Blade Runner is one of the coolest movies ever, so it was with some trepidation that I read /Film's report about the possibility of a sequel. On the up side, at least my instantaneous reflexes of fear and empathy for other fans of the movie prove I'm not a replicant. On the down side, it means I'll probably never get my hair to look all retro-futuristic like Rachael's. But on to the much more important matter at hand: It appears that one of the Eagle Eye co-writers is penning a script for a follow-up to the 1982 movie adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novel about a man who hunts rogue androids, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? At this point, /Film is careful to note that Travis Wright is not writing this with any studio's involvement at this point. One might even say Wright being something of a rogue himself.

As Odie Henderson pointed out recently, Spike Lee seems to have a thing for getting into fights. According to Variety, Lee's Miracle at St. Anna is being derided "as mispresentation of the facts" by Italian veteran organizations after a press screening yesterday in Rome. Lee didn't really start the latest skirmish, but he's not exactly being Mr. Diplomat about things, either. He responded by telling those critical of his film: "I am not apologizing for anything. I think these questions are evidence that there is still a lot about your history during the war that you [Italians] have got to come to grips with." Pretty much the best way to make sure people don't come to grips with something is by telling them to come to grips with something. It's like telling an angry person to calm down. Does that ever work?

Just in case you're not reading our DVDs Unwrapped blog, we thought we'd clue you in on the latest DVDs we've gotten the chance to review. They're not all the greatest movies, but some of the extras actually make the DVD worth renting. (Note: If you're looking for Blu-ray reviews, go to a Website with deeper pockets. What are we, made out of money?)

Earlier this month, Das Gamer posted an interview in which director John Moore bemoaned the fact that the Motion Picture Association of America gave his Max Payne an R rating. Normally, this wouldn't be surprising, as the video games on which the movie is based earned "Mature" ratings from the ESRB, the gaming world's equivalent of an R movie. But the news did surprise Moore, who not only aimed for a tamer rating while filming, but saw The Dark Knight's PG-13 and expected to earn the same for his own movie. The association's reasoning, according to Moore, was that it "felt dark." Well, what a difference a few weeks makes. Game Daily is now reporting that Moore has won his battle with the MPAA and gotten Payne its PG-13.

Now that The Dark Knight has dropped out of the Top Ten at the box office (after 11 weeks!), it's probably on its way out of the theaters -- not counting, of course, Warner Brothers' plans to re-release it during Oscar season next year. But for those who just want to be able to play it on a constant loop in their homes, the DVD and Blu-Ray will both be out on December 9th, just in time for you to buy it for yourself for Christmas, thereby putting to rest the annual question of what you'll get yourself instead of buying something for your Aunt Selma.

There have been many rumors about who would play Robin Hood in Ridley Scott's upcoming Nottingham. Scott needed someone who could match wits with Russell Crowe as the Sheriff of Nottingham, and the latest rumor is that Scott finally found someone who fits the bill: Russell Crowe. [I haven't seen casting that inspired since Jean-Claude Van Damme played twins in Double Impact! - Zach]

Scarlett Johansson, 23, and Ryan Reynolds, 31, wed secretly over the weekend in British Columbia (Reynolds is from Vancouver). Apparently, Johansson decided to define "not rushing into it" as a little more than a month, since she said in early August that she's only 23 and "There's no reason to rush into it," adding that "we're just taking it easy. And no big plan yet." Then again, it was a SECRET wedding (there has been no confirmation of the actual wedding location, for instance), so maybe that was part of her diversion tactic.

When you think of the upcoming Thor movie from Marvel, the first director that comes to mind is probably not someone best known for his Shakespeare adaptations, right? But that's exactly who might end up with the job, since Kenneth Branagh is in talks to direct the movie. Not that Shakespeare can't be a big-old action film (after all, Branagh's own Henry V was plenty action-packed and bloody) and big-old action films can't be Shakespearean. But it's not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of part of the Avengers, of which Iron Man is a part. And Iron Man is awesome and everything, but definitely not Shakespearean. He's too futuristic, and he's a superhero in a suit and all of that. Not exactly Shakespeare's specialty.

Paul Newman died on Friday, and the whole world mourned. There isn't much to say about Paul Newman that hasn't been said already, and better. Well, there is actually probably a great deal more to say, but it's hard to find the words, or the means, to sum up the man. I use the word "man" here because he was so much more than an actor, even though he was one of the best of his time. But "actor" is too small -- and, frankly, unimportant -- compared with what he did with his life. He was a family man, a race car driver, and a philanthropist.

