Five clips from "Whip It" look like nothing but fun

You know, I really have nothing terribly profound to say about the fact that Patrick Swayze has died at the rather young age of 57, so I'll simply share that sad news with anyone who hadn't seen it yet and move on.

In much geekier and less depressing news, it seems that, fresh off his star-making turn in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds" (my favorite movie so far this year, read why here), Christoph Waltz has now traded up to join the ranks of superhero flicks.

According to Nicki Finke of Deadline Hollywood, who is right at least slightly more than she's wrong, he's been cast as the villain Chudnofsky in Sony's "The Green Hornet." Up until now I had little interest in this, even though it's somehow being directed by Michel Gondry and starring Seth Rogen as our hero, but I'm now more than slightly intrigued.

Waltz easily stole every scene he got in Tarantino's wild flick with the sheer and sick glee he brought to the role of the Jew hunter Hans Landa. I'm sure he'll have the same zest for this project, and hopefully some more in which he'll get to play more than the bad guy.

In other movie news out there today, it seems that the director of my favorite film of 2008, those being Tomas Alfredson and "Let the Right One In" respectively, has settled on his next flick.

Though he had been attached to a big-screen version of John Le Carre's "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy," he's apparently got his eye on Nicole Kidman for something else first. Alfredson will next direct "The Danish Girl," starring Kidman as Danish painter Einar Wegener, who in 1931 became the first person to go through a sex-change operation to become a woman. In even wilder news, Charlize Theron had been cast as Wegener's wife, but has since dropped out.

Say what you want to about Nicole Kidman, but she almost always goes out of her way to choose interesting projects, and this certainly fits the bill (I think I'm still the only person in the world who almost unconditionally loved her in Noah Baumbach's "Margot at the Wedding.")

And in local "Let the Right One In" news, the Macon Film Guild will be offering a special Halloween screening of this great coming-of-age tale about what happens when your new neighbor just happens to be a vampire Oct. 30 at 7 and 9:30 p.m. at the Douglass Theatre for $5. I'll be at the 7 p.m. show, so maybe I'll see you there.

OK, all I've got left today is two video clips, and before I get to the titular five minutes for this post, here's a glimpse of the Muppets schilling for Disney at the corporation's D23 conference. At the confab, Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller revealed that the title of their upcoming Muppets movie (resounding huzzah!) will be "The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made." That's funny already, and it will apparently be about Gonzo directing a Muppet movie, if I have my facts straight (and I think I do.) Enjoy.



And finally, courtesy of and with full credit to Collider, here are five clips from Drew Barrymore's upcoming directorial debut, "Whip It," set to come out Oct. 2. The roller derby flick stars young Ellen Page, Barrymore, the always funny Kristen Wiig, Juliette Lewis and even Alia Shawkat, who played "Maeby" Fünke on "Arrested Development." It's great to see her again, especially since the chances of an "AD" movie look no more likely now then they did when the show was cancelled. It looks like Barrymore has something thoroughly fun going on here, and I really don't ask for much more than that. Enjoy the clips, and have a perfectly pleasant Tuesday. Peace out.