Movie Minesweeper - The Movie Minesweepers Take So Long You Wouldn't Believe It Edition

- Daniel Robert Epstein has passed away. I was only recently introduced to his work (though I'd read much of it before, not linking the pieces to any given individual) and now... Very sad news.

- Brian Lynch has spilled lots of beans regarding his script for The Next Muppet Movie. Shame we'll never get to see it.

- An African-Americanised remake of The Big Chill is on the way. Will some entrepenurial sneak beat them to it with an African-Americanised remake of Return of the Secaucus Seven?

- World Trade Centre screenwriter Andrea Berloff is to write a film about the Fugees football team, a youth soccer squad made up of refugees. As part of the deal, half a million dollars were coughed up to build a football pitch for the team.

- Paris Hilton has been ditched by her acting agency. What toom them so long?

- The One is a Chinese propoganda film centred on the olympics. They've got a real battle on their hands if they want it to be the best propoganda film centred on the olympics - the competition happens to be one of the most beautiful films ever made.

- Isabelle Mergault's You Are So Handsome is headed for a US remake.

- As rumoured, Tom Vaughan has taken over the director's chair for What Happens in Vegas. Don't worry: the film was always very likely to be a clunker.

- Martin Campbell seems set to direct a US remake of 36 Quai Des Orfevres; Richard Price is to write the new script. Will this see another De Niro/Pacino coupling? Not according to The Hollywood Reporter - the detectives in this new version are to be in their 30s. Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg?

- Greg Kinnear and Maura Tierney are the latest additions to the Baby Mama cast. Two for two: result.

- Jennifer Aniston is to produce a women-in-prison film for Dreamworks and she may well star. The thing is, this is more Chicago than The Big Bird Cage - Goree Girls is to be a musical, not to mention a period film, being set in the 40s. Does Aniston have any singing and dancing skills?

- Christina Applegate has taken the female lead in The Rocker, opposite Rainn Wilson.

- The NBA presented a 3D broadcast of a recent Cavaliers game in my old stomping ground of Cleveland. The future, I tell you. I don't understand sport - at all - but I know that 3D is coming and won't be leaving.

- Jesse Bradford is to star in The Echo, which is a remake of Sigaw. I like Jesse, but I wish he got better roles.

- The new Thunderbolt Ross is William Hurt. His is the one Hulk role that always seems to draw some real talent.

- Meanwhile, the new Harry Potter is an archaeologist. Maybe.

- Hmmm. Frankenhood is about resurrecting a corpse to win a street hockey tournament. It wrapped this weekend, Charlie Murphy is in it and Lionsgate are going to release it. Guaranteed. Cult. Film.

- Tobin Bell has given his first Saw IV interview. Snooooooze. Somebody give him a very different role, please. And quickly.

- Star Trek fans are being invited to submit fan fiction to some kind of official contest. The understanding online seems to be that the winning text could be rendered canon. The theme? Kirk vs. Picard. Make an entry all about Connect 4, Downfall, Kerplunk and Twister and I'll love you forever.

- Or you might want to make a video for Hall and Oates.

- Seems like The Long Kiss Goodnight 2 will be lacking any kind of Shane Black involvement. That's sacrilege in some circles.

- The LA Times have Mark Protosevich writing Thor, and Matthew Vaughan directing.

- What's more, the same article is all about J. Michael Straczynski writing a solo Silver Surfer film. I saw the Fantastic Four, by the way, and will review it later - but the news isn't good. As expected.

- You'll need a password for The LA Times but you can get one at BugMeNot.

- Some people understood the ending of The Sopranos, some people did not. Really, it isn't so complex - it was virtually spelled out for folk. There's not much room for useful debate.

- Paramount Vantage are to produce Oliver Stone's Pinkville, a story of the My Lai massacre featuring Sean Penn and Channing Tatum.

- The same article declares that Killing Pablo has gone into turnaround.

- There's a very convincingly explicit clip from Captivity online. Don't watch in polite company.

And now, my dog needs a walk. And no, that's not a euphemism.

More Details Of The Dark Crystal And Labyrinth Special Edition DVDs

Special edition DVDs of both Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal are due in the US on August 14th and around that time in the UK too. Here's a little of what will be on each:

- The Dark Crystal 25th Anniversary Edition - new transfer from a hi-def remaster
- Audio commentary from Brian Froud
- The featurettes Paper, Cloth and Creatures and Coming of Age (these featurettes include a wide array of new interview clips)
- 2 disc set

- Labyrinth Anniversay Edition - which anniversay exactly? - with a new transfer from a hi-def remaster
- Audio commentary from Brian Froud
- The featurettes Singular Vision and the Kingdom United, Creatures and Creations and Lifelike Illusion
- 2 disc set

More is expected to be leaked soon - the Dark Crystal set has 'hours' of special features, whereas Labyrinth has 'over an hour' - including cover art. Stay tuned.

