Zach Braff‘s long-awaited directorial follow-up to his 2004 hit Garden State, Wish I Was Here, has traveled an interesting road. Braff took to Kickstarter to fund the movie—and had much success in doing so—but faced some backlash from those who felt someone of his status shouldn’t be seeking the donations of fans to finance a project.

With all of that in the past, the movie has been made and had a strong showing at the Sundance Film Festival before being picked up by Focus Features for distribution in North America. Now the first teaser trailer for Wish I Was Here has been released, and can be seen below.

When it was announced that Superbad‘s Greg Mottola would be directing Larry David‘s improv comedy, the film’s only cast members were Jon Hamm and Michael Keaton. Now we are learning that the film has a new title, and that the cast has grown immensely.

THR reports that the comedy now titled, Clear History, will center on a marketing executive (David) who makes the terrible decision of getting into a petty argument with his boss and abruptly quits his job at a new electric car company. Ten years later he realizes the mistake he made when he sees the same company he worked for is now worth billions, so he changes his name and his reputation and rewards himself by purchasing a summer cottage on a private island. However, he bumps into the same boss he quit working for and from there he decides he wants to get revenge.

My Best Friend’s Girl
Unrated Edition
Directed by Howard Deutch
Starring Dane Cook, Kate Hudson, Jason Biggs, Alec Baldwin, Diora Baird
Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Release Date: January 13, 2009

I’m going to get something off my chest that I’ve been holding onto for quite awhile: I don’t hate Dane Cook. Not totally, anyway. In the past I have found the humor in his not so subtle brand of comedy. It’s stupid, juvenile, and gets old after awhile (especially when every idiot in the country tries to quote him incessantly), but I’ve had a laugh. That being said, his movies are garbage. Mr. Brooks and Dan in Real Life were good in their own right even with his inclusion, but they worked because he was left on the sideline — which is a nice way of saying he didn’t ruin them. The problem with the movies he has headlined is that his stand up doesn’t translate to the screen at all. So even if you like his routine, the movies suck. And if you don’t, they really suck. There is an argument in that thought about him being one dimensional and unfunny and his movies being proof of that, but I don’t have the strength to discuss it. Partly because I’m not trying to defend him and partly because it doesn’t matter. The point is, as easy a target as it would be to jump on the I-wouldn’t-piss-on-Dane-Cook-if-he-were-on-fire bandwagon, any problems My Best Friend’s Girl has actually aren’t his fault. Not totally, anyway.

Tank Turner (Cook) provides a service. When guys have somehow screwed up their relationships, he is the guy they hire to date their exes. His service is that he takes these unsuspecting girls on dates and is purposely such an asshole that they are left with no choice than to run back into the arms of their former boyfriends. Call it making them look good by default. It’s a pretty good little racket and the dates make for some of the funnier moments in the movie.