Welcome to “Trailer Park,” our regular Friday feature where we collect the week’s new trailers all in one place and do a little “judging a book by its cover,” ranking them from worst to best and taking our best guess at what they may be hiding. This week, we’ve got eight new ones—everything from cancer comedies to Shakespearean dramas to, God help us, holiday fare. Check ‘em all out after the jump.

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We have to admit, of the many, many, many remakes of 1980s movies currently in production, Jason Winer’s new version of Arthur seemed one of the most egregiously unnecessary. If you haven’t seen the original (and really, there’s no excuse for that — it’s streaming on Netflix, for goodness’ sake), it really is a perfect comedy, and we’re not quite sure how these folks presume to improve upon it. But, that said, they’ve made some wise casting decisions: those of us who like Russell Brand (and you either love him or you hate him, it seems) can see him filling the Dudley Moore role well enough, while the decision to switch the gender of John Gielgud’s Hobson to a female, and cast Helen Mirren in it, is rather ingenious. Most exciting of all, mumblecore ingénue Greta Gerwig, so wonderful in last year’s Greenberg, is a perfect choice to play the Liza Minelli role. So it seems strange that she’s barely present in the film’s newly-released trailer, while Jennifer Garner — playing Susan Johnson, the object of Arthur’s arranged marriage, a very secondary character in the original — is all over the damn thing. Maybe they’re just advertising the more recognizable face?

And while we’re at it, does it seem strange that this oh-so-up-to-date-remake is being advertised entirely with songs that pre-date the original? (“All Right Now”? Seriously?) But, those concerns aside, there are some laughs in the trailer, so we remain on the fence about this one — reluctantly optimistic, if you will. Watch the trailer after the jump and let us know what you think.

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1. Beating out both Jennifer Garner and Keri Russell, Gossip Girl Blake Lively has been cast as the female lead opposite Ryan Reynolds in The Green Lantern. [via THR]
2. Billy Name, resident photographer of Andy Warhol‘s Factory for seven years, is missing his archive of negatives. [via NYT]
3. How the Jay Leno disaster could ultimately cost NBC more than $200 million. (Also of note: As a result, they’ve just unveiled six new drama pilots.) [via LAT]
4. Sarah Jessica Parker‘s new Bravo reality show Work of Art: The Next Great Artist will feature New York gallery owner Bill Powers, New York magazine art critic Jerry Saltz, and curator Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, as judges; China Chow and Simon de Pury will host. [via Variety]
5. Foster Kamer explores the short distance between the branding of mega pop stars and the branding of indie rock bands like Vampire Weekend. [via Gawker]

Bonus link: The New Age Cavemen and the City

Save for the Britney Spears meltdowns and Tom Cruise couch-jumping fiascoes of the world, public opinion on any given celebrity is usually a pretty static thing. Everyone likes Will Smith. People have generally good feelings about Reese Witherspoon. Many can’t stand Katherine Heigl lately, but it’s not like she isn’t a teensy bit deserving of all that ill will. What we’re getting at here is that, for being a generally likable celebrity who’s never gotten himself into a weird public spat with Matt Lauer, Ben Affleck is an oddly polarizing figure. His career hasn’t been unlike that of a politician in that his approval ratings have run a wide gamut over the years. (Remember those rumors that he was running for senator?)

This month he’s back in theaters as a stoner sidekick type in Mike Judge’s Extract, and it suddenly finally feels OK to embrace B-Fleck again. Why now? We think we’ve managed to distill Ben’s likability down to five simple tenets. Read More »

Today at Flavorpill, we surprised to discover that Bat for Lashes’ Natasha Khan has an alien altergo. Do you think Radiohead knew about it when they invited her on tour? We eyeballed this year’s pretty finalists for best magazine design. But what in the heck is onEarth? We daydreamed about taking a tour of Ben Afffleck and Jennifer Garner’s pricey new LA home. We were happy to hear that Spike Lee’s Passing Strange adaptation had been picked up by PBS at Tribeca. Now we can watch the rock musical at home! We realized that thanks to the swine flu epidemic, we’ll probably have to wait even longer to see the most delayed apocalypse movie of all time, The Road. We were proud of our fellow geeks for using their geek smarts to try and save NBC’s Chuck. Although we’re not sure it’s enough… We loved the irony of Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh getting fired from Drew Barrymore’s upcoming film, Whip It! (Come back on Monday for an interview with the screenwriter.) And finally, we’ll send you off with this image of the “F*cking Hipster Cat.” We once dated a guy with those exact frames.