Sony Pictures Animation has released a new featurette for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2.  The plot revolves around Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) and Sam Sparks (Anna Faris) returning to Swallow Falls to clean up the mess created by the FLDSMDFR, only to find that food is now taking on the form of mutant beasts.  In the featurette, Terry Crews, who has replaced Mr. T as the voice of Earl Devereaux, shows us some more of the strange pun-christened leftovers that inhabit Swallow Falls.  I’m not sure if the puns will be carrying the whole marketing campaign, but they’re working for now.  Of course, everything works better when you add Terry Crews.

Hit the jump to check out the featurette.  The film also features the voices of Andy Samberg, Benjamin Bratt, and Neil Patrick Harris.  Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 opens in 3D on September 27th.

Screenwriters John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein are quickly becoming the go-to guys when it comes to high-profile comedies.  The duo penned 2011’s massive hit Horrible Bosses and its upcoming sequel, they wrote the script for this year’s great-looking animated follow-up Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, and they wrote and will make their directorial debut on a new Vacation film this year with Ed Helms starring as the grown-up Rusty Griswold.  Their latest film, the magician comedy The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, opens in theaters today and it’s a swell mix of ridiculous characters and delightfully dark humor, with some very funny comedic performances from Steve Carell, Jim Carrey, Steve Buscemi, and Olivia Wilde.

I recently attended the press junket for The Incredible Burt Wonderstone in Las Vegas, and while there I got to sit down with Daley and Goldstein for a one-on-one interview.  The duo talked about their love of magic growing up, how crazy it was to get Jim Carrey in their film, what Carrey brought to the role, the many different versions of the film’s script, and their penchant for taking jokes to some unexpected and wonderfully dark places.  The two also talked about their work on Horrible Bosses 2, Cloudy 2, the Vacation film, Secret Histories, and much more.  Hit the jump to read the full interview.

Sony Pictures has released the first trailer for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2.  The plot revolves around Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) and Sam Sparks (Anna Faris) returning to Swallow Falls to clean up the mess created by the FLDSMDFR, only to find that food is now taking on the form of mutant beasts.  I laughed a lot during this trailer, but keep in mind that I love puns, so I crack up when the beasts are called “Mosquitoast” and “Shrimpanzees”.  The trailer also shows off the strange, offbeat humor that made the first film such a delight.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also features the voices of Andy Samberg, Benjamin Bratt, Terry Crews, and Neil Patrick Harris.  Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 opens in 3D on September 27th.

Sony Pictures has released the first poster for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2.  The plot revolves around Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) and Sam Sparks (Anna Faris) returning to Swallow Falls to clean up the mess created by the FLDSMDFR only to find that food is now taking on the form of mutant beasts.  As you can see from the poster, Chicken Brent (Andy Samberg), Manny the Cameraman (Benjamin Bratt), Earl (previously voiced by Mr.T, but now voiced by the excellent Terry Crews), and STEEEEEEVE (Neil Patrick Harris) are along for the ride.

Hit the jump to check out the poster, and come back tomorrow to see the first trailer.  Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 opens in 3D on September 27th.

The first images from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 reveal an incredibly fun group of food and animal hybrids dubbed “food-imals.”  Included in the new batch of creations are the bananostrich, fruit cockatiel, wildebeets and hippotatomus (which is sure to screw up your kid in the next spelling bee).

From directors Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 features the voices of Bill Hader, Anna Faris, Andy Samberg, Will Forte, Neil Patrick Harris, Terry Crews and more.  The animated sequel is due out on September 27, 2013.  Hit the jump to see the first images from the movie.

After five consecutive weeks of sub-par grosses, the domestic box office rose from the dead this weekend: posting the biggest September debut of all time with Hotel Transylvania and one of the most lucrative frames since July. Looper and Pitch Perfect also had impressive starts. In fact, the only wrong note was struck by the drama Won’t Back Down, which saw one of the worst debuts of all time in more than 2,500 locations.

This week on The Collision, we’re talking Pixar.  We talk about how the studio now stands at a crossroads as their last two movies haven’t received universal acclaim, and the old creative heads are starting to move on to other endeavors.  We also talk about Brave and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter before moving on to our recommendations.

Click here to listen to the new episode of The Collision, click here for last week’s episode, and click here to add the podcast to your RSS.  We’re also now on iTunes.  Be sure to follow The Collision on Twitter for updates, and you can follow us on Twitter at @MattGoldberg, @AdamChitwood, and @DrClawMD (Dave Trumbore).  Hit the jump to check out the trailers for this week’s recommendations.

