A real "Battlestar Galactica" prequel? Bring it on!

When the second incarnation of "Battlestar Galactica" left the Syfy airwaves in 2009, it left a real void for fans of genuine, smart sci-fi, so this is certainly good news

Executive producer David Eick, one of the big brains behind the version that began in 2004, has pitched to the station a prequel of sorts called "Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome," and it has so far picked up at least a 2-hour pilot. The show takes place in the 10th year of the first Cylon war, and follows the exploits of young ensign William Adama, a recent Academy graduate and now a rookie viper pilot. In the 2004 show, of course, Adama was played by the great Edward James Olmos, but they'll now clearly have to cast some new blood for this.

According to the plot synopsis, Adama "finds himself assigned to the newest battlestar in the Colonial fleet, the Galactica. The talented but hot-headed risk-taker soon finds himself leading a dangerous top secret mission that, if successful, will turn the tide of the decade-long war in favor of the desperate fleet."

Nothing but epic awesomeness there, and though there's no word yet if co-creator Ronald Moore will once again be involved, here's a final word from Eick to give "Battlestar" fans a sense of just how good this could be.

"While maintaining the themes of politics, social propaganda, and the timeless question: what does it mean to be human? - 'Blood & Chrome' will also return us to the authentic, relentless depiction of combat and the agony and ecstasy of human-Cylon war, which was the hallmark of 'Battlestar Galactica's' early seasons."

I don't have too much after that today before the videos because, before working on a Saturday, I have to go swimming and then do my laundry, but there is a bit of goodness to get to for fans of Wes Anderson.

No, unfortunately, it isn't any more details on the film he apparently plays on shooting next spring or so, but it is a glimpse of his writing before he went on, with his first three movies, to make three of my favorites in "Bottle Rocket," "Rushmore" and "The Royal Tenenbaums."

Thanks to the head's up from Hitfix.com for this link to a short story he wrote for the University of Texas literary journal Analecta. I haven't read it yet, but I just printed it out, so will do so today to take my mind off of laundry for a bit. Enjoy the story here.

OK, on to the videos. I can't remember a movie in recent history that's had as much trouble simply coming out (no pun intended, really) as "I Love You Phillip Morris." Is it simply that the characters played by Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor are gay? I suppose so, and that's truly sad, because as you'll see from this first full trailer I know of for the movie by "Bad Santa" creators Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, it looks pretty wickedly funny. Look for this in what surely will be a limited release Dec. 3, and enjoy the trailer.



I'm a big, big fan of the UK teen skeen "Skins," and an even bigger fan of Baltimore, but sadly, I can't see this turning out to be anything but awful. It seems that MTV is remaking the great show (which aired on BBC America here, I believe) with a cast of way-too-fresh-faced (the original cast was rather scruffy) young Americans, and somehow transporting the action from the north of England to Charm City itself. If you've seen the original, you'll see that they at least kept a few of the characters' names, but seemingly none of the spirit of the original show. "Enjoy" this trailer for the show, apparently coming in January.

MTV Shows

OK, where better to end up today then with the trailer for a movie I'm definitely psyched to see at the end of this year, even if it does look rather morose. John Cameron Mitchell is best known as the stage and later movie creator of Hedwig, the star of "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," still by a wide margin the greatest botched sex change/punk rock movie ever made. As you'll see below, he's come up with something completely different for "Rabbit Hole," his new movie starring Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart, set to come out hopefully everywhere in December. It's about a couple dealing with the death of their very young son, and though that indeed sounds thoroughly depressing, I love Mitchell's work and I'll watch Kidman in just about anything, so I'm there. Enjoy the clip, and have a great weekend. Peace out.

Remember Cameron Crowe? He's officially back

Actually, easily the best news out there this morning is that "In the Loop" director Armando Iannucci is coming back with a new film, and it couldn't be much more different at all from that extremely hard-hitting and satisfying satire.

His next flick, "Out the Window," is an adaptation of Claire Tomalin's biography "The Invisible Woman," which recounts Charles Dickens' affair with actress Nelly Ternan.

Like I said, couldn't be much further removed from "In the Loop," but that flick is so amazingly good that I'll follow Iannucci just about anywhere. And if you haven't seen "In the Loop," rent it immediately, and be prepared to marvel at the sheer wonder that is Peter Capaldi as Malcolm Tucker.

But before I got briefly sidetracked by that, this was supposed to be all about Cameron Crowe, who has indeed now officially signed on to direct his first flick since 2005's "Elizabethtown," which really needs to be erased from my memory right away. Man, was it awful.

His luck will hopefully be a lot better with "We Bought a Zoo," which certainly at least gives him an intriguing story to work with. The memoir by Benjamin Mee is about how he and his family used their life savings to buy a dilapidated zoo in the English countryside, complete with 200 exotic animals.

Sounds great to me. Crowe is currently reworking the script, and it's already received a release date of Dec. 23, 2011, but of course all that could change.

