Now that John le Carré’s spy novel “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” has been adapted into a highly acclaimed film of the same name that made a bunch of money on a worldwide level, we can probably expect to see a flood of his other works suddenly making their way to the big screen. And at the head of that pack is director Anton Corbijn, who plans to make an adaptation of Le Carré’s “A Most Wanted Man” the followup to his 2010 film The American. The screenplay has been adapted by Edge of Darkness writer Drew Bovell, and tells the story of a mysterious Russian immigrant in Germany.

Or, as the book’s Amazon description puts it:

“A half-starved young Russian man in a long black overcoat is smuggled into Hamburg at dead of night. He has an improbable amount of cash secreted in a purse round his neck. He is a devout Muslim. Or is he? He says his name is Issa. Annabel, an idealistic young German civil rights lawyer, determines to save Issa from deportation. Soon her client’s survival becomes more important to her than her own career. In pursuit of Issa’s mysterious past, she confronts the incongruous Tommy Brue, the sixty-year-old scion of Brue Freres, a failing British bank based in Hamburg. A triangle of impossible loves is born. Meanwhile, scenting a sure kill in the so-called War on Terror, the spies of three nations converge upon the innocents.”

The big news about this film is that the casting process has begun, and they’ve already got a huge name in Philip Seymour Hoffman negotiating for a role. If a deal can be worked out, Hoffman will be playing the rogue chief of a German spy unit who spends the film trying to piece together to mystery of this new stranger.

Generally, I think Hoffman works best when he’s playing a sloppy mess of a man dealing with emotional turmoil, so it will be interesting to see how he approaches the task of playing calm and collected German. And is he going to try for a goofy accent? So many questions! [Deadline Fairport]

Sometimes, choosing the right movie for the weekly DVD drinking game is a tough decision. Other times, it comes as naturally as breathing. This week, we breathe in the Christmas goodness of the latest Harold & Kumar movie and enjoy its raunchy silliness. Yeah, we know Christmas was a couple months ago, but who says you need to have tinsel on your tree to watch this movie?

These guys may not be known for following the rules, but here’s a slate of rules you’ll enjoy following while you watch the film. Just don’t try anything too strong, or you might end up like Thomas Lennon’s on-screen child. And no one wants that, do they?

And now, to cover our butts… This game is only for people over the age of 21. Please drink responsibly, and please slow down if you discover you’ve become claymated.

TAKE A DRINK WHEN…

• Someone smokes or drinks
• A new Christmas song plays
• Someone is hit with something
• Someone speaks in a foreign language

TAKE A DRINK WHEN YOU SEE…

• Drugs
• The WaffleBot
• A 3D gimmick shot
• A fantasy sequence

TAKE A DRINK WHEN SOMEONE SAYS…

• “tree”
• “Christmas”
• “Harold” or “Kumar”
• a swear word

CHUG YOUR DRINK WHEN…

• NPH makes his glorious return to the series

Click here for more Drinking Games

After hitting the stage to conduct a live show version of his hitRECord website (dedicated to open collaboration production with his users) at last month’s Sundance Film Festival, it looks like Joseph Gordon-Levitt is finally adding a very expected title to his already long string of occupations. Gordon-Levitt will make his feature directing debut with a still-untitled comedy that he has also penned. Moreover, he will also star in the film alongside Scarlett Johansson.

Deadline Brentwood reports that the film is “a sexy comedy about about a modern-day Don Juan, and his quest to become less of a ‘selfish dick.’” Gordon-Levitt is, of course, cast as that “selfish dick,” with Johansson grabbing one of two female lead roles. Gordon-Levitt also told the outlet that “his major motive for returning [to acting] was a burning desire to direct.” You don’t say! He went on to say, “I spent a year working with Chris Nolan, Rian Johnson, Steven Spielberg, and I did my best to pay attention. I’ve also been making short films for a long time now, I’ve directed a ton of them, and that is a huge part of why I feel comfortable and confident in this.” Well, he’s got a point there.

Gordon-Levitt’s schedule was certainly full enough before he added this new project to it – he’s got The Dark Knight Rises, Premium Rush, Looper, and Lincoln coming out this year alone – and Deadline actually had the forethought to ask him about his smallish role in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained. He told the outlet, “it will be tricky schedule-wise, but I was honest with Quentin upfront.” While that’s not a firm commitment, it’s not a full rebuttal of his involvement.

The film will be financed by Nicolas Chartier’s Voltage Pictures (who will be selling international rights at the Berlinale), with producing duties going to Ram Bergman Productions and (duh) hitRECord Films.

The film doesn’t just sound like it’s moving along swiftly – it is, with a planned start date of April 16.

Director Todd Phillips has made three films for Warner Bros. so far: The Hangover, Due Date, and The Hangover Part II. Say what you will about their varying degrees of quality, but there’s no denying the fact that they were all huge financial successes for both Phillips and the studio, so Warner Bros. is obviously very committed to being in the Todd Phillips business. To that end they’ve signed him to a new first look deal that will keep him making movies for the studio until at least the end of 2013, and will give him first crack at quite a few potential projects.

Deadline Dix Hills has a rundown of four different scripts that are all being put together as potential Phillips vehicles.

The first is an adaptation of a novel called “Mule,” which was written by Tony D’Souza. It tells the story of a privileged young couple who find themselves tasked with making money for the first time in their lives due to an economic downturn, so they make the logical choice and turn to drug trafficking.

The second film is inspired by a “Rolling Stone” article titled “Arms and the Dudes” that was written by Guy Lawson. It tells the story of how two stoners from Miami Beach became big time arms dealers who eventually caught the attention of the Pentagon.

The third, and perhaps the most likely to get made due to it being written by Due Date’s Adam Sztyiel, is a script called The Island. No details are known about its story, but if it follows the pattern of the first two films on this list, it’s probably about a couple of Long Island housewives who get involved in human trafficking.

Fourthly, Phillips will be looking at Million Dollar Strong, a comedy with Internet roots that is based off of Mike O’Connell’s Funny or Die shorts that he’s been doing with Ken Jeong. O’Connell will be teaming up with Peter Kline to write the script.

Given the choice, which of these projects would you like to see Phillips take under his wing and nurture? I’ll leave the choice up to you guys, because I’m too busy huddling in the corner and weeping over the Old School sequel that never was to decide.

Sometime around 2008, when The Twilight Saga was proving to be beyond bankable, bookstores were deluged with a bevy of YA titles that all seemed hellbent on capturing the presumed magic of Stephenie Meyer’s series. As if some of their plotlines didn’t already sound interchangeable enough (magic, mythical creatures, forbidden love, weak characterization), most of their cover art looked oddly similar – which is why I can recall seeing the covers of Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl‘s Caster Chronicles series, but never happened to pick them up to take a look. It looks like I might need to change that, at least if I want to stay current with my YA-books-getting-turned-into-movies news.

The first book in the five-book series is set for a big screen adaptation, thanks to Warner Bros. and Alcon Entertainment, and while Beautiful Creatures already got a major credibility bump when Viola Davis joined its cast last week, now the real news is out – who will star as the leads in yet another tale of star-crossed lovers.

Jack O’Connell (“Skins,” This is England, Harry Brown) and relative newcomer Alice Englert (The Water Diary) are set to play Ethan Wate and Lena Duchannes, respectively. Beautiful Creatures is set in the small town of Gatlin, South Carolina and follows the fortunes of Lena and Ethan after the bewitching Lena moves to town. What I’ve gleaned from some Internet sleuthing is that Lena possesses some type of supernatural power (the fan site CasterGirls tells us that a caster is “a race of Supernatural with varying powers, featured in The Caster Chronicles” or “a person with the power to be him/herself, regardless of what other think”) and that it entangles her both with Ethan and a nasty brand of family curse that implicates much of the town.

