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.

A Thursday clip show, closing with the funniest thing you'll see today

Starting with some movie news, having been thoroughly burned by Matt Reeves' soulless, shot-by-empty-shot remake of one of my favorite movies, "Let the Right One In," I should just run screaming from this, but there's news today that still gives me hope that another unnecessary remake of a modern European classic might actually be pretty good.

Guillaume Canet's "Tell No One," based on the American novel by Harlan Coben, actually came out in the same year as Tomas Alfredson's "Let the Right One In," and as a duo, they were my two favorites movies of 2008.

So there's nothing more representative of Hollywood's bankruptcy of ideas than the fact that they're both so quickly targeted for remakes, but in spite of that, I still have hope for the upcoming American take on "Tell No One" for exactly one reason: Ben Affleck.

He's now at work on "Argo," the odd thriller he's directing based on the true story of how the CIA and the Canadian government teamed up to rescue six U.S. diplomats who had been taken hostage by Iranians in 1979, developing a ruse that involved convincing the Iranians that the diplomats were a Hollywood film crew scouting locations for a movie called “Argo.”

That should be nothing but wicked fun, but today comes word that after that, he'll direct the American remake of "Tell No One," and though like I said I should know by now not to get suckered in so easily, the hard-boiled mind-bender would indeed seem to be perfectly catered to his directing style, if this remake needs to be made at all.

OK, enough of that. I promised clips, and the movie-related ones today are actually pretty sensational in my estimation, followed by three doses of pretty solid funny.

First up today is the first trailer I know of for the upcoming baseball flick "Moneyball," which, even with the thoroughly annoying "Entertainment Tonight" voiceover interruptions, looks like nothing but great. I love a good baseball movie, and this one starring Brad Pitt as Oakland A's bean counter Billy Beane, Jonah Hill as his assistant and, though he makes virtually no appearance in the trailer, Philip Seymour Hoffman as A's coach Art Howe, should be a real winner. Enjoy the trailer, and if you like baseball movies as much as me, keep an eye out for this in September.



Next up, if you take one piece of movie advice from me ever, it's go see "Tree of Life" if you have the chance. By far Terrence Malick's most personal movie, and in my opinion, his best, too. But don't take my word for it. In what I have to assume is a leaked DVD extra, Christopher Nolan and David Fincher eloquently make the case for why this is such a uniquely entertaining movie, emphasizing its naturalism as one of its chief strengths. Enjoy, go see the movie if you can, and stick around for three doses of good comedy, with the very best for last.



Part of my newspaper job (the one that actually pays me a bit of scratch) is to look for movie reviews of the week's opening releases, if there will be any. Well, this week, I just assumed several folks would step forward to review "Green Lantern" in time for inclusion in our entertainment publication, but only Rene Rodriguez took the plunge, and slightly too late, promptly giving the movie one star. With "Super 8" still to catch up with and perhaps Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" to see again (yes, it's just that good), I think I'll just say no, but just in case you're feeling tempted, here are the Onion folks to get you amped for the sure-to-be-phenomenon that is "Greg Lantern." Enjoy.



I read this book while in a Minneapolis bookstore last week, and even though I have no rugrats of my own to deal with, it was an amusing enough little ditty. I had no idea, however, that Adam Mansbach's "Go the F#$% to Sleep" was about to debut atop the NY Times bestseller list. Reading it is indeed a bit of fun, but believe me, hearing Samuel L. Jackson read it is at least 15 times better. Enjoy this audio-only clip, and then stick around for what is by a very wide margin the funniest thing I've seen today.



By himself, Karl Pilkington, the tormented genius of Ricky Gervais' podcasts and now his Science show "An Idiot Abroad," is pretty friggin funny already. But what happens when you combine him with Warwick Davis, the "Harry Potter" star who's also featured in his own upcoming Gervais series, "Life's Too Short"? Not surprisingly, comic gold. On the podcasts, Pilkington has made it clear that he fears just about everything even slightly out of the ordinary, especially little people, so when Davis sits on his lap in this clip, it's a riot. If you like this, be advised, it's only part one of four, and the rest can be found at YouTube by searching for "When Karl Meets Warwick." Enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday. Peace out.

A Wednesday clip show, with Fincher, Pulp and even "Star Wars"

Actually, before we jump right into that, there's an intriguing bit of movie news out there today about a reunion of director Noah Baumbach and Jesse Eisenberg.

