YouTube has announced the first-ever Comedy Week, set to take place May 19-25.  YouTube has recruited an impressive roster of outside talent, including Vince Vaughn, Rainn Wilson, Sarah Silverman, Michael, The Lonely Island, Seth Rogen, Tim and Eric, Ed Helms, Ken Jeong, Norm Macdonald, and Craig Robinson.  The week also has room for YouTube mainstays like Ryan Higa, Smosh, Epic Meal Time, Rhett & Link, and Epic Rap Battles of History.

The event kicks off with a live variety show on May 19, followed by “a week of dedicated programming that includes live performances, new episodes from popular YouTube comedy channels, curated top ten lists from comedy stars and more.”  Hit the jump for the press release with all the details and the full list of participating talent.

Though NBC’s long-running comedy series The Office is coming to an end after this season, some fans were comforted by the fact that a spinoff centered on Rainn Wilson’s Dwight character was in the works, providing hope for more Office-related material once the show had come to an end.  Well, it looks like the series finale of The Office really will be the end after all, as Wilson revealed today that NBC decided to pass on the pilot for the spinoff series The Farm.  Hit the jump for more.

As the show started to putter out in the past few seasons, fans began to wonder when NBC’s The Office would be put to rest.  With Steve Carell gone, Rainn Wilson looking to his Dwight Schrute spinoff The Farm, and Mindy Kaling now starring in a Fox series of her own called The Mindy Project, things were looking rather thin going into the show’s ninth season.  Well, the time has finally come, as earlier today showrunner Greg Daniels announced, “this will be the last season of The Office.”  Hit the jump for more details, including the possibility of a return for Carell and Daniels’ promise that “all questions will be answered.”

It looks like Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) is ready to step out of The Office and resume his life on The Farm. The spin-off show will get a chance in front of audiences during the upcoming ninth season of The Office before being greenlit for an entire season.  The Farm centers on the Schrute family, who has inherited a combination farm/bed-and-breakfast.  In order for Dwight to profit from this windfall, he must first convince his brother and sister to help him out.  New casting details are now available for The Farm, which you can check out after the jump.

Two on-the-bubble NBC shows have officially been given the order for new seasons.  The critical favorite yet ratings challenged drama Parenthood has been renewed for a 15-episode fourth season (per TV Line).  Showrunner Jason Katims is no stranger to ratings issues despite favorable reviews, as he led the stellar Friday Night Lights through five seasons of “will it be renewed?” drama.  I’m a fan of the ensemble and tone of Parenthood, but Katims will most likely have his hands full next season as his medical pilot County is said to be close to a pick up.  That show will star Jason Ritter, who led the doomed The Event and has been a frequent guest star on Parenthood.

Hit the jump for news regarding renewals for The Office and a final season for 30 Rock, as well as speculation about the fate of Community and Parks and Recreation. [Update: The Office hasn't officially been renewed yet, but with deals almost done for the main cast members a renewal is expected]

Last year’s Los Angeles Times Hero Complex Film Festival included screenings of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan & J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, a Jon Favreau-hosted double bill of Iron Man and Iron Man 2, and Warren Beatty opened the festival with his 1990 film Dick Tracy.  The event sounded like a lot of fun and proved more than insightful with some truly swell panels.  The line-up for this year’s iteration of the festival has been announced, and as expected it’s a fun mix of old and new films with special guests galore.  Hit the jump for more info.

Since Steve Carell left The Office, the happenings on the show have been anything but business as usual.  Robert California (James Spader) stopped by to run things for a time before leaving the Scranton branch in the capable, albeit self-conscious, hands of Andy Bernard (Ed Helms).  There has been recent talk of Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) leaving to retire to the beet farm bed-and-breakfast in a proposed spin-off.  That’s not to mention the expanding film careers of Jenna Fischer, John Krasinski and Craig Robinson, as well as Wilson and Helms.  As neither the cast members nor the show itself have been officially been confirmed to return, things are a bit up in the air at the moment.  Helms talked a bit about the future of  The Office in this recent interview with Steve.  Hit the jump for more on this possible series reboot.

It’s good to have a backup plan in case “officer manager at the regional sales office of a paper company” doesn’t work out. Luckily for The Office’s Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson), his family owns a beet farm that doubles as a bed and breakfast. There are reports that Wilson may be headed out of The Office as early as midseason 2013 for an NBC spinoff, a family comedy centered around Dwight and life at the Schrute Farms B&B. Pitched by Wilson and Paul Lieberstein (who executive produces, writes and acts as Toby Flenderson on the show), the duo plan to produce alongside The Office’s executive producers Ben Silverman and Howard Klein. Hit the jump for more news on the potential spinoff.

