Movie Minesweeper - The Cardboard Cut-Out Head Edition

- Paul Morrison is to direct the young Dali-Bunuel-Lorca biopic Ashes.

- Tony Gilroy has rewritten Matthew Carnahan's State of Play screenplay. The film is set to reunite Edward Norton with Brad Pitt, but after the failings of Kevin Macdonald's direction on The Last King of Scotland - a film that, where it worked, pretty much did so in spite of its director - I'm finding it hard to get too excited about this one. The TV version will always remain, of course.

- The first production image from The Mummy 3 has been issued.

- Max Makowski is reportedly the director charged with bringing Kung Fu to the big screen.

- The Japanese release of The Simpsons Movie is to feature celebrity voice overs and not the cast of the TV show. Fans are, of course, incensed.

- Jon Stewart has, apparently, been asked back to host the Oscars again next year.

- Slate see the Larry Craig scandal as a burst of great accidental advertising for the DVD release of Cruising.

- Censorship of the Tom and Jerry DVDs have left Mouse Cleaning and Casanova Cat on the scrap heap. Shameful.

- The strike, the strike, the strike: the latest strike casualty is Roman Polanski's Pompeii. If the film goes ahead, after the strike, it will be under a different director. This scheduling conflict, of course, suggests that Polanski has a different project lined up for a post-strike window... I do hope so. Anybody have any idea?

- A number of Sundance Fest films are headed to the namesake channel. Key titles include Red Road, Manda Bala and War/Dance.

- Don't expect a second Simpsons movie anytime soon.

- Jay Maynard hasn't been cast in the new Tron film. Ahem.

- The Weinsteins have tabled 2 to 2.5 million in payment for all North American rights to Diary of the Dead. The story goes that some distributors offered Romero some direct-to-video deals. Tsk.

- Fearnet are to premiere Catacombs, the horror movie starring Pink and Shannyn Sossamon. Firstly it will launch on VOD from Oct 1, then at Halloween it will stream online. The DVD release is expected in early 2008.

- Kate Bosworth has taken the lead role in Veronika Decides to Die, adapted from the Paulo Coelho novel and directed by Emily Young.

- The final poster for Southland Tales has been unveiled.

- Josh Lucas and Adam Brody have been cast in Boaz Yakin's Death in Love.

- Kathy Griffin is to be censored in this Saturday's Emmy telecast after making 'offensive comments' about Jesus.

- Catherine Breillat has cast Naomi Campbell in the film version of Bad Love, her recent novel.

- Viggo Mortensen is lining up the lead role in John Hillcoat's The Road, adapted from the Cormac McCarthy novel.

- The film folk to be honoured in the 2007 Kennedy Honours are Martin Scorsese and Steve Martin. I'm pleased to see Brian Wilson will also be given the salute.

- A piece on David Cronenberg and Guy Maddin is blessed with a couple of punning subheadlines.

- Ian McShane has confirmed that the Death Race race will take place in a prison, as mentioned here a couple-few weeks back.

- News, download and DVD sales website Filmcatcher has launched in a public beta.

- Dreamworks and Lionsgate have plumped for very similar taglines in the marketing of The Heartbreak Kid and Good Luck Chuck. (Sometimes) Love Blows, they say. Indeed.

- The Strause Bros. tried to secure some celebrity cameos for Alien vs, Predator: Requiem but were a) blown off one one count and b) asked for too much money on the other.

- Warner Independent and Netflix have teamed up to acquire Alan Ball's Nothing is Private.

- Alex Tse's Watchmen script - at the very least something like his shooting draft, according to some - has been uploaded to the web for all to enjoy.

- Hairspray's DVD and Blu-Ray release is set for November, but the HD-DVD launch is on hold until after the film is all played out in all territories. The rationale is that HD-DVD is not region coded but, in effect, neither is DVD these days, really. Who doesn't have a multi-region player by now? Surely anybody even the slightest bit inclined to importing will have sorted that out?

- Jamie Bamber is to star in Joel Soisson's Pulse sequel-n-threequel twinset.

- Rick McKay is to direct a documentary about his friendship with Fay Wray (and, yes, Peter Jackson and Naomi Watts will make cameo appearances).