Garcia and Stohl have also penned “Beautiful Darkness,” which was published back in October of 2010, and “Beautiful Chaos,” which followed last October. With a planned five-book series, you better believe that Warner and Alcon are looking to make this one a series. Richard LaGravenese has adapted the script for Beautiful Creatures and will direct from it.

Will this be the next Twilight? It remains to be seen, but kids these days could do far worse than some lite Gothic lit. [Variety, via FirstShowing]

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly column about movie news. That is all.

We begin this evening with a look at Karl Urban and Olivia Thirlby in Dredd, the revival of the Judge Dredd franchise. First impressions: Karl Urban’s helmet is huge and Olivia Thirlby needs more leather. Or something along those lines. Either way, it’s a good conversation starter.

In a new report from The Onion, watching Downton Abbey totally counts as reading a book.

Fox and friends are finally getting started on The Wolverine with James Mangold directing and Hugh Jackman, fresh from shooting Les Miserables, back in the titular role. The film will release July 23, 2013.

In an effort to outdo the competition on singing the praise of everyone’s favorite movie maestro, Empire has published 80 reasons why John Williams is The Man in celebration of the composer’s 80th birthday.

Mashable presents a list of 5 social sites for film fans. I’m a big supporter of Letterboxd, even though I didn’t make their list of “online film critics” alongside /Film and First Showing. Those bastions of online film criticism.

In a somewhat brilliant but altogether silly experiment, Hero Complex has come up with a bunch of pitches (and posters to go with them) for future Batman movies beyond Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises. Assuming Warner Bros. will want to continue exploring Gotham City — which they will — there are a number of ways they could go. The following (with art by Sean Hartter) is what Rob Marshall could do for Gotham!, a musical extravaganza:

Hey economics nerds, here’s a very detailed assessment of Hollywood by the numbers. Also, did you guys get my homework done? If not, what they hell am I paying you for?!

For the next round of badness in Despicable Me, Al Pacino will voice a character named El Macho. He will undoubtedly be thwarted by adorable girl scouts and their awkward adoptive father. It gives new life to the line “It’s SO fluffy!”

The Atlantic explores the growing concern for independent cinemas as film is on the outs and digital swoops in to replace it. Because nobody ever thinks of those mom and pop movie theaters across the country who can’t afford a Sony 4K digital projector.

As we get ready to pack up our own Cole Abaius and ship him in a carefully sealed crate to Berlin for the 2012 film festival, THR’s Scott Roxborough explains Why The Berlin Film Festival Still Matters for Hollywood. We’re going for the schnitzel, but Hollywood seems to have a few good reasons, as well.

Over the past two weeks, I’ve been selecting, buying, overbuying, framing, buying and tracking down art for the walls of my new office here at Reject HQ. The furious quest for great contemporary film art has led me back to a July 2011 article about how film poster artists are reviving a dying craft. The Tyler Stouts and Tom Whalen’s of the world. The Tom Hodges and Eric Tans. And that Drew Struzan guy, who is still hanging around. Brilliant, all of them.

Is this one of the most inappropriate movie marketing campaigns ever? Movies.com asks the question. My answer is no. Not so much inappropriate, just really on the nose.

We close tonight with a featurette about the visual effects from season two of Boardwalk Empire courtesy of the folks at Brainstorm Digital, whose incredible work includes removing half of a man’s face. Then making it look real and consistent throughout an entire season.

Karen Cartwright imagines herself in a shimmering white dress, center stage, belting out that ultimate dreamer’s song, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” She stretches her hands above her head, ever so dramatically, because she’s really into this performance – she isn’t just singing these words, she’s feeling them. She closes her eyes. Oh, yeah. She’s all up inside this song and we immediately understand the subtext here: these lyrics have been etched into her heart since she was a small girl, head already full of big city hopes and dreams about makin’ it. A cell phone rings, jolting Karen back to reality. She’s in a small room – far from the spotlight- auditioning for some jaded folks who somehow can’t see that she’s from Iowa and that she has aspirations! How wide-eyed does a girl have to be before someone gives her a leading role in a Broadway musical, yo?

American Idol is all about regular people with unexpected talent, yearning for stardom. (Well, it used to be. Now, according to the most recent promos, it’s all about kids falling off of stages.) Katherine McPhee is an American Idol runner-up, so I guess she’s suited for this Karen part on Smash, NBC’s much-hyped drama about the creation of a musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe. McPhee’s Karen has a fresh-faced charm about her, the kind of girl you’d maybe instinctively root for, and the character’s Midwestern origins are, I believe, supposed to make her that much more appealing. The people in that region of the U.S. dream harder than the rest of us, right?

So much about Smash works: creator Theresa Rebeck knows how to write for an ensemble (unlike Glee’s Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian Brennan); the original songs give me the chills (“Let Me Be Your Star,” specifically); there’s a fun, believable tension between Jack Davenport who plays the Marilyn musical’s surly director and actual Broadway actor Christian Borle, here, playing one of the musical’s writers. But this “small town girl tackles The Big Apple” thread is just too easy. Really, it’s so predictable and tropey that I’m forced to assume that Karen who, in the pilot episode, auditions for the role of Marilyn and gets a callback after an appropriately beautiful rendition of Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful,” isn’t going to wind up with the part. Otherwise the character is just horribly conceived. Right now, everything about her, from her unassuming origins, to her too-perfect boyfriend, to her parents who don’t totally support her, to her gumption in the face of repeated rejection, seems ripped straight from some “Idiot’s Guide to Emotionally Manipulating Audiences with Stock Characters” or, I don’t know, The Devil Wears Prada. It’s still early days for Smash, but starting off so prosaic seems an odd choice when you consider that musical TV shows are so polarizing – corniness being one of the usual criticisms.

More interesting than Karen, but still not totally original for anyone who has seen A Chorus Line, is Ivy Lynn (Megan Hilty), a curvy, blonde, seasoned actress, desperate for a lead part and Karen’s main competition for the Marilyn role. Ivy is brassy, her singing voice is stout, she’s sexy where Karen is cute. She’s a villain, if only because she poses a threat to the lovely, small town girl and her dreams. But what about Ivy’s dreams? When she phones home, excited about her Marilyn callback, her mother doesn’t seem to give a crap and steers the conversation to news about a relative who’s attending night school. All the exuberance in Ivy’s body drains as she feigns interest in whatever the hell her mom is talking about. Ivy’s had some success and Karen hasn’t, but Ivy’s the tragic figure, the one we should care about.

Rebeck has created this complex character in Ivy – the character’s confidence is a mask for her true frailty – and it seems like she’s being presented as someone we should see as a viable contender, not just for the role of Marilyn but for our affections. Yet, we’re never really able to root for her because Karen, her competitor, doesn’t have any faults. When womanizing director Derek summons Karen to his apartment and tells her to show him that she can be Marilyn (wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more), she puts on one of his button-down shirts, sings “Happy Birthday, Mr. President,” but, of course, doesn’t sleep with him. It isn’t that I’d prefer her to succumb to this kind of casting couch situation (especially since her boyfriend is a total dream) but it’s simply one more example of why, as a viewer, you can’t help but want her to win. Things shouldn’t be so clean-cut, they can’t be.

If we’re talking symbolism, then Karen is supposed to represent Marilyn Monroe during her dark-haired, relatively innocent Norma Jeane days, while Ivy Lynn, who’s name is somewhat reminiscent of the icon’s, is Marilyn in her “candle in the wind” period. But even the young Marilyn wasn’t the unabashed, one-note Pollyanna that Karen is. How is she the real underdog?

