Tina Fey (“30 Rock”) and Paul Rudd (‘This is 40′) are paired for the first time on-screen in the new comedy/drama directed by Academy Award nominee Paul Weitz (‘About a Boy’, ‘In Good Company’), about the surprising detours we encounter on the road to happiness.

Every spring, high school seniors anxiously await letters of college admission that will affirm and encourage their potential. At Princeton University, admissions officer Portia Nathan (Tina Fey) is a gatekeeper evaluating thousands of applicants. Year in and year out, Portia has lived her life by the book, at work as well as at the home she shares with Princeton professor Mark (Michael Sheen). When Clarence (Wallace Shawn), the Dean of Admissions, announces his impending retirement, the likeliest candidates to succeed him are Portia and her office rival Corinne (Gloria Reuben). For Portia, however, it’s business as usual as she hits the road on her annual recruiting trip.

On the road, Portia reconnects with her iconoclastic mother, Susannah (Lily Tomlin). On her visit to New Quest, an alternative high school, she then reconnects with her former classmate, idealistic teacher John Pressman (Paul Rudd) – who has recently surmised that Jeremiah (Nat Wolff), a gifted yet very unconventional New Quest student, might well be the son that Portia secretly gave up for adoption years ago while at school. Jeremiah is about to apply to Princeton.

Now Portia must re-evaluate her personal and professional existences, as she finds herself bending the admissions rules for Jeremiah, putting at risk the future she thought she always wanted – and in the process finding her way to a surprising and exhilarating life and romance she never dreamed of having.

‘Admission’ will be released in theaters nationwide on March 22 by Focus Features. This film has been rated PG-13 (for language and some sexual material).

Image Courtesy : Admission

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Boston, U.S.A. - In the two-way mirror that often is a reflection of life or art, another trend is forming. The worlds of literature and Hollywood are colliding again, this time with a focus on cryonics, the science intended to reanimate people after death and freezing.

The debut novel from Bruce E. Spitzer, Extra Innings , about baseball great Ted Williams returning to life through cryonics, was published last month by Bear Hill Media. Extra Innings was featured recently in Sports Illustrated Magazine and ranked in the top 25 on the Amazon Kindle bestseller list for sports fiction.

A cryonics movie, Freezing People is Easy, is in pre-production in Hollywood and will shoot in the fall, reportedly starring Paul Rudd, Kristen Wiig, Owen Wilson and Christopher Walken.

Inspired by Bob Nelson’s memoir We Froze the First Man and an episode of Chicago Public Media and Public Radio International’s This American Life, Freezing People is the story of Nelson’s first cryonics attempts in the 1960s. Errol Morris will direct. Producers include Steven Zaillian and Garrett Basch of Film Rites. Toronto-based Entertainment One announced that it will distribute the picture worldwide.

TV got into the act last winter when Larry King announced on CNN that he wanted to be cryonically preserved. Can reality TV be far behind?

Unlike Freezing People, which looks back at the beginnings of cryonics, Spitzer’s Extra Innings looks forward, featuring Ted Williams reanimated in 2092. In real life he was cryonically preserved after death in 2002. In his imagined return, Williams plays again for the Red Sox, bats against a robot “Botwinder” pitcher that he abhors pilot’s jets for the Marines, and struggles in a future world beset by global warming and flooding.

“The narrative resonates with the consequences of the major issues we face in our world today—the steroids debate in sports, global warming, corporate greed, technology run rampant, and the moral ambiguity of war,” says Spitzer. “It’s a societal and personal journey. Flawed in his first life, Williams must decide in the second, what’s more important: the chance to win his first World Series or the chance to be a better man?”

Extra Innings, adds Spitzer, is not only about science, baseball, redemption, and the quest for meaning in this life and the next, it’s humorous as well. “Similar to what we’re likely to see in Freezing People, you can’t help but poke a little fun at the idea of returning to life after being frozen.”

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Emmy-nominated comedy series ‘Parks and Recreation’ ended its fourth season on Thursday May 10, with an episode which revealed the long-awaited result in main character Leslie Knope’s election bid for city council.

The episode, titled “Win, Lose, or Draw”, was written and directed by series co-creator Michael Schur. The episode featured Leslie, played by Amy Poehler, waiting to hear if she had beat rival Bobby Newport, played by Paul Rudd, in an election storyline which had been running all season. The initial result showed that Bobby had won by a margin of 21 votes, however, after Leslie’s campaign manager – and love interest – Ben Wyatt, played by Adam Scott, demanded a recount, it was revealed that it was in fact Leslie who had won by 21 votes.

The result of the election had been top-secret since production wrapped on ‘Parks & Recreation’ several months ago. At a Paley Center event in March, Schur revealed that multiple endings had been filmed for the episode so that he could wait until the last moment to decide which ending to air. Poehler admitted to being a fan of both endings, telling the audience:

“It was really touching and moving to do both the acceptance and the concession speeches. Concession and acceptance speeches are about the same until the end. They thank everybody and talk a lot and say congratulations to the other guy … Having to talk to the cast, which were all my friends, and say thank you for this election year. I couldn’t do it without you, cue the waterworks factory.”

Leslie’s win in the season finale means several changes for the series in its fifth season. Until this season, the series had revolved primarily around Leslie’s duties as the Deputy Director of the Pawnee City Department of Parks and Recreation, whereas now the series is expected to feature more storylines involving Leslie’s burgeoning political career.

Also undergoing some changes is Ben Wyatt, who accepted a job offer in the finale to run a congressional campaign in Washington for six months, effectively forcing Leslie and himself to attempt a long-distance relationship for at least some of next season, assuming that it does not skip entirely over those six months.

For the season, ‘Parks & Recreation’ averaged between 3-4 million viewers per week, but strong critical acclaim and consistent Emmy nominations have ensured its survival on the struggling NBC network. Earlier this month, both the series and Poehler won at The Comedy Awards for Best Comedy Series and Best Comedy Actress in TV, respectively, while the series was recently named as the recipient of the prestigious Peabody Award.

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