With the massive success of Glee, it was only a matter of time before creator Ryan Murphy brought a musical to the big screen.  Deadline reports that Murphy has lined up Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon, Cameron Diaz, Beyonce, and Andy Samberg to star in the musical comedy One Hit Wonders.  Murphy will direct and co-write the script with his Glee co-creators Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan.  The story “centers on three singers (Paltrow, Witherspoon, and Diaz) who each scored a top hit song in the 1990s before watching their careers go down the drain, and then team up to form a super-group.”  Samberg, in addition to co-starring, will reportedly write music for the film with his The Lonely Island partners Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer.

Hit the jump for my thoughts on the project.

We’re only a few short days away from the 84th Academy Awards, which means all that prognosticating and “fake controversy” business will finally come to an end on Monday morning. Until next year, that is. Nevertheless, a number of presenters have been announced over the past few weeks and we figured we’d bring you a full list of all the pretty celebrities scheduled to appear during Sunday night’s telecast. Zach Galifianakis, Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Emma Stone, The Muppets and the leading ladies from Bridesmaids will (hopefully) be bringing the funny, and today the Academy announced that last year’s winners in the acting categories will return to present. I really, really liked the way the awards were given out a few years back with past winners speaking directly to each of the nominees, so I’m hoping Christian Bale, Melissa Leo, Natalie Portman, and Colin Firth will be doing something similar.

Hit the jump to read the full list of presenters and performers, and be sure to check back this weekend to see how yours truly and Matt Goldberg think the awards will stack up in our predictions feature. Billy Crystal hosts the 84th Academy Awards on Sunday, February 26th.

Lionsgate has released five new character posters for What to Expect When You’re Expecting, the ensemble comedy about “five couples whose intertwined lives are turned upside down by the challenges of impending parenthood.”  It’s a great way to see pregnant versions of Jennifer Lopez, Elizabeth Banks, Cameron Diaz, Brooklyn Decker, and Anna Kendrick next to sassy taglines like, “If I knew I’d have a rack like this, I would’ve gotten knocked up years ago.”  I kid, but I think there’s a chance this could be good.  Chace Crawford, Matthew Morrison, Dennis Quaid, Chris Rock, Rodrigo Santoro, Ben Falcone, Joe Manganiello, and Rob Huebel also star. What to Expect When You’re Expecting opens on May 12, 2011.  The posters are after the break.

The first trailer for What to Expect When You’re Expecting has debuted and it’s actually not bad at all. Given the film’s large ensemble and multiple storyline style, I figured we were in for the Valentine’s Day of baby movies, but What to Expect actually looks like a solid comedy. The standouts here are Elizabeth Banks and Rob Heubel, with the latter playing a man who really, really shouldn’t be a father. Unlike Valentine’s Day or New Year’s Eve, this movie appears to be actually telling real stories with interesting characters, with some solid laughs thrown in for good measure.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer. The cast also includes Anna Kendrick, Cameron Diaz, Dennis Quaid, Jennifer Lopez, Chris Rock, Chace Crawford, Matthew Morrison, Brooklyn Decker, Thomas Lennon, and Wendy McLendon-Covey. [Update: We've been sent a high resolution image from the film, which is now included after the jump].

A box office blessing while being critically commonplace, Columbia Pictures’ Bad Teacher was recently released on DVD and Blu-ray. The Jake Kasdan (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story) picture, starring Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake, follows foul-mouthed, gold-digging middle school teacher Elizabeth Halsey (Diaz) in her quest to raise funds for a boob job in hopes of landing a wealthy suitor. That’s about as deep as the film’s plot gets as half-hearted attempts at character development suffer from poor editing and disjointed pacing. Collider’s Matt Goldberg has praised the film’s humor while our Bill Graham pointed out its flaws in his review. Hit the jump to see where I stand and for a look at what you can expect on the DVD.

Jake Kasdan’s Bad Teacher was one of the best surprises in theaters this year.  I assumed that because the TV spots all relied on Jason Segel’s joke about LeBron James, there weren’t many laughs elsewhere.  But I assumed wrong and Bad Teacher turned out to be one of my favorite comedies of the summer.  The film was a hit at the box office and to promote the upcoming Blu-ray and DVD, Sony is offering free screenings of the film tonight and Saturday at midnight.  If you don’t have plans for those two nights, now you do.

Click here to get your ticket.  Bad Teacher hits stores in an unrated edition Blu-ray/DVD combo pack on October 18th.  The film also stars Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake, Lucy Punch, and John Michael Higgins.  Hit the jump for the film’s synopsis and trailer.

We live in an interesting world where nearly every studio tries to make sure their staple film is PG-13, yet for comedies, they trend towards being vulgar with an R rating. Columbia Pictures’ Bad Teacher doesn’t buck that trend for R-rated comedies with overly adult-themed ingredients yet it never aspires to anything greater than garnering some easy laughs. Cameron Diaz stars as a superficial middle school teacher that just doesn’t care until she has to take on responsibility when her sugar daddy leaves her. While the headliners might be Diaz and co-star Justin Timberlake, it’s the cast of characters around them that shine and give the film a little charm. Although director Jake Kasdan never gives us more than a few smart laughs outside of mostly coarse jokes, the target audience will likely get a kick from the film. Hit the jump to see what Bad Teacher has in store.