Like I said, "Elizabethtown" is an almost complete abomination, but Crowe has delivered plenty of winners in his career, and I'm sure he has another one in him. If I had to list my 10 favorite movies of the last 10 (or maybe 11) years or so, "Almost Famous" would make the list every time, and "Say Anything" and "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" are just cinematic comfort food that I keep going back to again and again. Here's hoping this trip to the "Zoo" will help him regain some mojo.

And in other news about one of my favorite directors who's sorely in need of a winner, it seems that Terry Gilliam may have finally found someone foolhardy enough to step into the role once inhabited by Johnny Depp in his "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote."

Gilliam's first attempt to make this movie several years ago was an utter failure, even though it was turned into a bewilderingly entertaining one in the documentary "Lost in La Mancha." The odds that he'll be able to do any better this time have to be at least slightly improved by the news (from Gilliam himself, at least) that Ewan McGregor is now on board, and hopefully bringing some better luck with him.

Assuming the script hasn't changed too much, McGregor will play an advertising executive who travel back to 17th century Spain, where he meets Don Quixote and becomes involved in adventures with him. It has already been announced that Robert Duvall will play Quixote (take a few seconds to digest that), stepping in for the great Froggy actor Jean Rochefort (if I can digress for one second, for a fantastic film starring Rochefort, rent Patrice Leconte's "Man on the Train."

I hoodwinked mi hermano into going with me to watch Gilliam's last flick, "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus," in NYC, and while it wasn't awful, it did pretty much go completely off the rails after Heath Ledger died, but that unfortunately didn't stop Gilliam from letting it just go out of any control or reason to exist for the last 45 minutes or so. "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote," however, has clearly been a passion project for him for a long time now, so here's hoping it turns into something worth watching.

And all I have except for that today is the first full trailer I know of for something I'm clearly too old to be watching, but when you make Emma Stone the star of your movie, there's almost an ironclad guarantee I'm gonna watch it. She's just easily one of the best comediennes working in movies today, and even if "Easy A," a teeny update of "The Scarlet Letter" due out in September, is extremely silly, as you'll see below, it also at least has Patricia Clarkson saying "because I slept with a whole bunch of people ... mostly boys," so it's at least got to be mildly entertaining. Enjoy, be sure to watch the Joss Whedon-directed episode of "Glee" with Neil Patrick Harris tonight, and have a perfectly acceptable Tuesday. Peace out.

More "Futurama" soon? Yes, please! Plus some more fun news

For all its faults (and farms and mafias and whatever the hell else people waste their good time with), Facebook can - extremely rarely - actually be the source of really good news, as is the case here.

And yes, call me a geek, goober, gleeb or whatever else you might want to, but I am a fan of "Futurama" on Facebook, and really, why not? It rarely produces anything worth reading, but yesterday came these two back-to-back posts:

Futurama Heads up, Futurama fans! All new episodes of Futurama begin this June on Comedy Central!
Futurama Oh, and one more thing: we're bringing back the ENTIRE original cast.

Now, anyone who's followed the saga of the show's return to Comedy Central knows that the second part has news that's at least good as the first. When Fox started on reviving the delightfully fun animated sci-fi series, it originally fired all the voice actors after they asked for a raise, and planned to proceed with a roster of scabs, meaning anyone with any kind of conscience would have to boycott this.

Well, as you can tell, common sense (or more likely pocketbook sense) eventually prevailed, and so "Futurama" will indeed be back in the only form it should in June, so huzzah to that!

OK, after that today, there's a lot of silly stuff, surely starting with this:

"Police Academy" to enroll new class

Before I write anything else about that, I should probably punctuate it right away with a yes, really.

And does anyone wanna guess how many "Police Academy" movies there have been already? I guessed seven before checking at the IMDB to find out that, sadly enough, I was indeed right.

So does the world really need another one? Certainly not, but admit it: You all watched at least the first three of these, and at the beginning, they were insanely funny. They also, however, became less and less so as they went on, which makes this not terribly welcome news at all.

It seems that original producer Paul Maslansky is now hoping to revive what has to the be longest-running film franchise yet with a new class of cadets, but no writer or director has been attached yet (so there's still hope!)

"It's going to be very worthwhile to the people who remember it and to those who saw it on TV," Maslansky said. "It's going to be a new class. We hope to discover new talent and season it with great comedians. It'll be anything but another movie with a numeral next to it. And we'll most probably retain the wonderful musical theme."

I suppose that means that, beyond a cheeky cameo, Steve Guttenberg and that guy who makes all the funny noises will have to look elsewhere for work. And please remember, I'm really just the messenger here.

Carell and Gosling to team up on big screen

Man was last night's "The Office" good. The first half hour or so was the funniest it's been in a couple of years, and poor Pam trying to breast feed her youngin was almost too sweet to take.

And though I certainly enjoy Steve Carell in full manic mode as Michael Scott, I like him in movies when he plays it a lot more low key, as in "Little Miss Sunshine," still his best movie work to date.

