News

Netflix has confirmed that 51 new original series, movies and specials will be debuting on the streaming service in September, including the second season of the Peabody-winning satire “American Vandal” and season 5 of “Bojack Horseman.”

And there will also be new to Netflix seasons of some of your favorites from other networks, including the seventh and final edition of “Once Upon a Time.” Likewise, there will be plenty of movies making their first Netflix appearances including the red-hot Oscar contender “Black Panther.”

Available September 1

10,000 B.C.

Another Cinderella Story

Assassins

August Rush

Bruce Almighty

Delirium

Fair Game

Groundhog Day

King Kong

La Catedral del Mar (Netflix Original)

Martian Child

Monkey Twins (Netflix Original)

Mr. Sunshine

Nacho Libre

Pearl Harbor

Scarface

Sisters (Netflix Original)

Spider-Man 3

Stephanie

Summer Catch

Sydney White

The Ant Bully

The Breakfast Club

The Cider House Rules

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

The Keeping Hours...

Summer is coming to an end, but that doesn’t mean the binge-watching has to stop.

A number of original series and popular movies are hitting Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime in September. New offerings on Netflix include the mega-hit “Black Panther,” along with the streaming giants’ new show “Maniac” with Emma Stone and Jonah Hill. Meanwhile, Amazon Prime is debuting “Forever,” which stars “Saturday Night Live” alums Fred Armisen and Maya Rudolph. Over on Hulu, Sarah Silverman’s “I Love You, America” will drop its second season.

And if you want to get ahead on a horror movie marathon before Halloween, there are also plenty of scary flicks that will be added throughout the month. “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning” is coming to Netflix, while both Amazon and Hulu will carry “The Amityville Horror” and “Jigsaw.”

Check out the full list of titles coming to Netflix, Hulu, and...

David Gerrold, the writer best known for his script for the Star Trek episode “The Trouble With Tribbles”, for creating the Sleestak race on the TV series Land of the Lost, and for his novelette “The Martian Child”, which won both Hugo and Nebula awards and was adapted into a 2007 film, contributes a guest column about the trainwreck that was Marvelous Nerd Year’s Eve. For more, read the coverage at The Beat.

I was an invited guest at the “Marvelous Nerd Year’s Eve” Comic-Con held in Dallas over New Year’s weekend.

Apparently, it was a disaster of biblical proportions. Not just dogs and cats living together, but suing each other for palimony and custody of the kittens.

The convention organizers over-promised, under-budgeted, over-extended, under-performed, and committed what I consider acts of “criminal incompetence.”

Why do I use the adjective “criminal?”

Because people were hurt. Not just by the incompetence,...

Pulp Comics!! God, I can’t believe I’m turning into that guy. The sad thing is that I am the proud owner of a trenchcoat that looks exactly like it came out of a detective novel. No, not a creepy Hot Topic black leather duster, I’m talking the real thing, as vintage as you can get without dropping a few grand. Definitely holding on to it in case trenchcoats come back in style. Or the apocalypse happens. Whichever comes first.

Also, I just noticed that, for the second time, I’m reviewing all #3 issues. I think it’s a good omen.

The Shadow: Midnight In Moscow #3

Writer: Howard Chaykin

Artist: Howard Chaykin

Colorist: Jesus Aburto

Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment

Price: $4 (Digital)

I’m pretty excited about a new announcement involving The Shadow. Interestingly, this new title is going down at Dark Horse Comics, rather than at Dynamite, the...

20th Century Fox

Every year in Hollywood, we hear the same story. Movie X becomes a giant box office smash, Movie Y winds up becoming a major flop. Regardless of whether or not the movie was a flop or a mega-hit, they all have one thing in common: they get talked about at the end of the year, for better or worse.

And then, there are the other movies. The forgotten ones. Think about it. They’re either sitting in the cold of some Redbox machine, trapped inside a dark Netflix warehouse, or they’re in the weird DVD section of a local drug store. Why does the drug store have a DVD section? They only sell five movies. Who are buying these movies? If you feel awkward when you’re buying a pack of condoms at a drug store, you can’t imagine the look on the cashier’s...