If you've never seen "The Squid and the Whale," while not the most uplifting of movies, there are few rentals I can recommend higher. Baumbach's directing debut (I believe) was an autobiographical tale of sorts about the divorce of his parents, played by Laura Linney and Jeff Daniels, with Eisenberg playing a character at least loosely based on Baumbach himself.

It was just a sweet little movie, and of course since then, Eisenberg has gone on to become more than a bit of a star. He'll next be seen in August in the Ruben Fleischer ("Zombieland") comedy "30 Minutes or Less" with veryfunnyman Aziz Ansari, and now comes word this morning that he's set to make another movie with Baumbach.

The movie, titled "While We're Young," is apparently about a Brooklynite 20-something couple who inspire an older, uptight documentarian and his wife to loosen up (according to the always reliable The Playlist, at least). If this all comes together, Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts would play the older couple, and Eisenberg and an actress to be named later the younger one.

Sounds like a comedy of manners (or lack thereof) perfect for Baumbach, so here's hoping this all comes together.

And now, because I'm in a bit of a hurry to go swimming before work, let's just jump right into the clips. For about a week or so, a very shaky camera pirated copy of the trailer for David Fincher's thoroughly unnecessary remake of "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" has been circulating on the Internet. Well, Sony apparently finally got fed up, and pulled that copy while replacing it with this spiffy official version.

I have to say, however, that as shiny as it all looks, it seems to be pretty much a shot-for-shot remake of the original Swedish movie, which is already pretty sublime entertainment, so what's the point of all this? Daniel Craig may well turn out to be an upgrade as Blomkvist, but in movies, there will always only be one Lisbeth Salander, because Noomi Rapace took over the role so completely. Having been burned once by what Matt Reeves did to one of my favorite movies with "Let Me In," I'm not ready to give in yet and believe there's any reason for this to be happening. Anyways, after that mini-rant, here's the cleaned-up trailer for you to "enjoy."



Next up, HBO has been on a real roll lately with "Treme" and even more so with "Game of Thrones," which really does get better and better as the weeks go by. And very soon (June 26, to be precise), the fourth season of "True Blood" will premiere. Though I'm not terribly enamored with the sometimes extreme liberties the show takes with Charlaine Harris' already very good Sookie Stackhouse novels, the show still remains a fun and funky brew. And now, through it's HBO Go toy and on to You Tube, HBO has leaked the first three minutes or so of the season 4 premiere, with more chunky bits to come before it's all unveiled. Enjoy, and then stick around for the return of Pulp and even pure, unspiffied up "Star Wars."



When I was supposedly in graduate school (but actually just having a blast in Athens, Ga.), Pulp's "Different Class" was easily one of my favorite albums, and it's one that I still listen to fairly often today. Here, performing I'm not sure where, is Pulp reunited, with Jarvis Cocker clearly just as cheeky as ever, performing "Disco 2000," and sounding great. Enjoy.



And finally today, where can you see the original "Star Wars" (now episode IV, I suppose), without any 3-D, extra footage or any other kind of enhancement? Why here, of course. I couldn't think of anything better to brighten up a Wednesday morning, so here, as promised, is the movie in its blissfully low-tech entirety. Enjoy, and have a perfectly endurable Wednesday. Peace out.

Of remakes stopped, crazy and just plain audacious

I didn't bother to see "Mars Needs Moms," not because the idea of martians kidnapping and killing little kids' moms offended me, but just because I found something better to do (spend the weekend with mi hermano for a couple of epicly good Baseball Project shows.)

It seems, however, that that simple act of ignoring may have been my little part (and probably yours, since I don't think anyone went to see that) in stopping something much more insidious.

Robert Zemeckis, a producer of "Mars Needs Moms," had been plotting a digital remake of "Yellow Submarine," I guess just because he has the technological skills to do such a thing and, well, maybe he's just bored. Well, luckily, it seems the complete failure of "Mars Needs Moms" has led Disney to put the kibosh on that before it really got off the ground. Bully to that.

Another remake that is almost finished has apparently had a late and rather funny change of villainy in hopes of expanding its box office take.

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that MGM is changing the villains in "Red Dawn" from Chinese to North Korean in order to keep its access to the humongous Chinese box office. Take a second to let it sink in just how funny that is. The studio is apparently, though not terribly surprisingly, still looking for a distributor for the movie starring Chris Hemsworth, Josh Peck, Josh Hutcherson, Adrianne Palicki, Isabel Lucas, Connor Cruise and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

Per the L.A. Times, the changes will cost less than $1 million and will "involve changing an opening sequence summarizing the story's fictional backdrop, re-editing two scenes and using digital technology to transform many Chinese symbols to Korean." Priceless. Actually, I think that might be enough to get me to at least watch this on DVD to see how many accidental Chinese symbols remain.

