Over the past two decades, Michael Bacall has acted in a number of projects that we all grew up with like Free Willy, Doogie Howser, M.D., The Wonder Years, Punky Brewster, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and so many more.  While he continues to act, he’s slowly gaining a reputation as something else: a very talented screenwriter.   As some of you might know, he co-wrote Edgar Wright‘s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and more recently he co-wrote Project X and 21 Jump Street.   Trust me, after you see both of these upcoming films, you’re going to want Bacall writing more comedies as they’re both extremely funny and well worth your time.

At the recent Los Angeles press day for Project X, I landed an exclusive interview with Bacall.   We talked about how he got involved in screenwriting, his first screenplay Manic, the great experience of working on Scott Pilgrim and the two different endings, how much of Project X was scripted versus improvised, how Todd Phillips always wants to push the envelope, and 21 Jump Street.  In addition, we also talked about his future projects like the Les Grossman movie.  Hit the jump to watch.

Why have Tropic Thunder character Les Grossman (Tom Cruise) be such a major contributor to the 2010 MTV Movie Awards when that film came out two years ago?  Because Paramount (which, along with MTV, is owned by Viacom) was setting up the announcement of a Les Grossman movie (although Cruise kind of spoiled it on the red carpet at the awards).  Today, Paramount revealed that Cruise along with Ben Stiller and Stuart Red Hour Films will produce and have secured the life rights to Grossman.  Yes, the press release talks about Grossman as if he were a real person, thus further cementing the notion that Grossman is Cruise’s Tony Cliffton.  Said Stiller:

“Les Grossman’s life story is an inspiring tale of the classic human struggle to achieve greatness against all odds. He has assured me he plans to quote, ‘F**king  kill the sh*t out of this movie and make Citizen f**king Kane look like a piece of crap home movie by the time we are done.’ I am honored to be working with him.”

Hit the jump for the press release.  It’s bizarre (the press release, not the decision to make a Les Grossman movie; that makes total sense).

Tom Cruise as Les Grossman was easily the best part of Tropic Thunder. And that’s saying a lot.  Tom Cruise as Les Grossman was easily the best part of last night’s MTV Movie Awards. Which isn’t saying much.

So, is the world ready for even more Les Grossman? Tom Cruise may be working on bringing everyone’s favorite foul-mouthed studio honcho back to the big screen in his very own movie.  Fresh off the high from his performance with Jennifer Lopez at the MTV Movie Awards, Cruise told E! “We’re working on it. Yup, we’re working on it.”

Whether he was being completely serious or not has yet to be determined, but we’ll keep you posted if we hear any more news in regards to the project.

The latest promo for the 2010 MTV Movie Awards has Tom Cruise going after Tom Cruise.  In the promo, Cruise’s character from Tropic Thunder, obnoxious Hollywood producer Les Grossman, takes on Tom Cruise’s performance as Joel Goodson on the set of 1982′s Risky Business.  For those who don’t know, Risky Business was Cruise’s breakthrough movie.  Some could argue that Tropic Thunder was Cruise’s image-resurrection movie.

Hit the jump to check out the promo.  The 2010 MTV Movie Awards are being hosted by Aziz Ansari and will air live on Sunday, June 6th at 9/8c.

While Justin Theroux has been acting in movie and TV shows for the last fifteen years, he’s recently started a new career in Hollywood: screenwriting.  Due to being one of the screenwriters on Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder, Theroux met Robert Downey Jr., and since they got along so well, Downey pitched Theroux to Marvel for Iron Man 2.  Cut to a few meetings later and he’s writing one of the most anticipated sequels of the last decade.

With Iron Man 2 set to debut in North America this Friday (it’s debuted overseas last weekend and raked in over $100 million), I recently spoke with Theroux about not only the highly-anticipated superhero film, but his other projects, which include Zoolander 2, Space Invaders, Chief Ron, and Your Highness (although he’s only acting in this one).  I also asked if he or anyone else was working on Iron Man 3.

Trust me, if you want to know how Iron Man 2 was made and what’s up with the other films I just mentioned, you want to hit the jump:

Lots of new movies hit the multiplex this weekend, but none of them were in 3D so who cares? Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland continued to dominate, even with a 46% decline over its record-breaking first weekend. Domestically, the film passed the $200 million mark on its tenth day in release while also cleaning up overseas with an additional $221 million.

Remember Tropic Thunder, one of the most hilarious movies of all time thanks in no small part to the unexpected comedic brilliance of Tom “Apple-Bottom Jeans” Cruise? Well, Cruise and fellow Tropic Thunder star Ben Stiller are set to team again for another romp through laughter fields with the upcoming film The Hardy Men.

Produced by Night at the Museum director Shawn Levy, the film focuses on the grown up Hardy Boys, as the title leads one to believe. But as it’s a comedy, the two sibling sleuths no longer get along as well as they used to. Hilarity ensues. However, getting the film off the ground seems to be proving a bit difficult as reported to Starpulse by Levy.

“Developing a movie for a movie star is hard,” Levy said. “Developing a movie for two movie stars is a very, very challenging enterprise. The bull’s eye is small and the tone has to be exactly right. So we are still working on it.”

Hit the jump for more from Levy and thoughts on the movie.