The titles just keep coming as we are now just over three weeks away from the start of the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival and they have gone and added 90 new feature length titles to the program and it's not as if they are titles you haven't heard of. New to the Galas selection is Guillaume Canet's Blood Ties which premiered at Cannes earlier this year (read my review here) and Words and Pictures starring Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche. In the Special Presentations selection you find the bulk of the more noted titles including Alex Gibney's new documentary The Armstrong Lie about cyclist Lance Armstrong, Johnnie To's Blind Detective which also premiered at Cannes, James Franco's Child of God based on the Cormac McCarthy novel, John Turturro's Fading Gigolo which features Woody Allen in one of the roles, Kevin Macdonald's How I Live Now...

Few actors draw us back like John Cusack – we can't get enough of that humble, sincere, over-articulate character he plays so well. So, Carole Cadwalladr asks the star of Say Anything and High Fidelity, why all the psychopaths?

Yesterday he was in Australia. Or was it tomorrow? John Cusack is confused. He's just returned from the Gold Coast, where he was filming his latest movie – Hard Drive, a heist thriller – and there's a brief interlude before he heads off again. Somewhere in between he saw the so-called "super moon", last week's fuller-than-normal full moon, but where?

"I was flying all day, so I saw it the second day," he says. "I was in the future, then I had to fly back to the past because I was a day ahead. It was day in Australia and then I flew all the way back, and it was daylight the entire time...

A Planet Fury-approved selection of notable genre releases for October.

Cinderella (1950) Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Blu-ray and DVD Available Now

The Walt Disney classic finally makes it high definition debut. Though it was made over half a century ago, Cinderella remains a timeless work of animation. Part of its lasting appeal can be attributed to the amazing concept art of Mary Blair, whose gorgeous backgrounds and unique color palettes help to define its iconic visual style. Though she was only credited with color and styling, her influence in the look and feel of the finished product cannot be denied. Another aspect that is often overlooked is the lovely vocal contribution by actress Ilene Woods. She brings a measured confidence to the beloved heroine and her singing voice is as gorgeous as the animation.

Special Features:

• Tangled Ever After Animated Short

• Behind the Magic: A New Disney Princess Fantasyland...

Christopher Rice, Jane Espenson, David Gerrold, Phil Jimenez, and Wendy Pini lead a stellar lineup of guests and speakers to Bent-Con 2012, the pop-culture con for gay fans of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Comics, Games, Movies, and Books!

Now in its third year, Bent-Con promotes, encourages, celebrates and appreciates Lgbt and Lgbt-friendly contributions to the comic-book, gaming, Science Fiction Fantasy and Horror mediums of artists, writers, creators, publishers, directors, actors, producers and fans, be they works targeted directly to Lgbt audiences or the larger realm of underground and mainstream pop-culture as a whole.

(But it’s just easier to think of it like a Comic-Con, only gayer!)

Headlining guests include:

Christopher Rice: Already the author of four Nyt best-selling novels, Christopher has been an openly queer author since the publication of his first novel, A Density of Souls. Christopher will be reflecting on his already impressive career, as well as previewing his new novel,...

This weekend Rock of Ages terrorizes theaters with 1980’s rock musical overload. This seems like as good a time as any to horrify you with a musical number from a Reagan era sci-fi rock musical. Sex is the least of Voyage of the Rock Aliens' problems.

How does one go from directing Clint Eastwood as “Dirty Harry” in The Enforcer and Chuck f’ing Norris in Forced Vengeance to directing Pia Zadora, Jermaine Jackson, Craig Sheffer, and Michael Berryman in something called Voyage of the Rock Aliens?

Pia Zadora began her acting career playing a green-skinned Martian child in the 1964 holiday bad movie classic Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. Who would have ever imagined that would be the pinnacle of her career?

Twenty years later, an all grown up Pia Zadora starred in an even worse out-of-this-world musical comedy titled Voyage of the Rock Aliens directed by James Fargo...

Exclusive: Millennium Films has acquired My Owner’s Wedding, a Robert Cary and Jonathan Tolins script, and the producer-distributor is in early talks with Jessica Biel to play one of the leads. My Owner’s Wedding is a romantic comedy about two eligible young women, the man both of them want, and his dog. The latter will go to any length to make sure his owner ends up with the right girl. Cary directed and co-wrote Anything But Love and directed Ira & Abby and Save Me. Tolins co-wrote New Line’s Martian Child and Twilight Of The Golds, based on his Broadway play. He also wrote multiple episodes of Queer As Folk and has written for the Academy Awards and the Tonys. Cary and Tolins will produce with Mark Gill. Avi Lerner, Trevor Short, Boaz Davidson, John Thompson and Alan Gasmer will be executive producers. Millennium heads to Cannes with The Expendables 2,...

