The term “cameo appearance” was coined by producer Michael Todd to describe the number of small roles filled by big name stars in his 1956 film Around The World In 80 Days. But Todd was merely putting a name to something that had been a part of films all the way back to the Silent Era and would continue right to the present day. Here is a chronological look at perhaps the greatest of the hundreds and maybe even thousands of cameo appearances that have been made in the movies.

Elinor Glyn In It (1927) -As described in a two-part Cosmopolitan Magazine serial by Elinor Glyn, “It” is “that quality possessed by some which draws all others with its magnetic force. With ‘It’ you win all men if you are a woman and all women if you are a man. ‘It’ can be a quality of the mind as well as a physical attraction… The possessor of ‘It’ must be absolutely unselfconscious and must have that magnetic ‘sex appeal’ which is irresistible..” When Paramount decided to turn Glyn’s piece into a film, there was only one starlet in their studio they knew they cast in the role of the girl with “It” – Clara Bow. And to help explain the concept of “It” to other characters in the film and the audience, the studio had Glyn appear in the movie herself. Not only that, in one of the first instances of product placement, issues of Cosmopolitan are also seen. Although Bow was a star at the time of its release, the film proved such a sensation that the actress was ever after known as “The ‘It’ Girl.”

Alfred Hitchcock in Rebecca (1940) – If anyone’s name is synonymous with cameo appearances it would be director Alfred Hitchcock. Hitch knew the value of self-promotion and through his walk on roles in his films and appearances in his films’ trailers he was as easily recognizable as any big star of the time. He made his first on screen appearance in a newsroom scene in 1926′s The Lodger but would only appear sporadically until his move to America. Beginning with his first Hollywood studio film, Rebecca, where he stood behind star George Sanders in a phone booth, Hitchcock would make an appearance in every single one of his films for the rest of his career. Sometimes that would prove to be a tricky proposition, such as for Lifeboat, but it was a savvy move that helped insure that his name became its own brand.

Raymond Chandler in Double Indemnity (1943) – As creator of the detective Philip Marlow, Chandler was one of the shapers of the hardboiled detective genre. It seems only natural that when Chandler began working in films, his first screenplay would help define cinema’s equivalent – the film noir. By all accounts Chandler and Double Indemnity director Billy Wilder never did get along all that well, so it came as a bit of a surprise two years ago when it was realized that the gentleman reading a newspaper whom star Fred MacMurray walks past at an early point in the film is Chandler himself. Given their contentious relationship, it is not surprising that neither Chandler nor Wilder ever mentioned the appearance. It is a shock, though, that Chandler’s obvious cameo went unnoticed and unremarked upon for nearly 67 years until it was finally discovered in 2009.

Jack Benny in It’s In The Bag (1945) – One of the most famous show business feuds from the 1930s and 40s wasn’t really a feud at all, but a running gag between two friends. Jack Benny and Fred Allen were comedians who got their start in vaudeville, where they formed a lifelong friendship. By the mid-1930s, they each had their own popular radio shows that aired on Sunday evenings, albeit at different times. During a 1937 broadcast, Allen made took a swipe at Benny’s ability to play the violin. (Benny’s bad violin skills, as well as his vanity and cheapness, were all part of his comedy persona only, and by all accounts were pretty much exactly the opposite of the comedian when he was off-mic.) Benny heard the comment, and made a good natured jab at his friend on his own show later that evening and the back and forth continued for more than a decade. Never mind the fact that they each appeared on the other’s programs, people believed that they were actual blood enemies. That perception was furthered by the 1940 comedy Love Thy Neighbor in which both comics starred as their feuding radio personas. But for as funny as that film was, it is outdone by Benny’s single scene in Allen’s 1945 comedy It’s In The Bag. Allen stars as a man who realizes that the key to a $12 million inheritance lies in one of the five chairs he just sold. Guess who happens to have come into ownership of one of the chairs.

