Thursday, fun, including an extended look at Fincher's "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"

First up, however, and apropos of really, nothing but my mind, the truly great Michael K. Williams revealed, in an interview with Shadow & Act, that he read for the lead in Quentin Tarantino's next flick, "Django Unchained," before just losing out on the role. Read on:

“The rumors of me being considered for the lead role in ‘Django [Unchained]’ is very true. I was in meetings with Quentin, QT as I call him. It came down to Jamie and I. Wow… what a person to lose to. It’s not official yet but there’s a lot of talk that there may be a role coming back ‘round my way.’ ”

So, just who in the world is Michael K. Williams? Well, if you were a fan of "The Wire," and if you like great police procedurals, you certainly should be, you'll know him better as Omar, or as QT would certainly put it, a truly bad mother ...

Had he landed the lead role of Django, which instead went to Jamie Foxx, the flick, which on paper (you can find the script online, trust me, and it's a great read) is already a wild ride, would have been elevated to potentially amazing. As it is, you can still see Omar on the second season of "Boardwalk Empire," which I believe begins Sunday night, and also tonight on "Community," as a biology teacher at Greendale. Count me as solidly in for that, so enjoy this four-minute preview of the new season.



And in one more bit of TV sur-reality (which really should be a word, if it isn't already), former President Bill Clinton revealed on Rachael Ray's show (one of the many, many great things about this whole interwebs thing is that I don't actually have to watch the show to know this) that he was contacted to appear on "Dancing With the Stars." Had he accepted, it would have been enough to finally get me to tune in, but he apparently said no, not out of any sense of dignity in the office of the presidency, but simply because he couldn't take the workout. Read on:

"This is interesting. Actually, they contacted me once about this. And I told them I didn’t have the time to train for it. You know, you actually have to go out there and train -- you really work at it -- so I had to pass."

Wow. That, at least, shouldn't be a problem for Barack Obama ...

And now on to the videos, with a couple of other things that caught my eye before the main event, the promised four-minute trailer for David Fincher's "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." Sitting on my DVR is the season three premiere of "Glee," but as of yet, I just haven't been able to bring myself to watch it. I'm really not sure when, or if, I will, because for tonight at least I've got the entire James Dean oeuvre (three movies) courtesy of TCM, plus "Community," "Parks and Recreation," "The Office" and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" on the way. So it may just sit there for another week or so, but in the meantime, I'll always have time for a "Sesame Street" clip, especially this one which highlights exactly why "Glee" can often be thoroughly annoying. Enjoy.



By way of introduction of this next one, an apology of sorts to Joe Carnahan. While I still think "Smoking Aces" is nothing but a flaming bag of shite, I finally beat down my inner snob enough to watch "The A Team," and it was rather sublimely entertaining as a mindless weeknight rental. Just a fun action fest, and never trying to be anything more. I tell you that to tell you this: Below is the trailer for Carnahan's next flick, "The Grey," which is essentially "Liam Neeson Dances With Wolves" (or at least fights them.) The flick, about a bunch of oil roughnecks who get stranded in Alaska and do battle with some lupine natives, could be at least a little fun, as it is to see a clearly blottoed Neeson get ready to square off with one in the trailer. Enjoy, and if you want to, keep an eye out for the flick beginning Jan. 27.

And now, finally, on to the the main course, the first extended trailer for David Fincher's take on "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," starring Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander and Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist, both extremely familiar characters to the many people who have read the fairly great novels by Stieg Larsson. Even I'm tired of hearing me question the reason for this even happening, so I'll just say take a look and decide for yourself what to make of it. As for me, I'm off to go swimming and do some grocery shopping. Peace out.

Yes, Zooey Deschanel can charm her way through anything: Watch "The New Girl"

Actually, the poster above, of course, has nothing at all to do with Zooey Deschanel, but like her it is, in its own way, rather beautiful. In case you couldn't guess, it's a teaser poster for David Fincher's take on "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," and though I'm still skeptical that there's any reason at all for that to even be happening, the poster designed by graphic artist Neil Kellerhouse and shot by Jean-Baptist Mondino, at least, is pretty friggin' fantastic.

But the main event here today is indeed the new Fox sitcom "The New Girl," starring Zooey Deschanel and set to premiere Tuesday on Fox after "Glee" but, courtesy of Hulu, also fully embedded here today.

