We all know that David Fincher is an uncompromising director (and why shouldn't he be? The guy is one of the best working today). But, even if you don't like the man, you have to admire someone who is truly willing to put his money where his mouth is. In an interview unearthed by The Playlist, Heavy Metal publisher (and Fincher's collaborator on the Metal reboot), Kevin Eastman, confirmed that the reason for the project's move from Paramount to Sony was not because of problems with the sex and violence (as earlier reported), but because of another film altogether. When Metal first jumped studios, there was speculation that Fincher was having trouble getting the green light because of Metal's risqué subject matter. But, it wasn't Metal they were fighting about, it was Fincher's upcoming fantasy tale, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

According to Eastman, "We developed it [Heavy Metal] for Paramount in January... And it was time for them to make a decision [about going forward with the project] and they were at odds with Fincher over another project, 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,' [because] they wanted him to reduce the running time... and so they said, 'Until you step up to do what we want you to do with Benjamin, we're not going to green light any other of [your] movies.' And David said, 'Fine, f**k you, I'm going to set up [Heavy Metal] somewhere else,' so we jumped over to Sony and set it up there." You can't help but wonder what Paramount was thinking? Maybe the likely answer is that they were not prepared for Fincher to call their bluff.

After the jump ... guess who's directing Heavy Metal???

I don't know when exactly AMCtv.com's Sci-Fi Scanner blog came about, but after bringing us the news last week that Mathieu Kassovitz wasn't exactly happy over the final product that was Babylon A.D., they've continued their hot streak by landing an interview with "Lost" and Star Trek producer Damon Lindelof, who fessed up that he'd be just as eager to adapt Stephen King's series as he would be to see someone else do it.

"The Dark Tower is to me every bit as daunting an adaptation as the Lord of the Rings trilogy must have been for Peter Jackson, except we've got seven books we're looking at," said Lindelof, who then explained that doing that doing the films alongside the closure of Lost would be too challenging a task at the moment.

Not unlike Watchmen, King's series remains among the literary works that everyone else insists to me are positively OMG!-awesome and that I have yet to get around to (I know, I know). With any luck, I'll get to them before someone gets to the movies, which seems to be an inevitability with or without Lindelof's involvement.

[by way of Bloody Disgusting]

While you suffer through those back to school blues ...

Guitar Hero: The Movie -- I have to start with this one. Have to! Because not only are we talking about a possible big-screen movie based on the popular video game, but we're also about to tell you who wants to direct the thing. Can you guess? Here's a hint: It's not Uwe Boll. And if it's not Boll, it has to be ... Ratner! YES! (I really do think I love this maniac in a totally platonic, yet sadistic way -- sorta how you love a great movie villain.) Anyway, Brett Ratner tells MTV that he'd love to make a Guitar Hero movie, possibly about "a kid from a small town who dreams of being a rock star and he wins the 'Guitar Hero' competition. One of these dreams-[come-true] kind of concepts." Ratner adds, "I would love to do a 'Guitar Hero' movie, if Activision would ever let me. I'm trying to convince them, but why would you have a movie screw up such a huge franchise? Not that I would make a bad movie. So that would be cool, to do a 'Guitar Hero' movie. " I'm leaving this one to you, folks -- have at it!

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time: In case you're interested in seeing what a standard Persian-esque set looks like, Korben.info has put up a few select shots (see one above) of the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time set. Based on the popular video game (hurray for themes in posts!), Prince of Persia stars Jake "I didn't know he was Persian" Gyllenhaal as a young prince who teams up with a hottie princess (Gemma Arterton) to stop an evil ruler from doing evil things.

A director has been chosen to remake Poltergeist and Cinematical says we likey him ... after the jump ...

It's definitely no secret that writer Mark Millar is a wanted man these days (or at least he wants you to believe he's a wanted man), what with his comic series Wanted doing very well in theaters and another series of his, Kick-Ass, about to start production -- not to mention all this talk of the guy possibly taking over the Superman franchise from a writing and creative standpoint. We'll get to the latter in just a second, but first up there's Wanted ... and Wanted 2 ... and, wait, Wanted 3, too?

In an interview with Newsarama, Millar spoke about how much he's participating in the Wanted follow-up ... and it would seem like he only gave the studio a "very small amount for a story, and that will be used as a basic story that they can build from." He adds, "It will be some of the stuff that we didn't utilize from the first book for the movie – like chapters three and four – there will be some stuff from that, so in the loosest sense it will be based on the book, but only very little." Millar also noted that both part two and part three are greenlit, and that James McAvoy is indeed signed on to reprise his role in both sequels.

