Joel David Moore has had an interesting career as a character actor. He's starred in fan-favorite comedies like Dodgeball and Grandma's Boy, guest starred on shows as varied as Six Feet Under and Family Guy, and is (to my knowledge) the only actor to have played both Adolf Hitler and Joey Ramone. He's also probably the person most excited for that slew of Avatar sequels, since he's currently scheduled to be in all four.
But he's also worked as a director on dark comedies like Youth in Oregon (starring Frank Langella and Billy Crudup) and the upcoming Killing Winston Jones (starring Richard Dreyfuss and Danny Glover). Now, he's going full-on horror with an English-language remake of Hide and Seek.
The original movie is about the ultra-rich of South Korea and the underclass whose homes are lost to gentrification, and the way the fed-up and marginalized exact their revenge. It shouldn't be too hard to translate that for American audiences.
Hide and Seek does not have an announced release date, but late 2018 or early 2019 is a safe bet.
About Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about.
I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague.
Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work.
In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo.
I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.