When I first saw the promos for this, my first two thoughts were "what in the world is she doing in this?" and "man, does that look awful." Well, having watched all of the pilot, it turns out to be a heck of a lot better than I was expecting, almost entirely because of Zooey herself and also due to some much-better-than-expected writing.

One definite word of warning: The show really doesn't need a "douche bag jar" (watch it to find out), because the three guys she decides to move in with seem to have that pretty much nailed 24/7. That said, the landscape of new shows looks pretty bleak right now. In fact, the only ones I'm now planning to watch are:

"Up All Night," mostly because it stars Gob Bluth and Kelly Bundy, and because the pilot was indeed pretty wry for broadcast TV.

"Two Broke Girls," because I like Kat Dennings (sensing a trend here?), and because packaged with "How I Met Your Mother" it should make for a perfectly mindless hour block of TV after a Monday workday.

"Ringer," because though it's entirely not anything close to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," the pilot was intriguing enough to make me tune in to find out what happens to Sarah Michelle Gellar this time out. And

"Terra Nova," because, well, dinosaurs.

And now, "The New Girl." It's far from perfect, but if you're a fan of Zooey Deschanel, it's also a heck of a lot better than most of what's on TV now. Enjoy the pilot below (which looks great full screen), tune in on Tuesday nights at 9 for more if you do, and stick around here today for some Muppets silliness just to bring the "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" theme full circle.



If Jason Segel's and James Bobin's "The Muppets" somehow sucks, it's gonna mean the waste of an already pretty epic marketing campaign, but I'm betting that's not going to happen. Already, we've been inundated with a number of trailers, a cover album of favorite Muppets tunes and more than a few parodies. But I'm an admitted Muppets addict, so as long as they're funny, as this "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" clip clearly is, I'll gladly continue to be a cog in the machine. Enjoy the clip, have a great rest of the weekend, and if you somehow haven't yet, go see "Drive" already. Peace out.

W reveals first look at Lisbeth Salander - take two

Actually, before we get into any of that (and if you haven't seen these, there well worth a short wait), I have a bone or two to pick with people who watch TV (and believe me, I watch much more than I should.)

After running 13 episodes of "Terriers" - easily my favorite new show of last fall - before canceling it to due to very low ratings, FX has now managed to debut a show that, at least in its debut, is fairing even worse.

And the really sad part is that "Lights Out," while far from a perfect TV pilot, shows a heck of a lot of potential. I'm a sucker for boxing-related entertainment anyways ("The Fighter," while not one of the best movies of 2010, is still pretty sensationally entertaining, thanks almost entirely to Christian Bale), and this show has the promise to be a nearly first-rate entry in the genre.

First, the very good. The ensemble is all-around good, led by someone I had never seen before, Holt McCallany, as the retired pugilist Patrick "Lights" Leary. He brings a winning sense of losing to the role of a fighter who's been retired for five years on the wishes of his wife (Catherine McCormack) after feeling he was cheated out of winning his last bout. Add to that Stacy Keach ("Fat City"!) as his father/manager and Pablo Schreiber (aka Nicky Sobotka on season 2 of "The Wire") as his brother and serially inept manager, and you've got the makings of a gritty family dynamic that, given time, could lead to some fantastic television.

In the pilot, Lights finds himself extremely low on money and is forced to become the muscle for a loan shark, which he's not surprisingly very good at. To tell you more beyond that would be criminal, so I'll just say the end of the pilot sets up the story arc of season one, assuming enough people tune in to even make that possible. Please do!

OK, now on to the main event. Though I'm still not and probably never will be sold on the need for David Fincher to make an English-language version of "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," it's hard to argue he didn't make a heck of a splash with this reveal of what Rooney Mara will look like as Lisbeth Salander in W magazine. That really doesn't need any more build up from me, so here goes, the cover shot and then one more.




Though, having read the second and third Lisbeth Salander novels by Stieg Larsson and watched the first two movies in their original Swedish (and if you like smart thrillers, do yourself a favor and watch them back-to-back now), I'm sure Lisbeth would never agree to strike such poses, I don't think there's any denying that Fincher and Mara have nailed the look.

And, though in sheer attitude Noomi Rapace got Lisbeth just about perfect in the Swedish movies, her look was the only thing that gave me any pause. In the books, though clearly a tough woman who doesn't take any shit from anyone, Lisbeth also cuts a pixieish figure, at least in the picture Larsson paints in your mind (well, at least mine). So, Fincher has gotten at least one thing right so far, but after sitting through Matt Reeves' thoroughly unnecessary, almost shot-by-shot remake of "Let the Right One In," he's gonna have to do a whole lot more to hook me on the need for any of this.

