The new comedic drama What to Expect When You're Expecting isn't based on the most likely source material.  Sure, the book of the same name by Heidi Murkoff has consistently topped bestseller lists since first being published in 1984.  In three subsequent editions since then, it has sold almost 15 million copies and become the go-to handbook for modern pregnancy.  That's what makes it an unlikely movie: it's a self-help text, a practical guide filled with information and tips on the different stages of pregnancy and early childhood.

The film version, Kirk Jones and co-written by Heather Hatch and Shauna Cross, incorporates Murkoff's applicable advice into a narrative feature by telling five interconnected stories of pregnancy, each with their own couples and circumstances.  That means What to Expect When You're Expecting stars a sprawling ensemble cast, including Jennifer Lopez, Cameron Diaz, Elizabeth Banks, Rodrigo Santoro, Chris Rock, Brooklyn Decker, Matthew Morrison, Anna Kendrick, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Ben Falcone, Chace Crawford, Rob Huebel, and Joe Manganiello.

IAR Managing Editor Jami Philbrick attended the press day for this Lionsgate release in Los Angeles, where Murkoff and Jones, along with much of the all-star ensemble cast, enthusiastically discussed the book, making the movie, drawing from real-life experience, and working with lovely, talented ladies.

International Movie Star and vocal proponent of Mega-Acting Nicolas Cage is unabashed comic book fan, has long maintained that the stories of spandex-clad superheroes are a potent modern equivalent of ancient mythological figures like Hercules and Zeus.  As such, it's no surprise that he has a formidable comic collection.  One specific item in that collection will be the subject of Action No. 1, a comedy that presents a fictionalized version of the real-life of theft of Cage's rare copy of the titular issue.

Five new character posters from What to Expect to Expect When You're Expecting pretty clearly convey that the movie is about pregnancy by showcasing the five lead actresses in varying stages of knocked-upedness.  Elizabeth Banks, Cameron Diaz, Anna Kendrick, Brooklyn Decker, and Jennifer Lopez are all present and accounted for, and each also gets a little quotation to give you some insight on their character and let you know that the movie is agreeably lighthearted.

Opening in theaters on November 4th is A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, the third chapter in the beloved stoner franchise following Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, and Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. The movie is helmed by first time director Todd Strauss-Schulson and reunites the previous films stars John Cho (Star Trek), Kal Penn (Superman Returns), and of course ... Neil Patrick Harris (The Smurfs). The film also includes performances by Thomas Lennon (Bad Teacher), Patton Oswalt (Ratatouille), Paula Garces (TV's The Shield), Elias Koteas (The Thin Red Line), Eddie Kaye Thomas (American Pie), David Krumholtz (TV's Numb3rs), Bobby Lee (Pineapple Express), and Danny Trejo (Machete). 

IAR's managing editor Jami Philbrick recently had a chance to sit down with funny man Thomas Lennon to discuss A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas. The comedian spoke openly about the new film, joining the franchise, babies on cocaine, Occupy Wall Street and how life sometimes imitates art. 

Opening in theaters on November 4th is A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, the third chapter in the beloved stoner franchise following Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, and Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. The movie is helmed by first time director Todd Strauss-Schulson and reunites the previous films stars John Cho (Star Trek), Kal Penn (Superman Returns), and of course ... Neil Patrick Harris (The Smurfs). The film also includes performances by Thomas Lennon (Bad Teacher), Patton Oswalt (Ratatouille), Paula Garces (TV's The Shield), Elias Koteas (The Thin Red Line), Eddie Kaye Thomas (American Pie), David Krumholtz (TV's Numb3rs), Bobby Lee (Pineapple Express), and Danny Trejo (Machete). 

IAR's managing editor Jami Philbrick recently had a chance to sit down with Todd Strauss-Schulson to discuss A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas. The director spoke candidly about his new film; its claymation sequence, making a Christmas movie, Neil Patrick Harris, stoned babies, lesbian nuns, Danny Trejo ejaculating on America, and 3D. 

