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In 2023, crossovers and multiverses of madness are all the rage in the arts and media, the IP machine grafting other pieces onto itself in an ever-expanding effort to pull in mass audiences. Yet the initial creative impulse at the core of crossovers — "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if X met Y?" — goes much further back into history than the beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Due to pesky issues like copyright law and the like, most crossovers in films prior to the MCU tended to be either "wink-wink" references or cameo appearances. Television was another matter, however; thanks to so many popular shows airing on a single network, many characters from sitcoms, dramas, and other series turned up for an episode or two on a sister show. This happened often enough that, beginning in the 1980s, the bizarre phenomenon known as the "Tommy Westphall Universe" inadvertently began (look it up).

Of course,...

TV drama writers obsess over audience engagement, with a huge emphasis on personal stakes for their characters. The biggest of these is the prospect of death. But 70+ years of TV have taught us that mortality is rare for characters played by a show's stars. So, when actors leave a show or the decision is made to cut a character, writers see a golden opportunity to play the ultimate stakes game by going terminal.

It's safe to say character departures always upset a segment of a show's audience, however small. But not all such deaths are created equal. Some generate a wave of complaints, others a tsunami of outrage. It's the deaths of characters we love or love to hate, and those especially shocking or egregious, that drive fans to write all-caps messages, accompanied by many exclamation points, in fanzines, letter columns, and social media.

Here are 14 of the most controversial of the controversial.

[This story contains spoilers for The Mandalorian “Chapter 19: The Convert.”]

The Mandalorian star Katee Sackhoff has pulled off the impossible.

Sackhoff knows full well how rare it is for a voice role to become a live-action role, but she made the leap as of Mandalorian season two, having already voiced Mandalorian warrior Bo-Katan Kryze periodically on Star Wars animated series The Clone Wars and Rebels since 2012. Of course, the Oregon native is also self-aware enough to know that her existing body of live-action work on beloved series like Battlestar Galactica and Longmire made the jump more viable.

“I take into consideration that I, for the bulk of my career, have not been out making period rom-coms. To a certain extent, I have played characters that are very similar to Bo-Katan, so I do understand how the transition was easier to imagine,” Sackhoff tells The Hollywood Reporter.

In the most recent episode of The Mandalorian,...

NetflixTanya Hope will also play the leading lady in the Tamil remake of 'Vicky Donor' alongside Harish Kalyan. Tnm StaffTanya Hope, who has made her mark in south Indian movies, is all set to add one more feather to her cap. She will be soon making her grand entry into Netflix through a web series. The web series will be in Hindi and Tanya Hope will start shooting for the project in December. Meanwhile, the actor will be completing the Kannada film Khaki. The movie, which comes with the tagline ‘The Power of Common Man’, is a film that will deliver a strong social awareness message for the audience. Chiranjeevi Sarja plays a cable operator in the film, which is directed by debutant Naveen Reddy. Produced by Tharun Shivappa under the banner Tharun Talkies, the technical crew includes Ritvik as the music composer and Balu handling the cinematography. Vidhyadhar has scripted the film.

KollywoodTitled ‘Dharala Prabhu’, the Tamil remake will have Harish Kalyan reprising the role done by Ayushmann Khurrana in the original.Digital NativeDigital NativeA few weeks ago came the announcement that the hit Bollywood flick Vicky Donor is set to be remade in Tamil as Dharala Prabhu. The remake will be directed by Krishna Marimuthu and produced by Screen Scene Entertainments. Harish Kalyan will be reprising the role done by Ayushmann Khurrana in the original. According to the latest reports about the project, veteran comedian Vivek will play the doctor in the film. In the original, the character was played by Annu Kapoor. On bagging the role, Vivek took to Twitter to post: “Happy to b a part of “தாராள பிரபு” unit. Young team with zeal n zest. @iamharishkalyan is a darling to work with.” Happy to b a part of “ தாராள பிரபு” unit. Young team with zeal n zest.

KollywoodHarish Kalyan will be reprising the role done by Ayushmann Khurrana in the original.Digital NativeThe hit Hindi flick Vicky Donor is being remade in Tamil under the title Dharala Prabhu. The remake will be directed by Krishna Marimuthu and produced by Screen Scene Entertainments. Harish Kalyan will be reprising the role done by Ayushmann Khurrana in the original. Vicky Donor was a romantic comedy that was directed by Shoojit Sircar and produced by actor John Abraham under his banner Rising Sun Films. Ayushmann Khurrana, Yami Gautam and Annu Kapoor played the lead roles in this flick. Those in the supporting roles included Dolly Ahluwalia, Kamlesh Gill, Puja Gupta, Jayant Das, Swaroopa Ghosh and Inderpal Singh. The technical crew included Abhishek-Akshay, Bann, Rochak Kohli and Ayushmann Khurrana as music composers, Kamaljeet Negi for cinematography and Shekhar Prajapati for editing. Made on a budget of Rs 5 crores, the film was released in Hindi,...

