Time for another batch of newsworthy goodness.<\/span><\/p>\n 1.<\/a> Variety<\/a><\/i> reports that Armie Hammer<\/a> \u2014 the 21-year-old rumoured to be playing Batman in George Miller\u2019s Justice League<\/a><\/i> movie \u2014 has been cast as the young Billy Graham in Billy: The Early Years<\/a><\/i>. The cast also includes Martin Landau, Lindsay Wagner, Kristopher Polaha, Josh Turner, Stephanie Butler, Jennifer O\u2019Neill and Sierra Hull \u2014 but there is no mention in this story of Hal Holbrook, who was the only cast member announced one month ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n 2.<\/a> Dark City<\/a><\/i> (1998; my article<\/a>) was my favorite movie of the year it came out, and it was also one of the very first movies I bought on DVD. Now, co-writer David Goyer tells Bloody-Disgusting.com<\/a> that the film has been re-cut and \u201call of the parties involved\u201d have been interviewed for \u201can over hour long making-of\u201d that will be included on the new DVD and possibly on a Blu-Ray edition, as well.<\/p>\n 3.<\/a> Quint<\/a> at Ain\u2019t It Cool News has visited the Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian<\/a><\/i> editing bay and posted his thoughts on the 45 minutes or so of footage that he was shown \u2014 and, gadzooks, it sounds like they are seriously<\/i> diverting from the book in just about every way.<\/p>\n 4.<\/a> CT Movies<\/a> has an interview with Steve Taylor<\/a>, who made his feature directorial debut with The Second Chance<\/a><\/i> and is now working on an adaptation of Donald Miller\u2019s Blue Like Jazz<\/a><\/i>, which begins shooting in May.<\/p>\n 5.<\/a> The Associated Press<\/a> has a brief update on The Passion of the Christ<\/a><\/i> co-writer Benedict Fitzgerald<\/a>\u2018s lawsuit<\/a> against Mel Gibson:<\/p>\n In court filings Tuesday, attorneys for Gibson and his production company asked the court to seal the movie\u2019s financial records and only allow Fitzgerald\u2019s lawyers access to them. The information details the movie\u2019s domestic and foreign box office receipts, production costs and distribution expenses.<\/p>\n The defense is also seeking to dismiss some of Fitzgerald\u2019s claims, including fraud, which if proven would allow Fitzgerald to seek punitive damages.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 6.<\/a> ABC News<\/a> takes a sneak peek at the script for Oliver Stone\u2019s W<\/a><\/i>. They published it on April Fool\u2019s Day, so some people have regarded it with skepticism, but Jeffrey Wells<\/a>, who is quoted in the piece and has read the script himself, assures us the piece is genuine.<\/p>\n 7.<\/a> Matt Page<\/a> has discovered a month-old CNN video<\/a> depicting clips from The Messiah<\/i>, AKA Jesus, the Spirit of God<\/a><\/i>, the Iranian film<\/a> that tells the story of Jesus from a Muslim point of view<\/a>.<\/p>\n 8.<\/a> The New York Times<\/a><\/i> says Tom Cruise<\/a>\u2018s cameo as \u201ca bald, hairy-chested<\/a>, foulmouthed, dirty-dancing movie mogul\u201d brought the house down at a recent industry screening of Tropic Thunder<\/a><\/i> \u2014 the trailer<\/a> for which looks hilarious<\/i>. And for what it\u2019s worth, as other bloggers have noted, this is not the first time Cruise has worked with Ben Stiller<\/a>.<\/p>\n 9.<\/a> Now that WALL-E<\/a><\/i> seems to be paying homage to Short Circuit<\/a><\/i> (1986), it was probably only a matter of time before someone came along and re-made the original film outright \u2014 and according to Variety<\/a><\/i>, the \u201csomeone\u201d in question is Dimension Films, the primarily horror-oriented company owned by the Weinstein brothers. What, don\u2019t they want to do another 20-years-later sequel like the Indiana Jones<\/a><\/i> and Rambo<\/a><\/i> franchises have done?<\/p>\n 10.<\/a> Variety<\/a><\/i> says Justin Long and Hayden Panettiere will provide the lead voices in Alpha and Omega<\/i>, a cartoon about \u2026 two kidnapped wolves. That\u2019s an \u2026 interesting \u2026 choice of names<\/a>.<\/p>\n 11.<\/a> Errol Morris<\/a> has written an interesting essay on the use of re-enactments in documentaries, and how to distinguish them from fraud, based in part on some unexpected reactions that certain people had to his film The Thin Blue Line<\/a><\/i> (1988):<\/p>\n It never occurred to me that someone might think that the re-enactments were not re-enactments at all, but honest-to-God v\u00e9rit\u00e9<\/i> footage shot while the crime was happening. It\u2019s crazy for someone to think I had just happened to be out on that<\/i> roadway, that<\/i> night, with a 35-millimeter film crew and many, many cameras \u2013 cameras taking multiple angles, high angles from overhead, low angles at tire-level looking under the car, even angles inside<\/i> the suspect vehicle. How could anyone think that? How could anyone believe<\/i> that? Of course, people believe some pretty amazing things, and it made me think: is it a legitimate question? How do we know what is real and what is re-enacted in a photograph? What is real and what is a simulacrum? It\u2019s a question about images. How do we know what is happening for the first time and what is a re-enactment of an event? In a photograph<\/i> or in a movie<\/i>? How do we know it hasn\u2019t been doctored or altered to deceive us about the \u201creality\u201d we imagine we are observing?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This, of course, ties into Morris\u2019s earlier musings about the Robert Fenton photographs<\/a>, as well as his upcoming documentary Standard Operating Procedure<\/a><\/i>, which is about the Abu Ghraib photographs.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Time for another batch of newsworthy goodness. 1. Variety reports that Armie Hammer \u2014 the 21-year-old rumoured to be playing Batman in George Miller\u2019s Justice League movie \u2014 has been cast as the young Billy Graham in Billy: The Early Years. The cast also includes Martin Landau, Lindsay Wagner, Kristopher Polaha, Josh Turner, Stephanie Butler, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n