Actor/comedian/screenwriter Thomas Lennon’s films have earned over $1 billion worldwide at the box office, and he recently wrote about it in his best-selling book “Writing Movies for Fun and Profit: How We Made a Billion Dollars at The Box Office and You Can Too!” Along with his writing partner Ben Garant, the two scribes have been responsible for penning such comedies as Taxi, Herbie: Fully Loaded, The Pacifier, Let’s Go to Prison, Balls of Fury, and Reno 911!: Miami. However, it was the juggernaut success of their film Night at the Museum, and it’s sequel Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian that really put the duo on the map as top Hollywood screenwriters.

But Lennon and Garant are probably best known to fans of the beloved Comedy Central series Reno 911!, as well as its big screen spin-off Reno 911: Miami, as Lieutenant Jim Dangle and Deputy Travis Junior, respectively. Lennon actually began his acting and writing career as a member of MTV’s sketch comedy series The State, which also featured Garant, Michael Ian Black (Ed), Ken Marino (Party Down), and director David Wain (Role Models). Since then, Lennon has appeared in numerous comedic films (often as the lead’s best friend) such as 17 Again, I Love You, Man, Cedar Rapids, Bad Teacher, What’s Your Number?, and now A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas 3D, which opens in theaters on November 4^th.

I recently had a chance to speak with Thomas Lennon about his work on A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas 3D, as well as his overall career. While my interview with Lennon about the latest Harold and Kumar film will run separately, I wanted to let you know now what the talented writer/actor had to say about a few of his other writing projects. Among other things, Lennon spoke to me about the future of the Reno 911! franchise, the show’s loyal fan-base, if they are planning to make a sequel to Reno 911!: Miami, his latest film starring Vin Diesel, and his adaptation of the classic British children’s series Rentaghost starring Ben Stiller.

A new red band trailer for A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas has debuted online, and rest assured, this trailer does not waste time getting down to business.  Often, red band trailers are almost identical to their all-audiences counterparts, but with a dollop of profanity added.  That's not the case for this preview of the third stoner adventure starring John Cho and Kal Penn as the title characters. 

The trailer starts with Santa Claus taking a hit from a candycane bong, then proceeds through an orgiastic collage of absurdity that includes a babby happily getting high off no less than two illicit substances, nudity, spurting blood, over-the-top 3D shots, beer pong, lost grills, bad language, a claymation phallus, Jesus on the phone to God, and Neil Patrick Harris in a heaven of mammaries and sexual favors.  If any one of those things sounds like your cup of tea, watch the red band A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas trailer right about now.

Warner Bros has released a big ole' batch of new character posters from A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, the third film in an improbable franchise that began with the munchies back in Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle in 2004.  I must say, without even a hint of snark or irony, that I really appreciate how completely both the film and its marketing are embracing the gimmickery inherent in 3D and a Christmas-themed sequel.  So often the 3D format is sold as an immersive, Avatar-style world-building tool, but the trailer and the last round of character posters promise stuff flying out at your face amongst lowbrow holiday hijinks.

The posters, which debuted over at Yahoo! Movies, include Kal Penn and John Chu, of course, along with Neil Patrick Harris as the sex-addicted, balls-tripping id monster version of himself he's played in all three films.  Also getting the character poster treatment are Santa Claus, Thomas Lennon and a baby, a robot, Danny Trejo in a holiday sweater, and Jake M. Johnson as Jesus.

Slapping "3D" into a movie's title will inform audiences in no uncertain terms that the movie is presented in three dimensions, but what if a marketing team also wants to assure moviegoers that the film is also a happily coarse holiday-themed comedy?  For A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, the answer is simple: a massive, unambiguously phallic candy cane pointing directly at the viewer, suggesting both ribald vulgarity and gimmicky dimensionality.  In a brand new series of character posters, Neil Patrick Harris holds the aforementioned candy-phallus, while Harold and Kumar themselves, John Cho and Kal Penn, enjoy a rifle and some herb, respectively.  A final poster brings them all together in holiday merriment.

The last time we saw the prostitute-loving, car-thieving, balls-tripping alternate universe version of Neil Patrick Harris in the sequel Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, he was meeting a most unfortunate but inevitable fate.  Rest assured, however, it wouldn't be an installment of the improbable franchise without the man known affectionately as NPH, and he will once again run into John Cho and Kal Penn as the title characters in A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas.  In order to give a weary, fearful populace a beacon of light towards which to strive, NPH is included in the first image from the upcoming sequel, flanked by Cho and Penn in Nutcracker garb.