On the eve of the Berlinale, Swedish director Daniel Espinosa joins us to talk about waterboarding Denzel Washington and the mind games of Safe House. Plus, we look forward to a few films to catch in Berlin, and it’s Matt Singer versus Alison Willmore in a Filmspotting: SVU showdown of Movie News Quizzing.

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On This Week’s Show:

Movie News Pop Quiz: [Beginning - 17:00] It’s Singer vs. Willmore, and we discuss Redbox‘s dominance of suburbia which they plan to take to the streaming world.

Our House: [17:00 - 33:30] Punk rock director Daniel Espinosa talks about cranking up the action in Safe House, the connection between Scandinavia and the US, and working with iconic cinematographer Oliver Wood.

Kino Berlin: [33:30 - End] In the final moments, I toss out a few movies we’ll be trying to see at the Berlin International Film Festival as we check out next year’s Oscar contenders when they make their world premiere.

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“There was never just one.” Well, that’s a nifty way to explain why Matt Damon isn’t in the latest installment of the Jason Bourne franchise, The Bourne Legacy. Damon’s out, and Jeremy Renner is in as another victim and/or participant in shady Project Treadstone. This first stylized trailer (complete with Inception-esque “brannngsss” and “brrahhhhmmms”) introduces us to Renner’s character – a bruiser from Reno who is on the run after showing some impressive stuff to all those government heavies who’ve gone through this already with Jason Bourne. Don’t you think Joan Allen‘s Pam Landy is just exhausted by now?

Join the program and check out the trailer for The Bourne Legacy after the break.

The film’s cast is rounded out with Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton, Stacy Keach, and Oscar Isaac, who are joined by Bourne vets Albert Finney, Joan Allen, David Strathairn, and Scott Glenn (all reprising their roles).

The Bourne Legacy opens on August 3rd. [Apple]

If you ask me, Brian De Palma has been really underperforming over the last decade or so. I think I remember seeing Femme Fatale and The Black Dahlia from him, and that’s about it. When was the last time I was truly excited to see a De Palma film? You’d have to go all the way back to when he worked with Nic Cage on Snake Eyes. Thankfully, the director has a new project in the works, and while it’s not quite as exciting as a re-pairing with Nic Cage, it does sound appropriately ridiculous.

This time he’s working on a remake of a Burt Reynolds movie, with Jason Statham in the Burt Reynolds role. Probably not a lot of people remember 1986’s Heat, because by all accounts it was pretty bad. It’s the type of movie that goes through multiple directors over the course of its production, and then eventually forces the guy who has to take credit for directing to not even use his real name.

Things may not have worked out the first go-round, but it’s exactly these sorts of projects that should be getting remade, or at least that make people least mad when they get remade. Heat is a promising sounding story about a gambling addicted heavy who makes his cash providing protection to high rollers in the seedy underbelly of the gambling world. Everything is going along (not so) fine until a female friend of his is beaten by a big shot mobster, and he gets in over his head seeking revenge. That sounds like a plot that will provide Statham ample opportunity to scowl and kick people, so I’m on board. Just because it didn’t work back in ’86 doesn’t mean it’s not going to work now.

And hopefully it will work, at least for the sake of William Goldman, who wrote the book this script was based off of, as well as the original Reynolds-starring film, as well as this De Palma-helmed remake. That’s probably the most work anybody has ever put into writing a Jason Statham movie, so this guy is deserving of a pretty big pay day. [Deadline Fort Leonard Wood]

Here is the place where I will start screaming about how everyone needs to just shut up and make room on their calendar to check out V/H/S because it’s so fun and scary and cool and such a great midnight film and so great to see with a crowd and then I’ll run out of breath from this ludicrous run-on sentence and get back to at least the appearance of professionalism.

Joining their previously announced feature line-up, SXSW has now released their full listing of all films showing at the film festival this year, including Midnight features and a positively huge schedule of short films (including narrative shorts, documentary shorts, global shorts, music videos, Texas shorts, and Texas high school shorts). Some highlights to look out for on the Midnight beat include V/H/S (duh), the world premiere of Austin Chick’s Girls Against Boys, the U.S. premiere of Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s Intruders, and some form of “Super Secret Screening.” On the shorts side? How about Nash Edgerton’s wicked little Bear, Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman’s A Brief History of John Baldessari, Kat Candler’s Hellion, and Don Hertzfeldt’s it’s such a beautiful day?

Check out the (now totally) complete listing below of the feature and short films playing at SXSW 2012!

FEATURES

MIDNIGHTERS – Scary, funny, sexy, controversial – provocative after-dark features for night owls and the terminally curious.

The Aggression Scale
Director: Steven C. Miller, Screenwriter: Ben Powell
4 hitmen + $500,000 of stolen cash + 1 family = WAR
Cast: Fabianne Therese, Ryan Hartwig, Dana Ashbrook, Derek Mears, Jacob Reynolds, Joseph McKelheer, Boyd Kestner, Lisa Rotondi, Ray Wise
(World Premiere)

CITADEL (Ireland, Scotland)
Director/Screenwriter: Ciarán Foy
An agoraphobic father teams up with a renegade priest to save his daughter from the clutches of a gang of twisted feral children.
Cast: Anuerin Barnard, James Cosmo, Wumni Mosaku, Jake Wilson, Amy Shiels
(World Premiere)

Girls Against Boys
Director/Screenwriter: Austin Chick
A psychological thriller about two girls on a killing spree. With edgy and ironic humor and a darkly meditative tone, it is also a coming-of-age story about a girl learning how the world really works.
Cast: Danielle Panabaker, Nicole LaLiberte, Liam Aiken, Michael Stahl-David, Andrew Howard
(World Premiere)

Intruders (Spain, UK)
Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, Screenwriters: Nicolás Casariego, Jaime Marques
The haunting story of two children living in different countries, each visited nightly by a faceless being who wants to take possession of them.
Cast: Clive Owen, Carice Van Houten, Daniel Brühl, Pilar López de Ayala
(U.S. Premiere)

Iron Sky (Finland, Germany, Australia)
Director: Timo Vuorensola, Screenwriters: Michael Kalesniko, Timo Vuorensola
In 1945 the Nazis went to the moon; in 2018 they are coming back.
Cast: Julia Dietze, Götz Otto, Christopher Kirby, Peta Sergeant, Stephanie Paul, Tilo Prückner, Michael Cullen, Udo Kier
(North American Premiere)

John Dies At The End
Director & Screenwriter: Don Coscarelli
On the street it’s called “soy sauce,” a drug that promises an out-of-body experience with each hit. Suddenly, a silent otherworldly invasion is underway. Can college dropouts John and Dave save humanity? No, they can’t. 
Cast: Chase Williamson, Rob Mayes, Paul Giamatti, Clancy Brown, Glynn Turman

Modus Anomali (Indonesia)
Director/Screenwriter: Joko Anwar
A man tries to save his family who go missing during a vacation in the forest.
Cast: Rio Dewanto, Hannah Al Rashid, Izziati Amara Isman, Aridh Tritama, Surya Saputra, Marsha Timothy, Sadha Triyudha, Jose Gamo
(World Premiere)

[REC] ³ GENESIS (Spain)
Director: Paco Plaza
Screenwriters: Luiso Berdejo, Paco Plaza
Koldo and Clara’s wedding is horrifically interrupted when some of the guests start showing signs of a strange illness. Before they know what’s happening, the bride and groom find themselves in the middle of a hellish ordeal, as an uncontrollable torrent of violence is unleashed on the wedding.
Cast: Leticia Dolera, Diego Martin
(World Premiere)

Super Secret Screening
Be the first to see this feature film coming to theaters near you.