What he's signed on for now sounds like something in the latter category, so I'm intrigued. He'll play a father dealing with a marital crisis and his children in an as-yet-untitled comedy for Warner Bros., and, even better, Ryan Gosling will play a suave friend of his who tries to help him through at all (though I've never thought of Gosling as particularly "suave.")

So, what else makes me think this could be really good? Well, it's being directed by the "Bad Santa" team of John Requa and Glenn Ficarra (whose nest movie will be "I Love You Phillip Morris" with Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor), from a script by Dan Fogelman, who I saw way back when on Broadway as the fat guy (I'm one too, so I can say it) in "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee." Keep your eyes on this.

Stone sets sights on "Savages"

I really had no desire at all to see the sequel "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" until I saw the trailer a few weeks back, and it looked really good (yes, trailers really do work sometimes.)

I could certainly be wrong there, and we'll all find out soon enough on April 23. And after that, it seems that director Oliver Stone will next set his camera on Don Winslow's upcoming novel "Savages."

The book is apparently about two friends from Laguna Beach who share a girlfriend and a business selling incredibly good pot. As is probably always the case, that attracts the attention of a Mexican cartel who, after they resist its offer of muscle, kidnaps the girlfriend and holds her for ransom. Certainly sounds like some juicy material for Stone, who can still have wicked fun when he wants to.

Del Toro to play FBI chameleon

I'll still watch Benicio Del Toro in just about anything, but if I ever have the chance to meet the man, I'm gonna demand the five or so hours of my life that I spent watching "Che" back. He was, of course, incredible in it, but what a waste of film.

Now, however, he's set to team up with Steven Soderbergh again for something that sounds much more enjoyable. Soderbergh will executive produce "Making Jack Falcone," which will star Del Toro as Cuban-American FBI agent Joaquin "Jack" Garcia, who successfully infiltrated the Gambino crime family. Man, does that sound like nothing but cool.

OK, to close things out today, I've just got a trio of trailers, starting with an upcoming Jay-Z concert documentary you can actually watch for free (with Facebook again, I guess I'm their pimp today.)

I've been known to tell anyone who will listen that Jay-Z's "The Black Album" is not only the best rap album ever made, but probably the single greatest record of any kind. That may be a bit of exaggeration, but I also really do hold it to be true.

So if all you have to do is become fan of Absolut vodka on Facebook by March 22 to watch a new Hova concert documentary, I suppose I can do that much (and if the vodka adverts become too annoying, simply defriend them later, of course.) The movie will be streaming for free on the Absolut page starting on that date, and here's the trailer (which, unfortunately, really doesn't show too much.) Enjoy.



I had never heard of "Legend of the Guardians" until this trailer popped up on Yahoo yesterday (I just assumed that Zach Snyder's next movie was going to be "Sucker Punch," but I guess I'm wrong again.) After watching this, two thoughts popped into my head: Owls are a heck of a lot cooler than penguins, and here's hoping this will avoid the 3-D bug (which "Sucker Punch" apparently won't) when it comes out in September. Enjoy the trailer.

And finally today comes a new theatrical trailer for "The Runaways," starring Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, and set to come out hopefully everywhere on April 9. In spite of the understandable and valid concerns voiced by semi-regular Reel Fanatic visitor Cullen and other people I've talked to about this, as a big Joan Jett fan, I'm still holding out hope that this is somehow really gonna rock. Enjoy the clip, and have a great weekend. Peace out.

My (and only my) best movies of the decade: The 2003 edition

Compared with the year that preceded it (and please feel free to look back at the first three installments of this series), 2003 was indeed a down year for movies, but that certainly didn't mean it still didn't have some real winners.

It was, in fact, a particularly strong year for documentaries. Two made the final cut you'll find below, and two just missed out: Jeffrey Blitz's "Spellbound" and Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe's "Lost in La Mancha." Blitz, who also made one of my favorite movies of 2007 with the autobiographical and thoroughly charming "Rocket Science," is getting back in the documentary game next year with a movie about the lottery business, so keep your eyes out for it.

And, before we get to the main course, the other honorable mention movies for 2003 are: "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," "Chicago," "Swimming Pool," "Lost in Translation," "Pieces of April" and "The Station Agent."

OK, here goes, and as usual, please feel free to add any you think I might have wrongfully overlooked.

"Man on the Train"
I'll never understand why the French actor/singer Johnny Hallyday never became a big international star, because he's certainly got the charisma for it (although I suppose he's probably a bit too old now.) The best movie I've seen him in was this Patrice Leconte gem in which he plays a gangster who crosses paths with a retired school teacher played by the great Jean Rochefort, and then their lives start to merge. See it if you never have, and I guarantee you'll like it.

"Capturing the Friedmans"
A truly disturbing documentary, but filmmaker Andrew Jarecki was as fair as he could possibly be (many would say too fair) with the titular father and then son, who are accused and then convicted of truly heinous sexual acts involving children. As Jarecki delves into the case, interviewing the accusers as well as the family members themselves at length, the one fact that becomes clear is that "facts" and "truth" can indeed be elusive things.

