Fifteen years after the end of their hit sitcom Roseanne, NBC will be the staging a reunion of sorts. John Goodman is currently in talks to reunite with TV wife Roseanne Barr for the NBC comedy pilot Downwardly Mobile.

The NBC comedy pilot will star Barr as an outspoken proprietor and den mother to an array of characters at a mobile home park. Goodman is allegedly close to finalizing a deal to co-star in Barr’s pilot, according to Variety.

Goodman, who played Roseanne’s loyal husband Dan Conner for nine seasons on the ABC comedy from 1988-1997, will play one of the guys who work at the park. Goodman recently stated that he wouldn’t mind being on a series again. “You get tired living out of a suitcase,” said Goodman.

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Originally intending to auction off the rights to Red State at its Sundance premiere last year, Mr. Smith turned-tail and decided to self distribute through Smodcast Pictures instead. The film was shown in the “road show” format in select cities before receiving an official release. Smith’s sudden change of heart naturally erupted into accusations of dishonesty from some attending distributors.

One year after the controversy, Smith has once again stepped forward and struck a partnership with Phase 4 Films in what seems to be an abandonment of his rebel ways. On Monday, Smith released an official statement regarding the exclusive distribution in cooperation with Smodcast, the production company founded by Smith himself.

Phase 4 gains U.S. and Canadian rights for the option to distribute up to a maximum of twelve films alongside the newly entitled Kevin Smith and Smodcast Pictures Presents label. Four features will release theatrically and include a film tour similar to that of Red State.

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I didn’t know what to expect. From the endless trailer play The Artist received at the Landmark on Clark, I have to admit I didn’t have much hope. It looked too “artsy,” too cute, too self-important. That’s at least how it seemed. And then the reviews started coming in, and pretty much everyone was talking about it on all the movie podcasts. Still, I was holding out. Everyone could have been deceived by the gimmick of a contemporary silent, black and white film, right?

Of course, my preconceptions were wrong (I still think the trailer mis-markets the film): The Artist is a wonderfully fun and entertaining film, and that makes up for whatever high pretensions it may have. The story is basically the same as Singin’ in the Rain: A successful silent film star struggles to adapt to sound while the woman he loves becomes a huge star.

The year is 1929, the place is Hollywoodland, and the falling star is George Valentin (Jean Dujardin), a mix of Douglas Fairbanks, Harold Lloyd, and William Powell (and Valentino, too, I guess) with the ruggedly charismatic face of Sean Connery and the natural cheeriness of Gene Kelly. And that description is not lifted from Roger Ebert’s review—I’d be surprised to see a review that didn’t mention it.

Anyway, on his way out the door from his latest premiere, Valentin bumps into one of his fans, the slightly ditzy flapper Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo). He shrugs it off and poses for a quick photo with her.

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It’s hard to face it, but we are neck-deep in the heart of the Award-getting part of the film year. When studios and actors try their hardest to tug on the heartstrings of audiences and try to set their footing for this year’s Oscar race.

With that, one film that surely has reason to win some awards is the new 9/11 drama Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. The film stars Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock and just the synopsis alone may get you to choke up.

Based on the acclaimed novel of the same name, “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” tells the story of one young boy’s journey from heartbreaking loss to the healing power of self-discovery, set against the backdrop of the tragicevents of September 11. Eleven-year-old Oskar Schell is an exceptional child: amateur inventor, Francophile, pacifist.

And after finding a mysterious key that belonged to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11, he embarks on an exceptional journey–an urgent, secret search through the five boroughs of New York. As Oskar roams the city, he encounters a motley assortment of humanity, who are all survivors in their own ways. Ultimately, Oskar’s journey ends where it began, but with the solace of that most human experience: love.

Even the 11 year old protagonist’s name is Oskar, so there you have it. Take a look at the new trailer after the jump, and catch the film in limited theaters on Christmas Day.

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Red State is a movie filmed straight from the first draft of the shooting script.

