There’s been meet-cutes turned love affairs aplenty in Hollywood movies, but very few romances are about couples who have spent years upon years looking in each other’s eyes. And then there’s The Roses – which follows the immensely talented Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman as Theo and Ivy Rose... but don’t expect any butterflies in your stomach about these two.

When we meet them in the film, they’ve been together for a decade and are balancing having two kids with each of their passion-driven careers. It’s refreshing to see a middle-aged pairing, but The Roses has the opposite effect of a romantic comedy, as you'll be more likely to be rooting for the demise of their marriage as the story continues to progress. It tackles some very real complications that can plague modern couples, but The Roses is played as a classic comedy where goofiness and laughs are the main objective rather than developing an emotional narrative like Marriage Story.

It’s actually a ball to watch Cumberbatch and Colman take turns roasting each other and taking their marriage to even more damaged places, especially considering both of the Roses aren’t exactly saints as people. But when all is said and done, it makes for a quite bleak film about relationships and the sheer insanity they can inspire when not properly maintained.

It’s hilarious to watch Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman play a wealthy couple on opposite career trajectories.

The Roses is a remake of the 1989 movie starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner (that I admittedly haven’t seen myself) based on the 1980s novel The War Of The Roses by Warren Adler. It marks director Jay Roach’s first straight comedy in years – he being the filmmaker behind the Austin Powers films, Meet The Parents and Dinner For Schmucks – and his comfort in the genre is clear as day here as he steadies the funny bits with genuine moments.

It all starts when Theo’s star architectural project crashes and burns in a very public way, and he’s kicked to the curb by his firm while Ivy has a seafood restaurant that starts going viral on the very same night. So, it’s decided: Ivy will become the breadwinner while Theo raises the kids. What ensues is a slow burn un-romancing as the couple replaces affections for each other with bitterness and loathing. It’s juicy to watch Cumberbatch and Colman become increasingly vain, as they always have a kind of cartoony delight (and R-rated edge) to them.

Cumberbatch plays an egotistical go-getter who is a perfectionist with a hyperactive mind. Colman’s Ivy is a quirky, creative-type stay-at-home mom turned restauranteur who wears fun clothes and delights in serving up her kids treats at midnight. The set up for this pair’s romance heating up isn’t given much of a baseline, aside from their first meeting going from zero to one hundred. But perhaps the lack of connection we have with the couple helps us watch things fall apart with spring still in our step. Cumberbatch and Colman are a bitingly funny pair who use their wits to entertain us from start to finish.

Then there’s its impressive supporting cast of comedians Andy Samberg, Kate McKinnon, Zoë Chao, Jamie Demetriou, Ncuti Gatwa, Sunita Mani and Allison Janney helping to defuse the Roses’ melodrama... or sometimes help fuel the flames. Samberg and McKinnon are having a blast at playing with tropes about how being a middle-aged couple might mean wanting to “open the relationship” or casually display their depression symptoms at social gatherings. Chao and Demetriou add to the laughs as architect colleagues of Theo's who are always in comparison mode with the Roses, while Mani and Gatwa play loyal servers riding on the coattails of Ivy’s sudden success.

Tony McNamara’s flair for biting dialogue makes for another juicy script after his other critically acclaimed work (like Poor Things).

Perhaps what works the best about The Roses is the mind behind the words. It’s from a script by Tony McNamara, who most recently wrote Poor Things but also did The Favourite, The Great and Cruella. McNamara once again proves to be one of the most talented script writers right now as he saturates each moment with wordy cleverness. It’s absolutely half the fun to see Cumberbatch and Colman take ownership of what he’s written on the page. Much of the time, his words here are rooted in sharp ridicules between the Roses that feel meant to erupt the viewer in gasps and impressed giggles. It's often crass but always delicious.

And you know what sweetens the deal? The movie is set in gorgeous along the coast of Northern California where Theo's work baby is coastal buildings, and Ivy's is a charming fish shop called "We've Got Crabs."

The Roses acts as a guide about what not to do in marriage, and in doing so, it absolutely goes more in a ridiculous direction rather than taking a grounded approach to a movie about relationships.

The Roses is a movie that really moves and finds the ability to take its time with its story building and also not take a beat a bridge too far – but it also waits until too late to treat its main characters with empathy instead of being more like an episode of Tom & Jerry. It’s too caught up in how fun it is to watch these two to be mean to one another, and it loses some believability in order to let these two completely loose with anger.

For anyone who has dealt with problems in a long-standing relationship, chances are they’ll say this exaggerates things much too much, while also finding their own pockets to relate to too. The Roses is ridiculous, ridiculously funny, and a rather harsh dark comedy starring two of the most talented actors we have.

That’s Charlize Theron. Look at it again, and tell me how that’s possible. Oscar winner Charlize Theron, playing former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly in Jay Roach’s comedy drama Bombshell. Not Kelly, herself, playing her own role. Theron. Impossible. She looks exactly like Kelly. It’s uncanny. Here’s the rest of the Bombshell trailer, which just dropped.