And in a final word about remakes before a couple of fun videos, it seems that Netflix is making a "bold" movie into "original" programming by paying $100 million or so for David Fincher and Kevin Spacey's remake of the sublime UK TV series "House of Cards." Quotations added by me and fully intended to be facetious.

To acquire the show, which I assume it will then lease to a TV network, Netflix has agreed upfront to a two season, 26 episode commitment, but I really can't see how in the world this is going to catch on.

If you've never seen the original, it stars the late and truly great Ian Richardson as Francis Urquhart, aka F.U., an enterprising Conservative politician who rises through the British Parliament from chief whip all the way to prime minister through increasingly and comically evil means. I just don't see how Spacey or anyone else will be able to pull off his unique brand of malevolence as its translated across the pond.

But only a sucker would bet against Netflix, which now has a rather amazing 61 percent of the streaming content on the Internet (and I must say I've been thoroughly enjoying its all six seasons of "The Larry Sanders Show" - TV perfection.) Stay tuned to find out if this turns out as well as just about everything else Netflix has laid its hands on.

OK, after all that today, all I have is a couple of videos. First up comes the comedy duo of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost taking a break from the set of "Paul" to do a fairly funny "Star Wars" send-up for the folks at College Humor. All the early reviews I've seen so far "Paul" indicate that Greg Mottola's movie will deliver broad sci-fi laughs when it his theaters Friday, so I'm certainly in. Enjoy the video, then stick around for one more.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Finally today, courtesy of Yahoo, here are the first five minutes of "Source Code," director Duncan Jones' follow-up to his sci-fi gem "Moon," which is set to hit theaters April 1. I suppose if you don't know what exactly Jake Gyllenhaal's character is supposed to stop in this flick, the end of this clip is a bit of a spoiler, but since it happens in the first five minutes, I really don't think it can be much of one. I've decided I'll be going to see this flick, which also stars Michelle Monaghan. Enjoy the clip, and have a perfectly endurable Wednesday. 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.

My top 10 movies of 2010

Before I depart for my annual year-ending week in NYC with my family, I figured it's as good a time as any to come up with my top 10 movies of 2010, both because I figure by now I've seen just about everything that might make this list except for maybe "The King's Speech" and "Rabbit Hole," and simply so this won't be completely empty while I'm gone.

And lest anyone wants to squawk about the fact that neither "Inception" nor "The Social Network" made the cut, rest assured they're among the 10 runners-up, along with "Shutter Island", "A Prophet", "Splice", "Despicable Me", "Easy A", "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1", "The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader" and "The Fighter".

So, without further delay, let's get to it, in order only of release date until the very end, where you will find my favorite movie of 2010. And as usual, please feel free to add your favorites and let me hear about any that I've unfairly snubbed.

"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"/"The Girl Who Played With Fire": These should definitely be viewed together, and ideally all at once with the third chapter, "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest," but I haven't had the opportunity to see it yet. Given how sprawling and packed with details the novels by Stieg Larsson are, these are both nearly perfect models of how to adapt books for the big screen, and though David Fincher is doing an American remake of the first movie for next year, please do go see these first, because just trust me: Once you see her, I'm sure you'll agree that Noomi Rapace simply is Lisbeth Salander.

"Kick-Ass": Though many movies try to re-create the feel of comic books on the big screen, very few come as close to accomplishing it as this thoroughly fun flick from Matthew Vaughn (for the opposite kind of failure, view the almost completely lifeless "Iron Man 2".) Sure, there are moral questions about having a 13-year-old assassin spray bullets all around, but young Chloe Moretz is electric as Hit-Girl, and she and Vaughn create at least two of the year's best action sequences here.

"Toy Story 3": Being sometimes a fairly cynical fellow, I doubted that all the hype about this Pixar flick could be true, but it really does pack the emotional and entertaining punch to launch the "Toy Story" series into any discussion about the best movie trilogies. And "Toy Story" fans take note: The franchise will live on, sort of, as Barbie and Ken will star in the short movie that will precede "Cars 2" next summer (and will probably be better than the main attraction).

