Less than three months ago, Eugene told us George Lucas was hinting that his Indiana Jones franchise might continue on with Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf) as the main character and that Indy (Harrison Ford) would be more of a secondary figure. But MTV Movies Blog now reports that Lucas has had a change of mind and instead plans to make a fifth installment with our beloved hero still in the lead. During promotions for the new Star Wars: Clone Wars movie, he apparently stated that, "Indiana Jones is Indiana Jones. Harrison Ford IS Indiana Jones. If it was Mutt Williams it would be 'Mutt Williams and the Search for Elvis' or something."

Could it be, as MTV suggests, that due to fans' dissatisfaction with Mutt and/or due to LaBeouf's problems with the law that Lucas no longer sees the character as a viable investment? Or did he merely come to his senses about how much more money the movie would make with Ford starring? Lucas says that "Indy 5" is still only an idea but that people are researching possible artifacts to base the movie around. Personally, I don't care what kind of MacGuffin is used, so long as the Nazis are the villains again. The commies in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull just didn't do it for me. I know the temporal setting can't be WWII anymore, but Indy could always head back into South America and battle the Nazis who escaped to Argentina and Brazil and elsewhere.

As Hollywood is not an industry known for letting chick-lit properties slip through its proverbial fingertips, it should come as little surprise that the yay-for-life bestseller "Eat, Pray, Love" -- a memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert about her quest for peace in those three forms following her divorce -- is being indeed developed into a movie by Paramount, with Julia Roberts attached to star and a 2010 release date as rumored by the good ol' IMDb.

What's of arguably greater interest in this Hollywood Reporter piece is the fact that Warner Bros. has already snatched up rights to comedian Andrew Gottlieb's riff on the memoir, titled "Eat, Play, F*ck". The novel, to be published early next year, follows a man from Ireland to Vegas to Thailand as he seeks similar solace once his wife leaves him.

On the one hand, I'm all for snark, especially in response to such pre-programmed feel-good fare. On the other, this seems like a flash-in-the-pan proposition, unless "Love" hits it big and "F*ck" follows fairly soon after (ain't that usually how it goes?).

What say you, readers, about either project? I fully expect the typical fan defenses to crop up, but did any woman out there read that book and happen to be unimpressed? How about any guys who picked it up and couldn't put it down? Let's mix things up here, people!

A lot of us totally lost it while watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull when our hero hides inside of a refrigerator and survives government testing of a nuclear bomb. Some people went so far as to coin a new term, "nuke the fridge", which is akin to the now-well-known "jump the shark" term, only specifically for film series. It makes sense, though, that they'd be having even bigger issues with the scene over in Japan, where the movie opened mid-June. After all, the country did experience two atomic attacks at the end of WWII and probably understands the ramifications of such a blast better than any other part of the world.

According to the website Japan Today, film critics Ken Terawaki and Hiroo Otaka have been the most outspoken. Otaka wrote against the use of the scene in the movie magazine Kinema Junpo, noting that the scene narratively serves no real purpose and complaining that Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) goes about his adventures unscathed. He also points out that children today -- in both Japan and the U.S. -- are unaware of the real damage caused by a nuclear blast. Other people have been expressing their disapproval on message boards, including one on the film's Japanese website. Not everyone is upset, however, and apparently some people are coming back with the "it's only a movie" retort.

Just to be accommodating, I think Steven Spielberg should include the short documentary Hiroshima Nagasaki August, 1945, which graphically shows the effects of at least an atomic bomb, as a supplement on the Japanese version of the DVD.

[via Fark.com]

Winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Stefan Ruzowitzky's The Counterfeiters tells the true story of a Nazi plot to flood the US and UK with forged currency, using concentration camp prisoners to do the dirty deeds. Christopher Campbell thought it was "not quite a great film," while Kim Voynar wrote: "At its core, this is a film about courage and morality." Critical consensus overall was 94% positive, according to Rotten Tomatoes. The DVD includes an audio commentary by the director, deleted scenes, a "making of," interviews, and more. The film is also available on Blu-ray.

Set some two decades after the events in The Counterfeiters, the much lighter, sentimental My Brother is an Only Child "follows two brothers through years of Italian history," wrote James Rocchi. Though comparisons to the more ambitious and effective period family drama The Best of Youth might be inevitable, James said My Brother is still "a handsomely made, brightly charming pleasure in its own right." The DVD appears to be a bare-bones edition without any extras.

First broadcast on network television in November 1982, The Executioner's Song left a very strong impression on me. Career criminal Gary Gilmore (Tommy Lee Jones in a powerful performance) tries to go straight, taking up with young Nicole Baker (Rosanna Arquette in a startling, sexy, star-making role) before returning to crime and eventually killing two people in brutal fashion. Sentenced to die, Gilmore insisted on paying the ultimate penalty as speedily as possible.

Remember that preemptive purchase Paramount made last year for Christopher Reich's The Rules of Deception? Well, it seems that they were on the right track, because the book has now come out and seems to be doing quite well. And with that success, Variety reports that Adam Cozad has been hired to direct the screenplay. Cozad is just hitting the scene, having written the thriller Dubai, and currently penning an adaptation of The Brotherhood of the Rose, which he will finish before getting into Deception.