OK, I have to get to the job that still somehow pays my bills, so I'll just leave you with this rather surreal video from PBS' "American Masters," which I believe aired last night (while I was catching up with the pilot of "Lights Out" and "Parenthood" - sublime). In it, The Dude himself pays a visit to The Little Lebowski, a store in NYC with an obvious theme. While it's no surprise that such a store exists, it still adds a fun level of oddity to have Bridges pay it a visit. Enjoy the clip, and have a perfectly passable Thursday. Peace out.

Rather than thinking about a workday Wednesday, I've got Lisbeth Salander on the brain

You'll have to forgive me if I have Stieg Larsson and his "Girl" novels just tattooed on my brain at the moment.

You see, since the last Harry Potter novel, I haven't bothered to take on a 700-page novel until now, and Larsson's "The Girl With Who Played With Fire" has drained a lot more out of me than I could have imagined it would, but with the end finally just a tantalizing 15 pages or so away and in sight later today, I can say it's been well worth it, because it's just a first-rate police procedural with the benefit of starring - without exaggeration - one of literature's greatest heroines of all time in the goth hacker extraordinaire Lisbeth Salander.

I don't know how soon I'll have the energy to take on the the final chapter, "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest," but coincidentally enough (and not at all by design), I've managed to finish up "The Girl Who Played With Fire" just as the Swedish movie made from it hits DVD, and I can assure you it will be on my weekend viewing slate in some form. In fact, I just checked, and it's available from Netflix streaming, so right to my brand new Blu Ray player for Saturday night. Huzzah!

I was surprised to find that the first two Swedish movie installments were helmed by different directors, because if you haven't seen Niels Arden Opley's "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," starring the unforgettable Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander, it's a thriller so good that it really stands alone as an example of how to flawlessly transfer a great novel into a great movie thriller. Rent them both this weekend for what I guarantee will be a wicked good viewing time.

The sequel coming this week was directed by someone named Daniel Alfredson, who also stuck around to direct the upcoming third and final chapter "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" (though there are all kinds of rumors swirling about a posthumous Lisbeth Salander coming out - stay tuned for more on that as soon as I hear it.)

And there's news, appropriately enough for Halloween week, about Opley being offered by CBS Films a project that could turn into a super horror movie.

The studio has bought the rights to Jennifer Egan’s 2006 best-seller "The Keep," and is in final negotiations to acquire the adapted screenplay written by "The Skeleton Key" scribe Ehren Kruger.

So, what's it about? Well, according to what I've read, it's "a story within a story about two cousins with a shared secret who reunite to renovate a legendary haunted medieval castle that turns dreams and nightmares into reality."

That could easily turn into high cheese or something truly creepy in all the best ways, and after watching what Opley did with "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," I'm betting on the latter. Definitely stay tuned for more on this as soon as I can find it.

OK, that's really most of what I have time for this morning, but since Zach Galifianakis is now rumored to be one of the humans getting a cameo in Jason Segel, Nicholas Stoller and James Bobin's "The Greatest Muppet Movie Ever Made," it made me think of this OK Go video which is pretty easily the funniest Muppet clip I've encountered in recent years. All I'll say is that it's a staring contest between OK go drummer Dan Konopka and Muppets drummer extraordinaire Animal. Who wins? You'll have to find out yourself, and it's well worth watching. Enjoy, and have a perfectly passable Wednesday. Peace out.

Is there no end to the foreign-remake madness?

A guy said to me today: 'I want to get your autograph before one of us dies.' I smiled and said :'You first I hope.'

That's really apropos of nothing, but that missive from the great (and no longer so omnipresent) Michael Caine was easily the funniest thing I read this morning, so I had to pass it on.

And before I spill any bile over the plans of a director whose work I normally really dig, let's continue the good vibes with some news that, while ancient by Internet news standards, still just makes me smile: Emma Stone will indeed be in "500 Days of Summer" director Marc Webb's reboot of the "Spider-Man" franchise as Gwen Stacy.

Nothing but great news there. If you haven't seen "Easy A," do yourself a favor and do so while it's still in theaters, because while it's lighter than air and too silly by at least half, it's also often wickedly funny, and I guarantee you won't be able to take your eyes off of Emma Stone in this clearly star-making turn.

Now, with "The Social Network" star Andrew Garfield signed as Peter Parker and Stone in the mix, all that's left is to sign Mia Wasikowska as Mary Jane Watson, and this still almost completely unnecessary endeavour will at least be cast perfectly.

