The New Future

Sorry for the lack of udpates for a while, but some important changes are afoot behind the scenes. There won't be any more Movie Minesweepers but instead, a single daily, dated update that performs a similar job, rounding up small bites of info and hordes of links.

Updates throughout the day will be shorter, and specific to one story, film, idea or review.

The first daily update will be published to the site in time for the next daily e-mail, but there's more to come today including a piece on Rendition that also gets into Control and, of course, some trailer links.

Thanks for your patience.

Movie Minesweeper - The Rapid Fire Finger Cymbals Edition

- The details/delusions are starting to trickle forth regarding the Star Wars TV series. Personally, it all sounds credible to me, not least because George Lucas' imagination knows no bounds - and I mean that in the worst possible sense. If this show gets some good writers and okay directors it could, without too much effort, put at least five of the films in the shade - and I'm hoping it does.

- John Malkovich, Colm Feore, Jason Butler Harner, Michael Kelly, Amy Ryan and Jeffrey Donovan have all signed on to Eastwood's The Changeling.

- Julianne Moore has written a children's book. I saw the link at FilmExperience.

- Steven Antin is to direct Burlesque, a musical that promises to blend Moulin Rouge and Cabaret. While Antin wrote the first draft, Diablo Cody revised the script and that alone has me interested...

- Rhythm and Hues have confirmed that their most spectacular FX sequence for The Golden Compass has been postponed until The Subtle Knife - if it ever happens.

- Joe Carnahan has revealed that Chris Pine finally opted for Star Trek rather than White Jazz, so, ladies and gentlemen, we finally have our new Kirk.

- Zack and Miri are to shoot their porno in Pittsburgh [EDIT: Drat. I had typed Boston and, to be honest, I have no idea why. Maybe I'm secretly obsessed with Boston? Sorry for any dashed hopes this edit may have smeared upon the rocks] and, for the first time, Jason Mewes is to appear in a Kevin Smith film not as Jay.

- Conan O'Brien's next attempt to produce a sitcom that doesn't get cruelly axed within weeks will be Man of Your Dreams. Superficially, it has some similarities with Hitch - a womanizer dispensing dating advice - but I dare say it will be a different kettle of fish entirely, not least because he tutors women, not men. Jay Lacopo is scripting.

- The R1 DVD of Die Hard 4 is to come with a DRM-free digital version (er... isn't the DVD a digital version?)

- Patrick Smith Kelly is to turn Kit Whitfield's werewolf thriller Benighted into a screenplay, Andrew Adamson may direct.

- Neil Gaiman has placed the movie of Stardust into the context of telling and retelling that all good stories go through. My Stardust review will be live before the film's UK release tomorrow night...

- The Works are to distribute Closing the Ring in the UK and Ireland. [EDIT: I'm still smarting over that whole Boston thing]

- The latest film to go into production under JJ Abrams will be Roger Michell's Morning Glory. Fair enough. Worse news, however, is that Aline Brosh McKenna wrote the script, and she previously perpetrated the awful screenplay for The Devil Wears Prada. [EDIT: There are some promising rumours of Reese Witherspoon and Harrison Ford taking the lead roles]

- Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski have proven to be one of the best screenwriting teams in recent years, if not in all of cinema, and never less than when writing biopics - Man on the Moon and Ed Wood being two genuine masterpieces of the genre. They're now to direct, as well as write, Big Eyes, a film about Margaret and Walter Keane. She was a 'genius' painter who lived and worked in near anonymity while he took the credit and dined out (to say the least) on her skills. Not to spoil anything, it all came to a head in a court case with one completely predictable but beautiful Matlock moment. This film has gone straight into my 'hot list' of films to be incredibly excited about. [EDIT: Once I stop kicking myself over the whole Boston/Pittsburgh thing from a few inches above]

- That new Hellraiser is expected to roll pre-strike.

Movie Minesweeper - The Munchkins On Every Channel Edition

- Lionsgate are to produce an Einstein biopic from Walter Isaacson's Einstein: His Life and Universe.
- Taylor Hackford has consigned his wife to a brothel. Helen Mirren is to star in hubbie's Love Ranch, alongside Joe Pesci. They play a couple who ran the first legal whorehouse in Nevada, and the story deals with their violent conflicts after their marriage is troubled with infidelity.

- The Ronald Grant Cinema Museum in Lambeth needs to find a new home.

- Richard Williams' animation masterpiece Raggedy Ann & Andy is to get a rare 35mm screening. I wish I could be there, but I'm half a world away.

- Ellie Kendrick is to play Anne Frank in the BBC's new dramatisation of her diary. The show will be screened over five consecutive nights.

- Keith Allen - Kevin's brother, Lily's dad - is working on a documentary about the inquest into Princess Diana's death. If it's anything like his previous documentaries it will be utterly smug and stiflingly dull.

- Al Gough and Miles Millar are to produce Wake Up Call from Justin Ware's comedy pitch. Ware also dreamt up American Summer, co-scripted by Julie O'Hora who has taken the producers to court over alleged underpayment.

- Variety have noted the Darwinian fitness of Across the Universe.

- The 5-disc Blade Runner set won't be available on HD-DVD or Blu-Ray in the UK... yet.

- Yeah, yeah, the Weinsteins have had more flops than smashes, okay, so what, blah blah blah. Old news.

- Fox have hacked their episode order for The Return of Jezebel James down to seven episodes from thirteen. I doubt very much they'll even air all of those. And of course, Fox turning their back on a show is far from an indication that it's not much cop. This could be the best TV show ever made and they'd still treat it like this.

- Is Lindsay Lohan going to be one of Brett Ratner's Playboy bunnies?

- British actor Jamie Dodd has posted his lacklustre CV to Digg, claiming that Quentin Tarantino is keen to employ him a future film. Sure, Jamie. Sure.

- Taryn Manning played Victoria Principal in Your Name Here, the not-quite-a-Phil-Dick-biopic that stars Bill Pullman as a parallel universe version of the author. Spoiler - this version of Principal is a robot. If you don't know why, I expect the Dangerous Days doc on the upcoming Blade Runner DVD will fill in the gaps in your knowledge.