"The Other Guys": A Will Ferrell movie? Really? Yes, because Ferrell and Adam McKay bring all kinds of funny and just enough smarts to this comedy that skewers the buddy cop genre almost as well as Edgar Wright's "Hot Fuzz." And besides, this movie has both the best opening and closing credit sequences of the year, which may not sound like much, but they really are small wonders to behold.

"Animal Kingdom": This Australian gangster flick lacks all of the glamour of "The Godfather" or "Goodfellas," but packs even more of the grit. The story of the less-than-two-bit Cody clan, a crime family that never rose too high and is already on its way down as the movie opens, is hardly a sunny tale, but it's extremely compelling, thanks in large part to the chilling performance of Jacki Weaver as the menacing matriarch.

"The American": This is probably the flick on this list that most divided audiences, but I know that along with me, at least Roger Ebert and Reel Fanatic reader Jeremy Jirik also love it, so at least I'm not alone. "Control" director Anton Corbijn displays all of that titular quality here as he strips this tale of George Clooney as a hit man on what could be his last mission in Italy down to the barest bones of a thriller, making it instead a slow-moving but riveting character study and just a good story well told.

"127 Hours": Though the tale of what lengths trapped climber Aron Ralston had to go to remove himself from underneath a boulder in a valley was as hard to watch as I could have expected, it's also completely imbued with optimism thanks to director Danny Boyle and energy thanks to James Franco, even at its darkest moments. And even though Boyle used two different cinematographers, Enrique Chediak and Anthony Dod Mantle, you'd never know it as they merge their talents to drop us into every treacherous step of Ralston's journey, and should definitely share an Oscar for their efforts.

"True Grit": Even the ridiculous coda at the end, which is loyal to the source but just drains the energy right off the screen, can't ruin the fact that this remake is one of the Coen brothers' very best flicks. Restraining from most of their usual oddity, they instead just let the actors have a ball here, as The Dude, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Barry Pepper and, most of all, young Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross all do, elevating both the humor and heart of Charles Portis' great novel. I've seen it twice already, and just may again before it leaves theaters.

"Black Swan": There's not an ounce of subtlety in this Darren Aronofsky flick, but since at its most basic level he's essentially made a great B horror movie (albeit it one of the psychological variety set in the world of ballet), he didn't really need any to make it soar. I'd have to imagine Natalie Portman is the odds-on favorite for the Best Actress Oscar, but Vincent Cassel should hear his name called in the Best Supporting Actor category too as the ballet guru who leads Portman's Nina Sayers to the darkest reaches of her own mind.

"Winter's Bone": Definitely saving the very best for last, I first saw this movie this summer while on vacation with mi hermano in Philadelphia, and it's been burned on my brain ever since. I watched it again recently to make sure, and yes, Debra Granik's tale of a young woman (the fantastic Jennifer Lawrence, who would get my Oscar vote if I had one) forced to go on a hunt through the American underbelly that is the Ozarks to search for her deadbeat father - who has put the house she's raising her two younger siblings in as a guarantor for a court appearance he's almost guaranteed not to make - is every bit as good as I first thought. Bleak? Of course, but as Lawrence's Rhee Dolly searches for the truth in this mess, this flick combines all the best elements of film noir with a coming-of-age tale of sorts to cook up my best movie of 2010 by a pretty wide margin.

And there you have it. Please, as usual, feel free to share any of your favorites or any that I've just unfairly snubbed, and have a simply splendid new year. 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.

Who are the two dissenters raining on David Fincher's parade?

Actually, before I get into that, there are two tidbits about creative folk whose work I often enjoy out there today.

Though he certainly hit a rough stretch in my book with "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" and "The Darjeeling Limited," Wes Anderson has also made four movies I truly adore in "Bottle Rocket," "Rushmore," "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "Fantastic Mr. Fox," so any word of the man getting back to work is welcome around here, even if that info comes in the form of the skimpiest of details.

According to Production Weekly's twitter feed, the title of his next movie will be "Moonrise Kingdom" and, best of all, he has plans to shoot it next spring. The only other detail available right now is that he's looking for two 12-year-olds, a boy and a girl, to play the leads.

So, something for children (and not completely jaded adults) like "Fantastic Mr. Fox"? Perhaps, but this will apparently be a live-action affair instead. No matter what, this is good news all around, so stay tuned for more about is as soon I can track it down. ...