And speaking of unnecessary, that brings us to today's main event, and though I love the two movies that most-often-screenwriter Billy Ray has managed to direct, "Shattered Glass" and "Breach," today's news about him is bleak indeed.

I can't even bring myself to ask any more if Hollywood ever learns anything, because the answer is just so resoundingly no. You would think that after the rather epic failure of "Let Me In" ($5 million or so in week one - and reviewed by me yesterday, if you're interested in scrolling down), Matt Reeves' completely pale imitation of "Let the Right One In," there would be at least a brief pause in the stampede to remake foreign-language films only a year or so after they leave theaters.

Apparently not, because today comes word that Ray has now signed on to direct a remake of the Argentinian crime thriller "The Secret in Their Eyes," which won this year's Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Take a second to think about just how bad an idea this is.

If you've seen the original, you know that it's not a flawless film, but director Juan Jose Campanella's tale of a retired investigator (the simply sensational Ricardo Darin) who reopens an old rape and murder case as he simultaneously relights an old flame with a former co-worker (Soledad Villamil) goes in all kinds of unexpected directions as it delivers a solidly mindbending film noir of sorts.

And anyone who's seen this (as I have now three times - it's that good) also knows that's its steeped in the twisted politics of Campanella's Argentina, and that presents the biggest (though far from the only) problem with Ray's plans here. Inevitably, I suppose, he will update the story and move it to the United States, almost certainly losing a lot in translation.

The only things I can say in Ray's defense are that he doesn't get offered directing opportunities very often (the aforementioned films are the only ones he's directed so far, I believe, a real shame), and that he's far from alone in spreading this Euro-remake cancer.

The most prominent case, of course, is "The Social Network" director David Fincher's remake of "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," currently shooting, I believe, in Sweden. I have full faith in Fincher, but the original "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" is just about perfect as both a literary adaptation and just as a brutally efficient and entertaining thriller, so the stakes here are very high.

And, unfortunately, now that one of my favorite movies of 2008 has been shat upon by Matt Reeves, the other one is now getting the same treatment. "The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford" writer/director Andrew Dominik is now apparently writing a version of the first-rate French thriller "Tell No One," perhaps with an eye on directing it himself too.

I would continue on with this rant, but I'm still rational enough to know no one who can do anything about it is listening, so let's just move on to a couple of bits of good news instead.

Apparently, like much of the world, ready to move on quickly from what Matt Reeves has done to his nearly flawless horror movie, "Let the Right One In" director Tomas Alfredson has lined up a new project to direct once he wraps up his take on the John Le Carre classic "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy."

After that espionage thriller, filming now with an all-star cast that includes Colin Firth, Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Jared Harris, Mark Strong and the great Ciaran Hinds, he's signed on to direct "Larklight," a bit of steampunk from author Philip Reeve.

The story is set in a Victorian-era alternate universe in which mankind has been exploring the solar system since the time of Isaac Newton and revolves around a brother and sister who team with a band of renegade space pirates to save the world from destruction at the hands of a madman.Steve Knight (“Eastern Promises”) is rewriting the script for this, which sounds like nothing but fun to me.

Alfredson is certainly a director to keep your eyes on, so stay tuned for more on this as soon as I can find it.

And finally today, before a video or two, comes simply fantastic news that really may only be of interest to me and Bob Connally, but it's still just incredibly cool.

In a news bit about Steve Coogan's possible upcoming return to British TV as Alan Partridge for a six-part series, great news in itself, the real lead was buried. Coogan is now apparently already shooting a 12-part Alan Partridge Internet series, which will begin appearing online Nov. 5 (I have no idea where yet, but as soon as I know that, you will too.)

If you've somehow never seen Coogan as the TV host Partridge, it's almost always exceptionally funny. He's played the character for a long time now, through multiple radio and TV series, and here's a video sample of just how funny he can be. Enjoy.



And finally, since this has clearly gone on more than long enough, I'll leave you today with what I believe is the first full trailer for John Landis' upcoming graverobbing comedy "Burke and Hare," starring Andy Serkis and Simon Pegg. I believe Landis has wrapped shooting on this, but I have no idea when it will be getting a U.S. release, or how wide that will be. Enjoy the trailer, and definitely keep an eye out for this one. Peace out.

Ben Affleck may finally be ready to move onto a new "Town"

Though I wanted to love Ben Affleck's "The Town," I could never really quite get there for several reasons.