Wilcox

Quebec’s Denis Côté looks to be ready with two new titles for 2019, the second of which will be Wilcox. Produced by Annie St-Pierre and photographed by Francois Messier-Rheault (who served as cinematographer on Cote’s A Skin So Soft in 2017 as well as 2019’s Ghost Town Anthology), Guillaume Tremblay (a minor player in the 2011 hit Starbuck) is in the cast of the extremely minimalist production. Locarno provided Côté with his first major platform, where he won an award for 2005’s Drifting States, returning in 2007 with Our Private Lives and winning Best Director for 2008’s All That She Wants and another Best Director win for 2010’s Curling.…...

Stars: Vince Vaughn, Tom Wilkinson, Dave Franco, Sienna Miller, June Diane Raphael, Britton Sear, Ella Anderson, Nick Frost, James Marsden | Written by Steve Conrad | Directed by Ken Scott

Daniel Trunkman (Vaughn), a hard-working but disillusioned salesman, decides to set up on his own and take on the big man – or more specifically his cut-throat former boss Chuck (Miller). Accompanied by two unlikely associates; Timothy McWinters (Wilkinson) and Mike Pancake (Franco), he travels to Europe to close the most important deal of his life. But what begins as a routine business trip goes off the rails in every imaginable – and unimaginable – way, including unplanned stops at a massive sex fetish event and a global economic summit.

Ken Scott, director of Starbuck and its Us remake Delivery Man, seems to have cornered the market in broad comedies with emotional heart. Delivery Man could have been just another gross out comedy about...

91 minutes has rarely felt as long. Here's our review of Vince Vaughn's latest, Unfinished Business...

Every now and then, an actor that usually makes good choices will pick a less-than-brilliant movie role that, nevertheless, pays handsomely. Unfinished Business seems to be what happens when you get a whole ensemble cast of players who seemingly have no possible incentive to be here other than the money.

It's no surprise to see Vince Vaughn, but we haven't the foggiest as to what Tom Wilkinson, Dave Franco, Sienna Miller, James Marsden and Nick Frost are doing here, if they're not in it for the salary. This mirthless, mercenary comedy is beneath all of them, even Vaughn, although this seems to be the kind of vehicle to which he hitches his wagon all too often these days.

In essence, it's 20th Century Fox's kit-bashed answer to The Hangover and Horrible Bosses, following three...

Apparently made by snickering 12-year-olds who like naked boobies and have heard rumors about the phenomenon known as “the business trip.” I’m “biast” (pro): nothing

I’m “biast” (con): the trailer was embarrassing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

Unfinished Business is the kind of movie in which a mentally retarded character — whose impairment is offered as a constant source of “hilarity” — is required to recite a line of dialogue such as “The penis touched my face” in a way that, this pathetic excuse for entertainment hopes, will make you laugh. Because the penis did indeed touch his face, and you are, it is presumed, consumed with “American prudishness,” hence you will snicker, just like, in another scene, the retarded character snickers when he sees naked boobies. In a fit of something that the movie deems clever, the naked-boobies scene directly addresses the matter...

In the years since he strutted onto the scene — lean, handsome, mouth running a mile a minute — in Doug Liman’s Swingers (1996), Vince Vaughn has become one of the poster boys for the mainstream American comedy: from romantic (The Break-Up) to bromantic (Old School), pretty good (Wedding Crashers) to very bad (Fred Claus) to frankly unnecessary (Delivery Man). His new film, Unfinished Business, falls into that last sub-category — perhaps not coincidentally, as it, too, has been directed by Ken Scott (Delivery Man was Scott’s remake of his own homegrown Quebecois hit, Starbuck). A guys-gone-

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A dirty secret around The Playlist parts: we love Vince Vaughn. Or rather, a few of us really like Vince Vaughn when he is in R-Rated comedies like “Wedding Crashers” or…. well, maybe mostly “Wedding Crashers.” The last few years have been more than unkind to almost all of his comedy choices and the comedy projects that he and his team develop, from "Fred Claus," "Four Christmases," "Couples Retreat," The Dilemma," "The Watch" to more recent fare like “Delivery Man.” In short, Vaughn hasn’t starred in a worthwhile comedy since “The Break-Up” in 2006 which itself is still uneven (but much more grown-up than you’d expect). And so he’s got another comedy in the works, “Unfinished Business,” which once again taps Ken Scott, the French Canadian director of “Delivery Man” (which is a remake of Scott’s own “Starbuck” -- Hollywood came knocking and he answered). The movie...

