Usually, I start roundtable interview pieces with a rather large amount of biographical information about whoever’s involved. In the case of Topher Grace, former star of “That 70’s Show” as well as movies like “In Good Company” and “Predators,” I’ve already covered him pretty thoroughly in my one-on-one interview with him over at Bullz-Eye.com. Nevertheless, it’s worth noting that as a hands-on executive producer and coauthor of the film’s story, he has a lot riding on the profitability of “Take Me Home Tonight,” a comedy about post-collegiate growing pains in the 1980s. Although I liked the film quite a bit, my review is but one, and to be honest, I appear to be something of an outlier. The good news for actor-producer Grace is that reviews mean next to nothing commercially for youth comedies, and people are laughing in screenings.

As for the striking, Australian-born Teresa Palmer, she’s still something of a newcomer to the American screen, having gotten good notices in the otherwise critically bashed, “I Am Number 4,” as well as Disney’s “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” and “Bedtime Stories.” She shows every sign of becoming a more familiar face to audiences — and her face is definitely one of the prettier ones you’re likely to see right now.

While one journo tried to use a then-upcoming holiday to pull some personal info out of Palmer and Grace — at more than one point in the past, the pair have been rumored to be dating — the business and pleasure of making a youth oriented comedy was the chief topic during this mass interview from the “Take Me Home Tonight” junket.

Journalist: So how much of this is autobiographical?

Topher Grace: The original answer is none. Then I started talking to people at this press things and I’m, like, “Wait a second, I did work at Suncoast Video.” You’re not going to believe this, but I actually wasn’t that smooth with ladies when I was younger, it’s unbelievable — but there’s a lot of fictional elements to it, also.

Journalist: Like riding [down a hill in a giant ball]?

TG: I never…well, I did actually wind up, in the movie, riding a ball [for the movie], but I never did anything that crazy.

Journalist: This movie talks about how high school sort of sets you on a course. Can you just talk about your high school days and what kind of cliques you were in?

Teresa Palmer: I was what they refer to as a “floater,” which meant I would go from group to group, hoping that someone would want to accept me. So at one point I was listening to Marilyn Manson and really trying to get in with the Goth gang. They weren’t that into having a blond-haired, blue-eyed girl join the crew.

TG: What a bunch of idiots.

Journalist: And your group?

TG: My group? It is easier to believe, but I wasn’t that popular in high school.

TP: “Didn’t you have any friends?” is what he’s trying to say.

TG: My roommate from boarding school is my producing partner on this film, Gordon Kaywin.

Journalist: Miss Palmer, I’m curious, you were about three when the film was set.

TP: Two, actually.

Journalist: Two. Sorry — not to imply anything. And you’re clearly not from around these parts; did you go to American 1980’s boot camp to get a sense of the slang and the style?

TP: I did. Topher is the one that put me in that boot camp.

TG: Tiffany is the headmaster and it’s a weird kind of school. [Laughter]

TP: It was really bizarre.

Journalist: I do have a follow-up question. As a producer, Mr. Grace, for a film like this, where music is such an intrinsic part of it, you know that some of these washed-up 80’s acts are just sitting at home, waiting for anybody to offer them any sum of money…

TG: Are you talking about for acting or for music?

Journalist: For music.

TG: No, that is not true. You know, this film was created in the spirit of, like, “American Graffiti” or “Dazed and Confused”…We want to be the first one about the 80’s that wasn’t spoofing it, that was really about it. That being said, George Lucas messed it all up by making “American Graffiti,” because [at the time] he could only use oldies because there was no market for them [and they were cheap for filmmakers to purchase]…that’s why there’s no score in the movie except when they think the serial killer is closing in. So there’s a little bit of score, that’s weird, and then the rest is all oldies because that’s all he could afford. Whereas now a soundtrack of all these oldies, trust me, is insane numbers.

Journalist: Well, the gist of my question was, were there specific songs you really wanted, where, say, Falco said, “No, I’m sorry, it’s a million dollars”? [Note: Falco would have had a hard time saying anything; he died in 1998.]

