Ryan's Junk Drawer

With great junk, comes great responsibility - "Better Off Ted"

First off, before I get to the usual "me joking around about showing people my junk" Thursday rigmarole, let me apologize for yesterday. Between the exciting new stuff we're about to unload all over your brains with the revamped Reader Web site and, you know, the job that actually pays for my life, I didn't get to blogging yesterday. Lo siento. I know that means you were deprived a "Things You Should Buy Me," but I'll make that up to you by doing one of those tomorrow. You can still buy me things on Friday, it works just as well. Also, I'm off Monday from the blogging. Hey, if this were more than a one-man junk show, I'd have backup. But unless this empty coffee cup or this Christmas ornament featuring The Swedish Chef for the Muppets I keep on my desk gain the ability to craft semi-offensive blog posts of moderate insight and limited information, that job is solely mine.

But you're not here to hear about this blog's nuts and bolts, you're hear to see my junk. For those keeping score at home, give me +14 points for finally thinking of putting the word nuts into a sentence about my junk. Anyway, when I talk about people waiting all week for a glimpse of my junk, I am not talking about what it sounds like I'm talking about (even though I like making it sound like I'm talking about what it sounds like I'm talking about). I'm talking about little, itty-bitty movie news nuggets that don't deserve their own blog posts. They think they're entitled, but they aren't. Sort of how I feel about a lot of Tuesday's elected officials. POLITICAL ZING!

We start off each week by looking at the image of a Junk Drawer up top. It's creepy, right? Maybe it's just me. It's from Highlights Magazine FOR CHILDREN and for some reason always makes me think that it's from a serial killers house. Like, if the camera panned back from the angle that image was drawn from, you'd see someone wearing another person's face on their face. Just me? Okay, moving on. What I do is pick an item from said image, make up a wacky story about it, and entertain myself.

Today's item is the screw. Martin couldn't understand why it didn't catch on. "It looks like a screw," he would yell, "but it's ACTUALLY a children's vitamin!" It had taken him years at the pharmaceutical company to finally push through his idea: Nailz N' Screws - Kiddie vitamins. "You know, because kids love screws and nails! And who hasn't wanted to eat them." Although wonderfully nutritious, Martin just couldn't seem to get the FDA to approve. "Do they want their kids to die of scurvy?" Dejected, Martin brought his pet project home, where his children loved them. Right up until his son get tetanus from eating what he thought was a Vitamin A-packed treat. "Oooooh, right," said Martin, who now keeps the last remaining vitamins tucked safely away in his junk drawer.

Okay, enough already, let's get to some movie stuffs!

1.) But...but...none of you LOOK like Harley Quinn...OR MARION COTILLARD! - CBM, the only blog I can safely call "friends of this program" for having given me my one and only shout out, has broken the news that we may be in for multiple females in The Dark Knight Rises. This comes as great news for those who were worried about Chris Nolan's treatment of women (go google "Fridging"). Or not, I suppose he could mistreat MULTIPLE women as easily as one. I know that sounds callous, but hey, my brain is really insensitive today. It just told me a terrible joke to use later about Vera Farmiga, but I promise I won't. The scoop is that the following ladies are in talks for

Kacie Thomas

Charlize Theron - She is purty and, based on her performance on "Between Two Ferns" may be cooler than I thought. Also, she does that with her legs sometimes.



Vera Farmiga - Her name is funny, and in this picture she appears to be confused as to who failed to change these sheets or how she was talked out of her pants.

The first and last ladies are apparently battling for the role of Julie Madison, a socialite who will replace the 'sploded Rachel Dawes as Bruce Wayne's loin luster. The middle lady may be Sarah Essex, who was created by Frank Miller in Batman: Year One and is a detective with a relationship involving Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman). None of these ladies are apparently playing villains of any kind, which kills my Harley Quinn buzz. None of these ladies are also Marion Cotillard, who is the actress I want in this movie after seeing Nolan direct the crap out of her performance in Inception. I'm not giving up on my Harley Quinn hopes, but it's not looking good. Speaking of not looking good, join me in the next nugget please.

2.) Pay no attention to the man behind the beaver - You have to feel bad for the guy who wrote The Beaver. It's apparently a brilliant script. It lingered around Hollywood for years before finally being scooped up by big name director Jodie Foster and big name star Mel Gibson. Oops. Here's the poster.