Right from the opening shot of a small town, the cuts of scenery are so quick the audience doesn’t even know what they’re supposed to be looking at. Eventually the camera settles on a mother driving her son to school. On the way they pass a group protesting the funeral of a recently murdered homosexual student. Director Kevin Smith finally lingers on a shot of one of the protest signs featuring the phrase “Anal Penetration” in big, bold letters. We see the sign a few times more before the boy gets to school.

When he does, he explains to his teacher (who doesn’t even seem to mind his tardiness) why he’s late, and she launches into some unbelievably clumsy exposition about the group’s leader, Pastor Abin Cooper (Michael Parks), a nut of a fundamentalist who’s universally despised around these parts and runs his own private Wacoville just outside of town. It’s also brought up at the murdered boy went to that very high school! Two things should immediately pop out: 1) If the kid went to that school, and was murdered two weeks ago, how on earth is it possible that none of his classmates knew him? And 2) If everyone already knows Abin Cooper, then why spend so much time explaining who he is, what he does, where he does it, why he does it…? The answer, of course, is to fill in the audience, but it’s done in such an amateurish way that you can’t believe it came from writer/director Kevin Smith, who’s not only made eight feature films, not only been writing professionally for nearly 20 years, but who’s also a man who prides himself on the quality of his writing.

And this is in the first three minutes.

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Summer is finally coming to a close, and for most that means heading back to school or waking up early to take their little ones to school, but the good news is that all news shows are returning to the primetime lineup!

Some people are excited for things like the brand new look of The Office or new comedies like Up All Night and Whitney to start, but we can tell you none of that compares to what we are looking forward to in the upcoming third season of NBC’s Community.

Last season, we had things like an Apollo 13 spoof, another paintball tournament, and some amazing cameo guest stars, but from what we can tell in this new extended trailer for the season, that’s only the tip of the iceburg in what the students and staff at Greendale Community College have to offer.

Check out the brand new teaser after the jump, featuring a peek at an incredibly austentacious-looking musical number, and some of the most intense dialogue performed by John Goodman since the final season of Roseanne after the jump and catch the season premiere of Community on September 22nd.

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Mel Brooks may have knocked it out of the park by being tongue-in-cheek back when he made Silent Movie, but there is no way today’s audience could possibly accept a full, silent, black & white film. Right? Well, that’s exactly what director Michel Hazanavicius has done.

His film, The Artist, is done like a classic black & white film. Movie stars, dames in trouble, tons of indoor smoking, and more dancing than you could shake a stick at. Here’s the premise:

Hollywood 1927. George Valentin is a very successful silent movie star. The arrival of talking pictures will mark the end of his career. Peppy Miller, a young woman extra, becomes a major movie star.

With films about zombies and The Help making waves in the box office, why couldn’t a simple silent movie about Hollywood in the 1920s take off? They’ve already got us hooked with the trailer, which you can check out after the jump.

Catch Weinstein Company’s The Artist in theaters on November 23rd.

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It’s always nice when we see independently financed and released films get their first trailer to entice an audience. There is no “Bay-esque” flash cuts, no mysterious title cards, just some awesome action and intense sequences thrown together with dialogue reminiscent of Clerks and brought to us by @ThatKevinSmith. Yes. That’s how he’s credited.

That’s how to cut a trailer. And that’s exactly what we get in the very first trailer for Smith’s Red State, the film so indie that he’s releasing it to theaters himself. Here’s the premise for the writer/director’s first horror film to date.

Red State begins by following three horny high-school boys who come across an online ad from an older woman looking for a gang bang. Boys being boys, they hit the road to satisfy their libidinal urges. But what begins as a fantasy takes a dark turn as they come face-to-face with a terrifying “holy” force with a fatal agenda.

Instead of relying on archetypes and predictable formulas, Smith meticulously fashions all-too-real characters, utilizing exceptional performances (notably by Michael Parks) and an intelligent script. His realistic style gives the film an intimate feeling, heightening the terror to biblical proportions. Red State is a shocking new kind of horror film that aggressively confronts higher powers and extreme doctrines with a vengeance.