The Tall Man
Director/Screenwriter: Pascal Laugier
When her child goes missing, a mother looks to unravel the legend of the Tall Man, an entity who allegedly abducts children.
Cast: Jessica Biel, Jodelle Ferland, Stephen McHattie, William B.Davis
(World Premiere)

V/H/S
Directors: Ti West, Adam Wingard, Joe Swanberg, David Bruckner, Glenn Mcquaid, Radio Silence, Screenwriter: Ti West, Simon Barrett, David Bruckner, Radio Silence, Glenn Mcquaid
A group of misfits are hired to burglarize a house in the countryside and acquire a rare tape. The guys are confronted with a dead body and an endless supply of cryptic footage, each video stranger than the last… Cast: Joe Swanberg, Calvin Reeder, Kate Lynn Shiel, Sophia Takal, Lane Hughes, Helen Rogers, Adam Wingard

—

SHORT FILMS

NARRATIVE SHORTS – A selection of original, well-crafted films that take advantage of the short form and exemplify distinctive and genuine storytelling. The winner of our Grand Jury Award in this category is eligible for a 2013 Academy Award nomination for Best Narrative Short.

Aaron Burr, Part 2
Director: Dana O’Keefe
History is a contest.

Another Bullet Dodged
Director: Landon Zakheim
In the fading echoes of a relationship, character is revealed.

Bear
Director: Nash Edgerton
Jack means well, but sometimes good intentions have horrible consequences.

The Black Balloon
Director: Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie
In New York City, a lone black balloon, once part of a huge 100-balloon bouquet, learns that humans are complicated creatures with extreme highs and lows. Part Sci-Fi, part children’s film.

The Chair
Director: Grainger David
The story of one boy’s reaction to a mysterious outbreak of poisonous mold in his small town.

A Chjána (The Plain)
Director: Jonas Carpignano
Inspired by real events, A Chjàna (The Plain) follows Ayiva, an African migrant worker who seeks to reunite with his best friend in the wake of the most significant race riot in Italian history.

A Fábrica
Director: Aly Muritiba
An inmate convinces his mother to take a risk smuggling a cell phone for him into the penitentiary.

FOXES
Director: Lorcan Finnegan
A young couple trapped in a remote estate of empty houses and shrieking foxes are beckoned from their isolation into a twilight world. A world of the paranormal or perhaps insanity.

Heimkommen (Coming Home)
Director: Micah Magee
When Robert’s girlfriend dies, he turns his grief against his younger sister Jo. Jo plays ice hockey with the boys, hoping to gather strength to bring her brother back to the land of the living.

In The Pines
Directors: Zeek Earl, Chris Caldwell
Simultaneously an exploration of nature and psyche, the film documents a young woman’s hunt for extraterrestrial meaning. Part science fiction, part psycho-thriller, part poetry – this film crafts a memorable scene rooted in the Pacific Northwest.

Joy
Director: Colm Quinn
Nicola reluctantly introduces her newborn daughter to her best friend Tess.

Liar
Director: Adam Garnet Jones
When a brutal teenage revenge plot gets pushed too far, 14 year-old Tara is forced to choose between standing helplessly on the sidelines or stepping in to defend the boyfriend that hurt her.

Life and Freaky Times of Uncle Luke
Directors: Jillian Mayer, Lucas Leyva
A modern Miami adaptation of the 1962 French short film La Jetee, starring Uncle Luke of the 2 Live Crew.

Little Dad
Director: Noah Pritzker
An insecure father prepares for a party at his in-laws.

Mouthful
Director: Robert G. Putka
Bobby and Bliss are a happy couple, that is, until they begin to tell each other things probably better left unsaid. A single question leads them down a highway to relationship hell.

My Friend Kills Time
Director: Jakob Rørvik
Thomas moves to a remote cabin in an attempt to disappear completely… even from himself. My Friend Kills Time mixes visual textures and haunting soundscapes to create a cinematic diary of a young man’s isolation.

Not Far From The Abattoir
Director: Kyle Thomas
A story of a man controlling his demons and trying to imagine a better life outside of the only town he has ever called home.

Pitch Black Heist
Director: John Maclean
Two men, professional safe crackers, meet on a simple job to relieve an office safe of its contents. The catch; a light activated alarm system impelling them to embark on a pitch black heist.

Playtime (Spielzeit)
Director: Lucas Mireles
A seamless journey through the lives of German youth on a Sunday afternoon.

Random Strangers
Director: Alexis Dos Santos
Lulu and Rocky meet, fall in love, spend the night together, and fall asleep looking at each other…except for the fact that he is in Berlin and she is in Buenos Aires.

Reinaldo Arenas
Director: Lucas Leyva
Told from the point of view of a dying shark, Reinaldo Arenas is the story of an unintentional immigrant in Miami.

REMAINS
Directors: Jeremiah Zagar, Nathan Caswell
A blend of documentary and fiction, Remains is about recollection and fading memories. Combining three years of recorded voice messages with stunning macro photography, the film documents a relationship from its inception to its end.

Sea Meadow
Director: Lily Baldwin
A disoriented young woman stumbles upon an empty estate. There are signs of a lush life, but the inhabitants have disappeared. Or have they? Sea Meadow revamps the thriller with pop mashups and stylized dance tableaux.

Shoot the Freak
Director: Bradford Willingham
Through the freak’s musings, this film chronicles the last days of the iconic, abrasive Coney Island attraction Shoot the Freak. In masked anonymity, the nihilistic teen indulges in drug-induced daydreams of violence and oceanic abandon.

A Short Film About Ice Fishing
Director: Jason Shahinfar
In rural South Dakota two friends go out for the most explosive day of ice fishing either will ever experience.

Syndromes
Directors: The Golden Filter, Kristoffer Borgli
A young girl’s bizarre and unexplained ability to help others leads to her involvement in a sinister underworld.

Would You
Directors: Brian McGinn, Rod Blackhurst
Two friends play ‘Would You Rather.’ When their choices magically start to come true, they find themselves in a variety of awkward and funny situations.

DOCUMENTARY SHORTS – Unfiltered slices of life, from across the documentary spectrum.

Aisha’s Song
Director: Orlando von Einsiedel
Musically lush and stunningly shot, Aisha’s Song is a touching and uplifting story of female empowerment from a part of the world where women are all too often overlooked.

A Brief History of John Baldessari
Directors: Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman
No more boring films! Everything you need to know about the godfather of Conceptual Art… narrated by Tom Waits.

BRUTE FORCE
Director: Ben Steinbauer
The story of Apple Records notoriously irreverent recording artist, Brute Force.

CatCam
Director: Seth Keal
When a German engineer creates a tiny camera for his newly adopted stray cat to wear, the photographs reveal more than ever expected.

Cutting Loose
Directors: Finlay Pretsell, Adrian McDowall
“I’m trusted with a pair of scissors and I’m in here for murder.” A snapshot of prison life in the build up to the annual hairdressing competition.

Family Nightmare
Director: Dustin Guy Defa
Unearthed home movies and haunting dubbed voices collide to create a personal portrait of family dysfunction.

The Fuse: or How I Burned Simon Bolivar
Director: Igor Drljaca
A nine-year-old boy thinks he is responsible for the civil war in Bosnia.

Kudzu Vine
Director: Josh Gibson
This ode to the climbing, trailing, and coiling species Pueraria lobata evokes the agricultural history and mythic textures of the American South.

The Love Competition
Director: Brent Hoff
The World’s First Love Competition.

