Poster for Astro Boy

Nick Cassavetes wants to save the world!

With a conservation film, according to Variety:

Nick Cassavetes has signed on to helm the conservation-themed drama "Peaceable Kingdom" for New Line.
Story is based on the true life and work of Dame Daphne Sheldrick, the leading animal conservationist in Kenya, who has devoted her life to preventing elephant extinction by endeavoring to save baby elephants left orphaned by war, poaching and culling. Jeff Stockwell ("Bridge to Terabithia") penned the screenplay.
Cathy Schulman and Peter Guber are producing through their Mandalay Pictures banner.
Schulman says she became passionate about the project after watching a "60 Minutes" profile on Sheldrick. Shortly after, she and Guber flew to Africa to meet with the conservationist and began working on what she hopes will be a four-quadrant family film.
"I'm crazy passionate about this one," Schulman said. "This film is all about the cycle of life and rebuilding families, both animal and human. It's also about the intertwining of people and animals."
New Line is eyeing an early fall start date in Kenya.
Cassavetes' producing partner Chuck Pacheco will serve in some producing capacity.
Cassavetes, whose credits include the crime drama "Alpha Dog," most recently helmed the Cameron Diaz starrer "My Sister's Keeper" for New Line.
-Thoughts?

Final Poster for Adventureland

I've greatly enjoyed both of Greg Mottola's films, and the fact that I spent a summer in a very similar situation (in Coney Island instead of Long Island) to the protagonist in this flick only makes me want to check this out more...how about you?

Adult Film Actress in Soderbergh's Next Film

Stephen Soderbergh, the man that brought you films like Che, Ocean's 11, Out of Sight, and sex, lies, and videotape, is collaborating with Sasha Grey in a film titled, "The Girlfriend Experience". Not that I know anything about porn stars and their acting, but they are notoriously derided for their acting capabilities [outside of their niche]. I don't know what the film is about, but anything with a high profile director and a porn star strikes me as interesting. Two things I wonder about: (1) Will Grey be able to break the stigma against porn stars that try to crossover into mainstream? and (2) Will this film be any good?

The Brothers Coen remaking True Grit?

Seems as such, though it won't be a "direct remake". Here's the story in Variety:

As their next film, Joel and Ethan Coen will put their spin on "True Grit," the iconic Western that won John Wayne an Oscar.
Not a traditional remake, the Paramount film will be more faithful to the Charles Portis book than the 1969 pic, also distributed by Par.
Portis' novel is about a 14-year-old girl who, along with an aging U.S. marshal and another lawman, tracks her father's killer in hostile Indian territory.
But while the original film was a showcase for Wayne, the Coens' version will tell the tale from the girl's p.o.v.
Pic will be their first period Oater.
Project reteams the brothers with Scott Rudin, their partner on the Oscar-winning "No Country for Old Men." The Coens wrote the screenplay.
The original starred Kim Darby as the teen, Wayne and Glen Campbell as the lawmen, Jeff Corey as the killer and featured Robert Duvall and Dennis Hopper as fellow outlaws.
"True Grit" originated at DreamWorks when that company was Par-based, but it was one of the projects that Stacey Snider and Steven Spielberg left behind since the original is part of the Paramount film library. Former DreamWorks prexy Adam Goodman, now a Par exec, is steering the project for the studio.
The Western steps in front of another novel adaptation the Coens have with Rudin: "The Yiddish Policemen's Union," based on the Michael Chabon novel and set up at Columbia.
The Coens just completed "A Serious Man," which they scripted, for Focus Features and Working Title.
-The Coens certainly are among the hardest workers in Hollywood, and while I'm definitely not their biggest fan, every new work they put out goes on my radar, and this is no exception...what about you?

The Brits honor Ridley Scott

From Variety:

Ridley Scott has been awarded a fellowship by the British Film Institute.
The helmer is the 62nd recipient of the award. Previous fellows include Clint Eastwood and David Lean.
First established in 1983, the BFI's fellowships are awarded in recognition of the outstanding achievement of those who have helped shape film and television culture in the U.K.
Scott, prepping his version of Robin Hood with Russell Crowe, began his career as a set designer in the 1960s before making his feature directing debut in 1977 with "The Duellists."
-Good for him!