First of all, the story is familiar to the point of being tired. And though it's extremely well shot, the body count in those slick action scenes should have been in the 100's (it's just a movie, I know, but with the way Jeremy Renner was spraying bullets around, it just didn't even come close to adding up.)

But what it really left me with was the sense that, even though the best strength of "The Town" is its very strong sense of place in Boston's Charlestown neighborhood, perhaps its time for Affleck to finally branch out from his home turf as a director.

Well, Warner Bros., apparently has the same idea, and has now offered him the chance to direct something called "Tales from the Gangster Squad."

Adapted from a series of LA Times articles, the movie will explore the true story of a secret "off the record" police task force that went after Meyer Harris "Mickey" Cohen, a high-profile gangster who was a member of the "Jewish Mafia" in the 1940's. The screenplay has been drafted by former LA cop and novelist Will Beall.

Still a crime movie, obviously, but that's just fine with me, because Affleck has proven much more with "Gone Baby Gone" than with "The Town" that he has a sure hand in directing crime thrillers, so here's hoping he takes this rather epic-sounding one with a welcome change of scenery.

After that today, there are just a couple more tidbits about directors whose work I almost always enjoy, including one who hasn't managed to make a feature film in about 12 years or so.

Before that comes word that David Fincher has now seemingly filled all the major roles in his still thoroughly unnecessary but could be quite good remake of "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." The latest addition is Christopher Plummer as Henrik Vanger, the patriarch of the mysterious Vanger clan who hires Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) to investigate the Vanger family's secrets and track down his missing great-niece.

The biggest shoes to fill of all will be Rooney Mara, pictured here, stepping in to the titular role of Lisbeth Salander, already played to perfection by Noomi Rapace in the Swedish original by director Neils Arden Opley, but I think she'll do just fine. Round out the cast with Stellan Skarsgard as Martin Vanger and Robin Wright as Blomkvist's editor, Erika Berger, and you've got something that shapes up just about the same as Matt Reeves's "Let Me In," which has been receiving almost uniformly good reviews so far: A well-made movie with a sensational cast that, in a perfect world, probably shouldn't exist at all, because there's really very little room to improve on the original work it's based on.

Even so, I'll certainly turn out due to curiosity if nothing else to see what Fincher makes of all this, which is filming now in Sweden. (And if you want to see a first-rate, cerebral but truly brutal thriller, the original "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" is now both out on DVD and also streaming at Netflix, so watch it!)

And finally, does anyone remember Whit Stillman? Probably not, but with his very witty debut "Metropolitan" and then two lesser but still good followups, "Barcelona" and "The Last Days of Disco," he seemed to have a fairly flourishing indie movie career before pretty much disappearing after the latter's release in 1998.

He's tried to make several comebacks since that have fallen apart, but it looks like he finally really will return this time, with his "Damsels in Distress" having already started filming. Here, according the always reliable The Playlist, is what it's all about:

[Damsels in Distress] centers on a group of college girls who take in a new student and teach her their own misguided ways of helping people. Lily, a new student at Seven Oaks University, winds up filling in with a dynamic and highly individualistic group of girls, addicted to the elegance of the past: Heather, Violet and Rose all volunteer at the campus Suicide Prevention Center, convinced that musical dance, sharp clothes and good hygiene — the Dior perfume “Diorissimo” is their trademark — can all contribute to staving off the inevitable self-destructive impulses that follow hard on the heels of failed college romances. Despite their sophisticated talk and savvy use of perfume, the girls are plagued by Cupid’s arrows and must adjust their psyches to the onset of amour. [The Playlist]

As silly as all that sounds, it also sounds like just about the perfect milieu for the kind of sharp comedy of manners Stillman used to specialize in when he was able to work regularly. Greta Gerwig of "Greenberg," which I haven't seen, is apparently playing the role of Violet, and she will apparently be the closest thing to a star in this, assuming it really does come together.

And with that, I have to go now to the job that still somehow manages to pay me enough to keep the lights on. Peace out.

"Star Wars" in 3D? I'll take half of that, if it ever gets that far

OK, I've never watched "Dancing With the Stars," and have no plans to, but I did see a tidbit about it that left me with a question: With Michael Bolton getting the boot after delivering what someone named Bruno Tonioli called "probably the worst" performance in the show's 11 (really? sheesh) years, does that now officially sanction him as a no-talent assclown? (sorry, there was no way I could resist that.)