The Man That Got Away
Director: Trevor Anderson
A musical documentary that tells the true life story of Trevor’s great-uncle Jimmy in six original songs.

Meaning of Robots
Director: Matt Lenski
Mike Sullivan’s world is overrun by an army of miniature sex robots with no end in sight.

Minor/Major: The TV on the Radio Tour Documentary
Director: Chioke Nassor
An intense documentary portrait on the band TV on the Radio as they transition from minor label darlings to major label success.

New York Accent
Director: Caleb Slain
Once a man with all the answers, Dr. Ed Dobson is struggling to resolve his own questions before succumbing to the unusual disease eating away his body.

Written in Ink
Director: Martin Rath
Can one change what has already been written in ink?

SX GLOBAL SHORTS – A showcase for cutting-edge documentary shorts from around the world.

Abuelas
Director: Afarin Eghbal
In Buenos Aires, an old woman looks forward to all the joys of becoming a grandmother. However, unfolding historic events mean she is forced to wait over 30 years.

The Contest
Director: Jakub Cuman
Observational documentary made during the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition Preliminaries in 2010.

Chronicle of Oldrich S.
Director: Rudolf Smid
Mr Sedlacek wrote one-sentence entries in his chronicle from 1981 to 2005, everyday stories of his life, his village, and of international events.  This animated documentary is based on 80 of those entries.

The Contract
Director: Lina Mannheimer
On the 5th of May 2005, Beverly Charpentier declares an oath of allegiance to Catherine Robbe-Grillet. Hereby she gives up her freedom, for the rest of her life.

Doctor Rao
Directors: Alexej Tchernyi, Wu Zhi
Doctor Rao passed away. Family and friends are celebrating his last journey.

Walt Disney Square
Directors: Renata Pinheiro, Sergio Oliveira
A “quasi-musical” approach to contemporary urban life that reflects Brazilian society and many others throughout the world, this documentary describes at the same time a place, a city and a country.

ANIMATED SHORTS – An assortment of stories told using a mix of traditional animation, computer-generated effects, stop-motion, and everything in-between. The winner of our Grand Jury Award in this category is eligible for a 2013 Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short.

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I am a 66-year cicada. There was a big earthquake. There was a big tsunami. There also was a big accident.

Belly
Director: Julia Pott
I can feel you in my belly.

Caldera
Director: Evan Viera
A young girl goes off her medication to leave a bleak metropolis and immerse herself in a vibrant oceanic cove.

Chocolate Milk
Director: Eliza Kinkz
Growing up in a Texas drug rehab, a teenage girl learns the rules of life and dairy products.

Combustion
Director: Renaud Hallée
Fire used as a visual and musical tool.

Giraffe Danger
Director: Randall Hopkins
A giraffe with personal space anxiety has a bad day.

The Hunter
Director: Marieka Walsh
A hunter searches for a missing boy deep in the snow covered mountains. He must make decisions that will forever change his relationship with the wilderness he fears. The Hunter is a stop-motion sand animation.

“it’s such a beautiful day”
Director: Don Hertzfeldt
Bill finds himself in a hospital struggling with memory problems, in this third and final chapter to Don Hertzfeldt’s “Everything will be OK” trilogy.

Little Boat
Director: Nelson Boles
One little boat, one big journey.

The Maker
Director: Christopher Kezelos
Life is what you make it.

(notes on) biology
Director: Danny Madden
An animated account of an organism adapting to its environment.

Once It Started It Could Not End Otherwise
Director: Kelly Sears
A terrifying look back at high school.

Paint Showers
Director: Miguel Jiron
Swirling cosmos of paint give way to a storm of color and drips.

Photographs
Directors: Christina Manrique, Robert Clogher
An elderly woman living in an abandoned town finds a camera, which becomes a means for her to recreate her past life and remember a lost love.

Reddish Brown and Blueish Green
Director: Samantha Gurry
Child services, schwag, and the American dream.

The Shrine / An Argument
Director: Sean Pecknold
An elk wanders through a world of madness.

Summer Bummer
Director: Bill Plympton
A man daydreams about what terror could be lurking in his backyard pool.

MIDNIGHT SHORTS – Bite-sized bits for all of your sex, genre, and hilarity needs.

Cheap Extermination
Director: Minka Farthing-Kohl
For Ernst, the perfect disguise was to play himself.

Cherry On Top
Director: Mike Damanskis
A prostitute finds new ways to attract business.

Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared
Directors: Rebecca Sloan, Joseph Pelling
A short film about teaching creativity—by This Is It Collective.

Duck Sauce, “Big Bad Wolf”
Director: Keith Schofield
Keith Schofield’s original, outrageous and very, very funny promo for Duck Sauce’s single Big Bad Wolf has been burning up the internet, causing millions of pelvises to be thrust worldwide. An instant classic.

I Am Your Grandma
Director: Jillian Mayer
An autobiographical video diary log (vlog) that Jillian Mayer records for her unborn grandchildren.

J.P.B.F.
Director: Steve Collins
A woman interviews for a job at a nefarious company that may or may not f**k b**ts.

Jacuzzi Boys, “Glazin”
Directors: Lucas Leyva, Jillian Mayer
Glazin’ is part of a larger narrative where a group of 6 anonymous girls innocently paint their privates and rig them to lip-synch their favorite song as a gift to the band.

Machines of the Working Class
Directors: James Dastoli, Robert Dastoli
Two robotic blue-collar workers take a brief hiatus to discuss delusions of grandeur.

Man & Gun
Director: Brian McOmber
A post 9/11 fairy tale about a man’s love affair with guns.

Merman
Director: Jono Foley
Harrison swims through the darkest recesses of his mind.

Other
Director: Daniel DelPurgatorio
Patrick is a brilliant doctor in an obsessive race to alter his own grim prognosis. During a series of unconventional experiments, he discovers a scientific loophole unlike anything he had ever imagined.

Perished
Directors: Aaron McCann, Stefan Androv Radanovich
Sometimes survival is worse than death.

Zombie Chic
Director: Todd Cobery
A stuffy dinner party is interrupted by the zombie apocalypse.

MUSIC VIDEOS – A range of classic, innovative, and stylish work showcasing the scope of music video culture.

Alexander, ”A Million Years”
Director: Benjamin Kutsko

Baskerville, ”Reloaded”
Director: Marieke Verbiesen

Battles, ”My Machines”
Director: DANIELS

Casey Veggies, ”Euphoria II”
Director: John Bollozos

Céline Desrumaux, ”Countdown”
Director: Céline Desrumaux

CHRISTEENE, “African Mayonnaise”
Director: PJ Raval

Cults, ”You Know What I Mean”
Director: Kevin Lin

Ganesh Rao, ”Empyrean”
Director: Ganesh Rao

The Good The Bad, “030”
Director: Jeppe Kolstrup

Gotye (Feat. Kimbra), ”Somebody That I Used To Know”
Director: Natasha Pincus

Hawaaii, ”Welcome”
Director: Churl Gwon

Herman Dune, ”Tell Me Something I Don’t Know”
Director: Toben Seymour

Hooray For Earth, ”True Loves”
Director: Young Replicant

Hyperpotamus, ”De Camino”
Director: Lucas Borras

Kina Grannis,”In Your Arms”
Director: Greg Jardin

Little Tybee, ”Boxcar Fair”
Directors: Brock Scott, Tom Haney

Ok Go, ”All Is Not Lost”
Director: Ok Go, Pilobolus, & Trish Sie

Porter Robinson, ”Spitfire”
Director: Saman Keshavarz

Son of Kick,“Playing the Villain”
Director: Matt Devine (Glues Society)

When Saints Go Machine, ”Parix”
Director: Daniel Kragh-Jacobsen

Whomadewho, ”Every Minute Alone”
Director: William Stahl

Yip Deceiver, “Get Strict”
Directors: Brandon LaGanke, John Carlucci

Yuksek, ”ALWAYS ON THE RUN”
Directors: David Hache, Marc-Edouard Leon

TEXAS SHORTS – An offshoot of our regular narrative shorts program, composed of work shot in, about, or somehow relating to the Lone Star state.

foolproof
Directors: Zach Anner, Marshall Rimmer
Zach Anner, the freeloading roommate, and Marshall Rimmer, the responsible businessman, eat their morning cereal together.