TG: There was one song we didn’t get, which was “Hot For Teacher,” which was literally half a million dollars. So, way to go, Van Halen, you don’t get to be in the seminal film about the 80’s. But [late NWA rapper] Eazy-E’s estate was really cooperative with [“Straight Outta Compton”], which is a really hard song to get. I mean, that soundtrack is insane. We have about 12 or 13 of the songs on the soundtrack that is coming out on iTunes, and we have, like, 28 songs left over. It was hard to choose. You know, [our music supervisor] Kathy Nelson helped us sit down with [famed music producer and film composer] Trevor Horn, who did a lot of those soundtracks in the 80’s. The soundtrack is just like everything else. We didn’t want to be making fun of it and have, like, “Rock Me Amadeus” or “Get Out of My Dreams,” we wanted to have songs that have stood the test of time, but were great back then, and make it kind of the ultimate soundtrack.

Journalist: Did your Canadian director [Michael Dowse] pick “Safety Dance” for the big dance off?

TG: He did. I think originally…the dance off was to INXS. But it’s like when [Dan Fogler’s character] gets blasted on coke for the first time. I think originally it was…because we shot it to that music. So when Teresa is coming out at the party, “Bette Davis Eyes” would be playing on set.

TP: Yeah, we actually had that, and that’s a rarity, because usually, for sound reasons, they can’t play the music [during shooting]. But for whatever reason, they decided to do it. It really helped me get into the slow motion.

Journalist: Was it weird just going to a party everyday?

TP: It was amazing.

TG: Somehow, we got into it.

Journalist: The story that you tell of kids at crossroads, I mean, that’s timeless, but why the ‘80’s and do you think kids now who watch this can even relate to [the time period]?

TG: …I learned this on “That ‘70s Show,” it attracts two audiences. There’s the audience that lived through it, so when they’re watching it, they are kind of just swimming in nostalgia for that stuff. It’s time travel, when they hear the song, it takes them to that place. Then there’s an audience that is the age of the characters, who are discovering it, and that’s just as valid. I didn’t know anything about the ‘70s [when I started on the show]. I certainly learned a lot…“The Wedding Singer,” which I love, is a really great romantic comedy, but it spoofs the ‘80s. It points out, “Oh, look at this crazy cell phone, can they get any smaller?” “The compact disc will never take off,” or whatever. But it makes sense because it was made eight years after the ‘80s ended, so it hadn’t been over that long. And it would be like if we made a movie out of the ‘90s now, you can’t really…

TP: You’re not far enough away from it to really appreciate it.

Journalist: I appreciated the videotapes in the store.

TG: Right. It was just kind of the right amount of time to look at it and not make fun of it. The third answer to your question [about setting the film in 1980’s] is, it’s a trick…it’s sugarcoating the pill.

Journalist: Did you guys ever have a time in your life where you were directionless? Your acting careers are great right now, but did you have a time where you went, “What the hell am I doing? Why am I doing this job?”

TP: For me, it was the period between finishing high school in 2003 and becoming an actor. There was like two years in between that time and I dabbled in lots of different things. I went to journalism school, I wanted to do what you guys are doing. I didn’t like that. Then. I went to teachers college for a couple of lectures and then dropped out of that also. Then acting just landed in my lap.

TG: So look at that, she fell back on being a movie star.

Journalist: So [Topher], what was your period of “What the hell am I doing?”

TG: You know, I was directionless in my first year of college as to what I was going to major in or do, but that ended quickly because I got [“That 70’s Show”]. You know it was a real fluke, I had never auditioned for anything, it was a bizarre thing that happened. Even when I started the show, I didn’t know if I wanted to act, which is a shame because I had signed a six year contract. Luckily, I really fell in love with it and the process and working with great ensembles.

Journalist: So you’re both kind of the same age as your characters, basically. [Note: That’s not exactly true for Grace, who is in his early thirties. However, he was closer to that age when the film was shot in 2008.]