Bryan Forbes in A Shot In The Dark (1964) – Hiding behind an acoustic guitar and the screen name of “Turk Thrust,” British actor/writer/director Forbes makes his appearance in the second Pink Panther film as guard at a nudist camp that Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) and Maria (Elke Summers) are attempting to gain entrance to in the course of their investigation. Forbes was a friend of Sellers and had created a pop star persona with the name of Turk Thrust for him. Sellers never used the character although he did go on to do – more films as Clouseau. Forbes went on to direct such films as King Rat (1965) and The Stepford Wives (1975) while Turk Thrust made a reappearance of sorts in The Curse Of The Pink Panther (1983) when Roger Moore made a quick cameo under the nom-de-screen of Turk Thrust II.

Graham Greene in Day For Night (La Nuit Americaine) (1973) – Sometimes a cameo appearance can go unrecognized by a film’s audience. It is another thing for a cameo to go unrecognized by a film’s director. While Francois Truffaut was filming his story of a filmmaker struggling to complete his latest project, Greene was introduced to the director as a retired English businessman living on the Cote d’Azur. Trufaut cast the writer in a small role as a British insurance company representative who arrives at the Victorine Studios in Nice. Reportedly, Trufaut was upset to learn that the British man was actually the famous novelist and critic, as he was a fan and would have loved to talk with him.

Marshal McLuhan in Annie Hall (1977) – In Woody Allen’s classic comedy about New York and New Yorkers, the characters played by the director and Diane Keaton are standing in line for a movie when he hears a man in behind him pontificating about Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan. Annoyed that the man is getting his facts wrong, Allen steps out of line, breaks the film’s fourth wall and begins telling the audience how irritated he is. The man notices, steps up next to Allen and tries to speak to the audience in his own defense. The two begin to debate until Allen trumps the man’s argument by pulling McLuhan out from behind a lobby display to affirm that he and not the other man is right about McLuhan’s work. Not only does the scene work in conjunction with several other comedic scenes that break the reality of the love story that Allen is telling, there’s an added layer of humor if one is familiar with McLuhan’s theories about how society shapes media and media shapes society. And besides, who hasn’t agreed with Allen’s scene capping line “Don’t you wish reality was really like this?”

Steve Martin in The Muppet Movie (1979) – Jim Henson’s delightful The Muppet Movie is chockablock full of big name stars in fleetingly small roles – from Dom Deluise as the Hollywood agent vacationing in the Florida everglades who tells Kermit the Frog he needs to head to Los Angeles to become a movie star to Orson Welles as the studio head Kermit and his pals eventually meet (“Get me the standard ‘Rich and Famous’ contract!”). Along the way they meet the likes of Milton Beryl, Paul Williams, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Mel Brooks and more. But by far, the funniest cameo of the bunch is Steve Martin’s surly waiter. As Kermit and Miss Piggy try to have a romantic dinner, Martin’s waiter sneers at them while bringing them the cheapest item on the wine list (“Sparkling Muscatel, the best wine Idaho has to offer.”). It cracked up the seven-year-old me who saw it when the film was first released and it still makes me laugh today.

Susan Backlinie in 1941 (1979) – The opening of Steven Spielberg’s classic Jaws (1975), in which a late night skinny dipper becomes a midnight snack for the titular shark, was so powerful that it instantly became an iconic moment in cinema. So much so that just a few years later, it was parodied in the equally iconic, though for far different reasons, disaster spoof Airplane! (1980). But Spielberg beat them to the punch by a year, poking fun at himself in the opening to his 1979 comedy 1941. While the Airplane! parody featured a jetliner’s tailfin cutting through clouds with a variation of John Williams’ classic ominous two-note tuba score playing on the soundtrack, Spielberg opened 1941 with a midnight swim being interrupted by the arrival of a rather lost Japanese submarine. And Spielberg, being Spielberg, asked Backlinie, who played the unfortunate swimmer in Jaws to come back and recreate the scene for the gag. Unfortunately, Spielberg’s sense of humor was perhaps a bit more developed than his ability to direct humor, as 1941 didn’t particularly turn out to be the comic masterpiece one would expect with a cast including the likes of John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd and Animal House’s Tim Matheson. The movie wound up being one of the director’s rare critical and box office failures. Don’t feel bad for Spielberg, though. I understand his next film, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, did a bit better at the box office.