- Matt Dillon is lining up a role as Leonard Chess, the inventor of the popular boardga... er... the founder of Chess Records who gave the world Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry and Etta James.

- Jim Hill's latest piece is on Pixar, their marketing, the possibility of 'brand fatigue' having hit their audience and their attempts to broaden their perceived boundaries by bringing in live action.

- The DVD of The Kingdom is going to contain a 20 minute 'Timeline' of events that lead up to the political situation presented in the film. It seems to be made of short video fragments, and as yet, I have no idea if there's a 'play all' function.

- The school governor who took his battle to prevent An Inconvenient Truth from being screened in schools all the way to the courts has been exposed as - guess what - a mining and metals magnate.

- Incidentally, The Kingdom's director Peter Berg is rumoured to be trying to get another version of Dune off of the ground.

- David Simon has been discussing the fifth and final seasons of The Wire and his subsequent series, about musicians in New Orleans after the Katrina catastrophe.

- Christina Millian wants the role of Wonder Woman.

- Zombie crime drama pilot Babylon Fields was not picked up this fall, but TV Week have posted some clips and explained the premise. Looks very promising, if you ask me.

- Halle Berry's Nefertiti movie is still moving forward.

- Roger Ebert has stated that an IMAX rerelease of 2001: A Space Odyssey is 'almost inevitable', the mouthpiece of IMAX hasn't agreed.

Movie Minesweeper - The Red And Black Face Logo Edition

A relatively short update tonight because, frankly, not much goes down on a Sunday. I finally got to see Stardust however and... well, my hopefully rather interesting review will follow before the UK release this Wednesday.

- Weta are reportedly designing the new Batman and Superman suits for the JLA film, and Dean Semler is set to shoot it. These rumours seem to nullify those stories of an all mo-cap extravaganza. I saw the link at AintItCool.

- Jean Claude Van Damme is playing himself in a mockumentary and the first trailer is online now. [EDIT: And I have been given a link to a downloadable version just lurking around Sendspace]

- George Lucas is going around, pressing the flesh and pushing the point with potential writers for his live-action Star Wars TV show.

- The Valkyrie crew are looking to reshoot some scenes at the Bender Block.

- Werner Von Trapp has passed away. His equivalent in the movie was called Kurt.

- The Greek authorities have relaxed their ban on filming at commercial sites, so what do we get? Nia Vardalos and Richard Dreyfuss in My Life in Ruins. Tsk.

- Jason Rothwell is adapting the novella Kept for Twisted Pictures. It's an adulterer-in-peril hostage horror film, somewhere between Hard Candy and Fatal Attraction by the sound of things.

- Craig Gillespie has talked about the problems that blighted Mr. Woodcock and why Lars and the Real Girl is much more the kind of film he wants to, and tries to, make.

- IFC have uploaded some great press conference clippage regarding John Landis' Don Rickles documentary Mr. Warmth. While we're here - Landis has confirmed his Bat Boy musical is dead and that's not exactly making me smile. I meant to post that link last week but - unfortunately - it slipped through the net.

- John Leguizamo - currently recording lispy voicework for another Ice Age film - may play Cantiflas, "the Mexican Charlie Chaplin", in a biopic.

Movie Mineseeper - The Second Silver Platter Is Hidden Edition

- Uwe Boll thinks Grand Theft Auto and Halo would make for bad, or at least redundant game-to-movie adaptations. I doubt he's wrong... but why did he think, say, Far Cry or Bloodrayne would necessarily be any different?

- Logan-Marshall Green has taken the lead role in Brett Ratner's TV pilot, Blue Blood. It's a cop thing.

- Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury have discussed their plans for the Hellraiser remake and it seems they don't want us to think of it as a remake at all. I see their highly-touted film Inside is at the Frightfest all-nighter on November 2nd - are any of you lot going to that?

- A press release from The Catholic League has just trickled down to little old me. Bill Donahue is alleging that the removal of the theological subtext in the Golden Compass film is a 'stealth marketing campaign' on the part of the film's producers. He argues that, having seen the (neutered) films with their kids, Catholic parents may ignorantly buy them the (potent) books. Oh - honestly. For one thing, there's no reason to assume New Line give a monkeys about the book sales.

- Michelle Rodriguez' jail sentence is to wait until she finishes shooting Avatar. She's headed into prison on Christmas Eve.

- Want to know which five films Joel and Ethan Coen would like to see remade? Which film Steven Soderbergh thinks is even better than its high flying reputation? The five films DBC Pierre suggests are best avoided when on medication? Five films Mike Figgis thinks have great sex? Mavis Cheek's list of five film scores 'to make the spine tingle'? Five films that defy genre, according to David Hare? Five of the baddest hair days on film or five great cinematic drag acts? Then thank the Guardian for ripping a bunch of highlights from Faber and Faber's list book Ten Bad Dates with De Niro.

- Nikki Finke thinks she started a chain reaction that went on to hurt the box office of those horror films she'd like to classify as 'Torture Porn'. We already knew she semi-secretly thought this, but now she's confirmed it by speaking to Elle on the subject. She's very wrong for a number of reasons... but here's just a couple of the ludicrous assumptions that her argument hangs on: the never-demonstrated notion that critics can sway the box office of genre films to any meaningful degree; that by the time Nikki Finke started running off at the mouth about the matter, all manner of more powerful, if only equally tiresome, spokespieces for the supposed moral majority hadn't already played the whole dumb argument out.

- Jim Hill has broken down the animated opening scenes of Enchanted, with plenty of images on show.

- Anne Thompson has posted videos of Julie Taymor speaking Across the Universe on AMC's Shootout.

Movie Minesweeper - The Salt Salt Sugar Sugar Edition

Jake Gyllenhaal has just been on Jon Ross' BBC1 show and, to my eyes and ears at least, he was on top form. Good stuff. I'm very excited to see Rendition but have yet to be invited to a press screening. I guess I'll be buying a ticket next Friday. And now, here is the news.

