James Toback Pissed At 'Tyson' Oscar Doc Snub; Suggests Irregularity In Selection Process Akin To "Extortion"

Who wee, James Toback is pissed about his documentary, "Tyson" getting the snub from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who announced their Oscar documentary short-list earlier this week and left off his raw portrait of once-boxing great Mike Tyson.

15 docs were picked on the shortlist ("Anvil! The Story Of Anvil" was another very-deserving doc that got shafted as was R.J Cutler's Anna Wintour doc, “The September Issue”) and "Tyson" didn't make the cut so the New York Times called up Toback to get his reaction and he's hopping mad.

And he wouldn't give exact details, but apparently the doc was snubbed because of an irregularity that he says is tantamount to "extortion." “How is some tiny, dirty covert weirdly protective little group within the Academy going to be immune?” he posited to the Times reporter about the funny business that goes on behind-the-scenes in everything from presidential elections to award selection committees.

What happened exactly? Toback won't say, but when pressed said the experienced had something to do with the selections process, “which I put fully in the category of extortion that I did not go along with.” He adds that he was “furious” at himself for “having chosen to be passive and quiet in the face of that extortion.”

The chairman of the executive committee of the documentary branch was asked if he knew what Toback was alluding to his response was, “I have no idea. It certainly hasn’t come before me.”

Apparently the selection process is different. The Times explains:

Unlike contenders in other categories, candidates for best feature documentary are winnowed from a field of eligible films that this year numbered 89. Mr. Epstein said most of about 150 members participated in one or both of two committees that review feature-length and short documentaries.

Because of the way films are distributed for viewing among members, who do not see all submissions, a very small number of people can determine the fate of a film. Mr. Epstein described the process as being fairer than an earlier one, under which a Los Angeles-based committee drawn from all Academy branches reviewed documentaries.

So what is this all about? Toback has a long-standing reputation for being a loose cannon, so who knows, surely more of it will come out in the next few days. Meanwhile, the small consolation the snubbed documentaries receive — which includes, "Capitalism: A Love Story," "Crude" and "We Live In Public" to name a few —is that they are all still eligible for the Best Picture category. But that's obviously not much reassurances as none of these picture unfortunately probably have a shot there. Our own personal thoughts? We didn't find the snub a huge personal affront. "Tyson" was fascinating, but necessarily a bonafide Oscar contender. Should it have at least made the shortlist? Yes, probably? But something of value is always going to get cut when you start measuring art, no?

Update: So is Toback just a nutter spouting off? He apparently released a statement after his NYTimes interview that read, "I regret that I didn’t bring my concerns to the attention of the Academy sooner but I have now done so and I have been reassured that they are looking into the matter."

What is that matter? An Academy’s executive director told the Wrap that the director's “concern was that one of the documentarians voting to pick the shortlist bore him a grudge and should have recused himself/herself from the balloting.”

Apparently they have investigated and that one vote wouldn't have made a difference.

The accounting firm, he says, quoting PwC’s report, “has assured us that ‘no single voter was responsible for [“Tyson”’s] failure to make the shortlist….’”

Sour grapes, being a sore loser, etc.?

Chris Weitz Says New Line Treated Him Like Dirt On The 'Golden Compass'; 'New Moon' On The Verge Of Mega-Opening As "Revenge"

Not being huge fans of Coca Cola or CGI-'d polar bears we'll admit any drama behind the scenes of Chris Weitz's 2007 film, "The Golden Compass," aside from the anti-religion-themes or lack thereof controversy, sort of passed us by.

But in a candid interview with DealMemo which perhaps explains his depressive, almost-quitting quote this week, Weitz says he was basically fucked over by the studio New Line and it was a brutal, ignominious experience. Evidently New Line cut 30 minutes of footage and blunted any of the edge from the original novels (like the anti-religious themes that New Line was afraid would turn off mainstream audiences). Suffice to say it sounds like Weitz will never work with them again.

"It was an utter violation of my status as a director, and the worst thing that has happened to me professionally" he said.

But apparently Weitz didn't say anything at the time out of respect for all the other creatives who worked on the film (which explains why we probably never heard about it before). "I practically bit through my tongue, but I would be very happy to see 'New Moon' surpass ''The Golden Compass.' Now, that dish is cold, and I’m ready to eat. I was treated badly, it was almost like they never read the books. They seemed frightened of offending the Right. This was a wonderful experience by comparison. I got to work with terrific young actors at the top of their game, and see Taylor Lautner perform so well.”

While it remains to be seen whether any of the 'New Moon' cast were acting at the top of the game (at least for this writer; and our review today sure doesn't indicate otherwise), what is perfectly clear is that "New Moon" will not only surpass any 'Golden Compass' box-office records ($372 million worldwide which is not bad, but only $72 million domestically), but it will likely shatter them.

Summit Entertainment announced today that "New Moon" completely trounced midnight opening records by "Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince" ($22.2 million) and "The Dark Knight" (previous record holder with $18.5 million) by taking in a whopping $26.27 million in midnight screenings from 3,514 theaters last night. Predictions for box-office receipts this weekend are ranging in the $90-$100 million range which is outrageously good numbers if they can hit those targets and pretty good indication that no matter how much critics and many adults hate "Twilight" it is here to stay.

Earlier this week we wondered if fickle tweens would still be interested around the time of "Eclipse" and "Breaking Dawn," the third and fourth installments of the serious and the answer will surely be — much to our chagrin — yes.

Now that he can taste vengeful success of his lips, apparently Weitz is not holding back in several interviews. Talking to the Wrap, he reiterated that New Line abused him and went over the line.

"It was a terrible experience because I was able to shoot what I wanted to — and then the cut of the movie was taken away from me and any reference to religion or religious ideas was removed. And the darkness and threat at the end of the story — anything that made it not a happy, popcorn-type movie — was removed. The voice of the key character was redone, all of this against my will."

Revenge is sweet payback — if you want to look at it that way, it's not as if Weitz stole money out of New Line's pocket or anything — but apparently he has to say, "In your face, New Line," as a satisfying way to get over the experience and we suppose we get that. Though it is a bit funny that Weitz is going to be congratulated and awarded for delivering from what most accounts is a piece of shit movie. Ah, irony. Meanwhile, who's got that "Facepunch" poster already?

Is Fede Alvarez The "New Neill Blomkamp"? Watch Robot Invasion Short, 'Panic Attack!'

Ok, this is actually pretty great and gotta say the use of John Murphy's apocalyptic "28 Days Later" score (still one of the best from this decade), really puts this one over-the-top into the "wow, this kinda rules" category.

Apparently Uruguayan filmmaker Fede Alvarez has taken Hollywood by storm this week thanks to his almost five minute short film, "Panic Attack!" ("Ataque de Pánico!") that has drawn some comparisons to Neill Blomkamp's "District 9" because of its lo-fi, shaky-cam, documentarian depiction of a random and terrifying robot invasion (very "Iron Giant") on Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. It actually feels like a crazy cross between "28 Days Later," "District 9" and a terrorist attack ala footage from 9/11.

The video is so damn impressive, apparently every agency in L.A. is taking meetings with him in hopes of snatching him up. Then surely, someone is going to attach him to some high-concept science-fiction film, no? Or in the meantime, he can surely get steady work as a commercial director while he develops project. It appears that footage of the short has been used in the music video for the band, Snake, but really, it's nowhere near as cool as the original clip which is admittedly, very arresting. You need to see this.

What The What? Richard Linklater Talks Top Secret 13 Year Project With Ethan Hawke & Patricia Arquette

That Richard Linklater is one sneaky fella. Here we thought he was shit out of luck, what with the plugs being pulled on his various projects left and right, and then he lets it slip to a Collider correspondent that he's got a long-simmering project with Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette simmering on the back burner. Apparently, the 13-years-in-the-making project is about childhood, with Hawke as the eventually-divorced dad and Arquette as the mother, and Linklater has filmed it on eight separate occasions, including as recently as last week. The filmmaker wasn't psyched that IMDB listed the project, because now he has to answer questions about the project that's still in the writing process.

Linklater tells Collider that he, "wanted to make a film about childhood but couldn't pick one specific moment." The long-gestating film is a constant work in progress over a significant amount of time, and Linklater seems to embrace this passage of time as a contribution to the film's evolution. In fact, the child actor in question was cast at age 6 and is now 14 years old. He says,

"Every year I get a year to kind of gestate that year. I always think, 7th grade,

what’s going on given the history. It’s set in a contemporary setting and I play

off what we did last year and how the actors are maturing and what’s going on.

So it’s a combination of the architecture I’ve already mapped out for the whole

film and then the specifics are often worked out at the last minute. A lot of improv.”

Definitely sounds interesting and unlike anything we've ever heard of, but who knows when we might actually get to see this on the big screen. Maybe with his schedule clear of "School of Rock 2" and the "Dazed and Confused" sequel, it will be full steam ahead for this top secret film. Linklater proves you can't keep a good filmmaker down, and we're glad to hear he's got something original and interesting in the works.

Here's a link to the video interview with Linklater talking about the project. Ps, when's the next installment of the 'Sunrise/Sunset' projects starring Hawke and Julie Delpy coming 'cause that we really wanna see (and you left us on suuuuch a cliffhanger, dude).

'True Grit' Is... Gritty, Not As Funny As Advertised, Probably Genius Anyhow

So the Coen Brothers are re-making "True Grit," an adaptation of a Charles Portis' Western-type revenge novel that's evidently set to star Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Josh Brolin which was also made into a film starring John Wayne in 1969. They've been threatening to film this for several years now, but now it's seemingly happening and shooting in March if all goes according to plan.

The story's true protagonist is the precocious, defiant and indefatigably resolute teenager Mattie Ross (not cast yet, Kim Darby in the original) whose father is double crossed and killed by a cowardly helping-hand turned outlaw (Jeff Corey/Josh Brolin). Seeking revenge, she convinces and pays a drunken, old and broken down U.S. Marshal (Wayne originally, Bridges now), who is later joined by a Texas Ranger (countrypolitan singer Glen Campbell/Matt Damon) to track the man down and bring him to justice. They essentially all detest one another, but through their voyage slowly learn the value and worth of one another.

Here's the thing. The matter-of-fact Coen Brothers script (like all their scripts, terse, to-the-point) is very much like the original film, which wasn't very good to begin with. Though that has much to do in part with Henry Hathaway's boring, flat, all master-shots direction. It's an interesting story, but that '69 film didn't win John Wayne an Oscar because of an amazing performance. He took the Academy prize because he, much like the character he plays Rooster Cogburn, was long in the tooth, and he was due his lifetime achievement award.

Yes, the Coens' screenplay is more faithful to the novel, but the original wasn't drastically different either. And yes, it has more humor as the Coen Brothers promised, but it is sawdust dry, understated and sometimes a bit of a slog to read. If one is trying to figure out the tone of this one it's easy: "No Country For Old Men" meets "A Serious Man" but even the latter was much funnier than this very dark tale. Maybe 'Country' with a bit more humor.

Like most Coen Brothers scripts, they're aren't exactly a joy to read and are damn plain and straightforward (kinda like they are in person, dry and soft spoken), and more prose-y than steadily moving screenwriting. But even then that prose is unsentimental and very plain (fitting as Portis' novel is the same).

Much has been said about how the Coen Brothers' films barely change from script to screen, that they shoot and storyboard what's on the page. But what's not on the page — and very much on the screen when the pace and the attack is matches the style - 'No Country,' 'Serious Man,' 'Lebowski,' 'Hudsucker,' 'Arizona' — is their acute sense of timing, their ability to inspire their cast, their visual sense (brought to life by extremely talented DPs), and their excellent editing abilities (they are their editor, Roderick Jaynes).

So there's a disconnect there, and so based on the script alone... it doesn't do a lot or rouse much of anything inside. But visualizing and imagining what the Coens will ultimately bring to it, it's probably going to be full-realized and alive. It does take a leap of faith, imagination and perhaps the experience of having read several Coen Brothers scripts, having then compared them to their much-more-interesting final product, to say this will be another solid Coen's effort.

There is some great writing here, dialogue rich scenes that we could imagine actors chewing up, especially for the Coens. Thickly worded scenes that could be a lot of fun if the tone and mood don't drag. Hopefully the editing will be economic, because the pacing isn't exactly quick.

The plum role here really though is Mattie Ross, though Bridges as the tired, lazy, Cogburn could potentially be great too (and he can keep his weight and worn-down look of "Crazy Heart" if he's still got it; the character does have some good speeches). Ross is tireless in her demands and is a severe pain in the ass to everyone. A brat to the adults, she must get her own way and she seems much more single-minded and tough than the cardboard way Kim Darby played her. If they fudged the age a little, we could see Mia Wasikowska, Alison Pil, Saoirse Ronan. There aren't a lot of very remarkable teenage actors who could pull this off. An average girl here won't do, so casting here is more crucial than any other part.

The other parts are small though and surely the only reason Damon and especially Brolin want to be in this picture is because it's a Coen Brothers film. If someone walked (perhaps Damon because his schedule is nuts), someone like Chris Hemsworth could possibly fill his shoes, but probably not deliver the comedy. We won't spoil it, but an accident effects the Texas Ranger's speech in the second half of the film and this could provide the most serious laughs; something that Damon would be perfect for.

In fact, if this script came on to an execs desk, didn't have the Coen Brothers name on it and these stars attached, they would likely pass. It's a testament to the Coen Brothers' work. Everyone knows they add so much unspoken and mysterious depth to their work and "True Grit," should probably fall in line with the tenor of 'No Country' mixed with 'Serious Man': dark, unadorned with flashes of comedy and brilliance, but you wouldn't know it from reading the script blind.

While there's a lot here for another potentially great effort by the brothers Coen it's nowhere near as tense and tight as 'No Country,' not as comedic as 'O Brother,' and not as lazy (in a great way) as, say, 'Lebowski;' this is another new animal for them while at the same time familiar. Think "Unforgiven." Think Ron Howard's, "The Missing," but made by people who understand detail, subtly, nuance, credibility, and realism -- additional reporting by Andrew Hart (we read it at the same time and compared notes).

Robert Pattinson Period Film Trades In Nicole Kidman For Uma Thurman

And now, in more news about our favorite future Oscar winner, Robert Pattinson is no longer slated to unlace Nicole Kidman's corsets in "Bel Ami." We previously announced the pairing, but The Hollywood Reporter shares that the corset lacings (and other assorted period accoutrement) will now belong to Uma Thurman. Pattinson will play George Duroy, a (supposedly) sexy social climber in turn-of-the-century Paris, while Thurman will play the wife of one of Duroy's friends. Her character later marries Pattinson's seductive schemer. THR also announces that Kristin Scott Thomas will appear in "Bel Ami" as a woman who overestimates Duroy's attachment to her. Theater director Declan Donnellan is at the helm for the film that will shoot in the French capital. We hear that France loves loves loves "Twilight," so we wish the "Bel Ami" crew luck in shooting around scores of swooning fans.

We took Pattinson to task for his "soulless" (his word, not ours) turn in our review of "New Moon," and we're not confident he can handle the material in this adaptation of a Guy de Maupassant story. If he's playing a vacuous beauty, he might be believable, but then, that's not really acting. Thurman is obviously a more accomplished actress who has appeared in a number of period films with varying degrees of success ("The Golden Bowl," "Vatel," "Dangerous Liasons"). However, her last two films — "The Accidental Husband" and "Motherhood" — have been the caps on a string of movies that haven't impressed filmgoers or critics. We're pleased she's moving away from comedy — aside from "Ceremony" which she seems perfect for — but this still seems like it will be laughable.

Meanwhile, we're still hoping for a return to a certain yellow jumpsuit for Ms. Thurman. Pretty please?

Steven Spielberg 'Dome's Stephen King + Other King-Related Tidbits

Stephen King is currently making the promotional rounds for his new, phonebook-sized novel "Under the Dome" (we just started it and it's fucking fantastic), and while on tour for the book he had mentioned that it was being developed as an HBO miniseries.

Well, today comes word that none other than Steven Spielberg will be executive producing the "limited series" which Variety says is "likely for cable," which we hope refers to HBO or Showtime and not Sci-fi (excuse us, Syfy) or TNT.