Ethel Merman in Airplane! (1980) – I’ve often said that the Zucker-Abrams-Zucker comedy Airplane! is perhaps the funniest 86 minutes of celluloid ever. It is certainly the one most densely packed with comic material with puns, sight gags and bizarre non-sequiter jokes coming at the viewer in rapid fire succession. But perhaps one of the funniest is nestled in a flashback where we find Ted Striker (Robert Hayes) recovering in an Army hospital from his traumatizing war experiences. As he points out to his girlfriend Elaine (Julie Hagerty) some of the other soldiers suffering from trauma on the ward, he indicates “Poor Lt. Horowitz. He thinks he’s Ethel Merman.” The camera pans over to the famous Broadway singer who suddenly bolts upright in her bed and starts singing “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” until orderlies rush in and tranquilizer her. You have to hand it to Merman for being able to spoof herself like that. And by placing herself in the hands of a trio of first-time directors, she landed herself a dual spot in the cameo and comedy halls of fame.

Sean Connery in Time Bandits (1981) – They say that the best thing about screenwriting is that you can write anything in your first draft. It’s only later that you have to worry about pesky things like how much it will cost to bring your vision to life on the big screen. And so it was that Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin, with just a few keystrokes, introduced the character of the Greek warrior king Agamemnon into their classic time travel comedy with the words “removing his helmet, revealing himself to be none other than Sean Connery. He grins as only Sean can. (This is the sort of creepy stage direction that helps get the stars interested.)” Creepy or not, Gilliam was able to land Connery for a role far smaller than one would have expected from the former James Bond at the time.

Bob Hope in Spies Like Us (1985) – While not the best comedy on director John Landis’s resume (that would be The Blues Brothers), Spies Like Us is an enjoyable enough Cold War riff on the old Hope and Crosby Road movies with Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd standing in for Bob and Bing. It only makes sense then that Hope pops up as himself for an absurd gag referencing those comedies. Landis loves to feature his filmmaking friends in his movies, so also keep a lookout for some notable behind-the-cameras luminaries appearing here including a young Sam Raimi as a guard at a top secret government installation and Terry Gilliam and Ray Harryhausen as part of a group of doctors on a mercy mission in Afghanistan. In fact, you can see them in the clip below right before Hope’s cameo.

Sean Connery in Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves (1991) – Yes, Connery gets two mentions on this list because, well, he’s Sean Connery. This wasn’t the first time that Connery had appeared in a Robin Hood film. Fifteen years earlier he played the titular folk hero at the twilight of his years in Robin And Marian. This time around, he makes an appearance at the end of the film as King Richard the Lionheart, recently returned from the Crusades. As Robin and his Merry Men have spent much of the preceding film fighting the King’s evil, despotic brother, the monarch arrives to offer his thanks in a scene very similar to the finale of the classic 1938 version starring Errol Flynn. Connery was on one of his career highs at the time and critics who saw advanced screenings of the film were sworn to secrecy to preserve the surprise of his appearance.

Alec Guinness in Mute Witness (1995) – When makeup artist Billy Hughes (Marina Zudina) is in Moscow working on a film shoot when she accidentally sees a Russian film crew shooting a snuff film. This doesn’t sit well with the Russian mob with a gangster known only as The Reaper ordering her death. Although the actor is shrouded in shadows when on-screen, there is no mistaking his voice as belonging to Sir Alec Guinness. What’s not so apparent though, is that Guiness actually shot his scenes nine years earlier! Director Anthony Waller was in the midst of trying to get Mute Witness made when met Guiness in Hamburg, Germany in 1985. Asking the actor if he would mind shooting a quick scene for the film, he was surprised when Guiness offered to do it for free. The only catch was that since his schedule was so busy they had to shoot it in an underground car garage the following morning before Guiness had to catch a plane. And since it took Waller nearly a decade before he was able to get the film into production, the scenes he quickly shot with Guiness that day became the actor’s last screen appearance.

Stan Lee in The X-Men (2000) – Perhaps the person who has made the most cameo appearances in films without being named Alfred Hitchcock is Stan Lee. As a writer and publisher at Marvel Comics in the 1960s and 70s, he had a hand in creating a majority of the publisher’s most iconic characters. Now, as those superheroes are being turned into big screen franchises, it has become a tradition to feature Lee in a don’t-blink-or-you-may-miss-him walk-on as a Time Square vendor, a security guard, the Fantastic Four’s mailman or some other small bit part. Although he had a small role in the 1989 TV movie The Trial Of The Incredible Hulk, as the jury foreman of course, the tradition of Lee’s big screen appearances started here in Bryan Singer’s The X-Men, with him as a beach hotdog vendor. Given that X-Men’s box office performance exceeded many people’s expectations, Lee’s continual appearances seem as much for good luck as they are a token of respect.