- Peter Cullen knows of plans for two more Transformers.

- Eli Roth's Trailer Trash is to roll pre-strike, with an August 22nd release date for next year already penned in. Roth wants to "make a film like Monty Python and the Holy Grail" which he considers "the greatest acheivement in the history of cinema". He's not far wrong.

- Fox are snuffing out all singalonga Buffy screenings.

- Darren Aranofsky's Protozoa Pictures are to bring us The Wrestler, with Nic Cage as the well-oiled eponym, respectable in the 80s but now a little less flattered by the spandex. Having given up the play fighting with a dickie heart, Cage's slam-bam-and-thank-you man has taken a job in a deli and moved in with an 'aging stripper' (I wonder how old she turns out to be?) until along comes the prospect of a rematch with his one-time nemesis, amusingly called The Ayatollah. There's a possibility that Aranofsky may direct - but just that, a possibility.

- Will Smith is spinning Hitch off into a sitcom, as a producer but not a star.

- Stallone has put his foot down and it is going to be called John Rambo after all.
- Special effects explosions have been set loose at Battersea Power Station, apparently for the opening scenes of The Dark Knight.

- Disney Adventures is to cease publication.

- Zachary Quinto at least expects his Spock will have the old-style green-tinted skin. He may be wrong, of course.

- Paul Haggis had to plot Bond 22 at least twice. He thought his first plot was great, and then it got binned. Meanwhile, Fernanda Lima and Juliana Paes are reportedly up for roles in the film.

- The Mist has been rated R. This isn't really news, is it? But Frank Darabont has had to make it clear, to silence the fuss.

- The trailer to Shaolin Girl, a kind-of Shaolin Soccer semi-sequel is on YouTube. I found it through Film Junk.

- John August is writing and directing a story for Heroes: Origins. This spin-off will find it hard not to be better than the root series, I think, with some of the talent getting involved.

- Song of the South has had a public screening in the US and, at least the last time I checked, society hadn't started to crumble.

- My Name is Bruce is still not locked. We can expect some kind of release next year.

- GI Jonny wants you to know about HIV.

- Across the Universe is becoming a 'cult sensation' in the US, inspiring repeat viewings - I told you I'd go again and again if I could - and crazy-good word of mouth. It is, after all, the best film of this year, and one of the best of any year.

- Director David Hackl will soon start plotting out Saw V with scriptwriters Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton. Apparently, Alexa Vega really wants a role in the film - and a role where she'll get offed, no less.

- The Swedish Brickfilm fest is tomorrow, featuring a number of films comprised only of Lego, typically stop-motion animated.

Just about bedtime. I'm very, very pleased that Across the Universe is taking off. Mark my words - its reputation and fanbase will only grow and spread and strengthen.

Movie Minesweeper - The Voter Registration Freephone Edition

It's been too long since my last Minesweeping session. I've missed you.

- Fox sources are insisting that Hitman is still be to released with an R rating and that Xavier Gens has not been removed from the project.

- Amy Sherman-Palladino is to direct Sarah Jessica Parker in HBO's feature adaptation of Amy Cohen's memoir, The Late Bloomer's Revolution. Unfortunately it isn't adjunct to Tulip Fever.

- Persepolis has an okay poster.

- Plenty of Spider-Man/2/3 props, equipment and memorabilia are to be auctioned next Monday. 'A portion' of the proceeds will go to charity and the rest, of course, will be pocketed. Absolutely disgusting. Money grabbing thieves. What justification do they have for this at all? Aren't they paid enough?

- The Band's Visit has been booted from the Oscar Foreign Language longlist because its dialogue is over 50% in English. Sounds fair.

- An on set image from Guerilla shows Benicio del Toro in Che get up.

- Fisher Stevens is going to be on Lost.

- The inspiration for Sony's Play Doh bunnies has been identified.

- A number of creatives (Glen Morgan, Laeta Kalogridis, Jason Smilovic) have lost their handles on the Bionic Woman control console and now, Jason Katims is running the show.

- I reported a long time ago that David Milch's next show would be set in the 70s and be about cops - now we know it's about the Knapp investigation.

- John Rambo is now to be called Rambo To Hell and Back, which is probably more appropriate if slightly less literally accurate. I saw the link at AintItCool.

- The marketing plans for sex-doll comedy Lars and the Real Girl are to involve getting pastors to discuss the film in sermons. Really.

- Michael Madsen has filed a $10 million lawsuit against Innovative Artists on the grounds that the agency is still trying to collect for work he has negotiated since parting ways with them four years ago.

- Is Bryan Singer trying to talk Terrence Stamp into reprising the role of Zod in the next Superman film? Yes, indeed he is. And he won't take too much persuading, I'm sure.

- George Huang's Madman movie is still moving forward.

- Zack Snyder has cooked up the premise for The Last Photograph. In his plot, said photo prompts two men to enter war-torn Afghanistan. Does the snap seem to suggest somebody is alive when they are 'supposed to be' dead, I wonder? Kurt Johnstad is to script, Snyder may direct.

- Simon Pegg is to play Scotty in Star Trek. Hmmmm. I wouldn't have cast him, personally. And I think he's wonderful. Anyway, a thousand proper geeks (that's just about all there are left - witness the Grind House box office) exploded with joy when this broke 12 hours or so ago and that, in its way, was pretty exciting. Better casting, I think, is John Cho as Sulu.

- More digital projection of Paramount pictures, more of the time. In Europe, anyway.

- Brian De Palma has confirmed that, sadly, his film Redacted has been redacted with a closing montage of real casualties of war being rendered unrecognisable by having their faces covered by black marks. Of course, this also increases their power in many respects.

- Staying on my mother continent, Michael Ballhaus and Jean Luc Godard are to receive special gongs at the European Film Awards this December.

- Tobe Hooper is to direct the film of From a Buick 8. The script is by Johnathon Schaech and Richard Chizmar.