Spielberg has been itching to adapt King for the longest time. As Variety notes, Spielberg has long wanted to do a film (or, a few years ago, television miniseries) version of King's 1984 book with Peter Straub, "The Talisman." The pair seem like a perfect fit, in terms of their singular love of telling stories where extraordinary things happen to very ordinary people. (This was particularly true of both of them during their respective 1980s heydays.)

"Under the Dome" concerns a small, fictional Maine town that one day finds itself trapped under a see-through dome, which comes down "like an invisible guillotine" causing all sorts of trouble, not to mention cutting off the good (and not-so-good) townsfolk from electricity, food, etc. (No, it's nothing like "The Simpsons Movie." King's book is actually occasionally funny. Zing!)

There have been some other interesting news tidbits that have come out of King's promotional/reading tour for "Under the Dome."

• While at a signing in Maryland, King also let slip that he has written a screenplay for the adaptation of his 2006 apocalyptic horror novel "Cell" (it's quite good). This is interesting news, considering that the film, which is set up at the Weinsteins' genre shingle Dimension Films and originally set to be directed by Eli Roth right after "Hostel: Part II," already had two high profile writers attached - "Ed Wood's" Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. The pair previously adapted King for the underrated John Cusack ghost story "1408." King says that he changed the ending of the novel for the screenplay, since everybody hated it.

• Work progresses on his Broadway-bound musical, "The Ghost Brothers of Darkland County," which he co-wrote with John Mellencamp. His update (courtesy of the Toronto Star) "It's there ... it's in the editing studio right now. We've got a lot of people from the music world who agreed to do parts — Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow, Roseanne Cash ... it should be like an old-time radio show and then it's scheduled to go on stage in Atlanta next fall." Kris Kristofferson is also scheduled to be a part of "Ghost Brothers ." The album is going to be produced by T. Bone Burnett, who we'll be talking to in the next couple of weeks in anticipation of "Crazy Heart," so we'll try to get more info about this.

• Also, the "Carrie" musical (one of the more infamous Broadway flops), based in equal parts on the Stephen King novel and Brian De Palma's split-screen-y adaptation, is coming back to Broadway .

Be afraid. Be very afraid. Some exciting things happening in the Stephen King adaptation world, or at the very least enough to offset J.J. not doing "The Dark Tower" anymore.

Wright Wripped Off; Tarsem Takes War To 'Dawn'; Jeanne-Claude Passes Away; Macca Goes 'Home'

The TimesOnline hit a new low for journalistic standards this week, when they cut, paste and edited Edgar Wright's touching tribute to the late Edward Woodward from his blog without his permission and then tried to play it off as he penned the tribute for them. The director hit Twitter to express his outrage and we don't blame him. News reporting has taken a disappointing slide of late as even the most ephemeral bits of information are spun into "stories." But to hit a prominent director's blog, take his work and publish it as if it was written for your own paper is not only lazy but unethical. The TimesOnline has since issued a pithy apology — We have been asked to make clear that this article appeared in the newspaper in an abridged version on Tuesday November 17 — but it's far too little, far too late.

And speaking of Twitter, Production Weekly has twittered that "The Cell" and "The Fall" director Tarsem Singh has set up offices at La Cité du Cinéma in Montreal and is preparing to shoot "Dawn Of War" (working title: "War Of Gods"). The place is sort of a Quebecois Cinecitta and if we recall, has been home to films like "300." The film will mark the first big, meaty lead film role for Henry Cavill while the visually creative director has described the look of the film as "Caravaggio" meets 'Fight Club'" which actually sounds pretty cool. The film will go in front of cameras in March.

With "Precious" expanding to 1000 screens this weekend (because nothing says Thanksgiving like a ghetto porn drama), Lionsgate has released a new poster that puts Oscar contender Gabby Sidibe front and center, and then plasters her face with critical plaudits. With all the talk of soaring spirits and stolen hearts on the poster, there are going to be a lot of Oprah and Tyler Perry fans walking out of the cinema feeling more emotionally abused than they were expecting. "Precious" is about as uplifting as a soggy cheeseburger.

The "retired" Sir James Bond Sean Connery has been quietly executive producing "Sir Billi," an CGI animated film that has been in the works for the past five years. The actor will lend his distinctive brogue to the film about "a retired, skateboarding veterinarian who lives in a remote Scottish village and who spearheads the rescue of an illegal fugitive who also happens to be a beaver." The film's central song, "Guardian of the Highlands" will be sung by Connery's "Goldfinger" cohort, Shirley Bassey. The independent production is deep in post-production and is set to be completed sometime next year.

The art world lost one of its greatest and most celebrated artists, Jeanne-Claude who passed away on Wednesday after complications from brain aneurysm. She was 74. Along with her husband Christo, they erected massive, visually arresting public installations that often involved altering the look of prominent public spaces. Whether you feel their work — which sometimes involved wrapping buildings in plastic or peppering landscapes with beach umbrellas — is "art," it can't be denied they were a popular, powerful force that made abstract concepts at least accessible (if not entirely understood) to the general public. Their last major work was "The Gates" in which they put 7,503 rectangular orange rectangular structures draped with fabric throughout Central Park in 2005 and it was captured in all it's glory in a 2008 HBO doc simply called, "The Gates" by Antonio Ferrera, Albert Maysles, David Maysles and Matthew Prinzing. For a still post-9/11 rattled New York City, the work was a major force for bringing travellers from around the world back into the city.

Werner Herzog, who has more energy that directors half his age, is wrapping up on busy year and quickly starting another. In Janauary, the director's Rogue Film School will have its first seminar in Los Angeles and then a couple of weeks later, the filmmaker will be off to Germany to head the jury of the Berlin Film Festival which runs from Feb. 11-21. The director completed two lengthily titled films this year festival year, "Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans" and "My Son, My Son What Have Ye Done." The former opens in limited release today, while the latter will hit screens sometime in December.

It seems to be a week for Oscar songs leaking to the web. The latest is Paul McCartney's "(I Want To) Come Home" for the forthcoming Robert DeNiro dramedy "Everybody's Fine." If that film gets any nominations, it will probably just be for the song which you can hear below. It's fairly standard, easy on the ears, later years Macca. Meh.

In Theaters: 'New Moon,' 'The Blind Side,' 'Bad Lieutenent: Port of Call New Orleans'

There's a little something for everyone opening wide this week — unless you actually like good movies, that is. But don't fret, there are some very interesting options opening limited this week including new films from a couple of our favorite all-time directors. Whatever you fancy, this will be a huge weekend at the box office. With "New Moon" occupying all the brainpower of the country's teenage girl population, maybe you'll actually be able to sit through a movie without any incessant giggling and texting this weekend.

In Wide Release: Beating out "Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith" as the top advance ticket seller of all time, "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" hits over 4,000 screens today. Opening a year after the first film in the series, the sequel looks to be an ever bigger smash as the cult of "Twilight" keeps increasing. Directed by Chris Weitz ("The Golden Compass") "New Moon" is the story of hormone-addled teenage girls and the vampires they love. I think we saw a really buff, young werewolf in the trailer too, although we weren't paying much attention. We reviewed the movie just yesterday and predictably weren't impressed (it stinks), but we know that's not going to keep you away if you want to see this thing. Not that it matters in the slightest, but if you must know, the movie has a dismal 29% rating from Rotten Tomatoes and a 45 score from Metacritic.

If you watch football at all on Sundays, chances are you've seen the trailer for "The Blind Side" at least three dozen times. The true story of a homeless young man adopted by a well-to-do family and the challenges they face adapted to each other's very different perspectives. Oh, and the kid grows up to become an All-American offensive tackle and first-round NFL draft pick. Sandra Bullock stars, in what feels like her 1000th film this year, alongside Tim McGraw and Quinton Aaron. Director John Lee Hancock is in familiar territory here, having previously directed uplifting sports films such as "The Express" and "The Rookie." A family-themed inspirational drama like this should do quite well this holiday week and re-emphasize Bullock's status as a huge draw ("All About Steve" notwithstanding). The film has a pretty decent 65% rating from RT and a 49 score from Metacritic.

Finally, for the kiddies too young for "New Moon" is Sony Pictures' animated "Planet 51." The story of an American astronaut who lands on Planet 51, finding it happily inhabited by green people in a world reminiscent of innocent 1950s America. Directed by Jorge Blanco and produced by Madrid-based Ilion Animation Studios, the film's voice talent includes Dwayne Johnson, Jessica Biel, Sean William Scott, Gary Oldman, and John Cleese. We have to admit to being pretty turned off by the Shrek-looking aliens featured in the film and would happily get a second dose of "Fantastic Mr. Fox" for our animation kicks this weekend. Actually a first dose for most people as "Fantastic Fox" actually opens up wide this weekend. "Planet 51" currently has an awful 19% rating from Rotten Tomatoes and a 40 score from Metacritic.

In Limited Release: Your willingness to celebrate the ecstatic absurdity of a Werner Herzog/Nic Cage collaboration is put to the test this weekend with the highly-anticipated "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans." We've been following the film since inception, as Herzog is consistently interesting and the stories of his films are sometimes more entertaining than the finished product. Cage stars as drug-addled New Orleans cop trying to stay afloat amid the city's ruthless underbelly. Plot points don't really matter much when you've got Herzog willfully encouraging Cage to go even more over the top than normal and a cast that also includes Val Kilmer, Eva Mendes, and Xzibit. We saw the movie in Toronto a couple months back, and found it satisfying as a comic oddity, but those looking for a fully-realized Herzog picture should rightfully be disappointed. The film is opening on 27 screens this weekend, so if you have any interest at all, go support the picture and help it expand. The populist RT shows the film with an excellent 89% rating, meanwhile the more critical-faculties aware Metacritic gives it a more reasonable score of 69.

One of the most consistently brilliant and enjoyable filmmakers of the past couple decades, Pedro Almodovar returns this weekend with "Broken Embraces." The film reunites him with his recent muse, Penelope Cruz in a four-way tale of dangerous love, shot in the style of a hard-boiled 1950s American noir. We saw the film at Cannes, calling it largely competent but ultimately soulless, yet still rife with the expected convoluted secrets and plot twists. While it may not be anywhere close to his best work, Almodovar is one of the greatest living filmmakers on the planet and his minor work is way more interesting and exciting than 99% of what you'll find at the multiplexes. It's stylish, sexy and memorable. Alongside Cruz, the cast includes Lluis Homer, Lola Duenas and the great Blanco Portillo. Rotten Tomatoes rates the film at 81%, while Metacritic has a score of 69.

Swedish filmmaker Lukas Moodysson ("Lilya-4-Ever") sees his film "Mammoth" opening on a few screens this weekend. The film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival ages ago to fairly mediocre reviews and we were wondering if it would ever show up on these shores. Starring a couple of our favorite young actors, Michelle Williams and Gael Garcia Bernal, it is the story of a successful New York couple whose lives become divided as one travels to Thailand for extended business. Much has been written comparing the film to a less-melodramatic "Babel" and indeed both films star Bernal. Despite the mixed notices, we're fans of all the talent involved here and can't wait to check it out for ourselves. RT tracks the film with a 55% rating, Metacritic a 50 score.

John Woo returns to the East for his first film since 2003's awful "Paycheck," with the historical epic "Red Cliff." The film has been released in other parts of the world as two separate movies, much like "Che," but the US release is a single 148 minute experience. The most expensive Asian production of all time, "Red Cliff" stars the great Tony Leung as war hero Zhou Yu who finds his army vastly outnumbered against that of the Han Dynasty in 280 A.D. China. Takeshi Kaneshiro, Chang Chen, Zhao Wei, and Hu Jun also star in what looks like a big return to form for Woo and something we'd definitely like to catch on the big screen. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a rating of 87% and and Metacritic a 75 score.

Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Orofino and Seymour Cassel star in "Staten Island" the directorial debut from James DeMonaco, scribe of "The Negotiator" and the "Assault on Precinct 13" remake. The Luc Besson co-produced indie drama follows three New Yorkers whose lives somehow intersect, presumably in the most beloved of all boroughs. Rotten Tomatoes only has 3 reviews up, but they aren't looking pretty and Metacritic doesn't even have a listing.

Also opening in limited release is "The Missing Person" starring Michael Shannon and Amy Ryan. Those two actors alone are enough to get us interested, so we hope to get a look at the "existential noir" sometime soon. It came and went at a few festivals earlier this year without much fanfare, so we're not holding our breath on this one. RT gives it a rating of 38% with a Metacritic score of 47.

Mia Wasikowska & Michael Fassbender In Talks To Star In Cary Fukunaga's 'Jane Eyre' Adaptation

Nice casting and a gooood luck. A few weeks ago it was reported that Cary Joji Fukunaga, the writer director behind one of the most auspicious debut features of the year, "Sin Nombre," had his next project on track and no it wasn't his musical with members of the Arcade Fire and Beirut, a sci-fi time travel film or the African child soldier adaptation, "Beasts of No Nation."

Nope, instead he surprised everyone, including some close associates that we know, by announcing he would now helm an adaptation of the classic Charlotte Bronte novel "Jane Eyre."

And now he has cast members biting. Apparently Ellen Page was attached at one point, but left even before Fukunaga was interested. Instead, he's got two excellent actors in negotiations to play the leads, Mia Wasikowska ("Alice In Wonderland," Gus Van Sant's "Restless") and Michael Fassbender ("Inglourious Basterds," "Hunger").

Apparently playing up the Gothic qualities of the novel, which follows a young governess in 19th century England, who falls for her employer, filming will start sometime next year, but no due date is given yet.

"Jane Eyre" has been the subject of several film adaptations including most recently by Franco Zeffirelli in 1996 starring Charlotte Gainsbourg. Ruby Films are producing with BBC Films and Focus Features (who distributed "Sin Nombre" in the U.S).

Fukunaga is a bright guy and"Sin Nombre" (a winner at Sundance) is an assured and penetrating debut that is still one of our favorite films of the year, so we're greatly looking forward to this and anything else he decides to tackle. But we must say that wood nymphs fantasy-sounding musical sounds pretty excellent and could be creepy/amazing in a Brothers Grimm kind of way (ok, we might be extrapolating too much there, but he did call it a "fantastical folk tale," which obviously excites us).

'New Moon' Review: Still Emo Tween, Still Sub-Par & Groan-Inducing

The teenage supernatural melodrama "New Moon" made us feel like we were back in high school. Frustrated, bored, and more than a little angsty, we haven't rolled our eyes this much since we were adolescents ourselves. Chris Weitz's take on Stephenie Meyer's second novel in the "Twilight series" may be marginally better than the first film, but it's still a movie filled with groan-inducing dialogue, awful characters, and sub-par special effects.

"New Moon" doesn't take any time in establishing the fact that its male leads — Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner — are supposed to be sexy. As Edward Cullen, Pattinson walks towards the camera in slow motion in one of the film's first scenes with a shot that would make the "Baywatch" cinematographers proud. And Kristen Stewart's Bella can't stop looking at — and touching — Jacob's (Lautner) newly muscled torso. In an industry that normally obsesses over female beauty and nudity, it's nice to see the tables turned, but it's not enough to distract us from the awful story that makes "True Blood" look like "Wuthering Heights" in comparison.

The film begins with Bella's senior year and a birthday party that goes horribly wrong. Bella's celebrated klutziness draws blood at the home of Forks' resident vampires, the Cullens. Her brooding beau, Edward, realizes that he and his family can only bring harm to Bella, despite their good intentions, and they skip town, leaving Bella to wallow in her misery in the woods. In fact, that's pretty much all Bella does in "New Moon," with only the location of her wallowing changing. She trudges through her high school days, ignores her friends in the cafeteria, and slumps in her chair at home, looking out the window in sadness. Sigh.

However, she realizes that spending time with her friend Jacob eases her pain, even though Jacob harbors a major secret (and a crush on Bella). Soon, Bella finds herself having to choose between an absent vampire and a very present werewolf (ha ha ha ha). She may find comfort in Jacob's friendship, but it's not enough to calm her daredevil streak. Every time she tries something dangerous — hanging out with a biker she's never met before, speeding on a newly restored motorcycle, or cliff-diving — Bella sees a cloudlike Edward urging her to be careful, and she's willing to risk her life just to see her visions of him. Meanwhile, her everyday life brings enough danger since the vampire Victoria (Rachel Lefevre) is eager to make a meal out of Bella to get revenge for Edward's role in her mate's death.