After Gibson's douche rampage subsided, he made this movie, which I'm sure is quite good. For a total waste of humanity, Gibson's a damn fine actor. Then he had another douche-tsunami and became a wife-beating, double-strong racist (seriously, he wins every game of Creative Racial Slurs). So now this movie, which struggled forever to get made...because it's about a guy who only communicates to the world through a beaver puppet he found in the trash is now going to slip back into that weird limbo again. I feel bad for Foster and the other creative folks behind it. Not so much for Gibson the douche-a-saur. I actually want to see it, then I want Gibson to fall into a well. A deep well. With spiders. And vomit. And lava. A deep spider, vomit, lava well. That sounds fair.

3.) Now THAT is a sexy beast - So, you're saying that when Sexy Beast director Jonathon Glazer thought about who should star as "an alien on earth disguised as a mesmerizing woman who snares human prey using her voracious sexuality," he thought of this?I am shocked...SHOCKED! I mean, how is it that Miss Johansson, who has made a career out of downplaying her sexuality, has sprung to the top of Glazer's list for Under the Skin? By the way, am I the only one who wants to believe this is a weird sci-fi sequel to In Her Shoes? Something about the title makes me find that funny. Look, I love Scar-jo. She's smokin' hot, and I've had a thing for her forever now. I just want to see her do stuff that DOESN'T involve being smokin' hot and horny. She's a superhero...but it's a leather-bound superhero named Black Widow who poses seductively a lot. She's in a Woody Allen movie (or three), but somehow is sexier than any Allen character ever. Point is, she was so good and vulnerable/nuanced in Lost in Translation. Let's see if she can act. She should have starred in Gravity while she had the chance. Now it's "alien-who-sleeps-with-dudes-to-eat-them" time. Ugh.

4.) It's Shakespeare, only more apocalyptastical - I love me a good Shakespeare retelling. I can't wait for The Tempest, and now I'm geeked for Henry 5. It's going to star Michael Caine and Ray Winstone and is an apocalyptic take on Henry the Fifth. Really? Okay. That sounds, um, AWESOME! I mean, I love apocalyptic stuff AND Shakespeare. What could make this better?

Right, if you can read that, it says Gerard Depardeu is in this. Ooooh, apparently that's what was missing. I wish they'd have Steven Segal in it. I'd just love to see him doing the Bard's work. I believe it's what Shakey would have wanted. Anyway, this is bad-ass. I managed to work Steven Segal and bad-ass into a post on Shakespeare. Give me +23 for that.

5.) Trailers, parked - Finally, here are some trailers. I bookended today's edition. The first trailer is just...wow. The last one is fun. The middle one is a turd. So here's your trailer turd sandwich.

Sucker Punch is my friend Matt Lockwood's favorite movie. Oh, I realize he hasn't seen it yet, but this last trailer just confirmed he doesn't have to. This is pure visual paradise. I don't even care if there are words. Me likey. Me likey a lot. This guy is doing Superman. Everyone feel better about that now?


Gulliver's Travels is going to be awful. There is nothing good that will come of this. If we die out as a people, this may be responsible. This is the day the comedy died.


Blitz stars Jason Statham and is a thriller. That's all you need. Watch.



Okay, that's it for today. Tomorrow I promise to give you things to buy me and we'll talk weekend stuff, okay? Have a good one!

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I too prefer Mike Tyson to Mel Gibson

First off, good Friday morning to you. You look great today, really ready to conquer the world and scratch off those remaining "to-do" items before plunging ahead into a delightful weekend. I love you. Now I'm going to talk about racism, rape, and hate for awhile.

A few days ago, I told you that the Internet was trying to ruin something for you. I can now tell you all about it, as that ship has sailed...sailed on a sea of antisemitism, sexism, and general hate.

Mel Gibson was going to be the surprise cameo in The Hangover 2. It's set in Thailand, rumor had it he was going to play a tattoo artist, it probably would have been funny because Gibson is really great at comedy, an incredibly talented actor, and one of the worst people in the world.
Turns out, everyone in the cast of The Hangover kind of agreed on all those points, and refused to work with him. Supposedly this is what happened, mind you, it could also just be that the cat was so out of the bag that there was no need to have this surprise cameo anymore, what with there being no surprise around it.

This has inspired several blogs and movie sites I follow to stand up and point out the hypocrisy of this stance, as the cast was more than willing to work with Mike Tyson, a convicted rapist. These opinion pieces are all puffed chest and clenched fist, indignant that movie actors would have the gall to stand up and say no to what would clearly be the first real step in the Mel Gibson image reclamation project. To those writing these pieces trashing the cast of The Hangover 2, allow me to be the first to say YOU are in fact the near-sighted morons. Here's why.