The Gathering Squall
Director: Hannah Fidell
A teenage girl is forced into adulthood after she is assaulted by a classmate.

The Guessing Game
Director: Angela Cheng
A very short comedy set in a retirement home with senior citizens. On the morning of his birthday, Emmett asks his fellow residents to guess his age and is surprised by their answers.

Hellion
Director: Kat Candler
All hell breaks loose when seven-year-old Petey is left with his hell-raising brothers. But things go from bad to really, really bad when Dad gets home.

Knife
Director: James M. Johnston
From the rugged cross-timbers of Texas comes a portrait of greed and vengeance.

Magpie
Director: Russell O. Buh
On a trip to reconnect with his estranged and recently engaged daughter, Phillip finds a sex tape of the little girl he used to know. Dinner is going to be awkward.

Spark
Director: Annie Silverstein
While a boy waits out his father’s tryst he is unexpectedly forced to deal with the lady-friend’s daughter. Set on a ranch in Bastrop, Texas, Spark uses the environment to explore the internal space of children.

Tumbleweed!
Director: Jared Varava
The true and historically accurate tale of one tumbleweed that did not tumble.

What It’s Like
Director: Matt Naylor
A magazine writer goes to an old folks home to buy mushrooms from one of the elderly residents. What starts as a bizarre transaction becomes a moment of connection across generations.

TEXAS HIGH SCHOOL SHORTS – Texas High School students offer a glimpse of a bright future for Texas filmmaking.

The Apparition
Director: Jonathan Munoz
Paranormal Elimination 101.

The Bench
Directors: Kalen Doyle, Hirsh Elhence
There’s a note for that.

The Bench
Director: Christian Benavides
One son’s letter to his father.

Boom
Directors: Daniel Matyas, Brian Broder
All around the mulberry bush, the monkey chased the weasel. The monkey thought ’twas all in fun, then Pop! goes the weasel.

Burn Spark
Directors: Maqui Gaona, J.J. Rubin
In the future, one man fights the system to choose his own love.

Chance
Director: Jasmine DePucci
A young girl experiences a transformation by an evil spirit contained within the fluffy seams of a teddy bear.

Code Red
Director: Zach Prengler
Four nerdy guys buy the hottest video game of the year, but what they bought was not what they expected.

Drawings
Directors: Christian Larrave, Alex McKenna
The story of two doodles in love.

Drones
Director: Micah Autry
A social issue film that projects the life of the protagonist and how he overcomes constraints of a normal life.

Drum Roll Please
Director: Alexander Villanueva
Opposable thumbs have allowed humans to become the dominant species. How dominant, you say?

Janitor’s Laundry
Director: Brian Broder
A dark thriller exploring the actions of a murderous janitor, who attacks lonely victims at the local laundrymat.

Josh Lumsden, “Guilty”
Director: Josh Lumsden
Josh Lumsden sings and dances while trapped in a mental asylum.

Julian Edmonson: Who I Am
Director: Jake Wangner
Julian Edmonson is a point guard who graduated from Fossil Ridge High School. This is a video putting a spotlight on this student before he went off to college.

Knit-Picky
Director: Bobby Jorgenson
Life socks.

Language
Director: Leah Schell
Jason and his Korean foreign exchange student struggle to overcome a language barrier.

Masterpiece
Director: Anele Page
An artist struggles to create a masterpiece for a special cause.

McChange: a Manifesto
Directors: Jonathan Griffin, Josiah Sandhu
Mark McNeil is the president that Pasadena Memorial High deserves, but doesn’t need right now.

Plasticine Dream
Directors: Samantha Fine, Andrew Fields
Romance molded into the shape of a dream.

The Process
Director: Ty Whittington
Ty Whittington, a young artist, takes us through the process of creating an artistic illustration in his own way.

The Proposal
Directors: Marcella Jimenez, Susannah Rodrigue
The story of a young boys hope for childhood love.

SAFE
Director: Pierce Harvell
When a tornado threatens the lives of two brothers, one decides to take the initiative towards survival despite the reservations of his twin.

Silent Night
Director: James Bradford
Run fat boy, run!

Zwichensug
Directors: Cole Martin, Josh Willis
An anonymous man with skills of inexplicable origin infiltrates the corporate hideout of a shady, but high-ranking businessman. Using fast and fluid tactics, our protagonist is determined to complete his task.

SXSW 2012 runs March 9th to the 17th in Austin, TX.

Due to her Oscar-winning role in Black Swan and her pregnancy-imposed break from acting, Natalie Portman has been the subject of much talk in the movie world. When will she come back to work? What will her first post-Oscar role be? There have been reports of filmmakers as big as the Wachowskis actively recruiting her to come on board their projects, but still no word of an official signing. That is until now. Sorry, Hollywood directors, but Terrence Malick has beaten you to the punch. And, just to smear some dirt in your wounds, he’s done it twice.

Deadline Ottawa is reporting that Portman has signed on to be in not one, but two of Malick’s upcoming projects, both shooting in 2012, which will mark her much anticipated return to acting. The first film is the Christian Bale and Cate Blanchett-starring Knight of the Cups, which is scheduled to start shooting this summer. The second is a film called Lawless, which sees Portman teamed again with Bale and Blanchett, in addition to other notable names like Ryan Gosling and Rooney Mara. This film is scheduled to shoot in the fall.

There isn’t much reliable information about what these movies will be about floating around out there, but I’m starting to find my curiosity piqued. Malick doing two films back-to-back, reusing much of the same cast for both; it all seems very unusual. What does he have up his sleeve, and why has whatever it is drawn in so many high profile actors? These are the sort of mysteries I like, because you know that whatever their answer, it’s going to be good news.

Have you been following the development of this baseball drama Trouble With the Curve? It started out as just a glimmer, a hope. It was maybe the project that would bring Clint Eastwood out of acting retirement. A story about an aging baseball scout who is losing his vision and who is embarking on one last recruitment trip in the company of his adult daughter sounded perfect for an old grizzly bear like Eastwood, and since those first days of maybes the project has developed quite nicely.

First it became official, and got a release date of September 28, 2012. Then it started filling out its supporting cast with exciting names. Amy Adams came on to play the role of Eastwood’s daughter, and Justin Timberlake got picked up to play her love interest. This thing was looking like an all-star lineup already.

But with news that they’re bringing one of the most underutilized players in Hollywood on board, I think this one might go all the way. According to Variety, John Goodman has just signed on to play a baseball scout and longtime friend of the Eastwood character’s named Pete Klein. That’s right, The Babe himself is returning to the world of onscreen baseball.

Not to go off on a rant here, but Goodman has been doing great work his entire career. And, at least, since The Big Lebowski, you would think that he would be one of the most sought-after actors in Hollywood. I mean, he’s doing fine, but where are all the starring roles? If you were a filmmaker, wouldn’t your number one goal be to keep coming up with awesome characters for John Goodman to play? I fully feel that we need to do everything we can to get this guy up to the level of, say, a Philip Seymour Hoffman or a Paul Giamatti.