- George Clooney and Grant Heslov are to produce a film adaptation of Ole Steinhauer's spy thriller The Tourist.

- Warners have snapped up the movie rights to School of Fear on the sole basis of a proposal for a series of four kid's books. The premise revolves around a summer camp that tries to cure kids of their phobias. The first book is due two years from now.

- Frank Langella has also climbed inside Richard Kelly's Box. This should be Kelly's best film so far, and by a considerable distance, because the source story is a real humdinger.

- Empire will star Will Smith as a global media mogul, be written by John Logan and directed by Michael Mann. When's it out? I think I might have to wash my hair.

- The Sims, and previously the far superior Sim City, creator Will Wright is to have the honour of BAFTA fellowship bestowed upon him.

- Carice van Houten has slipped into the cast lists of both Body of Lies and Repossession Mambo.

- Marc Fienberg's Play the Game is shooting now. Andy Griffith stars as an oldie taught how to hit on girls by his grandson - played, I believe, by Paul Campbell. Clint Howard, Doris Roberts and Marla Sokoloff are also onboard.

- Warners have optioned Brock Clarke's just published, and brilliantly titled novel An Arsonist's Guide to Writer's Homes in New England.

- Paul Greengrass is now also linked to They Marched into Sunlight, a Vietnam war film.

Back shortly with more.

Movie Minesweeper - The Some Old Bunch Of Grapes Edition

Lots and lots of good stuff in this Minesweeper, I think, so read it even more closely than normal.

- There's no denying it now - Cars 2 is in development.

- Xavier Gens has been fired from Hitman because the film is too violent for a PG-13 rating. Yet another case of execs snoozing through a production then waking up with a snort during post production. Nicolas De Toth has been charged with toning the film down, much as he did Die Hard 4.

- Jerry O'Flaherty has a history in videogame cutscenes. His new gig is the Thundercats film. Sounds about right. I wish cutscenes were better, I really do. So many good games have truly awful cutscenes.

- Old audio from Red Dwarf episodes has been given new animated visuals and released for download to mobile phones because, it seems, there's some sort of audience out there for anything.

- Nothing surprising about a second Disturbia getting to the planning stages, is there?

- Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany won't be starring in Born after all. Indeed, Connelly is suggesting the report was false to begin with.

- Michael C. Hall, star of the daft Dexter, has been given the villain's role in Neveldine and Taylor's Game.

- Vivian Vyle co-creator Tanya Byron is to report the findings of 'an independent review examing the risks to young people from exposure to violent video games'.

- According to Spielberg, there's a possibilty that he and Peter Jackson will co-direct the third Tintin film. That's if they don't hire another director. Lord, please let them hire another director. A Spielberg-Jackson co-directed film would make my brain leak out of my ears, the cognitive friction would be too much to handle. Personally, I would get Shyamalan on the phone right now. Spielberg also revealed that Shia LaBouef has signed on for 'multiple' Transformers films, and that he has opted to shoot Indy IV on film because 'great directors" of the past shot on film, and if it's good enough for them, then it's good enough for him. How he excuses his use of digital compositing, dolby stereo, CG animation and so on, then, I don't know.

- Paul WS Anderson has been telling Empire about his Long Good Friday Remake.

- Robert Englund is to star in Horror in the Wind, about an airborne agent that changes people's sexual orientation.

- Michel and Paul Gondry (father and son) are to co-direct an animated feature film based on Paul's artwork and the two of them's real life relationship.

- Infinite O.Z is a website devised to promote Tin Man.

- Tromaster Lloyd Kaufman has been made chairman of the International Film and Television Alliance.

- Gore Verbinski has said that "Western storytelling has run it's course, in a way". Oh, honestly. I didn't even think that after seven accumulated hours, or whatever it was, of Pirates.

- Meanwhile, Peter Greenaway has described cinema as 'dead' and 'a pathetic adjunct' to painting. Shall we not bother with Nightwatching or J'Accuse then Peter?

- Leonardo DiCaprio is attached to star in the film of Farragut North, and George Clooney may direct. The Mike Nichols/Jake Gyllenhaal stage version sounds much more appealing to me.

- Odean Sky Filmworks are to distribute [REC] in the UK.

- Variety know just which filmmakers are coming along to present their films at this year's London Film Festival.

- Brad Silberling has signed on for Land of the Lost. Robert Rodriguez was circling the project some months ago, but apparently not any longer, eh? Will Ferrell is still in place to star and the budget has undergone a 20% shrink to 'just' $100 million.

- Mark Bowden is to adapt Hamilton Sides' I Am a Man, a 'compressed historical thriller' about the hunt for James Earl Ray after his assassination of Martin Luther King.

- John August has made his screenplay for The Nines available for download.

- Quincy Jones is teaming up with Genius Products and QD3 Entertainment to produce and acquire 'urban' feature films.

- That infamous pre-strike priority list has been updated. Lots of new films, some old ones gone, and some start dates in place.

- Bradley Whitford, Neve Campbell and Rupert Penry-Jones are to star in eco-political-thriller Burn Up, scripted by Simon Beaufoy and directed by Spooks' Omar Madha.

Movie Minesweeper - The Fields And Getty Melodramatic Chat Edition

- While Eric Bana has taken the villainous role in Star Trek, Chris Pine has yet to commit to James T. Kirk. The offer's open however - he simply has to choose if he'd rather take that role over the part of Junior Stemmons in Joe Carnahan's White Jazz. Or can schedules be jiggled to accomodate both films?

- Giovanna Mezzogiorno has joined German pop star Campino in the cast of Wim Wenders' romantic thriller The Palermo Shooting, currently filming in... well, Palermo. Lou Reed, Dennis Hopper and Patti Smith are to cameo.

- Motorola weren't entirely pleased with Michel Gondry's latest ad for them. Too sophisticated they say - so why on earth they hired Gondry in the first place I'll never know. A bit like Joe Roth trying to cut Julie Taymor's Across the Universe or the Weinsteins fighting Gilliam over The Brothers Grimm.