Movie Minesweeper - The Is It Shia LaBeouf Or Karen Allen Who Has A Crystal Skull? Edition

- No link for this one, but here's the news anyway: Be Kind Rewind won't be released in the US until April 4th next year. That's a long time to be waiting for a film that is, essentially, completely finished. But don't worry - Eternal Sunshine faced similar delays.

- Enter the Phoenix is to get a US remake. Producer Andrew Tennebaum is quoted as saying "This movie should be remade for a bigger, broader audience" - what, bigger than the Chinese speaking world? That's ambitious.

- Letters from Iwo Jima screenwriter Iris Yamashita has apparently pitched a project she describes as "Big Fish meets Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".

- The official site for Criss Angel's Cement Block stunt is now live and will, apparently, be premiering clips from his upcoming 3 series of Mindfreak as well as, of course, hosting live webcam coverage of his upcoming trick.

- HorrorMovies dot CA have some new Resident Evil: Extinction pictures. Dusty.

- Inspector Rebus is retiring. I find it rather odd he hasn't be turned into a big screen character yet, despite the TV series.

- John Woo is expected to collaborate on a videogame with Deus Ex creator Warren Spector, and then turn the resulting title into a movie too. The game, Ninja Gold, is apparently based around the real-life involvement of Yakuza and Russian mafia in the theft of South African Gold.

- Daily Script have posted David Webb People's Sgt. Rock script draft from 1987. It is far, far better than it had any right to be - and it still got nixed. The subsequent drafts, by a number of other writers, have been considerably worse.

- The Silver Snail comic shop in Tornoto made a Muppet Show/Lord of the Rings hybrid window display, and have now posted some images online. Ham's Deep indeed.

- More Muppet/Movie crossovers (but no link this time, I'm afraid). Visitors to Disney theme parks will soon be able to buy Muppet Star Wars action figures - Piggy as Leia, Fozzie as Chewbacca, Beaker as C3-PO, Kermit as Luke and, best of all, Gonzo as Vader.

- The Guardian reveal the cynical machinations behind the Magicians soundtrack album.

- Expectations for Ratatouille's box-office are being managed carefully behind the scenes at Disney. Who cares how much money it takes? It's going to be tens, if not hundreds, of millions more than enough, so, really, end of conversation - right?

- Freema Agyeman doesn't appear to be leaving Dr.Who - but nobody is denying the stories that David Tennent is going to opt out of the series after five or six episodes in the 2008 run. Probably because he is. I wonder who will replace him?

- What's different in the Lego Star Wars compound edition? The word is out.

- Joan Cusack, Chris O'Donnell and Julia Ormond are the newest additions to the American Girl cast. Two of three 'aint bad. The full title is now, apparently Kitt Kittredge: An American Girl Mystery.

Miss Piggy's Special Feature

Either there's two packs for the Muppet Show season 2 DVDs, or they've changed their mind already. See the new design below.

Special features will include a valentine special, with Mia Farrow; interviews with Kermit, Gonzo and others; the Muppet-starring Weezer video from a few years back.

More Muppetry

The second season of The Muppet Show on DVD still doesn't have a release date, but I'm told that they've now stopped chasing clearances and the final edits - the odd song missing - are to be locked.

It's a shame that so many TV shows on DVD suffer from copyright issues surrounding their musical content, but it's less forgivable when musical content is ditched simply to save costs - some shows, for example, only feature the theme music on a handful of epsiodes of their DVD sets to cut down on expense. Best move? Go for a buyout deal when negotiating theme tunes in the firstplace.

The below cover art was chosen after a vote on the official Muppets website.


Earlier in the week, Jim Hill Media published a great piece that gives details of many future Muppet endeavours. I'd recommend popping over to read the whole thing.

Angel Season 6 Paperbound Like Buffy Season 8

Angel is to get a comics series just like his beloved Buffy.

"...we will be doing some new Angel books, with Brian and Joss, picking up where the show left off. They will be post-show, and definitely canon, and co-written by Joss."

Brian is Brian Lynch, director of Big Helium Dog. Long ago, he wrote a Muppet spec script that I've been wanting to get my hands on for years, and his 'Wile E. Coyote sues Acme' pitch sounded incredible - all live action except the Coyote, a proper court room story but funny as hell.