Poster: Steve Martin Robs the Grave of Peter Sellers Again

Think of it less of a heralding and more of a fair warning kind of situation: This new movie poster means we're that much closer to The Pink Panther 2. I'm glad you asked how I feel about it, so here goes: Steve Martin should be unconditionally ashamed. Of course, having made both the Pink Panther remake and Cheaper by the Dozen 2, shame left the Martin household years ago. This may surprise some of our younger readers, but once - many, many years ago - Steve Martin was a comedian. Comedians, as a general rule, have a policy against lifting other performers' material. This rule doesn't apply to Dane Cook and Carlos Mencia, apparently, but most comics don't steal material. Or they try to avoid it. Steve Martin, a very wealthy man who used to have a fertile imagination for this sort of thing, took the best-known character of a better comedian (Peter Sellers) and pimped it out to make a ton of money. Ten years from now, when some jackass comedian who's all the rage on college campuses remakes The Jerk, you'll know what I mean. Hey Mr. Comedian Steve Martin: Why not create your own character instead of doing a milquetoast impression of one in terrible remakes? So that's how I feel about it. And here's the poster for The Pink Panther 2.The sequel of the remake comes out February 9th. I'm also pointing some scorn in the direction of John Cleese, who plays Chief Inspector Dreyfus in this flick, and whose career would be positively unthinkable without the odd genius of Peter Sellers.

Scorsese, De Niro Finally Make a Movie About Organized Crime

Can you believe it's been almost 15 years since De Niro and Scorsese worked together on a movie? Can you believe they'll get the band back together...for a mob movie? I know, I know, it's completely shocking. Variety says that in the film, based on the book I Heard You Paint Houses, De Niro will play Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran, who some claim has a couple dozen mob murders to his credit or discredit, depending on how you look at it. One of the deaths he may have been responsible for is that of Jimmy Hoffa, which is weird because I thought he just vanished. Wanted to chillax in the Poconos or something. You're telling me he might be dead? Seriously? Could've knocked me over with a feather after hearing that. Scorsese will direct and Steve Zaillian will write the script. The title is mob slang for shooting people and having their blood splatter all over the walls. Quaint, n'est ce pas? The film will be the ninhth collaboration between Scorsese and De Niro, their first since Casino in 1995. I know it'll probably be great in the theaters, but I personally can't wait for this one to pop up on basic cable. There's nothing better than the USA Network or TBS running a Scorsese movie: "Did you touch my wife? Did you touch my lovin' wife?" Oh, it's classic.

Shia LaBeouf Dinged Up on 'Transformers' Set

Oh, the troubles of being Shia LaBeouf. We know about the Walgreen's thing last year and the DUI/accident earlier this summer, and now he's getting walloped again, this time while he's working. TMZ reports that Shia was injured by a prop while filming Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. The actor needed stitches after get cut open above his right eyebrow. Apparently, all is well - or as well as could be expected - and LaBeouf has gone back to work. His representative declined to comment on the injury, and for that matter, so did the prop.

Stephen Colbert Saves Spider-Man's Ass

You know you've made it when... Actually, Stephen Colbert has a few of these moments in his career over just the past three years. There was "truthiness," which he coined early in the run of his show, The Colbert Report, there was his unofficially official (or officially unofficial) run for President that was taken more seriously by his fans than the establishment was comfortable with, there was his bit part in The Love Guru (OK, maybe not that), and now there's Spider-Man. Colbert, an animation star in his own right with the Tek Jansen series, is on one of three covers of this month's issue of The Amazing Spider-Man. If you don't know, Colbert's presidential bid is continuing, at least in the Marvel Universe. Appropriately, the issue in which Colbert and the web-slinger team up is "extra-sized," so get your hands on The Amazing Spider-Man #573 beginning October 15th. If you want to follow Colbert's campaign in the Marvel Universe, there's a great Comedy Central blog that features posts like "Marvel Universe: Colbert for President - Sarah Palin Skrull Controversy." Needless to say, it's worth a read.

Jack Black Spoofing Jason Bourne

Say it ain't so. Jack Black is reportedly working with his Kung Fu Panda writers, Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, on an action comedy inspired by The Bourne Identity. According to Reuters, we'll see "Black as an American who finds himself washed up on the shores of Cuba with no idea of who he is and how he got there. He comes to the conclusion that he must be a superspy, which is far from the truth." This could be good, except...haven't we all outgrown Jack Black? I'm not saying he's never been funny, just that, like Robin Williams, his comedy is kind of a moment in time, and that moment has probably passed. Yes, Kung Fu Panda was very good, and Black was in Tropic Thunder (although he hardly stole the show), but unless he's going to play this in some other way than I'm imagining - which is to say, not as a louder, more obnoxious slacker version of Inspector Clouseau - then I think they'd be better off with someone else. What's Will Arnett doing, for example? Aibel and Berger are striking while the iron's hot, though, because Panda was a big success and I fully expect Monsters vs. Aliens to do very well next spring. Let's hope they can tone him down a little in the script, somewhere east of King Kong but south of School or Rock and Tenacious D.