Movie Minesweeper - The Mr. Sheen Edition

- Christian Tramitz is to play FBI Agent Jerry Cotton, fictional hero of German pulp fiction in a new film series.

- Daniel Waters has won a best director award. That's very encouraging. The gong was for his film Sex and Death 101 which played at the Seattle Film Festival. If I could blow glass I'd make him a nice bauble too - for his Heathers screenplay which is, I'd say, the best script. Ever. How do I get to see Sex and Death 101?

- The IESB have a heap of License to Wed clips and a behind the scenes featurette too.

- No link for this one, I'm afraid, but John Travolta has been speaking to the UK tabloids and he's revealed that the Dallas movie isn't dead after all. He's meeting a new director soon and is very keen to get the wheels moving again, with a possible shoot start in January.

- Matthew Vaughn's MARV films, in which he is a partner with Kris Thykier, have signed a three-year first-look deal with Sony. The projects currently in development? A World War I drama, a Spaghetti Western and two comedies. The MARV men see themselves as a reply to Working Title, and I think they've every chance of similar success.

- A 21 disc set of John Ford films is coming in December. Yes - 21 discs. Suddenly the Blade Runner special edition has competition for pole position on my Christmas list.

- Richard Linklater has earned himself a ten-year supply of wine.

Stitched In

This is a moral fable, of a sort.

When America Ferrera signed to star in Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, she also signed an option for a sequel. Essentially, that means the producers can force her into making a second film. Now she's Ugly Betty, she's very popular and she's not really looking for a Sisterhood sequel.

The film's producers don't agree, they're exercising their option, and America is cornered. She's going to have to show up, or cough up. Of course, her new found fame is virually the entire reason this seuqel exists in the first place.

I'm thinking Ferrera will do the film, hardly invest herself in it, and pray that Ugly Betty maintains momentum - or, if she's smarter, she'll do the film, really do her best to turn in a blinding performance, and try to sign for some other, better films as soon as she can. That way, she's got a safety net for when Ugly Betty - maybe not quite as ridiculously repetitive as my US TV fave, House, but one tenth as well written and about one hundredth as interesting - inevitably falters.

Sanna Hamri is to direct these new travels of the Pants. She's a truly woeful music video director and, according to reviews, her feature debut Something New shows even less aptitude. Ken Kwapis directed the first Travelling Pants episode but he's doing okay, thank you, with the flattering cast and material of The Office and high-profile hype of License to Wed, so there's little wonder he's not coming back to play second fiddle to America Ferrera, freshly minted movie star.