In the raunchy comedy Bad Teacher, Elizabeth Halsey (Cameron Diaz) is a teacher who just doesn’t care about anyone but herself. She’s foul-mouthed, ruthless and wildly inappropriate, in her pursuit of the fake boobs that she’s convinced will make her more enticing in winning over a rich, handsome man. Waiting for her meal ticket to take her away from her day job teaching middle school, she sets a plan in motion to win over Scott Delacorte (Justin Timberlake), who unfortunately starts to fall for Elizabeth’s colleague Amy Squirrel (Lucy Punch), setting her jealousy off into overdrive. Meanwhile, gym teacher Russell Gettis (Jason Segel) expresses interest in Elizabeth, even though he won’t take any of her bullshit. Completely the wrong person to help guide students, Elizabeth’s schemes get more and more outrageous, shocking everyone around her.

During a press conference to promote the film’s release, co-stars Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake, who has proven himself to be a very talented comic actor, talked about centering a film around a character who is horribly ruthless and yet still somehow likeable, their own experiences in public school, filming the hilarious dry-humping scene, and the importance of chemistry in a comedy ensemble. Check out what they had to say after the jump:

I don’t know what to expect from Bad Teacher, but I have high hopes.  From the promotional material, Cameron Diaz appears to pull no punches in her performance as a foul-mouthed, amoral teacher.  That’s commendable, but Diaz is no sure thing as a comedic performer.  I’m in it for the supporting cast.  I don’t know that you can find a more affable duo than Jason Segel and Justin Timberlake.  I can’t claim familiarity with Lucy Punch’s work, but I like her weird energy as an eager fellow teacher in the brief clips we’ve seen.  And in the new international gag reel, it’s John Michael Higgins and Paul Bates that get the biggest laugh.

Directed by Jake Kasdan (Walk Hard), Bad Teacher opens on June 24.  Watch the gag reel after the break.  (Beware of NSFW language.)

Sony has sent over four clips from director Jake Kasdan’s (Walk Hard) Bad Teacher.  Starring Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake, Lucy Punch, John Michael Higgins, and Jason Segel, the film’s about a foul-mouthed, ruthless, and inappropriate teacher (Diaz) and what she’s willing to do to get out of her day job.

While Diaz movies have definitely been hit or miss for the last few years, I think Bad Teacher looks really funny.  In addition, I think Timberlake and Segel are great, so I’m really hoping this one is worth our time.  Watch the clips after the jump and look for interviews with the cast very soon.

This post contains a few video treats from two of this summer’s R-rated comedies with two-word titles.  Firstly, Warner Bros. has released a new trailer for Horrible Bosses, led by Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, and Charlie Day.  There is enough in common with the first trailer that I was initially unable to distinguish between the two, but there is enough new footage to be worth a look.  Even better, the new trailer is accompanied by a Horrible Bosses clip (approximately 97% new footage) which features the three stars on a stakeout.  Horrible Bosses opens July 8.

To accommodate my theme, Columbia has released the first two clips for Bad Teacher starring Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake, and Jason Segel.  I found one of the clips quite funny — the other less so.  Let’s see how well you know me in the comments!  Bad Teacher opens June 24.  Watch the whole shebang after the break.

Director Michael Hoffman (The Last Station) initiated principal photography last week on the remake of the 1966 caper comedy Gambit.  Cameron Diaz and Colin Firth are subbing in for Shirley MacLaine and Michael Caine, respectively, as partners in a con to sell a fake Monet painting.  Stanley Tucci and Cloris Leachman have just signed on to the production; they will be joined by Alan Rickman and Tom Courtenay.  Factor in the Coen Brothers wrote the screenplay, and there’s plenty of talent on both sides of the Gambit camera.

Production is in London right now, with plans to shift to New Mexico.  See the first official image of Diaz and Firth in costume on the Gambit set along with the official press release after the jump.

Since we’re apparently making movies out of baby books now, Cameron Diaz is close to being set to star in What to Expect When You’re Expecting. Kirk Jones (Nanny McPhee) is directing from a script by Heather Hach (2003’s Freaky Friday) and Shauna Cross (Whip It!). Deadline reports that while nothing’s official yet, Diaz is expected to sign on to the film shortly. The approach to the flick is to tell a Love Actually-esque story, which is officially the only way to make self-help-based-romantic-comedies (yeah, that’s a thing now). The story will follow five expectant couples through the ups and downs of pregnancy.

Terry Gilliam is one of the most undeniable directors to ever work in the medium. I say that in the sense that when you watch his films you feel the master’s fingerprints all over, and sometimes that makes the film a bit blurry. Gilliam is one of those directors that it is often hard to relax into because he’s so there; it’s hard to ignore what he is doing. Which is why The Fisher King strikes as one of his strongest works in the sense that it is accomplished without shoving itself down your throat. He was brought in last minute to direct an adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and took the project up only to have stars Johnny Depp and Benecio Del Toro already locked in as his leads, had to rewrite everything that came before, and do it (perhaps as it should be done) as a no-holds barred, gonzo, “let’s shoot this fucker” kind of film. My review of the Criterion edition of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas on Blu-ray after the jump.

At this year’s CinemaCon in Las Vegas, I got to participate in a small roundtable interview with Cameron Diaz for her new comedy Bad Teacher.  Written by The Office writers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky and helmed by the talented Jake Kasdan (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story), Bad Teacher centers on a “foul-mouthed, gold-digging seventh-grade teacher who, after being dumped by her boyfriend, sets her sights on a colleague (Lucy Punch) who is dating a substitute teacher (Justin Timberlake), who also is the scion of a watch fortune.”  Bad Teacher also stars Jason Segel, Phyllis Smith (The Office), John Michael Higgins and Molly Shannon.  As you might imagine with this talented group of actors, the films been on my radar for awhile now, and after watching both the green and red band trailers, I really can’t wait to check it out this June.

During the interview, Diaz talked about how Bad Teacher compares to There’s Something About Mary, working with Timberlake, Segel and Phyllis Smith, how the project came together and how the studio was very hands off, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to either read or listen to the interview.