If the first red band trailer or raunchy version of the Super Bowl spot didn't convince you to see the new comedy Unfinished Business next month, 20th Century Fox is making one last attempt to get you on board. The final red band trailer has just arrived for the film starring Vince Vaughn, Tom Wilkinson and Dave Franco, and it brings some more raunchiness to the table. While I don't think this looks flat out terrible, it doesn't seem to offer up anything we haven't see before comedically with the exception of Franco's character being on the autism spectrum (though I don't buy his performance yet). Watch below! Here's the final red band trailer for Ken Scott's Unfinished Business from Fox: You can still watch the first trailers for Unfinished Business right here. Unfinished Business is directed by Ken Scott (Delivery Man, Starbuck) and written by Steve Conrad (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,...

We complain about the concept of the teaser for a trailer, but when you’re a wildly R-rated comedy like Unfinished Business, you have to depend on the idea. Consider the deal: Fox wants to sell this movie to everybody watching the Super Bowl, but the most appealing bits are too racy for network television. So, they air an intriguing enough PG-rated spot cut perfectly to Lonely Island’s “Like a Boss” (seen here) that tells us to go to IGN for the Red Band version. Technically, that’s not the same thing as an ad dropping on a Tuesday to alert us of a full trailer arriving on Thursday, but it’s still basically an ad for an ad, albeit an effective one. I hadn’t paid any attention to this movie before yesterday. It’s by Ken Scott, the director of Delivery Man (and the movie it remade, Starbuck...

Vince Vaughn’s last collaboration with writer/director Ken Scott, a remake of his Canadian comedy Starbuck into Delivery Man, didn’t exactly set the world alight. So he’ll be hoping for better things with this new team-up, Unfinished Business, which has just put out its first trailer in Nsfw red band format (below) and a less naughty green band variant (at the bottom of the page).Vaughn plays Dan, who was unceremoniously sacked by his boss, played by Sienna Miller. Cut to a year later and he’s started his own small business. Now, on the verge of sealing a crucial deal, Dan is travelling to Europe with his two employees, played by Tom Wilkinson and Dave Franco, to make the final presentation.Yet when he arrives, he discovers that Miller is also moving in on the deal, and has already been sweet-talking the clients, including James Marsden and Nick Frost.

Only ten years have passed since Canadian comedy Seducing Doctor Lewis was released, and yet now comes a remake in the form of Don McKellar’s The Grand Seduction. It’s not the first time that a screenplay by Ken Scott has been recomposed for a more luminous cast, having been the man behind Starbuck – and then its Vince Vaughn reimagining, Delivery Man. Sadly, this is also not the first time that such an endeavour has seemed somewhat superfluous.

Set in the intimate harbour of Tickle cove, we shine a light over a washed up society, struggling to make ends meet as the residents all collect their welfare cheques, with so few job opportunities available to them. However when a new factory is proposed to the locals, they realise that for it to become a reality, they need to have a doctor – and so when Dr. Lewis (Taylor Kitsch) arrives for a month,...

Returning behind the camera for the first time in almost a decade, Don McKellar took The Grand Seduction to Tiff last year, where it was received with warm reviews.

Led by Brendan Gleeson and Taylor Kitsch, the comedy will be released in the UK and Ireland at the tail-end of the summer, and eOne has now launched the trailer for our shores, along with the UK quad poster.

Brendan Gleeson is Murray, a once proud fisherman who now, along with his former colleagues in the harbour of Tickle Head are out of work and forced to live off welfare. Prohibited from fishing enough to make a living and the community spirit having faded a long time ago, the Mayor comes up with a dazzling plan – a giant corporation need a location to build a factory and Tickle Head could be just the right place. But there’s just one problem – in order to qualify,...

Stars: Vince Vaughn, Chris Pratt, Cobie Smulders, Andrzej Blumenfeld, Simon Delaney, Bobby Moynihan, Dave Patten, Adam Chanler-Berat, Britt Robertson, Jack Reynor, Amos VanderPoel, Matthew Daddario | Written and Directed by Ken Scott

Delivery Man has Vince Vaughn starring as David Wozniak, an incompetent meat delivery guy who has serious money problems, can’t seem to do anything right and has just got his girlfriend pregnant. To top all that, he comes home one day to find a lawyer waiting for him and is presented with the news that he has fathered 533 children through sperm donations he made 20 years earlier. 142 of these children all want to know who their biological father is and have began a lawsuit to find out. David then embarks on a journey to decide whether he should reveal his identity, and to learn a little about himself as a father as well.

Delivery Man is a film which...