Shia LaBeouf and Eagle Eye helped pull the movies out of the blues they've been in for a number of weeks (remember three weeks ago, when the No. 1 movie made $7.8 million?) with a $29.2 million opening weekend. It was not only good enough for the top spot at the box office, but also good enough to make it the No. 4 September opening of all time. That's mildly impressive -- though only mildly, considering one of the movies ahead of it is The Exorcism of Emily Rose, not exactly a masterpiece.

Monty Python's The Life of Brian was banned for a year in Norway after its release in 1979, and in Ireland for eight years. But that's nothing compared to the comedy drought suffered in Torbay. According to The Guardian, the area of England known as the English Riviera banned the movie when it was released and hasn't shown it publicly since. That is, until now. Nearly 30 years after it got the cold shoulder from Torbay, Brian will be screened as part of a comedy film festival -- and in the grounds of a former abbey, no less. Seems fitting for a movie that was once met with many protests for its "blasphemous" take on faith.

Here at the Moviefile, we have a whole category just for remakes, reboots, and "reimaginings"--and it's stuffed pretty full. From Fame to Robocop and everything in between, there's a bountiful crop of reworked properties. As "old hat" as it can be to those of us with long enough memories (or long enough Netflix queues) to remember the originals, remaking the movies of yesteryear can make good financial sense for studios. A remake from a 20- or 30-year-old property can draw in brand-new young audiences, as well as the nostalgic viewers of the originals. For example, 24 years passed before Bedtime Story was remade as Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and now that another 20 years have passed, they're remaking the remake. But now Hammer Films and Overture Films are bucking the trend by remaking a movie that hasn't even been officially released yet. Talk about the Hammer striking while the iron is hot.

This week, Lucasfilm announced the features for the DVD and Blu-ray releases of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. To satisfy everybody, there will be a one-disc, no-frills DVD version as well as a two-disc Special Edition, plus a Complete Adventure Collection, with the Special Edition plus the first three Indy movies. (Sadly, they do not come in a badly dented refrigerator.) And if you're wondering if the Special Edition is worth it, you might want to check out the massive list of extras you get with it before you decide. (Or maybe watch the movie again. You don't want to buy it, then suddenly remember the scene where Shia LaBeouf swings with the monkeys.)

Remember that movie that came out last year, where Will Smith was the last man in Manhattan, and he fought vampires? Well, it did really well -- $584 million well, in fact -- so Warner Bros. has commissioned a prequel with Smith and returning director Francis Lawrence, according to Variety. (If you've seen the movie, you know why Smith can't be in a sequel.) The script, which is being developed now, will focus on the final days of mankind in New York as the virus sweeps through, turning everyone but Smith into a cannibal mutant. Although we were shown the sealing off of the island in flashback in the first movie, we didn't see what happened to all of the people who were left, or how Smith came to create his brownstone fortress. But my biggest concern is this: What the hell are they going to call it? I came up with a few ideas, but some of them have already been used for other projects.

At Wednesday's Walt Disney Studios Showcase, the Mouse announced a ton of new projects, most of them starring Johnny Depp. Not only will the actor definitely be playing the Mad Hatter in director Tim Burton's motion-capture CGI Alice in Wonderland (as rumored back in July), he'll also be returning as Jack Sparrow for yet another Pirates of the Caribbean movie (that's four now, for those of you not counting at home). What are they going to call this one, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Successful and Still Mildly Enjoyable Franchise?

Damn it all, Nicholas Sparks! I told myself if I cried at your eighteen-hanky tearjerk bonanza I would shoot myself in the face. Well consider me dead, mkah? The lesson I learned the hard way is that you don't go into a movie like Nights in Rodanthe expecting it to be anything other than what it is -- a sappy, sad-sack chick-flick that'll have you weeping by the time the credits roll. Writer Nicholas Sparks might very well be the master of this particular strain of movie, something I dubbed the SPOILER ALERT "bone-n-croak" because there's a love story, the requisite "romantic" love scene involving a painfully slow disrobing sequence and some sort of tragic(-ish) death. If you've seen of Sparks' other works (A Walk to [sob!] Remember, The Notebook), you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Well, it's been a while since I talked about the Witchblade movie, so I thought I'd jump back in with a crazy Witchblade sandwich. No, not the kind with Witchblade in the middle (although those are tasty), but the kind with Witchblade as one piece of bread and her aquatic, equally scantily-clad comic-book counterpart Fathom as the other piece of bread. In the middle? Megan Fox. Now, that sounds like a delicious sandwich. Anyway, Megan Fox has been linked to both roles in two months, and I just thought I'd let you know so all of the Megan Fox fans can start picturing her in skimpy outfits. ...Because I highly doubt anyone was doing that already.

