NEW YORK — Richard Ayoade, Ben Stiller and Arctic Monkey’s Alex Turner met the press Monday in lower Manhattan to discuss the upcoming release of Submarine, Ayoade’s directorial adaptation of the novel by Joe Dunthorne.

Submarine tells the coming-of-age story of 15-year-old Oliver Tate who is on two distinct missions: to save his parents’ dwindling marriage and to win the favor of classmate Jordana, the girl with whom he hopes to lose his virginity.

Writer and director Richard Ayoade explained his affinity for French New Wave and stories focusing on the transition from childhood to adulthood, citing such works as “The Catcher in the Rye” and Harold & Maude. But insofar as inspiration for directing Submarine, Ayoade conjured Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, whose main character, like Oliver Tate, has a knack for an “internal and uninflected voice-over…[that] is always seeing the least important thing.” It is, in fact, the significance of the voice-over aspect of the story that informed Ayoade’s choice of Craig Roberts to play Oliver Tate, stating that Roberts’ voice added necessary depth to the “idiosyncratic language” of the character.

Having previously worked together on award-winning music videos, Ayoade turned to Arctic Monkey’s frontman Alex Turner to script the original songs for Submarine. The resulting compilation is six ethereal songs of the understated beauty of music stripped down to the essentials. Asked of his inspiration for the compositions, Turner stated that half of the songs were already in various forms of existence before he was approached about the project, but that all songs were created or included to act as backdrops to the film, meant not to explain, but to compliment the characters and their stories.

Executive Producer Ben Stiller said that Submarine fell into his lap somewhat fortuitously, but he fell in love with the script immediately. Stiller explained that it is rare that all the elements of a film project – writing, directing, acting, producing – come together so well.

The film stars Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky, Vera Drake) and Noah Taylor (Charley and the Chocolate Factory) as the loveless parents, Yasmin Paige (Tooth) as romantic interest Jordana Brevan, and debuting in his first lead role in a feature film, Craig Roberts as Oliver Tate. Submarine opens June 3rd in select theaters.

“Because frankly we are sick of bringing out all these ugly actresses.” Martin and Baldwin continue to roll. Sorry, let me just take a minute to admire Carey Mulligan and Zoe Saldana. Both are looking gorgeous. Wow what a double whammy to make them present categories that most people won’t care about. With those two ladies on stage, they will definitely keep my attention — Best Animated Short, Best Live Action Documentary Short Subject, Best Live Action Short. Really cool getting past filmmakers that have gone on to great success off of their short film wins. Taylor Hackford, David Frankel, John Lasseter…really cool. Is it just me or are the Oscars making an effort to really help casual viewers understand the art behind all of the awards? Really cool idea and pretty inspiring.

Funny speech from animated short winner Nicolas Schmerkin. It is always fun to see how these unkowns handle the stage and the audience. Usually they produce some really memorable moments and Schmerkin was no exception.

Oh my god… Ben Stiller is dressed as a Naavi!!! “This seemed like a better idea in rehearsal.” Gotta love how far he will go. I am not sure I will be able to take “Avatar” seriously ever. Again. Suddenly my 4-star review is feeling somewhat foolish. “I will try to stand as far away from them as possible to not demean their moment of triumph.” Ben I forgive you for “Night at the Museum”…one and two.

Yes!! “Star Trek” gets some love. How fun was that movie? It was such a strong summer for really good blockbusters and “Star Trek” was one of the best of the bunch.

Ben Stiller might not act in the greatest movies, but he sure knows how to write and direct them. With ‘Tropic Thunder’, Stiller creates an explosive new comedy that’s sure to blow anyone’s socks off.

‘Thunder’ starts off right from what its trailer sets up: director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) wants to create the greatest war movie of all time, but his lead actors in his film-based-on-a-book-based-on-a-true-story (but is it?) don’t have the emotional scope needed to understand the complexities behind the Vietnam War.

After some difficult struggles with his prima donna actors: Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.), Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) and Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), Cockburn is convinced by the author of the book Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte) to drop the actors in the middle of Vietnam and shoot the movie ‘guerilla-style’. Both the film and the book in the movie are named ‘Tropic Thunder’, which is where the title of the actual film comes from.

It takes about 20 minutes for Lazarus, Portnoy, Speedman, Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson) and Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel) to be stranded in the middle of nowhere in Vietnam, thinking that they are filming a movie that had suddenly become very real. The movie just becomes funnier as it goes along, with the actors never being quite sure whether or not they are actually in a movie or not.

Also, as a slightly-spoilerish warning, the ad you will see for “Booty Sweat” is not the cinema going insane, but rather marks the completely inventive and perfectly hysterical introduction to “Tropic Thunder”. You have been warned.

While not as outlandish as ‘Zoolander’ was, ‘Tropic Thunder’ is set outside our reality in a way that everyone can understand. Ben Stiller has said in previous interviews that he wrote ‘Thunder’ as a parody of the movie business and, even if no one in the audience understood it, it would still be hysterical to him. Well Ben, we get it, and it’s still pretty funny.

Unexpected were the many cameos, both big and small, made by some of Hollywood’s biggest actors. Matthew McConaughey has a surprisingly big role as Speedman’s agent, and Tom Cruise definitely deserves all the buzz he’s been getting as the big-time film executive behind ‘Tropic Thunder’. Danny McBride was hysterical as the pyromaniac effects guy Cody. Also keep an eye out for Bill Hader, Tyra Banks, Maria Menunos, Jason Bateman, Lance Bass, Alicia Silverstone, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jon Voight, Christine Taylor and an I-can’t-believe-he-did-that Tobey Maguire (don’t be late or you’ll miss that one). Oh yeah, Stiller got them all.

Sure it may not be the most outright intelligent film to make a mockery of Hollywood, but there is plenty of insider humor that can be relished by all. The scene where Lazarus explains to Speedman why he didn’t get an Oscar for his role as the mentally retarded boy Jack in his film ‘Simple Jack’ because he went “full retard” was one of the funniest scenes in the film.

Downey was hysterical as Lazarus who becomes so immersed in his role that he changed his skin color in order to become more in character. Black was very two dimensional and not funny as Portnoy, the heroine-addicted fat guy. And Stiller was, well, Stiller.

The most break-out role in the film was hands-down Jay Baruchel, who many will recognize from “Knocked Up” and “Million Dollar Baby” but who has not landed a leading role since Judd Aptow’s lesser known but just as short-lived TV series, “Undeclared”. Baruchel’s character Kevin Sandusky is very similar to Baruchel in real life: he is an actor who has gotten his first big role and is playing everything by the book, like going to the boot camp training that had been assigned and learning how to read a map, while his fellow actors just brushed everything off. As the only one with a lick of common sense, Baruchel has some definite potential and it seems like we can expect big things from him in the future.

‘Tropic Thunder’ so far has been the best comedy of 2008, and it very much deserves that title. While the movie will keep audiences laughing well into the credits, it brings about two important questions: Why hasn’t Ben Stiller written and directed more movies, and will this be Tom Cruise’s big comeback (in more than one way)?

The not-so-viral stunt that made going to see “Tropic Thunder” a must. This clip is property of MTV Networks, no copyright infringement intended.

Oh yeah, Carl makes a cameo too. See if you can spot him!