Every now and then there comes a year when it seems that there are an inordinate number of really good films out in theaters. Is it the result of some sort of cultural zeitgeist or is it just mere coincidence? Who can say? But what can be known for sure is that the summer of 1982 was one of those magical movies times. On the 30th anniversary of that summer we will take a look back at some of the many movies that made that summer so memorable.

The original plan was to include just one scene from a 1930′s film into their new project, Depression. But Steve Martin and Carl Reiner, aided by screenwriter George Gipe, couldn’t stop at just one classic Hollywood clip for their follow-up to their 1979 smash hit, The Jerk and so their comedy about the 1930s became a spoof/homage to the film noir flicks from that era and beyond–replete with footage from the greatest noir films of all time, and Depression became Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid.

It might be easy to dismiss Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid as an entertaining trifle not worthy of serious consideration. But the comedy has an indelible place in cinematic history, not only for the movies it influenced, but for the Hollywood legends for whom the film was their last entry in their storied resume.

Reiner and Gipe were tasked with going through hours upon hours of classic noir films to try to get footage they could build their script around. Once they found enough dialogue that they could use, they built a hard-boiled mystery surrounding a private eye named Rigby Reardon (Martin) who is hired by a mysterious woman by the name of Juliet Forrest (Rachel Ward) to investigate the death of her father. The investigation uncovers a Nazi conspiracy and brings Reardon in contact with a universe of Hollywood’s most glamorous stars, ranging from Cary Grant to Kirk Douglas, from Joan Crawford to Ava Gardner.

The film sent up the noir film trademarks–the femme fatale who can’t be trusted, the detective who falls for his client, the wise-cracking, witty dialogue–all filtered through a lens of unabashed silliness. For instance, one of the detective story staples is how the mystery is revealed. Typically, it’s either the detective revealing what he’s figured out or the bad guy explaining his plans to the captured good guy. Here, it’s both: Reardon races with the Nazi general (Reiner) to get the story out first.

Here’s about 15 minutes of scenes from the film to give you an idea of what I am talking about:

The film was a goofy parody of the film noir genre, but also a tribute to it. This shows in the way Reiner tried to capture the look of the classic films and allow them to fit seamlessly with his new footage. There was no computer magic here. It was all done with creative editing and stand-ins wearing costumes. This is where one of the most legendary names in Hollywood history came into play.

Legendary costume designer Edith Head was called in to costume the film, totally appropriate considering some of the films she costumed, including Double Indemnity and The Glass Key were used by Reiner in this film. If Reardon was talking to Veronica Lake in a scene taken from that latter film, Head insured that Lake’s 1980s stand-in was wearing that same dress Lake was and Steve Martin was wearing the same suit worn by the character Lake was speaking to in the original film. Now imagine doing the same thing every time Martin interacted with an actor from decades in the past and you understand why Edith Head is still recognized over 30 years after her death as the best ever in her field.

Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid would prove to be Head’s last film, as she succumbed to an incurable disease of the bone marrow shortly after the film wrapped. It would also be the last feature done by Oscar-winning composer Miklós Rózsa, who, like Head, worked on many of the films the creators culled footage from. He would retire after this film, but his work on it added a sense of continuity and authenticity the parody needed. Rózsa would pass away in 1995.

We would only have to wait a year before the film’s influence was felt. Woody Allen would use blue screen technology to insert himself into archival newsreel footage in 1983′s Zelig. And over a decade later, Robert Zemeckis would use computer generated imagery to have Tom Hanks’ Forrest Gump meet everyone from JFK to John Lennon. But Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid was the the start of the idea.

1982 is a very historic year in cinema, and there might be more films that are better remembered or of more historical import. But Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid deserves mention in any discussion of the Summer of 1982 for the trends it set and the legacies it honored.

Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin may be heading to the big screen to star in a comedy from director Adam Shankman.