- The Academy have ditched their multicity rollout requirments for documentaries to be elligible for Oscars. Now, instead of need 14 days of play in 10 cities, 7 days in Manhattan and Los Angeles will do the trick. Is this just a symptom, or will it be a cause, of the narrowing availability of cinematic options outside NY-LA?

- Kelly Bowe is adapting Jill Smolinski's novel The Next Thing on My List into a screenplay. The HR describe it like this: June Parker is a 34-year-old woman whose life changes forever when her new acquaintance from a Weight Watchers meeting dies next to her in a car crash. After finding a list of 20 things her passenger wanted to do before she turned 25, from running a marathon to kissing a stranger, the guilt-ridden June finds new adventures while living out the wishes.

- Stuntman Bud Ekins has passed away, but his motorcycle jump in The Great Escape will live on forever.

- Anchor Bay are to distribute Fred Durst's The Education of Charlie Banks.

- Sanaa Lathan and Matthew Broderick have been cast in Joshua Goldin's Wonderful World.

- Terminator 4 is to be called Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, and it is to be distributed by Warners, which sucks for MGM. When it rolls next year, I'm hoping McG is behind the camera - even if you aren't. Also note: Schwarzenegger may cameo, or at least, there's a possibility of this worked into the script; and this film is set in the future, amid the war between humans and the Synet cyborg forces.

More very soon, so hold those horses.

Movie Minesweeper - The Put My Mutton Chop On The Sideboard Edition

- David Michaelis' new biography of Charles Schulz has upset the great cartoonist's children.

- Michael Patrick Jann is to write and direct Intelligence, a HBO comedy vehicle for Patton Oswalt and Bradley Cooper.

- According to Matthew Vaughn, the Thor budget needs to be in the region of $150 million but the script is looking more like $300 million.

- What Happens In Vegas will benefit from a Queen Latifah cameo.

- Latea Kalogridis is reworking the script for Darksiders, the long stalled FBI-and-Vampires vs. Arms Dealers actioner.

- Zach Helm is to produce and at least co-write Rockville 2020, a 'theological mystery' about a small town trying to win the honour of hosting the 2020 Olympics.

- Julia Roberts may join Nicole Kidman in Monte Carlo, a yarn about Midwestern schoolteachers pretending to be high rollers in the titular city, all in an attempt to catch them some gullible billionaire boys. Who might be the third lying, scheming trickster? Suggestions in the comments, please. I'll bet on Sarah Jessica Parker.

- Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan's comic The Last Christmas is about post-apocalyptic Santa Claus battling zombies, and now it has been optioned for a possible movie. Sadly, Pia Zadora has long since passed away but if she was still with us I'd bang my drum every day and every night until she was given a role. [EDIT: I've fallen foul of Wikipedia killers - Ms. Zadora is happily very much still with us. Get ready for some drum banging]

- Lisa Kudrow is the latest to check into the Hotel For Dogs. That sounds dreadful. Oh dear. But how else can I put it?

- Sugar Ray Leonard is to be the subject of a biopic, written by HG Bussinger.

- John H. Lee is remaking The Killer with a Korean star and LA setting.

- Rob Reiner's Hilary Clinton promo is now online. Reiner appears in it as a version of himself.

- Jeffrey Combs hammers another nail into the House of Re-animator coffin.

- Some revealing Spiderwick Chronicles images have appeared.

- Outsourced is being spun off into a TV series. The film's scriptwriters George Wing and John Jeffcoat are writing the pilot.

- David Arnold is back onboard the Bond train for his fifth score.

- They're Blade Runner: Final Cut crazy at AintItCool - on at least one, two counts.

- Unless you're particularly interested in the actresses who appear in The Evil Dead, the film's 3-Disc 'Ultimate Edition' DVD has little to recommend it over the umpteen variants already out there.

- Amalgamated Dynamics have a Wolverine make-up effects contract.

- Cineworld are to install 30 Real-D equipped screens across the UK in time for Beowulf on November 16th.

Movie Minesweeper - The Digital Equivalents To Contracts Signed In Blood Edition

- David R. Ellis is directing a new Dylan Dog film, and Brandon Routh is set to star. It won't be one half as good as Dellamorte Dellamore, I'm sure.

- Sony are setting up a low-budget imprint called Stage 6 films. In their announced list of films you'll not only find some predictable genre sequels - to Starship Troopers, Vacancy, Center Stage and Art of War - but also, quite curiously, David Ondaatje's remake of The Lodger. That one will star Alfred Molina... but on the other hand, there will be Val Kilmer in both Conspiracy and Felon. Rounding out this wave will be Dark Country, with Tom Jane both appearing and directing, and The Stone House with Shane West and JK Simmons. The pretense is that not all of these films will go straight to DVD.

- The November 1st strike is looking like a real possibility. Oo-er.

- Paz Vega will be Plaster of Paris and Jamie King will be Lorelei, phantom siren, in The Spirit.

- Armando Iannucci is to direct In The Loop, a feature film comedy about the "the lives of people in the Foreign Office and the US State Department in the build up to a war". A kind of stateside sister to The Thick of It, I suppose - this could well be one of the best films of the next couple of years.

- Jake Gyllenhaal is to star in Doug Liman's next, an as yet untitled action space racer about lunar colonisation. The script is getting completely reworked by Black Hawk Down's Mark Bowden. And, by the way, you can expect a direct download link to the Jumper trailer in the next 24-36 hours and finally get to see Sam Jackson's quite curious hairstyle in motion.

- Oliver Stone is producing a rival Pablo Escobar film to Joe Carnahan's Killing Pablo. Antoine Fuqua is directing Escobar, which should be first out of the gate as Carnahan is tied up in White Jazz.

- Peter Sollett's film of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist is to star Michael Cera and Kat Dennings.

- Some new Beowulf images give a very clear look at Grendel, amongst other things.

- Ted Z has interviewed Mike Mills.

- You can peruse an illustrated countdown of the fifty best breasts in Hollywood history as long as you allow it to raise your awareness of breast cancer. Promise, now. That's why the American Cancer Society are behind it.