To celebrate the arrival of Delivery Man, HeyUGuys caught up with writer-director Ken Scott, who conceived this comedic tale about fatherhood – to give you a heads up on what you can expect from the bundle of joy that will soon be yours to take home…

Why a career in filmmaking? Was there that one inspirational moment?

The earliest memory I have is of watching Star Wars and being blown away by the story – just the scope of the film. I loved the whole experience, and it was in that moment that I fell in love with film. But I would say the first moment was when I was in my mid-teens, and I actually started to consider working in the industry.

You’ve spoken of the impression Star Wars made, but was this the source of your interest in storytelling or does it lie outside of film?

In Québec where...

Welcome back to Cannes Check, In Contention's annual preview of the films in Competition at next month's Cannes Film Festival, which kicks off on May 14. Taking on different selections every day, we'll be examining what they're about, who's involved and what their chances are of snagging an award from Jane Campion's jury. Next up, from the youngest director in the lineup: Xavier Dolan's "Mommy." The director: Xavier Dolan (Canadian, 25 years old). "At last" isn't the typical response when a 25-year-old director makes it into the Cannes Competition, but a number of people -- not least Dolan himself -- would say that it's about time. Since winning top honors at Directors' Fortnight, aged just 20, with his semi-autobiographical debut feature "I Killed My Mother," the precocious Québécois child actor turned filmmaker has been on the fast track to the auteur A-list. "Mommy" is his fifth feature, and his fourth to...

Delivery Man is an American remake from Disney Studios of a French language film from the same director, Ken Scott. It tells the improbable (but true) tale of affable underachiever David Wozniak (played by Vince Vaughn), whose mundane life is turned upside down when he finds out that he fathered 533 children through sperm donations he made twenty years earlier. In debt to the mob, rejected by his pregnant girlfriend, things couldn’t look worse for David when he is hit with a lawsuit from 142 of the 533 twenty-somethings who want to know the identity of the mysterious donor.

When Melissa Howland reviewed Delivery Man here at We Are Movie Geeks, she wrote: “Delivery Man offers audiences a lot of laughs, and a lot of heart…..this is Vince Vaughn’s best role yet” (read all of Melissa’s review Here).

Since I had just seen the French version, I skipped Delivery Man when it played theatrically.

Another sappy movie about a lovable man-child who finds out he's fathered 533 kids via sperm donations? Oh, but this time it's French

Stop me if you've heard this one before: a feckless yet lovable man-child (José Garcia) finds out he's fathered 533 kids via sperm donations he made 20 years ago. Although he's fighting in court to maintain his anonymity, he can't resist surreptitiously meeting some of the children he sired, thereby discovering hitherto unsuspected wells of paternal feeling. Yes, it's the same sappy-sweet plot as director Ken Scott's 2011 French-Canadian movie Starbuck, which was recently remade (by Scott himself) into Vince Vaughn vehicle Delivery Man, using a story probably inspired by the 2010 documentary Donor Unknown (still the most interesting take on the raw material). The only major difference with Fonzy, which cleaves slavishly to Scott's template, is that it's set in France. Watch all of them back to back and it's...

Blu-ray, DVD & Digital Release Date: March 25, 2014

Price: DVD $29.99, Blu-ray $32.99

Studio: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment

Vince Vaughn (The Dilemma) goes for super sperm of the year in Delivery Man, a remake of the Canadian film Starbuck.

The comedy movie follows underachiever David Wozniak (Vaughn), who learns that, thanks to selling his sperm 20 years earlier, he has fathered 533 children — and now they all want to know who he is.

Chris Pratt (TV’s Parks and Recreation) and Cobie Smulders (Safe Haven) also star in the PG-13 film, which was written and directed by Ken Scott, the director and one of the writers of the original Starbuck.

Which is interesting, because 2011′s Starbuck got much better reviews than Delivery Man, even though (judging by the trailer), the new movie almost looks like a step by step carbon copy of the original but with different faces. Starbuck, however, was rated R, so maybe...

Ken Scott remakes his 2011 French-Canadian film, with Vince Vaughn in the lead role

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One cannot help but approach the first Vince Vaughn film of the new year with a somewhat heavy heart. Yet director Ken Scott's remake of his 2011 French-Canadian fertility romp Starbuck sticks closely enough to the original to all but negate any significant input from its usually slappable leading man. The story is virtually unchanged: a feckless middle-aged wastrel who once earned money donating sperm finds himself on the wrong end of a paternity suit brought by 142 fatherless offspring at the precise moment that his girlfriend declares herself to be pregnant. Is the perennial man-child ready to take on the responsibilities of fatherhood or will he remain just an irritating wanker?

There's something queasy about the way the film affords its leading man quasi-heroic speeches about how only...