Mike Tyson served his time. Do I like him? Not really. I don't have any need to hang out with him and pet his tiger (I didn't mean that like it sounded...okay, kinda). I don't think that means we give him a hug and say "all better now, Mike," but he was punished for a crime, has spent years since then in therapy, and seems at least to be a better person than he was before. Contrast all of this with Gibson, who has been unrepentant in his racist tirades, apologizing for the first bout just long enough to record messages including such creative and colorful racism it would be hilarious if it wasn't being left on a machine of a woman whose jaw he supposedly broke. Until all of that comes out in the wash, until he is either held accountable for brutally beating a woman and spouting gallons of verbal hate that took down various ethnic groups as collateral damage, I'm pretty okay saying I think Mike Tyson is a better person than Mel Gibson right now. Yes, I think it's perfectly fine for them to have worked with Tyson and reject Gibson.

2.) Gibson is one of their own, and they understand what this part means to him and what he means to them. It's like this: the self-deprecating cameo is step one in the "make people like Mel again" campaign. You know it, I know it. So do they. They realize that if they allow captain hatebeard in, they will directly have a hand in helping him get back to making millions of dollars again and being famous before the dust even settles on his abusive, hate-spewing last half decade. Tyson is an athlete. Gibson is an actor. It's fine for me that the cast would say "we don't accept this from one of our own and we will not help him get back on his feet." I'm good with that, and anyone who isn't is a chickenshit coward. Period. If I overhear a guy at the office leave a message for his wife that refers to her getting gang raped by a pack of "n-words," and he gets fired, I'm not going to give him a few bucks to help out at my garage sale until he gets back on his feet. Introduce me to a guy I've never met before who has a checkered past and wants to get back on his feet, I'm inclined to help him out.

I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Whether or not this is even what happened, that the actors bulled up and said no, I'm glad Gibson is out. Not just because I hated that the surprise cameo was so obviously ruined, but because I don't think he's deserving of a comeback. He's shown no remorse, is still embroiled in controversy, and hasn't earned redemption. Beyond that, I strongly advise Internet writers not to posture and judge a group of people trying to make a decision like this. I'm not going to drop into some personal-attack arguments where I malign the usually very smart and creative writers who penned some of these editorials, but I am going to just say shame on you for your limited-scope oversimplification. You're wrong on this one.

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Ryan's Junk Drawer

Hey everybody, it's Thursday, which means your wait to see my junk is finally at an end! Weekly explanation: My junk refers to movie news tidbits that aren't big enough to warrant their own entire story. It's also just an excuse to make jokes about genitalia, as in: "Everyone should see my junk, it's really spectacular this week...it will likely get you pregnant." Okay, that last part didn't work, but I was thinking about "30 Rock," so I wanted to talk about getting something pregnant. Another weekly game we play is to examine the image above from Highlights Magazine for Children (it didn't specify, but I believe the creepy image above suggests it's actually "Highlights Magazine for Sociopathic Children"). We look at it, pick an item, and make up some chilling and weird story about it...you know, for funsies. Today's item is the game token (looks like a quarter) in the middle. Sam grew up loving arcade games and dreaming of a world just like The Last Starfighter, where he would be whisked away to another space universe and heralded as their champion for his unmatched skill in playing "Space Swords." After spending almost all of his allowance, then half his paycheck, then everything but his alimony payments, Sam finally gave up, tossing his last token in the junk drawer. Sadly, had he played that last game, Gleepglorp from the planet Schlubby would have flown down and retrieved him so that he could help overthrow the evil overlord that was keeping the good people of planet Schlubby enslaved. Oh well!

Here's this week's junk, exposed for all to see.

1.) Mel Gibson is back with Black - Shane Black is directing Cold Warrior, a movie about a Cold War spy who unretires to save the world with a young, nubile co-agent (I may have added the nubile part), featuring Mel Gibson (as the non-nubile one). That was a really long linked sentence. Anyway, this is cool because Black directed Gibson in Lethal Weapon, you remember, back when Mel Gibson was "Action-star Mel Gibson" and not "Mel 'Sugar Tits' Gibson," which is actually a way cooler nickname. Despite the fact that Black did not write the script, it is his first directorial effort since Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which would probably make my top 10 favorite movies ever. Seriously. Here's a clip from it.