Deadline is reporting that New Line Cinema is looking to purchase a pitch being described as “Trading Places meets Grumpy Old Men.” The idea came to Shankman just a few weeks ago while watching Baldwin host the season premier of Saturday Night Live. Martin crashed Baldwin’s opening monologue to give Baldwin some good-natured grief for breaking his (Martin’s) record for most times hosting the show.

The project is in such early days it doesn’t even have a writer assigned to it yet.

This isn’t the first time that the two have comedically sparred. They were the co-hosts for the 2010 Academy Awards broadcast, which Shankman directed, and they fought for the affections of Meryl Streep in the comedy It’s Complicated.

I have to say that it has been fun watching Baldwin change his career trajectory from that of being a dramatic actor in films like Glengary Glenn Ross to consistently generating laughs on SNL and 30 Rock. The two were a lot of fun on the Oscars and on the SNL season opener. Here’s hoping they hit it out of the park with this.

The Academy Awards will take a few moments during their broadcast next month to pay a special tribute to the late writer/director John Hughes, who passed away last August. It’s an unusual move for the awards show, which normally confines their honoring of filmmakers and actors who have passed away in the preceding year to a single montage segment.

The fact that both Oscar hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin have worked with Hughes may have something to do with it. But it may also have to do with how Hughes’ films managed to be both rooted in the 1980s while at the same time addressing themes that transcend their decade, making them accessible to audiences of following generations.

It is not known who will be taking part in the tribute, but the possibilities are endless, from the actors who worked with him to the filmmakers who were inspired by him.

In the meantime, the latest issue of Vanity Fair has an in-depth profile of Hughes. As the director himself was fairly reclusive after he quit Hollywood in the early 1990s, it is possible that a piece this insightful could have only been written after his passing. I would recommend the online version as it contains some additional material not found in the print version.

Via Deadline Hollywood.

1. Sherlock Holmes (Warner Brothers, @3,600 Theaters, 128 Minutes, Rated PG-13): When Guy Ritchie was announced as the director of this film, you had to know that this wouldn’t be your father’s Sherlock Holmes.

Of course, no one could really expect that we would get a pit fighting Holmes either, but that’s what we get. Of course, this irks a lot of people. It’s not that they don’t like their Holmes to be physical, it’s just that they don’t want it to be at the expense of the cerebral.

There also has been some controversy if this film was adapted from an unpublished comic book or not. Early publicity made it seem it was, but there is more and more evidence that it was not. Personally, I love the fact that we have come so far that people will lie about being adapted from a graphic novel to get press. I just love that!

2. It’s Complicated (Universal, @2,800 Theaters, 118 Minutes, Rated R): Any movie whose cast that features Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, and Steve Martin can’t be all bad. I’m just saying.

This film is about a divorced couple who hook up after years apart. Which would be good if they both weren’t already in relationships. As their affair continues, their lives get, well, complicated.

The film is done by Nancy Myers, who has carved out a little cottage industry for herself in writing and directing romantic comedies for a more mature audiences such as Something’s Got to Give and The Holiday. Which is good for her because there seems to be an audience for that kind of comedy.

3. Nine (The Weinstein Company, @1,500 Theaters, 110 Minutes, Rated PG-13): This film doesn’t only share a director in common with Chicago. Both were Broadway musicals recently revived on the Great White Way. Both feature actors you wouldn’t normally associate with a musical. The cast features Oscar winners, recording artists, and big name stars.

So, needless to say, this film has Oscar-bait written all over it. Unfortunately, I have not been hearing all that much Oscar buzz about it. It is kind of sad when a film tries so hard for award mention and doesn’t get it. Although, who knows, maybe this one will gain some steam before the nominations come out.

This film is going into wide release after being in limited release for the last week or so.

1. The Pink Panther 2 (Sony/Columbia, 3,243 Theaters, 92 Minutes, Rated PG): True story, my niece rented the first Steve Martin Pink Panther film and was greatly disappointed. The pink animated cat never showed up. I wonder how many other kids had the same thing happen to them.

Yes, the needless remake gets a sequel. This time the Pink Panther diamond is stolen and a group of international detectives is on the case. Bumbling Clouseau also is on the case, and his incompetence supposedly creates hilarity.

