their pocketbooks as tightly as those of us in self-imposed spending freezes, hoping for layoff-proof winter hibernation. Ten, even five years ago, a non-imposing, lightweight, good kid like Cera, or a conversely cuddly bear like Seth Rogen wouldn’t have had a legit shot as a romantic lead or a heavy-lifter in an ensemble cast. In 2008 he’s a New Hollywood Cutie, and no one is complaining.

And then there’s Charlyne Yi - a comic who’s been compared to both Andy Kaufman and Pee Wee Herman, and was on Variety’s 10 Comics to Watch list last year. Premiering at Sundance, the half-documentary, half scripted comedy, Paper Heart - in which the 32 year-old embarks on a quest (involving real-life boyfriend Cera) to find the meaning of true love (even though she doesn’t believe in it) - is just as much a Charlyne Yi vehicle as it is a Michael Cera vehicle.

For the sake of debate, let’s just say the film will be well received - not thinking in terms of whether it’s a Sundance hit - just that it’s funny and heartwarming and cozy and the filmgoers and critics who caught it at the festival walked away satisfied. Now, let’s pretend that in place of Michael Cera there was some cute, but not-as-famous face, and the still well received film relies mostly on Yi’s talents. Would it still have a chance to become the next Juno or Little Miss Sunshine - the crossover hit that the studios will gladly bankroll with the millions required to jam the name of this film down your airpipe and in your ear? I really want to know.

I have it in my mind that audiences are ready for a still sorta-young lead actress that falls outside the parameters of what we’re used to seeing in a teen magazine photoshoot subject, but can the same be said of the moguls? It’s not likely that the unapologetically geeky Yi is going to remove her glasses and shake her hair loose in one motion to reveal some other person in Paper Heart, or in any off-screen situation for that matter. Are the faux-indie studios grownup enough to back a quirkster comedienne like Yi in roles that transcend “Partygoer” (Cloverfield), Stoner Jodi (Knocked Up) and Wheelchair Jody (Semi-Pro)? If she wants it, could she join the boys of the New Hollywood Cutie elite as a bankable starlet? Could a Charlyne Yi type ever make Michael Cera type money? Let me know how and when.

Charlyne Yi’s YouTube Channel

2009 Sundance lineup (Variety)

A two-for-one trailer of Steven Soderbergh’s split-down-the-middle Che Guevara biopic(s), Che. Scheduled Release: January 9, 2009 (Part 1).

(via Twitch)

Lance Hammer’s Ballast came up big in nominations for the 2009 Spirit Awards on Tuesday. The awards presentation takes place on February 21st on IFC. Hammer and his Ballast cast and crew were nominated in five categories, including Best Feature and Best Director.

Other Best Feature noms were Frozen River, Rachel Getting Married, Wendy and Lucy, and The Wrestler. Nominated for Best Director were Ramin Bahrani (Chop Shop), Jonathan Demme (Rachel Getting Married), Lance Hammer (Ballast), Courtney Hunt (Frozen River), Thomas McCarthy (The Visitor).

Complete list (IFC)