Hear what Millar has to say about his proposed seven-hour, Lord of the Rings-like Superman trilogy after the jump ...

If you are a fan of Chuck Palahniuk then today might be your lucky day, because it looks like audiences could be getting more Palahniuk (and his merry band of screw-ups) on the big screen than they can shake a stick at. Before you get too excited, keep in mind that Mr. Palahniuk loves to mess with people, so we should probably take this news with an enormous grain of salt. The latest chatter to hit the net is that the feature film version of Palahniuk's 2002 novel, Lullaby, has begun the casting process. But that's not all! According to The Cult (the official fan site for the author), Rant (a great 50's sci-fi inspired tale) has also been optioned by an unnamed producer.

The news about Lullaby comes from Film School Rejects, who claim that they got their scoop from the man himself. According to Rejects, "Lullaby, an adaptation that hasn't been tracked nearly as closely as his other works, is already at the casting stage. The financing is in place, and even though the production won't tell Palahniuk who they are looking to cast, he believes they are waiting for a concrete production start day to make the announcement." I don't mean to be cynical, but don't you think if this was the real deal, Palahniuk would have been told that information?

Well, darn! I no more than got to ponder this item from Australia's Herald Sun than it was debunked from England. The Sun was reporting that Russell Crowe was all set to play Dr. Watson in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes, instantly making Watson ten times more interesting than he's ever been allowed to be onscreen.

But just as all movie writers began pondering how incredibly brilliant it would be to see Crowe and Robert Downey Jr. pair up onscreen, perhaps as the Riggs and Murtaugh of Victorian London, it was dismissed entirely by none other than Guy Ritchie.

Ritchie was out doing red carpet duty for RocknRolla in London, when Empire asked him all about it. I'm kind of imagining a funny exercise in time difference here, where premiere reporters were being texted "Russ. C 2 be in Shlock Hlms?" from their Oz cousins just as Ritchie got out of his limo. Ritchie denied it all. "I don't have a Watson. Somebody just told me that I have Russell Crowe lined up but that's news to me. I suspect that hasn't happened and I'm still looking for my Watson." (I vote Paul Bettany. I guess he's becoming a bit of a smart sidekick cliche, but he would be really good.)

Filming is set to start in a month, so expect an Inglorious Bastards-like flurry of casting news. According to Susan Downey, producer of RocknRolla and owner of Robert, the story is all of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's books, and yet none. "The world is within all the stories and it actually goes back to the books but the story is actually one that we made for the movie. What we can tell you is that he's a badass in this movie alright. That's what we're going back to, any Holmes fan that we've spoken to is getting really excited about this one."

If I know our Eugene Novikov at all, his face is like mine in that it registers somewhere between the two pictured at the right when it comes to the news that The Brothers Bloom, writer-director Rian Johnson's follow-up to his nifty noir Brick, has been bumped back from October 24th (an admittedly crowded weekend) to a limited bow on December 19th, followed by a wide release on January 16th of 2009.

When the fairly reliable Box Office Mojo first mentioned the change, I balked at the thought, but now Johnson has confirmed it on his own message board, saying "There were a few reasons for the move: October and November are crowded as hell, it's a tough tough market, especially for a smart unique film like ours, and we'd have a week or two at the most to sink or swim. Whereas concentrating on a couple markets for awards consideration in December, then pushing the wide in the more open January slot just seemed like a better use of resources."

Wait -- what's that? Eugene gets to see it in a week's time up at Toronto? Excuse me, but I'm suddenly feeling much more like Bang Bang...

At last, the focus of at least one obsessive Batman 3 rumor has adressed. Johnny Depp was recently on a Florida radio show promoting the reunion show of his band, The Kids. (I know how the girls love Johnny, you can listen to the entire interview in two parts here.) A persistent fan called into the station to remind them to ask Depp about playing the Riddler for Christopher Nolan.

Depp's answer was essentially a denial and as enigmatic as well, the Riddler. "Oh yeah I heard about that. Not that I know of. It seems like it'd be a fun gig for a while, yeah."