WALL-E takes one last award

Albeit a small one, according to Variety:

Kidspickflicks.com has selected "Wall-E" as its top "Pick" of 2009.
The children's review site also doled out its "Ick" of the year, with kids choosing "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" as their least favorite film.
"Wall-E" beat out "Kung Fu Panda" and "Bolt."
Site was started by Cole McNamara in 2004 -- at age 9.
Yea, slow news day...

Poster for Is Anybody There?

Does this bother you?

I for one don't think it's really a big deal that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is getting the Criterion treatment right out of the gate, though I will confess that it's more than a little surprising. The film is one of a handful that I thought Criterion would look to put out at some point, but immediately, no, that was a bit of a shock. Still, it's no big deal, and just means a really good release right away, but I figured I'd throw this out there...does this bother you at all?

Yet another poster for Terminator Salvation

Pete Segal gets to direct some Little Fockers

From Variety:
Pete Segal has emerged as the frontrunner to direct "Little Fockers," the third installment in the Universal Pictures/Tribeca Prods. franchise.
Segal was expecting to return as the director of "Get Smart 2" this year but became available when Steve Carell instead made a deal to team with Tina Fey in the Shawn Levy-directed comedy "Date Night" for Fox.
John Hamburg scripted the third installment. It is the first in the series ("Meet the Parents," "Meet the Fockers") not to be directed by Jay Roach. The franchise is one of U's most lucrative, with a combined worldwide gross just north of $820 million.
Segal, who has also directed such comedy hits as "Tommy Boy," "The Longest Yard" and "50 First Dates," is meeting with the film's principal players this week. Universal will get the film into production later this year. Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal produce.
If the stars align, Segal will direct "Little Fockers" and have plenty of time to complete his work and be ready to helm "Get Smart 2" for Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow Pictures.
-Let's hope this isn't another in a long line of horrible movie "thirds"...

Year One Trailer

-Thoughts?

Poster for The Merry Gentlemen

And the economy strikes again...

This time, it snuck up. Wish me luck, it's going to be a long haul.

Cannes will open up with, well...Up

So says this in Variety:

Pixar's 3-D toon, "Up," co-helmed by "Monsters, Inc." director Pete Docter, will open the 62nd Cannes Film Festival.
"Cannes has demonstrated for many years its interest in animation by selecting films from DreamWorks, as well as films that use animation differently like 'Persepolis' and 'Waltz With Bashir,' " said Thierry Fremaux, Cannes Film Festival's delegate general.
"It's audacious to open the festival with an animated film, but we're conscious of our duty : it's by stretching its boundaries that cinema remains universal."
Co-helmed and produced by Bob Peterson, "Up," about a 78-year-old who teams with a wilderness ranger to fight beasts and villains, will be the first toon ever to unspool in 3-D at the opening ceremony.
Recent toon contenders for the Palme d'Or have included "Shrek," "Over the Hedge," "Kung-Fu Panda" and "Waltz With Bashir."
"Up" will bow in the U.S. on May 29.
This year's edition of the Cannes film fest runs May 13-24.
-Wonder how it will go over...

Cheri Trailer

-FYC Kathy Bates, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Hampton, and/or Stephen Frears?

Kevin Costner and Tommy Lee Jones join Ben Affleck's financial meltdown movie

From Variety:

Kevin Costner and Tommy Lee Jones are set to star in "The Company Men," an independently financed drama about the impact that a corporate downsizing has on both its casualties and survivors. They join Ben Affleck, who was set last fall.
John Wells wrote the script and will direct. Production begins in April in Boston.
Wells, Claire Rudnick Polstein and Paula Weinstein are producing. Barbara Hall is exec producer. Affleck plays a corporate hotshot whose Porsche and six-figure salary vanish after he gets laid off. Costner plays his brother-in-law, a salt-of-the-earth drywall installer who gives him a construction job.
Jones plays a senior partner in the firm, a principled man who struggles with the greedy actions of his partners.
Costner takes the role as he works to set up "The One," a film he will direct from a script he penned with "Dances With Wolves" writer Michael Blake, based on an idea by Blake. Costner will star as a free-spirited man who inherits $3 billion, leading him on an adventure and an eventual collision with pirates in the Cayman Islands.
Jones is working on a directing project as well, talking to financiers about "Islands in the Stream," an adaptation of the Ernest Hemingway tale that Jones wrote, will direct, star in and produce through his Javelina Film Co. banner.
-As long as it's not too "on the nose" like Crash or Crossing Over, I think it could work...what about you?