Movie Minesweeper - The Galvanised Glove Edition

- Betty Thomas is the latest director to take on the Dallas feature film. John Travolta remains attached to play J R, but new candidates will have to be found for the remainder of the Ewing dynasty. Perhaps Linda Gray can return the favour and direct the Hill Street Blues movie.

- Jos Stelling's Duska is the official Dutch entry for the Oscar Foreign Language Film category next year.

- Uwe Boll's Postal panel from After Dark at Toronto has been transcribed.

- If Bruce Campbell signs on the dotted line, Bubba Nosferatu is all ready to go.

- Minor, minor spoiler: The Hulk and Abomination are to fight in the street outside New York's Apollo Theatre.

- Businessweek have named Stardust and Evan Almighty as the big losers at the box office this summer. they describe Stardust's script as incomprehensible, which I find a little distressing. The film isn't here in the UK yet, but I know the book well and it made perfect sense. Mathhew Vaughn, Jane Goldman - what have you done?

- Jeff Garlin has decided that Curb Your Enthusiasm isn't quite as brilliant as the films of Pixar. And he's right. I saw the link at Upcoming Pixar.

- Haunted High School Musical has been scrapped in favour of a plain threequel without the halloween vibe. Any approach may be compromised, however, by Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgen's contractual demands - they were only singed for two, and getting the third out of them may prove expensive.

- A fan hacked level of Super Mario World that plays itself (apparently, the player is holding down the down part of the d-pad, but that's all) has appeared on YouTube and it is so delightful and intricate and witty that I'm quite awestruck. This is what Michel Gondry would be making if he wasn't a film and video fellow but a videogame modder.

- Lust, Caution has been given an NC-17 rating and Focus features are to neither contest this nor alter the film. Good. I want to see a lot more NC-17 ratings, frankly. That way the big chains might start booking thse films with more lust and less caution.

- Fox have booted Anchorwoman to online-only after a single screening. They are so impatient. Not only have they dropped dreck like this, they constantly ditch shows. And that includes, of course, some of the best TV series ever made (Firefly and Andy Richter Controls the Universe come directly to mind). Fools.

- Evan Greenberg is to direct Dance of the Mirlitons from his own script. it's a black comedy about an overwight ballerina.

- Stephen Sommers is to direct the GI Joe film. I bet we're looking at a new low watermark in action cinema right there. Sommers is already pitching the film in terms of how 'cool' a Superbowl trailer it's going to have. Staurt Beattie is to write the new draft of the script.

- Mary Steenburgen, Katherine Hahn, Andrea Savage and Adam Scott have been cast in Adam McKay's Step Brothers.

- Alex De Campi's video for The Schema became a big smash on YouTube - possibly because a woman stands around naked for a second or two? Or possibly because Alex has a very big e-mail list and a lot of people prepared to link for her?

- Sony Pictures Classics have taken the distribution rights to Jonathan Demme's Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains.

- Disney are to distribute Jushua Michael Stern's political comedy Swing Vote. Kevin Costner will star as the apathetic voter elevated to global importance when his vote, and his vote alone, will decide on the next president of the USA. Dennis Hopper and Kelsey Grammer are to play the two candidates caught in the balance.

- Lee Byung-hun, Takuya Kimura and Shawn Yue Man-lok have joined Josh Hartnett in the cast of tran Anh Hung's I Come With the Rain.

- Arctic Tale's promotional tie-in with Starbucks appears to have been something of a dud.

- The DGA has banned screener discs again.

- The IESB are to break 'major geek news' on G4's Attack of the Show. This will be the Friday August 24th edition at 7pm ET/PT. Can somebody please watch and then post the 'major news' in the cdomments below? I'm in the UK, so I can't do it myself.

- Is Russell Crowe in The Dark Knight? No more than Eva Mendes is playing She Hulk, I imagine.

- There's something goregously retro about the new Price is Right set.

- Jurassic Park 4 isn't so imminent after all.

- The first still from Daybreakers is doing the rounds.

- A rather juvenile and pointless Shoot 'Em Up game is online. It involves shooting silhouettes to remove graphics of dollar bills from an image of a naked woman. Googling 'naked woman' will get similar results, and more of them, in less time.

- Another Neil Blomkampp Halo ad is up on YouTube. For a while, anyway. Don't worry if you miss it - the tedious thing is utterly underwhelming and devoid of significance.

- Rainn Wilson and Matt Ross are writing Renaissance Men. Wilson describes it as being like "We're No Angels, only funny and in a Renaissance Fair". That's a bit hard on We're No Angels, I think.

- Film rights to a book about being married to Steve McQueen by his first wife Neil Toffel have been snapped up by Kevin Kasha.