The Great Buck Howard

The Great Buck Howard is a 2008 American comedydrama film directed by Sean McGinly that stars Colin Hanks and John Malkovich. Tom Hanks also appears as the father of his reallife sons character. The character Buck Howard is inspired by the mentalist The Amazing Kreskin, whose popularity was at its height in the 1970s. The film premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2008. It is the first Walden Media film to be distributed by Magnolia Pictures.

A reluctant publicist, Valerie Brennan Emily Blunt, is sent to join them in Cincinnati as a replacement for a more senior colleague to promote Bucks still secret attempt to resurrect his career. Valerie is disgusted by Bucks verbal abuse towards her and Troy, with whom she becomes romantically involved. Buck reveals that his comeback will involve putting hundreds of people actually only a few dozen to sleep and then awakening them as if from the dead. The trick works, but despite a large press turnout, no one is there to record the act, since the news media is called away at the last second to cover a car accident involving Jerry Springer. Furious, Buck unfairly blames the mishap on Troy and Valerie, and then faints from exhaustion. In the hospital, Buck and Troy discover that the media absence actually worked in Bucks favor, as rumors reported by the news media exaggerate the scope of Bucks act as a result, Buck returns to the limelight as a retrohip phenomenon. He appears on television shows such as those of Jon Stewart, Regis Philbin, Conan OBrien, and more. Buck is reunited with his estranged friend, George Takei, who sings What the World Needs Now.Buck finally gets the call he has been waiting for To perform once again on The Tonight Show. He previously had performed with Johnny Carson 61 times during the height of his career, but never since the show has been hosted by Jay Leno. Buck is bumped by Tom Arnold, who has too much material and uses up Bucks time. Buck refuses an immediate offer to come back and appear on The Tonight Show the following week, but agrees to receive an offer to headline a date in Las Vegas. When the limelight on Buck dims once more after he fails to find his money for the first time ever during his Las Vegas premiere, Troy leaves him and through Valeries connections, lands a job with a celebrated TV writer Griffin Dunne. After some time, Troy sees from an ad in the paper that Buck is doing his show again in Bakersfield. Buck is clearly

Source: Wikipedia