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.

First look at John Cameron Mitchell's "Rabbit Hole"

Actually, before I get into that, two bits of news in what will be a short report today because I've got some errands to run before going to see "The Town" today and most likely "Easy A" tomorrow (now that's a good movie weekend.)

Though I'd be more interested to find out what happens to the stunningly talented Connie Britton once the "Friday Night Lights" go out, which will be after next season (coming in spring again to NBC, I believe), her TV hubby has already snagged a new gig.

Kyle Chandler, aka Coach Taylor, and young Elle Fanning are the first two stars announced for writer/director J.J. Abrams' "Super 8." What else do we know about the project? Not too much - just that it's most likely some kind of alien thing (shocking, I know) and it's shooting this fall for release next year. Here's the extremely unrevealing teaser trailer that debuted earlier this year.



In other news, the one thing that would make me finally break down and order BBC America is perhaps about to happen soon. Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, creators of "The Office" and "Extras," are officially turning their pilot for "Life's Too Short" into an at least six-part series for BBC2.

So, what is it? Well, it stars (and I'm not making this description from the Hollywood Reporter up) "Britain's pre-eminent little person actor" Warwick Davis, and it is indeed about his life, with some appearances from Gervais and Merchant too.

Here's hoping they don't bully Davis as badly as they do poor Karl Pilkington on their very funny podcasts, but I don't think that will be the case. Here's how Gervais himself describes it:

"Third in our trilogy of TV sitcoms, Life's Too Short is another naturalist observational comedy, dealing with everyday problems, human foibles and social faux pas... but with a dwarf," said Gervais.

Sounds like nothing but funny to me, so keep an eye out for it, and let me know if you ever find it.

But on to the main event today, and it really has to be just about the opposite of funny, but it should still be fairly great - and with the buzz around Nicole Kidman's performance maybe even playing wide enough by the end of this year that even I'll be able to see it at Macon's one (for now at least) movie theater.

If you've never heard of John Cameron Mitchell, he's the director of the crazy little punk rock/sex change operation gone wrong gem "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," which would make a perfect Saturday night rental if you've never seen it. He also made a sex romp called "Short Bus," but I've never seen that one (not because it would possibly offend me in any way, just because I haven't gotten around to it yet.)

And now he's back with something pretty much completely different, "Rabbit Hole," which has been picked up by Lionsgate. The movie stars Kidman and Aaron Eckhart as a married couple dealing with the death of their 4-year-old son (I said the opposite of funny, right.) Dire stuff, that, but I can't think of the last time Nicole Kidman picked a role that made me say "that was just awful" (yes, I even liked "Margot at the Wedding" quite a bit), so I'm really looking forward to this. Enjoy these two scenes from the movie, and of course, go see at least one movie this weekend. Peace out.