Last month it was reported that Cameron Diaz was in talks to join Seth Rogen in The Green Hornet as his love interest. We haven’t heard anything since, but now Cameron has confirmed that she’s “in” to SplashPage:

Diaz has officially signed on to play Lenore “Casey” Case, historically Britt Reid’s beautiful secretary and one of the few people aware of the fact that Reid (who will be played by Seth Rogen), spends his off-hours fighting crime as the Hornet. In the soon-to-shoot film, however, Casey will be reimagined as a forensics-TV-show loving amateur sleuth who remains in the dark about Green Hornet’s true identity—and is smarting from a recent divorce.

Diaz also told us that she recently met the new Kato, and that they’re hard at work in pre-production for the Summer 2010 flick. “Seth and Michel are awesome, and Jay Chou too,” she said. “We’re having a really great time.”

Diaz has been hard at work reviewing the past incarnations of Casey, but explained that it will ultimately be a modern, very different take on the character. “I think she’ll have her own little [differences],” explained the “Charlie’s Angels” series star. “I’m going with Michel, because this is Michel’s movie and Seth’s movie. So, I’m playing the character that they wrote for us.”

We also heard last month that Nicolas Cage was in talks to play the villain. Now that the casting seems to be getting finalized we could hear confirmation on that soon.

Alright, folks! I was told by Liam, my fierce English Editor that Funny People, Judd Apatow’s third directorial effort, doesn’t hit the UK until much later even though it opened here last weekend. What does that mean for you Europeans? It means I still have time to save you the price of a ticket by reviewing Funny People.

Funny People is a long film, about 150 minutes long, and commits the cardinal sin of a movie with such a length: it feels that long.

I see a lot of movies, some in the theater, some on TV pay channels and some streamed to my computer through the magic of the internet. In the month of July, I somehow avoided seeing horrible movies, which had started to concern me. “What if I’ve lost all critical perspective and lowered my bar by actually enjoying Transformers 2, never again to be trustworthy or insightful?,” I selfishly thought to myself. Good news: I didn’t like Funny People, which means I have re-calibrated my critical barometer.

Then again, just trashing the movie for no apparent reason doesn’t make any sense, so I suppose I should back up my claim that Funny People isn’t worth your 150 minutes.

Funny People is the story of fictional comedian George Simmons, played by Adam Sandler because Simmons essentially IS Adam Sandler. George used to be a comedian until he became a studio whore making movies like Re-Do where he’s trapped in the body of an infant or Merman where he is a MerMan. The film even starts off with home videos of Sandler shot by Apatow when the two used to live together. It’s an odd thing to mix real Sandler with fictional Simmons they way Apatow does, because Funny People is a big studio movie directed by hot-shit-Apatow with Apatow-golden-boy Seth Rogen in it featuring cameos by real-life comedians. At some point in the film, you’ll notice that people talk about George Simmons and your brain hears “Adam Sandler.” The guy was everywhere in the late 90s and early 00s, mostly making the kind of crap he’s now apologizing for with this thin “character.”

Simmons gets Acute Myeloid Leukemia, a rare cancerous blood disease I wrote an after-school special about once. Safe to say it’s horrible and can kill you fast. When Sandler decides to go back-to-basics and do more stand up, he hires Ira Wright (Rogen) oblivious when Ira screws his roommate (Jonah Hill as Leo) out of a co-writing gig. Sandler asks for both Ira and Leo, but Ira never makes the offer to his friend, coveting the job for himself because he is a lesser comedian and hasn’t been able to pay rent at the apartment he shares with Leo and Jason Schwartzman’s Mark.

Sandler tells Ira that he’s dying but asks the young comedian to keep it to himself and write some jokes for him.

That is the first movie in Funny People, a film that is actually two movies squished into one premise. The first half of the film is a portrait of the lives of famous comedians juxtaposed against the lives of up-and-coming comedians struggling to get work so they don’t have to serve cold cuts at the local deli.

The second movie in Funny People starts when Sandler tries to re-connect with the love of his life Laura (played by Leslie Mann) who left Sandler when he cheated on her and ran off to marry an Australian businessman Clarke (played by Eric Bana). When Laura thinks Sandler is dying, they re-connect, then Sandler is cured but Laura still thinks she’s in love with him. When Clarke returns from a business trip early, Ira and Sandler are stuck in Laura’s house with Laura’s family as Sandler attempts to steal Clarke’s wife out from under him and his daughters (the Apatow girls, a pleasure as always).

