Sam Raimi, best known for his Spider-Man movies, has just become the next director to get behind an adaptation of literary master Dennis Lehane (Mystic River and Gone, Baby, Gone) The book rights to The Given Day were acquired by Columbia Pictures.

The Given Day is set in 1919 Boston, with the city in turmoil as soldiers are returning home from WWI, having brought back an epidemic of Spanish influenza. Attempts to unionize the police department have set the stage for a historic strike and two cops take center stage.

The book will be published by HarperCollins on Sept. 23.

Having signed on to this, Raimi is going to be one busy fellow! He’s also looking at a fourth Spider-Man movie (currently being written by James Vanderbilt), but he is also supposed to reinvent the Jack Ryan franchise for Paramount!

I guess money talks!

The people behind The Dark Knight have done an amazing job piquing The Internet’s - i.e. everyone on the internet’s - interest in the movie.  From widgets and viral videos made specially for online viewers, to making-of featurettes and websites built specifically for characters in the film.  I’m not sure if all of this is necessary, considering the massive success of the first film and the added value of the movie being Heath Ledger’s last completed movie (sadly), but it can only help.

Latest in the line of specialty websites is a site for the Gotham City Pizzeria.  It looks like a simple pizza place, with a little information about the company and a menu of their food.  However, take a closer look!

Put your mouse over the “HA” in “GOTHAM” and see what happens.  Click on it for a surprise: a clip with Harvey Two-Face!

I’d guess this is going to be somewhere towards the end of the movie, which would be a nice set-up for movie three!

A new image from the upcoming Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince video game has been released on the Electronic Arts Russian website.  The new pic shows Harry looking into the pensieve with Dumbledore looking on over his shoulder.  The game will be released later this year, around the time of the movie’s release.

I couldn’t pass up the chance to post this! Someone has created a video of Dubya and Putin dancing together!

We’ve released a special video that shows BUSH and PUTIN dancing with each other. We created it using an advanced technology that allows us to map the faces of celebrities onto an actor’s face. So we can have them do whatever. There are going to be a few videos going out in this same series with other celebs.

Enjoy!

Apparently, the Catholic Church hasn’t forgotten the firestorm of controversy that The Da Vinci Code (book AND film) dredged up a few years ago.

According to new reports, the team behind the upcoming Angels & Demons film adaptation, including director Ron Howard and actor Tom Hanks, have been banned from filming in two churches because the movie “does not conform to our views,” said Monsignor Marco Fibbi, a spokesman for the diocese.

The crew had asked to film in the churches of Santa Maria del Popolo and Santa Maria della Vittoria, two architectural jewels in the heart of Rome that include paintings by Caravaggio, sculptures by Bernini and a chapel designed by Raphael.

Permission was denied in 2007, but the issue [re]surfaced only now that filming is ongoing in Rome, Fibbi said. The Sony-produced film was put on hold during the Writers Guild of America strike that ended in February and is now scheduled for release in May 2009.

“It’s a film that treats religious issues in a way that contrasts with common religious sentiment,” Fibbi told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “We would be helping them create a work that might well be beautiful but that does not conform to our views.”

Fibbi acknowledged that the controversy over writer Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code” and its blockbuster movie version had weighed on the decision.

The ban won’t extend to the exterior of the buildings, but film crews will not be allowed inside.

Something the church DOES seem to have forgotten is that, by boycotting and otherwise trying to block the release of the movie (and book, for that matter), it only added fuel to the controversy and probably made the franchise THAT MUCH MORE SUCCESSFUL.  People who wouldn’t ordinarily have read the book or seen the movie were intrigued by something the church was so vehemently trying to squash.

Lesson to be learned: If you don’t want to make a big deal out of something, IGNORE IT.  Besides, they obviously haven’t read A&D, because it has nothing to do with biblical conspiracies.  The movie’s going to be successful anyway.  Ah well.

Brad Pitt and George Clooney are at it again! No, it’s not a flashy title for the next Ocean’s movie, nor is it a buddy heist romp. Burn After Reading is the story of what happens when some slackers find a disk of secret CIA information, and what they do with it–THEY TRY TO SELL IT.

As you can see, the film stars heavyweights such as Brad, George, Tilda Swinton, John Malkovich, J.K. Simmons and Frances McDormand. Filming has already completed and the movie is slated for a September 12 release!