And Charlize Theron is just the tip of the awards-worthy iceberg, as you can tell by watching the first, tense Bombshell teaser. Centered around the sexual allegations leveled at the late Roger Ailes, Jay Roach’s Bombshell casts Theron as Fox News Channel staple Megyn Kelly, Nicole Kidman as Fox News castoff Gretchen Carlson, and Oscar nominee Margot Robbie as a fictional producer who’ll likely be on the ground floor of the growing scandal.

The Roger Ailes scandal seems ripe for a Hollywood skewering, and the fact that Jay Roach has recruited The Big Short screenwriter Charles Randolph to help him make sense of it all implies that Bombshell will aim to educate as it infuriates. The trailer does very little to explain how deep into the scandal the movie will plunge. This truly is a tease, in that we don’t even get to see John Lithgow as Ailes, but that’s coming. But we won’t have too long to wait, as Bombshell boasts a December 2019 release date.

The release window suggests a strong Oscar play for Lionsgate, who swooped in and snatched the rights to Bombshell after Annapurna walked away from the production days before it began filming, reportedly over budget concerns. Again, the teaser trailer for Bombshell doesn’t give us that much to work with. But Charlize Theron is transformative as Megyn Kelly, while Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie are proven dramatic heavyweights. They, alone, should spark a flame of interest around this movie.

In addition to the three ladies mentioned, Bombshell is lining up a savage roster of acting talent. Lithgow plays Roger Ailes. Alice Eve has been cast as Ainsley Earhardt and Alanna Ubach will play Jeanine Pirro. The supporting cast rounds out with Kate McKinnon, Stephen Root, Connie Britton, Ashley Greene and Allison Janney. The movie will be in theaters on December 20.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, the sequel that introduced Verne Troyer’s Mini-Me, Dr. Evil’s tiny clone, to this kooky spy world. Mini-Me was a standout during that movie and the 2002 follow-up Goldmember, but sadly, Troyer passed away last year.

While there’s been frequent talk over the years about making Austin Powers 4, Jay Roach, director of the Austin Powers movies, isn’t sure the movie can happen now without Verne Troyer’s involvement. He said:

It’s been said multiple times that Austin Powers 4 would revolve more around Dr. Evil (although Mike Myers is also game for the character to lead a spinoff), so it makes sense that Mini-Me would have played a big role as well. In 2017, Verne Troyer even teased that Austin Powers 4 would reveal that Mini-Me can speak, having been mute during his first two appearances.

However, Verne Troyer’s death complicates things, and as Jay Roach told Independent, he’s skeptical if Austin Powers 4 can move forward now. That said, Roach is still game for the project if Mike Myers figures out a way to adjust the story properly and still honor Troyer with a tribute, which Myers has expressed interest in doing.

Austin Powers 4 has been a topic of discussion since as early as 2005, though it took another half decade before script work started. A year before Verne Troyer passed, Jay Roach said the reason this project has been in development hell for so long is because he and Mike Myers didn’t want to do it unless they “came up with something that lived up to the concepts” in their minds, and that hadn’t happened yet. Plus, Myers has been preoccupied with parenting over the last decade, so, you know, priorities.

Despite Jay Roach’s concern about Austin Powers 4 not working without Verne Troyer, Mike Myers said last November that the chances of Austin Powers coming to fruition were “looking good.” Granted, that was eight months ago, so perhaps Myers’ opinion on the matter has changed, but it definitely seems like we’re the closest we’ve ever been to Austin Powers 4 actually happening, even though there are still some obstacles to surpass.

Given that it’s been 17 years since Goldmember came out, it helps that Mike Myers has helped keep the Austin Powers property in the public consciousness through his various Dr. Evil appearances, like on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Saturday Night Live. But those aren’t the same as a new Austin Powers movie coming out, so hopefully Myers and Jay Roach will eventually decide whether or not to actually move forward with the project, as opposed to keeping it in stasis.

Keep checking back with CinemaBlend for any major updates concerning Austin Powers 4. For now, you can keep up to date with what’s coming out for the rest of the year with our 2019 release schedule.

It's been 15 years since everyone's favorite bumbling British spy appeared on the silver screen, but the Austin Powers franchise remains one of the more consistent comedy franchises in recent memory. Fans have clamored for a fourth installment in the series for almost two decades, and it sounds like such a prospect isn't outside the realm of possibility; they're just waiting for the right story. Austin Powers director Jay Roach explained:

As Jay Roach recently pointed out to THR in honor of the 20thth anniversary of International Man of Mystery, he and Mike Myers would gladly jump back into the fray for another Austin Powers movie if the right story came around. They've consistently talked about doing it for 15 years, but they haven't come up with anything substantive yet. It's safe to say that a fourth installment in the Austin Powers franchise would be more than welcome to longtime fans of the iconic film series. The most recent installment (2002's Goldmember) is widely considered the weakest entry in the overall Austin Powers narrative, so another shot at this universe to correct course could be the right decision in the long run.

