MUSICAL EDITION
GOOD WEEK/BAD WEEK
Carrie
One of Broadway's legendary flops has been restaged, to much better reviews
Animal House
The Great White Way will become Frat Row for a musical that's sure to be sophomoric
GAMES
Ouija Lives
In 2008, apparently having run out of books, comics, foreign films, old movies, TV shows and theme-park rides as source material, Universal signed a deal with Hasbro to adapt several of its board games into feature films (e.g., this summer's Battleship). A movie based on one of the company's most random "games," the faux-supernatural Ouija board, has just been scheduled for a 2013 release.
Q&A
Adam Scott
You can see him do his nerdy-straight-man shtick weekly on Parks and Recreation. Now he has veered into romantic-lead territory in the new movie Friends with Kids, about two pals who decide to have a child without all the messiness of marriage.
What about the film spoke to you?
When my wife and I started having kids, we dropped out of society for six months. When I read this script about how people with kids put their social lives on hold, I was like, "S---, guys, sorry I did that!"
Are you surprised by the success of Parks and Rec?
Yeah. The other night Aziz [Ansari] introduced President Obama at an event, and he came on and mentioned the show. The President of the U.S. mentioned our show!
Megan Fox plays your girlfriend in the movie. Lucky guy. When you are standing next to someone like Megan, no matter what, you're going to feel like you're covered in diarrhea.
--RACHEL SYME
R.I.P.
Ralph McQuarrie, 1929--2012
If you consider yourself a Star Wars fan, you have Ralph McQuarrie to thank. The movies may have been the brainchild of George Lucas, but it was McQuarrie who brought Lucas' vision to life with his conceptual drawings of what the trilogy's worlds and characters (he designed Darth Vader's helmet and breathing mask, among other things) should look like.
MOVIES $70.2 MILLION
The first-weekend gross of Dr. Seuss' The Lorax; the environmental parable is the year's biggest film debut and the strongest opening ever for a movie based on a Dr. Seuss book
MOVIES
3 Things to Know About John Carter
Ever since its initial trailer premiered, John Carter, the first live-action film directed by Andrew Stanton (the man behind the indisputably amazing Pixar films WALLE and Finding Nemo), has been hounded by bad word of mouth, largely because of its reported $250 million budget. But that's for the money men to worry about. Here are some tidbits to help you decide if the movie's up your alley:
The film is based on an 11-book series of novels written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the man behind Tarzan.
It has been in development since the '80s, and directors Robert Rodriguez (Spy Kids) and Jon Favreau (Iron Man) were once attached to it.