"New Moon" will likely appeal to its rabid fan base, but nonbelievers will be as likely to appreciate the film's, umm, merits as an atheist at a Pentecostal revival. The special effects are an improvement on its predecessor's visuals, but the werewolves in particular don't look up to the standards of a film that will easily make hundreds of millions of dollars.

The blame for the film's faults shouldn't rest solely on Weitz's shoulders, but this was another poor choice for the director (who is not quitting film, apparently). "About a Boy" was definitely a career high for the "American Pie" filmmaker, and "New Moon" and "The Golden Compass" are new lows. Fantasy doesn't seem to be his strong point, regardless of the strength or weakness of the source material. And since we're not ones to insult Philip Pullman, we've got to take on "Twilight." The dialogue in the books and the film seems like it was written by a not-particularly-intelligent teenager who spends her time shopping at Hot Topic and swooning over a boy. Melissa Rosenberg's script doesn't seem to diverge much from the sacred scripture of the novel, other than distilling 608 pages into a 130-minute film, which is good for the film's fans and bad for everyone with a sense of taste.

One of the film's improvements is the near-lack of Edward and, by extension, Pattinson. Edward calls himself "soulless" throughout the film, and Pattinson gives an emotionally dead performance that is draining to watch. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Pattinson joked (maybe?), "I sound so stupid, but in a lot of ways the hair is 75 percent of my performance." Yes, you do sound stupid, but we don't doubt that your hair--and your hair products--dominates your oh-so-emotional turn. Lautner is fine in his role as Jacob, but his abs seem to be his equivalent of Pattinson's hair. Stewart has been strong in other roles, but she seems dragged down by the material here.

Anna Kendrick (who is rumored to have smartly dumped the film's script in the trash) is deliciously shallow as Bella's "normal" friend, and she even earned our only laughs that weren't actually at the film. Michael Sheen seems to enjoy bouncing from high art ("The Queen") to low ("Underworld"), and his "New Moon" role as a high-ranking vampire fits well with that strategy. In a small part, Dakota Fanning sheds her usual good-girl persona to play a sadistic blood sucker, and she ends up giving the film's most interesting performance. She's always seemed like a precocious, slightly creepy child in her other roles, so playing a wiser-than-her-apparent-years vampire works surprisingly well.

We're the first to admit that we're not the target audience for "New Moon" (you know, because we have taste and aren't swooning teenage girls). But there's playing to your base, and there's making a bad film, and this is more a case of the latter. Even teenage girls (who have previously been responsible for the success of Hanson and "Saved by the Bell") are too smart for this movie. And if they're not, we're in trouble as a species. [D]

James Cameron On '60 Minutes'; Worthington Commits 'Crime'; Griswolds Sell Vacations; Pattinson Can Act, Really

Fanboys! Get ready to set up your Tivos for "60 Minutes" this Sunday when James Cameron discusses his Leona Lewis music video film "Avatar." The Hollywood Reporter has an excerpt from the show on their site, which includes this choice quote: "He shows off his office, where he keeps a special film prop, the ship's wheel from 'Titanic.' and says "I keep this in my office because I know what it feels like to be at the helm of a sinking ship." It's Friday, so we'll lay off that easy target of a comment.

Speaking of sinking ships, Sam Worthington, who has been a first mate on quite a few shipwrecks, has signed on to yet another project, "The Days Of American Crime." Based on a graphic novel, the film takes place in a near-future where the government is going to rollout mind control technology that kills the criminal impulse, and Worthington plays a crook looking to pull off one last heist. Stay with us, we haven't gotten to the lame part yet: his character's name is Kevin Cash. Worthington is currently "hot" in Hollywood so he's attached to several projects, but don't be surprised if half of them don't pan out.

Chevy Chase, who has made small inroads back into relevance with his role on "Community," is set to reprise his classic Griswold character along with Beverly D'Angelo for a Super Bowl ad. Naturally, they will be shilling for HomeAway, a vacation home rental service and the spot will also feature the "Wagon Queen Family Trucker" vehicle from "National Lampoon's Vacation." You couldn't pay us to sit through a five hour football game, so we'll just wait for this to appear on YouTube when the match is over

""Crazy Heart" has had an interesting ride to being an Oscar contender, but the first step was being passed on by Paramount, who eventually sold the film to Fox Searchlight. Should "Crazy Heart" build steam, Paramount are going to get ridden hard for letting an Oscar picture slip through their fingers. However, in all fairness to the studio, we don't think anyone could've imagined a $7 million Country Music Television production to end up earning the buzz the film is now generating. And it wouldn't be the first time a studio has passed on a major hit, hindsight is 20/10. Plus let's not forget that "Crazy Heart" is only in this position because of "Amelia" tanking so hard....

....in fact "Amelia" is performing so poorly in the UK, distributors are offering 2 for 1 ticket vouchers for the film. Ouch. Meanwhile, if there is one thing Paramount knows how to do it's make money, with "Transformers 2: ROTFL" and "Paranormal Activity" being the two biggest success stories of the year. Well, accountants are ready to start counting ticket receipts again, as the studio has revealed "Jackass 3D" on their production slate for next year. So, if you've ever wanted to see testicles being crushed in your face, your dream has come true.

The hack we love to hate, Brett Ratner, is set to lend his "no shot longer than 3 seconds" editing technique to a Bollywood film. Producers of the film "Kites," which was shot in both Hindi and English versions, have asked the "Rush Hour 3" auteur to shape the film for international audiences. We're sure Ratner has already figured out a way to work a Chris Tucker cameo in there.

The trailer for "Remember Me" the first post-"Twilight" "look at me, I'm a serious actor" project for Robert Pattinson has conveniently hit YouTube. Our moderate expectations for the film, which were based on a script credit to Jenny Lumet ("Rachel Getting Married"), were dashed when we actually watched this thing. It's your typical pre-teen swooner about adults who stand in the way of true love. The trailer also makes considerable use of the patented Brooding Robert Pattison Profile Shot:

Larry Fessenden Abandons 'The Orphanage'

Speaking to Arrow In The Head on the set of his latest producing effort "Stake Land," cult horror filmmaker Larry Fessenden has revealed that he no longer has a part in the remake of recent Spanish thriller "The Orphanage." The strange looking, gap-toothed auteur explains: "'The Orphanage' was two years of waiting. Working on the script with Guillermo [Del Toro] was a very exciting experience, but then I got into a casting miasma and that's where the thing is; I think they're gonna do it another way, actually. So I think I'm out of it. Hopefully they'll still use my script, but I'm not sure I'm directing it anymore. That's Hollywood for ya."

Fessenden, who wrote the remake with the original's producer Del Toro, goes on to sound fairly tuckered out regarding the entire experience, suggesting he'll be more than a little gun-shy about his next big project. The helmer has developed a reputation of proudly working small and under-the-radar, so it was a surprise to see him involved with the project in the first place. It's likely his pre-production work was met with a, "Great, but could you make it a little less like a Larry Fessenden movie?" The guy's not built for the multiplexes, and he seems to prefer it that way, even as his protege Ti West cashes in his chips.

Fessenden claims he's eying a few new directorial efforts, but in the meantime, he'll serve as a producer for the smaller films on his Dark Sky imprint, the latest being the post-apocalyptic thriller "Stake Land." In addition to smaller horror films, he's also set to produce the next film from Kelly Reichardt, which might possibly be a low-key western.

Stringer Bell Hits The Mean Streets Of Asgard: Idris Elba Joins 'Thor'

Early on, Marvel Studios made no bones about refusing to add strong star power to "Thor," preferring instead to use no-names to let the material shine on its own. While the movie will be carried by little-known Chris Hemsworth, producers have surrounded him with pretty able support from a very colorful cast. On the heels of the exciting additions of Townsend, Stevenson and Asano comes word that Idris Elba, soon to be seen in potential tentpole "The Losers," will be joining the cast.

Elba will be playing Heimdall, who in the comics was a brother to Sif (Jaimie Alexander in the coming film). He's essentially the toll cop for Asgard, protecting the realm from intruders until he's forced into a leadership position once Thor comes to Earth and his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) enters what was called his (ahem) Odinsleep. Sadly, from the looks of it, if they stay close to the comics, Elba won't be a big part of the action, mostly watching from on-high. Still, it's cool to see one of the stars of "The Wire" in such a big position, especially a colorblind one, as he and Asano are playing fairly white characters. Those Marvel producers sure like their cable TV — they've employed the likes of FX stars Michael Chiklis, Julian McMahon and Leslie Bibb, HBO vets Ray Stevenson, Dominic West and Elba, AMC's John Slattery and even G4's Olivia Munn. Ian McShane for Kang?

We are a little bummed that, unless Elba's getting a huge paycheck, he's still affordable for such a secondary role in this sort of movie. Not only is he so great on "The Wire," but he's starting to become a name to audiences, especially after "Obsessed" pulled in pretty preposterous numbers earlier this year. We won't go on record saying that "Thor" won't be any good, especially because this supporting cast is pretty cool, but Elba probably is better than this small-sounding role. In fact, it would have been more than cool to see him as Thor himself, which would be off-the-charts awesome. Then again, it's not like he's going to out-do the original Thor...

Dustin Hoffman To Universal: 'Fock' Off

Universal is excited about their coming tentpole "Little Fockers," but fans of the first two films in the "Meet The Parents" series might not get the proper closure needed for their epic tale of spousal/parental conflict. Dustin Hoffman, who's presence was probably integral to "Meet The Fockers" and its success, has not been able to reach an agreement with the studio regarding his participation, and it looks like he may walk. The veteran Oscar winner was apparently slated to make a humorous cameo appearance at the close of the film, but negotiations have fallen apart, and it looks unlikely that he'll return, according to EW.

We are conflicted. On one level, we'd like to think this frees Dustin Hoffman to do more worthwhile things with his time. Perhaps feeding the needy, or starring in more important films, or maybe even a murder spree. Really, anything but this franchise. Then again, we can't help but admonish the writers and producers of this film for such an insult. You've got Dustin Hoffman, a big part of the second film's $516 million worldwide gross, and you've reduced him to a cameo in a film largely about the birth of his character's grandchild. One of the all-time greats, and he's likely been put to the side in order to provide more screentime to the likes of Jessica Alba and, we're guessing, jokes about homophobia, slapstick violence and dog reaction shots. Hey, give the people what they want, right?

Barbara Streisand, who played his wife his the second film, is likely returning in a sizeable role, so one wonders exactly how they'll write Bernie Focker out of the movie. We'd like to take this opportunity to remind people that Hoffman is opting out of a chance to share the screen with Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel. If we said that in 1979, you would've shat a brick. "Little Fockers" stars De Niro, Ben Stiller, Teri Polo, Blythe Danner, Alba, Keitel, Streisand and Owen Wilson and is set to rape movie screens July 30th 2010. It's also directed by Paul Weitz the brother of I'll quit, just kidding I won't quit, Chris Weitz.

Sternly-Worded, "The First Rule of 'Fight Club' Blu-Ray Secret" Wantonly Ignored; People This Is What Begat Project Mayhem

Early this week we got our review copy of the new 10th Anniversary (has it really been that long? God we're old) Blu-ray of David Fincher's underground boxing classic "Fight Club," along with a strongly worded note affixed to the box.

"The first rule of Fight Club is, you do not talk about the gag," the note reads.

"The 'Fight Club' Blu-ray disc includes a special gag for the 'Fight Club' fans designed by David Fincher. Upon insertion of the disc, the gag is evident and for that reason, we are asking that it be held under embargo… Fincher created this gag as a surprise for the fans, so we want to honor his intentions by keeping it under embargo until after the street day."

One day after, to be exact - Fox gave all the "Fight Club" super-fans out there (probably a lot of angry teens who have Playstation 3 gaming consoles) exactly one day to discover the gag all their own. Then Fox themselves decided to ruin it for everyone. And their method of dissemination? Another press release, of course! The Consumerist put it up online yesterday.

Here it is: "As you have probably noticed, there is a 'Never Been Kissed' gag on the 'Fight Club' 10th Anniversary BD, evident immediately upon insertion. As promised, below you'll find the background on this prank, which was devised by David Fincher himself.

Fincher was heavily involved in the 10th Anniversary BD and as you may know, is a bit of a prankster. As a fun gag for the Fight Club fans, Fincher wanted the Fight Club Blu-ray Disc to begin with "a fake menu" of a romantic comedy from the same year as Fight Club, as a trick on the audience. "Never Been Kissed" was his top choice and he eventually went to Drew Barrymore for her approval. When users insert the disc into their BD player, the menu for "Never Been Kissed" will pop up for a few seconds prior to the real Fight Club menu."

Yes, you put in the disc and you get a menu for the goopy Drew Barrymore romantic comedy, and then it quickly transitions to the "Fight Club" menu. It's very cute. And it was a fun little surprise for everyone, for a day. At the end of the press release, it says, "Please feel free to let your readers know about this prank and Fincher's intentions." Of course. Because the notoriously finicky Fincher went through all that trouble, got approval from Barrymore, so a bunch of critics and bloggers could ruin it the day after the release. Doubtful.

Also doubtful: that Fincher had much of anything to do with this Blu-ray. While there are a couple of very brief new pieces on the discs, and it looks and sounds incredible, it's all mostly warmed-over stuff from the admittedly great two-disc DVD from 2000. Here's hoping those persistent rumors of a Criterion edition of "The Game" finally come true in 2010.

Also, remember these? Funny.

'New Moon' Director Chris Weitz Says Retirement Talk Is Overstated

The Internet is famous for taking quotes out of context (see the recent Alexandre Desplat comments about Quentin Tarantino's music choices that are way less harsh them some would have you believe). With writers rapidly looking for content and churning out work, there's bound to be something exaggerated, especially when you don't have tone and emotion present in quotes that just become dry, matter-of-fact statements without context (and hey, it's happened to everyone, including us and if you won't admit it, you're delusional).

So Chris Weitz is quitting because, according to some anyhow, "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" reviews are poor and ripping him apart? Nope. An offhand comment in a moment of doubt really.

"That’s become Internet Chinese whispers," he tells the same doubters. I said something like, "Oh I’m so tired of doing all these movies" but that became "I’m not doing any more movies now." There’s always a time I say never again, but it’s more like a bad hangover."

So despite the fact that some want to seem him go, perhaps because he's helped ruin vampires for generations of movies to come, he's here to stay. We don't particularly care either way, but Chris if you're gonna stick around, more "About A Boy," and less "Golden Compass" and "New Moon," please. Maybe layoff the CGI for a few years and see how that works out for you.

Where Is The 'Face Punch' Fake Poster From 'New Moon'? New Virus Punishes Dweebs That Try & Download The New 'Twilight' Sequel

While this writer hasn't had a chance to see "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" (though a Playlist review is forthcoming). Word is baaaad. Currently the film sits at a low-low 34% on Rotten Tomatoes and we were hit with at least three emails this morning of crit friends telling us how awful it was. A female critic friend of ours who enjoys the books on a guilty pleasure level tells us it was "retarded" and said, "I don't know why it's so hard for them to get these movies right" (maybe Chris Weitz does have a reason to call it quits).

Also, hilariously, there's a scene in the movie where Bella (Kristen Stewart) goes to see a movie, but is so despondent that Edward (RPattz as MTV loooves to call him) is gone, she can't go see a romantic comedy, so instead goes to see a movie called, "Face Punch."

Apparently this is not a joke, taken at face value. There's even a fake movie poster in the movie with the tagline, "Face punch: let's do this!" But then again, that's maybe just a dig at Zack Snyder films? Who knows, but we laughed our asses off at that one and haven't even seen the film.

Meanwhile, if you're dumb enough to fall for emails that say "download the New Moon movie for free!" perhaps you're getting everything you deserve. On the eve of the film's opening (and just days after would-be-demo tweener Miley Cyrus dissed the franchise), a new "Twilight" computer virus has been making the rounds and ruining various mouthbreathers' computers.