TG: I think now there are some statistics where 60-70% of all kids graduating college have to go home and live with their folks. This is people who would be getting jobs a couple of years ago.

TP: It’s quite overwhelming to think that your peers in society…and to know what you’re going to be doing for the rest of your life [can be set] at 22 or 23 years of age. I don’t even know who I am at that age. I’m 24 now and I’m still just becoming a woman. I don’t really know what I want to do for the rest of my life. It’s quite scary, I think.

Journalist: Topher, do you think it will be hard now to go back to just a picture where you’re not producing and you don’t get to be in charge?

TG: I have. Right after this film I did a film with Richard Gere, which is exactly the opposite [situation]. It’s like a CIA, FBI thriller. There was nothing more fun than, when the directors and the producers start talking about some budget thing, being like “I’ll be in my trailer.” I mean it actually makes it all more fun because you understand more about it; you understand when you could be doing work and you don’t have to, which is wonderful. The reason I really wanted to do [“Take Me Home Tonight] was because these films we’re talking about — “American Graffiti”, “Dazed and Confused” — they have tons of people that came out of them in a big way. “American Graffiti” had Harrison Ford before he was Harrison Ford; and Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard was a producer of our film, Cindy Williams, Suzanne Somers. Then “Dazed and Confused” has Matthew McConaughey, Ben Affleck, Parker Posey, Renée Zellweger, Milla Jovovich. It’s my hope…[that] there are three or four movie stars here that are 20 million dollar movie stars in the year 2020. So we would be at like an IHOP or something, at like 6:00 AM, which is the end of our shooting day because we had to shoot at night. And you would see Demetri Martin doing a bit with Dan Fogler and then Anna Faris would pitch in and I’m thinking this is what it felt like to be at “Saturday Night Live” and [thinking], you know, this Belushi guy is funny and so is Bill Murray.

I’ve done movies with people like Richard and Dennis Quaid, it’s great to work with masters. But there’s something about working with your peers as they’re discovering it. Tes gives an amazing performance, where she’s very distant from the audience at the beginning of the movie. Then, in the middle of the movie, the audience starts to get to know her really well and it’s very endearing. So it was just great, that sense of discovery is really fun. It’s a reason to make it happen.

Bullz-Eye [to Teresa Palmer]: Since you had to work on an accent for this movie, did you choose a specific kind of Los Angeles accent, or did you just kind of go with generic American?

TP: Generic American. I worked with Liz Himelstein, who’s a wonderful dialect coach. She works with a lot of the Australians. She was on set with me every day and it was very liberating to have that there because you’re not so up in your head about the accent and I could focus on the work I was doing. She would come in and she’s like “oh, oh, no” and I was like “I didn’t know.” So yeah, it was grand. Relatively easy for me because, being in Australia, we grow up watching a ton of American television so the transition was pretty organic.

Journalist: Topher, let me ask you, when you talk about this movie you always mention John Hughes movies. Was there a certain beats from John Hughes movies that you had to have in this film, certain things?

TG: Sure, but it was more ‘80s movies than John Hughes movies — although John Hughes has handfuls of heart and can be kind of raunchy, which we wanted to go for. We wanted to have someone steal a red car. We wanted to have someone chasing a girl. We wanted to have that moment where everyone at the party starts singing to one song. We wanted to have a platonic best friend that was a girl, we just made [Anna Faris’s character my] twin because we wanted to also mess with all of those conventions.

Journalist: Valentine’s Day is coming up. Do either of you have any special plans?

TG: I’m going to rent “Valentine’s Day.” Good film, good film.

TP: We’re on the road, promoting the film. I think we’re going to be in Miami.

Journalist: What things from the ‘80s do you kind of wish we still had now? And what things are like “Thank God, we don’t still do have to deal with that?”

TP: Thank god we don’t have a side ponytail. I think they’re bringing back some of the great things of the ‘80s, in terms of fashion. The shoulder pads…

Journalist: What about [Topher]?

