Time to unload some more recent and semi-recent news items. 1. Jeff Bridges says he has been approached about appearing in Tron 2. Woo-hoo! — Collider.com 2. Nikki Finke reports that Battlestar Galactica, which was shooting its fourth and final season until the writers’ strike got in the way, may be one of several series that ends up being cancelled altogether, now that a “brawl” is beginning to brew between the studio and the actors whose careers have been put... Read more

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days — the Romanian abortion drama that won the top prize at Cannes six months ago, and is easily one of the best films of this year — may be running into some trouble, audience-wise, as it leaves the festival circuit and moves into more mainstream venues. Jeffrey Wells, the Hollywood Elsewhere blogger who called the film a “masterpiece” a few weeks ago, says he has heard rumblings from within the Academy’s ranks that... Read more

A story that was reported this week in the New York Times and the Associated Press, on robots infiltrating a group of cockroaches and influencing their behaviour, is as good a reason as any to post a couple of 10th-anniversary links to my review of Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (1997) and my interview with its director, Errol Morris. I haven’t watched the film in years, but I think of it often, and fondly. Read more

Variety reports that Angels & Demons, the “prequel” to The Da Vinci Code (2006) that was going to begin filming in February, has “become the first major casualty of the ongoing writers strike.” The original release date was set for Christmas 2008, but has now been postponed to May 15 2009 — two weeks after the current release date for X-Men Origins: Wolverine and one week before the current release date for James Cameron’s Avatar — because there were “insurmountable... Read more

Just a note before I return to all the errands and distractions that have been keeping me away from the blog for the past few days. Assuming I can find my passport somewhere in the piles and piles of boxes that my wife and I are still unpacking, it looks like I will be in Los Angeles for a junket the weekend of December 1-2. Four weeks later, on December 29, I will also be in Renton, Washington for the... Read more

Between work and screenings and settling into the new place, I haven’t had any time to blog for the past few days. But here are a few items related to The Golden Compass that came up while I was otherwise occupied. First, and perhaps most trivially, there is a new featurette on Dakota Blue Richards, the girl who was picked out of thousands of would-be actresses to play the lead character Lyra Belacqua, at Yahoo! Movies and YouTube. One or... Read more

I like ancient history and mythology and archaeology, so I get a small kick out of the news that Ridley Scott is attached to direct Stones, a “supernatural thriller” the development of which is currently on hold due to the writers’ strike. Variety reports: Project is a big-scale supernatural thriller revolving around the mysterious destruction of ancient religious sites around the world. It turns out that Stonehenge is the tie that binds together artifacts that still have primeval powers. [Screenwriter... Read more

The other day I wondered how Winona Ryder could play Spock’s mother in Star Trek XI when she is only six years older than Zachary Quinto, the actor playing Spock. Well, now IESB.net reports that Aussie actor Chris Hemsworth, who is 24, is going to play George Samuel Kirk Sr. — father of Captain James T. Kirk, who is being played in the film by Chris Pine, who is 27. That’s right, the actor playing the dad is younger than... Read more

Chris Weitz, writer-director of The Golden Compass, has responded to what he calls the “hatchet-job” on his film in the current issue of the Atlantic Monthly, in a letter posted at BridgeToTheStars.net. An excerpt: Hana Rosin’s hatchet-job on my film of Philip Pullman’s novel The Golden Compass (and by extension, me) is so comprehensive in its disdain, one might go so far as to imagine she had seen the movie! She hasn’t, of course, though that fact was not mentioned... Read more

Here are the figures for the past weekend, arranged from those that owe the highest percentage of their take to the Canadian box office to those that owe the lowest. Across the Universe — CDN $3,340,000 — N.AM $22,353,000 — 14.9%No Country for Old Men — CDN $158,221 — N.AM $1,202,000 — 13.2%30 Days of Night — CDN $3,960,000 — N.AM $37,358,000 — 10.6%American Gangster — CDN $6,820,000 — N.AM $80,679,000 — 8.5%Bee Movie — CDN $6,100,000 — N.AM $72,214,000... Read more