In 2011, Canadian director Ken Scott made his debut with Starbuck, and French language film about a man who finds out, due to an error at a sperm bank, he is the father of 533 children. Fast forward to now, and Scott is making his Hollywood debut with Delivery Man, an English language remake with Vince Vaughn in the lead role. Vaughn plays David Wozniak. A waste of space really, in constant debt and a burden to his family's butcher shop where he works, his life is turned upside down when he discovers 142 of his children filed a lawsuit for him to reveal his identity. Against the advice of his friend, and lawyer, Brett (Chris Pratt), David makes contact with each child anonymously, bestowing on them random acts of kindness, and cleaning up his act in the process. After a string of comedies which took advantage of Vaughn's brash, fast talking persona,...

What is supposed to be funny and heartwarming is instead creepy and stalkerish. There’s no charm or emotional plausibility in a tale that cannot work without it. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing

I’m “biast” (con): hated the Canadian original

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

It’s meant to be hilarious,it would seem. Brooklynite David Wozniak (Vince Vaughn: The Internship) unknowingly fathered 533 children by anonymous artificial insemination decades back, and now 142 of his young-adult biological offspring have filed a class-action lawsuit to learn his identity. Comedy ensues, until David learns the true meaning of fatherhood and the basic expectations that come with being an adult human being, which he’s never had to bother with before, because his boyish doofiness has been tolerated by all around him. All the charm of Starbuck, the Canadian film this is a near scene-by-scene, beat-by-beat remake of,...

Director: Ken Scott; Screenwriters: Ken Scott; Starring: Vince Vaughn, Chris Pratt, Cobie Smulders, Jack Reynor; Running time: 104 mins; Certificate: 12A

Vince Vaughn comedies usually have him shooting his mouth off, but this time he's in trouble for having scattered too much of his seed at a New York fertility clinic with the result that, years later, 142 of his 533 biological children club together, contesting their right to know his identity. The concept is high, the execution is hit and miss.

Canadian writer/director Ken Scott revisits the story, having already enjoyed success with his 2011 French-language version Starbuck. Of course Vaughn brings some of his own sensibility to it, but thankfully, without going over the top. His restraint in the quipping department is a big plus point, though he still cracks a few wise ones when the situation requires it.

As David Wozniak he is constantly getting himself into sticky situations (no...

Vince Vaughn shambles along in this contrived remake of a 2011 film about a sperm donor whose biological kids come knocking

Vince Vaughn autopilots his way through this lame, contrived and strangely depressing high-concept comedy. It is a remake of Canadian film-maker Ken Scott's 2011 film Starbuck, about a hopeless manchild slacker who discovers he has hundreds of biological children from when he made cash by donating sperm 20 years ago – and they are now demanding to meet him. (This was probably inspired by Jeffrey Harrison's story, in 2010 documentary Donor Unknown.) Vaughn shambles along, not exerting himself to make us like him, or make the story believable – he lacks the script zingers or comedy situations to do so. Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right worked (where this doesn't) because it tried to create real parts for female characters and not simply rely on a male star's supposedly adorable goofiness to carry the whole thing.

★★☆☆☆ The death throes of the Vince Vaughn comedy vehicle must surely be imminent. The Internship (2013) certainly represented the sharpening of the reaper's scythe, but Delivery Man (2013) may give it a brief stay of execution. Canadian director Ken Scott here remakes his successful French language indie Starbuck (2011), smoothing some of the rougher edges and injecting some star wattage. It's a weak but well-intentioned picture that favours warm, gentle humour over the aggressive nastiness of the Hangover films, which plods along rather innocuously were it not for Scott's clumsy lunges for emotional resonance.

Ken Scott’s French-Canadian film Starback (2011) tells the story of David Wozniak, a forty-something, meat delivery man who in his twenties received a generous second income from his contribution to a local sperm bank. When the hundreds of kids that he has brought into the world come a-calling, David must decide if he should be involved in their lives or not.

Just two years later Scott is back with the Us adaptation of his own film, The Delivery Man. Vince Vaughan fleshes out David as a soft round the edges, inoffensive middle aged man living in a trendy loft space, heavily indebted and attached to a dubious girlfriend (Cobie Smulders) Just as with its predecessor, David’s troubles catch up with him as the sperm bank that he had been contributing to under the alias ‘Starbuck’ has received legal notice from the 533 children that he has co-created, that they want...

Film: "Delivery Man"; Cast: Vince Vaughn, Chris Pratt, Cobie Smulders, Andrzej Blumenfeld and Adam Chanler-Berat; Director: Ken Scott; Rating: **

While the Indian audience has seen "Vicky Donor", which was inspired by Ken Scott's French-Canadian production called "Starbuck", "Delivery Man" is a blatantly brazen Hollywood version of the same film by the same director.

