I like him and all, but Jimmy Fallon is no John Cusack. Of course, “Fever Pitch” and “High Fidelity” aren’t the same story even though they both come from the mind of Nick Hornby. Even so, I’ll still stick to Fallon is no Cusack. Yet it looks like Fallon will join Drew Barrymore to star in a filmed adaptation of Hornby’s soccer novel (via The Hollywood Reporter; sub req’d for access to full story). The Farrelly Bros. must, for some reason, be feeling a bit insecure as to their pedigree as they will follow the Weitz Bros. in tackling a Hornby adaptation, since they appear to be in talks to direct. Here’s hoping the Farrellys can live up to their predecessors, which were both among the best book-to-film adaptations of the last several years.
Is Jeff Goldblum really interesting enough to be the focus of a documentary? According to The Hollywood Reporter, Chris Bradley and Kyle LaBrache think so as they are now following Goldblum with cameras to document “his romantic and professional endeavors.” (via Yahoo! & Reuters) Apparently, Goldblum’s career is soaring since he starred in two huge blockbuster films; the doc will feature a behind-the-scenes look at the production of The Music Man in which Goldblum, his fiancee, Ed Begley Jr. and Illeana Douglas currently star — in Pittsburgh, PA.
If you happen to have a copy of today’s Daily Variety (the actual paper), at least the Gotham edition, there is something terrifying covering pages 2-3. It’s an ad for The Day After Tomorrow showing tsunamis crashing down on the Sydney Opera House and the Statue of Liberty along with a frozen tundra surrounding the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben. Oh … that’s not the scary part. There’s a banner running across the ad which reads, “STILL TAKING THE WORLD BY STORM $500,000,000.” This movie has made $500-Million?!?! I don’t care if that is worldwide; it’s a damn crime that 20th Century Fox has stolen that much money from people around the world. And considering that through last weekend it had made $180-Million domestically, that means over $300-Million is coming from people who don’t live in the “richest country in the world.” It’s appalling. I hope Roland Emmerich finds himself on a deserted ship with hungry escaped wolves chasing him, because as shown in his film, that would be a likely and natural occurrence.
My predictions for this weekend: I say (and hope) Anchorman will beat out King Arthur (Friday-Sunday), and Spider-Man 2 will remain strong. I’m going to make wild, shot-in-the-dark (probably under-)estimates here: Spidey keeps the top-spot with about $55-Million; Will Ferrell comes in second with $28-Million; Keira mixed with 5th-Century explosions attracts a relatively disappointing $20-Million; Fahrenheit 9/11 expands to even more theaters, gets closer to becoming the first doc to gross $100-Million and should be able to bring in a good $16-Million after cover stories in Time and Entertainment Weekly. And the last wide opener this weekend, Sleepover should have a rough chance even breaking the top-five. With Harry Potter, Shrek 2 and even Garfield (the cat has pulled in over $60-Million!) still running (relatively) strong, there’s too much kids & tween competition out there for this awful-looking, rehash comedy. I think it will be lucky to pull-in $6-Mil. So now everyone, go see it to prove me wrong!
Out of Focus 
Jimmy Fallon isn’t even Colin Firth, who starred in the British adaptation of Fever Pitch! Ugh, I’m really worried about this. About a Boy is a glorious film – it can really stand on its own as a movie.
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I’m usually all against American adaptations of English novels, but I would say that High Fidelity was a bloody good movie – and a damn fine adaptation. I read the book recently and couldn’t believe how close it was.
That said, there’s one obvious problem with a US version of Fever Pitch – the novel’s about football. English football. Please God, don’t make the American version be something about AMERICAN football….
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