The biggest mistake this series ever made was not hiring Guillermo del Toro protege Juan Antonio Bayona who directed the very excellent, 2007 film, "The Orphanage," but in retrospect, we're glad Bayona didn't soil his work with the goth-teen franchise (and apparently he didn't even want the gig; we love him even more). But seriously, when is he making his next film?

Lastly, tween culture moves fast which is why they've been cranking out these "Twilight" movies -- "Eclipse" hits summer 2010. But will teens, who are obviously fickle and suffer from micro-boredom still care a year from now? "New Moon" is expected to be a huge hit this weekend, but they still have yet to announce a director or start date for "Breaking Dawn" the final installment, and if they do break that fourth film into two parts -- milk it; more bang for their buck -- and that one hits in... 2012, will "Twilight" be passé?

Also, if someone gets an image of the fake poster to "Face Punch," plllleeeeeaaaaase send that shit to us. We must see.

Pedro Almodovar's 'Broken Embraces': Flawed Beauty

Much like say, Werner Herzog's "Bad Lieutenant," Pedro Almodovar's "Broken Embraces," is not his best work and uneven, but it is sort of a distillation of all his past films including sexy, stylish elements of intrigue, drama, camp and mystery.

We saw it at Cannes and were mildly disappointed, if only because Almodovar is one of the world's greatest directors. While it becomes somewhat convoluted, it's ambitious, rich and circuitous, and in retrospect (and with months to digest and look back), it is a memorable, resonating film with passion, humor and real emotional weight.

It's certainly Hitchockian, visually striking, sports luscious aesthetics overall (amazing cinematography and Alberto Iglesias' score is lovely once more) and if disappointing, only because his standards are so usually high. The actors, Penelope Cruz, Ruben Ochandiano are strong, but it's Jose Luis Gomez and Blanca Portill who truly stand-out and shine. The real problem is that "Broken Embraces" never really clicks into a smooth rhythm overall — the mechanics of the editing, pace and narrative feel slightly off — but it is still a worthwhile picture worth seeing. Read our full review from Cannes. It opens in limited release this weekend.

John Hillcoat's 'The Wettest County in the World' Shooting In February

Nice. Exciting news. Is John Hillcoat's film adaptation of "The Wettest County In The World" shooting soon? Yes, according to the director, in an ComingSoon interview, the film will start shooting in February.

The talent surrounding this one, if it happens according to plan is stellar. Nick Cave — who penned Hillcoat's "The Proposition" — wrote the script and actors surrounding the project include Shia LaBeouf, Ryan Gosling, Scarlett Johansson, Paul Dano and Michael Shannon. In a recent interview Hillcoat suggested that Gosling and LaBeouf had signed on or were at least "attached."

What's it about? It's essentially a depression-era crime drama about three brothers who ran a bootlegging gang during the Prohibition. We recently read the script (it's solid work and poetically written) and gave our own synopsis.

The based-on-a-true-story tale centers on three, real-life brothers, the Bondurants (the author of the book which it's based off of, Matt Bondurant, is actually the grandson of one of the brothers). They are essentially legendary and feared bootleggers ("wet" as in: the town is booze-soaked) that have a reputation as being tough as nails and practically immortal they've escaped death so many times. They have a moonshine dynasty in Franklin County, Virginia that's about to be threatened by the authorities wanting a cut and they are essentially mean, not-to-be-messed-with motherfuckers. Or most of them, anyhow...

We also gave casting suggestions, so we think the three lead brothers should be (from eldest to youngest, and coincidentally also from craziest to sanest), Michael Shannon, Ryan Gosling (or Paul Dano) and Shia LaBeouf.

The tale is essentially told through what would likely be LaBeouf's characters perspective. The youngest brother of three that doesn't really have the stomach for violence or taste for madness and drink that his wild older brothers do. In many ways, it's the tale of the younger Bondurant building character and becoming a man, but not necessarily by following in his brother's footsteps (the middle brother Howard, who we hope is played by Gosling is a batshit crazy drunk with a feverish, grinning zest for violence and getting into trouble and it's a plum role we hope he takes).

Hillcoat hints that he has his cast and all the aforementioned names. "It's a genre film, amazing cast, and hopefully, touch wood... it's called 'The Wettest County.' He also calls it a "gangster" film, but don't mistake it for the gloss of "Public Enemies." This is the other side of that coin; shack-living extreme poverty in Virginia and the Bondurants are overall-wearing, Southern hicks essentially (and massive drunks).

Hillcoat's "The Road" is not going to be a huge hit and this film is a bit of a hard sell, but hopefully the great cast is the reason why this thing will start early next year. All the names listed are pretty perfect, so fingers crossed.

Herzog's 'Bad Lieutenant': A "Fascinating Trainwreck"

Werner Herzog's "Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans" hits theaters this weekend (November 20). It's... an interesting picture, but not an entirely successful one. One our writers just saw it and in an email to me called it a "fascinating trainwreck," which is a pretty apt way of describing it.

There's absurdist highs, confused, ridiculous lows and as a front-to-back picture, it's not great. If you're looking for that shock and awe of "ecstatic truth" Herzog usually delivers (something so absurd or loony it becomes beautiful) it only arrives once, ever so briefly in the "spoon" scene with Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes (easily the film's best sequence, notably sincere for once).

However, if you graduated with a masters in irony (and are young-ish manboy), you might just enjoy it for it's ludicrous value. There are laughs, but being honest about it (and with our critical faculties working), it's not Werner Herzog's best work (he's had problems with narrative in recent years and is better at docs), it's a bit of a mess (he doesn't give a shit about plot and it shows) and just because Nicolas Cage delivers a wild performance doesn't mean it's as good as the classic feral Nicolas Cage performances of yore (though many are misguidedly mistaking Nic Cage doing ridiculous things in this picture as indisputable truth of a stellar performance). Anyhow, read our full review written at TIFF. And note: Although when we say, "this weekend," it's actually in a limited release right now that will expand later.

Robert Downey Jr. Wants To Quit Acting... Or Appear In Several More 'Sherlock Holmes' Films...

Robert Downey Jr. is doing the early press rounds of late for "Sherlock Holmes" with big magazine media. In both the recent Esquire and the new EW hitting stands this weekend (he's on the cover of both), he tells the writers to manage their expectations as he wants to try and relax and have a life instead of just act in a tentpole every four months. And or just quit acting all together. Sorta...

In Esquire he says children could be in the cards. In EW he hints again at slowing down.

"[My wife] Susan and I want to begin to be in our lives as much as we are in our jobs. I’d love just to sit here and say, ‘What movie’s playing tonight?’ I’d love to finish the new book about D-day I’m reading. I love painting, I love music. But here’s the thing: I can only be a guy on a call sheet probably, I don’t know, maybe a couple more times. It’s something I’m so grateful to have in my palm, and yet I already see its inevitable decay.”

Or...

Then again, "If 'Sherlock Holmes' performs well, I could be busy for the next 5 or 7 or 10 years." Jesus, is that 'Holmes' 4-through 5? Cause if so, we're going to put a voodoo hex on that film, sorry.

Also, we're pretty positive this 7-Eleven Go-Go Taquito "Sherlock Holmes" tie-in snagged by Movieline is pretty much indicative of the movie quality we're going to get. It just screams popcorn (sorry taquito) film! So do you really want sequels of that? Well, maybe if it comes with a free, crusty and oily Taquito that's been sitting around for 92 hours on the 7-Eleven burners (gross, you gottta be a nut, on serious late night drugs, or homeless, if you're eating that shit).

At least Warner Bros. seem smart enough to wait before they green-light "Sherlock Holmes 2."

Judd Apatow Talks Sequels; Gives Faint Hope For 'Pineapple Express 2'

This clip comes from Judd Apatow answers your questions live on "Funny or Die" (that happened yesterday). There's not a lot to it, but the question, which isn't set up, is about sequels and presumably whether he'd consider one. For "Superbad 2," he says it's not happening (despite him trying to convince Seth Rogen and Evan Golderberg, but he sounds like he's joking... hopefully), but gives off a tiny whiff of hope for those that care to see a "Pineapple Express 2" film.

"There's a little talk about a 'Pineapple Express' sequel if that's your cup of tea... your bowl of smoke. You probably have a better chance of seeing that [then any 'Superbad 2' or any other Apatow film]," he said. Why? Presumably because 'Pineapple' the original was not that good and they think they could do better. Or at least, that's our hope, as we can't see any other logical reason why they would need one.

Apatow also talks about "Get Him To The Greek" and calls it a "sideways sequel," as it is a spin-off of "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," featuring the Russell Brand rock-star character. "It's kind of like my favorite year on heroin." It stars Jonah Hill and P.Diddy and is out June 11, 2010 (Jarvis Cocker is writing the score).

Eddie Murphy To Star In Another Shitty Film An R-Rated Road Trip/Talking Animals Film?

Someone spiked the water cooler over at the Paramount lot, because in what must have been a hallucinogen based trip, an executive at the studio has bought a pitch by Sam Pitman and Adam Cole-Kelly for Eddie Murphy that is described as "a road trip pic through New York featuring talking animals, and with an element of social comedy reminiscent of Murphy’s 1980’s hit “Trading Places.” But we didn't tell you crazy part yet.

It's going to be R-rated.

In what is just one more of the ongoing and delusional career choices by Eddie Murphy, he's essentially decided to make "Dr. Doolittle" with F-bombs. But we suppose it could be worse like "Imagine That 3" or something. Maybe the R-Rated nature will bring back the funny in an absurdist way? Talking animals cursing up a storm? Sounds so bad it could be ridiculous fun. We don't know if Murphy just hates other actors, loves CGI or can only work with himself, but we are continually flummoxed as to why the actor (and one time amazing comedian) continues to saddle himself with these inane projects. It sounds misguided, but with possible language and off-color humor maybe it could be an amazing trainwreck? Like imagine a heavy-R-Rated Tim Allen movie (or a R-Rated "Wild Hogs")? That could be kind of interesting, no?

But, it's almost like the guy just doesn't care anymore and maybe with the money he has (into the gazillions) he just doesn't give a rat's ass. Who needs cred when you're that stinking rich? With Marlon Wayans now taking the role everybody thought Murphy was a lock for — Richard Pryor in a biopic about his life — the actor is now clinging to the forever in development "Beverly Hills Cop IV" as his comeback cred vehicle. But you know what? He probably doesn't even really give a shit about that one either. Murphy has long since been satisfied signing big checks and slumming it through material way below his (once potent) talent. Why? Eh, because he can.

At least we still have our "Raw" and "Delirious" DVDs kicking around to remind us that the guy was actually once relevant and seriously funny.

Zack Snyder Shoves More Up His 'Ga'hoole'

Zack Snyder is a busy these days, currently working on two films, "Sucker Punch" which will be a giant fanboy fetish fest as it's going to be a bunch of (probably) scantily clad girls holding big phallic machine guns, and the horribly titled "Guardians of Ga'hoole" an Australian animated fantasy that will need a new title if it wants play anywhere in the world without garnering immature snickering.

The latter is already well into production, and slated for release on December 9th, 2010 in Australia by Snyder's home team, Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures. We can't tell if the synopsis is corny or intriguing (or both) so we'll let you figure that one out for yourself:

The film follows Soren, a young owl enthralled by his father's epic stories of the Guardians of Ga'Hoole, a mythic band of winged warriors who had fought a great battle to save all of owlkind from the evil Pure Ones.

The voice casting for this thing is impressive. Sam Neill, Geoffrey Rush, Hugo Weaving and David Wenham are joining Emily Barclay, Abbie Cornish, Emilie de Ravin, Helen Mirren and Jim Sturgess. Not bad. Snyder's work is largely cartoonish (see "Watchmen") so maybe in an animated world free of a lot of suspension of disbelief issues, he'll fare better.

There is no word yet on a North American release date, but we'd guess it will follow shortly after it hits screens down under. "Ga'hoole" hee hee hee.

U2 Sings 'Winter' For Oscar

A couple of days ago, we reported that Leona Lewis was lined up to sing "I See You (Theme From Avatar)" for um, "Avatar," and some people were sort of (hilariously) offended that we would dare to suggest that song might be anything but good.

Well, we're ready to take on another round of bloggers (and U2 fans) furrowing their brows at us, because we've actually heard U2's "Winter," written for the forthcoming Jim Sheridan film "Brothers" and it sucks. U2 fans may have already heard the song as it appeared earlier this year on the Anton Corbijn directed short film "Linear" which accompanied U2's latest album of tedium, No Line On The Horizon. There is no doubt that this won't be positioned for a Best Song consideration, but we're still banking on T. Bone Burnett and "Crazy Heart" making quick work of the so far uninspired category.

The song, which clearly is about a boy going off to war, has some painfully obvious and high school level metaphors going on here. "Summer sings in me no more"? In a song called "Winter"? You have to be fucking kidding us with this shit. As for the music, it's very typical of latter day U2 with the Edge's dull and now lazy shimmery guitar thing and Bono's voice swooning all over the place. Bono even has the audacity to attempt to dramatically speak some of the lyrics midway through the song. It's ugly folks. As for the rhythm section, they seem to have taken a time out on this one.

The full lyrics (courtesy of Oscar lovers InContention) and the over six minute song are below:

The yellow sun
Well it took the hand
Of a country boy
To a city in a far off land

Ok, we read that far and stopped, it's just not worth it. Meanwhile, according to the Wrap, a full-blown "Brothers" Oscar campaign will soon be mounted by Lionsgate. Sounds correct, as "Brothers" screenings are a umm... line on the horizon. Here's the lighter-flicking anthem.

Tom O'Neil An 'Inglorious' Reterd

We're just past the midway mark and Tom O'Neil has twice embarrassed himself and the LA Times. First was his posting an Oscar voter's opinion that "This Is It" was going to nominated for Best Picture. Now, O'Neil is predicting that "Inglorious Basterds" is going to take home the statue for Best Picture.

The inanity of O'Neil's logic is staggering. First, he says that Quentin Tarantino's Cool Factor (the capitals are O'Neil's brilliant idea) and the fact that he hasn't won before will play an element considering that he will probably be running against "refried beans" (again, his words) like Clint Eastwood, Peter Jackson and Rob Marshall. Of course, he unconvincingly shrugs off the strong potential of Jason Reitman because it doesn't fit his argument.

He also contends that "Inglorious Basterds" is going to earn eight or nine Oscar nominations and will that his sources at the Hollywood Press Association tell him the Golden Globe people love the film and it will clean up there as well (we don't think it's impossible that it'll get nominated for Best Picture at the Globes or Oscars, but winning? And when did the Globes even matter?)

We're not going to waste any time refuting O'Neil with common sense, because he seems to be immune to it. But if he took his head out of his ass for about five minutes, he might realize that the Weinsteins are pretty much going all-in with "Nine" (if the entire cast appearance yesterday on Oprah wasn't a hint enough), while positioning the other films in their Oscar stable, "A Single Man," "The Road" and yes, "Inglourious Basterds" for specific considerations (mostly in the acting categories).

Listen, we know the LA Times has been through some editorial upheaval lately, but to whoever is calling the shots over there, Tom O'Neil is a fucking disgrace. Please put him out to pasture or reduce him to reviewing local theater because he is not fit to be reporting on film.

Will Ferrell Is Overpaid (That Depends On Your Definition) According To Forbes

Forbes magazine has released their annual list of Hollywood's most overpaid stars, and sometimes-funny funnyman Will Ferrell is number one.

The rankings are calculated by factoring in the production costs of an actor's movies over the past five years against how much boxoffice, DVD and other revenue they generated in order to come up with an operating income for each film. That number is that stacked up against an actor's salary and there you go. All in all, for every $1 spent on a Will Ferrell movie, it will bring in a $3.29 return.

Ferrell had a particularly forgettable 2009 with his one big film, the expensive "Land Of The Lost," arriving with the all the enthusiasm of a wet fart in cinemas this summer where it barely eeked out $65 million against its $100 million dollar budget (that doesn't include marketing).

10 Most Overpaid Actors
1. Will Ferrell
2. Ewan McGregor
3. Billy Bob Thorton
4. Eddie Murphy
5. Ice Cube
6. Tom Cruise
7. Drew Barrymore
8. Leonardo DiCaprio
9. Samuel L. Jackson
10. Jim Carrey

Frankly, only in Hollywood could a more than triple return on your investment be considered a "failure." This list is more just an easy way for Forbes to get some annual web traffic than to be a meaningful discussion of anything. For Jim Carrey, he earned $8.62 for every $1 that was spent on his salary. He's overpaid? Really?