A lot has changed in the years since the Austin Powers franchise went dormant, and that opens up a ton of possibilities for new forms of storytelling. In addition to the significant changes that the James Bond franchise saw when Daniel Craig took over in 2006's Casino Royale, the spy franchise saw a major shift to grittier narratives with the advent of the Bourne franchise. The Austin Powers series carved out its niche by poking fun at the camp of the Roger Moore Bond era, but a new installment could potentially move into a "darker" territory by making Powers a more modern type of spy -- complete with an R-rating to match the increased age of the series' original fanbase.

Although nothing has received any definitive confirmation yet, Michael Meyers could potentially be on the path towards a major comeback if everything goes correctly. In addition to the possibility of an Austin Powers revival, there has also been ample talk of a third Wayne's World movie ever since the second film in the series debuted all the way back in 1993. Like Austin Powers, nothing has been ruled out in this regard, so we will keep our fingers crossed that it happens before it no longer becomes feasible.

Of course, as much as we love the idea of a fourth Austin Powers movie, it also raises the question as to whether or not it's a good idea. Long-awaited sequels (particularly for comedies) often fail to live up the reputations of their predecessors, so Austin Powers 4 could very easily collapse under the weight of fan enthusiasm. Beyond that, spoof-style comedies haven't thrived on the silver screen in recent years -- if anything, the genre has moved to the small screen with the success of shows like Angie Tribeca. There are a ton of unanswered questions here, but the fact remains that fans would certainly want to, at the very least, give fourth Austin Powers movie a chance.

In this age of reboots, remakes, and revivals, no stone is left unturned lately. We’ve got TV versions of Lethal Weapon and Exorcist on their way, as well as the incredibly controversial Ghostbusters reboot. With all these properties from our childhoods brought back into the limelight, one question everybody seems to have is where the hell is Austin Powers 4? Okay, I don’t think that many people have said that, except for Mike Myers and director Jay Roach. Jay Roach, in particular, has voiced his optimism about a potential return to the International Man of Mystery.

Jay Roach got his start directing Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, and he directed both of its sequels. Roach has since moved on and produced films such as Trumbo, but that doesn’t mean he’s forgotten his roots. Roach recently appeared on Larry King Now, where the legendary interviewer asked him if he was making an Austin Powers 4. Though he doesn’t outright confirm anything, Roach does mention that he and Mike Myers are always looking for a good idea for a fourth film.

Well, there you go. No one's rushing to make a new one, but the duo are always looking for opportunities.

I haven’t revisited the Austin Powers films in a long time, but I’d imagine they’d need a hefty amount of updating for modern times. It was usually all just sex jokes and goofy visual gags.

I think the big question here is: do we even want an Austin Powers 4? Is seeing Mike Myers put his wig and glasses back on something anyone is foaming at the mouth for? It seems like a property that no one thinks is very shagadelic at the moment. The franchise had its moments (I’ve always been fond of the opening numbers and Will Ferrell's Mustafa), but it might have already seen its heyday. Of course, given the right idea, it could end up being awesome and slap everyone in the face with how wrong they were to doubt. We live in a world where the third 21 Jump Street movie is a crossover with Men in Black. Anything’s possible.

What do you all think? Is it time for Austin Powers to make a comeback, or are you just completely indifferent? Can we all start saying shagadelic again?

John Goodman has been pretty busy in the past couple of years, and he's showed no signs of slowing. In addition to being one of the voices bringing Autobots to life in Transformers: Age Of Extinction, he's signed on for the Bad Robot science fiction thriller Valencia, as well as a remake of the classic Kenny Rodgers movie The Gambler. What more could a prestigious actor of his degree want on their upcoming production slate? Answer: a movie that has "award nominee" written all over it, with Bryan Cranston and Helen Mirren already signed on to keep them company.

The Wrap announced that Goodman is talking to director Jay Roach to join his upcoming biopic, Trumbo, which tells the story of blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. The scribe behind such films as Spartacus and Papillon, Trumbo was demonized for being at one point Communist, as well as his refusal to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. As if exile from the Hollywood film business under his own name wasn't enough, Trumbo also served 11 months in prison for refusing to give information, which yielded a contempt of court conviction.

Sources say that John Goodman is possibly being in talks to play Frank King, a film producer who still hired Dalton Trumbo to work for him during his tenure on the blacklist. The Wrap talks about this film reuniting two cast members of Ben Affleck's best picture winner Argo, seeing as Bryan Cranston is playing Dalton Trumbo himself, but the fact is the two men didn't share a scene together in the film. Which is a damned shame, too, because both men played colorful characters who would have gotten along quite well. Despite the dour tone of the source material, this pairing seems to hint that Trumbo just might have a darkly comic edge to temper the more depressing bits of the film.