As far as who will play the agent who helps Mel's formally retired Cold War spy, it's the usual list of Shias and Ashtons, but I'm holding out hope for Ryan Gosling, who I believe still makes movies but am no longer sure.

2.) Avengers assembled! - In a sure sign that we're headed towards the moment we've all been waiting for (and be "we all" I mean me), Kevin Feige confirmed the lineup for the Avengers movie. According to Feige (which I believe is pronounced like "beige" but I wish was pronounced like "fig") "…its three people, four including Hulk , five including Nick Fury - who you have seen before in other movies, coming together for the very first time." To give you a visual indication, it's the following:

Plus Sam Jackson, lookin' all "patchy." This is good. This doesn't mean that we may not see Hawkeye or the Wasp in a cameo, but I actually think keeping the roster low is a great idea. Not only will it help with believability (barring the Norse God and all), but it helps keep characterization possible, which is nice. More than any other comic book movie, I'm looking forward to this one.

3.) We have a late entry for "Worst Idea Ever" - Miley Cyrus and Demi Moore are making a movie together...a movie called LOL. That sentence should be enough to make most people cry blood and vomit their dreams up. If you had a loved one kill themselves after reading that sentence, I apologize but comfort yourself in knowing that they won't ever live in a world where Miley Cyrus and Demi Moore HAVE made a movie together. The description of the film doesn't do any favors either, so if you're on the suicide fence after what I said earlier, look away. According to Variety, "The pic tells the story of a 15-year-old girl who, dumped by her more sexually experienced boyfriend, sets her sights on his best friend. At the same time, her 40-year-old divorcee mother is struggling to move on with her life. The fraught relationship between mother and daughter provides the film with its narrative backbone, along with the younger generation's obsession with instant messaging." Yep, it's all the fun of text-message conversation combined with Miley "how am I an oversexualized object when I starred in a Disney show and have teeth that would make Mr. Ed shy away" Cyrus and Demi "I'm more robot than woman at this point" Moore. It's based on a foreign film. And by foreign, I can only assume they mean forged in hell. If you make me angry, I will find a way to make you see this.

4.) Knockout's title is seeming more and more apropos - Bill Paxton is replacing Dennis Quaid and Antonio Banderas is joining Channing Tatum, Gina Carano, Ewan MacGregor, Michael Douglas, and Michael Fassbender in Steven Soderbergh's Knockout, a film that sounds like "Alias." On the one hand, the cast is suspiciously interesting. On the other, it kind of sounds like the cast to Vantage Point. I do think that if you can trade a Quaid for a Paxton, it's a good swap (like trading a Kutcher for a Gosling). Plus the script is by Lem Dobbs, who wrote The Limey, which is a great movie nobody saw. I'm cautiously optimistic about this one, but it will probably dovetail into out-and-out nausea when Carano, the former American Gladiator, opens her pie hole in the trailer. Oooh, maybe the script makes her mute?! If not, I suggest a late-hour rewrite, because if everyone else talked and she just kicked people in the dome, I'd be totally pumped. Also, Antonio Banderas needs this to reignite his career so he can get out of the house. Seriously, have you SEEN Melanie Griffith lately? Woah.

5.) Trailers, Parked - Not a big week for trailers...again. So I had to dive deep into my bag of weird shit to find anything fun. What do I have for you? Well, first up is Mother, a Korean film by the director of The Host, which was really quite good. This one does not feature a tentacled beast, or at least I don't think so...



Repo Chick is a spiritual sequel to Repo Man, which starred Emilio Estevez, whose name I don't think I've ever mentioned in this blog (huzzah for a new mention!). This looks like it was made for a buck fifty, reminds me of Tank Girl (which I liked), and seems to be a giant acid trip filmed in front of a green screen. I may see it just to get a legal high.



Cyrus features John C Reilly, Jonah Hill, and the still EXCRUCIATINGLY hot Marissa Tomei (eat it, Demi, she's all natural). I love so much about this trailer, from Reilly's brutal honesty "I'm like Shrek" to Hill's apparent psychosis. PS - I love living in a world where Jonah Hill gets to be famous. That rules.






Okay, that's it. Really epic junk this week, I know. Pass it on to your friends, I'm sure your friends would also like my junk.

Least joy-inspiring viking since Brett Favre?