If the big studios can be all about remaking classics, then why can’t b-movie makers remake classic bad movies? That seems to be Jim Wynorski’s newest niche. The Chopping Mall director has already wrapped a remake of the 1959 creature feature The Giant Gila Monster, and now he’s revealed plans to remake something even more dubious: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.

We’ve previously told you about Wynorski’s Giant Gila Monster remake – now simply titled Gila! - that he cooked up with Hellbound: Hellraiser II helmer Tony Randel. Now the fine folks at Undead Backbrain got hold of the first artwork and some production stills for this shot in color but still set in the 1950’s updating of one of the cheesiest movies of all time.

Ex-Playboy Playmate Julie McCullough (2012: Ice Age), Terence Knox (Children of the Corn 2: The Final Sacrifice), Matt Austin (“Power Rangers S.P.D....

So I’ve chosen to begin my new weekly segment ’10 Reasons to Love . . .‘ by highlighting an actor who means more to me than any other.

John Cusack or The Cuse. Possibly the coolest, kindest and most magnetic actor I’ve ever come across. For decades now he’s played roles in films as varied as Being John Malkovich, Con Air, Stand By Me, Serendipity, Max, and even The Thin Red Line. But none of these flicks really showcase the reason why I’ll go out of my way to track down every single film he stars in. Below is a list of 10 films, placed in order, that every self-respecting film fan should check out. If you’re already a Cuse convert then they will serve as a joyful reminder of his work and hopefully illuminate one or two projects that you may not have come across. If you are new...

A long delayed film release may finally let audience watch it by Video on Demand rather than the theaters. Deadline is reporting Gravitas Ventures struck a deal with Viva Pictures to finally release “A Matador’s Mistress,” or it is also called “Manolete.” The film is directed and written by Dutch director Menno Meyjes (“Martian Child,” “Capa”). It stars Adrien Brody (“The Pianist,” “King Kong”) and Penelope Cruz (“Volver,” “Vanilla Sky”). Here is the official synopsis: “’Manolete’ is set in the 1940s Spain and tells the story of matador Manuel Rodriguez Sanchez and his love affair with actress Lupe Sino, which continued until his death in the bullring in 1947 at 30.” According to Gravitas Ventures’ CEO Nolan A. Gallagher, the film will be released this June through cable, telco and online. “Film lovers will have the opportunity to appreciate the find performances of Adrien Brody and Penelope Cruz,” said Gallagher. “Video...

Update: The Gersh Agency has just confirmed Deadline's report that it has acquired Hohman, Maybank, Lieb and issued a press release that follows the original story break. Exclusive: The Gersh Agency is putting the finishing touches on a major deal that will give a real shot in the arm to its literary department. Gersh is acquiring Hohman, Maybank, Lieb, the well-respected boutique literary agency. Founders Bob Hohman, Bayard Maybank and Devra Lieb will become partners and will bolster a Gersh lit department that recently lost deal makers Sara Self and David Kopple. I'm told Hohman Maybank Lieb will bring such writers as Saving Private Ryan scribe Robert Rodat, Valentine's Day scribe Katherine Fugate, Finding Nemo scribe Dave Reynolds, Welcome to the Rileys scribe Ken Hixon, Cheaper By the Dozen scribe Sam Harper, The Great and Powerful Oz scribe Mitchell Kapner, Source Code's Ben Ripley, Londongrad's David Scarpa, Daddy Day Care's Geoff Rodkey,...

Craig here with a new Take Three

Today: Anjelica Huston

Anjelica Huston's played so many memorable roles that I wish I'd called this series Take Ten.

The Witches and The Dead are essential Huston: key performances in two wildly differing films; both minor gems of their genres. As, respectively, the Grand High Witch and mournful Gretta Conroy she couldn’t have been more different, and in both she showed immense versatility. Essential, too, are Enemies: A Love Story and Prizzi’s Honor: an Oscar nod for the former; a win for the latter. (Nathaniel wrote about Mae Rose Prizzi previously - and the Grand High Witch, too.)

For Wes Anderson she played three independent women: two estranged wives in The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and a strange mother in The Darjeeling Limited. The Addams Family's Morticia parts are a double-bill of the joyfully macabre.

