The Hollywood Reporter has an update on Year One, the “biblical comedy” that is currently being produced by Judd Apatow and directed by Harold Ramis: Actress-screenwriter June Diane Raphael is in final negotiations to play Jack Black’s love interest in Harold Ramis’ biblical comedy “Year One” for producer Judd Apatow and Columbia. Raphael will play Maya, a woman who becomes romantically involved with Zed (Black) and another man in her village. “Superbad” leads Michael Cera and Christopher Mintz-Plasse also star... Read more

Remember that scene near the end of No Country for Old Men that I singled out a few weeks ago? It stood out for Andrew Potter at Maclean’s magazine too, albeit in a different sort of way. Read more

The last three chapters of The Golden Compass were cut from the film at a very, very late stage in post-production — so late, in fact, that bits of it had already been included in the trailers, as I’ve noted here before, and also in the video game, which came out only a week or two ago. Here is a clip from the game: Click here if the video file above doesn’t play properly. In related news, Monica Edinger at... Read more

… so of course Andy Serkis had to be cast in the motion-capture adaptation of the Tintin comics currently being developed by Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg. Interestingly, though, Variety reports that Serkis will be playing someone other than Tintin himself — though who, exactly, the studio won’t say. UPDATE: The Hollywood Reporter says “it is believed Serkis will play the role of Capt. Haddock, a temperamental sea captain”. Read more

How badly is The Golden Compass doing at the North American box office? So badly that, despite the film’s reported $250 million production budget — a figure that does not include marketing costs! — BoxOfficeMojo.com has added the film to its “showdown” chart for “Mid-Range Fantasy” movies, pitting it against the modest likes of Eragon and Bridge to Terabithia rather than the all-time blockbusters whose ranks it clearly wants to join. And The Golden Compass is actually making less money... Read more

My review of The Kite Runner is now up at CT Movies. Read more

Variety reports that Stephen Norrington has been tapped to direct the remake of Clash of the Titans (1981). Norrington directed the original Blade (1998). He also directed League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003), which may go down in history as the movie that ended Sean Connery’s career. Somehow I am not expecting great things, here. Then again, if Connery could be lured back to play Zeus, that could make this a riotously funny bit of camp. Or perhaps not. Now I’ve... Read more

Variety reports that Saul Zaentz, who has owned the film rights to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings since 1976, is suing New Line Cinema for the chance to look at their financial records, to see whether they have paid him his proper share of the profits from Peter Jackson’s enormously successful trilogy. You may recall that Jackson himself is suing New Line for pretty much the same thing — and that Jackson’s lawsuit is one of the... Read more

So says Ain’t It Cool News in a dispatch from Butt-Numb-A-Thon 9, where The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian producer Mark Johnson apparently showed up for an on-stage interview. The brave mouse was played in the BBC version of Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1989) by Warwick Davis, who is now playing the dwarf Nikabrik in the new movie. (Hat tip to NarniaWeb.com.) Read more