Two years ago, Colin Farrell was rumoured to be in the running for the lead role in Terrence Malick‘s Tree of Life. One year ago, Mel Gibson was rumoured to be in the running. But now, according to the Hollywood Reporter, Heath Ledger and Sean Penn are “in talks” for the film — which could start shooting as early as March. No story details have been made available yet — not officially — but the Reporter describes the film as... 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 $2,820,000 — N.AM $19,296,796 — 14.6%Rendition — CDN $1,140,000 — N.AM $7,821,105 — 14.6%We Own the Night — CDN $2,980,000 — N.AM $25,065,018 — 11.9%30 Days of Night — CDN $2,780,000 — N.AM $27,480,907 — 10.1%Gone Baby Gone — CDN $965,553 — N.AM $11,226,975 —... Read more

After a few weeks of bad rumours and noisy protests against The Golden Compass, today brought a couple of stories in which people associated with the movie gave it a more positive spin. Well, okay, Roger Friedman of FoxNews.com is not associated with the movie himself. But presumably the folks who showed him half-an-hour of footage from the film — footage that prompted Friedman to predict that it will be “the big holiday smash hit for which Hollywood is so... Read more

Greg Berlanti, who has produced and written a fair bit of TV but has directed only one feature film to date — i.e. The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy (2000) — has signed on to direct a live-action version of Green Lantern, reports Variety: Berlanti will write the script with Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green. Donald De Line will produce; Andrew Haas is exec producer. . . . Guggenheim, who works with Berlanti as a writer-producer on “Brothers &... Read more

For the second week in a row, two of this week‘s top ten movies are not even playing in the Vancouver area. The films in question are Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married? and the 3-D version of The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). It’s not uncommon for my neck of the woods to miss out on a top ten movie every now and then, but I can’t recall the last time we missed out on two. Read more

This one is for my friend Trent, who was a big fan of The Flash back in the day and, for all I know, might still be now. MTV Movies Blog is reporting that David Dobkin — director of Clay Pigeons (1998), Shanghai Knights (2003), Wedding Crashers (2005) and the upcoming Fred Claus — is the latest director who has been hired to bring Wally West to the big screen: Dobkin’s film won’t be the character’s first appearance in cinemas,... Read more

Just a few more quick news blurbs before bedtime. 1. The Associated Press reports that William Shatner is still upset that he won’t be in Star Trek XI, and he says his exclusion from the film is a bad “business decision.” So was allowing your character to be killed in Star Trek Generations (1994; my comments) without setting up an obvious mechanism for his resurrection, Bill. 2. There has been no shortage of items on the Dumbledore-is-gay brouhaha. Here are... Read more

My review of Lars and the Real Girl is now up at CT Movies. Read more

This one is for my friend Magnus, with whom I saw the original The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) almost a month ago. We already knew that a remake is currently in the works, and that Denzel Washington — teaming up with director Tony Scott for the fourth time, following Crimson Tide (1995), Man on Fire (2004; my article) and Deja Vu (2006; my comments) — is slated to play the good guy who was originally played by... Read more

Unbelievable. As if the market was not already glutted with Noah’s Ark cartoons, we now have Rock the Boat. Reports Variety: Gaumont is getting into 3-D animation with the $35 million feature “Rock the Boat,” a two-minute clip of which will preem at next week’s American Film Market. The Gallic major is bidding to secure a U.S. deal before casting English language thesps to voice the film early next year. Tale, being pitched as “Some Like it Hot” set on... Read more