It has also been confirmed that fellow co-star Helen Mirren will be playing the infamous Hedda Hopper, a gossip reporter who was more than fine with Trumbo's exclusion. John Goodman's addition to the cast has turned Trumbo into a veritable murderer's row of talent, which also includes director Jay Roach. The man who started his career with such fare as the Austin Powers and Meet The Parents franchises has graduated to politically charged fare such as the underrated The Campaign and the well regarded Game Change; and we're all the better for it.

While there's no deal signed to bring John Goodman into the fold for Trumbo, there's little reason to think that the established actor would not take the offer. There's also no production schedule or release date mentioned, so it's safe to assume that the production could end up starting sometime next year. If that holds true, you're probably looking at a Fall 2014/Winter 2015 release window to capitalize on the awards frenzy of the year. As always, we'll keep an eye out for further updates.

Director Jay Roach is primarily known for his work in the comedy genre, having broken out with Austin Powers International Man of Mystery in 1997 and following it up with movies like the first two titles in the Meet The Parents trilogy, but he has had his chance to dabble a bit in drama. In the last decade he went to HBO twice to make the politically charged dramas Game Change and Recount, and while his return to the big screen was the Will Ferrell-Zach Galafianakis comedy The Campaign, apparently Roach is ready to bring his more dramatic game to the big screen. He is now attached to helm The Trade, a true story-based baseball film that is being guided by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon and has been in the works since 2010.

Initially it looked like there was a possibility that Affleck and Damon could star in the movie, and then came rumors that one of them would direct, but now the Oscar-winning duo will simply work as producers on the movie, with Affleck also getting a co-writing credit. Set in the 1970s, the film will tell the story of New York Yankees pitchers Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich who caused a great deal of controversy when they admitted that they had participated in wife swapping. The Wrap has a very interesting description of the project's tone, describing it as "being in the vein of Hal Ashby's Shampoo and some of Sydney Pollack's films from the '70s and '80s." Basically, it seems like they are really going to play up the period piece angle.

The movie could very well be the second project produced by Damon and Affleck's Pearl Street Films, the first being Gus van Sant's 2012 drama Promised Land (which Damon also starred in). For a while it looked like Affleck's next directorial effort, Live By Night, would be the company's second feature, but the actor-cum-director's commitments to playing the Dark Knight in Zack Snyder's untitled Batman vs. Superman has pushed that movie to 2016. With Roach now in place for The Trade, that movie can really start to get rolling and possibly start production before the end of the year.

When The Trade was first announced it was exciting that the movie had the possibility of being the first reunion of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon on the big screen in a long time, but with that option seemingly out the window Roach is left with an interesting puzzle to solve. Whoever he gets to play Peterson and Kekich will probably have to have pretty good chemistry together and be strong enough performers to carry the drama. If you were casting this movie, who would you want to see play the leads? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Even before Lance Armstrong confessed to his wrongdoing in the doping scandal, his career was going to be the focus of a movie. Winning seven Tour de France titles, during and after battling testicular cancer and the ups and downs of a highly publicized relationship with musician Sheryl Crow, combined with doping rumors was already the broad outline for an engaging biopic. But then he copped to doping, and now there are two movies being made about him. Nobody ever said Hollywood hates a scandal.

Deadline reports Warner Bros. has acquired an untitled project from Atlas Entertainment that will not only focus on Armstrong’s involvement in the doping scandal, but the deal includes the life rights of Tyler Hamilton, former Olympic Gold medalist and former teammate of Armstrong on the U.S. Postal Service Team. Hamilton was one of the first of those guilty to come forth with his involvement in doping, both by a confession on 60 Minutes and testifying under oath.

The film will be directed by Jay Roach, who is best known for directing the Austin Powers and Meet the Parents films, his work on the HBO dramas Recount and most recently Game Change have proven him a multi-faceted filmmaker. He’ll be working from a screenplay to be written by Scott Z. Burns, who wrote Side Effects and is working on the script for 2014’s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

Deadline says Warner Bros. is negotiating for more confidential rights of others closely involved with the story, which along with Hamilton’s involvement should put it a nose and a bike wheel ahead of Paramount/Bad Robot’s Cycle of Lies: The Fall of Lance Armstrong, based on New York Times reporter Juliet Macur’s book of the same name.

Summer 2012 has been front-loaded with action, be it the superhero thrills of The Avengers or the sci-fi experimentation of the time-traveling Men In Black 3. Now that we’re gearing up for The Amazing Spider-Man and, later, The Dark Knight Riss, audiences might be looking around and wondering where all the good comedies have been. Some are coming. We have Ted this Friday, The Watch in July, and The Campaign in August. The laughs are on the horizon.

For my money, The Campaign is the one that could walk away the big winner. Will Ferrell’s comedies usually rest on whom he’s paired opposite, and Zach Galifianakis looks to be the perfect low-key foil for Ferrell’s usually overblown deliveries. The first trailer had a few memorable gems, and the posters are rolling out right on schedule. And today we have two new ones at the tail end of this story.

