Who are these "Crazies," and what the heck are they doing in Peach County?

Actually, the biggest movie news today that might concern anyone who doesn't live within 30 miles of me concerns two biopics in the works which could both turn out to be pretty friggin' cool.

First off, Jim Sheridan, who last made the rather instantly forgettable 50 Cent bio pic of sorts, "Get Rich or Die Tryin' " (man, do I hope "Notorious" - which is indeed playing here this weekend - is better than that!), is now returning to the Irish turf that he knows so well. Well, Irish-American anyway.

Sheridan will be directing and co-wrote the script for a pic about Boston mobster and FBI informant Whitey Bulger, based on the book "Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob" by Boston Globe reporters Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill (which just went on my reading list.)

I love mob movies as much as the next guy, especially ones based on real mobsters, so this should just be a lot of fun (and I'm sure Ben Affleck would give his left nut to play this, but I really just can't see it.)

Even better in my book, Focus Features has acquired the rights to "Fela: The Life and Times of an African Musical Icon." Now, I do agree there are too many music biopics out there, but cats just don't get much more interesting than Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.

I recently bought a compilation of two Fela albums on the ITunes, "Open & Close" with "Aphrodisiac," and I can confirm they are just stunningly entertaining. Along with the music, though, Fela was also a political animal, often imprisoned in his native Nigeria before he died in 1997. Although I recommend these two guys for just about everything, I'd love to see Derek Luke (P.Diddy, or whatever his name is, in this week's "Notorious") or the "The Wire" vet who will be making a six-episode run soon on "The Office" (more on that in just a bit) in this meaty role.

Right here in Middle Georgia, and soon, there's something much more and appropriately crazy going on. I've so far managed to steer clear of almost all horror remakes, but I just might have to make an exception for this one.

As reporter Jake Jacobs reported in Wednesday's Sun News (which I lay out), there's a remake of George Romero's "The Crazies" in the works, and amazingly enough it's about to start filming in Peach County. Specifically, the filmmakers will invade Peach County High School and other parts of the county for filming from April 1-20.

So, what in the world is "The Crazies"? I haven't seen it, but as best as I can tell it's about what happens when a toxin is released into a town's water supply that, of course, causes ordinary people to go insane. Sounds good to me as long as it's a lot of fun, and now we know who will be here when it's filming.

Timothy Oliphant (Sheriff Seth Bullock on "Deadwood" who has managed to star in a string of just awful flicks since) and Radha Mitchell (who I last saw in the mildly engaging "miracle" movie "Henry Poole is Here") will be the stars, and if you want to see them, just stop by the school in that window and you might get lucky. And on one day, you'll probably see me too.

TV odds and ends

For most "Friday Night Lights" fans (meaning almost anyone who doesn't have DirecTV), it's been a long, long wait for the new season to hit NBC, but it finally does tomorrow night at 8.

Luckily, and thanks to the largess of always-welcome reader Jeremy, I've seen most of the episodes already, but I'll watch them all again on my bigger screen because they're just as good as ever.

Coincidentally, what will most likely be the last "FNL" episode ever hits DirecTV on the same night that the new season starts on NBC. I won't spoil anything for those of who will be tuning in tomorrow night (except for the teaser that, yes, Tim and Lyla are thankfully an odd couple again), but I can say they're clearly wrapping all the loose ends and doing so with a welcome dose of wicked humor.

And of course, for those of you who - like me - are old enough that you often stay home on Friday nights or else have a DVR, don't forget that the final episode run of "Battlestar Galactica" begins Friday night at 10 on Sci Fi. Bring it on!

Finally, there's some cool casting news for "The Office," and its non-Office spinoff from the series creators, which will premier right after the Super Bowl.

The name Idris Elba (teased so shamelessly just a few paragraphs ago to get perhaps a few people to read to the end of this) will be very familiar to fans of "The Wire" for his turn as Stringer Bell, but you should also check him out in "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" - the last movie from the late Anthony Minghella - once it hits DVD.

Now, in what should be a very funny run, he'll soon be appearing on six episodes of "The Office" as a new corporate suit who - among other duties - will finally try to whip poor Michael Scott into shape. Very cool.

For the new show from "Office" producers Greg Daniels and Mike Schur, "Saturday Night Live" vet Amy Poehler will star and be surrounded by former "Office" employee Rashida Jones, funny man Aziz Ansari and - most recently - Aubrey Plaza (who can apparently be seen in Judd Apatow's next flick, "Funny People.")