We have a feeling that if Forbes ran a list of the most profitable actors, the list would pretty much be the same, just in reverse. But saying they're "overpaid" sure sounds a lot sexier.

Amy Adams To Live Her 'Ten Best Days'

We always die a little bit inside when the awesomely talented and beautiful Amy Adams signs on for paycheck gigs, but we guess a girl's gotta eat sometimes.

The actress has signed on star in "The Ten Best Days Of My Life," which sort of sounds like a weird mix of "Groundhog Day," "Confessions Of A Shopaholic" and "What Dreams May Come." The film is adapted from the novel by Adena Halpern and its outline is as follows:

After Alex Dorenfield and her dog, Peaches, get smashed by a car, they wind up in heaven, where bubbly 29-year-old Alex is floored by how hip the digs are—especially Seventh Heaven, where Alex's dreams (of, for instance, designer clothes, an awesome house and eating without gaining weight) come true. The icing on the cake is her reunion with a few deceased family members and meeting a dreamy prospective soul mate. Only problem? She must pass an entrance exam to stay in Seventh Heaven and not be demoted to the fourth level, where she would have to live in a condo, wear last year's clothes and lose Peaches (all dogs stay in Seventh Heaven). So Alex gets to work on an essay to prove she led a worthwhile and fulfilling life.

Blech. We assume there is some message in there about money not buying happiness, and it will turn out that the best day of her life was something really, really syrupy. It sounds dreadful. Speaking of dreadful, hack auteur Shawn Levy is attached to direct this thing with the only plus being that he knows he way around the CGI that will be required for the portrayal of Heaven.

The next Adam's film of note will be her role in David O. Russell's forthcoming "The Fighter" and she also has a silly romcom, "Leap Year" on deck as well. She's currently attached to the promising "Town House" with Zach Galifinakis as well.

As for Levy, he just wrapped up sapping Steve Carell and Tina Fey of their talent for his spring tentpole, "Date Night."

Chris Weitz Ready To Call It Quits?

In a surprisingly candid interview with industry mag MovieMaker, "New Moon" director Chris Weitz talks about his disappointment with "The Golden Compass" (aka the Coca Cola Polar Bears movie) and the exhaustive enterprise that directing a film entails leading him to seriously consider directing one more film before calling it quits:

MM: Some elements appear consistently in your career, including working with young actors and adapting novels to the screen. Is that an unplanned coincidence, where people see what you’ve done and offer you more of the same, or does part of it come from you?

CW: I do like working with young people but, weirdly, the young people here are experienced actors, so it was like working with adults. I can’t find any intentionality in my career other than hoping to get the chance to do another film, wanting to do something different from the previous one and trying to accumulate a set of skills. I still feel as though I’m learning.

When it came to The Golden Compass, I really wanted that to be my masterpiece. And by that I don’t mean work of genius, but rather the piece that you do that says to your peers that you’re ready to stop being a journeyman and start being an actual craftsman. Unfortunately, the edit was taken from me and whatever chance I had at that was also taken from me, which is kind of sad.

I still feel that I’m learning, and yet I also feel that the number of aspects that go into making a film of the sort that I’m making now have become so multifold that it’s really exhausting. Every time I make a movie I’m pretty much convinced it’s the last time I’m going to be able to do it and that really it’s a rather silly occupation to undertake. But I think I have maybe one more film in me.

MM: Only one? Are you serious?

CW: Yes, I think so. I know this is for MovieMaker, but I don’t think that people have to do the same thing for all their lives. Giuseppe di Lampedusa wrote one great novel, The Leopard, and he didn’t have to write anymore.

Even though we like talk trash about certain films (*cough*AVATAR*cough*) we never root for a film to fail, and while "The Golden Compass" was a bit of a mess, it's never cool to read that director had a final cut taken away from them. If you recall, Weitz has previously said he was under intense marketing pressure to deliver an "upbeat ending" that differed from the darker conclusion he had originally envisioned. The irony here is that while Hollywood has considered "The Golden Compass" a failure (even though it did solid box office numbers in every territory that wasn't the United States), Weitz will probably be even more in demand once "New Moon" sinks its teenage fangs into the box office this weekend.

Some people are relishing his retirement, while yes, while he's never quite directed a masterpiece (and some are far from it), "About A Boy" was solid and really evinced a similar tone to Jason Reitman's films so he is capable of good work. We just think he jumped into/got sucked into the CGI fantasy world way too early. If he really is going to hang it up, we hope he does get a shot to make one more film and it's something close to his heart and hopefully more back to basics.

Anne Hathaway Boards The 'Spider-Man 4' Casting Merry-Go-Round Rumor Reports

We just ranted about this yesterday, so shame on us, but we're reporting on another name being linked to "Spider-Man 4." This time it's Anne Hathaway, who Nikki Finke claims has been approached by producers. All the recent names linked to Spidey's next adventure appear to be young actresses in their twenties, fueling the rumors that the next film will feature the villainous Black Cat.

In the comics, the Black Cat, aka Felicia Hardy, was a cat burglar and adventurer who idolized her father and later carried on an illicit romance with Spider-Man. How this differs from Batman's Catwoman is... unclear, we admit, even after reading more than a few comics in our lifetime. In the film, according to a site called Hey U Guys and (partially) confirmed by /Film, Hardy is the daughter of a new owner of the Daily Bugle, Peter Parker/Spidey's newspaper of employment (which means, we hope, more JK Simmons). That character has apparent villain ties and eventually passes on, leading Hardy to blame Spider-Man. The anonymous source refers to that character as a "viper," but that doesn't seem to be a reference to any of Spidey's colorful rogue's gallery.

Finke can often be on the money when it comes to her scoops, but this latest one really is proof of nothing. For one, Hathaway is an extremely busy actress, and like all other big names in her age range, she's angling for an Academy Award in the near future, so the third sequel in this series isn't a likely destination. Another reason for skepticism is that Hathaway, something of a proven box office draw, is probably the most expensive of all actresses on Sam Raimi's shortlist, and most likely the costliest villain the series has had so far. We doubt they're going the way of the big, flashy co-star yet in this series. On the other hand, Hathaway was due to start shooting "Tokyo Suckerpunch" this fall with Tobey Maguire, so maybe her desire to act next to the doughy superhero still burns strongly.

Even with Hathaway's non-involvement, the list of potential Black Cats on Sam Raimi's desk is probably the biggest, most illustrious fantasy-cast list in Hollywood for any actress between the ages of 22-30. There's no reason to believe they haven't sent feelers out to Hathaway and half of young female Hollywood, which is why this rumor-mongering might continue as one overzealous intern after another is desperate to break the news of who they heard about in Sony's hallways months before the decision is made. We've got our money on the next name being Elisha Dushku.

Btw. Many of you probably think we're being cynical dicks here, but even look at the perspective of a geek writer, former-AICN writer Drew McWeeney who also thinks all this casting talk is premature and says, "It's one thing when we get down to the point of people doing screen tests... those are serious contenders for something. But just coming in to meet the producers on a meet and greet does not mean someone is 'in talks.' It sounds like right now, "Spider-Man 4" is at the stage where they are casting a wide next, looking for someone to step in and play The Black Cat."

Yup, that's exactly it. Also? Don't be surprised if Sony is planting names out there to get agents furiously thinking this is the "hot new role in town" (i.e. convincing them of the idea that they must get their actress a meeting or be viewed as hopelessly out of the loop). Sony didn't exactly deny Rachel McAdams (though she flatly did) and there's a reason for that...

Oscar Doc Shortlist Released; 'Anvil,' 'Capitalism' & 'Tyson' Doc Snubbed

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have released their 15-strong Oscar documentary shortlist and as usual there are surprises about which titles have made it and which didn't. Culled from 89 official submissions the films vying for a final five slot are:

"The Beaches of Agnes" directed by Agnes Varda
"The Cove" directed by Louie Psihoyos
"Every Little Step" directed by James Stern and Adam Del Deo
"Food, Inc." directed by Robert Kenner
"Valentino: The Last Emperor" directed by Matt Tyrnauer
"Burma VJ" directed by Anders Ostergaard
"Facing Ali" directed by Pete McCormack
"Garbage Dreams" directed by Mai Iskander
"Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders" directed by Mark Hopkins
"The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers" directed by Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
"Mugabe and the White African" directed by Andrew Thompson and Lucy Bailey
"Sergio" directed by Greg Barker
"Soundtrack for a Revolution" directed by Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman
"Under Our Skin" directed by Andy Abrahams Wilson
"Which Way Home" directed by Rebecca Cammisa

As usual, the Academy voters are not in sync with audience or critical response as two of the year's most celebrated docs, James Toback's moving and insightful "Tyson" and Sacha Gervasi's incredible rock 'n roll dream "Anvil! The Story of Anvil" are nowhere to be seen and that's really a crying shame. But, we will give Academy members kudos for not reflexively giving Michael Moore's underwhelming "Capitalism: A Love Story" a nod.

Guessing a final five, even with fifteen selections, is a pretty easy bet. "The Cove" is a lock, and an easy favorite to win the whole thing. The film has a big advocate in Ben Stiller (who apparently forced the hand of the Tokyo Film Festival into screening the film, because, you know, he's.... a huge fan of dolphins?), and its powerful story resonated with audiences around the world. "Facing Ali" has the charm of the legendary boxer behind it and it's actually a pretty riveting documentary in its own right. "Food, Inc." is the kind of timely "message" movie the Academy loves, while "Valentino" and "Every Little Step" should fill out the rest of the ballot. We'd love to see "The Beaches Of Agnes" on there but we're not going to hold our breath.

Oh, some are complaining that "It Might Get Loud," the rock doc with Jack White, Jimmy Page and U2's The Edge was snubbed as well, but it wasn't really Oscar quality and more of something you'd enjoy on IFC. That's not a diss, it's a fine little doc, but not just run-out-and-see or anything.

'Loss Of A Teardrop Diamond' Poster Is Gorgeous; The Movie, Mmm...

The one-sheet for Jodie Markell's "The Loss Of A Teardrop Diamond" is out and it's stylish, gorgeous and perfectly captures the aesthetics of the film, which are quite beautiful, including look, costumes, cinematography and music.

Now the film itself, uhhh, that's another story. It's not due in theaters until December 30, 2009, so we should probably lay off on a review or badmouthing it, really, but... let's just say Bryce Dallas Howard is not all she's cracked up to be (if she's cracked up to be at all).

Chris Evans is surprisingly not bad and Ellen Burstyn is always great (and it's a small role, but character actor Will Patton is always reliable too).

Oh, right, what's it about? It's a based on a Tennessee Williams play.

THE LOSS OF A TEARDROP DIAMOND is a new drama based on a recently rediscovered original screenplay by legendary writer Tennessee Williams. Starring Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Evans, the Paladin release will open in New York and Los Angeles in late December, with expansion to major markets following in early 2010. Academy Award-winner Ellen Burstyn, Academy Award-nominee Ann-Margret, Mamie Gummer, and Will Patton co-star in the film which was directed by award-winning short filmmaker and stage and screen actress Jodie Markell, in her feature debut.

Here's the trailer.

Funny: 'Avatar' French Poster; Not So Funny: Film Will Be 3 Hours Long

Yes, we like to take potshots at James Cameron's "Avatar." Why? Do people with two functioning eyes and a brain looking at this poster even need to ask?

Seriously. It's just an incredibly easy target and the easy-lay nerds of the web still seem to be all over it no matter how silly it looks (again, kinda like Homer insisting the pig is "still good" in "The Simpsons" movie; a bit desperate it seems because of their vested interest in the project... being nerds and all).

Anywhoo, this French poster... man (via /Film), just really advances the whole, "Ferngully" "Clone Wars" "Thundercats" jokes that Hitler aptly made.

You could blame it on the French, but that's just an out.

Also, we honestly thought this was old information (and it very well might be) as our friend Alex Litel has been trying to get us to blog about it for some time, but composer James Horner confirmed that the film will be 3 hours long.

OK, it's budget is $310 million (thought the Times did say that could reach $500 million which many think is overblown) and the movie is three hours long and Fox or Cameron expect to make their money back or even break even?

Jesus, furry winged monkeys with wooden dialogue for three hours? Best of luck there. But maybe that Leona Lewis song in the closing credits will be the ultimate payoff? ;) "Avatar" hits theaters December 18th and will probably play well into 2012 in hopes of making some coin back.

Exclusive: Charlotte Gainsbourg Voicing KW In French Version Of 'Wild Things'

Animated films in the U.S. that are big enough for international releases (most of them really) means international stars voicing the parts original done by American stars. We just revealed that Mathieu Amalric and Isabelle Huppert are doing George Clooney and Meryl Streep's parts in Wes Anderson's upcoming animated film, "Fantastic Mr. Fox."

Now we've learned of more French casting, this time for France's version of Spike Jonze's "Where The Wild Things Are." We don't have the entire cast list yet, but we've learned that Charlotte Gainsbourg will be voicing the part of KW, which is done by Lauren Ambrose in the original (who actually replaced Michelle Williams). That's pretty cool, we wonder who does Carrol and the rest of the sad clan (they should teach Williams and Tom Noonan French so they can get their due, both recorded voices for 'Wild Things' and both were eventually replaced)?

Coincidentally, we just revealed the tracklist and album cover of Gainsbourg's new album IRM which is co-produced and written by Beck and due stateside in January.

Mathieu Amalric & Isabelle Huppert To Voice Clooney & Streep's Parts For French Version Of 'Fantastic Mr. Fox'

Wes Anderson is obviously a bit of a Franchophile. He lives off and on in Paris, and set the short "Hotel Chevalier" in the classy Hotel Raphael in France (which is perhaps why 'Darjeeling Limited' which is set in India, yet inexplicably ends with an ill-suited French song by Joe Dassin about Les Champs-Élysées — we always found that odd).

And in "Fantastic Mr. Fox," George Clooney's Mr. Fox character even tries to communicate with a Black-power-loving wolf in French (asking, "do you think we're goingto have a hard winter?").

Wes knows his French. So it stands to figure for the French version of "Fantastic Mr. Fox" he would also make some strong voice casting choices. So, doing Clooney's part of Mr. Fox in France is celebrated French actor Mathieu Amalric ("The Diving Bell & The Butterfly," "Quantum of Solace") and voicing Meryl Streep's Mrs. Fox character is French icon, Isabelle Huppert ("The Piano Teacher," "Heaven's Gate" to name just a few important works).

No word on the other casting (i.e., who might do Bill Murray or Jason Schwartzman's parts), but those are some pretty great alternate voice choices. "Fantastic Mr. Fox" opens wide this weekend in the U.S. (November 25) and hits France February 17. From this Allocine report, translated into English by Google, but still reading like dyslexic Chinese (sort of like this blog sometimes), it appears that French audiences will have the chance to experience the film with either the original voices intact or the French versions.

Charlotte Gainsbourg's IRM Album Cover & Tracklist Leaks; Plus New 'Heaven Can Wait' Video

We already revealed two songs from Charlotte Gainsbourg ("Antichrist")'s third album, IRM, produced and co-written by Beck.

The first single, "Heaven Can Wait" (which is rad), the title track, and we played you the original version of "Le chat du Café des artistes," a song she covers on the record by Quebecois songwriter Jean-Pierre Ferland.

The album comes out January 26 via Because/Elektra in the U.S., but hits her native France on December 7 and details are already trickling out. Thanks to French friends, we have the tracklist and the album cover.

Plus, the new video for "Heaven Can Wait" is out today via Spinner. Go pay to see "Antichrist." #Gainsbourg reigns

IRM tracklist
1 Master's hands
2 IRM
3 Le Chat du café des artistes (the cover we already mentioned)
4 In the end
5 Heaven can wait
6 Me and john doe
7 Vanities
8 Tme of the assassins
9 Trick pony
10 Greenwich mean time
11 Dandelion
12 Voyage
13 La Collectionneuse

Demian Bichir Gets Revolutionary Again, 'Superman' Stays Stagnant & Oscarbation!