Basically, The Campaign is little more than two huge-right-now comedians butting heads in a contemporary (but formulaic) comedy. Capitalizing on the upcoming presidential election, the movie stars Ferrell and Galifianakis as candidates vying for congressional seats in a small southern district. Jay Roach of Meet the Parents and Dinner for Schmucks is at the helm (a good sign), and the marketing campaign is really playing up the “size” of the talent. Here are the latest posters, courtesy of Yahoo Movies.

The Campaign will be in theaters on August 10th and you can read more about it in our Blend Film Database. Are you looking forward to seeing the film? Let us know in the comments section below.

Politics is a strange and mixed up world. While we should be voting for the smartest, most qualified people to be in our government, the whole thing is dominated by special interests and money that it's insured every little election will be just as ridiculous as the last. The insanity of the political world has been the subject of comedy before, but this summer it's all about Will Ferrell vs. Zach Galifianakis.

In The Campaign, which is directed by Jay Roach, the two comedic titans go head to head fighting for a congressional seat in North Carolina. Given the face-off at the center of the plot, it's not hard to understand why its something that the studio would render literally for the film's first poster. The one-sheet was posted over on the movie's official Facebook page (you can follow the individual candidates here and here) and you can see the full thing below.

Due out on August 10th, The Campaign stars Ferrell as Cam Brady, a professional politician who typically runs unopposed, but one year a strange man named Marty Huggins (Galifianakis) decides that he wants to run for office as well. The film has a stellar supporting cast that includes Jason Sudeikis, Sarah Baker, Dylan McDermott, Brian Cox, John Lithgow and Dan Aykroyd. To see more from the movie head over to our Blend Film Database.

When I was at CinemaCon in Las Vegas a couple weeks ago I got to see footage from a lot of upcoming movies, but no trailer made me laugh harder than the one for Jay Roach's The Campaign. The film is about two rival politicians running for a congressional seat in North Carolina and has an all-star cast that includes Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis, Jason Sudeikis, Sarah Baker, Brian Cox, John Lithgow, Dan Akyroyd, and Dylan McDermott. Sadly, Warner Bros. has not yet released the trailer online - or any trailer for that matter - but we do have something special for you today. Part of a viral marketing strategy, two Facebook pages have been created where fans can throw their vote behind either Cam Brady (Ferrell) or Marty Huggins (Galifianakis). What's more, both pages have posted the their first respective campaign commercials. You can watch both TV spots below - which may or may not contain footage from the final film - and head over to the Facebook pages to follow the candidates!

The Campaign was written by Shawn Harwell and Chris Henchy and will be Jay Roach's first poltical comedy after directing the hit HBO original dramas Recount and Game Change. Look for the title when it arrives in theaters on August 10th and read more about it in our Blend Film Database.

Every year studios travel to Las Vegas to show the attendees at CinemaCon the biggest and best movies on their upcoming slate. Last night it was Paramount’s shot and they revealed not only new footage from G.I. Joe: Retaliation, but also gave us our first look at the Tom Cruise-starring adaptation of Lee Child’s One Shot. This morning it was Warner Bros. turn. I’ve already reported on what the studio brought for The Dark Knight Rises and The Hobbit, their two biggest titles of 2012, but if you think that’s all there was then you are fortunately mistaken, as they also delivered first looks at both The Campaign and The Great Gatsby.

Starting with the new Will Ferrell-Zach Galifianakis comedy, director Jay Roach came out to address the audience and explained that they were originally planning to release The Campaign towards the end of the presidential election, but ended up moving it to the summer because they were afraid that the ridiculous of real politics would make their movie look tame by comparison. Lucky for us, I highly doubt that’s going to happen, as the comedy not only looks totally off the wall, but also hilarious.

The movie centers on two rival politicians who are running for a congressional seat in the smallest district of North Carolina. Cam Brady (Ferrell) is a career politician who has always run unopposed, but in this particular year he finds some competition in Marty Huggins (Galifianakis), an effeminate, mustachioed man with not a clue in the world. Mixing in some solid political humor – such as Brady parodying Rod Blagojevich by saying that his hair is strong enough to lift a car off of a baby – with a little blue comedy – such as Marty’s young son admitting that he let a goat lick his wiener at the petting zoo – the entire trailer got great reactions from the crowd and was filled with laughs. By the end of the footage, which featured Cam accidentally punching a baby instead of Marty and then commenting on the infant’s iron-like jaw, I was totally sold.