If I seem dismissive of this remake franchise, well, I am. I have a lot of respect for Steve Martin as a comedian, but he’s no Peter Sellers. This was a series that really didn’t need to be remade because there would be no way they could capture Sellars’ magic.

2. He’s Just Not That Into You (Warner Brothers/ New Line, 3,175 Theaters, 129 Minutes, Rated PG-13): Well, this film certainly took its time being released. I remember seeing ads for this early last year. Usually, it taking that long would be a bad sign.

But how could this movie be trouble? It’s based on a popular, Oprah-friendly, albeit non-fiction, book. And the cast? One Oscar Winner, two solid HBO stars, four or five people who have blockbuster hits under their belts, and  at least six actors or actresses who were lead in at least one other movie. This is an all-star ensemble if there ever was one.

But maybe the book, a self-help relationship guide, really doesn’t work as a movie, which seem not to follow the tenents of the book but rather uses the title as a catch all for some generic relationship humor.

3. Push (Summit Entertainment, 2,313 Theaters, 111 Minutes, PG-13): Yes, a comic book movie not based on a comic book. Sure, if you went into a comic book store, you’d find a Push comic, but it’s a tie-in, not the original source material.

And that’s a sure sign of the success of the genre. For you non-fans of the superhero film, it will probaly get much worse before it gets better.

The story is about a group of people with great mental powers who are on the run from the US Government. The Government wants to use them as weapons, they just want to be left alone. If they want their freedom, however, they are going to have to fight for it.

4. Coraline (Focus Features, 2,298 Theaters, 101 Minutes, Rated PG): With all the troubles Watchmen has been having, all the attention has been on Alan Moore. But another British comics bard has been having his fair share of film adaptations made.

Granted, Coraline was a novel from Neil Gaiman, not a comic. But he is one of the best writers to ever come out of comics. And the story is close enough that us comic fans will claim it as out own.

The story focuses on a girl who escaped through a hole in the wall to an alternate dimension. There she finds a carbon copy of her life, only better. However, it doesn’t stay that way for long, and she soon finds herself in great peril.

The movie is done in the stop motion animation style of a la Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. I always thought this type of filmmaking was a perfect match for Gaiman’s writing. I would love to see a Sandman movie done in this style.

Eyes Wide Shut may be the last film from wunderkind director Stanley Kubrick – he passed away in 1999 while putting the final post-production touches on the project – but it is a film he had been thinking about making for over two decades.

Based on the French novella Traumnovelle, translated to English as Dream Story, Kubrick’s film is a surreal and somber tale of sexual exploration. It is hard to believe that at one time the cinematic auteur contemplated making the film as a sex comedy. In his book Kubrick, writer Michael Herr details the director’s initial take on adapting the book and his rather interesting choice of lead actor.

Stanley thought it would be perfect for Steve Martin. He’d love The Jerk… I know that his idea for it in those days was always as a sex comedy, but with a wild and somber  streak running through it. This didn’t make a lot of sense to us, we were responding to the text as a work of literary art, and not a very funny one. Maybe Traumnovelleis a comedy in the sense that Don Giovanni is: attempted rape and compulsive pathetic list-keeping, implied impotence and the Don dragged down into hell forever, the old sex machine ignorant and defiant to the end. A pretty severe and unsettling comedy, not very giocoso, and not the essence of Traumnovelle, which more than anything was sinister. Now I think we were all too square to imagine what Stanley saw in Steve Martin, because this was not The Jerk.

Try to wrap your mind around what kind of film this would have been.

1. Traitor (2,054 Theaters, 110 Minutes, Rated PG-13): Yet another Wednesday release. Do the producers of this drama really think that opening this film on Wednesday will garner that much more money? Comedies andhighly anticipated blockbusters I can see. Thought-filled, gut churning dramas? Not as much.

This film focuses on Samir Horn, a former US Special Operations officer. The FBI seem to think that he’s gone over to the other side and became a high ranking member of a terrorist organization. But could the truth be that he is simply under deep cover?

The undercover operative is usually a chestnut of gangster films like Donnie Brasco and The Departed. I wonder how audiences will relate to the story set in the world of post 9/11 global terrorism?

Also, fun IMDB fact, comedian Steve Martin apparently wrote the story for this film.