When Hollywood movies get made into Broadway musicals, it's not necessarily a bad thing -- that is, of course, unless you consider any Broadway musical to be a "bad thing." They certainly make money, and ever since The Producers blew up, movie-based musicals like Legally Blonde, Young Frankenstein and Spam-A-Lot have played to packed houses. Hell, even Evil Dead has enjoyed a long, successful run at its Toronto theatre and on tour. Recently, we reported on the proposed 9 to 5 musical, but that seems almost logical next to the latest news. Not only is the rumored Spider-Man musical still actually happening, but there's going to be an American Psycho musical, as well. Be still, my pulsating, gore-dripping heart.

Universal Pictures set sail this morning, armed the harpoon guns, and took aim at a classic. According to Variety, the prey was Herman Melville's Moby Dick, which Universal will film as a "reimagining" with director Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted) and scribes Adam Cooper and Bill Collage. The writers "revere Melville's original text, but their graphic novel-style version will change the structure." Cooper calls it the original "action-adventure revenge story," for which they will get to "capitalize on the advances in visual effects". According to the report, "Ahab will be depicted more as a charismatic leader than a brooding obsessive." At this point, poor dead Herman Melville crawls out of his plot at Woodlawn Cemetery and is about to capitalize on the advances in Google to look up the offices of Universal Pictures.

We here at the Moviefile been following the Fox vs. Warner Bros. Watchmen legal drama for the last few weeks, holding our collective breath and hoping the March 2009 release date doesn't get pushed back. Or wiped off the calendar completely. Zach was waiting for a "massive, shocking resolution to this conflict" -- I don't know how much of a resolution this is yet, and I don't know if it's massive or shocking, but Comic Book Resources has reported on a pretty surprising development. According to the exclusive, Fox doesn't want to scuttle the project, or make its own Watchmen movie, or even to "[hold] up a rival". As it turns out, what Fox reportedly wants is... the 1960s Batman TV series. See, I told you it was surprising.

Nicolas Cage is a busy man -- very busy. He's got 10 films slated for release over the next couple of years. While I'll readily admit to anyone that I enjoy quite a few of Cage's pre-1990 movies, I'm hard-pressed to come up with an explanation as to why he's gotten so much work since then. There have been a couple of good performances in the nearly 20 intervening years, but there have also been those so wooden that I thought he would turn out to be the titular character in 2006's The Wicker Man. Well, add film #11 to the slate: Variety reports that Cage is set to star as a 14th century knight transporting a suspected witch in Relativity Media's Season of the Witch. Did a real-life witch lose a bet or something?

Seth Rogen just got a few inches closer to donning the Green Hornet costume. No, I'm not talking about his dramatic weight loss, I'm talking about the fact that they've lined up a director for his millionaire-superhero movie and a guy to play his chauffeur/sidekick, Kato! And, in a twist that perhaps nobody saw coming, they're the same dude. Stephen Chow, director/star of Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle is going to step into the role made famous by Bruce Lee and direct his first English-language film, both at the same time. Speaking of kung-fu hustles...

Samuel L. Jackson's creeptastic performance was enough to put Lakeview Terrace on top at the box office for its opening weekend. It took in $15.6 million on 2,464 screens, and it was the only one of four new movies in wide release that managed to beat Burn After Reading, which held tight in the second spot with another $11.295 million in its second week.

Did you know that Sherlock Holmes never said "Elementary, my dear Watson" in any of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's written works? The line pops up in movies, but the exact phrasing never shows up in the original stories. Why am I bringing this up? No reason, except that I just wanted to. In actual news, Variety is reporting that Jude Law is in talks to play Dr. John Watson to Robert Downey Jr.'s Baker Street detective in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes. This will be a dramatic tale, not to be confused with the Judd Apatow-produced comedy starring Sacha Baron Cohen as Sherlock and Will Ferrell as sidekick Watson. My first thought is, "Man, the movie theaters are going to be chock full of Sherlocks." My second thought is, "I kind of wish Law and Ferrell would switch places."

Whether or not you've read the children's book it's based on, you're probably as curious as I am to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, the upcoming animated film from Sony. I mean, come on -- it's a movie about food falling from the sky! Even if you don't consider the more horrific aspects of what that implies, it's something that's never been seen on film before -- although Adam Sandler's new movie Bedtime Stories apparently features a hail of gumballs. But does it feature as amazing a cast as Cloudy?

So many bad movies coming out this week, so little time. Find out what's actually worth the effort and get caught up on more MWoP happenings you may have missed this week.

Find out which movies made our list of the 10 Stupidest Ghost Movies of All Time.

Read our review of the new film Lakeview Terrace and then browse the homeowner's guide for the community.

We haven't seen My Best Friends Girl but we've got a hunch that it's terrible.

Looking for a DVD rental? Maybe you should check out our review of Baby Mama before you update your Netflix queue.

What do Steven Seagal and