Conan ready for "Tonight Show"

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Conan O’Brien has spent five years as the anointed heir to the coveted “Tonight Show” TV slot.

Now, with just a few days to go before stepping into the shoes of host Jay Leno on June 1, the comedian just wants to get started.

“I feel like a racehorse that was put in the stall five years ago and I feel now, like ‘Let’s go,” O’Brien said on Tuesday.

“The biggest danger to me taking over ‘The Tonight Show’ is to overthink it. I think it just has to be a funny show…I think we are ready and we have a lot of fun stuff planned,” he told reporters in a conference call.

O’Brien, 46, wrapped up his last stint of “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” in February, and moved his family and crew to Los Angeles from New York.

Turnstiles turn for `Museum,’ `Terminator’

LOS ANGELES – Ben Stiller’s “Night at the Museum” sequel and Christian Bale’s “Terminator Salvation” are combining for a solid Memorial Day weekend at the box office.

According to estimates from distributor 20th Century Fox, “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” took in $53.5 million from Friday to Sunday. That put it well ahead of the first movie, which had a $30.4 million three-day opening in December 2006.

Distributor Warner Bros. said “Terminator Salvation” pulled in $43 million over the same period, plus $13.4 million on opening day Thursday. Its total since debuting was $56.4 million.

The fourth movie in “The Terminator” series came in a bit behind 2003’s “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,” the last of the franchise’s installments to star Arnold Schwarzenegger. That third chapter took in $44 million in its first weekend.

Romanian comedy looks back on communist "Golden Age"

CANNES, France (Reuters) – “Tales from the Golden Age,” the latest product of Romania’s film New Wave, paints a comic picture of the daily fight to get by and outwit authority in a communist government bent on making life difficult.

The series of vignettes by five different directors brings Cristian Mungiu back to the Cannes film festival, where he triumphed in 2007 by winning the Palme d’Or with the grim abortion drama “Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days.”

This time, the take on life in the “Golden Age” of the late dictator Nicolae Ceausescu is more light-hearted, reflecting the black humor that helped Romanians survive the shortages, petty harassment and stifling authoritarianism.

“The best jokes I’ve ever heard were from the communist period,” Hanno Hoeffer, one of the other directors who collaborated on the project told Reuters in an interview. “Now they’ve all disappeared because there’s nothing to joke about.”

The film, being shown in the “Un certain regard” section of the festival, begins as a village nervously prepares to greet an official convoy with a display of poetry and local produce.

"Glee" soars with heartfelt musical comedy

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Ryan Murphy’s “Glee” is as far from his “Nip/Tuck” as possible, and that’s a good thing.

“Nip/Tuck” was a groundbreaking FX drama that’s become lost in its tired desire to shock, but Fox’s “Glee” is a tightly done hybrid of musical and comedy-drama that’s unabashedly heartfelt and possessed of an honest sweetness.

Murphy’s sharp wit is still present, and the show certainly doesn’t shy away from the darkness in some of the plot lines. But instead of wondering why you’re spending time with these characters, you’ll wish you could spend more. Previewing Tuesday (May 19) after “American Idol” before returning in the fall, the series is smart, fun and completely winning.

William McKinley High School is subject to a caste system, as cheerleading coach Sue (Jane Lynch) tells Spanish teacher Will (Matthew Morrison): jocks at the top, geeks at the bottom, with kids in glee club, or show choir, occupying “the sub-basement.” But Will, who did glee when he attended McKinley, has a soft spot for the small band of misfits who just want to sing and dance, so thanks to the encouragement of fellow teacher Emma (Jayma Mays), who’s nursing a crush on Will, he volunteers to take over the group when its instructor leaves.

Nickelodeon assembles monster comedy "The Troop"

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Nickelodeon has picked up “The Troop,” a new action-adventure comedy series with sci-fi elements and CG animation. The show revolves around three high school students who battle monsters after school.

“With ‘Troop,’ I think I’ve finally found a show where people would laugh and scream and have their heart racing — all on the same show,” said producer Tommy Lynch, who has produced such Nickelodeon series as “Romeo!” and “South of Nowhere.”

To beef up the series’ comedic quotient, Lynch has tapped Emmy-winning comedy writer Jay Kogen (”Frasier”) as showrunner.