-Demian Bichir, who played Fidel Castro in "Che," is set to star as Mexican independence leader Miguel Hidalgo in "Hidalgo-Moliere." Also starring in the Antonio Serrano ("Sex, Shame And Tears") pic is Ana de la Reguera, i.e. the impossibly hot nun from "Nacho Libre." Bichir has also lined up "Lady Scarface" from Ernest Dickerson ("Surviving The Game"), where he'll play a gang leader who gets romantically involved with a Columbian woman who becomes leader of a South Florida gang. Susanna Grant ("Erin Brockovich") and Tony Puryear ("Eraser").

-More "Superman" non-news: "Ninja Assassin" director James McTeigue reiterated his interest in directing a Superman feature, while also noting that the WB are openly disinterested in another installment that would make drastic alterations to the character. McTeigue suggests that WB want to play it safe with the franchise and probably will never stray too far from the core idea (outside, uhhh, giving Superman a child with his girlfriend Lois). In the shadows, the Wachowskis were seen telepathically communicating, "Wise answers, slave."

- Celebrated Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou is busy deciding which of two novels he should adapt for his next film. It's between "The Love Of The Hawthorn Tree," which details a mismatched romance during China's '66-'76 cultural revolution, and "The 13 Women Of Nanjing," which tells the story of 13 sex workers servicing the invading Japanese in 1937.

- Over at Cinematical, they've made the case against Roger Corman receiving an Oscar, somehow equating an Academy Award with a great artistic achievement, and not the industry-driven pat-on-the-back it really is. And really, what's wrong with giving Roger Corman, a man who produced 400 films ("Death Race 2000") and directed 50 ("X: The Man With The X-Ray Eyes"), a pat on the back?

-The Observer makes a hastily-thought-out argument for why "Star Trek" should be considered for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. We are against this if only because it gets Tyler Perry closer to the ceremony.

-The U.N. Goodwill Ambassador On Drugs And Crime is in a serious financial situation. Nicolas Cage owes $6.6 million in back taxes and has been forced to sell much of the property he's accrued over the years, including a couple of castles, because you buy castles when you make movies like "Next." Now comes word that his $20 million lawsuit against his financial advisor is being matched by a countersuit, where former manager Samuel L. Levin claims Cage wasted his own savings away. Levin claims he told Cage he would have to earn $30 million a year to support his lifestyle, which included lavish parties and costly vacations, while Cage's attorney Marty Singer complains that it's a business manager's job to say no. How you say no to Nicolas Cage saying, "I want to buy a castle in Bavaria" is beyond us (not even joking).

-Anne Thompson claims that the Academy has yet to receive screeners for "The Hurt Locker," casting doubt on Summit's planned awards push. David Poland counters, saying the only studios that have sent out screeners so far are Magnolia and Sony Pictures Classics. All of which highlights how pathetic the Oscar voters are for not bothering to see the movies in theaters.

David Bergstein Has Hollywood's Biggest Brass Balls

What the hell is going at "ThinkFilm"?

We're not going to list the endless stream of lawsuits facing David Bergstein — The Hollywood Reporter does a good job of running it down — but we will say the guy has Alec Baldwin sized brass balls that despite accusations of not releasing films, not paying filmmakers, fraud, breach of contract, false promises and negligent misrepresentation he was still hustling and masquerading down at the AFM last week under the banner Pangea Media Group.

Why? Well, it appears he's actually lost the rights to use the name ThinkFilm, yikes.

Last year, Bergstein was the subject of a pretty unflattering NY Times profile chronicling his horrendous money-owing habits and then the L.A. Times dropped their own piece with a ton of insurmountable evidence as to why he was being sued for fraud (though he casually tried to play it off).

Listen Bergstein, there are easier ways to make fast money and rip people off than in Hollywood like...actually, you might be on to something there.

ThinkFilm is the indie wing of Capitol Films (which is just as fucked) and their money issues are part of the reason why David O. Russell's "Nailed" was never finished and has not yet been released, but there has been recent talk that it could come back to life. However, unless Capitol/Think sells it off, we're doubtful it's going to see the light of day on its own.

'Hangover' Dudes Are GQ Funny Men Of The Year

GQ is set to hit newstands with their annual Men Of The Year issue, and the dudes from "The Hangover" — Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifinakis — have all been selected as the prestigious Funny Men Of The Year, because nothing says "gentleman" like three grown man-children who get impossibly drunk and fucked up in Las Vegas.

Nah, these guys deserve it as they all gave inspired performances that helped the film become one of the biggest R-rated comedies of all time.

It's also been a tremendous career boost for all three, as they are each attached to about a half dozen different projects over the coming year. If these guys aren't exactly your cup of tea, GQ will also have covers honoring their other Men Of The Year including Barack Obama (again), Chris Pine (for all the nerds), Tom Brady (for all the jocks) and Clint Eastwood (we're not saying anything witty here because he could probably kick our ass and he seriously looks mean as fuck on the cover; looks like they shot him during an off-day on "Gran Torino").

But one thing? No love for the 'Hangover' mastermind Todd Phillips? Poor form...

Weinstein Company Wants Miramax Name Back

With The Weinstein Company recently finishing a megapact deal with Disney that will promote the hell out of "Nine" all over every possible media space you can think of, it seems they still wants one more thing from the studio.

Remember Miramax, the little studio who pretty much changed the industry game entirely in the early 1990s (and infamously hoodwinked the Academy into believing "Shakespeare In Love" was a better Best Picture movie than "Saving Private Ryan")?

Well Bob, who along with his brother Harvey sold the studio to Disney back in 1993 for $70 million, and left in 2005 to form The Weinstein Company, wants the name of the company they founded in 1979 back in their hands now that that little company left to its own devices in recent years is folding (or at least being drastically diminished)

Good luck to them. Until Bob and Harvey are ready to fork over a ton of cash — which given their tenuous cash flow problem which had many predicting bankruptcy no more than four or five months ago — it's not likely to happen anytime soon. Though maybe the megapact deal show that Disney & Harvey will at least not completely butt heads, at least not in their first initial meeting (probably...). And maybe the going-rate for Miramax will be a song?

Antoine Fuqua Teams Up With Spike Lee For 'Living Better Through Crime'

"Training Day" director Antoine Fuqua is set to return to yet another film about crime and criminals, with an adaptation of the French graphic novel "Miss: Better Living Through Crime" written by Philippe Thirault, Marc Riou and Mark Vigouroux.

The project, being produced by Spike Lee, follows a black pimp and poor white girl in early 1900s New York who become killers for hire. John Ridley, who recently wrote the forthcoming "Red Tails" for George Lucas will be adaptating the pretty cool sounding premise for the big screen. Let's just hope this project goes a bit more smoothly from production to the cinemas than Fuqua's last effort "Brooklyn's Finest."

That film debuted at Sundance where it was purchased by Senator for seven figures, who then said they were going with Fuqua to re-cut the picture's apparently grim ending. Overture has since stepped in and purchased the film from Senator, have hopefully let Fuqua's vision stand, and will be releasing the film in theaters on March 5, 2010.

Will Arnett Wastes Talents Again In 'Space Invader'

Goddamn, we love you Will Arnett but you choose the shittiest movie projects to get attached to.

The "Arrested Development" star is yet again involved in what sounds like a huge turd of a movie. "Space Invader," penned by Justin Theroux, is about a man who goes to space when he suspects his astronaut girlfriend is cheating on him with a spacewalker. It appears that Theroux, who has earned some cred in Hollywood with his scripts for "Tropic Thunder" and "Iron Man 2" is set to squander it on an idea that sounds like it was conceived on a cocktail napkin. And yes, people love him and we think his writing is great (plus "Dedication" his directorial debut with Mandy Moore was really underrated), but give us a break here, seriously. This sounds like a paycheck gig. Theroux we love you too and all, but really?

The guys behind the Ben Stiller trainwreck "The Heartbreak Kid" are producing this thing and our brain just turned to mush so we're going to stop writing about this before ooze starts dripping out of our ears.

Update: Okay, both Arnett and Theroux are back, temporarily, in our good graces. If you haven't been watch "Parks & Recreation," please do yourself a favor and tune in because it is absolutely killing this season. The show, from the guys who did "The Office" and done in the same faux-documentary style follows Leslie Knope (Arnett's wife Amy Poehler) as she gets into various misadventures in the public works department of small town Pawnee. Both Arnett and Theroux have signed on to do guest spots as love interests for Poehler. It seems to be recurring thread, as earlier this season Louis CK did a surprisingly touching turn as a police officer, also interested in Knope. And this reminds us that not everything post-"Arrested Development" has been dreck for Arnett. He did a pretty amazing guest spot on "Human Giant" a couple of years back. That show also featured one Aziz Ansari who is one of the funniest things about "Parks & Recreation" as well.

'Agora' Picked Up By Newmarket For 2010 Release

Alejandro Amenábar’s “Agora,” which debuted earlier this year in Cannes to critical indifference has surprisingly become a smash hit Spain, where it has sat atop the box office for four straight weeks (apparently they love dull swords and sandals movies that run almost three hours for no good reason).

The film, which we described as a "long-winded, ungratifying portrait of history set in Roman Egypt in 391AD" stars Rachel Weisz as the feminist astrologer and atheist Hypatia, and tells the story of the love triangle that unfolds between her slave Davus (Max Minghella) and Orestes (Oscar Issac; who's lawyers are very touchy, btw).

While we think the picture, which sort of meanders all over the place is "fucked commercially," Newmarket Films, who are in the habit of picking up movies nobody wants (see "Creation") has acquired the rights to the film which they will release in the first half of 2010. This acquisition will slowly help the film, which cost a whopping $60 million, get closer to breaking even at sometime in Amenábar's lifetime.

Jennifer Hudson To Star As Nelson Mandela's Wife In 'Winnie' Biopic

Back da f*** up Clint Eastwood and get ready for more Mandela (you know you want more).

Of course, we all know about Eastwood's forthcoming "Invictus" which portrays the courageous anti-apartheid leader against the backdrop of the Rugby World Cup (starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon). Well, if just one film won't fit the bill, fast forward twelve months and you can see "Winnie," a biopic about the former wife of South Africa's first black president.

The producers of the South African/Canadian production promise that the film won't gloss over the more controversial aspects of Winnie Mandela's complex life, which include infidelity, allegations of human rights abuses, and conviction for fraud (unfortunately for Hudson fans, no claims of melisma or stage work)

However for many of her supporters, she is considered "The Mother Of The Nation" and it musn't be forgotten the vital role she played in opposing apartheid. In a very dicey casting choice, Jennifer Hudson has been brought on board to portray Winnie and production is set to begin on May 30th in South Africa.

She can sing, but can she act beyond something like "Dreamgirls" which she seem perfectly suited for (and not something that really seemed to stretch her natural abilities)? The jury is definitely out there, but hey, she won an Oscar, so what do we know...

David Lynch To Film Doc About Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Still trying to get the taste of "Inland Empire" out of your brain (a film both called brilliant and atrocious round these parts)?

Never fear, David Lynch is working on a new movie! However, there's actually no need to get too excited about this one unless you're all, you know, spiritual and shit.

The coffee shilling, Twitter-weather report giving director is headed to India to film a documentary about Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of Transcendental Meditation.

While Lynch says he will avoid the typical "talking head" style doc, he also says he's going to be doing lots of interviews so we're not sure what kind of structure he's looking at here.

If you're wondering about "Snootworld," a children's film he has in development, it's still on the backburner but we hope he gets to it soon. A Lynch film for kids would probably be an amazing mindfuck. As for any other projects he has, possibly listed on the always reliable IMDB? Lynch says, "most of it is lies."

Wondering who Lynch considers a good filmmaker? He gives shout outs to Werner Herzog (who directed his produced, "My Son My Son What Have Ye Done" film), Marty Scorsese, "some" Paul Thomas Anderson and underrated Finnish director of the black comedy mien, Aki Kaurismäki (and Criterion lauded in a recent Eclipse series that you should get).

'The Road': A Mini-Wide Release?

Perhaps we were being overzealous. We got email confirmation that "The Road" was being pulled in certain markets.

In fact, the email reads:

Dear Members of the Press,
The Weinstein Company has decided to do a roll out release pattern of THE ROAD and it will no longer be opening on 11/25/09 in your market.

This lead us to believe, coupled with other reports, people writing us and telling us the John Hillcoat film had suddenly disappeared from their area, that "The Road" was reverting back to a limited release, one that we presumed would be a NY/LA one.

We're happy to report we're wrong there. "The Road" is not going to be a wide release per se, but it's certainly not a two-city-pronged limited one either. Or at least according to ROP who says they've been told "The Road" will open in 31 markets. That is actually pretty wide, but how many theaters it will be is unknown and technically that's not the entire country as The Weinstein Company have "confirmed an additional roll out," meaning more cities are to come.

Something does smell a little fishy here though, not sure what's up, but we do know the release was scaled back somewhat. Most major cities will have it and smaller areas will have to wait a few weeks, but overall, this is good news. Now will TWC actually push Viggo for an Oscar?

Tracklisting for 'Avatar' Soundtrack Announced, Reveals Entire "Plot"!

For those of you that still care (we know you're out there) about "Clone Wars: Thundercats," the score for "Avatard" is now available for purchase via the Atlantic Records website and will be released on December 15, three days before the film opens.

This news follows Monday's announcement that Leona Lewis will be doing Celine Dion duty for the James Cameron film adaptation of "Ferngully: the Last Rainforest," and her song, "I See You," will be played over the closing credits a la "My Heart Will Go On" (which apparently breaks the heart of people like Guy Lodge and RopeofSilicon who are all for it).

"Titanic" scorer James Horner reunites with the director for the music, but it's hard to imagine the "Avatar" soundtrack will reach the same chart-topping heights of its predecessor (though what we've heard in the trailer is hilarious overblown). We're curious to see if the man behind the music of "Braveheart" and "Titanic" will incorporate his beloved Celtic themes into a movie set in space via a glossed up Land Before Time 3" world, but not curious enough to actually buy the score.

The song titles tell the story of "Avatar" and should probably come with a spoiler warning. The penultimate track is simply--and ominously--named "War." Wonder how the film ends. Curiously enough the track, "Giovanni Ribisi Plays Slimeball Stand-In For Paul Reiser," seems to be absent from the final disc. Hmm...as Hitler would probably say, "this is total bullshit."

Here's the track listing:
1. “You Don’t Dream in Cryo…”
2. Jake Enters His Avatar World
3. Pure Spirits of the Forest
4. The Bioluminescence of the Night
5. Becoming One of “The People”
Becoming One With Neytiri
6. Climbing Up – “Iknimaya – The Path to Heaven”
7. Jake’s First Flight
8. Scorched Earth
9. Quaritch
10. The Destruction of “Hometree”
11. Shutting Down Grace’s Lab
12. Gathering All the Na’vi Clans for Battle
13. War
14. I See You (Theme from "Avatar")

BREAKING: Julia Stiles Takes A Meeting

In yet another edition of, "Everything we hear about 'Spider-Man 4' is true!" UGO reports that Julia Stiles has been taking meetings with people! Behind the scenes of the web-slinging sequel!

Stop the presses and also stop the desperate, "XYZ actor met with XYZ producer." This is Hollywood, it's a business, this happens like breathing and is normal (also people just take meetings sometime to meet one another, SHOCKING, we know). But obviously, what we've seen so far — Rachel McAdams saying, "wtf?" and some British actress writing on a bathroom wall how she breathed air next to someone who met Sam Raimi — the Internets are desperate to one-up themselves with careless rumormongering.

Anyhow, this could mean she's a candidate to play the villainous Black Cat, which places her in competition with scores of actresses in young Hollywood. If Stiles does get the role, she'll be joining Kirsten Dunst and Bryce Dallas Howard in Spidey's Horrid Harem of Homely Harridans! Excelsior, True Believers!

Triage Editing Team Called Into Salvage Long-Hemorrhaging Werewolf Movie

When do you just concede that the movie is broken, and won't ever be fixed?