Below you’ll find (what’s supposed to be) the first seven minutes of the upcoming Wanted movie!

I’m going to see this movie anyway, and the action shots are really, really cool, but… doesn’t it look a little, I don’t know, CHEESY to anyone else? All those times with James McAvoy screaming (and some cheese dialogue, too), and there are about 100 slow-motion shots in just these seven minutes ALONE. Ah well, guess we’ll find out if it’s good or not in a few weeks!

Angelina Jolie looks amazing, though! I know many a guy who’d KILL to be in James’ place in that while she’s hanging out the windshield!

For starters, to make sure we’re all clear on this, I’m not a HUGE M. Night Shyamalan fan. I think that The Sixth Sense was a cinematic breakthrough in the way people think of psychological thrillers, and Unbreakable is a great movie, but I could really care less about the rest.  Yet, even though he has proven his directorial prowess time and time again (they’re not BAD movies, after all), all people expect from him is to be a one-trick pony.

This is a recent article about him from IMDb:

M. Night Shyamalan, the writer-director famous for ending his films with surprising twists has returned to the screen with The Happening. But those expecting to see his signature ending will likely be disappointed. As Elizabeth Weitzman writes in the New York Daily News, “The big twist is that… there’s no twist at all. None. Zip. Nada.” Several critics express disappointment that Shyamalan, after a series of blunders, has not made the kind of comeback they were hoping for. Claudia Puig in USA Today concludes her review by remarking, “Shyamalan’s work has been deteriorating since the stir he caused in 1999 with The Sixth Sense. … His last couple of movies — The Village and Lady in the Water — have been particular disappointments, and The Happening continues the trend.” Kyle Smith in the New York Post gives mostly two-word reviews for all of Shyamalan’s movies since The Sixth Sense: “Stupid ending, stupid ending, stupid ending and, in a change of pace with his last film, Lady in the Water, stupid all the way through.” Carina Chocano in the Los Angeles Times says that not all the blame should be laid at Shyamalan’s feet. Costar Mark Wahlberg, she writes, gives “one of the worst performances of his career.” But Manohla Dargis in the New York Times comments that the critics’ knives were sharpened for Shyamalan even before the movie was screened for them. As for herself, she considers the film, “a divertingly goofy thriller with an animistic bent, moments of shivery and twitchy suspense and a solid lead performance from Mark Wahlberg.” Likewise Glenn Whipp concludes in the Los Angeles Daily News that The Happening is “creepy, silly fun. And if it came from anyone else, it would be recognized as such. One thing is certain: The man hasn’t lost his ability to entertain.”

Why are all of these critics bitching that his other movies don’t have some kind of insane twist?  WHO CARES.  He was going to be damned if he did and damned if he didn’t.  I’d bet that, if he had come out with another movie with the same kind of twist, the same style of storytelling, people would have found excuse to complain about that as well.  Why don’t they just critique the movie for its own merit, without any regard for what came before it?  Were they entertained?  Or would they have been pissed if they’d paid $11 to see it in theaters?  M. Night should be allowed to tell any story he wishes, including ones with a straight-forward plotline.

Mark Wahlberg is a good actor and Shyamalan is a good director.  Don’t pay attention to the critics (I sure don’t!), and see the movie for yourself before you judge.

Rant over.

I’ve been following this movie since I heard about it over a year ago, and now we finally have a teaser trailer! The Curious Case of Benjamin Button centers around a person who is born as an old man and gradually grows younger as he gets “older”. The cast includes Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton! The movie is slated for a December release. Check out the trailer below!

So excited!

Seth Rogen - The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, and the soon to be released Pineapple Express - makes an internet video with his friend, fellow actor Jay Baruchel (also of Knocked Up), in the form of a movie trailer for an apocalyptic comedy called Jay and Seth vs. the Apocalypse. Funny funny, ha ha, whatever. It’s cute, good for a good laugh, but surely nobody takes it for anything MORE than that, right?

Wrong.

Mandate Pictures saw something in the little clip and decided to turn it into a feature film. Again, not kidding. Here’s the premise of the movie:

The story revolves around two guys who, with the end the world unfolding and the planet invaded by monsters, are ready to kill each other after being cooped up together for too long.

Rogen is a busy man, but hopes to start filming this newest project in the summer of 2009 for a 2010 release. Want to see the “trailer” that inspired the movie? Check it out below…