In TV news, when it was revealed that "Pushing Daisies" mastermind Bryan Fuller (who also had a big hand in the early stages of "Heroes," before that show completely derailed) had signed a new deal with NBC, that was certainly a promising development. If you've never seen the show that ran for 22 episodes on ABC a few years ago, it was just the definition of whimsy and a perfect little bit of escapist TV.

So I was really looking forward to finding out what he would sink his teeth into next, but according to the always reliable Michael Ausiello at Entertainment Weekly, it's just a remake of "The Munsters," and while that certainly has a little potential in his hands, it mostly just sounds extremely tired.

Even with Ausiello saying the series has been described as "Modern Family meets True Blood," and I have a lot of time for both of those, I just can't say much but meh to this idea so far. ...

And finally today, having given in long ago to any notion that I would somehow boycott Matt Reeves' "Let Me In" on general principles, I've set my viewing schedule for what really should be one of the best movie weekends of the entire year: David Fincher's "The Social Network" on Saturday afternoon, followed by "Let Me In" on Sunday afternoon.

And while Reeves' still thoroughly unnecessary remake of the perfect Swedish vampire coming-of-age tale "Let the Right One In" is doing a more than respectable 83 percent positive at Rotten Tomatoes, Fincher's flick was approaching the perfect score achieved by "Toy Story 2" until a couple of holdouts spoiled the party and knocked "The Social Network" down to 97 percent.

So, who are these two flies in the ointment? Well, they, not surprisingly, have brought their own opinions about much more than the movie itself (and that's their right, of course) into their attempts to judge it.

First up is Armond White of the New York Press, who if he wanted attention, has certainly gotten it this time, with more than 6,000, often very harsh, comments on his review posting at Rotten Tomatoes.

White has earned the reputation as more than a little of an iconoclast for trashing movies like "The Town" and "The Kids Are All Right," and while I can't go with him completely on either of those, I do have to agree that they were both at least a little overrated.

Where he really stepped in it this year, however, was in his completely wrongminded thrashing of "Toy Story 3," calling Pixar's best movie since "Ratatouille" simply "besotted with brand names" (it's about toys, after all ... sheesh.)

So, what's his beef with "The Social Network"? Well, I encourage everyone to read his full review here to find out, but my reading of it is that he just generally finds Hollywood to be a morally bankrupt kind of place, and while that may or may not be true, letting that generality cloud your view of specific films is a sad approach to take. Here's a sample:

Like one of those fake-smart, middlebrow TV shows, the speciousness of The Social Network is disguised by topicality. It’s really a movie excusing Hollywood ruthlessness. That’s why it evades Zuckerberg’s background timidity and the mess that the Internet has made of cultural discourse.

There's much more like that proving that White craves, along with attention, easy answers in his movies, something I've never had much time for.

The second holdout (and there may indeed be more by the time I finish writing this) is someone named Prairie Miller (yes, really) of a conservative blog NewsBlaze, who, perhaps predictably, has a problem with Hollywood's "in-your face cocky" portrayal of Harvard culture, therefore managing to trash both of this country's supposedly elitist coasts without - much like White - saying much at all about the movie itself. Read the whole thing here, but here's a sample:

Though according to filmmaker David Fincher, who seems to already have an experienced handle on scrutinizing budding sociopaths with Fight Club, Se7en and Zodiac, and as mapped out in a series of legal depositions inserted into this film, Zuckerberg had a flair for ripping off both ideas and profits from fellow matriculated collaborators in this venture. Cavalier when not in your face cocky, the gabby snob navigates a Hollywood notion of Harvard in what seems less brainiac boot camp than an Ivy League Club Med where nobody does homework.

Now, both of these writers have a lot more readers than I do, and perhaps rightly so, but is it all surprising that the only two dissenters from what has been almost universally hailed as a great movie have done so due to preconceived notions they clearly took into the movie with them?

Everyone's welcome to their opinions though, of course, and if I have time before I, sadly, have to work on Sunday, you'll get mine on David Fincher's "The Social Network." And with that, have a great weekend, and go see lat least one new movie if you have the time. 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.

A new Christopher Guest movie? It's about friggin' time

Can anyone remember the last time Christopher Guest made one of his almost always entertaining mockumentaries? I would have guessed five years ago, and a quick glance at the rather disastrously "redesigned" (yes, I pretty much fear all change) IMDB confirms I was close ("For Your Consideration" in 2006 was his last - and not one of his best.)