"Dirty Pretty Things"
Chiwetel Ejiofor and Audrey Tautou make an extremely unlikely but engaging pairing in this taut thriller from director Stephen Frears and screenwriter Steven Knight. It deals deftly with the complexities of immigration as it paints a perfectly seedy portrait of London's underbelly, and it and the comedy "The Snapper" (which certainly would have made this list somewhere if it hadn't come out way back in 1993) are my favorite Frears flicks.

"Bend It Like Beckham"
I suppose this is the "yes, really" entry on this list, but there really wasn't a more infectiously fun movie in 2003 than this one from director Gurinder Chadha. Besides, I just like movies about soccer ("The Damned United" will almost certainly make this year's list), and when you throw in a still fairly well-fed Keira Knightley and the real star, Parminder Nagra (who went on to have long run on "ER"), this makes for one I go back to once a year or so and still really enjoy.

"American Splendor"
By a fairly wide margin, this is my favorite movie of 2003, and still the only movie I've seen from directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini (I really can't see myself watching "The Nanny Diaries" any time soon.) Harvey Pekar is probably the most unlikely pop culture figure ever, and Paul Giamatti just captures all his quirks perfectly. Fiction and reality blend seamlessly as we find out how Harvey's life as a VA file clerk was transformed by a meeting with R. Crumb that led him to create the titular cult comic book series and then by his endearing relationship with a Delaware comic book store owner, played by Hope Davis. And Judah Friedlander is just a hoot as his oddball buddy Toby.

"Fog of War"
In its own way, this Errol Morris documentary was even more creepy than "Capturing the Friedmans," mostly due to the candidness and stunning lack of remorse of its subject, former Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara. A similar approach was taken with one of my favorite films of this year, James Toback's "Tyson" (which is out on DVD now.) You'll feel extremely frustrated as you see McNamara's evident genius laid out but then see how it still left him with either a blindness or simply a lack of conscience as to what was really going on in Vietnam.

"School of Rock"
Another "yes, really" entry I suppose, but this flick from Richard Linklater and screenwriter (and very unlikely reality TV star) Mike White was the funniest movie of 2003 in my book, and really, what more can you ask for? Jack Black was far from the grating presence he often is now, and is instead just impish enough as the teacher who teaches his young band of followers to rock out. Just a great "comfort" movie.

"Shattered Glass"
It's really a shame that Billy Ray doesn't direct movies more often, because though he's certainly better known as a screenwriter, the two flicks he's helmed - this one and "Breach" - are real winners. What they share is a claustrophobic feel that perfectly fits this story about disgraced "New Republic" "journalist" Stephen Glass. And though it's a thoroughly depressing case for anyone in my profession, Peter Sarsgaard is particularly good as "New Republic" editor Charles Lane, as is Hayden Christensen (again, yes, really) as the titular shyster.

"The Triplets of Belleville"
Can an animated movie with no discernible dialogue (and not named "Wall-E") really be considered one of the best movies of the last 10 years? I'd certainly say yes in this case, because writer/director Sylvain Chomet's story about a Tour de France champion (named, of course, Champion) who is kidnapped by the French mafia and the grandmother who comes to his rescue is as equally abstract as the animation itself, which renders its characters as oddly shaped and sometimes indeed grotesque. It's a whole lot more charming than I'm making it sound here, believe me.

"Big Fish"
Though he's made some other great ones - and some real duds too - this has stood up through the years as my favorite Tim Burton movie. It's based on the equally good novel by Daniel Wallace, a Southerner with a genuine gift for storytelling, and it's mostly about exactly that - a son who has to sort through the various stories (and perhaps lies) his dying father has told throughout his life. In Burton's hands, and with a dynamite cast that included Ewan McGregor, Billy Crudup, Albert Finney, Jessice Lange, Helena Bonham Carter (of course) and even a young Marion Cotillard, this is a fantastic tribute to the power of the imagination.

And there you have it. Please feel free to add any you may wish to, and to check back Tuesday for a look at 2004. Peace out.

What will Danny Boyle finally do to follow up "Slumdog Millionaire"?

You know, I should probably just stick around Macon this weekend, what with four movies opening here this weekend and even two ("The Men Who Stare at Goats" and Richard Kelly's "The Box") I actually want to see, but I still think I'm gonna make the hour or so trip up the road to see "Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire" on Saturday morning.

And not because, like Liz Lemon, I do anything Oprah tells me to, but a hearty endorsement from Tyler Perry does go quite a way in this corner. No, I was already intrigued, but I finally decided to bite when I saw this from a review on Collider.com, not exactly known for its embrace of black cinema: "Precious" isn't a Hallmark movie. It's one of the best movies of the year.

But enough about that movie I haven't seen yet until perhaps Sunday, if it moves me enough to get up in the morning and write a review. For now, there's more than a few tidbits out there worth commenting on, especially what Danny Boyle's gonna finally do to follow up "Slumdog Millionaire," after being idle for quite a while now.