A denial isn't surprising since we know Nolan isn't even signed, let alone writing or casting. But given that the rumor machine is going regardless of that fact, here's more fuel for the fire. There's no doubt Depp would do a fine job. He could probably play me to perfection. And he's open to taking just about any role that interests him. So, those of you keeping score can mark Depp as "interested" and various news agencies that don't read these things carefully can report it as "confirmed." For my part, I'm going to go ahead and tell my sister that Depp is "totally doing Batman 3" because that's one way to interest her in the franchise. Except then she'll start working on a Riddler costume for a certain lookalike. Never mind, then.

[Thanks to The Comic Book Cynic for sending this to us.]

For quite some time, the supernatural thriller Passengers -- starring Anne Hathaway as a grief counselor working with survivors of a plane crash (among them, Patrick Wilson) who begin to vanish -- had been quietly set on opening this Friday, September 5th.

However, as the date neared without any sign of a poster, a trailer, anything, I began rooting around the IMDb message boards and was about to post a Spanish-language trailer, complete with accompanying amateur translation, when along came a legit trailer (by way of Reelz Channel), a real poster (courtesy of IMP Awards), and a new date of October... well, just October for now.

Given his knack for ensemble dramas such as Nine Lives and Things You Can Tell Just By Looking at Her, director Rodrigo Garcia seems to be a curious pick for the material, as the focus is less on what's happened to the group as a whole and more on Hathaway and Wilson investigating one another. Otherwise, the vibe I'm getting here is the one I had from 2004's The Forgotten: it has just enough of a hook to get me to watch it, but I doubt that the pay-off will live up to it.

What do you guys think? Will September's Lakeview Terrace and October's Rachel Getting Married satisfy your Wilson and Hathaway jones, respectively? And facing this Halloween's mainstream horror fare, is Sony, under the Tri-Star banner, about to dump this in a limited amount of theaters as they had with, say, Wind Chill, which just happened to star Prada pal Emily Blunt?

Just one week after news surfaced that the big-screen Voltron was going into turnaround with Fox's Relativity Media, Latino Review is now reporting that Max Makowski has been signed to direct the live-action update. Now I know what you are thinking: 'Who the heck is Max Makowski?' Well, he might not be a household name, but according to Latino's sources "he's actually a great choice." Well, I guess we will have to take their word for it, because Makowski has a pretty scant list of credits to his name. The Brazilian born writer-director has been hired to direct an update of the 70's TV series Kung-Fu, along with penning the update to Hawaii Five-O.

Voltron has been languishing over at Fox since 2005, and other than a few rumblings about Justin Marks' script, the project seemed to have stalled. Marks' take is described as "a post-apocalyptic tale set in New York City and Mexico. Five ragtag survivors of an alien attack band together and end up piloting the five lion-shaped robots that combine and form the massive sword-wielding Voltron that helps battle Earth's invaders." But now that Relativity has finally secured the rights to the big-guy, I guess all the loose ends have been tied up. Besides, what's one more giant robot movie to add to the pile?

So if you are a hard-core Voltron fan with nothing but contempt for a live action version, at least you can take solace in the fact that nothing has been confirmed -- but you might want to get used to the idea of an 'MTV generation' Pidge now.

I haven't quite processed the notion of a Poltergeist remake just yet -- it still seems more conceptual than actual to me. Yet the fact that they've picked a pair of screenwriters, and that the late Heather O'Rourke has condemned the remake from the grave, tell me that it's about as actual as it gets. Now Bloody-Disgusting has started a rumor that Vadim Perelman -- quasi-arthouse director of House of Sand and Fog and The Life Before Her Eyes -- is in "heavy talks" to direct the new movie. That would be a heck of a contrast to the screenwriters of Boogeyman.

I'm as down on this project as everyone else -- the original film is a moment in time that ought not be disturbed -- but I like the idea of Perelman, mostly because I like the notion of otherwise "respectable" directors trying their hand at genre films. His brooding, portentous style might be a good fit for Poltergeist, I guess. And maybe this will wind up like the doomed adaptation of The Talisman, to which Perelman was attached for a while (and which he seems far better suited to), never making it past the development stage.

Anyway, I emphasize that I'm commenting on a rumor, not relaying hard news. Make of it what you will.

I feel like I have this long checklist of cast and crew that we're slowly crossing off for this theoretical film. Now, you can put Bryce Dallas Howard on the "would sign tomorrow" list, thanks to MTV. "I would love to be apart of any continuation of the franchise. But, I also really understand that there's so many different story lines that the fans are really excited to see, and the studio, and the producers, and the filmmakers really need to appease everyone," the actress said. "Whether or not Gwen Stacy comes back, I mean, I wish it was up to me, but it's not. But yes, if they'd call me, I'd be there in a heart beat."