- The Halcyon Co. have locked up all Philip K. Dick books and stories to yet be adapted in a three-year first look deal. I assume they expect a return to the Dick fever of five or so years ago when the final-final-final Blade Runner hits later this year. The Dick estate, in the guise of Electric Shepherd, are to co-develop any films Halcyon embark upon. I call dibs on Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said.

And that's all for now, I'm afraid. It's a very, very busy day for me - but I promise to catch up with more as soon as I can.

Movie Minesweeper - The Giraffe Looks Over Edition

- There's some Batfilming going on in Bedfordshire (which is, if I remember correctly, up the wooden hill). I saw the link at SuperHeroHype.

- Teresa Young of Cardiff has seen Jim Davidson live 296 times, with tickets for 297 and 298 already in the bank. Quite bafflingly she described the quite apparently hateful, homophobic, racist misogynist as the most "loving, caring guy" she has ever met.

- I don't think much of the John Rambo poster.

- Jim Carrey has called for UN sanctions on Myanmar.

- The LA based Breadmaker Productions are co-producing Ho Wi Ding's Pinoy Sunday with the Taiwanese Great Domain Films. Apparently, the $300k film has a plot revolving around a sofa that changes the life of the two main characters. Huh? In a magic-realist way? Or a social-realist way? I have no idea...

- Universal have jammed a Hollywood thumb in the Midnight Eagle pie, and plan to release the Japanese action film stateside this year. Seeing the Uni logo appear at the start of the film in Japan will mark a first for the studio.

- David Hasselhoff is expected to star in at least one of two new Anaconda films. Apparently, he's going to play a mercenary hunting a deadly snake in order to secure its medicinally powerful properties for a billionaire (In the venom? I spot a twist coming). Production is expected to take place in Romania, and Donald E. Fauntleroy is to direct.

- Join the NYTimes for a look at Asylum and their 'mockbusters'.

Movie Minesweeper - The Light, Pop And Classical Edition

- Hugh Jackman is back in training for Wolverine.

- Jessica Woodworth and Peter Brossens are to direct Fragments of Grace, about a Magnum agency photographer called Grace (yep) who becomes mystified by the suicide of a Peruvian virgin bride.

- Simon West is to direct the film adaptation of Thunder Run: The Armored Strike to Capture Baghdad, from David Zuchinno's nonfiction book.

- Michael Gordon is plotting an Everquest film.

- Sean Astin is convinced that the second Goonies is imminent. It is. And it will be a cartoon. And for all we know he's already signed or even done voice work. This thing cannot be stopped.

- The Scream 4 story has, unsurprisingly, been debunked.

- The Weinsteins have passed on Kevin Smith's Red State. It's now likely to end up as his first indie film since Clerks, though I doubt he'll follow through with the funded-by-fans idea he's chewed over a couple of times.

- Even more Justice League plot details have leaked to Entertainment Weekly, who haven't put them online (as far as I can see). Here's a spoilery breakdown of what I've been told: Maxwell Lord is the key villain, though Superman still finds time to fight both Batman and Wonder Woman in two separate showdowns. The OMACs are present and correct, and Aquaman is shown to care less about humans (Pah! Land dwellers!) than about being loyal to the other members of the League. Martian Manhunter's ability to read minds saves the day when a certain hero (I think the answer is obvious from the above, but I might be wrong) gets taken over by mind control.

- Ludacris has said Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla is 'like Snatch but even better'. I almost did a spit take.

- The Dead Wood poster has crept out from the dark forest.

- Dark Knight spoiler alert - LOOK AWAY - apparently, Alfred and The Joker get into 'an altercation'.

- Radha Mitchell is joining Banderas and Freeman in the cast of The Code.

- Dame Judi is on standby for some December shooting for Bond 22.

- Tourism Australia are, unsurprisingly, hoping that Baz Luhrmann's Australia is a smash and are looking to launch a tie-in promo campaign.

Movie Minesweeper - The Create Edit Posts Moderate Comments Edition

- There are duelling Knight Rider projects, one for TV and the other for cinema. The fanboy army appear to be backing the film version, even though it's being developed by Glen Larson, perpetrator of the original series. And this isn't better-the-devil-you-know thinking but blind sentimentality. So what if you enjoyed Knight Rider when you were a kid? Can't you tell it's utterly awful yet? Haven't you raised your standards? The way I see it, each project has about the same virtually negligible chance of transcending utter banality.

- It looks like the Hulk smashes stuff up by night as well as day.

- The Nicholl Fellowship finalists for the year have been selected.

- Writers in the WGA strike will be able to write for TAG-covered animation projects.

- JJ Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci have over $10 million from Fox for just the pilot epsiode of Fringe, their ooky-spooky, hopefully a little kooky, show.

- The Kite Runner has been postponed for six weeks out of fear for the safety of three boys who appear in the film. Apparently the young stars are to be relocated in the meantime. Asylum through stardom?

- Oxygen have a Ms. Tree pilot on the go. I saw the link at TheBeat.

- Warner Bros. have gone for the film rights to Shining City, Seth Greenland's upcoming novel about a chap who inherits, to his surprise, a prostitution ring.

- Jamie King has been cast in The Spirit. No idea who she's playing - yet.

- Neveldine and Taylor promise that Crank 2 is to be even more over-wound than the original. I'm told that it begins with Chev Chelios 'losing a life' as it were, and then picking himself up to try 'the level' again. We'll see.

- David Ross' The Babysitters (about another prostituion ring - there's something in the air) has sold for $1 million plus to Peace Arch Releasing.

- The full Dr. Katz DVD set has a great many special features.

- The Peanuts toons are coming back to DVD courtesy of a new deal with Warner Bros. Count me in.

- Run Run Shaw is, officially at least, 100 years old.

- BAFTA have neglected to push any Gaelic or Welsh language films for the 'Foreign Oscar' because, they say, none of them are good enough. This has led to the resignation from BAFTA of Chris Young, producer of Seachd: The Inaccessible Pinnacle. He considers BAFTA's decision 'parochial'. For the record, I haven't seen Seachd myself but I hear it's pretty dull.