After that, it's mostly all good movie news today, so let's get right to it, starting with the biggest of big dogs (in his own mind still, at least), George Lucas, and his plans to gussy up all six of his "Star Wars" movies in 3D (and before anyone who's been here reads on and wonders why, as usual, I'm not just railing against all 3D - for something like "Star Wars" I'll make a rare exception, because this should be thoroughly cool.)

To the "last" three of those, now unfortunately known as episodes IV-VI, I'll certainly say huzzah. They're great movies (yes, even episode VI), and time certainly doesn't change that. And if there's one good thing you can still say about Lucas, he certainly will spend whatever money he can throw at these to make them look spectacular.

There is, however, a real big problem with all of this, and that's that he plans to do these in order, starting with "The Phantom Menace" in 2012 and then releasing one each year after that. Now, I have no intention of seeing that, "Attack of the Clones" or "Revenge of the Sith" ever again, and especially not with any kind of 3D premium attached to the pain of actually sitting through them again.

And the 3D mountain of movie stench emanating from those three releases, if this gets that far, may actually prevent us from seeing the actually good "Star Wars" in 3D, because, at least according to the report I saw at the Hollywood Reporter, the subsequent 3D conversions would depend "on how well the first rerelease does."

My prediction? Jar Jar Binks is gonna kill this enterprise long before it gets to "A New Hope," where it should really start in the first place, which will be a genuine shame.

OK, enough of that, since there's plenty of other, better news out there today, starting with an unlikely but thoroughly deserved kudos for "Anvil! The Story of Anvil," easily the funniest documentary I've seen in the last five years or so and one of the best, too.

Katie Couric, Brian Williams, Bill Moyers and other actual news people may have been the big winners at the 31st annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards this week, but "Anvil!" snuck in too and took home a major award, an Emmy for Outstanding Arts & Culture Programming (it was eligible after airing on VH1).

If you've ever seen this great little film you'll know just how funny that is, but still well deserved, so a hearty huzzah to that. And if you've never seen the movie about Canada's hardest-working heavy metal band, I recommend it extremely highly as a rental.

In other news, Guy Ritchie's inevitable "Sherlock Holmes" sequel is shaping up to be much better than the first take, at least in terms of cast. Well, that's not really fair, because the real problem with the first flick wasn't its performers, who all clicked well, but the extremely weak story. Here's hoping that gets a whole lot better for "Sherlock Holmes 2."

We now know, however, that the cast will be first rate. Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law will of course be returning as Sherlock and Watson, and now comes word that they'll be joined by Jared Harris as archnemesis Professor Moriarty.

This role was originally rumored to be going to Brad Pitt, who would have been just fine, but anyone who's watched Harris as Lane Pryce on "Mad Men" knows he'll be great in this. And if you watched the latest episode, you know his character now has the dubious distinction of both using the term "jungle bunny" and also getting a savage beating in the same episode.

And the good casting news continues beyond those lead roles. Stephen Fry has joined the cast as Sherlock's older brother, Mycroft Holmes, and even better, the original "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," Noomi Rapace, will play a French gypsy and, I'd have to assume, inevitable love interest for Sherlock. Now, if they could only come up with a much better story this time ...

And speaking of "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," if you haven't seen the original Swedish version, it's out on DVD now, and it's pretty uniformly great. So great, in fact, that it enticed me to read the 700-plus pages of the late Stieg Larsson's second book in the series, "The Girl Who Played With Fire," and it's a pretty sensational work, too. I'm fairly certain David Fincher, who has a little movie coming out this week you may have heard of called "The Social Network," will do just fine with his American remake of "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," but if you can handle it's often-brutal story, the original is excellent viewing.

Now comes word that Niels Arden Opley, director of the original "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," has signed Tobey Maguire for his next project, "Good People," based on a book I haven't read by Marcus Sakey. The story, about a Chicago couple who find nearly $400,000 and go to extraordinary lengths to try and keep it, seems to follow directly in the footsteps of Sam Raimi's "A Simple Plan" and Danny Boyle's "Shallow Grave" (still probably my favorite of his movies), so it should be right up my alley.

OK, all I have left for the big finish today is just a short video, but since it's our first look at the Dude as Rooster Cogburn, I'd say it's a good place to end up. The Coen brothers' take on "True Grit," starring Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross, is certainly one of the movies I'm most looking forward to for the rest of this year, so definitely keep an eye out for it on Christmas day, enjoy this teaser trailer, and have a perfectly bearable Wednesday. Peace out.