And it in fact sounds pretty fascinating. Boyle, who has already directed two of my favorite flicks with "Trainspotting" and "Shallow Grave" and one I truly detest in "Sunshine," will next turn his attention to "127 Hours," which tells the story of mountaineer Aron Ralston, who got pinned under a boulder for nearly five days while climbing in Utah. Since I assume the story will be well known before the movie comes out (if it isn't to you already), I'll tell you he ended up using a dull knife to amputate his arm and then hiked a 65-foot sheer wall before a family came to his aid.

That all sounds great, if more than a little harrowing, to me. No word on who would play Ralston (though Christian Bale popped immediately into my mind), but Boyle has already written a treatment, and "Slumdog" scribe Simon Beaufoy is in talks to write the script.

It will begin filming next year for a 2010 release, so definitely keep your eyes on this one.

Another Iraq war movie I'll see?

It really is hard to overstate exactly what Kathyrn Bigelow accomplished this year with "The Hurt Locker," and I'm sure she'll get some earned recognition now that we've just entered awards season (already? I'm afraid so.) Before her great movie starring Jeremy Renner and Anthony Mackie, I had sworn off of Iraq war movies, but her approach of simply looking at war through the soldiers' eyes combined with her natural touch for pyrotechnics just made this one incredibly entertaining (I've seen it twice already, and just might again when it finally hits DVD, probably in January.)

And now, Ken Loach is taking on the subject, and given his rather extreme distaste for objectivity I'm sure he'll come up with a completely different animal, though another one I'll take a chance on when I can because I almost always dig his passion.

His flick, "Route Irish," will detail the story of two men who work as private security contractors in Iraq. When Frankie is killed on "Route Irish" - the road linking Baghdad airport with the Green Zone - Fergus, wracked with grief and guilt, rejects the official explanation and determines to investigate the truth of his friend's death.

Sounds awfully earnest to me, but like I said, I have a whole lot of time ("Riff Raff" is still one of my favorite romantic flicks) for Mr. Loach, so this is certainly one that intrigues me.

Is no TV cartoon character safe?

If I were to put together a comedic actors hall of fame, Anna Faris would certainly get a spot, at least in the up-and-comers wing, because she's just that funny in just about everything she does. And just this year, she certainly acquitted herself well as ambitious weather girl Sam Sparks in the goofy, fun animated flick "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs."

That, however, doesn't mean I'm going to follow her anywhere near a "live-action/CG hybrid" movie about Yogi Bear. And no, I'm not making that up.

It at least sounds kinda funny that Dan Aykroyd will voice Yogi and Justin Timberlake will voice Boo Boo, but this still would have to get reviews hailing it as the "Citizen Kane" of "live-action/CG hybrid movies about talking bears" before I'd give it a chance. Faris will apparently play some kind of nature documentarian.

Dr. Horrible going to comics

"Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog," the Web creation of Joss Whedon starring Doogie Howser and Captain Mal Reynolds, was never quite as funny in my book as it was hyped up to be, but it was still a silly enough brand of fun to be enjoyed as a diversion. You can still watch the whole 45-minute-or-so thing at Hulu, and now it seems the character is getting new life thanks to Dark Horse comics.

In a one-shot comic, Zack Whedon, brother of the "Buffy" mastermind himself, and artist Joelle Jones tell the origin story of the wannabe evil genius. According to Dark Horse, they "establish how a young, impressionable, but brilliant Dr. Horrible was drawn into a world of crime. Readers are reacquainted with the charming, brawny, crime-fighting superhero extraordinaire Captain Hammer when Dr. Horrible crosses paths with his greatest enemy in an all-out showdown of immeasurable proportions.

Since it's only a one-shot, I can guarantee I'll spring the three bucks or so this should cost when it hits my local comic book store Nov. 18.

And, since along with "Precious" I'm sure to also go see "The Men Who Stare at Goats" on Sunday this weekend, I'll leave you with this clip of George Clooney explaining to Ewan McGregor what gets him in the spirit to exercise his psychic abilities. Enjoy, and have a great weekend. Peace out.

No, I really don't have a heterocrush on George Clooney, but this stuff looks damn funny

But before we get into any of that, the details have finally emerged about just what "Pushing Daisies" creator Bryan Singer is gonna do after walking away from "Heroes" for the second time (when they thoroughly wasted Hiro's time trip to Japan, that was enough to make me walk away for the first time and make it permanent.)

The good news is he now has two projects in the works for NBC, but unfortunately neither of them sound anywhere near as imaginative as "Pushing Daisies."

In the first, Fuller and Bryan Singer are partnering to adapt the Augusten Burroughs book "Sellevision," which apparently revolves around the inner workings at a fictional home shopping channel. Sounds like an awful lot of meh to me, but who knows? It could also be really funny, I suppose.

The second project he's on sounds much more appealing to me simply because of the oddity of it. Described as a "workplace comedy," "No Kill" will be set inside a no-kill animal shelter. Sounds great to me, especially with this tease from Fuller: "There's definitely a 'Barney Miller' workplace aspect to it."