Let's get this out of the way first: These aren't necessarily bad songs (except maybe for "All Star," though I sort of like it). In fact, some are well-loved classics by some of the most respected musical artists in history. A few of these are among my favorites.

But somewhere along the line, someone decided that, if their movie contained a certain scene (say, someone arriving in London) it just had to be accompanied by a certain song (in this case, "London Calling" by The Clash). They're almost always played during a montage or a scene with no dialogue, because it's just easier to use a well-known song to say what you want than it is to have to come up with anything original. Not that they aren't very effective when used in great movies, but by and large we're just kind of sick of them being used in films.

This week! We explore whether Disney lets little boys become Disney princesses – and if that's okay! We answer whether a guy should tell his 13-year-old brother to stop saying "That's so gay." And we ask: "Does de-gaying a movie ever work?"

Have a question about gay male entertainment? Contact me here (and be sure and include your city and state and/or country!)

Q: One of my cousins has a five-year-old grandson who is totally obsessed with Disney princesses and all things of a feminine nature. His parents are working on being accepting of him, but his grandmother, who has a gay son and a gay cousin (me), is totally accepting of him. Disney World has something called The Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique (gotta love that name), which is a salon that transforms little girls into the Disney princess of their choice. They also have something called The Pirates League, where...

The Last Song

Directed by: Julie Anne Robinson

Cast: Miley Cyrus, Greg Kinnear, Liam Hemsworth, Bobby Coleman

Running Time: 1 hr 45 mins

Rating: PG

Release Date: March 31, 2010

Plot: A rebellious teen (Cyrus) and her little brother (Coleman) spend the summer on the beach with their dad (Kinnear).

Who’S It For? I don’t think adults are really going to crave a Miley Cyrus drama, and the kids who want to see it are going to be disappointed by the tone and pace.

Expectations: They were low. I haven’t seen anything to make me like Cyrus. I will say this though, I didn’t think Dear John was that bad. I’m not saying it was good, but it wasn’t awful.

Read Nick Allen’s Top 7 Worst Singers Turned Actors

Scorecard (0-10)

Actors:

Miley Cyrus as Ronnie Miller: Ronnie scowls. I think the reason she does this is because her parents got divorced.

The idea hit me first when I was watching John Cusack in 2012. Yes, it was weird that the actor had lent himself to a role that required him to shout and fake-drive a lot against blue screen, but what was stranger was that even his barely sketched character seemed cribbed from his recent films: he played a limo driver, as he did in Identity, and an author, as in 1408 and Martian Child, who tried to bond with his estranged progeny by taking them on a trip, kinda like in The Contract and Grace Is Gone. But, sufficiently mindblown by 2012's spectacle and moments of giraffe emotion, I forgot about the seeming sameness. That was, until this week's Hot Tub Time Machine.

John Cusack has been working in the indie scene these last couple of years, producing and starring in Grace Is Gone and War, Inc. and appearing in Martian Child, the 2007 film adaptation of former Starlog columnist David Gerrold’s novel. 2012 represents a leap into the big-budget world of popcorn action pictures, and Cusack begins the second part of this chat by talking about co-writer-producer-director Roland Emmerich’s ability to manage his actors and their needs as well as handling a production as huge as 2012.

“There aren’t too many directors in the world who can work on both of those levels—or who have the freedom to do that,” Cusack points out. “I can think of Steven Spielberg and some other people. Roland is so good at doing state-of-the-art special effects. As I was reading the script, I would say to myself, ‘I have no idea how you would even begin to shoot that.

John Cusack, action star? In the 1980s, the actor appeared in such beloved comedies as Sixteen Candles, The Sure Thing, Better Off Dead, One Crazy Summer and Say Anything. In the ’90s, he branched out in such disparate films as The Grifters, Bullets Over Broadway, Grosse Point Blank and Being John Malkovich. And in the past decade, the versatile thespian has appeared in Max, The Ice Harvest, Grace Is Gone and 1408. But action star? Ok, so Cusack was in Con Air, but action star?

The actor plays everyman Jackson Curtis—an aspiring Sf writer who tries to protect his family as the world’s end nears—in 2012. Roland Emmerich’s latest disaster flick was a change of pace for Cusack, who outruns earthquakes, floods and other cataclysmic events as the film’s family man of action. “The swimming I did, but the driving, not so much,” Cusack says of the...