I hate Brett Favre. I'm a Bears fan, so he's given me multiple reasons to hate him, beyond his rampant douchebaggery, which should really inspire the ire of any and all who hear of him. This really could go on to a full, one billion word epic rant on how much I loathe and despise the basterdly bastard, but here's my pictorial demonstration of that rant:

And I'm done. I bring all of this up, not because Favre is making a triumphant return to the stage but because of clever wordplay. See, Variety is reporting that Leonardo DiCaprio is starring in an untitled Viking movie. While this likely isn't the cinematic retelling of the Minnesota football team's repeated, repeated, repeated, repeated attempts to win a super bowl while failing, but I can't be sure. Oh, did I mention that Mel Gibson is directing? Because he is. Also, the film is written by William Monaghan, who also wrote The Departed....so maybe DiCaprio will get to say "What do you want them to do? Chop me up and feed me to the poor?" again. It would work in a viking context. I know DiCaprio is a talented actor, and I'm not doubting his abilities, but...if you buy that dude as a warrior, you probably also buy that Favre was seriously considering his options during the summer and not weaseling out of training camp. It all comes back to my seething hatred of that man, doesn't it?

Mad Max beyond Gibsondome

THR has put the nail in Mel Gibson's tenure as Mad Max's Max Rokatansky, the most leather-wearin', Thunderdome-rockin', post-apocalyptic NASCAR driver of all time. The trade mag reports that Thomas Hardy will take the lead from the sugar-tits-tosser. I'm also told that the Thomas Hardy referred to here is this man (shown all ripped for his role in Bronson):

It is apparently that large breasted gentleman and NOT the late 19th century/early 20th century British poet and novelist who wrote "Tess of the D'Urbervilles," which is kind of a bummer. Also, Charlize Theron IS reportedly in talks for a role in the film, she's shown here stalking me:

Okay fine, she's not stalking me, let's assume she heard that there will be a lot of car chases in the new Mad Max and wants to know what a car looks like from crouching behind it? I don't know what's happening here, but she looks like she just got caught doin' her lady business behind a Prius, doesn't it? Anyway, it sounds like the new Mad Max movie isn't a remake or a reboot, it's a straight-up continuation of the story, which is fine because I believe the story of Mad Max thus far is "post-apocalypse, people drive and fight." Should be able to pick right up. OH, I know, Theron is changing back into a tiger because the sun is setting? Sorry, that picture is going to keep bothering me.

Ryan's Junk Drawer

I was going to start this post off flippantly and point out that by now you all know the drill about my junk drawer (and the subsequent dirty-sounding jokes that I post on twitter and facebook about it because I have the maturity of a fourth-grader). But then I realized that (Spoiler Alert) a lot of you may not. Keep this on the hush-hush DL, but it turns out there's a silent army of you growing out there. Thanks to salacious pictures and keywords designed to titillate and entice...we're growing in this here corner of the blogaverse. Now, mind you, nobody is commenting on anything, but that's okay. If you want to lurk, you just go right on ahead and lurk, I don't mind. So, to you new people, my junk drawer is populated by stories that aren't big enough to warrant their own entire post, which is sad because I'll post about anything really. Hell, look at how long I can stretch an introduction that doesn't really mean anything. Anyhoodle, without further ado, I give you the top 5 things that weren't important enough to warrant their own hunk or chunk of cyberspace.

1.) The return of the Sugar Titter - It's been a long time since we've seen Mel Gibson doing something other than tossing out sexist/anti-semetic remarks or apologizing for sexist/anti-semetic remarks (actually, to be honest, I heard him apologize for the whole "accusing Jews for starting all of the wars" thing but not for his epic sugar tits blast...which I still never got to be my ringtone). Well, the world's most charismatic mean-spirited drunk is back (and by back I don't mean dumping his wife of a billion years to marry some Russian version of Tori Amos who he got knocked up despite his profoundly deep religion...which he also did). I have to say that I have no problem separating the artist from the art and I loooove me some Mel Gibson movies. This one sort of looks like Payback meets Taken, which is semi-lame and semi-cool all at the same time. Aside from the come-and-go Boston accent, I kind of want to see this. Not as much as the movie he's shooting for director Jodie Foster where he plays a guy with his hand stuck in a beaver puppet the whole time, but almost.