- Is Wes Anderson a racist? Less controversially - is Max Fischer going to return in another film?

- Michel Gondry will be directing the video for Bjork's single Declare Independance at some point next month.

- Todd Phillips is to try and get set producing and directing Hangover before the strike. Jon Lucas and Scott Moore have earned $2 million for their spec script about three friends trying to locate the missing groom and undo the disastrous after effects of their wild bachelor party in time for the wedding. Is the twist that they didn't lose him but he left of his own accord? I wouldn't be surprised.

- Peter Fincham has quit the BBC as a result of the 'Queen tantrum' controversy.

- A curious spoiler image (or maybe not) for Avatar Season 3 has been released. Much more spoilery, but less image-y, are details of the Season 3 Book 2 DVD.

- Every store in the States wants you to buy your copy of Transformers from them - so they're offering all manner of tat to try and persuade you.

- Derek Cianfrance is to direct Blue Valentine, a romantic drama that ThinkFilm will distribute and, I expect, butcher on DVD.

- Neil Blomkamp has made it clear that his Halo shorts were not intended to resurrect interest in the deader than dead feature film. Meanwhile, Bungie have split from Microsoft.

- What did Sputnik do for cinema?

- Two scriptwriters from MTV's Undressed have taken the remake option on Reinas,a Spanish comedy about five mothers organising a mass same-sex wedding.

- A Dr. Who movie could well be on the cards - surprise, surprise.

- The producers of Jericho have two endings in the can - one to be used in the event that they are given a third season, another for use in face of cancellation.

Movie Minesweeper - The New Rum Antics Edition

- ET's Valkyrie piece is online for your viewing pleasure. Looks good to me.

- Is Len Wiseman off of the Escape From New York remake? And is Brett Ratner on? Possibly. Or even probably. That second report also claims that the Gears of War film is dead.
- There's a new Iron Man poster.

- Shooting on Righteous Kill has been disrupted by a fire.

- There's a sweet, simple Julie Taymor mini-interview to support Across the Universe - the best film I've seen in years.

- Scream 4 has been greenlit. I saw the link at ArrowInTheHead.

- Scorsese is apparently caught in a tug-of-war between Warner Bros. and Paramount. I would suggest cutting him in two and giving half to each.

- Neil Gaiman wants Terry Gilliam to direct a Sandman film. So do I.

- George Clooney's Leatherheads is being postponed until next spring and there's to be some reshooting with new actors. All very bad news.

Movie Minesweeper - The Yellow C-Stick Edition

- It looks like there's going to be flashback material in the Sex and the City film, or possibly dream sequence stuff because it seems to feature 20-years-back versions of each of the leads and I'm fairly sure they didn't all know each other in the first episode.

- Will Vin Diesel be the new Terminator? And is that before or after he reteams with Paul Walker for a fourth The Fast and the Furious?

- Casey Affleck isn't expecting an Ocean's 14.

- George Romero's son Cameron has begun production on his second film, Staunton Hill. Yes, it's a horror film. No, I don't believe it has zombies in it.

- Would the Halo film have been a smash? According to Keith Boesky, a video games industry analyst, it would have been a flop. While I can follow his argument and agree with this point - a Halo film would have been a money loser - I don't buy into all of his logic, I'm afraid. It doesn't successfully account for differences in perceived value between a night at the cinema and a video game that you'll play for hundreds of hours (at least in theory). Anyway, he does enough to show how a videogame property being a smash doesn't equate to a surefire ticket seller.

- JJ Abrams is behind the new ABC hourlong comedy, Boundaries. Jill Solloway is scripting.

- A Red Baron FX reel has appeared online. I saw the link at AintItCool.

- Michel Gondry has cast Steven Seagal's daughter in his segment of Tokyo. She eventually - SPOIELR ALERT! - tunrs into a chair. he says.

- A trailer for the Extras Xmas special reveals that David Tennant, Hale and Pace, George Michael, Lionel Blair, Clive Owen, Gordon Ramsay and Lisa Scott Lee will all be appearing.

- Michael Caine is to play an ailing illusionist in John Crowley's retirement-home feel good drama Is There Anybody There?

- Alan Tudyk seems to believe that another Firefly spin-off movie could be coming, even after Serenity grossly underperformed. I don't believe a word of it.

- The new Simpsons video game has had some of it's parodies removed at the request of other games manufacturers.

- Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury are being named as directors of the Hellraiser remake. Their recent film Inside has garnered a whole heap of horror-quarter praise.

- Jamie Mathieson has had himself banned from MySpace and he wants the rets of us to follow him off.

Movie Minesweeper - The Crunchy Cornflake Nut Edition

My dog Delhi escaped this morning and was missing for hours. It scared me more than anything else in the last couple of years. But she's home now. Thankfully.

- A tradeshow promo for Wall-E - in which Andrew Stanton shows some incredible new art, including a good look at Eve, and reveals plenty of the plot - has appeared on YouTube. Download it before it's too late.

- The process by which films get nominated for FX Oscars is being tweaked.

- Demetri Martin is getting his own show on Comedy Central.

- I'd be much more interested in Terminator 4 if McG were directing it, so I like this rumour quite a bit.

- Jamie Oliver is voicing the health inspector role in the UK release version of Ratatouille, bumping Tony Fucile. You can see him being schooled by Pixar in a new clip.

- Eduardo Rodriguez is to direct Fragile, a zombie love story adapted from Stephano Raffaele's comic.

- It's been a while since I reviewed the script, but I still remember many scenes vividly: Guillermo del Toro's next film to roll is tipped to be At the Mountains of Madness.

- A Thousand Words is to be something of a Norbit reteam, with Eddie Murphy and Brian Robbins both in negotiations for the project. The simple, but appealing, premise hinges on our central character discovering he only has 1000 words left to say before he dies. If handled correctly, this could actually give rise to some genuinely cinematic moments. Fingers crossed then - because Norbit hardly inspired much faith.