Well now, according to Liz Smith at Women of the Web (hey, choose to believe it or not, but she has two of the stories I found interesting this morning, so credit where it's due), he's found a new subject to parody, and it sound just about perfect: the rather seriously idiosyncratic world of retro collectors.

I've never delved into that world, but I'm sure Guest, if this will indeed be his next target, will treat these endearing oddballs with his usual mix of mockery with a hint of respect. And according to Smith, the "Spinal Tap" core of Harry Shearer and Michael McKean are all already on board with the as-yet-untitled project, and they're writing roles with Guest regulars Michael Patrick Higgins, Parker Posey and even Jane Lynch in mind, though I'd be seriously impressed if they manage to snag her around her "Glee" schedule.

This could all be conjecture, of course, but it sounds so good that I'm choosing to believe it until I hear otherwise.

After that today, there's actually a lot of news about probably my three favorite young actresses out there, so after a short diversion about NBC's "Community," I'll get right on to that.

If you watched NBC's Thursday comedy block last night (except, I can only hope, "Outsourced," which my remote stopped on for a second during DVR breaks, and I could feel it cringing in my hand before I quickly moved on), I think you'll agree with me that "Community" has clearly now risen to the top of the pack. "The Office" is still funny, and "30 Rock" rebounded strong last year, but last night's "Community" premiere, from Chevy Chase's "White Man Says" Twitter account to the promise of evil Senor Chang out for revenge, was just nonstop laughs.

And the best joke of all just might have come in the first 10 seconds, when they show veryfunnyman Donald Glover waking up in his Spider-Man pajamas. Glover was lobbying for the role of Peter Parker in director Marc Webb's coming "reboot," and until now that would have been the only thing that would have possibly gotten me interested in this thoroughly unnecessary project.

The role eventually went to Andrew Garfield, which, once you've already fired Sam Raimi as director, just finished the meh for me. Now, however, he and Webb have interviewed Emma Stone and Mia Wasikowska for roles in the movie and, given that both Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane Watson will appear in the new movie, those two, in that order, would be just about perfect, and perhaps even be enough to make me buy a ticket for this mess.

If you haven't seen Stone's "Easy A," do so this weekend, unless you somehow don't like to laugh. The story is too slight by half, but it's wickedly funny, and Stone truly shines in it.

And while we're on the subject of young actresses I always like to watch, just as Chloe Moretz is getting raves for "Let Me In," which I've now dropped all plans to avoid, she's now lined up what would have to be just about the perfect part.

I don't read comic books much any more, but I have read several issues of Dark Horse's "Emily the Strange," and they pretty much rule. The Goth teen who, with proper reason, loathes just about everything in the world except her talking cats, will make a great part for Moretz, who has now signed on for a live-action movie version based on the comic books.

OK, quick hits today, I know, but there's a lot out there, and not much time for me to get to it at all. Next up is a rumor that I'm sure is true, but I can only hope never comes to fruition.

According to Smith, again, Mel Gibson, who through no possible fault than his own is now pretty much an exile from the big screen, is apparently now lobbying hard to make a comeback on the small one, and in easily one of my favorite shows.

It seems that Gibson has been begging "Mad Men" creator Matthew Weiner for a recurring role on the fifth (and I think probably final) season of the show, which would film in July. Take a second to think about that.

Now, I know the show deals in complicated characters, and thrives on that, but I really hope Weiner doesn't take the bait on this. It would just be the worst kind of stunt, and "Mad Men" certainly doesn't need that. Though apparently less than 2 million people are tuning in for this season, it has been possibly the show's best, and with Cooper's "She was an astronaut," offered easily the best line of this just-starting TV season. Just say no, Mr. Weiner.

OK, after that, I think I have time for a trio of clips, so here goes. First up, from Collider.com, for which I occasionally contribute, comes this collection of five clips from the upcoming David Fincher Facebook flick "The Social Network." Though I didn't really need any convincing to go see this when it finally comes out one week from today, I've gotten word from someone whose opinion I always trust, Jeremy Jirik, that this is indeed first-rate Fincher, so I'm definitely amped now. Enjoy the clips.



After that today, all I have left is a couple of trailers, starting with the first one I know of for "The King's Speech," which was the big winner at this year's Toronto International Film Festival, which will hopefully give it enough mojo to open very wide when it does so later this fall. The movie, directed by Tom Hooper (who made the seriously satisfying futbol flick "The Damned United" - rent that one already), "The King's Speech" tells the story of King George VI. After his brother abdicates, George ‘Bertie’ VI (Colin Firth) reluctantly assumes the throne. Plagued by a dreaded nervous stammer and considered unfit to be King, Bertie engages the help of an unorthodox speech therapist named Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush). Helena Bonham Carter (of course) stars in this too, and it should be a treat. Enjoy the trailer.

