Kevin McDonald and the future of movies ... YouTube?

I tried for about a week to make a one-man movement against movies bypassing theaters, and then I found that IFC was putting its always interesting movies on pay-per-view cable at the same time they were opening at a theater, well, nowhere in the world near me.

I've seen several movies this way, and the next one will probably be James Gunn's "Super," unless the presence of Rainn Wilson and Ellen Page will be enough to get this to play everywhere (seriously doubt it.) The flick, set to open April 1, stars Wilson as a man who, after his wife (Liv Tyler) gets hooked on drugs and runs off with the pusherman, dons a cape and turns into an avenging superhero of sorts, with Page as his sidekick. I'm laughing at that already, so definitely keep an eye out for it.

And before that, Kevin McDonald, director of "State of Play" and "The Last King of Scotland," is pioneering another way for movies to get exposure without dealing with movie theaters: YouTube. His new movie, titled "Life In a Day," has some rather lofty aspirations: Drawing from 4,500 hours of footage sent in from 192 countries, it indeed tries to capture a day in the life of this world we all live in.

Sounds like a fascinating idea, and when the movie premieres at 6 p.m. mountain time Jan. 27 at the Sundance Film Festival, it will be simultaneously streaming on the movie's YouTube channel, which you can find here. If you miss that, it will stream again the next day at 7 p.m. in whatever time zone you're in, with subtitles of your choice.

I don't think I'll ever get used to watching movies on a computer, but with YouTube streaming to Blu-Ray players now, the future is certainly here, so I guess we should all just deal with it ... and in this case, embrace it too.

After that today, there's a bit of great movie news and then a Muppets video (because I just can't get enough of them) that surely hasn't been approved by Disney or anyone from the Henson clan.

In movie news, it seems that Robert Pattinson (hate if you have to) has stepped into the lead role of David Cronenberg's "Cosmopolis," which was once to be played by Colin Farrell.

Now, I really have nothing against Mr. Pattinson, and if he helps this flick, based on the novel by Don Delillo, get made, bully, because it sounds just tailormade for Cronenberg.

The book, which I haven't (yet) read, deals with 24 hours in the life of a newly married billionaire (Pattinson) as he cheats on his wife, is pursued by a stalker, gets attacked by a protester and gradually loses his entire fortune over the course of a single day. Adding some serious chops to the cast, Marion Cotillard will play Pattinson’s wife and Paul Giamatti will play one of the two men stalking the billionaire.

All sounds great to me, and we'll be getting another Cronenberg movie some time this year, though as yet I have no idea exactly when. He's wrapped production on "A Dangerous Method," which stars Viggo Mortensen as Sigmund Freud and Michael Fassbender as Carl Jung as they collaborate to come up with the cure for a woman (Keira Knightley) suffering from some kind of psychological issues. That's definitely near the top of my must-see list for 2011, so if you hear anything about when it will be hitting theaters, please let me know.

And with that, it's time to wrap things up so I can go to work, but not before a true bit of inspired madness starring the Muppets performing Kanye West's "Monster." Yes, really. And as you can imagine, this clip has all kinds of language that should never come from the mouths of Muppets, so please don't say I didn't warn you and, of course, watch it with headphones on if you're at work! It's all extremely silly, but also inspired, especially when Miss Piggy hits the screen as Nicki Minaj. Enjoy the clip, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday. Peace out.