If you're not one of the readers grabbing the book off the shelves, the thriller centers on a doctor who loses his wife when she falls into a ravine in the Swiss Alps during a hike. While grieving over the loss, he gets a letter addressed to her, learning that "she wasn't who he thought she was and soon finds himself in the center of a mess that could result in nuclear war in the Middle East."

If this is your cup of tea, rejoice, because the studio and author want to make this a franchise -- Reich is currently penning the next installment.

Man, has this day brought us news of film-based video games aplenty -- one of which you can play for free right now and the rest of which some of you simply can't wait for.

But you'll have to. Wait, that is. They haven't made the darn things yet. Sheesh, hold your horses already.

Trade publication Variety tells us of these titles over the course of two separate articles. One piece points out Universal's plan to crank out several games based on their properties, but only names their highest-profile property at the moment: Wanted. If any of you have seen the film (and a $123 million gross would suggest as much), then you know just how well it should lend itself to the format, what with the bullet curving and knife fighting and Angelina Jolie ogling.

OK, I know what you're going to say before you even say it: "Dude, it's a big guy in a hockey mask. Don't exactly need a snapshot to envision a big guy in a hockey mask." And that's a fair comment, but I work for this blog and weekends are really slow so here we go:

Our first look at the new Jason Voorhees! A big bulky guy in torn clothes and a hockey mask: Yep! Snark aside, the big guy looks pretty solid. No silly changes or anything, although his NECK sure does look sort of extra-thick. It's the close-up shot of horror-dom's supreme stalker that the fans want to see, but I'm quite a bit more impressed by the "far off" shot. The lake is a grungy shade of green and the shadows are trickling through the forest quite creatively. Anyway, the new Jason will be played by Derek Mears, who's played more crazies, creeps and killers than just about anyone.

The pics come from a recent EW article that Erik covered right here, but it took the hardcore horror fans to get a bigger shot of the serial stalker. Expect a lot more Friday freakiness once Comic-Con starts next week. And if director Marcus Nispel can do as good as job as he did with the Texas Chainsaw remake, that'll be good enough for me. (Yes, I quite like the Chainsaw remake. A hell of a lot more than any of the TCM sequels, anyway.) The next Friday the 13th arrives in February of next year.

[ Thanks: BD.com ]

Yes, the horrifying idea is true. Spooky Dan over at Bloody-Disgusting.net sat down with Rob Cohen, ostensibly to chat about The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and a startling bombshell was dropped. Cohen revealed that Paramount has snagged the rights to the 1987 cult classic The Monster Squad, and plans on remaking it in fairly short order. Cohen is going to produce, but isn't interested in directing.

The Monster Squad is a delightful horror-comedy about a group of middle school students obsessed with Stephen King, werewolves, and vampires. In a tidy plot twist, Dracula suddenly appears in their calm suburb, calls forth a few familiar minions, and makes plans to take over the world at midnight. It's the movie that proved, once and for all, that Wolfman has "nards." After languishing in cultish obscurity (and imprisoned on VHS), the movie had a resurgence once all us children of the '80s came of age, and is now available in a wonderful DVD package.

All of this is why the flick ... doesn't need to be remade. It's the perfect product of the '80s, one of those snarky movies the decade was rich in. Obviously Paramount is thinking that its ongoing popularity makes it an instant hit; I'm sure they will lamely explain this as a way to introduce the movie to the younger generation. But that's why we have DVD. I can introduce it to my future children just fine, thanks.

I never thought I would live to see the day when my entire childhood was remade. Surely Space Camp and The Goonies can't be far behind. What does that leave? Only Flight of the Navigator and An American Tail. Surely, the latter is being tossed around. I mean, two-dimensional animation doesn't speak to today's youth. Make it stop, Hollywood! Make it stop!

It's official! According to Variety, the School of Rock band is getting back together. Jack Black is returning to reprise his role as Dewey Finn, Richard Linklater will be sitting in the director's chair again, and Mike White is writing the script. Talk of a sequel has been flying for weeks, so this really comes as no surprise.

In School of Rock 2: America Rocks, Finn will lead a group of summer school students on a cross-country field trip that delves into the history of rock and roll. Expect lots of cameos as the students study the roots of blues, rap, and country. I'm putting my money on B.B. King already and Snoop Dogg. Maybe Bono and Bruce Springsteen, too. (Actually, that would be pretty cool.)

I'm of two minds on this. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the first movie; in fact think it was probably the first Jack Black movie I actually liked. But does it really lend itself to a sequel? While it's encouraging that the entire team is coming back, we all know that's never a guarantee of comedic success. How many awesome comedy sequels can you name?

Plus, there was that whole story about White weeping as he wrote the script. I'm still weirded out by that. Barring a fiery schoolbus crash, or the children discovering that Britney Spears was allowed to cover the Rolling Stones, why would you shed tears? Hmm. I think my official position has shifted from lukewarm to DO NOT WANT. What about you?