And of course, for you "Pushing Daisies" fans out there (and there had to be at least a few of you, right?), Fuller is also working on a 12-issue series of comic books based on the show, and like just about any show creator you can think of, dreaming about a movie someday. I don't even think I have the heart to go there ...

OK, from here on out today it's all about George Clooney in two clips, as the fall will seem to be with the two flicks below and Wes Anderson's "Fantastic Mr. Fox" all coming out in short order.

First up comes a new, short clip from "Men Who Stare at Goats," featuring Clooney torturing Ewan McGregor with some kind of odd device. The movie, set to come out Nov. 6 and based on Jon Ronson's book about the Army's exploration of uses for paranormal activity, should probably be the funniest movie for the rest of this year, and is one I'm really looking forward to. Enjoy.



Next up, and potentially even better, is as far as I know the first teaser trailer for director Jason Reitman's return, "Up in the Air." Clooney stars as a downsizer who compiles his frequent flier as he travels the globe firing people, and thankfully the great Anna Kendrick (who I've loved ever since "Rocket Science" - rent that little charmer if you've never seen it) plays a rival who develops a way to fire people even faster (comforting thought, eh?). Before today, I had only seen this as having a probable Christmas day release, but now it's listed at the IMDB for Dec. 4, so I can only say huzzah to that. Enjoy the trailer, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday. Peace out.

The funniest movie of the fall? I think we've found it

"Chuck" is, as far as I know, still not scheduled to return until March (damnit!), but when it does, it's got to be an encouraging sign that it will have a big enough budget for ... Superman?

Yes, it does seem that, according to the TV-obsessed Michael Ausiello of Entertainment Weekly, Brandon Routh (no longer Superman, I suppose) will be joining "Chuck" for a multi-episode arc when the show finally returns. He'll apparently be playing a new agent brought in to manage Chuck and his newfound abilities, and inevitably pitch at least a little woo at agent Walker.

Like I said, no word that "Chuck" will return any earlier than next March, but one can dream, right? Bring it on now!

All I have after that is the funniest trailer I've seen in some time (well, only since "In the Loop," actually) and one that means we should be getting a seriously good comedy this November.

I would have included "Men Who Stare at Goats" in yesterday's list of the 10 movies I'm most looking forward to for the rest of this year if I had known more about it before today, because it looks like a real hoot. George Clooney (who really will be just about everywhere this fall) plays a soldier who's a member of a supposedly real Army battalion that uses psychic abilities. Yes, really. Ewan McGregor plays a journalist sent to investigate and, yes, even the Dude is somehow in this too. Enjoy the trailer, and have a perfectly pleasant weekend. Peace out.



Actually, here's a bonus, which I just happened to come across at the IMDB. This may be old, but it's the first time I had seen this teaser trailer for Tim Burton's "Alice In Wonderland," and it looks sensational. Burton remakes or reimaginings or whatever you call them are usually a disaster, but I'm sold that this one, set to come out in March, will be a real winner. Enjoy.

Truly dastardly news about "Futurama" and a video trifecta

I really don't believe this news about Guillermo del Toro's "The Hobbit" is true yet, but I figured I'd pass it on anyways.

It's already out there that James McAvoy (who would be my choice), Doctor Who David Tennant and Daniel Radcliffe are the three finalists to play Bilbo Baggins. Now, this report in London's Telegraph claims that Tennant has landed the lead role, but their sourcing (nonexistent) and logic are extremely shady. They're essentially concluding that since Peter Jackson (for "District 9") and Tennant (For "Doctor Who") are going to be in San Diego for ComicCon next week, they must be planning to make the big announcement there.

Well, that's obviously much more than a leap. I think there's more than a 50-50 chance they'll turn out to be right in the end, but it will just be a matter of luck.

But that's not the news that really set me off this morning, which is much more ominous. It seems that Twentieth Century Fox, which is still producing the planned new episodes of the great "Futurama" even though it's going to be on Comedy Central, is trying to recast almost the entire show because they are, as Bender would surely agree, cheap bastards.

You could have counted me as thoroughly psyched and planning to tune in to (well, DVR) every episode, but certainly not on these terms. In a dispute over money, the studio is now recasting the parts played by Billy West (Fry, the professor and Doctor Zoidberg), Katey Segal (Leela), John DiMaggio (Bender) and everyone else in the cast.

Now, I realize that TV shows change cast members all the time, but I'm not sure I've ever seen anything quite like this. You might as well just call a scab a scab, and I really can't see anyway I'll be watching any of these now. Stay tuned.

OK, on to much sweeter stuff. Here are a trio of videos that just made me smile. My co-worker Woody Marshall likes to get me to call this theater in North Carolina where the old guy who owns it likes to do mini-reviews as he reads the week's showtimes, but he's not nearly as funny as this Irish dude who really has his knickers in a bunch over "Bruno." Enjoy.