Changing the tone completely, then, was the preview for Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Because of the unfinished nature of the footage – it was largely scenes clipped together out of context – it’s a bit hard to give you a recap of exactly what I saw, but I can comment on the presentation. The material kicked off with a party at Gatsby’s mansion, and it took less than a second to recognize Luhrmann’s style, as the frame was filled with depictions of the lavish upperclass life. The video also featured some voice-over narration by Tobey Maguire, who plays Nick Carraway, with lines taken directly from Fitzgerald’s novel (most notably the final lines of the book). Finally, while it could end up changing by the time the movie is released, the footage was played with modern pop music. Considering this is a regular staple of the writer/director’s movies, I wouldn’t be surprised if it makes it into the final cut.

The Campaign arrives in theaters on August 10th, while The Great Gatsby will be in a theater near you this Christmas.

Every time HBO releases another piece of promotional material for Game Change, my anticipation grows. And that's quite impressive considering the last time HBO, writer Danny Strong and director Jay Roach teamed up, they won the Outstanding Made for TV Movie Emmy for Recount. Obviously expectations were already high, especially since the new film finds itself in familiar territory and is based on the best selling novel "Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime" by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, but this latest behind the scenes featurette cuts away with some of the humor and somehow makes it look more important (and certainly relevant).

First of all, Julianne Moore's portrayal of Governor Sarah Palin is uncanny. The actress doesn't just look like Palin - although huge credit to the make-up artists and costumers for making her look like a clone - she has meticulously studied the former Governor's mannerisms and speech patterns in order to deliver the most accurate performance possible. The moment in the video when Jay Roach smiles coyly, knowing that they are capturing something special in Moore's performance of Palin, is priceless.

Ed Harris looks equally up to the task as his John McCain is also a spitting image of the real man. And finally, Woody Harrelson stars as Steve Schmidt and seems like the glue that will hold this film together. That's not a bad thing since Harrelson's been doing nothing but quality work for years. At the end of the day though, it's not just about how much the actors look and act like the characters they are portraying, but how engaging and worthy is the story that they're telling. Well, with the next election heating up it might be worth exploring, as Jay Roach puts it, "how we choose our leaders."

Game Change airs Saturday, March 10 on HBO.

First. Never doubt HBO. It's a lesson I've learned over the years. Second. When you do doubt HBO, quickly admit you were wrong to have ever done so... therefore, my name is Jesse and I must admit, at first I very much doubted the potential of HBO's Game Change and I'm sorry.

In my defense, Jay Roach's last effort (Dinner for Schmucks) didn't exactly inspire confidence but if you get past that and a few of his other recent blemishes, you can still find a few comedic gems hidden in that filmogaphy that suggest Game Change is, in fact, in surprisingly capable hands... Roach is the man who directed one of the better recent HBO movies, Recount, which, when you look at the obvious similarities in topic, tone and talent involved my mind is quickly changing on Game Change.

Sure, we haven't actually seen any footage BUT what we have seen so far is promising... the released picture of Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin (and yeah, as you can see, she looks the part to say the least) and now our first look, courtesy of EW, at John McCain playing John McCain... oh wait, that's Ed Harris looking uncannily like the Senator turned Presidential candidate turned, well, subject of an HBO expose on the now infamous campaign that paired the doomed Republicans. Take a look at Harris and try not to hear him say the words... country first (integrity second?).

So, now that we know they look the part, I can't wait to see the first trailer for the HBO movie coming later this year. Directed by Jay Roach, Game Change stars Julianne Moore, Ed Harris and Woody Harrelson and details the events on the losing side of the historic 2008 election.

Director Paul Weitz has a ton of pressure on him with his latest film, Little Fockers. Not only does he have to manage a massive top-notch cast, but he’s also the guy who has to take the reins from Jay Roach, the man who helmed the first two films that grossed over $330 million and $516.6 million worldwide, apiece. But Weitz is the guy responsible for critically acclaimed films like About a Boy and In Good Company and he certainly has experience managing an ensemble cast and dealing with some pretty raunchy material thanks to his very first feature, American Pie. Little Fockers was right up his alley.

This time around the action takes place in Greg and Pam’s (Ben Stiller and Teri Polo) hometown, Chicago. They’re about to throw a big birthday party for their twins and the whole family is coming for the occasion. Well, everyone except Greg’s dad, Bernie (Dustin Hoffman), because he’s busy studying the Flamenco in Barcelona. As much as the kids want their grandfather to be there, one less person might not be a bad thing because Greg is already trying to deal with the usual pressure from Pam’s father, Jack (Robert De Niro), her ex, Kevin (Owen Wilson), trying to get the kids into the esteemed Early Human School and attempting to promote the erectile dysfunction medication for the beautiful drug rep Andi Garcia (Jessica Alba) without Pam questioning his motives.

There’s a lot going on in this film and there was a lot going on on the set as well. While Weitz was thrilled to be working with John Hamburg on the script, a significant amount of material came naturally, through improvisation. Unfortunately, with so much on-set inventing came many more cuts in the editing room. Check out what Weitz had to say about guiding his cast while still giving them their freedom, what didn’t make it into the film, but will be on the DVD and much more.

When it came time to take on this franchise, what were some of the clichés you knew you wanted to avoid?