The premise of all the three films maybe alike. The film's story explores the life of David Wozniak (Vince Vaughn), over 20 years after he made his donations.

They say the past catches up with you. So, after losing over a hundred thousand dollars in a pyramid scheme business, David is now a harried and hassled truck driver working in his father's establishment,.

Delivery Man

Starring Vince Vaughn, Cobie Smulders, Chris Pratt

Directed by Ken Scott

Rated PG-13

On occasion, I’ve brought the topic of motivation. With certain actors, actresses or directors, you start to wonder, as you watch their once promising career sort of flat line, what their drive is anymore. Robert De Niro or Al Pacino are two prime examples of this topic. Vince Vaughn, a guy who for a good stretch was the lighting rod for a lot of comedies; the guy who added that extra spark, turning an otherwise run of the mill comedy into something better than it had any right to be. But lately, it seems that lighting rod Vaughn is no more and we're left with going through the motions Vaughn, still taking on only ridiculous big concept comedies but the end result being one where neither party is benefiting. In fact, back when Vaughn...

Was "Delivery Man" just a sacrificial lamb, opening opposite "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire"? It didn't have to be.

Sure, there was no way in Panem that "Catching Fire" would fail to debut at No. 1 and win the weekend by a huge margin. But that didn't mean that a smartly counter-programmed film couldn't do well, too. Before "Catching Fire" set a November record this weekend with an estimated $161.1 million, the record-holder was 2009's "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," with $142.8 million, and yet "The Blind Side" managed to debut with $34.1 million the same weekend. Similarly, on the July 2008 weekend that "The Dark Knight" premiered with $158.4 million, musical "Mamma Mia!" earned $27.7 million.

No one was expecting numbers like that for "Delivery Man," even though it was expected to appeal to an older audience seeking comedy over action and political allegory. Some optimistic pundits guessed that it might open as high as $15 million.

Hollywood loves mining other countries and languages for material. This week, one popular Quebecois movie is getting the English-language treatment. With Delivery Man, writer-director Ken Scott has remade his 2011 French-language film Starbuck.

Starbuck’s 40-soemthing slacker played by Patrick Huard gets a Hollywood makeover to become Vince Vaughn inDelivery Man. Vaughn stars as David, a man who has just discovered that he has fathered 533 children thanks to a mix-up at the fertility clinic he donated to twenty years earlier. When 142 of his children file a lawsuit to reveal the identity of their father, David must decide whether he wants to step up and announce that he is the father. Cobie Smulders co-stars as David’s police officer girlfriend and Chris Pratt is along for the ride as his buddy Brett.

There’s been a long line of French films that have been remade in English to varying degrees of success.

Vince Vaughn and Chris Pratt deliver a heartwarming story in Dreamwork Pictures’ Delivery Man.

David Wozniak is a burned out delivery man with money problems galore. He has done just about anything to make money in the past, including donating his sperm. When he thinks his life couldn’t get any worse, a lawyer shows up at his door to tell him that there was a mixup, and that his anonymous donations under the name “Starbuck” have resulted in the birth of 533 children. Not only that, but 142 of those children are now taking legal action so that they can find out the true identity of “Starbuck”.

Wozniak must decide whether to make his identity known, or sue the sperm bank for their mixup. As Starbuck singles out some of his children anonymously, his whole life begins to change. As the trial nears, he must decide whether to make himself known,...

Did you know this weekend's Delivery Man is a remake of a French-Canadian film called Starbuck? And that both films were cowritten and directed by Ken Scott? Heck, you probably don't know Starbuck is currently streaming on Netflix at the same time the Vince Vaughn-led remake comes out. Like any obsessive movie nerds, we decided that this entire situation was a chance to do a little experiment. What would happen if we watched both films back-to-back? How different are they? How similar? Which one is better?     The Story When most foreign movies get a Hollywood remake, they're reconstructed by a dozen new writers. The craziest thing about Delivery Man is that it is, almost scene-for-scene, identical to Starbuck in every way. There are a few...

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Chicago – Has Vince Vaughn peaked?

Since hit films like “Swingers” and “Wedding Crashers,” critical flops like “Couples Retreat” and “The Dilemma” have shown he’s fighting an uphill battle to find redemption. While “Delivery Man” isn’t his re-breakout role, it does show you a lesser-seen side: his drama instead of his comedy.

Rating: 2.0/5.0

The problem is “Delivery Man” is supposed to be funny. Inspired by the 2011 Canadian hit comedy “Starbuck” – in which Patrick Huard plays David Wozniak in the French version of this film – “Delivery Man” fails as a comedy where “Starbuck” succeeds. While you’ll be disappointed if you’re expecting another “Swingers”-like comedy from Vince Vaughn, you’ll be surprised to see his softer, paternal and caregiver side instead of his trademark party manboy.