Yes, it’s a very unexpected and abrupt change in plot and tone, but this is Judd Apatow’s “death” movie. His first directorial effort, The 40 Year Old Virgin, dealt with love and sexual innocence. Steve Carrell played that part with enough aw-shucks and childish glee that it worked and played well to a young audience. Knocked Up was Apatow’s way of bringing his Freaks & Geeks mentality into adulthood by having Rogen’s stoner slacker learn responsibility the old fashioned way: by putting his baby up in someone. This film advances Apatow’s themes a bit further. All the characters are trying to make something of themselves (something Virgin and Knocked Up’s leads weren’t doing) and get cut short by questions of mortality.

I can see the appeal in doing a story about death with comedians at the center, but the film doesn’t really work that way. On the outside it seems great: would you rather talk death with a comedian or Al Pacino (with his needless yelling of late)? But the truth of the matter is much more sinister, because anyone who knows comedians will tell you that they are the most profoundly unhappy people you will ever meet. Sandler’s character sums it up best in one of his monologues where he says that he’s been trying to make his Dad laugh all his life and he had to be funny because you have to bring the jokes right before the old man beats the shit out of you. Funny people, REAL funny people not these Funny People, are the product of tragedy. A sense of humor is a survival technique for overweight children and social outcasts. As far as my opinion goes, that’s what kills the movie:

None of these characters are likable.

I can’t feel sorry that someone who was given everything through the trappings of fame is going to die, and I certainly don’t want to listen to 150 minutes of complaining if I think that person is a waste of space. And by the time the movie does decide to end, no one has really changed. They are all the same sad assholes we started the movie with.

I will now tell you why each character is a dick that doesn’t deserve to have a movie based around them.

George Simmons (Adam Sandler): The guy knowingly tricks star-fuckers into having sex with him, lives in a huge house with a large and faceless staff, treats Ira like crap, can’t actually emote to anyone and is SO selfish that he tries to break-apart Laura’s family without any thought of her kids and life. Worst of all, he ends that snafu by blaming Ira. Maybe it’s that Sandler has profoundly annoyed me with everything after “Piece Of Shit Car,” but if Adam Sandler were to really be diagnosed with cancer, I think we’d all agree that his great contributions to comedy are behind him.

Ira Wright (Seth Rogen): Not only does the guy refuse to share his job with his much funnier roommate, but his love story with female comedian Daisy (Aubrey Plaza) consists of two scenes of arguing and one scene of a SINGLE kiss. I understand this guy wants to be a comedian real bad and doesn’t want to work at the deli to make ends meet, but HEY that’s life, Ira. Suck it up. There’s also a part that barely gets referenced where Ira takes credit for one of Leo’s jokes. Joke thief as well? Usually Rogen’s characters have some degree of nerdy likeability to them, but Ira is a doormat until the last 10 minutes of the film. I wanted to slap him around several times in this movie (and even more so in the second movie squeezed into this movie).

Laura (Leslie Mann): Not only is Laura a bitch the first time we see her on screen, but she glows red like she just got a chemical peel when we see her again. Outside of this being Leslie Mann’s worst role in one of her husband’s movies, Laura is a miserable portrait of a woman. She’s the pivotal character in the film’s tonal switch, because when she shows up the film stops being a mediocre comedy and begins being something resembling a mid-life crisis drama. She’s ready to kick her husband out of the house and move her kids to LA so she can re-start her acting career and somehow never manages to see through George’s exterior to notice that he’s not a family person.

Clarke (Eric Bana): Bana works his ass off in this role. At first we’re supposed to hate him, then we’re supposed to sympathize with him, then he’s supposed to make us feel better about his home life just in time for the movie to end. He tries, he tries so hard. But – again – his character ends up right back where he was at the beginning of the movie when the credits roll thanks to some sudden “karma” lines that are supposed to make everyone forget they’re all traumatizing his kids.

There’s one good character in the film, and that’s Eminem as himself. He tells Sandler that death was George’s way out of the lifestyle his stardom has brought about. Hearing those words come out of Eminem’s stoic mug rung true. If the film’s overall message had a face, it’s that of Marshall Mathers: You may be successful, but no one is ever actually happy and no one can change.

What happened, Judd? This movie is populated with characters I couldn’t root for. The title promised comedy, but only delivered for the first 30 minutes. Everyone was the same at the end of the film (you might say Sandler had changed, but we never saw him cancer-free, so how will we know that?). It’s just a mess that has been assembled into a movie thanks to Apatow’s talent. The guy knows how to shoot a film and whatnot, but Jesus, this movie made me sad.

Judd Apatow films are usually comedies with a very real heart to them, but in Funny People that heart has been replaced by cameos and meta-humor. Then, about half-way through the heart dies and we’re challenged to root for either the selfish asshole trying to break apart a family or the cheating, borderline neglectful husband who is still an asshole, but a different kind.