TG: I think all of the exterior fashions were horrible. All of them. I had a tie in this…they actually had to hunt down the ugliest fabric, skinny tie and there’s a lot of ugliness on it. But I kind of liked walking into the party with the shades and being able to look over the top. I’ll never be able to do that in the real world.

Journalist: It was very Rob Lowe.

TP: Yeah. Totally.

Journalist: You really like comedy and I think you’re very funny, but is there something else that you’d like to try out, like maybe some crazy villain?

TG: Well I played a psychopath killer in “Predators,” that was my last movie. I was a bad guy in “Spider-Man 3.” This new one that I have with Richard Gere is a really serious drama about the FBI. So, I’m pretty happy in terms of getting to try tons of stuff.

[Co-star Dan Fogler walks by the room and makes a funny face. We writers are easily amused and break up.]

Journalist: Was [shooting the movie] a lot like that?

TP: Yes, it was very spontaneous.

TG: All of us, we were really close. I know you’ve probably interviewed a billion casts who go “we were all really close; we went to so and so’s house and made dinner.” But really, truly, we all had that kind of bond.

TP: We’re still such good friends now, which is really refreshing. Because you’re right, usually it’s summer camp and you go and have that experience and then it’s over. But for us, it was summer camp and then it kind of continued on. It’s really lovely.

TG: Dan’s my roommate sometimes because he lives in New York, so when he comes out here he stays with me.

Journalist: Is that a good thing?

TG: It’s surprisingly not as messy as I thought it was going to be.

Journalist: You have some pretty funny stunts in this film, did you have any injuries? Or were there any crazy challenges?

TG: Dan got hurt a lot.

Journalist: Did he?

TG: Yeah. I think his finger slammed in a door once, but because of that pinky ring he has on it totally didn’t hurt him at all. He wears all of this jewelry with his character. Some of the stuff in the ball was just not fun. And then [when the ball hit the pool that] was really scary…That was probably the scariest day of any stunt I’ve ever done on film, to be honest.

Journalist: Can you talk about the delay in this release?

TG: Well you know it’s a “hard R” that you’re talking about. Anyone going should know it’s a realistic look at the ‘80’s. We didn’t want to pull any punches. The same way “Dazed and Confused” has a lot of marijuana use, which is very apropos to the ‘70’s, and there’s a lot of drinking and cigarettes in “American Graffiti.” We think if you’re at a party with twenty-somethings, who graduated college in the mid-80’s, in Beverly Hills, I’m going to go out on a limb and say there was a lot of coke there. So we wanted it to be a real cross section. Anna’s character deals with something really different than what my character deals with with Tori [played by Teresa Palmer]. Silly Dan has a very specific experience [involving a lot of cocaine]. There was a lot of trepidation at the studio about that. Then, luckily we had another studio come in. We had Ron Howard and Brian Grazer on it, so it wasn’t like I figured it out. These guys are some of the best producers of all time. So they helped navigate it to a place where, instead of cutting stuff out and neutering the film…they’re really embracing it. You guys saw the film. I don’t think it’s actually that bad.

TP: Controversial.

TG: But it is real. I think when you make one of these films, if you’re going to talk about one night in someone’s life that’s amazing, you can’t pull any punches.

Journalist: Angie Everhart’s boobs was about it for nudity.

TP: And they’re amazing boobs.

Journalist: Why pick investment bankers for the profession your character lies about?

TG: Oh man, I actually don’t remember…I think the feeling was, what is the most intimidating thing Tori could be doing that Matt knows something about? He knows math, but not enough about it to be able to fake it [as an investment banker]. And, also, to have an internship at Drexel Burnham right out of college, while he’s working at Suncoast Video…We really wanted to go across the tracks. You guys know, because we’re in L.A, but a lot of people don’t, I didn’t understand before I came here, the Valley is kind of its own thing. Then, you go right over the hill and you’re in an entirely different culture.

Unlike other notables, writers are still allowed to be a little mysterious. Indeed, other than the fact that he wrote several widely acclaimed movies, an episode of the legendary television series “Route 66,” some plays, and directed a few movies, very little information is available online about Lewis John Carlino.