In the seventh season of The Office, the writers of the long-running NBC comedy series had two big tasks ahead of them. First, the staff had to deal with the impending exit of manager Michael Scott (Steve Carell) which included giving him a worthy exit and finding him a strong replacement, but also proving that the show would be able to survive without the presence of Carell on-screen. Sadly, this season proved to be one of the weakest, and seems to be proof that the series, just like its former star, might be on the way out. However, the seventh season of The Office still contains some truly great episodes, genuinely touching moments, and one marathon of a fantastic performance from Steve Carell (who should’ve won the Emmy over Jim Parsons last month). For more of my impressions of the DVD release of the seventh season of The Office, hit the jump.

Grief is an ugly, raw, complicated, and necessary emotion.  I’ve never been a big fan of the Kübler-Ross Model (also known as the Five Stages of Grief) because it seems like something constructed more to comfort those dealing with the grief-stricken rather than an honest explanation of the griever’s emotions.  It says “What stage are you at because you’re kind of bumming the rest of us out.”  Hesher gives a giant middle finger to a pat, easily digestible notion of grief and instead throws the viewer into the violent, angry emotions that arise when grieving over the loss of a loved one.  Unfortunately, it never goes much deeper than that and the thematic simplicity keeps Joseph Gordon-Levitt from giving an honest performance because he’s stuck playing a contrived one-dimensional character who merely serves to illustrate a point.  Then the film, which at least had the consistency to hammer home its single theme, shoots itself in the foot with an ending unworthy of its tone and attitude.

With writer/director Spencer Susser’s Hesher getting released this weekend, I recently got to sit down with the cast and Susser to talk about the film.  Before going any further, if you haven’t seen the trailer, I suggest checking it out here.  While the summer is filled with huge explosions and movies that cost hundreds of millions of dollars, I promise you…none of them feature a main character as crazy as Hesher.  Playing the lead is Joseph Gordon-Levitt and it’s an awesome performance. The film also stars Rainn Wilson, Natalie Portman, and Devin Brochu.

While I already posted my video interviews with Susser and Gordon-Levitt, I’ve got one more and it’s with Rainn Wilson.  During the interview we talked about the positive response to Super, what attracted him to Hesher, what was it like on set, and we also talked about what’s the last video game he’s played, does he ever get recognized from being in Galaxy Quest, and what is he working on now.  Hit the jump to watch.

Most directors don’t cut trailers for their own movies.  They don’t have the time and studios pay millions of dollars to companies whose sole purpose is to cut a trailer that will appeal to the widest audience possible regardless of whether or not that trailer is an accurate representation of the movie it’s marketing.  But that is not so with the official trailer for Hesher that was cut by the film’s writer and director Spencer Susser.  If I can judge Hesher by its trailer, then I’ll have no idea what to make of Hesher but at least it’s an accurate misunderstanding.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer and a statement of support by star Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  The film also stars Devin Brochu, Rainn Wilson, and Natalie Portman.  Hesher opens May 13^th.

A “red-band” trailer (it’s from the Motion Picture Association of Antigua, Inc.) for the Beastie Boys inspired short Fight For Your Right – Revisited.  The trailer is long on swears and stars but short on laughs.  The story seems to be that the young Beastie Boys (played by Seth Rogen, Danny McBride, and Elijah Wood) meet their future selves (John C. Reilly, Jack Black, and Will Ferrell) and have a dance off, which seems like a fun premise.  But even though the short film also features Will Arnett, Stanley Tucci, Susan Sarandon, Ted Danson, Rainn Wilson, and plenty of other famous faces, there aren’t many laughs to be had.  Watching Will Ferrell break out a cowbell or Arnett shout “Come on!” feel like stale attempts at humor.  Hopefully the short comes together better than the trailer.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The 30 minute short will debut alongside the release of the Beastie Boys new album “Hot Sauce Committee Part 2″ on May 3^rd.

With director James Gunn’s superhero flick Super opening this weekend, I recently got to sit down with Rainn Wilson to talk about how he got involved with the project.  As you might expect from Gunn (Slither, PG-Porn), Super is violent, twisted, and darkly comic.  I had a lot of fun watching it.

During the interview, Wilson talked about the six degrees of Kevin Bacon, what’s his karaoke song, how did he get involved in the project (has to do with Jenna Fischer), how did his character change after he signed on, his thoughts on VOD, and we ended the interview talking about The Office.  Hit the jump to watch:

New posters have been released for Cars 2 and Super.  The poster for Cars 2 is beyond bland, but at least it doesn’t have a character falling into a vat of shit, so I guess I should be grateful for that.  As for the Super posters, I like the flyer-design and how they reference certain crimes (ranging from line-butting to pedophilia) that “heroes” Crimson Bolt (Rainn Wilson) and his sidekick Boltie (Ellen Page) take on.

Hit the jump to check out the posters.  Cars 2 opens in 3D on June 24th.  Super opens April 1st.