My review of Barnyard: The Original Party Animals is now up at CT Movies. Read more

Just a couple quick casting-news bits. 1. IGN.com reports that Eva Green, recently seen in Kingdom of Heaven and soon to be seen in Casino Royale, has been cast as the witch queen Serafina Pekkala in The Golden Compass. 2. What is it with Paul Dano and religious content? Earlier this year he played the son of a fundamentalist preacher, who among other things advocates teaching Intelligent Design in public schools, in The King (my review); and right now, he... Read more

Variety reports that director-producer Jonas McCord and former Pixar animator Seth Piezas are looking for financing for a new animated children’s series, to be called Unnatural History, that combines education and entertainment. The new show “will follow four kids who travel through time, hell-bent on stopping an anti-technologist from destroying new inventions at their source.” Also: McCord said the cost will be high — more than $400,000 per half-hour — because the animation will be high-end 3-D, similar to “SpongeBob... Read more

Mel Gibson has finally confirmed that the “despicable” comments he made, while he was being arrested for alleged drunk driving, were in fact anti-Semitic. And now he’s asking for help. Here’s his latest statement, issued today, via the Associated Press: There is no excuse, nor should there be any tolerance, for anyone who thinks or expresses any kind of anti-Semitic remark. I want to apologize specifically to everyone in the Jewish community for the vitriolic and harmful words that I... Read more

The professional fall-out from Mel Gibson‘s recent scandalous behaviour has begun, it seems. Gibson’s company was going to produce a mini-series on the Holocaust for the Disney-owned ABC network. But not any more, reports the Associated Press. Meanwhile, for the moment, Disney is still planning to distribute Apocalypto, which was already in post-production before Gibson went into rehab — but the Toronto Star reports that Gibson’s behaviour might have cost the film a chance to have its premiere at next... Read more

My children will be six months old on Friday, and I am still figuring out how to communicate with them. It is especially fun to listen to Elizabeth when she lies in her crib and, instead of crying, she just makes a series of seemingly random and unconnected noises. No doubt she is currently just testing her ability to make different sounds, and she’ll worry about assigning meaning to those sounds at some point in the near future. The children... Read more

The Dark Knight, the sequel to last year’s Batman Begins, is getting into gear for an early-2007 shoot; director Chris Nolan and star Christian Bale will be back for more, while Brokeback Mountain (2005) co-star Heath Ledger will join them as the Joker — and one can only hope that Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman will all be back, too. David Poland has the press release. 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. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest — CDN $33,614,469 — N.AM $358,485,761 — 9.4%You, Me and Dupree — CDN $5,355,315 — N.AM $59,119,020 — 9.1%Miami Vice — CDN $2,269,161 — N.AM $25,723,815 — 8.8%Superman Returns — CDN $16,152,994 — N.AM $185,794,683 — 8.7%The Devil Wears Prada — CDN $8,739,416... Read more

Variety reports that rumours of Nicole Kidman’s involvement in The Golden Compass have been confirmed. Kidman, who was once also rumoured to be in the running for the part of the White Witch in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), has agreed to play the villainous Marisa Coulter. Given that The Golden Compass is part of a popular fantasy trilogy in which God himself and the Catholic Church are the bad guys, and given... Read more