January 29, 2015 – The world according to Dan.

Flight of the Conchords Taking Flight Again? Late 2015 Tour in the Works

The fourth most popular folk duo from New Zealand are plotting their return to the U.S.

Flight of the Conchords’ Jemaine Clement says he and Bret McKenzie “are planning on touring later on in the year in the States. It isn’t very solid yet, but we’ve been talking about it.”

As in years past, Clement says the Conchords will play new material at the shows. “I really don’t like the studio part of music,” he says. “I more enjoy playing live and letting others take care of the recording.”

Clement is at Sundance for People, Places, Things, Jim Strouse’s engaging romantic comedy in which Clement plays a cartoonist and teacher struggling with heartbreak and being a consistent father for his 5-year-old twin daughters. With the exception of a 2013 tour, Flight of the Conchords has been on the back burner since the end of the second season of their HBO show in 2009.

Since then, Clement has been active voicing animated films and making his co-directing/film-writing debut with last year’s What We Do in the Shadows. His writing/directing partner on that film, Taika Watiti, is working with him on an idea for television that may include music. “I consider my career as a whole a collection of hobbies,” he says. “I don’t have a career, just all these hobbies going on.”

Like the Conchords’ TV show, People, Places, Things is set in New York, but that’s where the parallels end for Clement, whose character Will has an artistic sophistication and nurturing qualities.

“The Conchords’ Jemaine is very unaware of his feelings, and Will is keenly aware of his,” says Clement. “At first, Jim [Strouse] talked about me using an American accent, and we tried it out and eventually decided it wasn’t important. He wanted the character to be an outsider anyway, so the accent might help that. Then having not performed that much [on film], I had to think about, ‘How do I actually talk that’s different from Flight of the Conchords?’ Right before filming, I thought, ‘How do I actually do it?'”

Even composer Mark Orton, whose breezy score harkens back to simpler times, was keenly aware of not sounding Conchords-esque. “I wanted the music to sound like his character — a guy whose pants were too short,” Orton said in a separate conversation. “I had to make sure I wasn’t rewriting ‘Sugalumps.'”

Christine Taylor to reprise role in ‘Zoolander 2’

Zoolander 2 continues to be the sequel that’s sort of happening but maybe not happening but, yes, actually happening.

Actress Christine Taylor confirmed to EW that she’ll reprise her role as journalist Matilda Jeffries in the sequel to the hit 2001 film, which followed lunkhead supermodel Derek Zoolander (Taylor’s husband, Ben Stiller) and his accidental adventures into the seedy, corrupt underworld of male modelling.

“I can tell you that I’m involved, but that’s all I can say,” Taylor tells EW. “I can tell you it’s happening, but I can’t tell you where Matilda’s at and where their relationship is at. It’s all top secret!”

At the end of the original film, model-hating journalist Matilda settles down and starts a family with Derek; their baby, Derek Jr., already shows early signs of following in his ridiculously good-looking father’s career footsteps.

A sequel to Zoolander has long been in some form of development, with bits and pieces of rumors about casting and production swirling for years. As recently as November 2014, it appeared that the film was in fact moving forward, with Penelope Cruz signing on opposite Stiller (who will direct from a script by Justin Theroux). Stiller and Stuart Cornfeld’s Red Hour Films will once again produce. Will Ferrell and Owen Wilson have also been rumored to reprise their roles as the villainous designer Mugatu and Derek’s rival model Hansel, respectively.

In a 2011 interview with Empire, Stiller briefly discussed the plot: “It’s ten years later and most of it is set in Europe…their lives have changed and they’re not really relevant anymore. It’s a new world for them. Will Ferrell is written into the script and he’s expressed interest in doing it. I think Mugatu is an integral part of the Zoolander story, so yes, he features in a big way.” (Take that plot description with a grain of salt, though—a lot can happen to a film script in four years.)