And finally today, here's the trailer for a comedy that, until this morning, I had never heard of, but Bill Nighy is just one of those people I'll watch in just about anything. As you'll see from this trailer for "Wild Target," in this rather familiar story he plays an assassin who falls for the latest target he's supposed to take out, played by Emily Blunt. Rupert Grint of "Harry Potter" fame also makes an appearance, and I'm hoping against hope this somehow turns out to be a whole lot less conventional than the trailer makes it out to be. Enjoy, and have a great weekend. Peace out.

For Thursday, a very large cache of clips

Anyone who's been here before knows that I love trailers, good bad and otherwise. I almost never arrive to a movie late enough to miss them.

So, I've spent so far an hour or so of my morning watching some (hey, it was from 6-7 a.m., so what more productive thing was I really supposed to be doing?), and here are the best eight or so clips I could find.

Actually, it starts today not with a trailer, but with what purport to be the first 10 minutes of "Easy A," and having watched this through once (and laughed out loud several times), I believe it to be genuine. Not everyone will want to have the first 10 minutes of a movie revealed, but hey, it's not like there are any real secrets here. All it reveals is that, in case you didn't know already, "Easy A" is going to make a genuine star of natural comedienne Emma Stone. Enjoy.



OK, now on to some actual trailers, and this being fall, there are some real heavy hitters (pun fully intended for the first one) coming. First up comes the first trailer I know of for David O. Russell's (remember him?) "The Fighter." Russell's first feature film since "I Heart Huckabees" in 2004 stars Markie Mark Wahlberg as boxer "Irish" Micky Ward and Christian Bale as the brother who trained him before he went pro in the early 1980's. It indeed looks like a pretty typical sports underdog tale, but with Amy Adams and Melissa Leo also starring in this, I'm hoping for much more when it opens wide Dec. 17. Enjoy.



Next up comes one that I haven't heard too much about, but since it comes from "The Lives of Others" director Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck, it should be a real winner. As you'll see from the trailer, Johnny Depp plays the titular "The Tourist", who gets framed for murder and all kinds of other juicy stuff after a perhaps-not-chance encounter with Angelina Jolie on a train. The moral clearly seems to be that, even if you're Johnny Depp, always be suspicious when an insanely beautiful woman strikes up a conversation with you. Enjoy the trailer, and keep an eye out for the movie Dec. 10.

Anyone who's been here before also knows that, although I didn't bother to see his last movie, "Why Did I Get Married Too?", I have a whole of time for Tyler Perry. His previous movie, "I Can Do All Bad All By Myself" with Taraji P. Henson, was very entertaining, thanks in large part to a small turn by Gladys Knight (yes, really). For his next movie, due out Nov. 5, he will for the first time adapt the work of someone else, here the play "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf" by Ntozake Shange. The story, which is about nothing less than existence from the perspective of 20 nameless black women, is an ambitious undertaking, and I'll be sure to see it on the opening weekend for curiosity if nothing else. As you'll see below, it boasts a strong cast, with Phylicia Rashad, Kimberly Elise, Thandie Newton, Whoopi Goldberg, Loretta Devine, Anika Noni Rose, Janet Jackson and even Macy Gray. Enjoy the trailer.



Still with me? Then here's some more. Danny Boyle's "127 Hours," about the titular amount of time climber Aron Ralston (to be played by James Franco) spent trapped under a boulder in a Utah valley, is reportedly so intense that it caused several fainting spells and possibly a seizure too in Toronto. While the latter is certainly unfortunate, that doesn't make me any less excited to see this when it finally comes out Nov. 5. Enjoy the clip below, which features Franco, Amber Tamblyn and Kate Mara.



OK, we're in the homestretch now. After reading yet another rave review of "Let Me In," the still thoroughly unnecessary English-language remake of the sublime "Let the Right One In," this one at Collider.com, I've now given in to the very real possibility that Matt Reeves has really come up with something fairly great here. Below are eight clips from the movie starring Hit-Girl Chloe Moretz and Kodi Smit-McPhee and set to come out Oct. 1. I think they'll make a bit of a believer in you, too. Enjoy.