This is what Universal is faced with when dealing with "The Wolfman," their long-suffering, big-budget remake that the studio has a lot riding on. Almost from the word "go," the movie has been plagued by trouble. This came in the form of setbacks, delays (it's had roughly seven thousand potential release dates), dropouts (with original director Mark Romanek walking off the movie weeks before shooting began and most recently superstar composer Danny Elfman left due to those delays) and a pair of iffy trailers that didn't exactly sell the movie as the rip-roaring genre yarn that it's supposed to be.

Well, apparently, two more editors have been brought into post-production to try and get this puppy in fighting (howling?) shape before it's scheduled to be released Valentine's Day, but, this being "The Wolfman," maybe it'll miss that release date too.

According to Variety (thanks goes out to the oddly optimistic /Film for picking up on this), editors Mark Goldblatt and the legendary Walter Murch have been brought into the fray to replace Dennis Virkler in cutting "The Wolfman." In Variety's wording, they've been brought into "recut" the movie.

Anyone who cannot see this movie as being a complete lost cause is either delusional or dim-witted (or both). Universal, which has not exactly had a banner year, has a lot riding on this movie. In addition to the untold millions they've pumped into it, between the shoot, the reshoots, and all those people they've already paid only to have them walk away (like Elfman, who had an entire score ready to go), "The Wolfman" is supposed to kick-start another cycle of Universal Horror movies, with remakes of "The Bride of Frankenstein" (to be directed by "The Illusionist's" Neil Burger), "The Invisible Man" (courtesy of "Dark Knight" co-screenwriter David S. Goyer) and "The Creature from the Black Lagoon" (for "Sahara's" Breck Eisner).

If "The Wolfman" bombs as bad as it looks like it will, then all of these movies will be stalled indefinitely, for sure, and the studio will find itself in the same place it was in 2004, when the lackluster commercial performance of Stephen Sommers' "Van Helsing" canceled similar plans for its all-star monster line-up.

Murch is undoubtedly a brilliant editor (he cut "Apocalypse Now," "The Talented Mr. Ripley," and the 1998 re-edit of "Touch of Evil"), and while we hope his considerable skill will help wrangle this out of control monster, Mark Goldblatt is a different story. Yes, he's a talented editor. Anyone that's done "The Howling" AND "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" has got skills. But recently he's become a Stuart Baird-type character who the studios bring in to anonymously cut movies last minute.

Either way: it does not bode well. Clearly, Universal is trying to make chicken soup from chicken shit and we're betting it'll be more shitty than soupy. Can somebody just find some silver bullets and put this thing out of its misery? -- Drew Taylor

'Batman 3' Non-News, Celebrity 'New Moon' Bashing

-Batman-On-Film claims that January is the start date for WB's plans for another "Batman" installment, and there's a strong likelihood that director Christopher Nolan will be the hero that Warner Bros. deserves, but not the one it needs right now. Nolan's finishing up "Inception" for WB and has a free slate after that, so all signs point to him accepting the dump truck of cash to return to the series, especially considering the WB just gave him a $200 million budget for his top secret pet project, but his silence on the matter has executives skittish. We already wrote about potential replacements, and they all remain on the table.

-In an interview with Hitfix, director Chris Weitz claims "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" is the "Empire Strikes Back" of the series, which is probably what all sequel directors say. Now, if he said this was the "Octopussy" of the "Twilight" series, we'd be listening. More interesting— did you know Weitz is also a producer on the upcoming "A Single Man"?

-In an interview with an Ohio radio station, two-packs-a-day teen starlet Miley Cyrus claims she wants no part of the popular "Twilight" series, which has more than a little spillover from her own demographics. She also says something about wolves jumping out of the television screen when she sees the ads for "New Moon," suggesting that either she's on an awesome amount of drugs or that rich people have first dibs on the 3D television sets of the future.

-Carl Eric Rinsch is in talks to take the director's chair for "47 Ronin," a fact-based thriller about an 18th century samurai clan who avenge the death of their master. The script is from Chris Morgan ("Wanted"), penning a re-write to accommodate star Keanu Reeves, who's actually half-Asian. Presumably the bottom half that we never see? Rinsch, a commercial director making his first film, was previously attached to the "Alien" prequel until his future father-in-law Ridley Scott retook the project. Happy Thanksgiving, Scott household!

-Coming Soon has debuted the French poster for "The Wolfman" and it's even more cryptic and less wolfy than the American ones. Unless of course there is a French film with a crackerjack cast about an elderly businessman who walks with a cane and closes deals with an animal-like ferocity that we haven't heard about.

Stephen Daldry To Direct 'Young@Heart' Feature Version Of Seniors Documentary? Steve Carell Being Eyed?

Earlier this week the trades reported that the Fox Searchlight documentary, "Young@Heart" was being remade into a narrative feature.

The doc was a touching look at a group of senior citizens who formed a choir and sang versions of contemporary songs by groups like Coldplay, The Clash, The Talking Heads and James Brown, under the guidance of a young music director — sort of like reverse "School Of Rock" meets "Cocoon" or something equally heartwarming and uplifting (or schmaltzy, depending).

"I'm With Cancer" scribe Will Reiser was in talks with Working Title to pen the screenplay, but no director was yet named.

However, one source says Stephen Daldry ("The Reader," "The Hours") is the man for the gig or at least that he's "attached." Apparently Working Title wants "40 Year Old Virgin" star Steve Carell for the lead, but it sounds like that's just an aiming-high wish list and all producers make those and often fall short (even Tarantino, for example, couldn't get everyone he wanted for "Inglourious Basterds").

Skeptics could view this as feel-good treacle, but Daldry proved he could carefully balance inspirational tones while not going overboard in the winning 2000 film, "Billy Elliot" (still a great picture by anyone's standards).

Pajiba, who brings us this news, is going for broke with a lot of exclusives this week, and actually two of their initial reports have turned up correct (Peter Berg off "Dune" and Chris Pine starring in "The Blade Itself" was confirmed by the author), so if this continues, it's going to be a major feather in their cap. If they turn up false...well, you know.

The online world is a little cynical, but that's basically only because an entertaining commentary site has turned into a news breaker and that always brings up a bit of skepticism. They shouldn't take it personally if they know they're right (and so far so good).

Here's the original "Young@Heart" documentary trailer. We missed it in theaters and need to Netflix queue it up.

Zhang Yimou's 'Blood Simple; Remake Is A Wacky Comedy That Features A Rap Written By The Director?

Ok, we know that Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou ("Raise the Red Lantern," "Hero," "Curse of the Golden Flower") is remaking the Coen Brothers' neo-noir, "Blood Simple" as a thriller-comedy set in a Chinese noodle shop in a sand dune-specked desert, rather than a bar in an unnamed Texas town where a jealous man schemes to murder his adulterous wife and her lover, but things go awry...

A little odd, but sure, sounds fresh enough and better than a straight-up remake, frankly. Plus the international sensibilities will surely turn up something fresh (Yimou is really not the first person you think of to remake the Coens, nor do comedy).

But is it going to be odder and wackier than any of us expected? The film has a title now, "The First Gun" (though it's been called, "Amazing Tales: Three Guns" in the past) is set for release early December in China (finished a lot faster than you thought, production only started in July), and apparently also features a rap that the director demonstrated on Chinese state television recently (or he at least rapped out the lyrics, on TV, very odd).

The director apparently wrote the rap or the song itself (sorry, we don't have access to Chinese TV on YouTube) and admitted the picture is far from his normal frame of reference. "This is the first time I have done a film like this," he said. "We have added a lot of things and changed the whole feeling [of Blood Simple]... we brought in a lot of comedic elements and changed the relationship and personalities of the characters."

Uhh, watching the trailer below you can tell, he is not kidding. It looks distinctly wacky.

Sony Pictures Classics is putting this one out in North America sometime in 2010 with no exact release date yet.

Peter Jackson Sorta Spoils 'The Lovely Bones'

Ok, you can probably figure it out. But if you've neither read the book, read the screenplay or seen the movie (all of which apply to us; though one of our writers did read the script), you might be slightly surprised to hear how Peter Jackson's "The Lovely Bones" ends or at least how one major character dies.

'Lovely Bones' follows the story of deceased victim Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan) as she lives in a magical purgatory world, but struggles between her dichotomous desires for vengeance against her murderer (Stanley Tucci) and hopes for her family to grieve and rebuild their lives (Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon and Rose McIver.)

What happens to Tucci's pervy pedophile character, the guy who kills and murders the 14-year-old Ronan character? Don't read on if you don't want to know. The spoiler? Told by Peter Jackson himself.

After test screenings, apparently the audience felt unsatisfied and wanted more... revenge.

"[we] basically add more violence and suffering". "[The audience] wanted far more violence. They just weren't satisfied."

Viewers were particularly exercised about a scene in which a man falls off a cliff. "We got a lot of people telling us that they were disappointed with this death scene, as they wanted to see [the character] in agony and suffer a lot more," said Jackson. "We had to create a whole suffering death scene just to give people the satisfaction they needed."

So we guess Tucci's character falls of a cliff and dies, huh? Great, thanks Peter. Honestly we were hoping a winged "Delgo"-dragon from Susie's afterworld would have swooped down and flown him to justice, incarcerating him in a Swiss prison. Ah well... there's always "Invictus" which we're pretty sure ends with Mandela being championed as the supreme chancellor of Earth.

Badly Drawn Boy Scores 'Fattest Man In Britain'

What's Badly Drawn Boy doing these days other then amassing the world's greatest collection of knit caps lovingly stitched by his grandma?

Evidently he's scoring another film which is perhaps good news because the last time we were seriously interested in BDB's work was when he penned the score for the film adaptation of Nick Hornby's novel "About A Boy" in 2002 (Have You Fed the Fish? in 2002 was so awful that we sort of checked out at that point).

Apparently he's already written the score for a British TV movie called, "The Fattest Man In Britain" which stars character actor Timothy Spall. Evidently, it's a one-off comedy drama written by Caroline Aherne.

Drawn Boy will release the soundtrack albums as Is There Nothing We Can Do on December 14 in the U.K. Will it hit the U.S.? The TV movie sounds unlikely, but the album? Probably and either way if it isn't released as an import there's always those pesky Internet leaks...

Bradley Cooper & Sam Worthington Join 'The Texas Killing Fields'?

Are Bradley Cooper and Sam Worthington coming aboard the project, "The Texas Killing Fields," that Danny Boyle abandoned earlier this year?

Boyle told MTV in February, "Texas Killing Fields’ was a fantastic script, really special script, but it was just so dark it would never get made. You’d have to have half a dozen super megastars for a studio to even consider making it. It’s by an ex-cop from Galveston and visually would have been extraordinary, but I don’t think that’s going to happen."

Well, according to Pajiba it is going to happen and Cooper and Worthington — Hollywood It Men, seemingly always brought up in conjunction with some new action drama — are a part of it.

Apparently Michael Mann is producing, and his daughter Ami Mann — a second unit director on "Heat" — is in line to take the directorial reigns.

Details are apparently scarce and it's evidently about "two cops who realize that the latest murder in their jurisdiction connects their case to the notorious killing fields murders. The killing field murders concern four bodies that were found in the same place in Texas — along Interstate 45 near Calder Road in League City."

Pajiba has come out of nowhere with a lot of "scoops" lately, but they'd honestly never been on our radar before. But their Peter Berg leaving "Dune" story apparently turned out to be true, so we cautiously optimistic about their work and hope this is true as it sounds rather promising. Though knowing now-becoming-A-list actors like Worthington and Cooper, they become attached to a lot of things, but that doesn't necessarily mean they'll make them. Also, Hollywood, please expand beyond Worthington, Cooper and Ryan Reynolds for every male project please. There are better actors out there (though Cooper so far really hasn't had a misstep aside from appearing in a Sandra Bullock film).

Richard Linklater's 'Liars (A-E)' Becomes Miramax Casualty

Oof. We were just thinking about this one last night. Richard Linklater is having a rough go of things. His spiritual sequel to "Dazed & Confused," a college '80s film titled, "That's What I'm Talking About," was shelved earlier this year and now another project, the political rom-com "Liars (A-E)" — that status of which we asked last night is at where exactly? — has been deep-sixed as well.

It was a rom-com project over at Miramax with Scott Rudin producing about a woman (Rebecca Hall) who retrieves lost items from her ex-boyfriends as she is on her way to President Obama's inauguration. Kat Dennings was set to play one of her friends (though that's a weird age gap between them).

Either way, it's not happening now. “It’s no longer happening, unfortunately,” Linklater confirmed to Movieline. “It didn’t really work out. It’s tough.”

Sucks for him. He has "Me & Orson Welles" coming November 25, and we hate to carp on about it, but it's not good and it's going to come and go, mark our words.

Linklater admits he has nothing lined up and as for "School of Rock 2," it's basically not happening either. "That’s not really happening," he said. "It’s not on the front burner. Mike White was writing it a long time ago, but it’s become dormant.”

Here's hoping for a better year for the indie director in 2010.

The 100 Greatest Quotes From 'The Wire'

As huge, avowed fans of "The Wire," this is just too good not to post. Still the greatest TV show ever as far as we're concerned, but then again, we don't really bother with TV much outside HBO. But several of these are stone-cold classics, especially anything that came out of Omar's (Michael Kenneth Williams) mouth. Every bon mot he delivers is a gem. People who have not yet delved into this show? You're truly missing out and have overlooked a hugely important cultural touchstone. Didn't realize this was from Pajiba, so adding a link.

Joe Wright In Talks To Direct Bad-Ass Teenage Girl, Assassin Thriller, 'Hanna'

After quashing rumors that he was set to direct the remake of the 1964 musical, "My Fair Lady" written and produced by Duncan Kenworthy, Emma Thompson and Cameron Mackintosh (which Danny Boyle also passed on), British filmmaker Joe Wright ("Atonement," "Pride & Prejudice") looks like he has his "The Soloist" follow-up locked down.

Wright has worked at least twice now with Focus Features ("Atonement," "Pride & Prejudice"), and appears to be returning to the fold after the misstep that was Universal's 'Soloist' (a decent script, but a mess of an uneven movie).

The director is in talks to take on "Hanna," according to DealMemo, which sounds like a very distinct change of pace and centers on a "bad-ass," 14-year-old girl who uses the survival skills taught to her from her ex-U.S. military father to survive a Swedish wilderness, and battle U.S. intelligence agencies while she treks across Europe to be reunited with her dad.

Uhh, wow. That is so not the teacup period dramas we're used to from Wright and therefore could be interesting. Then again, "The Soloist" was a detour as well. Still, it sounds pretty interesting coming from him. Any average director took this and we'd file it away under generic spy, action thriller (see something bland and awful like, "Whiteout") but he has a nice touch and should bring an interesting sensibility to this genre.

So, Saoirse Ronan for the lead maybe? Could you imagine her in a role like that? It seems unthinkable, but anything's possible. Ronan also seems like a good fit for the teenage girl in the Coen Brother's "True Grit." We'll see what her American accent is like in Peter Jackson's "The Lovely Bones."

Update: Interesting, the Hollywood Reporter has more info and calls it an assassin film that's a cross between, "La Femme Nikita" and the "Bourne" movies. Uhh, so it's like the younger female version of Steven Soderbergh's "Knockout" starring Gina Carano which has been described as a cross between 'Nikita' and 'Bourne' as well (and a few other films including Bond)?

The have more story details:

...centers on a 14-year-old Eastern European girl who has been raised by her father to be a cold-blooded killing machine. She connects with a French family, forms a friendship with their daughter and goes through the pangs of adolescence. When the girl is dragged back to her father's world and discovers that she was bred as a killer in a CIA prison camp, she must fight her way to a free life.

Apparently Danny Boyle and Alfonso Cuarón ("Children Of Men") were recently interested. Man, even more off Wright's normal radar. The director however, is probably eager to get some new project on the go and this creative left turn might be just the thing. His adaptation of "Indian Summer" starring Cate Blanchett, was supposed to shoot next year, but the project was expensive enough (relatively) for this climate and controversial enough (to the Indian government) that it had to be shelved for now. We hope he can resurrect it one day as it sounds very much in his wheelhouse.

This is definitely a different kind of project for Focus as well. We wonder what the budget is and presume it's not higher than $25 million (which is also being very, very generous).