The licensing expo is set to get underway next week in Las Vegas, which means that we’ll be seeing a number of synopses, promo images, and posters in the coming days.  Today we’ve got our first look at a promo image from director M. Night Shyamalan’s upcoming sci-fi pic After Earth, as well as the first synopsis for the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs sequel Cloudy 2: Revenge of the Leftovers.  After Earth stars Will Smith and his son Jaden Smith as a father-son duo who crash-land on Earth 1000 years in the future and must navigate the abandoned planet to find salvation.  The promo image is small, but it does give us a nice look at the film’s logo and some of the atmosphere that Shyamalan is reaching for.  You can check out some pristine set photos for After Earth right here.

Additionally, the synopsis for Cloudy 2 reveals that our hero Flint Lockwood and his pals are forced to return to their food storm-ravaged hometown of Swallow Falls to battle sentient food beasts that have overrun the island.  You had me at “sentient food beasts,” Cloudy 2. Hit the jump to check out the image and synopses. 

We’ve got some new release dates to share with you today. Here they are at a glance:

• Robocop – Directed by Jose Padilha and starring Joel Kinnaman, the reboot of the 1987 sci-fi classic will release August 9th, 2013.
• Cloudy 2: Revenge of the Leftovers – The sequel to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is due out December 20th, 2013.

Hit the jump for more on each project.

I love the animated adaptation of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.  It is delightfully strange, witty, and at times, downright darkly comic (it still blows my mind that directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller got away with the scene where Flynn charges into a house, and basically uses snowballs to murder a family).  I was a little bummed that the duo wouldn’t be returning for the sequel, but I’m encouraged that Horrible Bosses writers John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein are handling the script, and new directors Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn worked on the first movie.  We still don’t know what the sequel will be about, but we might know what it’s called.  We were sent a promo poster for the movie and the title reads: Cloudy 2: Revenge of the Leftovers.  As you may recall, the leftovers created a crazy avalanche that forced out the poor citizens of Swallow Falls, so haven’t the leftovers already had their revenge?

Again, this could just be a working title, and to be honest, I don’t really care what the movie is called.  I’m just hoping the flick is as funny and memorable as Cloud with a Chance of Meatballs.  Hit the jump to check out the promo poster.

Sony Animation has settled on the directors of their follow-up to 2009’s swell animated feature Cloud with a Chance of Meatballs. Variety reports that animation artists Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn will be taking the helm on the sequel. Last we heard, the original film’s directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller were attached to return for Cloudy 2, but it now appears that they won’t be back. Lord and Miller are currently busy with post-production on their live-action debut 21 Jump Street (which looks great), and the recent greenlight for the Lego feature film that they’re attached to may have something to do with their non-involvement with the Cloudy sequel. Hit the jump for more, including the story status of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2.

After seeing the movie modifier ‘3D’ lose almost all of its cache over the past year or so, who knew that an animated re-issue with that three dimensional makeover could roar this loud at the box office?  Doubling even the most sanguine early projections, Disney’s The Lion King 3D took in an estimated $29.3 million this weekend from its 2,330 (mostly 3D) locations to become this weekend’s undisputed box office ruler.

Last week we reported the guys who directed the wonderful Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Phil Lord and Chris Miller) were attached to write and direct the Lego movie at Warner Bros.  Since the original report had very little information about how they planned on bringing Lego to life, I used some connections to get Phil Lord on the phone for an exclusive interview.  Since he’s also hard at work developing the 21 Jump Street movie at Sony, he also gave me an update on that project and what’s the status of the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs sequel.  Here’s some highlights:

21 Jump Street

• Plan is to shoot at the beginning of the year
• Script is being written by Michael Bacall with Neal Moritz producing
• Confirms it’s a big live-action R-rated movie
• Talked about going to the Santa Monica High School Promo recently to do research for the film
• Says it’s 2D and the movie “winds up becoming this really sweet coming of age story except the guys that are coming of age are in their early 20’s instead of 17 and 18.”
• They’re still casting who will play the other cop alongside Jonah Hill
• They’re watching a ton of action movies right now in preparation for the movie
• Not sure who is shooting the movie (Director of Photography)
• They don’t know who is doing the music yet

Cloudy Sequel

• They’re working on a treatment with a writer who Lord says is, “way smarter and funnier than us.”

Hit the jump for all the Lego info and the full interview:

After siphoning away 30% of Alice in Wonderland‘s precious 3D screens, Dreamworks Animation’s How To Train Your Dragon was the big winner this weekend – although its total may have been a bit under what the studio was hoping for.

Audiences, still entranced by the Avatar experience, turned up in force for the premiere of Disney’s latest adaptation of Alice in Wonderland this weekend. Tim Burton’s PG-rated take on the Lewis Carroll classic took in an estimated $116.3 million over its first three days – a total well above the initial grosses for James Cameron’s conceptual wonderland.