Tag: The State

Midweek movie news

April 7, 2010 / Bob Westal

Getting a bit of an early start and catching up with some news we didn’t discuss yesterday.

* In terms of raw cash, the movies had a record March this year, largely thanks to those inflated, and then extra-inflated, ticket prices for “Alice in Wonderland” in 3-D. We’ll see how long this lasts.

* RIP Corin Redgrave, of one of the world’s great acting families.

* Reading this Nikki Finke item about what sounds like the increasingly fraught auction of MGM, it really does make it seem like a million years ago when MGM was the absolute epitome, for better and for worse, of Hollywood power.

* I’m breaking a confidence here with this super-secret Twitter leak by Jon Favreau, but it appears that Harrison Ford will be in “Cowboys and Aliens.”

* Universal, which hasn’t exactly been rolling in cash lately, has pulled the plug on “Cartel.” It would have been a remake of the fact-based Italian mafia thriller from 1993, “La Scorta,” set admidst Mexico’s drug wars. Josh Brolin was set to play the lead. Mike Fleming doesn’t specifically mention insurance or the cost of security, but considering the topic and what’s been going in throughout Mexico — apparently including Mexico City where the film was to be shot — it must have been through the roof.

* Master cinephile blogger Dennis Cozzalio checks in and brings word of some cool film fests.

Actors, Documentaries, External Entertainment, External Movie DVDs, External Movies, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies, News

3-D ACORN Albert Maysles Alex Robinson Alice in Wonderland Andrew Breitbart Billy Ray Breach Cartel Clint Eastwood Corin Redgrave David Wain Dennis Cozzalio Grey Gardens Grizzly Man Headlines Josh Brolin Kick Ass La Scorta Masters of War Mexico MGM Oliver Stone Primary Roger Ebert Role Models Russell Brand Shattered Glass Soul Power The State Timothy Treadwell Too Cool to be Forgetten Werner Herzog Wet Hot American Summer Wondercon

Ken Marino is in “The State” of DVD bliss

July 14, 2009 / Jeff Giles

Ken Marino is a busy working actor — his recent gigs include stints on the CW’s unjustly slain “Reaper” and the Starz Network’s “Party Down” — and is doubtless usually too focused on whatever project’s in front of him to look back. This week, however, sees the long-sought DVD release of “The State,” the sketch comedy series that Marino (along with Michael Ian Black, David Wain, Joe Lo Truglio, Thomas Lennon, Ben Garant, and many more) did for MTV way back in the young and innocent ’90s. Never a huge ratings success, “The State” has nonetheless acquired cult status in the years since its cancellation, and its arrival on the home market is the answer to many fans’ prayers — making Will Harris’ recently conducted interview with Marino something of a “State” retrospective (and a perfectly timed one, at that). As it turns out, Ken hasn’t seen those old episodes in years — and wasn’t all that hopeful about seeing them on DVD:

“David (Wain) kind of headed the campaign to get it done, and he dealt with the outside forces that were trying to put it together or to block it or whatever, so I would just get E-mail updates. At a certain point, I just got numb to that. I was just, like, ‘Oh, it’s never gonna happen.'”

Reminiscing about his State days, Marino opened up about the writing process, the troupe’s battles with MTV, the origins of the infamous phrase “I want to dip my balls in it,” and the long-lost album the State recorded for Warner Bros.:

“”From what I remember, it’s a drunken mess. We were, like, ‘Okay, if we take all our money and get tickets and go to the Bahamas to record it at a recording studio down there, we won’t really make any money, but we’ll be in the Bahamas for two weeks. You wanna do that?’ If you listen closely on a number of the pieces, you’ll hear ice in our glasses making noise, because we were constantly drinking whatever local flavored drinks were around.”

To read the rest of the interview — including Ken’s thoughts on a “Reaper” movie and Jane Lynch’s recent departure from “Party Down” — click here!

Actors, Interviews, TV

Ben Garant David Wain Jane Lynch Joe Lo Truglio Ken Marino Michael Ian Black Party Down The State Thomas Lennon

A Chat with Joe Lo Truglio (“The State,” “Role Models”)

March 8, 2009 / Will Harris

If the words “rub a dub dub” conjure images of a bearded man in chain mail rather than three men in a tub, then you’re probably one of the people who saw and laughed at “Role Models.” The film was directed by (and features a cameo from) David Wain, late of The State, but he’s not the only alumnus of that particular comedic organization to be found within its frames. There are actually a couple, if you’re counting, but only one managed to spend the duration of the film dressed in Medevial garb and spouting laughably earnest comments using mock Elizabethan phrasing…and – what luck! – we actually had the opportunity to speak to the gentleman in question.

Stay tuned for…