Carlino is probably best known as the director and writer of 1979’s “The Great Santini,” a beloved sleeper about a military family based on a novel by Pat Conroy and featuring one of Robert Duvall’s greatest and most bombastic performances. “Santini” is, however, one of the more conventional films in the Carlino cannon.

In 1966, he adapted a novel by David Ely into John Frankenheimer’s famously eccentric paranoid science-fiction thriller starring Rock Hudson, “Seconds.” Less well remembered are his non-“Santini” directorial efforts. “The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea,” a bizarre and intense 1976 drama based on a book by Yukio Mishima, and “Class,” a 1983 comedy in which Jacqueline Bisset has an affair with brat-packer Andrew McCarthy, the best friend of her son (Rob Lowe). In between, Carlino also wrote the acclaimed fantasy drama, “Resurrection” starring Ellen Burstyn. After 1983, Carlino stopped directing movies entirely and his credited writing work declined dramatically.

Now a soft-spoken seventy-something intellectual, Carlino met with a group of writers to discuss a remake of one of his best known films, “The Mechanic.” The 1971 original starred Charles Bronson as a troubled but ultra-stoic hit-man who tries to end his isolation by taking on a protegee (Jan-Michael Vincent), even though his last hit was on the young man’s father (Keenan Wynn). Despite its action film trappings — including a nicely accomplished quarter-hour dialogue-free opening set-piece — it’s an often chilling look at men who have embraced death and cruelty. Bronson’s character does have a “code,” but it’s not a moral one. His aim is to embody an amoral version of existentialism that might be familiar to readers of Albert Camus’s “The Stranger.”

The new version, which stars Jason Statham and Ben Foster as the cool-blooded killer and his more hot-headed mentee, keeps enough of the original story and dialogue that Carlino is a credited screenwriter on the film. This time, around, however, Statham’s character is less vicious and the movie hits a number of more familiar action-flick beats. Viewers looking for traces of Camus will have to go elsewhere.

So, one of us asked, did Carlino like the new version? Since this was a press junket organized to publicize the new film, of course, he said, “yes,” but there was more.

“So much of that movie is the spectacle of it. A lot of times in films that are made now, that have a lot of special effects and stuff, the characters seem to get lost. So, the film becomes a film about effects. Here, what they were able to accomplish is [that] they kept the human relationship very central to the story while all this visual circus is going on around you. I think [screenwriter] Richard [Wenk] and the director, Simon [West], were able to meld those two elements and keep it really personal, at the same time providing this big visual entertainment for the audience. It’s kind of unique.”

Getting a bit deeper into Carlino’s career, why did he direct only three movies?

Carlino hesitated a long time before answering. “Something happened in my personal life, in my family, a tragedy that made me not able to pursue my career as a director any more, but I still kept writing. It was just not in the cards any more.”

In a rare show of good taste by some of the journalists there, no one followed up with a question about the nature of the tragedy, although we all assumed it would be something that could be easily researched. We were wrong. I have as much morbid curiosity as anyone, and as far as I can tell, Carlino’s private tragedy, whatever it was, remains entirely private.

Still, one of us wondered if Carlino had any regrets in terms of preferring the solitary life of the writer to the more gregarious and public work of a director.

“I liked directing. Of course on [“The Great Santini”], it was a great privilege because of the people around me that were brought into that film. Wonderful, wonderful actors.” The cast also included a very young Michael O’Keefe and a thirty something Blythe Danner.

The Italian woman who’d been asking all but one or two of the questions so far, next asked the name of Carlino’s favorite writer. The answer was Herman Hesse, author of such fantastical philosophical novels as “Steppenwolf.”

I asked if Carlino had ever thought about doing a film version of one of Hesse’s books.

“Yes, I did. Early on I wrote a script. I was in a partnership with another gentleman to do ‘Siddhartha,'” Carlino said, referencing the Hesse novel about a character whose life in some ways mirrors that of the Buddha. “Conrad Rooks did it, but not my script. It’s a perennial great story, even more important in our times. It really should be done as a contemporary film.”