One cliché I wanted to avoid is that there’s no reason to do the third version of a franchise and there’s a big temptation to just go to the well and have 100 Focker jokes and every new actor who comes to it wants to at some point say, ‘Focker, Focker!’ [Laughs] You have to gently go in and say, ‘I’m sorry. We just did that five minutes ago in the film.’

Can you tell us about the Jaws and The Godfather references? Were those in the script or just something that came up while filming?

The Godfocker reference was in the script phase and I assume it was John Hamburg who did a lovely job and was really helpful to me not only in terms of the script, but in terms of helping me make the film. That was part of what made this make sense to me was this ridiculous sense that there is such a thing as complete leadership of a family and that it’s going to fall to the man to be that and Ben’s character is confident enough in his life now that makes him fall into this fatal trap of being The Godfocker. Then in terms of the Jaws scene, I can’t remember when that came up. It might have been the stunt coordinator who put some Jaws music over it. [Laughs]

How do you manage all those personalities and getting them all screen time?

[Laughs] It is like managing an all-star team where you have to distribute the ball. This one, the generator of it is Ben [Stiller] and Bob [De Niro]’s relationship, which is similar to the first film and there’s so much conflict in that relationship that it’s a good place for it to be. I’ve witnessed in my directing that I can make actors worse as well as make them better and so I try to recognize that. If I give a terrible note, I’ll go up and say, ‘That note was terrible and please just do the opposite or do anything you want.’ [Laughs] They know what they’re doing and eventually it boils down to some game of make believe where you’re having a good time trying to figure out what that character would be going through and that’s what I would tell to my idols who I was getting to direct.

This film has a lot of physical comedy. Did you ever look at the script and say, ‘This is going too far?’

I did start out by directing American Pie, so I have great experiences with bodily fluids of all type. [Laughs] Nothing was ever going to feel quite as inappropriate as that. My experience did come in handy. I know that when you’re doing a certain kind of situation below the belt, it’s [the actor’s] decision what size of prosthetic they’re going to get. [Laughs] So I’m pretty shameless and what you try to pay attention to is that everything is hopefully coming out of something that the characters are doing. So the kid vomits not just because it would be funny and mortifying to be vomited on by your kid, but because Greg is stupid enough to think that now that he’s the boss of his family, he’s going to get his kid to eat something that the kid doesn’t want to eat. I’ve done that in a restaurant. It was actually way worse than the situation in the film. [Laughs] I was trying to get her to eat some sort of peanut butter praline thing and my daughter threw up on me and on the table.

Did you feel the need to top the other movies?

I didn’t think I could top the others. I think the funny thing in this one is that so much of that mortification is born by Bob’s character. He’s the one who gets the erection that he can’t get rid of and he’s the one who gets buried under a ton of dirt and so it was interesting to shift things a little in that direction.

How difficult is it to sit down with Robert De Niro and say, ‘We’re going to fit you with a prosthetic penis and then we’re going to throw some dirt on you?’

Well, if I said it that way, it would be really difficult. Bob is really game and he really wants to get it right. It’s somewhat terrifying having your star jumping into a ball pit with full force, face first and you just really hope that it’s in focus and that you’re not going to have him do it too many times because he will do it. It’s not difficult with him because he’s so game.

Was anything off limits with him?

I gave him a couple of cringe worthy notes. It was really funny because I got to rehearse with him a little bit and I genuinely was rehearsing with Bob and Ben and everybody as if I was doing the school play. [Laughs] I was doing acting exercises. There’s that scene when they’re on the phone together and I knew I was going to have them in the same room when they shot it. I knew it had to feel somehow like they’re in the same room when they were cutting back and forth between locations, so it was a room about this size and I set it up so that there were six chairs and at a certain point in the dialogue, I started them far apart and had them move closer and closer until they were really facing each other. I’m sure that they were absolutely just humoring me, but they did it.

What do you think you brought to this franchise?

I think eventually I brought a degree of humility, which is probably the main quality that was going to serve me. I am sort of drawn to people grappling with the myth of what manliness is and how that works and how that very culture clearly isn’t outdated. I’m also in a similar situation to Ben’s character in that I have a six-year-old daughter and a three-year-old son and so I’m at that point where it no longer feels like some sort of fever dream that I have children; it’s sunk in that I have kids and I could quite possibly screw up this most important job. Also I can identify with his feelings of insecurity, perhaps often too much. [Laughs] And also I bring to it being a fan of these actors, so it was exciting to me doing a bunch of takes with Bob or Dustin [Hoffman] Barbra [Streisand] or Harvey [Keitel] – and to get to say their first names. [Laughs]

Jay Roach produced this film, so did he have any good advice for you having directed the first two films?