Read Adam Fendelman’s full review of “Delivery Man”.

“Delivery Man” is rated “PG-13” and “Starbuck” is rated “R,” by the way,...

DreamWorks Pictures’ “Delivery Man” stars Vince Vaughn as affable underachiever David Wozniak, whose anonymous donations to a fertility clinic 20 years earlier resulted in 533 children.David must now embark on a journey that leads him to discover not only his true self but also the father that he could become.

Recently, Wamg sat down with stars Vince Vaughn, Chris Pratt, and Cobie Smulders at a small press conference hosted by the film in Beverly Hills, CA. Check it out below.

Okay, a great movie here for Vince. It’s the first time I think that you’re playing in or starring in a remake of a Canadian movie, and telling the exact same story. So, I wondering what your take was on the character, and did you watch Starbuck or intentionally avoid Starbuck?

Vince Vaughn: Yeah, I saw Starbuck. What was interesting to me was the director, Ken Scott, wrote the movie,...

From the moment Ken Scott’s French-language Starbuck was released in Canadian cinemas in 2011, the consensus was that, given its high-concept nature, a Hollywood remake was inevitable. In turn, Canuck critics and moviegoers alike indulged in fantasy casting concerning who would fill Quebec star Patrick Huard’s schlubby shoes as the hard-luck David Wozniak in this goodnatured yarn about fatherhood and responsibility. Odds are, the name Vince Vaughn didn’t feature on many ballots....

Britt Robertson is the kind of actress that stands out in a crowd. Case in point, her role as Kristen in this week's Delivery Man , in which she plays one of 533 brothers and sisters that, thanks to a mix up at a fertility clinic 20 years ago, all share the same biological father in Vince Vaughn's David Wozniak, a well-meaning slacker who isn't quite sure whether or not he wants to have his identity revealed to his newly-discovered family. In theaters today, Delivery Man is writer/director Ken Scott's remake of his own 2011 French-Canadian film, Starbuck and also stars Chris Pratt and Cobie Smulders. ComingSoon.net sat down with Robertson to talk about her role in the comedy drama and about her future plans, which next take her to Brad Bird's Tomorrowland . Check out the...

Delivery Man is an English-language remake of a Canadian film titled Starbuck (2011) and was written and directed by Ken Scott. Scott also made the original and clearly he is committed to the material. This film is the story of Dave Wozniak (Vince Vaughn), who while in the midst of many troubles of his own, is informed that he is the father of 533 children – Wozniak had made over 600 donations to a fertility clinic twenty years ago and now he is the subject of a lawsuit from 142 of his offspring that want his identity revealed for their own peace of mind.

The film also stars Cobie Smulders as Wozniak’s girlfriend, Chris Pratt as the best friend and lawyer who helps battle the lawsuit, and Andrzej Blumenfeld who is stellar as the patriarch of the Wozniak clan.

Vaughn’s Wozniak starts out in the film as an arrested post-adolescent that could fit...

Delivery Man

Written and directed by Ken Scott

USA, 2013

Somewhere in the last 10 years, Vince Vaughn decided to smooth out his edges, sanding down his hard exterior to a bland nub. His acidic work in films like Made, Swingers, and even something as outrageous as Old School is a thing of the past, if his 2013 output is any indication. As both a feature-length Google ad and as a comedy, The Internship was, at best, a forgettable attempt by Vaughn and Owen Wilson to recapture their lewd glory from Wedding Crashers. And now we have Delivery Man, a remake of the French-Canadian film Starbuck, all about a lovable, oafish slacker who turns his life around when he discovers that he’s the biological father of over 500 children.

The high concept aside—and kudos to writer-director Ken Scott, because seriously, how was this not a Jim Carrey vehicle a decade and a half ago?...

Unlike most Hollywood remakes of foreign-language pictures, Delivery Man was made by the same filmmaker responsible for the French-Canadian hit Starbuck. Although many critics complained that his comedy was overly sentimental, audiences responded strongly. That’s why DreamWorks saw remake potential and hired Ken Scott to direct and revise the screenplay he originally wrote with Martin Petit.Delivery Man is a perfect fit for Vince Vaughn as a likable, lifelong screw-up. He works in his family’s meat business (as an admittedly incompetent delivery man) and tries maintaining a relationship with a smart, attractive girlfriend (Cobie Smulders) who’s finally losing patience with his...

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The instant problem when a new remake is released is the inevitable comparisons to the original film. I had never watched Starbuck in its entirety, but knew more than enough about it when it was announced that original co-writer/director Ken Scott would be remaking the French-Canadian film in English. But that begs the question: would it really be necessary to examine the original work before watching the new one, or would it be more appropriate to watch the new film on its own first? In the case of Delivery Man, it may have been better to not watch the original first.