2.) Non news is still news - Jon Favreau will not direct The Avengers. There, I said it. Everyone else in the movie reporting world was all atwitter on twitter and elsewhere reporting this thrilling non-news that I thought we had all determined was likely the case about a year ago. When they first announced the dates for Iron Man 2 and The Avengers, we all looked around and went "well, looks like Favreau is out." And yet, on a slow news week (again), everyone is scrambling over themselves to re-report the non-news about a non-issue. So, to repeat news from August of '08, Favreau will not direct The Avengers. More interesting is Devin Faraci's suggestion from Chud.com that Francis Ford Coppola direct the movie. God, could you imagine?! What about checking with someone like Paul Thomas Anderson of There Will Be Blood greatness? I joke (but if it happens I take full credit).

3.) Warning: I'm only posting this to make one lame-ass joke - Variety is reporting that one day after Paramount dropped $2 million on a secret movie penned by an action writer and a rom-com writer, Disney is paying about a mil for a high-concept rom-com idea from the guy who wrote Hitch, which was a piece of shit. Seriously, that movie is a boil on the ass of sub-par romantic comedies. When I hear it playing in another room in my house, it makes me have a bad day. When I see it listed in my cable guide, it gives me an ulcer. Anyway, the movie will star Josh Duhamel, who you won't remember from "Las Vegas" but may know as the human without boobs who wasn't Shia in Transformers and Transformers 2: Face Rape or as the guy who married Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas (who I kind of think looks tranny-tastic). Anyway, here's the big joke, are you ready? The movie starring Duhamel with a script valued at a million bucks is called What's He Got? The answer: Herpes. That's the joke. Seriously.

4.) Gus Van Sant and Bret Easton Ellis to depress the shit out of us - Because nothing says entertainment like watching a fictional movie where the two characters kill themselves in terribly depressing ways, Gus Van Sant and writer Bret Easton Ellis are teaming up to make a movie about this Vanity Fair article about an artist couple who offed themselves. I kid you not, I'm depressed just reading the synopsis. You know how the guy did himself in? He went all V Wolf and walked into the ocean. Yeah, for realzies. Not cool. Sure it will probably be poetic and beautiful and win lots of awards but I'll end up feeling all bad about life after watching it. So, future me thanks these two movie makers for making me feel bad about a year from now.

5.) I wonder if McConaughey will take his shirt off and Jones will be gruff? - THR is reporting that Tommy Lee Jones is going to direct and star with Matthew McConaughey in Lincoln's Lawyer, which is not a movie about Abraham Lincoln's lawyer (they got you there, though). Jones will also direct the film about a lawyer who lives out of his car but lands a huge case. The only time I thought McConaughey was worth a squirt acting wise was in A Time to Kill, when he did that last emotional jury thingie. That was good. So I suppose it isn't the worst thing in the world that he's doing this movie. Then again, maybe it is, I don't know yet. I've never seen Jones's directorial effort, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, but I always mean to. I heard it was good. I don't know, maybe this movie won't suck, but all I see in my head is Jones yelling some kind of gruff set of instructions to a shirtless McConaughey and that image sucks ass.

Okay, no more junk today. Back atcha tomorrow with the usual Friday shenanigans.

Jeremy Renner had best practice saying "Sugar Tits"

If it looks like I have a giant thing for Jeremy Renner today...well, don't tell my wife. There was little question after The Hurt Locker that the dude was going to blow up (really, really poor choice of descriptors there). Turns out, he's going to ride his "I'm a crazy" personality from that film into a potential turn as the tit-ular Mad Max (played with relish and zest...making him sound like a pickle...by actor-turned-sugar-tits-caller Mel Gibson). Renner told his hometown newspaper, "The Modesto Bee," that he is screen testing for the role with George Miller. That makes this one half-step above the normal BS rumors of such casting, which are normally based on some chubby dude's marijuana-enhanced "rumor mongering" (as in, "hey, Jessica Alba should totally play that one naked chick in her next movie). I have to say that my interest in a Mel Gibson-free Mad Max movie was at burnt sienna on the color-coded scale of anticipation. Renner's potential involvement cranks it up to fuscia without question. That said...I wonder what justification there is for a new Max movie? I mean, are there really aspects of that character or world we haven't seen yet, or are we just going back there to go back there. If Tina Turner doesn't close out your franchise, I'm not sure who can (anyone who said Cher, shame on you). I will say that Neil Marshall's Doomsday gave me a little big of vigor to see Max back, as his lunatic rip-off of the series fell somewhere between honest homage and Tarantino-ing the source material. Point is, at the end of the day, Jeremy Renner deserves to be crazy famous, so I'm really pulling for him hard on this one. If you just read the first line of this post and the line that proceeds this one, I'm going to need therapy.