I'm not sure how they can really fit Gwen Stacy in -- is there a point in having a romantic rival when Spider-Man is never ever going to leave Mary Jane onscreen? I remember when we all thought (or maybe it was just my corner of the Internet) that they would reverse comic book history, and kill off Mary Jane and hook Mr. Parker up with Gwen. (If House of M is to be believed, and it probably isn't, that's who he really wanted anyway.) Is there even any emotional impact if they kill off Captain George Stacy in a fourth film, as James Cromwell once said they planned on doing? Is the subplot of "I'm really sorry your dad died, my one-time love interest" really worth exploring? I could probably think more clearly if I could get the breakdancing scene out of my head.

Of course, this is all idle speculation when no official announcements have been made. And as for Sam Raimi he's now playing coy with MTV about returning to the director's chair, and says he wants to wear the Spidey suit instead. That's one way to cut the budget.

It's not too hard to find some super-sympathetic villains right now. You can travel the Internet waves and check out Dr. Horrible, or head to toon town and watch The Monarch and the other Guild of Calamitous Intent members in Venture Brothers. You can see dudes sending in applications to the evil organizations, bad guys storm the wrong building, and even crappy reassignments that suck one's loathing hatred out of their job. These incarnations are great, addictive pieces of fun.

Could the same be said of Ben Stiller's forays into the fold? (*cough* Mystery Men) Not really. But would it help with Robert Downey Jr. and Tina Fey? Entertainment Weekly posts that both actors are looking into joining Stiller's animated villain film, Master Mind. (Christopher blogged about it here, last year.) The premise is simple. A villain accidentally kills the guy he's arching, and loses his will to live.

Having these two voices certainly sweetens the pot, but as we've learned after many years of disappointment -- amazing casts don't necessarily make even decent movies. It all comes down to the script (written by Alan Schoolcraft and Brent Simons), and Stiller's involvement. We'll have to wait and see.

Note: EW says that Cameron Hood and Kyle Jefferson are still on to direct, but Moviehole talked to a Dreamworks source who said that they left the project months ago. IMDb, meanwhile, says it's Gary Trousdale.

You have to feel bad for the Silver Surfer. Everyone else is getting their own spin-off and franchise, and he can't even get the green-light. J. Michael Straczynski already said that his script was dead, but rumors continued to swirl that Alex Proyas was attached to direct.

But as reported by Slashfilm, Proyas shot that down at ComicCon. He didn't even know where the rumor originated. And while he's very fond of the character, he told MTV this week that he will never even consider directing a Silver Surfer movie. Why? "Because it's a Fox picture. And I'm determined never to work with them ever again because of my experience on I,Robot." Nor is he happy with the way the character was handled in Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer. "It's like the origin of Silver Surfer was in that movie, and I'm going, 'This is such a f–king great story, why throw it away? I think they messed it up ... Silver Surfer would have been something I would have loved to have done. He's one of the last cool ones left, really."

Who knows -- maybe Fox will relinquish the rights to the Fantastic Four characters (it's not like they're using them), and Proyas will not only get to direct a comic book movie, but fans will get a Silver Surfer movie from someone who really gets the character. But with all the studios jealously guarding their franchises, we'll probably see a Fantastic Four reboot before we see the Silver Surfer in the hands of someone that cares.

Back in early July, we made mention of the fact that Bryan Bertino, writer/director of The Strangers, had at least two projects going on at Rogue Pictures since he ended up giving them a good ol' summer sleeper success story, the grosses for which inevitably prompted talk of a possible sequel.

Well, Variety now tells us that there surely will be a second Strangers, and that Bertino is returning to write (if not direct) it, with a certain star standing to return as well (profitable as the film may have been, I'd rather not risk spoilers, so don't bother clicking on either that Variety link or the 'certain star' one if you've yet to see the film -- after all, it doesn't open in the UK 'til tomorrow).

I felt that The Strangers milked enough tension out of a somewhat sparse premise to merit a watch, but I'm that much more concerned about how redundant or ridiculous a second one would have to be in order to follow it up. The point remains that, if they make it, I will watch it, and so will plenty of others. Let's face it: There are more vicious cycles operating in the world today.