What the hell?

What. The. Hell.

According to Variety Nicolas Cage is in talks to play the gangster villain in The Green Hornet. When I first read the news I misread it as the Green Lantern and mouthed the words ‘oh dear God’, however when my eyes stopped confusing me and I realised it was just the comedy movie of a superhero not many people care about, I warmed to the idea. Variety also confirm the news that Cameron Diaz is in talks to join the cast. She will play a reporter and love interest to Seth Rogen’s Hornet.

The picture is moving full steam ahead for a fall start date, even as the studio looks to replace Stephen Chow, who was going to play sidekick Kato. Rogen and Evan Goldberg wrote the script and Neal Moritz is producing through his Original Films banner.

The Green Hornet, for those of you not familiar with old radio dramas and serials, is newspaper publisher Brett Reid, who puts on a mask to fight crime as The Green Hornet (reportedly the “angriest” color of hornet) with his masked driver and manservant Kato.

The film adaptation that has been under development for over a year, with Seth Rogen writing the project and getting in shape to play Reid and Michel Gondry attached to direct.

The movie suffered what seemed to be a major loss last week when Stephen Chow, the writer/director/actor behind Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer dropped out of the role of Kato and left a large Asian-shaped hole in the cast.

This lead to rumors that the film had been shut down once again, mired in development hell. Strangely, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard the film was dead. Ever since Sundance of this year, there have been persistent rumors that Sony was shutting down this revival of a franchise whose original audience is too old to enjoy Seth Rogen movies, but on the Funny People junket, Rogen insists that The Green Hornet is getting made:

Mr. Beaks: I keep getting emails from some guy who’s trying to play the role of hollywood insider on GREEN HORNET. He keeps trying to feed me information, and he is consistently wrong.

Seth Rogen: Yeah? (Laughs)

Beaks: He’s always trying to tell me the movie is dead. And I’m like, “I’m pretty sure it’s not!”

Rogen: No, we’re building sets! There’s more people working on the film every day! They traditionally don’t spend millions and millions of dollars on movies that are dead. (Laughs)

If that’s not enough for you, HitFix got Rogen to qucikly hint, then retract, then hint again that The Green Hornet would have a presence at this week’s San Diego Comic Con:

“There may be a little something at Comic-Con,” Rogen acknowledges, haltingly.

Anything in particular? The movie isn’t scheduled for any sort of panel…

“I never know what I can say and what I can’t say,” he says, followed by a nervous laugh and no further answers.

After the press conference, HitFix approached Rogen and asked if, as we’ve heard, Comic-Con throngs may get their first glimpse at the film’s version of Black Beauty, Green Hornet’s famed Chrysler Imperial.

“It may be…” [Long pause.] “It may not be.”

It’s been four years since The 40 Year Old Virgin had everyone talking about the return of the R-rated comedy. Two years ago, I accidentally took a date to Knocked Up, not expecting to actually have a conversation about my personal habits that didn’t make me “father material.” Judd Apatow has since spawned comedies from Seth Rogan and Jason Segel, bringing the term “bromance” to the forefront the modern adult comedy cinema vernacular.

And all it took was Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox story for people to start doubting, those doubters and their doubting doubts.

Well, doubt no more, because Apatow is back and in a decision that threw me at first, he’s brought Adam Sandler back with him. Yes, Adam Sandler, who I swore off after I Pronounce You Chuck And Larry turned out to be the most offensive and pointless thing I’ve seen in theaters in all my years of film-going. Don’t Mess With The Zohan wasn’t my cup of tea, but it was the first Sandler project that Apatow’s name popped up on (Judd got a writing credit).

Now, we have Funny People, Apatow’s directorial follow up to Knocked Up. It’s described thusly: When seasoned comedian George Simmons (Sandler) learns of his terminal, inoperable health condition, his desire to form a genuine friendship cause him to take a relatively green performer (Rogen) under his wing as his opening act.

That doesn’t even mention that Jonah Hill, Leslie Mann, Eric Bana, RZA, Aziz Ansari, Jason Schwartzman, and some comedians appearing as themselves (Sarah Silverman, Andy Dick) will be appearing to bring their funny.

To me, the Red Band trailer manages to be funny while keeping the subtle undertones of the mortality drama this flick could have become. Did it work for you as well?

Cameron Diaz has been taking on roles that we wouldn’t usually expect to see her in (ie. non-Shrek and non-rom-com). She recently starred in My Sister’s Keeper, a tear jerking drama about a leukemia-stricken girl, and will next be seen in The Box, a horror movie about…a box. But even though she is taking on roles that are out of her comfort zone, I wouldn’t expect to see her in any superhero/comic books movies. She wouldn’t really fit in the serious Marvel and DC movies, however I could see her in a superhero movie if it were more comedy-based.

