My first report from the junket for Evan Almighty is now up at CT Movies. Two more are in the pipeline…
My first report from the junket for Evan Almighty is now up at CT Movies. Two more are in the pipeline…
On a recent sunny Saturday afternoon on the Universal Studios back lot, several journalists are preparing to interview the cast of Evan Almighty, many with one question on their minds:
Where’s God?
Most everyone here is impressed by the performance of Morgan Freeman, who is back playing God four years after he, um, created the role in Bruce Almighty. But Freeman himself is nowhere to be found. This is not too surprising, as Freeman is a busy actor whose talents are constantly in demand; but it does mean the most authoritative voice in the movie won’t be here to chat it up.
Yikes. Universal Studios has gone out of its way to let people know that the PG-rated Evan Almighty is way, way more family-friendly than its PG-13 predecessor Bruce Almighty. So what happened when Entertainment Weekly‘s Carey Bell dialed the 1-800 number that God, played by Morgan Freeman, uses in the film…? Oops.
LOS ANGELES, CA — Tom Shadyac made his name as the director and producer of such lowbrow comedies as Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and The Nutty Professor. Then he took the bathroom humour in a more spiritual, if occasionally schmaltzy, direction with Liar Liar, Patch Adams and the phenomenally successful Bruce Almighty.
All of Shadyac’s previous films were rated PG-13 in the United States, but his newest film — Evan Almighty, in which God tells a man to build an ark, just like Noah — is rated a family-friendly PG. Shadyac, sitting down with several journalists on the Universal Studios backlot, is eager to let everyone know that the film is “safe.”
The theatrical release of Evan Almighty, the sequel to Bruce Almighty (2003), is less than three months away, now. The new trailer will debut tomorrow night during a marathon of The Office, the TV series that stars Evan Almighty‘s Steve Carell. Meanwhile, today, Cinematical put up this new poster for the film. I guess it’s about time I started brushing up on my Noah’s Ark movies.
Two weeks ago, The New York Times made a passing reference to the fact that the production budget for the Steve Carell vehicle Evan Almighty has ballooned to $175 million. Today, the Los Angeles Times bases an entire story on this fact — looking at how expensive it can be to depict a biblical-style flood and a Noah-like effort to save hundreds of animals, etc., etc. — and adds that the costs could increase to $250 million in total once the marketing is taken into account. While the Times headline makes allusions to “biblical proportions”, Jeffrey Wells thinks comparisons to Waterworld (1995) might be more appropriate. FWIW, the previous record holder for most expensive comedy is Wild Wild West (1999), which cost $170 million and flopped.
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