I don't think anyone would call Guillermo del Toro a fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants kind of guy. He's definitely a planner. So much of one, in fact, that his professional calendar is booked through 2017. Currently -- and for the next five years -- knee-deep in The Hobbit, del Toro signed a three-year first-look deal with Universal in June of last year that will pick up after the epic New Line/Miramax project is finished.

When watching movie trailers, audiences are usually so entranced by the images they're shown that few people think about the voice that's telling them what the movie's about. Of course, if the voice is doing its job right, you don't have to think about it; only a bad voice-over jars you out of the scenes you're watching. A good voice-over will make you think some omnipotent deity is inside your head, filling you in on the details, and more often than not, Don LaFontaine was that omnipotent deity. Sadly, he passed away on September 1, which means he just got a lot more omnipotent, and one step closer to deification.

Watchmen Court Case Update! The date for the trial to determine the fate of Warner Bros.' Watchmen movie will take place on January 6, according to The Hollywood Reporter. That's exactly two months before the movie is currently scheduled to come out, and Warner has yet to change the date. The timing is fortuitous, considering that both studios were originally requesting movie-scuttling spring and summer dates, but Warner may still choose to push back the release date -- or have the choice made for them. While the judge in the case refused to block the film's release at this early stage, Fox may request an injunction after the discovery phase, where evidence and documents are shared. Or something. This is all really over my head, and I'm kind of waiting for a massive, shocking resolution to this conflict. Hmm... What would Ozymandias do?

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.

Some people look to movie stars for tips about the latest starvation diet secrets or how to properly maintain one's hair extensions. Some may look to directors for insight about how to handle long work hours, or how to manage the egos of our bosses and coworkers. But they have other advice to offer, advice we can put to use in our own lives in very practical ways. Or at least we can mock it a little. First up is advice from writer/director/"actor" M. Night Shyamalan. According to MTV, the worst advice actor Mark Wahlberg ever got was from Shyamalan. Are you shocked? Neither am I.

Although in many parts of the country it's still sweatier than a sumo wrestler in a sauna, the U.S. summer box office will be wrapping up the season as we head into Labor Day weekend. How did things go over the last few months? Better than expected, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Going into this weekend, "Nielsen EDI data showed domestic tallies of $3.96 billion that are sure to rise to beyond $4 billion by the Monday holiday." The box office was surprisingly strong "thanks to unsurprisingly robust sequels and a shockingly lucrative performance by the latest installment in a 19-year-old superhero franchise." The latter refers, of course, to The Dark Knight, although I have to wonder why its success is considered so shocking. Was anyone expecting, say, Meet Dave to siphon off some of the Bat's profits?

Not one day after our own Odie Henderson demanded that the movie-going world stop laughing at on-screen penises, Kevin Smith has promised full-frontal male nudity in his newest comedy, Zack and Miri Make a Porno. In an interview with MTV, Smith admitted that Jason Mewes would let it all hang out in what he called "a comedically drawn caricature of not just sex, but porno sex." Not 24 hours have passed, and he's already setting the movement back. Sorry, Odie.

One way that people rob something they fear of its power is by making fun of it. It's the basic tenet of propaganda and political campaigns, and I've always thought it also applied to the MPAA's treatment of nudity in the movies of late. For example, if a man shows his butt, the MPAA rates it PG-13; hell, Rob Schneider has made a career out of showing the place he pulls his movie ideas out of. But show a woman's ass and BAM!! Rated R! My explanation is that you can mine comedic potential from a guy's ass. I mean, it's where farts come from, and farts are funny!

A title says a lot about a movie. It's often the first thing a potential viewer learns about a project. Long before the actors are cast or a director is even attached, just hearing a title can make us salivate in anticipation or gurgle in dread. I, for example, will rarely ever see a movie with the word "movie" in the title. (I'm looking at you, Disaster Movie. Or, rather, I'm not looking at you.) Two titles are causing something of a stir for Warner Bros. today.

Babylon A.D. is terrible. That's not my opinion -- it's the opinion of one Mathieu Kassovitz. If the name doesn't immediately ring a bell, he's the director responsible for Crimson Rivers and Gothika. [He also acted in Amelie! - Zach] Oh, and he also directed the terrible movie in question. It's not often you hear a director badmouthing his own movie, but Kassovitz has more venom to spew than the Reptile House at the San Diego Zoo. He tells the AMCtv.com blog that he's "'very unhappy with the film.'" He goes on to talk about a script that wasn't respected by producers and partners. "'It was a terrible experience.'"