I asked him early on, ‘How many takes do you do?’ And he kind of said, ‘Let them go.’ I wish he was around sometimes because sometimes it was hard for me to know when to say cut, which is kind of like the director’s main job. If you sit around dozing in your chair and then mumble cut at a certain point, the movie will get made. [Laughs] But when you have people that are improvising and doing real fun stuff it’s really hard; there were times when I called cut and they’d look over at me and go, ‘We were just getting into it.’ So then the next take, I’d wait around and I wouldn’t call cut until the camera ran out and they’d look at me and sort of go, ‘Why are you doing this to us?’ [Laughs] So those were moments when I wished Jay would have been around to nudge me.

How was it directing Barbra specifically?

There’s a scene, which will be on the DVD extras where she sings really poorly. She sings “Happy Birthday” very off key. [Laughs] I know she had a hoot doing it and I found it really funny. She is very prepared. When I first met her, I went to her house and we were sitting in a room and at first, my back was to the ocean and around twilight she said, ‘How would you like to sit over here and catch the view from this side?’ So I said, ‘Sure, that’s be great.’ So I went and sat over there and I realized that she had changed her lighting. She was in complete control [laughs], so I had no delusions. She’s a marvelous director and a powerful mind, so I just had a really good time doing it and she was very gracious about my fumbling around.

Did she adlib a lot?

She adlibbed a bit, but it was more like she would come in with ideas for the script or that she and Dustin would work something out. I think Dustin really cracks her up and I think sometimes before a take, before I’d start shooting, I’d hear them giggling and I knew it was Dustin doing something inappropriate with her. [Laughs]

You’re speaking about the actors as though you’re constantly managing improvisation and always thinking about ways to approach them. Is that true? What is the way that you approach them?

One thinks of improvisation as coming up with new lines, but actually acting needs to be improvisatory because filmmaking is so mechanical. You have these cameras around; it’s a little easier when it’s digital, but still, there’s people standing around watching and possibly texting other people and it’s very hard to retain the feeling of reality, which is you don’t know how you’re going to react next. You might know what you’re going to say next in a conversation, but you don’t know how you’re going to say it. So I feel like there’s some element of being prepared and at the same time trying to create spontaneity even if it’s exactly what’s scripted on the page. To me it’s always about keeping a moving target with the actor. What I want is no separation between the actor and the character, that they internalized it so much and know so much more about that character than I do that they’re living inside the moment in a very strange situation, which is the lowly thing about filmmaking, there’s some lesson there about being spontaneous in an artificial situation.

Bob, Owen [Wilson] and Dustin spoke about how there were some great scenes that were improvised that didn’t make it into the final cut. Can you tell us about them? Can we expect to see some of this on the DVD?

You can expect about five movies worth of stuff. Everybody sort of points to editing as a marvelous part of the filmmaking process and it is, but it’s also kind of heartbreaking because you end up, for the sake of the film being as tight as possible, cutting lots of really terrific stuff and that was certainly the case here. Some of my favorite stuff is not in the film.

Like what?

Some of the really eccentric stuff. There’s a point when Owen falls from the flagpole at the end. Actually Laura Dern was there at one point and he says that he’s like Icarus – flew too close to the sun. [Laughs] I really liked that and I wish it was in the film, but it will be on the DVD I imagine.

Despite boasting the best comedy cast of the summer, Dinner for Schmucks still doesn't have me all that excited. It might be because of the cast, actually-- you'd think a movie featuring Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, Jemaine Clement, Kristen Schaal, Zach Galifianakis and Ron Livingston would be a slam dunk, but the latest trailer just didn't do all that much for me. Maybe I'm in prime position to be pleasantly surprised, but I'm also stuck dreading a Paul Rudd movie, which just feels all wrong.

Anyway, today MTV is featuring a new images from the film, which is actually kind of subtly great. Carell and Clement are sitting on a bench outdoors, staring thoughtfully out into the distance on a nice sunny day. Things look pretty peaceful until you notice Clement is wearing furry pants, a bathrobe and horns on his head, and there appears to be a zebra poking his head out of the window behind him. What's the story here? Clearly we all have to see Dinner for Schmucks to find out. Maybe I'm interested in this movie after all. Check out the image below or in full size at MTV.

Jay Roach is back to making comedies after trying his hand at the West Wing style made-for-TV movie Recount. That flick had the potential to redefine Roach as a serious and credible director, but it seems he has no interest in being either of those. Instead, the dude's back to making typical comedies, the next of which is titled Dinner for Schmucks. As you probably know, the film stars Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, and Zack Galafanakis and follows Rudd as a company man looking to get ahead at his job by making a complete ass out of Carell at a dinner hosted by Rudd's boss.

MTV.com has the first look behind the scenes of the flick, but it's really not much to see. All we get is a short scene of Carell (complete with a weird semi-bleached Caesar haircut) playing a Michael Scott-ish character and Paul Rudd being Paul Rudd. Hopefully Roach can get more out of these two than we've seen in the past because, while Rudd has had few missteps, Carell is getting tired fast.

Check out the video below and tell us what you think!

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