I buried this one more than a bit because, after the disaster that was the interactive trailer for "Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World" (which, as several people pointed out to me, played the most annoying music even without clicking on it), I'm really not sold on the concept. You can judge for yourself, however, with this interactive trailer for David Fincher's "The Social Network," which I'm really looking forward to seeing when it comes out Oct. 1. The "interactive" comes because if you click on the trailer while its playing, it pops up little windows with facts and links you can follow about the movie. More than a little annoying to me, but enjoy if you do.



And where better to wrap things up today than with a genuine oddity? This bit of animation apparently springs from a question Fincher asked Werner Herzog as Herzog was in Toronto promoting "My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?". As you'll see below, Herzog apparently witnessed Joaquin Phoenix getting into a doozy of a car accident, and then rescued him from it. Enjoy, and have a perfectly bearable Thursday. Peace out.

Which of these crazy movie ideas are real?

Actually, I probably shouldn't spoil it, but they all are, which doesn't make them any less bizarre.

1. Anyone who's been here before (and there are apparently somehow a few of you) knows that I'll watch Carla Gugino in just about anything. And even though I enjoyed watching her play a porn star who dresses like a nun in "Women in Trouble," even I wouldn't have guessed that one of her next movies would be called "MILF."

Really? Yes, really, but no matter what you might be thinking that means (keep it clean, people), the acronym here stands for "Mothers I'd Like to Fight", and the movie, which Gugino is apparently in talks to star in, would be a revenge story about a woman who, recently released from prison, returns to the street to take care of some unfinished business.

And yes, cheap, attention-grabbing acronym aside, I'd watch that, though I'd probably buy a ticket from the machine rather than have to actually ask for one to something called "MILF." Just sayin'.

2. Anyone who's been here before also knows that David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin's "The Social Network," about the invention of Facebook, is one of the movies I'm most psyched to see this fall. That said, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that in Hollywood, imitation is the most frequent substitution for inspiration, but I just really didn't think it would come quite so quickly.

Apparently at least some people who saw those YouTube and Twitter movie spoofs (I posted one here, and they're actually quite funny) didn't realize that they were meant to be a joke, because brace yourself now for the Google movie (and again, yes, really.)

According to Deadline, Ken Auletta's bestseller "Googled: The End of the World as We Know It" is being made into a feature film. The book tells "the biographical story of Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the famously private founders of Google, and their meteoric rise to becoming two of the most powerful men on the planet."

OK, that does make it sound like it could actually be pretty good, but could this please be the end of movies about computer breakthroughs (one can dream, I suppose, but since Peter Berg is actually making a movie from the game Battleship, I know it's futile.)

3. When a sentence starts with "Maggie Gyllenhaal and Hugh Dancy have signed up to star in a romantic comedy ...", it would probably just make me say meh, except for the sentence ends "... about the invention of the first vibrator."

Per Variety: "The period drama, titled Hysteria, centres on two doctors in Victorian London who experiment with an electrical device to treat irritable and angry women. Dancy and Jonathan Pryce will play the physicians."

That actually sounds pretty funny to me already, and just in case you were wondering if Gyllenhaal might play one of the test subjects, again, keep it clean - she's actually set to play the daughter of Pryce's character, assuming this ever gets made.

OK, enough of that. All I have left today is a picture that immediately caught my eye and Lewis Black's "review" of "Eat, Pray, Love."

First the picture. If Martin Scorsese weren't filming "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" in 3D, you could call it probably the movie I'm most psyched about for next year (actually, since it's based on a book I truly adore, it still is, but why the 3D? Sheesh.)

And even though Scorses has apparently also shortened the title from Brian Selznick's novel down to simply "Hugo Cabret," the story is still a real charmer. The book is about an orphan who lives a secret life in the wall of a Paris train station, where he gets drawn into the magical world of George Melies and his automatons. There's a lot more going on in the book, and it's all a lot of fun.

As you'll see from the first picture below, Asa Butterfield plays the titular Hugo, and Chloe Moretz is his young co-star, and if the sight of Hit Girl in period costume doesn't make you smile at least a bit, well, you probably don't smile enough. Enjoy.


And finally today, in a clip that I'd have to say is just about perfect for a Friday morning, here's Lewis Black's seriously funny "review" of "Eat Pray Love" from "The Daily Show." Black, who screams way too much for my taste, isn't always my kind of funny, but I guarantee that by the time he gets around to his "Eat, Pray, Love machete," you'll be laughing at this. Enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant weekend. Peace out.

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