That’s right, you’ve got the man that brought us the line “snoochie boochies” giving us a religious thriller with a pretty stellar cast. Leading that charge is the legendary Michael Parks, along with Kevin Pollak and John Goodman as the two would-be heroes of the tale (at least that’s what we’re hoping).

Take a look at the trailer after the jump and be sure to hit your local arthouse when Red State hits it on October 19th.

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Just when you thought NBC’s breakout show Community couldn’t get any better after such guest stars as LeVar Burton, Betty White, Josh Holloway, and Malcolm-Jamal Warner, but it looks like the ante is about to get upped.

Word is now coming in that John Goodman will have a whopping 6-episode stint on the upcoming third season of the show. Here’s the scoop from TV Line.

Goodman will recur in at least six episodes of NBC’s quirky comedy as Vice Dean Laybourne, the head of Greendale’s air conditioning repair school, and he will become a major foe for both Dean Pelton (played by newly promoted series regular Jim Rash) and our favorite study group.

That’s right, the man who has The Flintsontes, Speed Racer and The Big Lebowski on his resume will be coming to one of the best written and funniest shows currently on TV this season, predictivaly making this another stellar season for creator Dan Harmon and his cast.

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There’s no denying that zombies are hot right now. Of course, with that kind of burning press, you’d expect to see the undead walk in just about every form of mass media. But would you expect to see an entire film about zombies as a 3D animated film?

That’s what Focus Features and Laika is hoping for, as the team that brought us Coraline is getting back together for their newest film, ParaNorman. Here’s the breakdown from a Focus press release.

Currently in production, ParaNorman is being directed by Sam Fell and Chris Butler, from Mr. Butler’s original screenplay. Mr. Fell was director of The Tale of Despereaux and Flushed Away. Mr. Butler was storyboard supervisor on Coraline and storyboard artist on Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride. The voice cast includes Academy Award nominee Casey Affleck (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford), Tempestt Bledsoe (The Cosby Show), Jeff Garlin (Toy Story 3), John Goodman (Monsters, Inc.), Bernard Hill (Titanic), Academy Award nominee Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air), Leslie Mann (Rio), Christopher Mintz-Plasse (How to Train Your Dragon), Kodi Smit-McPhee (Let Me In), and Tony and Emmy Award winner Elaine Stritch (30 Rock).

If that star-studded voice cast isn’t enough to whet your appetite, what if we told you it was about a young boy who could speak with the dead? Here’s the synopsis.

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This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt are back to doing what they do best: working alone and without a net. Not only that but, as usual, they discuss and debate all manner of new and returning topics.

This week those include HBO’s Game of Thrones, The Avengers, Smallville and Lex Luthor’s return. In addition, they talked about the Thor movies (yes, both of them), Portal 2, a brand new, exciting product from Apple called the HumancentiPad and pretty much whatever the hell ‘else they want to talk about..

Of course, your hosts also made some picks this week including Matt’s pick of the movie Matinee and Chris’ pick of the returning HBO series Treme.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook and MySpace or via email.

If you haven’t been watching HBO’s series Treme, you’re really missing something. The show is very well done, features an outstanding cast and comes from the creative team behind one of the greatest shows ever to grace our television screens: The Wire.

Treme deals with the city of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. As season two begins it’s more than a year since Katrina and its aftermath. The national spotlight on the Crescent City has dimmed, and residents are finding it harder than ever to rebuild their lives.

Some have become expatriates in distant cities. The insurance checks that never arrived for homeowners were followed by the bureaucratic nightmare that was the Road Home program, and a land-grab is underway as developers and disaster capitalists press their advantage. Crime and drug use are up, and corruption and graft are endemic, with civic institutions unable to counter any of it.

And yet the culture of New Orleans somehow endures. To help you get ready for the new season of the show we’ve got a preview video for it as well as a recap video of what happened last season.

Check out both videos after the jump. Treme returns to HBO for season two on Sunday, April 24th at 10/9C.

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