Since, unlike most of Carlino’s other films, the original “The Mechanic” was a wholly original work, just where did it come from?

“Oh, God. You know, everybody talks about gangsters, crime and stuff like that. But, as a writer, I’m really curious [about] what goes on in somebody’s mind. You can talk about the act in the abstract, but when you deal with it in actuality, how does a person make that adjustment in their mind and go home at night and play with his kids and be with his wife? That curiosity, as a writer, led me to do a lot of research on killers and their methods, that sort of thing. I thought it would be really interesting to do a character that, because of the work he does, is locked in such isolation that he’s desperate for a relationship.”

Someone else asked if Carlino thought that theme was maintained in the new version.

There was some hesitation before Carlino spoke again. “I’m not sure that they did it that well. Maybe not,” Carlino said, accurately enough.

In general, how did Carlino feel about the way his script had been rewritten?

“I thought that Richard did some really interesting things with it. As I said, the central issue of this is that, if somebody is so desperate for a relationship, which was the original, that he has to train another assassin. The irony is the better you train him the more capable he is of killing you and he has one agenda and you have another agenda — I thought they really maintained this really well. The difference of this material was that it was much more complex in terms of the Ben Foster character. In my original, it was just a question of one-upmanship. In this one, he has all this anger and no place to put it until he learns that Bishop [Jason Statham] was responsible for the death of his father. It’s not going to go in that direction….I thought it was really a much more complex approach to the character he had created…”

What does Carlino think of remakes generally?

“I’m mostly disappointed in them. Maybe that’s a bit unfair because, usually if I’m really concerned about a picture that I really like, then, because of my age, I have a certain set of cultural values that I attach to the original that I don’t find in the remakes. But that doesn’t mean they’re not as effective in this culture.”

Speaking of culture, with all the technological changes that have impacted the movies, what does Carlino think of the current state of the cinematic art?

“When I see a movie, whether I see it at the theater or I see it at home theater, my experience is like everybody’s experience. I just put the disc on, or I go to the movies. I sit there in the dark and I say ‘take me.’ That’s my requirement, ‘take me.’ That’s the reason why [movies] exist. I see two things happening in the film industry. There’s a danger of the technology outstripping the human factor so that you get a lot of cartoon stuff. For me, in the culture that I grew up with it’s all about relationships and behavior. The technology, at times, can really enhance that and make a wonderful experience for you.”

“On the other hand I’m so pleased and optimistic that these things can exist side-by-side. When I see a movie like ‘The King’s Speech‘ — wow. Everybody tells you can’t do a drama, they will never be successful. Every time I pontificate about how I feel about something, somebody comes along and breaks the rule.”

Asked about what movies “took” him this year, Carlino named a few others: “The Fighter,” “Black Swan,” Charles Ferguson’s documentary “Inside Job” and the underrated English historical-political comedy, “Made in Dagenham.” From there, we moved on to what Carlino is writing these days.

“I’m working with small independent company out of Seattle on an adaptation of a book called ‘Losing Nelson’ written by Barry Unsworth. I just finished a script for that and we’re hopefully that together. As you know, it’s hard in today’s market to get an independent drama [made].”

That was followed by some more chatter about the contrast between the unprecedented availability of films via Netflix and other services and the fact that most filmgoers are, at best, slow to catch up with older films. For example, the original version of “The Mechanic” can be viewed via Netflix streaming, which is how I caught up with it. (I have since learned that at least one of the DVD versions available may be a poorly re-edited chop-job, so caveat emptor.)

We then found out that, alas, that we weren’t going to get any funny or interesting anecdotes about original “Mechanic” Charles Bronson. Bronson was, as Roger Ebert learned, one strange, strange dude. Carlino, however, only met him once and they apparently just talked about the script.

I took the opportunity to ask about what struck me as the remarkable aspect of Carlino’s “The Mechanic.” The first film was, as I’ve mentioned, extremely blunt about what it means to be a hit-man and makes no attempt to make these two professional murderers sympathetic. Carlino discussed how the newer film, which is considerably glossier, goes out of its way to “humanize” its leads.

