Random Movie Stuff - 7/2/13

- Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher have been asked to get in shape for their extended cameos in Star Wars Episode VII.

- Django Unchained alum Leonardo DiCaprio and Jamie Foxx will reteam in Mean Business on North Ganson Street, about two detectives investigating the murders of some local police officers.

- Helena Bonham Carter is in talks to play the Fairy Godmother in Disney's live-action Cinderella movie, starring Lily James (Downton Abbey), Richard Madden (Game of Thrones) and Cate Blanchett (Hanna) as the Wicked Stepmother.  Sir Kenneth Branagh is directing.

- Daniel Huttlestone, who played Gavroche in Les Miserables, is in talks to play Jack in the big-screen Into the Woods movie, starring Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, Johnny Depp, Chris Pine and Jake Gyllenhaal.

- Helen Mirren and newcomer Manish Dayal will star in The Hundred-Foot Journey, about a woman who opens an Indian restaurant in southern France, causing competition with neighboring restaurants.

- Timothy Simons (HBO's Veep) has joined the cast of Inherent Vice, the next film from director Paul Thomas Anderson. It stars Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Josh Brolin and Martin Short.

Some leftover movies from 2012:

SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED (★★★) - Starring Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass, Jake Johnson, Karan Soni, Kristen Bell and Mary Lynn Rajskub.  Directed by Colin Trevorrow.

Well-done indie about a reporter who sees an ad for someone wanting a time-traveling companion, serious inquiries only, safety not guaranteed.  She and two co-workers head to the small town where he lives to find him and see if he really believes what he's saying.  Audrey Plaza takes a break from rolling her eyes on Parks & Recreation to play a girl with a soul, and Mark Duplass has the right amount of off-putting quirk to make the relationship feel more organically developed.

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SEEKING A FRIEND AT THE END OF THE WORLD (★★★) - Starring Steve Carell, Keira Knightley, Connie Britton, Rob Corddry, Martin Sheen, Adam Brody, Melanie Lynskey, Patton Oswalt, William Peterson, Derek Luke and Gillian Jacobs.  Directed by Lorene Scafaria.

This movie had more melancholy attached to it than the trailer suggested, which is a good thing. It was an indie film pretending to be mainstream fare.

Carell plays a sad-sack named Dodge who learns along with everyone else on Earth that a deadly meteor is heading right toward them, and it will wipe out the human race.  By chance he meets his bohemian British neighbor Penny (Keira Knightley) and the two of them set out on a quest, he to get her to an acquaintance with a plane so she can fly across the Atlantic to be with her family in the final days.

These two hold to their purpose while the world falls around them in morbidly comical ways. While most people are using their little time left to try orgies and heroin, these two develop an odd, affecting friendship in their quest.  I liked it.