“Troop” follows Jake (Nick Purcell), a typical teenager struggling through adolescence who dreams of creating his own comic book. His school counselor (John Marshall Jones) recruits him into the Troop, a secret society that protects the world from the monsters that walk among us. Teaming with the smart, athletic and popular Hayley (Gage Golightly) and annoying paranormal expert Felix (David Del Rio), Jake discovers a whole new existence.

Goode joins Gervais’ insurance comedy

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – “Watchmen” villain Matthew Goode is bound for the cemetery.

The actor has been cast in “Cemetery Junction,” a comedy-drama about 1970s insurance salesmen. It comes from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the British duo behind “The Office.” Gervais will also star.

“Cemetery” takes a period look at a group of twentysomething men working at the Prudential insurance company and their relationships with each other as well as the women in their lives.

Goode will play Mike, a go-getter dating his boss’ daughter. The film was previously titled “The Men at the Pru.”

Goode, who was last seen on the big screen as icy villain Adrian Veidt in “Watchmen,” was recently cast in the romantic comedy “Leap Year” starring Amy Adams.

Gervais and longtime collaborator Merchant wrote the script and will direct. Christian Cooke, Tom Hughes and Jack Doolan had previously been cast to play the three male leads. Ralph Fiennes will also star.

Ron James comedy, skating reality show set for CBC-TV schedule

New shows featuring comedian Ron James as well as figure skaters and hockey players taking part in a reality competition will join returning programs like Being Erica and Rick Mercer Report on CBC-TV’s new schedule.

The public broadcaster announced new additions to its upcoming fall-winter 2009 programming lineup in a statement issued Tuesday.

For the fall, James is set to offer up his observational comedy in The Ron James Show, while Battle of the Blades will see teams of Canadian figure skaters and hockey stars matched to compete each week in an elimination-style challenge.

Also debuting in the fall will be Super Speller, a competition show for young Canadians hosted by CBC personality Evan Solomon.

Two new shows will premiere during the winter: 18 to Life, a domestic comedy about a couple who marry at 18, and The Republic of Doyle, a one-hour, St. John’s-set dramatic comedy about a dysfunctional father-son private investigator team.

John Cleese to host Just for Laughs galas in Toronto

British comedian and Monty Python veteran John Cleese will host two gala performances of British comedy at Toronto’s Just for Laughs festival this year.

The headline events at Toronto’s Massey Hall will both be on July 18.

Cleese, one of Britain’s best known comedians, wrote for The Frost Report and Is There a Doctor in the House before helping create the much-loved comedy show Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

His most famous sketches include the Dead Parrot sketch, as the guy attempting to return the parrot, and the Ministry of Silly Walks.

Efron a likable hero in hit-and-miss comedy

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – “17 Again” has a pretty original take on the “do-over” comedy — you know, where someone, invariably a male, gets to go back in his life to do over a key moment or event that continues to bug him. The twist here is that Mike O’Donnell doesn’t really go back in time: He is simply 17 again, the point at which, he figures, his life went south. So he winds up in high school with his own daughter and son, and his estranged wife can’t understand her weird feelings for this guy who reminds her so much of her ex when he was young.

The film, written by Jason Filardi (”Bringing Down the House”) and directed by Burr Steers (”Igby Goes Down”), works better than you might imagine at times but stumbles awkwardly other times. The unevenness in the writing is matched by directorial overkill in certain comic sequences.

Warner Bros. has achieved high awareness for this Zac Efron teen comedy from its New Line unit. When it opens April 17, it could top the weekend box office.

The film begins when Mike (Efron) really is 17, back in 1989, when he’s a high school basketball star with a bright future and hopes for a scholarship. Just before the game where a college scout has shown up, his girlfriend Scarlet tells him she’s pregnant. So he throws away everything to marry Scarlet.

Jay Leno brings comic relief to battered Motown

DETROIT (Reuters) – In a nod to the gloomy economy, late-night comedian Jay Leno hosted a show on Tuesday to lift the battered spirits of Detroit residents facing steep unemployment and a faltering auto industry.

The host of NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” a celebrated car buff, presented a “comedy stimulus plan” to a packed house at a suburban Detroit arena that is home to the Detroit Pistons professional basketball team.

“The idea is just come on down, hopefully forget your troubles for a while, other people are in the same boat as you are and maybe take some of the weight off, that’s all,” Leno told reporters beforehand.

Introduced by hometown hero Kid Rock, Leno launched into an 80-minute monologue aimed at anyone and anything from U.S. presidents to air travel and life in Los Angeles.