David Wozniak (Vince Vaughn) is a bit of a loser. He delivers meat for his family’s butcher shop, he owes $80,000 to shady characters, and his girlfriend Emma (Cobie Smulders) is pregnant. If that wasn’t bad enough, David finds out that a mix-up with sperm donations he...

While remakes are extremely common in Hollywood nowadays . much to the chagrin of many movie-goers . the origin of the new comedy Delivery Man is a strange one. Back in 2011, writer/director Ken Scott helmed the French Canadian hit Starbuck, but when it came time to craft the English language re-do it was decided that Scott was the only man for the job. This is what led Scott to remake his own film step by step, and hire a great trio of actors to star. A remake of Scott.s 2011 film Starbuck, Delivery Man tells the story of David Wozniak (Vince Vaughn), a likable but irresponsible ordinary guy who works for his family.s butcher shop. His life takes a sharp left turn, however, when he is hit by some double whammy news. Partnered with the announcement that his girlfriend, Emma (Cobie Smulders), has accidentally become pregnant, David discovers that he...

Delivery Man really, really wants to be heart-warming, but its many issues keep throwing water on the fire. Written and directed by Ken Scott—and adapted from his French language version, Starbuck— Delivery Man stars Vince Vaughn as an aging loser who discovers that through sperm donation he has fathered 533 children, about 100 of whom are suing to discover his identity. Hilarity doesn’t really ensue.

Part of the problem is that Vaughn’s character, David, isn’t just hapless and down on his luck at the start of the movie. He is a screw-up with a capital F. He works as a delivery man for his father’s meat company, but owes $80,000 to the kind of people who will happily rough up his family to get it back. (It is a major flaw in the film that we never find out what the money was used for.) He has just...

This week, the Vince Vaughn vehicle “Delivery Man” hits theaters (our review here). While on the surface it may seem of a type with recent paternity comedies like “The Change-Up” and “The Switch,” it does feature one rogue element (aside from not starring Jason Bateman): it’s a remake of a French-language Canadian comedy called “Starbuck” that's also directed by the original’s director, Ken Scott. It’s easy to see how the festival success of "Starbuck," strong national box office and gentle high concept (a commitment-shy frequent sperm donor discovers he’s fathered over 500 children, a large segment of whom now want to meet him), might have put it on the remake list immediately. Indeed there are currently two other versions in the works—a Bollywood one and a French picture—but the choice to offer the directorial chair to Scott for the U.S. version is a little more unusual.

The Americanization of Fertility: Scott’s Sterile Remake a Stale Venture

With Delivery Man, which is a remake of his 2011 French Canadian hit, Starbuck, director Ken Scott joins an elite group of filmmakers, such as Michael Haneke and George Sluizer, who have taken on the responsibility of directing English language remakes of their own prolific titles. Though these carbon copies, while even from the same authorial voices, are often subpar when compared to the first film, it often seems a protective and intriguing gesture. But even for those unfamiliar with Scott’s first film, which was just as ridiculous but managed to muster a reasonable amount of hangdog charm to coast by, there’s an unmistakable taste of canned inspiration at the center here, a tired formula that lazily regurgitates itself into the ill-fitting dress of the Hollywood star system.

David Wozniak (Vince Vaughn) is one of those loveable underachievers...

Did you know that "Delivery Man," the movie about a man who fathered 533 children starring Vince Vaughn, Chris Pratt and Cobie Smulders, was originally a Canadian movie called "Starbuck"?

Now, in 2013, the original director (Ken Scott) and screenwriter (Martin Petit) are back at the helm. "Delivery Man" is tough to define -- it doesn't fall into either the drama or comedy categories -- but the end result is the same: you leave the theatre with a warm heart.

Moviefone chatted with Smulders for a few minutes about her role, how her Canadianness played a part, and how she felt after watching the movie herself.

(Watch the video interview, above.)

"Delivery Man" is out in theatres on November 22.

Hitting theaters tomorrow, November 21, writer/director Ken Scott's Delivery Man is a remake of his own 2011 French-Canadian film, Starbuck , which tells the story of a middle-aged slacker, David Wozniak (Vince Vaughn), who learns that his anonymous donations to a fertility clinic 20 years ago have led to him being the biological father of 533 children. ComingSoon.net sat down with Vaughn and co-stars Chris Pratt, who plays Wozniak's lovable-but-not-too-bright lawyer friend Brett, and Cobie Smulders, who plays his girlfriend, Emma. As you can watch in the player below, the trio discuss achieving the right balance of heart and humility and the overall message of the film, which celebrates a universal sense of family. Be sure to also stay tuned for our interview with Britt...