“There is some attempt to make them sympathetic…It’s a hard line to follow. It’s a real tightrope. How do you do that, with what’s going on,” Carlino said, alluding to a scene where, trying to extract information from a criminal, Jason Statham’s character puts the crook’s daughter’s hand into a garbage disposal and says he’ll turn it on if he doesn’t get his information. We are led to believe it is no idle threat.

“The character does anything to accomplish what he needs to accomplish. That’s just it. What’s really interesting about this movie is that [screenwriter Richard Wenk] makes this statement which I thought was really good. He says ‘Watch out for vengeance, it’ll get you killed.’ That was a kind of throw-away line, but it’s a really important line because that’s how the movie ends up. In the original, the first time you see him at home, do you remember what he’s doing?” Carlino asked.

Neither I or another writer there who was a fan of the original could answer precisely.

“He’s got a big art book in front of him. He’s looking at the triptychs of Hieronymus Bosch. He’s turning the pages and you see all these grotesque figures in hell and the torments that they’re suffering…That’s a nice opening statement for that character…”

“Prequel: The Dawn of Lying”

Originally conceived as a pre-credits sequence, this alternate opening details evidence of the very first lie in history. Narrated by Patrick Stewart and starring the film’s principal cast as their prehistoric counterparts (including Ricky Gervais, Rob Lowe and Jeffrey Tambor), the scene is mildly entertaining, but was rightfully cut during post-production. It might sound great on paper, but it just doesn’t work tonally.

“Meet Karl Pilkington”

Anyone who’s ever listened to the Ricky Gervais podcasts is already familiar with his friend/punching bag, Karl Pilkington. This 18-minute video diary documents Pilkington’s trip from England to Boston to serve as an extra on the film. It’s not exactly the most economical thing to do, but if nothing else, it proves just how far Gervais is willing to go for his own personal amusement. The fact that Pilkington’s scene just so happens to be the one that was cut (see above) only makes the investment seem that much more senseless. Hey, at least they got a funny extra out of it.

“A Truly ‘Honest’ Making of Featurette”

It’s not quite as advertised, but this short 7-minute featurette does offer interviews with the cast and crew about working on the film, as well as a few exclusive outtakes and a behind-the-scenes look at the many variations of Gervais’ infectious laugh.

“Additional Scenes”

There are five deleted scenes in all. None are exactly essential, but there’s still some good stuff here, including two trailers for the in-movie films, “The Invention of the Fork” and “Numbers,” and two bits with Louis C.K. The best of the bunch, however, is a rather lengthy conversation between Gervais and Jennifer Garner that takes place on the way to their first date. If the same material wasn’t already covered later in the story, it probably wouldn’t have been cut, because Garner is great in the scene.

“Ricky and Matt’s Video Podcasts”

These four video podcasts don’t really have anything to do with the film, but fans of Gervais will probably enjoy them regardless. Along with a mock episode of “Cribs,” the videos also find Ricky pretending to scout for office locations, reading a local newspaper article about the film’s production, and terrorizing a PA with Nerf guns.

“More Laughter: Corpsing and Outtakes”

Five minutes of on-set antics, including ruined takes from Gervais’ laughter and more Nerf gun footage. It’s too bad many of these were already ruined in the “making-of” featurette, because this is definitely one of the better gag reels in some time.

All in all, not a bad collection of bonus material, but it would have been nice if Warner Bros. had made one or two of these exclusive to Blu-ray owners. As it stands, there’s really no reason to buy the hi-def version unless you’re an HD junkie. Save the cash and just pick up the DVD instead.

There was a time — I think it was, I don’t know, two weeks ago — when horror comedies were supposed to be, now and forever, box office poison. “Too funny to be scary and too scary to be funny” was the not so intelligent line. Such was the Hollywood conventional wisdom, until someone went and made a horror comedy that struck a chord.