Next up comes an oddity that will surely be of interest to fans of "Where the Wild Things Are," of which you can certainly count me a devoted one. Long before Spike Jonze set his sights on making what is sure to be the sensational live-action version coming in October, it seems that Disney owned the rights to Sendak's short classic, and John Lasseter toyed with making an animated version of it. That never came to fruition, and Lasseter was fired before obviously getting his sweet revenge at Pixar, but at the end of this clip you can see a bit of what he had in mind, which looks pretty friggin' terrible. Enjoy.



And finally, just so you can't say I didn't warn you, this next clip is really, really gay (not that that there's anything wrong with that.) Courtesy of the great froggy film site Allocine, here's the first trailer I know of for "I Love You, Phillip Morris," the directorial debut of "Bad Santa" scribes Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, which, as you'll see, stars Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor in what should be a truly odd tale. It's not set to come out until next February, I think, but enjoy the trailer and have a great rest of the weekend. Peace out.

The fine art of the psychological thriller

First off, a hearty congratulations to "Mad Men" in snagging the Emmy for Best Dramatic Series, but how in the world Jon Hamm didn't win for Best Actor in a Dramatic Series is simply a mystery and more than a small crime. Here today, however, it's all about my favorite flicks in easily one of my favorite subgenres.

Although I found a few charms in Samuel L. Jackson and Neil LaBute's "Lakeview Terrace," it was over all so generic and predictable that I just have to beg out of reviewing it (and since it obliterated everything else out there at the box office, they hardly need my help.)

Instead, here are 10 psychological thrillers that are a lot more subtle than that crowd-pleaser, starting with my all-time favorite and then proceeding in perfectly random order. So, here goes, and as always, please feel free to add any you truly love that I may have omitted (because, after all, I only have time to list 10.)

Death and the Maiden
I think I first watched this Roman Polanski flick based on an Ariel Dorfman play as part of a class at Catholic University, but as I said it has stuck with me as just about the perfect psychological thriller. Though the play is clearly about Augusto Pinochet's reign of terror, Polanski sets the movie in an unnamed third world country where Sigourney Weaver plays a housewife who is convinced that her houseguest, Ben Kingsley, is the man who tortured and raped her in the past. As the triangle between Weaver, Kingsley and Stuart Wilson, who plays Weaver's husband and a prominent attorney, unfolds it will just keep you engrossed until the very end, so see it if you haven't already.

A Simple Plan
Though "Spider-Man 2" is easily the best movie ever made by Sam Raimi, I'd put this little flick starring Billy Bob Thornton, Bill Paxton and Bridget Fonda in second (yes, ahead of "Evil Dead.") I've heard tell that the novel by Scott Smith is even better, but never having read it I can't attest to that, but I can tell you this little flick about the power of money is just a winner.

With a Friend Like Harry
The next two flicks on this list will be French because, well, they do psychological thrillers as good as anybody since Alfred Hitchcock, to whom this flick in particular owes a huge debt. In it, Laurent Lucas and Mathilde Seigner play a middle class couple who have a chance encounter with one of Lucas' old school mates Harry, played with chilling precision by Sergi Lopez. It's fun to watch as Harry slowly brings out all of Lucas' worst impulses, and it must be said for folks who take note of such things that Sophie Guillemin, who plays Harry's girlfriend Plum, is just an insanely beautiful woman.

Man on the Train
If I'm not mistaken, it was Ashok who kindly recommended this Patrice Leconte flick starring the French singer Johnny Hallyday and the great actor Jean Rochefort, and I'm certainly glad he did. In it, Hallyday plays a man who comes to a small town with the intention of robbing the main bank and Rochefort is a retired schoolteacher who takes him in as a boarder. It becomes a bit ponderous as they each start to examine the life choices they have made, and the end is just completely crazy (in all the best ways), but I can also recommend this one to anyone who hasn't seen it yet.

Apt Pupil
It's more than a little bitterly funny that the late Brad Renfro, who only managed to make it to the age of 25, almost made this list twice with both this mindbender and "Bully," a thoroughly terrifying flick from Larry Clark which just missed the cut. In this Bryan Singer flick based on the Stephen King short story, a very young Renfro plays a boy who finds out the old man down the street (the great Sir Ian McKellen) may just happen to be a rather notorious Nazi war criminal.

Hard Candy
What in the world ever happened to Ellen Page? I skipped the only movie I know she was in this year, "Smart People," but it certainly would be nice to see her on the big screen more often since "Juno." It was this truly chilling flick that first brought her to many people's attention, and in it she plays a teen who lures an Internet perv (Patrick Wilson, who also stars in "Lakeview Terrace") into a trap and just tortures him without mercy. It's almost as uncomfortable to watch as it is simply entertaining as hell, and Page is just fantastic in it.

Rosemary's Baby
Since this one doubles as my favorite horror flick, and is a second entry from Roman Polanski, it was a natural fit for this list. Michael Bay and his fellow felons actually have their eyes on remaking this one (along with "The Birds" and who knows how many other horror classics), but there's no way they'll even come to close to what Polanski created from Ira Levin's pulpy tale of an aspiring actor (John Cassavetes) who offers his wife's (Mia Farrow) first child to the couple next door, who just happen to worship Satan. Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer are just hilarious as the leaders of the little Satanic cult down the hall.