From EW:

Cameron Diaz is considering an offer to play the female lead in Green Hornet, opposite Seth Rogen. A deal hasn’t been sealed yet, but sources tell EW that she is in early talks for the role. Her reps at CAA declined comment. Michel Gondry is set to direct the film based on a script by Rogen and his writing partner Evan Goldberg. Shooting is supposed to begin shortly, with a release date already set for July 9, 2010.

I don’t really know much about The Green Hornet or it’s back story so I’m not sure if the Diaz casting would be good for the film or not. Although, I do know Diaz is a good comedy actress so she will suit the film in that respect.

Last week we heard that Seth Rogen and Jason Batemen would be joining Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in Greg Mottola’s Paul. At that point I didn’t think the cast could get any better, however today is actually might. According to The Playlist Sigourney Weaver (who will next be seen in Avatar) has joined the cast. Ripley will be once again be meeting an alien! The Playlist also have an official synopsis of the film, which will begin filming this summer.

PAUL is the story of Graham Willy (Simon Pegg) and Clive Gollings (Nick Frost), two sci-fi enthusiasts from the UK. The film follows them on a once in a lifetime trip to America, starting with a visit to San Diego Comic Con. Having enjoyed the delights of the convention, the boys set off on a trip to Area 51 for a spot of light UFO tourism. However, their trip takes a sudden and dramatic turn when the boys happen upon a crashed government vehicle containing an Alien called Paul (to be voiced by Seth Rogen). They embark upon an adventure, which sees them accidentally kidnapping a young Christian girl (Kristen Wiig) and paying a surprise visit to an old woman called Tara, who 60 years before pulled a stricken Paul from his crashed ship. Together, this mismatched band struggle to help Paul get home, all the while trying desperately to stay ahead of the tenacious government operative, Agent Lorenzo Zoil (Jason Bateman) and Ruth’s zealous, shot- gun toting, bible bashing father, Moses Behe. This is a comedy about being an alien in America, even if you’re not from outer space.

According to Variety Seth Rogen, Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader and Jane Lynch have joined the cast of Paul.

The road trip laffer stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost and will be directed by Greg Mottola.

Pegg and Frost, who wrote the script, will play two science-fiction fanatics on a road trip whose conspiracy dreams come true when they trek to Area 51 and encounter the title character, an escaped alien.

Rogen will provide the voice of the alien.

This is Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s next joint outing after Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz so I have high expectations. Adding Rogen and Bateman to the mix will just add to the greatness.

Paul will be released sometime next year.

CHUD spoke to Superbad and Pineapple Express writer/actor/producer Seth Rogen about The Green Hornet which is due out in 2010. In the interview he talked about how Stephen Chow coming in to direct and co-star in the film may have changed things slightly.

“Me and Evan [Goldberg] talk a lot of sh*t. We have one rule when writing, and that’s don’t get attached to anything. One day we want to make a serious film and then Stephen Chow comes in with a good idea and we’re like, ‘Well it’s funny.’ Should we not do it because we originally wanted to do a serious film? We come from, nah f*ck it, we’ll just take the idea that seems good. So it’s definitely less serious than a serious film, that’s for sure. We want the action… I say now that we want the action to play serious but Stephen could come in tomorrow and say ‘You know what? I want to throw you 400 feet in the air!’ and I’d go, ‘OK, that sounds cool.’

Rogen currently has a good track record with his latest movies, but will a comedy superhero movie work?

Seth Rogen’s Pineapple Express is released today and while on the promotional round James Franco spoke to MTV about the possibility of a Superbad/Pineapple crossover.

“Even before ‘Superbad’ came out, I think the studio was trying to get [Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg] to write a sequel, but they really didn’t want to write a sequel. I guess the kids would go to college or something like that [that was the studio's idea],” Franco said. “And so, an answer to that was to do a ‘Superbad’/’Pineapple Express’ crossover, an unprecedented crossover movie with two directors, Greg Motolla and David Gordon Green, each directing half of the movie and somehow these characters get together, which doesn’t make sense at all, but could work.”

Rogen himself has stated that he’d be interested in a “Pineapple” sequel. But how would he combine the two universes? Just ask Franco.

“I could sell them [the characters from 'Superbad'] something, but I think we’d want some action, so you know, somehow the kids get in trouble somehow and we have to get them out of it,” Franco mused. “And Seth plays characters in both movies, so somehow we’d have to kill one of them off.”

I would like a Superbad sequel but I haven’t seen Pineapple Express so I cant comment on whether it would be a good idea or not. What do you think?