Trouble With the Curve is a good start, but let’s begin a campaign to make 2012 the year of Goodman. I’ll go start a petition somewhere.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly collection of things that serious movie lovers will find interesting, useful, or both.

We begin this evening with an image from the website of the LA Times, who are featuring great reader photos chronicling Southern California moments. This one, by a gentleman named Chris Jackson, is of a street performer dressed as Spock on Hollywood Boulevard. Awesome costume. No, I don’t want a photo. No, I will not tip you. No, stop touching my girlfriend’s thigh. Live long and prosper, now get away from me.

Peter Jackson has added one last famous face to the cast of The Hobbit. Billy Connolly will play Dain Ironfoot, a Dwarf warrior. He will undoubtedly be a total badass leather-wearing dwarf who has no less than 35 guns on his person at one time. He will also have two sons, one of which will grow up to be a chubby version of Sean Patrick Flannery.

Ridley Scott is all over the place about the Blade Runner revival: ”We’re still in discussions about whether it should be a prequel or sequel. It’s an interesting conversation. I’m meeting with writers and I’ve also gone back to [original Blade Runner screenwriter] Hampton Fancher and he still speaks the speak. He’s right there. I spoke with him this week. But we don’t even have a script yet.”

Users of Windows who have a great deal of movies on their harddrives — all of which were downloaded legally, I’m sure — can download this nifty free application called Movie Explorer, which allows you to put together all the details about the movies you’ve archived. It’s like entering all the information by hand, except that you can have a cookie and let this app do the work for you. And who doesn’t love cookie time?

Paste has published a list of The 100 Best Movie Posters of the Past 100 Years. Among the list is the following gem for Dr. Strangelove, a personal favorite of yours truly:

Flavorwire presents an odd grouping of Movies Banned in Foreign Countries for Weird Reasons. In fairness, the Chinese have a point about time travel movies and Sex and the City 2 should have been banned everywhere, not just the UAE.

You guys have heard of ActionFest, right? It’s the annual celebration of the action genre held in Asheville, N.C. every year. If you’re not intimately familiar just yet, ActionFest.com Editor-in-Chief Ed Travis has taken to Movies.com to explain what the heck ActionFest is and why you should buy your plane ticket right now.

Another fine interview with Gary Oldman, another reason why I’ll be sad if he doesn’t walk away with gold on Oscar night. That man is a living legend, people.

Jon Favreau has signed on to direct the pilot for Revolution, a project set up at NBC by J.J. Abrams and Supernatural creator Eric Kripke. That’s basically a talent stew, there. Hopefully the adventure drama turns out to be a winner.

We close tonight with claymation animationator Lee Hardcastle’s Robo with a Shotgun, which is exactly what you hope it is:

Listen, everybody knows that eventually a world-beating threat is going to come out of its hiding place on the dark side of the moon and try to take over Earth. That’s just obvious. What the upcoming SXSW midnight movie Iron Sky does is present our eventual moon-birthed doom with an interesting twist. It asks the question, what if the hulking space armada that eventually threatens the well-being of free folk everywhere is actually the Nazis regrouped and back for a second go-around at world domination? Crap, why didn’t I think of this before? Of course this is what the Nazis have been up to!

Energia Productions have been teasing this movie for quite a while now, but now that it’s ready to hit the festival circuit, they’ve hit us with a full-length trailer that, more than any thing else, proves how far you can stretch a $10m budget if you’re absolutely, batshit crazy. This movie seems to have all sorts of spaceship stuff, all sorts of battle sequences, myriad cities being destroyed; and it’s all presented alongside that patented, iconic production design that only the Nazis can pull off.

Give the new Iron Sky trailer a look to see just how warped in the head our Nazi overlords are, and what sort of over-the-top tech they’ll be using to blow us all to smithereens. It doesn’t hurt to be prepared, right?

I mean really, is there anybody who has ever made evil look as good as the Nazis? Their soldiers are all shiny black leather and death. Their giant moon base is in the shape of a swastika. That’s attention to detail that even Steve Jobs would have been impressed by. You know, if Steve Jobs was a mass murderer instead of a guy who made gadgets.

Iron Sky will have its North American premiere at next month’s SXSW Film Festival.

Thérèse Raquin, the period drama that Elizabeth Olsen and Glenn Close are teaming up for, has got some new casting news. In case you don’t remember, Thérèse Raquin is an adaptation of an Émile Zola story penned and set to be directed by Charlie Stratton. It tells the story of a Parisian girl in 1867 who is forced into a loveless marriage with her sniveling, weakling cousin at the behest of her domineering aunt. Eventually the girl, Thérèse, becomes enamored of one of her husband’s friends, and then murder and infidelity ensue. Olsen, of course, it set to play the young girl, and Close the aunt. But what of the two male characters?

Originally I tried to spread the false rumor that Giovanni Ribisi would be playing the sickly husband, but thankfully nobody pays attention to what I say and the rumor didn’t spread. Now the role actually is in the process of being cast and the good news is that the actor who’s negotiating is probably the only person who has just as much experience at being sniveling and weird as Ribisi. Who better to play a sickly, annoying little turd than Draco Malfoy? That’s right, Daniel Radcliffe’s sneering nemesis from the last decade or so, Tom Felton, is looking likely to join the cast.

Now that the role of the husband has been filled, our eyes naturally turn to the role of the new boyfriend and murder co-conspirator. Who will work well playing a nemesis of Felton? Originally I theorized that we’d be seeing one of the kids getting ready to star in The Hunger Games, but now that Felton is in the husband role I’m going to change my guess to…nah, too easy. Let’s say John Hawkes playing his cult leader character again. [Deadline West Horsley]

Phil Morrison, the director of June Bug, has another project in the works, and it’s worth noting because it’s going to be starring my two favorite Pauls currently working in Hollywood. Lucky Dog is a comedy about a couple of French-Canadian con men who go in together on a Christmas tree selling scam, despite the fact that their friendship has recently been on the outs. The previously mentioned Pauls are Paul Giamatti and Paul Rudd, both accomplished comedic actors who also bring some dramatic chops to the table. So, the directions this one could go in are myriad.

Adding to the intrigue is the news that Sally Hawkins, an actress who has recently been impressing me in movies like Never Let Me Go and Submarine, has also signed on to join the cast. There isn’t any word on what kind of character she will be playing, but is it safe to assume that there might be some sort of love triangle going on among the former friends? Good luck with that one, Giamatti. Rudd is, like, cut. From marble. He’s gorgeous. He’s like this beautiful face and this incredible body, and I genuinely don’t care that he’s kinda lame. And I don’t even care that he cheats on me.

Wait…what was I saying? Anyway, Lucky Dog was written by Melissa James Gibson and it’s set to start filming next month in New York. [Deadline Camp Firewood]

You may have heard the song “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugarhill Gang (“I said a hip hop, a hippie, a hippie to the hip hop”), but what you might not know is this song helped hip hop break into the mainstream and helped a genre that, up until that point had been brushed off as a fad, start to take root in our musical history. Even though the group was changing the face (and sound) of the music industry, The Sugarhill Gang found themselves on top of the charts with barely a dime to their name. While this is not the first time we have heard stories of talent swindled by shady and greedy record executives, the story of the Sugarhill Gang is not just about losing money, it is about having their name and the true identity of the band member’s themselves stolen from them.

The Sugarhill Gang was originally made up of Wonder Mike (Michael Wright), Master Gee (Guy O’Brien), and Big Bank Hank (Henry Jackson), a trio that was put together by Sylvia Robinson who, along with her husband Joe Robinson, ran Sugar Hill Records and released the group’s first single, “Rapper’s Delight.” While the track climbed the charts and the fame and popularity of The Sugarhill Gang grew, the three members continued to find themselves broke as the Robinsons got richer.

