I love a good independent movie as much as the next girl, but I generally only get to maybe two or three a year, and I live in a neighborhood with at least three indie theaters. But with Sundance coming up, some indie movies are about to get the most press they'll see all year. The lineup for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival is rolling out, and the festival, entering its 25th year, has announced the 64 films that will be entered into competition (of the 118 feature-length films that will premiere there). 3,661 films were submitted to the festival, so if you compare the indie fest to the world of major motion picture releases for a year, you've got to figure at least five of the indies will probably be really good. Being that the festival is Robert Redford's baby, I'll actually take the over on that one.

If you've never heard of the new Michael Cera comedy Paper Hearts, you're certainly not alone. The indie film, which will debut at the Sundance Film Festival, has gone under the radar almost everywhere -- you won't find it on movie databases, and despite the fact that it stars Cera and a host of other talent from Judd Apatow's stable, the film is going to Sundance looking for a distributor. Because of those factors, of course, the semi-secret film has already garnered pretty high expectations. The project is described as being part documentary, part scripted comedy about the real-life relationship between Cera and his girlfriend Charlyne Yi (who played the pigtailed stoner girl in Knocked Up) in which music plays a key element.

There's something fantastic going on at the Sitges International Film Festival of Catalonia this week. According to Variety, directors at Sitges are debuting previews for nonexistent movies. The faux trailers are part of a competition that launched last month at Teaserland.com. Would-be directors have entered the race, as have more seasoned pros who've submitted trailers for sequels of some of their previous movies. The previous movies exist; the sequels don't.

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.

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?

TWoP writer Djb went to the Toronto International Film Festival this week and chose ten films to see out of the 300 that were playing, based on whether he thought he'd ever get the chance to see them again on the big screen. One of them was Canada's first stop-motion animation movie. One was a documentary about the world's biggest Chinese restaurant. One of them starred Jean-Claude Van Damme. And these were just the ones he liked! Check out his full report over in Mondo Extras!

If you weren't one of the people who was totally befuddled by The Fountain, then you're probably waiting with bated breath for director Darren Aronofsky's next picture. Pi and Requiem for a Dream established Aronofsky as a major talent, and his next picture -- with its combination of mainstream subject matter, amazingly talented actors and Marisa Tomei stripping -- is sure to take the country by storm. That's probably why Fox Searchlight outbid all comers at the Toronto International Film Festival for the rights to distribute The Wrestler, which only last week won the Golden Lion in Venice. (Man, I wish I had a gold lion.)

Venice is sinking, and this time the rising tides aren't to blame. This time, the decline has to do with the 65th Venice Film Festival, which, according to The Hollywood Reporter, is suffering from subpar business, high prices and a "relative lack of red carpet star power." Somewhere in the distance, Brad Pitt is saying to a journalist: "What am I? Chopped liver? I saved a kid from the canal the other day!" Or maybe he would be saying it, if he were giving interviews beyond the obligatory 30-minute press conference he and co-star George Clooney gave for the Coen brothers' Burn After Reading.

The Venice Film festival (that's the Venice in Italy, if you didn't know) is the world's oldest film festival, and it got underway yesterday for the 65th time. Emceed by Russian actress Ksenia Rappoport, known in Italy for her turn in the film The Unknown, the opening day of the fest featured an afternoon screening of Vittorio De Sica's 1948 classic The Bicycle Thief. But no one really gives a damn about any of that crap, because George Clooney and Brad Pitt were there, omigod!