Etan Cohen

Your favorite comedy team star in a new parody of Sherlock Holmes mysteries. Watch the trailer now.

This past August brought the welcome news that Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly would share the screen in Holmes & Watson, a comic send-up of Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary literary detective Sherlock Holmes and his trusty sidekick John Watson. Before we go any further, though, let’s all take a moment to revisit Ferrell and Reilly’s magnificent performance of “Con te Partirò” at the motherf---ing Catalina Wine Mixer in Step Brothers.

Not long ago we learned that Idiocracy director Mike Judge and screenwriter Etan Cohen were planning on making a series of anti-Trump ads for the coming election, which would feature Terry Crews reprising his role as President Camacho. Not long after that, it was revealed that the ads wouldn’t be happening after all, and in a new interview, Judge himself explains why the idea ultimately fell apart.

No, it’s not a sequel to Step Brothers (but do we really need one, anyway?), but professional funny people Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly are reuniting for another new movie, which is still pretty great news. The actors are teaming up for Holmes and Watson, in which they’ll work their hilariously juvenile magic on the iconic literary duo of Sherlock Holmes and his pal, good ol’ Watson.

Some funny timing: Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the release of The Phantom, the adaptation of the old comic strip hero created by Lee Falk. Falk was a prodigious talent who also worked as a theater director and novelist; as a comic-strip creator he also founded the long-running strip Mandrake the Magician, about a guy who used his magic powers (like hypnosis, invisibility, levitation) to fight crime. Created in 1934, Mandrake is sometimes billed as the first superhero. (He arrived about four years before Superman’s debut in Action Comics #1.) And 20 years after The Phantom movie, Mandrake will follow his colleague to the screen.

Idiocracy wasn’t just a hilarious satirical comedy, it felt eerily prescient. In the years since Mike Judge’s film hit theaters, “Idiocracy is real life” has become a running joke, particularly now that Donald Trump is running for President, with many noting the resemblance between the presumptive Republican nominee and the fictional President played by Terry Crews. It’s a fairly easy (and pretty funny) comparison to make, and in case you were wondering, the filmmakers themselves see it, too.

The original film collected Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore, Dom DeLuise, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Farrah Fawcett, Jackie Chan, Jamie Farr, and Peter Fonda in a cameo role, which means this new Cannonball Run will be required to cast at least nine beloved famous people if they want to get this up and running. Truly, the Fast and Furious parallels could not be more glaring.

'Ghostbusters 3' just refuses to die, doesn't it? It looks like the project has hired a new writer -- Etan Cohen, whose previous work includes 'Tropic Thunder' and 'Men in Black III.'

Etan Cohen (not to be confused with Ethan of Joel and Ethan Cohen) is making the transition from writer to director with 'Boy Scouts Vs. Zombies,' scripted by Carrie Evans and Emi Mochizuki ('College Road Trip').