- Stills from CJ7, Stephen Chow's next, have turned up. A trailer is promised within weeks.

- Rob Thomas is resurrecting his show Cupid for ABC. The new version won't star Jeremy Piven - which is a shame - and will be relcoated to LA from Chicago - which makes no difference to me.

- Crooks have hit the Kingdom of Crystal Skull and run off with pre-production materials - computers, pictures and other info. Have they been bold enough to forward this stuff to, say, AintItCool? And will future scoopage from Indy IV be met with suspicion? [EDIT: A suspect has been charged]

- Catherine Hardwicke is directing Twilight from Stephenie Meyer's kid's book about vampires.

- On Channing Tatum's recommendation, New Line have optioned Brom's illustrated gothic novel The Plucker. Meanwhile, over at universal, the book option of the day has been taken out on The Night Tourist, a kid's novel by Katherine Marsh.

- There's been a table read of the Spirit script.

- A Princess Bride game for casual gamers is to be released next spring, with a 'teaser version' on the upcoming DVD.

- Bradley Cooper has been cast in the best friend role in Yes Man.

- The CW is axing Kids WB.

- Universal have snapped up Cody Diablo's Girly Style pitch, for a female-led college film.

- The Spanish comedy Torremolinos 73, set in the porn industry, is to get a Chinese remake.

- Lorry-driving busy-body Stewart Brown has been bettered in the UK Courts. Despite Brown's assertion that An Incovenient Truth film presents 'partisan political views' a Judge has ruled that it can be screened in British schools. Blimey. I can only wonder what Brown would make of half of the films I encourage my students to watch - not to mention half of those on the syllabus.

- New Line aren't to fight their federal court fine of 125,000 dollars for refusing to turn over Rings documents.

- Jewel Staite is starring in The Tribe which is apparently much more of an action film than a slasher film, as it has previously been considered.

- NonStop Sales are to represent Gnomes and Trolls in the marketplace. It's a Swedish toon with voicework by EG Daily, directed and co-written by Robert Rhodin and produced by Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow, previously scriptwriters on Toy Story and Garfield.

- Kevin Dillon will be the Gerard Butler stand-in for 301 a spoof of... well, probably quite few things as it goes along, I should wonder.

- Natalie Portman has been cast in Jim Sheridan's Brothers. She's left in the US with her step-brother (Jake Gyllenhall) while hubby (Tobey Maguire) is sent into conflict in Afghanistan.

- Peter Morgan's The Jury is to become a feature film - but with Morgan replaced as writer by Beau Willimon. Marc Forster is set to direct. There was a lot of content in the TV version and getting it down to a feature film will be a challenge of Traffic-like proportions.

- Ehren Kruger is co-writing Transformers 2 with Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman.

- JT Petty, one of film ick's favourite horror directors of recent years, is writing and directing Goth. This one's derived from a Japanese novel about previously antagonistic high school cliques coming together to stop a serial killer - and there's just a little Romeo and Juliet tucked in there too.

Now I have to go because my DVD copy of Planet Terror literally just turned up and I simply have to put it on.

Movie Minesweeper - The Public Limited Tombola Edition

- Tarantino's script for Death Proof is dedicated to Charles B. Griffith, exploitation film supremo and underrated satirist. Sadly, Griffith passed away on the 28th. Goodbye, Charles.

- Telecom company Orange, heroes of Wednesday night movie going, have renewed their sponsorship deal with BAFTA. For both 2008 and 9 they'll be the named supporter of the awards shows.

- Al Wilson, animation designer and story designer has passed away. Goodbye, Al.

- Genius TV theme composer Ronnie Hazlehurst has passed away. His Blankety Blank, Last of the Summer Wine, Two Ronnies, Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin and Some Mothers Do 'Ave Em themes are absolutely brilliant. Goodbye, Ronnie.

- James Wong is directing the live-action Dragonball Z movie.

- Nancy Bardawill is directing Greta, a teen romance with Hilary Duff.

- Jane Tranter has spelled out the future plans of BBC Films and there's a focus on family fare, and seemingly literary adaptations too. Peter Pan in Scarlett, The Jungle Book and Swallows and Amazons are all on the cards.

- Dick Wolf, Max Allan Collins, J H Wyman and D J Caruso are the team behind Johnny Dynamite, a supernatural noir TV series to be shot on greenscreened virtual sets.

- Why are they remaking The Brood? I hope it's good.

- A Hulk script review makes up for a lack of insight with a surfeit of spoilers.

- The plot for the first Feast sequel has been boiled down and spat out - and there's even something about the third in the series.

- The next Advance Wars should keep me square-eyed for quite some time. I've played the last one every single day since I was given it for Xmas 2005.

- The Competition Commission have found against BSkyB, which may force them to shelve their stake in ITV.

- As well as Dinner For Schmucks, Sach Baron Cohen is reportedly lining up more social-gathering based comedy of embarrassment with a remake of Blake Edwards' The Party.

- The UK R2 DVD of Death Proof seems to have the exact same special features as the R1 US disc.

- Kurtzman and Orci have come onbaord Watchmen to do a script rewrite. This is probably a rather good thing. And, apparently, Zack Snyder himself has done the last few tweaks.

- The Spanish wing of Warners have signed a pact with Pedro and Agustin Almodovar's El Deseo.

- Peter Berg is setting up a director's gig for himself with a film about the kidnapping of Jean Paul Getty III. Robin Shusan is to write the script.

- There's a wedding in the Sex and the City movie and the bride and groom have been revealed... but be wary of a monster spoiler.

- Javier Bardem appears to have finally signed on for Joe Carnahan's Killing Pablo. Christian Bale is likely to play his nemesis.

- Zelda Rubinstein explains why Tobe Hooper's work on Poltergeist is amongst his worst.

- The Tom Green Show is to get a syndicated TV test-drive in the New Year. Freddy Got Fingered is great. Visionary genius. I'd love to see Green get to direct another feature film. But it's not going to happen.