Stuart Townsend, Ray Stevenson & Tadanobu Asano Join 'Thor'

Have Stuart Townsend, Ray Stevenson ("Punisher: War Zone") and Tadanobu Asano ("Mongol") joined the notable cast of Kenneth Branagh's increasingly impressive sounding "Thor"? Townsend is still probably more famous for being the guy that convinced Charlize Theron to sleep with him on a regular basis, but he's certainly not a bad actor either.

The trio will apparently play The Warriors Three, a triad of of Asgardian adventurers who fight alongside the Norse god (is this thing going to cost like $200 million dollars by the way?)

Curiously enough. ComingSoon gets their report from Variety, but the trade's piece has been taken down. Did someone speak too soon and run with something that actually wasn't confirmed yet? Too late it seems, the Internet is all over it. We wonder if that means it's actually true. Probably. Whenever a publication pulls a story like this it's because a studio, PR person or agent is not 100%, or the trade just got too overzealous with their report. Update: Guess the Variety URL changed for some reason. It's legit.

The cast of Marvel's "Thor" is the right way to cast a potentially silly movie like this. Actors first, star and names second, which is why we're perhaps more excited for this Marvel film more than any other. Branagh seems to have the right intentions here and is treating the material with gravity. Whether audiences or Marvel likes that in the end remains to be seen, but it's a smart choice, we think.

The cast includes Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Natalie Portman, Anthony Hopkins, Jaimie Alexander, Colm Feore, possibly Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and Stellan Skarsgard. Filming is set to begin January and the release date is May 20, 2011.

Anna Faris Joins Rom-Coms With Ryan Reynolds & Robin Williams; Stephen Root Joins 'Conspirator' & 'Cedar Rapids'

Anna Faris is everywhere. She's joining Robin Williams in a romantic comedy for touchstone called, "Wedding Banned." She'll play Williams' daughter in a story that sounds only marginally better than the abhorrent Mandy Moore, John Krasinski vehicle, "License to Wed. " 'Banned' focuses on a long-divorced couple who kidnap their daughter (Faris) on her wedding day to prevent her from making the same mistakes they did. THR says the mom has not been cast. Faris was born to do comedy, but that one sounds borderline mentally retarded.

Speaking of the actress, who still hasn't really found the right comedic project to showcase her talents outside a few supporting roles (she was great in "Observe & Report" though fanboys defending the rape scene was hard to watch), she's also set to star in "TMI" (that stands for too much information if you're an adult) with rom-com cardboard cutout Ryan Reynolds. The premise is couples that share too much, well, that can be... too much information! Ugh.

Another poster for Tim Burton's "Alice In Wonderland" starring the fey Carrot Top, errr, Johnny Depp. Someone remarked recently, can't remember who, that every role Burton hires Depp for, he completely emasculates the actor and makes him into a pansexual-like eunuch ("Charlie & The Chocolate Factory," "Edward Scissorhands," "Ed Wood" etc.). It's totally true and a good observation. Burton should make Depp straight for once or at least not such a huge fucking wuss (even in "Sleepy Hollow" or "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" he never gets it on with anyone).

"Fight Club" is coming to Blu-ray. So, for the 10th anniversary of the David Fincher film 20th Century Fox are offering free screenings of the movie in NY/LA. But maybe you're not supposed to talk about them, isn't that the first rule?

Paramount has bought a script by Jim Field Smith and George Kay, the writers behind the still-unreleased, "She's Out of My League" teen comedy (ironically enough by Paramount; though apparently due March 12, 2010). Paramount won't reveal what the story is called or what it's about, but it's evidently a family-oriented adventure-comedy in the vein of "Night at the Museum." Congratulations we guess... meh.

Stephen Root, still probably best well known (and adored) for his work in Mike Judge's "Office Space," has joined the ensembles of two well-cast pictures. Robert Redford's "The Conspirator" starring James McAvoy and Robin Wright Penn and the Miguel Arteta comedy, "Cedar Rapids" starring Ed Helms and John C. Reilly, plus Sigourney Weaver, Alia Shawkat ("Arrested Development") and Anne Heche. Good on 'em, both are looking like very interesting pictures.

Hack producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura ("G.I. Joe," "Doom") is at it again and is producing the action thriller "Last Stand" from writer Andrew Knauer that has been picked up on spec by Lionsgate. The film is said to have shades of "Gone in 60 Seconds" which really does it zero favors.

"Avatard" actor Stephen Lang (who was also in "Public Enemies" this summer) will join the cast of John Gray's indie drama "White Irish Drinkers," where he will play a tortured longshoreman according to THR.

Icelandic experimental pop star Björk and Icelandic poet and author Sjón are writing a song together for the "Moomins and the Comet Chase," which is made by Finnish children's movie company Filmkompaniet, and it will be coming to theaters in August/September 2010 according to Björk's website. Though this doesn't sounds like anything that will remotely get a large release in the U.S., so take that Aug/sept '10 with a grain of salt. It's the felt-puppet animated sequel to "Moomin and Midsummer Madness" which we don't ever recall hitting theaters either (but it looks damn cute).

McG Won't Be Diving '20,000 Leagues Under The Sea'

McG's attempt to remake "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea," has been beached by Disney. The film, which was titled, "Captain Nemo: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," and was set to shoot in February has been ankled and the "Terminator Salvation" director is no longer part of the project.

What happened? DealMemo doesn't say, but it appears that there were some creative differences between studio and director and starting such a presumably expensive picture in just three months probably wasn't enough time to find a new filmmaker and give them prep time. Disney will probably have to start from scratch.

Apparently McG will move on to "Dead Spy Running," a drama scripted by Academy Award winning screenwriter Stephen Gaghan. Wait, McG directing a film written by Gaghan. Aren't there Academy rules against that type of thing? That's disconcerting that a Gaghan script will allowed to be ruined like that.

The trade also says that McG is still attached to "Terminator 5," but as the property's on the auction block, that one's probably not happening anytime soon. Whoever buys it is also not obligated to use him and it'll be a few years until the franchise can recover from 'Salvation,' but at this point it'll probably have turned into the episodic "Star Trek" of yore and they should just leave it be. Though Hollywood is like the mouse and the electric cheese when it comes to potential dollars.

'The White Ribbon' Trailer Unspools

In true Michael Haneke fashion, his latest film pretty much caused the Cannes jury to have a meltdown when it was awarded the Palmes D'Or earlier this year. We didn't particularly love the film, which we reviewed back in October, but on the plus side it is easily Haneke's least audience-baiting film to date, and it's also undeniably gorgeous, with some breathaking work by cinematographer Christian Berger. Oh yeah, the lead performance by first time film actor Christian Friedel is one of this year's most remarkable turns as well. We're a little surprised more people aren't talking about it but that may change once this starts doing the critical rounds for Oscar season. It's Germany's official selection for Best Foreign Film and pretty much a shoo-in for one of the nods.

Here's the official synopsis:

A village in Protestant northern Germany. 1913-1914. On the eve of World War I. The story of the children and teenagers of a choir run by the village schoolteacher, and their families: the baron, the steward, the pastor, the doctor, the midwife, the tenant farmers. Strange accidents occur and gradually take on the character of a punishment ritual. Who is behind it all?

That's actually fairly accurate and by the end of the nearly two-and-half hour film you're not going get much closer to an answer. The official North American trailer to the film is oddly very spoilerish, revealing a lot of the twists and surprises that are probably better experienced going into the film cold. That said, it does do a good job of capturing the eerie coldness and general creepy vibe that runs throughout the picture, so proceed with caution?

"The White Ribbon" opens in NY/LA on December 30th and will rollout from there.

Richard Linklater Says He'll Try His 'Dazed & Confused' Spiritual Sequel Again One Day

Richard Linklater's spiritual sequel to "Dazed & Confused," a college film set in the '80s called, "That's What I'm Talking About" was going to be his next project earlier this year, but the Austin-based filmmaker soon realized the inhospitable film climate was not going to green light the project and the picture was shelved in the summer.

Collider got a chance to sit down with Linklater promoting his latest film, "Me & Orson Welles," and the director said that he still hopes to get the film off the ground, but as previously noted, said it's not a proper sequel and features all new characters (even though Matthew McConaughey was hoping to find a part in it; we'd sort of die for him to reprise his 'Dazed' role).

"I carefully called it a 'spiritual sequel' to Dazed cause it’s not the same characters," Linklater said describing the idea. "If Dazed was my high school, this is my college. It’s about a weekend in college in that time period. It’s funny…I think it’s the funniest thing I ever wrote.”

The director says he'll try and attempt to put on the film again in a few years, perhaps when the film economy becomes less timid and less about franchise. "It's a bad time for the industry, right now. I think I will get it made in the next couple years, something will come together... It's just a weird time."

Linklater says he had financing in place for a $14 million dollar film, but says he couldn't find distributors, naming several of the indie mini-majors, Fox Searchlight, Focus Features, suggesting they were too timid to take the risk. "People are looking for excuses to say no," he said. "We're in a 'no' culture right now in the film industry. We're not really in a yes [culture]."

He also says that next time he tries to take a run at "That's What I'm Talking About," he'll try and get casting in place rather than trying to sell it as a conceptual project on his own. The director describes its comedy somewhat akin to the humor in, "The Hangover," meaning it's "real male behavior, young men behaving really poorly."

He also notes that he has a true crime, black comedy set in East Texas in the works and says "School Of Rock 2" is an idea, but one that was trumpeted up too much by the trades at the time. It is tough out there, especially for the smaller films Linklater does and he hasn't had a hit in a while. 'Orson Welles' is all, but being dumped into a micro-release (sadly, it's not very good) and his "Liars (A-E)" rom-com was announced earlier this year with Kat Dennings and Rebecca Hall as the leads and the powerful Scott Rudin as the producer, but it appears that picture is still in development. Good luck to him either way. He definitely works outside the system and then uses it to his advantage and on his terms when he wants to.

Rachel McAdams Squashes Black Cat Rumors For 'Spider-Man 4'

Ahh, this one warms the cockles of our heart. We knew this was bullshit. The Rachel McAdams playing Black Cat in "Spider-Man 4" rumor?

Total bullshit as we suspected. She hasn't had talks with Sam Raimi as reported or anyone on the Sony project.

"That’s a total rumor, I have to say,” she told EW. “I was hanging out in Toronto the other day and someone came up to me and said, ‘I just heard you’re doing Spider-Man 4.‘ And I said, ‘Really? No one told me!’ It’s not true.”

As badly as they want them to happen, fanboys can't seem to force "Spider-Man 4" rumors into reality. Though it was quite obvious because she publicly wrote about it, another actress that nerds posited (dreamt) was a potential cast member, "Glorious 39" actress Romola Garai, shot down rumors that she too was in the film. "The point I was making [when writing that piece] is: 'I'm not going to get this [role]!' " She said.

All's well that ends well. Now when will these guys get over Spidey-4 baby rumors already.

Cinemania '09 Wraps: 'The Concert' & 'Home Sweet Home'

We are officially movied-out. At least for the next couple of days anyways. Cinemania wrapped this past weekend with another full slate of films, most of which we covered last week during the matinee screenings. However, among the highlights this past weekend was a screening of a new print of Costa-Gavras' classic political thriller "Z" followed by a master class with the acclaimed director. The weekend also saw the North American debut of Radu Mihaileanu's "The Concert," (reviewed below), as well as a schedule full of the last blast of French films that by Sunday evening, brought an end to Montreal's busy film festival season. For those of you who have been reading along over the past week and a bit, thanks for tuning in. The French film industry cranks out about 250 films per year and we hope we were able to give you a small glimpse of just what they have to offer.

"The Concert" - Director Radu Milhaileanu, best know for his films "Train Of Life" and "Live And Become" returns with an odd, bittersweet comedy that is literally split between one very good half, and one truly awful one. The film opens with a comedicly ripe premise. Andrei Filipov (Alekei Guskov) was once the great conductor of the Bolshoi Orchestra conductor, when he was reduced to being a janitor for the presitigous group for refusing to fire Jewish musicians during the Communist era. However, one day he catches a fax inviting the orchestra to Paris for a last minute replacement performance when he decides to round up all the old musicians, and take the gig, posing as the Bolshoi. The first act of the film, with Andrei gathering up the old group, getting sponsorship, passports and arranging the gig outside of official channels is a lot of fun, but when he and orchestra get to Paris the film goes right off the rails. Of course, on top of trying to get the group together to rehearse, the second act has about an hour to resolve about about two or three other subplots - including one involving Andrei's relationship to requested French soloist Anne-Marie Jaquet (Melanie Laurent) - that Milhaileanu doesn't have time to flesh them out. The result is a lot of embarassing stock, stereotypical shortcuts to comedy that are borderline offensive while trying a weave a more poignant melodramatic arc that really doesn't work. So why aren't the Russians, gypsies and Jews that make up the fake orchestra making it to rehearsal? Because they are out getting drunk, playing for money on the subway and selling black market cell phones. And no, I'm not exaggerating. In fact, Milhaileanu flounders so much in the second half of the film boucing from marginal storyline to ethnic humor gag to marginal storyline, that when the orchestra finally takes the stage for their Big Moment at the end of the film, the director is reduced to a using a voiceover, flashback and montage in the span of ten minutes to (barely) tie up the loose ends. We can't remember the last time the director used every directorial hand grenade in the Emergency Ending Kit in such a compressed period of screentime. It's sort of remarkable in its desperate ineptitude. It should also be noted - and perhaps submitted as evidence to Milhaileanu's meandering script - Jacqueline Bisset filmed scenes for the movie that were ultimately cut.

"The Concert" has been picked up by the The Weinstein Company and based on the audience we saw it with - many of whom were moved to tears by the end of the film despite/because of Milhaileanu's contrivances - it will be crowd pleaser for the studio. But while Milhaileanu gained serious festival attention for his aforementioned films, we will be very surprised if this is being considered for any kind of awards fodder. [C+]

"Home Sweet Home" - It seemed to be a weekend for films divided against themselves as the Didier Le Pecheur's unwise genre mashup between a murder mystery and a romantic comedy yielded neither sufficient suspense or genuine laughs. The overly delerious plot follows Claire (Judith Godrèche), a popular Parisian TV journalist who, after a break-up, returns to the small town where she grew up to see her father and his best friend who raised her. As it happens, someone has died in the town in some rather mysterious circumstances and big city detective Joubert (Alexandre Astier) has come in to try and solve the case. Naturally, Claire and her family become involved leading to many romantic and dramatic misunderstandings. As we mentioned, there isn't enough dramatic tension or amourous sparks to make the wacky plot work. And frankly, it's mostly the fault of Godrèche who gives us one of the most uninterested lead performances we've seen in a long time. Maybe she wanted to be in a different movie or her and Pecheur didn't get along, but Godrèche is so plain, closed and sourfaced for most of the film, it was entirely difficult to root for her. It really seems like she was just going through the motions on this one. "Home Sweet Home" is not without some laughs, but the preposterous story, coupled with an indifferent lead performance and a predictable arc in an overly long film made this one a bit of a slog. [C-]

Rob Marshall Confirms He's Directing 'Pirates 4'

We were hoping Rob Marshall would pass on "Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," a gig he was in talks for earlier this year, but so much time had passed (at least in blog years) we assumed he had moved on (plus we had heard some rumors of a British director possibly jumping on board).

But it seems that Marshall has confirmed that he will be the next captain of the "Pirates 4" ship. During a DGA screening for "Nine," Marshall spoke about the gig. Via AICN.

I just saw the DGA screening of Rob Marshall's latest movie, NINE tonight and stayed for the Q & A after, so I thought I'd write in to share my thoughts. First, let me just get the HUGE scoop out of the way: when asked about his next project (by Nora Ephron, who hosted the Q&A), he replied 'y'know, it's something that I was offered and never in the world thought I would do but then I was like 'why not?'... I'm doing 'Pirates of the Caribbean....''' That's right-- Rob Marshall is directing the next installment of the 'Pirates' franchise. The only additional thing he mentioned about it was that he had a wonderful meeting with Johnny a little while ago and that they're both excited to work together.

Sounds like a done deal. Some directors occasionally speak to soon, but we're doubtful that's the case here. Maybe he can make that franchise interesting of fun again and use that musical prowess to make some balletic action? It's about all we can hope for at this point. The original 'Pirates' was high-grade escapist popcorn, but everything since has been dreck.