From the man that brought you Casualties of War, Redacted and The Black Dahlia, comes the next feel-good movie of the year. Brian De Palma has just signed on to direct The Boston Stranglers, a thriller that will follow the Boston killings of the early '60s and their still-controversial resolutions. Says The Hollywood Reporter, "The Strangler case continues to stir debate. Many question whether Albert DeSalvo -- a publicity hound who confessed to the murders and was later stabbed to death while incarcerated on unrelated charges -- was the actual killer." A point which, with the title's obvious "s" after "Strangler," the film is sure to explore. [I smell a Jean-Claude Van Damme Double Impact-style plot twist. - Z]

From deities to entire countries, Sharon Stone can't seem to stop pissing people off. Her recent comments intimating that the Chinese government's "bad karma" may have resulted in the catastrophic earthquakes that have recently plagued the region angered a lot of people. Now those comments seem to have gotten her uninvited to some of the few places she's still welcome: Foreign film festivals. A spokesman for the Shanghai Film Festival, a place where just last year Stone sashayed down the red carpet (in a supremely fugly misshapen dress, I might add), sent the 50 year-old actress an angry letter demanding an apology and letting her know that she would not be welcome back anytime soon.

So we all heard about the spate of Iron Man and Avengers-related films that Marvel is putting into development in the wake of Iron Man's success. But it seems like Shellhead's big box office has done more than that. As a long-time Iron Man fan, and a pretty big comic book reader, I had no idea that Iron Man was considered second-tier. But apparently, he was a huge gamble compared to known superheroes like Spider-Man, Hulk, Batman, Superman and, uh, Ghost Rider. (Okay, I guess they're all pretty big players, but Blade was totally second-tier, and didn't he do pretty well, considering he got two sequels? But I digress.) Anyway, because a no-name superhero like Iron Man did well, B-list heroes are getting booked for big-screen endeavors in a big way.

Guy Ritchie, director of Snatch and wife -- sorry, husband of Madonna, will be directing an adaptation of a new Sherlock Holmes comic, featuring a reimagined, "more adventuresome and less stuffy" version of the detective than has been previously seen on film. Which means it could very well be closer to the original original Sherlock Holmes stories -- he's kind of a badass in them. I wonder if anybody in Hollywood has read them...

I must be a glutton for punishment. Despite not liking the first Transformers movie (although I like this one), I am desperate for new information about the sequel. Maybe it's because I used to work in the toy industry, or maybe it's because I subconsciously liked it on some level. No, that second one is too horrible to contemplate. Let's say it's entirely professional curiosity. It will help me sleep at night.

Jason Statham certainly has been staying busy lately. He just wrapped up filming on Paul W.S. Anderson's Death Race and a third Transporter movie, he's currently working on a Crank sequel (which, regrettably, is not called Crankier), and The Brazilian Job is finally set to begin production. The latter is not the story of an extreme crotch wax gone horribly wrong, but a long talked-about sequel to 2003's The Italian Job. Lucky they're finally getting on with that; if they'd waited a few more years his character "Handsome Rob" might have had to change his nickname to "Aging Rob." All in all, it's not a bad time to be Jason Statham.

In an article in this week's Entertainment Weekly Chris Nashawaty says loud and proud, "I hate superheroes" -- or, to be more specific, superhero movies. His opinion is that there are too many of them, that they're all the same and that they're ruining the summer blockbuster season, apparently by forcing non-superhero movies to go elsewhere, or not get made at all. If Chris wrote this article in an attempt to find his nemesis, like Samuel Jackson trying to find Bruce Willis in Unbreakable, well then, Chris, you've found me.

With all the new horror flicks in various stages of production, it's like an all-you-can-eat buffet for scary movie fans. But if you gorge on all the grisly offerings, are you going to feel sick to your stomach? Or will you be ready for another heaping serving in an hour or two? Here, then, are two more additions to the macabre menu to help you plan out your horror dining experience.

Peanut butter and chocolate. Smoking jackets and elderly playboys. Tim Burton and Johnny Depp. What do these pairs have in common? Each half goes so well and so often with its companion that their combination seems not only natural, but expected. Add the pairing of "vampires and soap operas" to that list as Depp and Burton team up once again, this time to bring Dark Shadows to the big screen, according to a report at IESB.