So, what's it about? Well, I don't know much, but this one sentence is enough to get me to watch at least a few episodes:

[The sitcom] is set in the office of Amy (Poehler), deputy chairman of the department of parks and recreations in Pawnee, Ind.

Vice chairman? Sounds just right to me, and I'll finally wrap this up with a coming three-episode turn on a show I just recently managed to get on board with, "Chuck," from a dude I can really only stand in small doses.

Goofy man Chevy Chase will play a technology mogul on three upcoming episodes of the show, which returns with new stuff Feb. 2. Unfortunately, it will be in 3-D, so I hope I will be able to stubbornly watch and enjoy it with only the glasses I need to make it through each day.

And, really finally since this has clearly gone on long enough, I'll leave you with this video preview of tonight's "The Office" episode, titled "The Duel." As any "Office" fan knows, that means Dwight and Andy, so definitely tune in, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday.

Tidbits: Wes Anderson news, a flashy new Bond trailer and, yes, a poll!

Though I've never bothered to put a poll on here before now, it's not because I don't care about the opinions of the few people who are kind enough to stop by here from time to time. I simply don't like to mess with the template too much because I'm most likely to just screw it up!

However, with the Fall season upon us, I've finally broken down and bowed to my lame duck president's command to spread democracy around the world and do my little part. It's not the most scientific poll, since you can vote for more than one movie, but I hope it provides a few seconds of diversion.

As I made clear in my Fall preview, the three movies that get me the most geeked up would be, probably in this order, "Slumdog Millionaire," "The Brothers Bloom" and "Miracle at St. Anna." I can't wait to see what everyone else thinks.

In other news that's not about, well, me, it seems that Wes Anderson is jumping on the French remake train. Before I slag the man at all, and since I haven't talked about him for quite a while, let me state that I just about unequivocally love Mr. Anderson's first three flicks, with "Rushmore" being just about a perfect comedy and "The Royal Tenenbaums" being even better. (The Criterion edition of "Tenenbaums," by the way, is one of the very best in the collection, and well worth a rental to sift through the extras about how Anderson and his crew concocted the Tenenbaums' weird little world.

His last two flicks, however, "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" and "Darjeeling Limited," just left me pretty cold (though that collection of David Bowie songs in Portuguese by Seu Jorge is still in fairly heavy rotation on my car CD player.) He's listed as being in "post-production" on Roald Dahl's "Fantastic Mr. Fox" because, well, apparently every director in the world gets to make at least one animated movie, and now (in a rather severe case of burying the lead) comes news about a "new project" he's writing and possibly directing for Universal.

And if you're gonna pilfer from the French, I suppose you could do a whole lot worse than Patrice LeConte. I haven't seen the work Anderson is set to take on, "Mon Meilleur Ami," but that will change in a few days when it comes from Netflix (last night I watched "In Bruges," and I can attest that while it's often entertaining in its wordplay, it's just one of the strangest little flicks I've ever seen.)

In LeConte's 2006 film, French everyman Daniel Auteuil plays "a cranky antiques dealer who learns at a dinner with his closest acquaintances that none of them really like him because of his harsh manner and selfishness. When his business partner bets him a valuable vase that he can’t produce a best friend, the dealer tries to get an amiable cab driver to pose as his buddy," according to Variety.

As someone who finds himself fairly cranky as I get older, that sounds like it could be a lot of fun to me, and just might give Anderson the boost he needs to get back in my good graces (because I'm certain he's lost a lot of sleep about that!)

And now, since this has clearly has gone on long enough, I'll close with the promised "Quantum of Solace" trailer, which at a full two-and-a-half minutes is just a lot of fun. It looks like it starts out as a pretty straightforward revenge flick about the death of Vesper (the mesmerizing Eva Green), but of course spirals into a lot more than that, and like "Casino Royale" just looks like an old-fashioned Bond flick in all the best ways. Enjoy, and have a perfectly bearable Thursday.



P.S.: There's also a spot of sad news out there in that writer Gregory MacDonald has died at age 71.

MacDonald, a prolific mystery writer, was best know for his "Fletch" novels, two of which I read and four of which were made into flicks. I love the novels and movies for their goofy spirit and because Fletch, the journalist-turned-globetrotting author, is just a great character (and the last time Chevy Chase was truly funny.)

Before he died, MacDonald apparently collaborated with Harry Stein on the script for another "Fletch" flick, "Fletch Won." Since that one, if it ever were to happen, is rumored to possibly star Joshua Jackson in the role of our hero, it's perhaps best if it just stays dormant (though you'd have me interested with John Krasinski from "The Office".) Rest in peace, Mr. MacDonald.