So, apparently the peanut butter of horror can be blended with the chocolate of comedy if you have lots of action and sufficient gore, the trailer for the movie in question is funny enough that audiences will be sold on it as a more or less straight comedy…and, oh yeah, almost everybody who can stomach seems to love it. Such certainly seems to be the case with “Zombieland.” The flick, which features indie stars Jesse Eisenberg and Abigail Breslin, is eliciting excitement both from industry types and critics who have graced it with an 89% “Fresh” Rotten Tomatoes rating (just two points shy of 2004’s instant zombie comedy classic, “Shaun of the Dead.”)

Still, for yours truly who loves comedy horror but has a well documented issue with gore, particularly of the zombie variety, this means a probable long period of movie procrastination followed by a small bonanza for our nation’s distillers. For top-billed costar Woody Harrelson, though, it means a comeback. Jolly Carl DiOrio of THR and Andrew Stewart of Variety guess that it will gross somewhere around $20-$25 million or perhaps further north in over 3,000 theaters. If it wasn’t such a busy weekend, I might think it could do even better.

As for the number two spot, I gather most of the prognosticators expect yet another very good weekend for the animated family hit, “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs,” but after that, the playing field gets a bit crowded. For one thing, Pixar is making things interesting with 3-D redoes of “Toy Story,” and “Toy Story 2” being released as a double feature. It’s a pretty awesome package of family entertainment and I could see it cutting into this weekend’s “Meatballs” take.

As if all this isn’t enough, we have three other new major releases this weekend all interesting and all getting decent to very good reviews — though all in a substantially lesser number of theaters. For fans of girl power — which includes many guys by the way, this writer certainly included — we have the Drew Barrymore-directed roller derby comedy, “Whip It” featuring Ellen Page. Though apparently the film is rather conventional, critics are taking it to heart and I could see this one doing very reasonable business for those who like their comedic violence sporty-mild and non-head-bursty. On the other hand, even though the film did very well in some sneak previews, expectations are fairly mild, as in under $10 million for this crowded weekend, though apparently Fox Searchlight is seeing this one as potential leggy sleeper. Wow, think of it — a movie being given some time to build an audience. What next?

Well, there’s a movie that studio execs will certainly relate to, “The Invention of Lying” from Ricky Gervais. The high concept comedy, which I guess technically qualifies as science fiction, is about an alternate world where no one lies — until Gervais invents it. Given the built in naivete of his audience, the trick works pretty brilliantly and revolutionizes the world’s moribund film industry (all educational documentaries), though naturally it all comes with unexpected repercussions. This one has a fairly subversive edge and a pretty stellar supporting cast including Jennifer Garner, Rob Lowe, Tina Fey, and genius-level stand-up Louis C.K. However, Gervais’ status as a critical darling on television hasn’t quite translated into movies yet and this one has a mere 60% RT rating. That isn’t terrible, but it probably bodes non-fabulous with audiences in general, as critics are more reflective of the film’s selective, cable-TV friendly potential audience. Still, this one might do fairly well in the long-haul via DVD as audiences start missing the reliably funny and provocative Gervais on TV and start seeking him elsewhere.

Speaking of funny and provocative guys not known for the usual movie-star good looks, our final entry is the latest from Michael Moore. This time, he’s taking on the ultimate sacred cow of our modern neoliberal society with “Capitalism: A Love Story.” This one isn’t generating quite the acclaim or, at least yet, generating the controversy of some of his past work. Still, 73% isn’t bad at all but, despite being featured on a record number of screens for a Moore film (962), I’m getting the idea that this is not likely to cause the workers the workers of the world to rise up and (democratically) seize the means of production. At this point, I’ll settle for stronger unions and decent health care.

As if all of this weren’t enough, the new film from the Coen Brothers, “A Serious Man” opens on six screens this week. If it were anyone else making it, this tale of modern-day angst, Judaism and menschhood populated with little known actors would not be something you’d be hearing a lot about on box office reports — especially in the year of the “indie blood bath.” Still, it’s the Coens and there’ll be 10 Best Picture Oscar nominations this year.