Memento
All the tricks that Christopher Nolan had perfected by the time he made "The Dark Knight" were honed in this little trip starring Guy Pearce as a guy with short-term memory loss who tries to piece together the details of his wife's death using notes and tattoos. "Insomnia," which Nolan made just after this one, is almost as good, but Pearce's singular performance just elevates it a notch above.

Manchurian Candidate
If Jonathan Demme's 2004 version of this hadn't been a remake of John Frankenheimer's classic, the latter one would have been a perfectly pleasant little political thriller. When compared with the original, however, it just can't stand up to what Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey and Angela Lansbury delivered in this slightly flawed but still great flick about those pesky Communists and their predilection for mind control.


Shallow Grave
Whew, last one, but if this were in any order of preference I'd probably have this Danny Boyle flick right below "Death and the Maiden." Even more so than "Trainspotting," this tale of money and greed starring Ewan McGregor, Kerry Fox (man would it be great to see her again!) and Christopher Eccleston established Boyle as easily one of my favorite directors, and I can't wait to see what he's cooked up this year with "Slumdog Millionaire."

And there you have it. As I said, please feel free to add any of your favorites, and have a perfectly passable Monday. Peace out.

Where do you go after you're "Superbad"?

I was gonna start today by discussing Todd McFarlane's plan to piss all over "The Wizard of Oz," but I just can't bring myself to do it. Some people would name "Casablanca" and "The Birds" as the most untouchable flicks of all time, and I certainly wouldn't stop them from making that argument, but to me there's just no movie that combined amazing storytelling with virtuoso filmmaking better than "The Wizard of Oz."

OK, maybe a few words about it, but then I promise I'll quickly move on. McFarlane and Josh Olson, writer of the "History of Violence" graphic novel, are promising a "revisionist" vision, but McFarlane's quote on the subject reveals this is all really happening because he can't be bothered to come up with any more original ideas himself.

"My pitch was ‘How do we get people who went to ‘Lord of the Rings’ to embrace this?’ " McFarlane said. "I want to create (an interpretation) that has a 2007 wow factor. You’ve still got Dorothy trapped in an odd place, but she’s much closer to the Ripley from ‘Alien’ than a helpless singing girl."

Bleah, bleah and more bleah. Enough of that. I'd much rather talk about what Greg Mottola will do now that he's crafted and unleashed the funniest movie of 2007 with "Superbad."

If you polled 100 people leaving the movie theater after a screening of "Superbad," more than half of them would guess it was directed by Judd Apatow, and the rest would probably just give you a blank stare. But, of course, it was Mr. Mottola who was responsible for this, and before it the underrated little "Daytrippers" flick and solid TV work with "Undeclared" and then "Arrested Development."

I'd love to see some of these very talented people in the Apatow camp return to TV and give us something even half as great as "Freaks and Geeks," but they're probably too recently burned by the experience to go back to it. Instead, Mottola is quickly getting back to work on movies, this time with a script he penned himself.

Giving credit where it's due, this report comes directly from the almost-always-reliable JoBlo site. According to those fine folks, Mottola's next flick will be called "Adventureland" and will be a semiautobiographical tale set in the '80s about a college grad who, as he's about to set off on a European adventure, finds himself stuck at home in Long Island because his father gets laid off. Forced to support himself, he gets a job at the local amusement park Adventureland, where comedic hijinx will surely follow.

The slightly sordid world of amusement parks should be ripe territory for fun, and Mottola also wrote the script for "Daytrippers," so I'm hoping he comes up with a winner here to keep us laughing again next summer.


Greenaway's grand vision of Rembrandt

My favorite Froggy film site, Cinempire.com, has a slew of photos up from Peter Greenaway's upcoming "Nightwatching," which starts with the creation of Rembrandt's painting "The Night Watch" to tell the story of his often turbulent private life.

Even when they're deeply flawed, Greenaway's flicks are always a visual feast, and as these photos show, this one should be no different. Martin Freeman of the UK "The Office" fame plays Rembrandt, and even if this movie is far too wild to ever turn up in my little corner of the world on the big screen, the photos can take your mind off of Wednesday for a few minutes. Click here to peruse them all and enjoy.

Two doses of trailer fun

The first is just a tease of the movie I'd have to say I'm most excited about for the fall, Todd Haynes' Dylan flick "I'm Not There." Though it doesn't show much, I like the style of it and am definitely ready for more.



Next up comes the more substantial trailer for Woody Allen's "Cassandra's Dream." Though much of the world has dismissed him as the aging pervert he often seems to be, Mr. Allen has been on a real winning streak of late. "Match Point" was easily one of my favorite movies of 2005, and though it was lighter than air, "Scoop" was a lot of fun.

"Cassandra's Dream," starring Colin Farrell, Ewan McGregor and Tom Wilkinson, is definitely on the darker side. It's set to come out in October, and I'm hoping it has enough star power to make out here to the hinterlands. Anyways, enjoy the trailer. Peace out.