Eventually Wonder Mike and Master Gee had enough of being stuck in a situation that was clearly making those “in charge” rich while they were left with almost nothing and left the group (and the music industry) while Jackson stayed. After the exit of O’Brien, the Robinson’s son, Joey Jr., began performing as Master Gee and not only began claiming he was the original Master Gee, he went so far as to copyright The Sugarhill Gang’s name and Wonder Mike and Master Gee’s individual names as well. I Want My Name Back follows Wright and O’Brien as they work to get back into the industry and find themselves faced with legal issues and threats that they are not who they claim to be.

Told through interviews with various legends and names in the industry, I Want My Name Back shows Wright and O’Brien as they try to not only move forward with their careers (and their names), but also attempt to right musical history. The film works in not only telling the true history of one of the industry’s most noted hip hop groups, but does so in a way that is almost baffling as it shows how blatantly some have tried to rewrite that history. While director Roger Paradiso is a bit bumpy in his documentary style, I Want My Name Back succeeds in taking viewers through the group’s first meeting and shows how everything that happened after that moment not only changed the face of hip hop, but these artist’s lives as well.

Part cautionary tale, part inspirational story, I Want My Name Back proves that talent and creativity can end up meaning very little in a business that works to sell (more than create) music, but those who create music out of their love of the art may end up being truly richer in the end.

The Upside: An interesting, frustrating and important look at the true birth of hip hop and who actually created the rhymes that brought rap to the mainstream while never losing the positive and hopeful message of the original Sugarhill Gang.

The Downside: Filmed in a slightly awkward documentary style with quick cuts between interviews and on screen information, along an almost monotone narration from former Sugar Hill Records employee Tony Rome, the style ended up being more distracting than helpful when attempting to move the story along.

On The Side: Adding insult to injury, while Wright and O’Brien each wrote their rhymes in “Rapper’s Delight,” Jackson’s verses were stolen from Grandmaster Caz (known then as Casanova Fly) as proven from his opening verse in the song stating, “I’m the C-A-S-A-N-O-V-A and the rest is F-L-Y.” Not to mention the fact that the track itself sampled (and did not originally pay credit to) “Good Times” by Chic.

The realm of 18th century France is a dusty one. Period dramas, especially lofty costume dramas, are so numerous that you can barely toss a powdered wig without hitting one. With Farewell, My Queen (Les Adieux à la Reine), writer/director Benoît Jacquot tears off the wig, pulls down the drapes and sets fire to both.

The wonderfully un-stuffy film stars and is told through the eyes of Sidonie Laborde (Léa Seydoux) who acts as a cipher for the manic last few days of Marie Antoinette’s (Diane Kruger) reign in the late 1700s. It’s Laborde’s story, meaning it’s the story of a voyeur who watches from doorjambs as the business of being extravagantly wealthy and powerful becomes not only meaningless, but fatal.

The vantage point is a bold angle that comes with its own set of challenges. Instead of following the leader, it makes Versailles an insular cocoon where rumors float down candle-lit hallways on sleepless nights and the people trapped by their own excess are revealed more through reaction than action. Yes, it’s a challenge, but it’s one that Jacquot and company handle with something close to greatness.

If the perspective is one reason this film bucks the period trend, its pacing and aggressive nature are real reasons to praise it. This is no dry wheeze where polite society hems and yawns through subtext and things unspoken. It’s direct. It’s nasty. Beyond forcing the main perspective and anchor into the lower class, it pivots off of a vision of perfection that is rarely seen. Opulence is hard to take seriously when it demands that dozens of loudly-dressed patrons shuffle-run down the hall in order to appear poised and proper like statues who have always stood in the place where the King and Queen are about to emerge.

It’s a desperate awkwardness born from trying to force things to appear a certain way. Instead of being played for laughs, it’s more often played for pity.

On the acting front, Seydoux makes it all look easy. She’s cunning and clever, but she’s appropriately weighed down by her station. She has the intricate task of existing not as a true main character, but as the character that’s onscreen the most. Even though she’s a constant presence, the story seems to happen around her as she observes and acts accordingly. It’s a steamy essence that she brings to everything, and her crisp slyness rings throughout.

However, even with stunted screen time, it’s Kruger that radiates the most here. She’s so strong a force that Antoinette is in every room and thought without being seen. Kruger doesn’t play her as an uncaring hammer – she creates a monarch that’s sometimes childlike and fearful behind the shrewd wielding of her influence and position.

When the two are together, there’s a strand of tension tied tightly between them, and they (and all women in the film) seem to play each conversation as if a fight or a passionate kiss is about to erupt. That subtle, semi-violent sexuality hangs on the coattails of each scene – used for both titillation, drama and insecurity.

Sadly, the movie falls off its pedestal for two reasons. For one, Jacquot (and/or his cinematographer Romain Winding) approach the camera work like a fidgeting little child tugging on his mother’s dress in church. It’s as if they received a shot-style-of-the-day calendar and just had to use it. The best segments come when the director calms down and lets the dialogue move on its own. The lack of cohesion is irritating, but why it shifts back and forth from steady to handheld is baffling. No matter the answer, it injures the overall product and gives the appearance that Jacquot had the camera move simply because he didn’t know what else to do while people were engrossed in long bouts of talking.

For two, a handful of the scenes feel staged and overly produced. There’s a false-feeling choreography to some of it that tends to value a poetic movement of people over something that would feel more natural – especially considering how organic the core of the story emerges.

The damage is there, but the movie is still a fantastic piece of period work that doesn’t follow any of the rules that make costume dramas so drab and dull. It’s innovative without being crudely rebellious, and the acting on display is formidable and incendiary. It goes without saying that the production design, make-up and costuming is strong – that’s the very least a film like this can do. What’s really magical about Farewell, My Queen is that it gives the audience something to do other than stare at the scenery. It’s thrilling. A rare example of something antique feeling genuinely brand new.

Complete Berlinale Coverage

Let us take this time to bemoan Hollywood’s love affair with unnecessary remakes. DreamWorks and Working Title Films are reportedly set on remaking Alfred Hitchcock‘s Academy Award-winning Rebecca because, oh, who the hell knows why?

Hitchcock’s 1940 film garnered him his sole Best Picture Oscar and remains one of his finest and most beloved films. The original starred no less than Laurence Olivier as the rich Maxim de Winter, who marries the innocent Joan Fontaine, and takes her back to his mansion, where she slowly discovers the weird hold the deceased Mrs. de Winter (that’s Rebecca to you) has over the entire household. That’s just the very tip of the iceberg of Rebecca, which is twisty and twisted and smart and evocative and really a story about love.

Which is why the guy who wrote Eastern Promises (and a pair of other internationally-tinged thrillers) is going to pen a new version for the screen. Of course.

Okay, now I’ll lay off Steven Knight because there may be one interesting piece to this news. According to Variety, this new film “will go back to the original book by Daphne DuMaurier” for its plotting. Cool, right? Except Hitchcock’s version only differs from the book in one essential way (spoilers ahead if you haven’t seen Rebecca, and why haven’t you seen Rebecca?) – thanks to the demands of the Hollywood Production Code, Maxim doesn’t outright kill Rebecca in the film, she accidentally bumps her big, crazy, slutty head and dies. In the book, Maxim shoots her dead, which might potentially add a different layer of feeling to this new film. Possibly. We’ll see. Maybe.

Knight is making his feature directorial debut with Hummingbird, starring Jason Statham, which will open sometime next year.