We know how it is: You’d like to go to the movies this weekend, but you’re gonna be busy escaping the end of the world. But you can have a multiplex-like experience at home with a collection of the right DVDs. And when someone asks you on Monday, “Hey, did you see 2012 this weekend?” you can reply, “No, I watched all the movies that Roland Emmerich was giving the middle finger to instead.” Instead Of: 2012, in which Roland Emmerich destroys Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Yellowstone Park, Washington DC, Hawaii, the Pacific Ocean, the Himalayas, China, and the careers of John Cusack and Chiwetel Ejiofor... Watch: The classic 1951 science fiction movie When Worlds Collide, about humanity’s attempts to save itself when a rogue planet is discovered on a collision course with Earth: can they build an escape spaceship in time? If you need more modern disaster scenarios, be...

When it comes to the first photos and synopsis from upcoming films, Collider has reaped great rewards from this year’s American Film Market (Afm). For those who don’t know, Afm is where film buyers from around the world come once a year to buy movies and also pre-buy films in development. Simply put, this is where a lot of money changes hands in the film industry and it’s where many decisions about what you and I get to see are made. In an effort to try and raise a film’s profile or attract film buyers, many of the studios distribute full synopses and still images for their movies.

With that in mind, we have grabbed some of those synopses and images for Manolete (starring Adrien Brody and Penelope Cruz), Mona Lisa, Pearblossom, Small Town Saturday Night (starring Chris Pine), and The Long Good Friday. Hit the...

In Roland Emmerich’s latest disaster epic 2012, Amanda (The Martian Child) Peet plays Kate Curtis, ex-wife to Jackson Curtis (John Cusack), mother of two and one of a handful of characters we follow as they seek safe ground and try to survive the cataclysmic events prophesized by the Mayans centuries ago.

“I had heard of it, but I wasn’t familiar with it,” Peet says of the controversial end-of-the-world theories ascribed to the conclusion of the Mayan calendar. And she doesn’t give it much credence, either. “I feel there’s Enough to worry about. Science is more the thing with my family. I’m sure my sister and brother-in-law [who are both in the medical profession] would think I was crazy if I started talking about my fear of 2012.”

In the film, not everyone on the planet can be saved, but if you have enough money and power (a lá When Worlds Collide), you can buy...

The world will end. It’s going to happen in 2012, which is actually November 13, 2009. So good luck trying to set your calendars or bothering to live each day to the fullest.

Here’s interviews from the quality cast (Woody Harrelson, John Cusack, Amanda Peet and Thandie Newton) … even though the film will most likely choose special effects over substance every chance it gets. And no, it doesn’t always have to be that way, as Star Trek proved.

John Cusack – From Chicago, but that’s not the reason I root for the man. And it’s not even because of Say Anything…even though I love the film and any woman reading this just had a nice, happy sigh thinking about Lloyd Dobler. Cusack and I began with Better off Dead.

Amanda Peet- When I used to bother with thinking about who my “Hollywood crush” would be … Amanda Peet...

Post Grad

Directed by: Vicky Jenson

Cast: Alexis Bledel, Zach Gilford, Michael Keaton, Jane Lynch, Carol Burnett

Running Time: 1 hr 30 mins

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: August 21, 2009

Plot: Ryden Malby (Bledel) graduates from college and is forced to move back into her childhood home with her eccentric family, while she attempts to find a job, the right guy, and just a hint of where her life is headed.

Who’s It For? I would say teenage girls who loved Bledel in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, but I don’t know what positive lessons could be learned. Whatever you’re looking for, lower your expectations for this one.

Overall

It’s like two screenplays have been mashed together to form something that looks like a movie, but isn’t really.

In one of the stories, Ryden pins all of her hopes to her dream job straight out of college. She...

Touchstone Pictures’ “The Last Song” Kicks Off Production In Georgia

“The Last Song,” a coming-of-age drama starring multi-talented singer/songwriter/actress Miley Cyrus, Kelly Preston and Greg Kinnear, begins production in Savannah, Ga., this week. The film is based on best-selling novelist Nicholas Sparks‘ forthcoming novel.

Hitting bookstores on September 8, 2009, Sparks’ “The Last Song” is the 15th book published by the novelist whose other books include “The Notebook,” “Message in a Bottle” and “Nights in Rodanthe.” Though several of his books have been adapted to film, “The Last Song” is the first to make it to the big screen within the first year of publication.

“The Last Song” is set in a small Southern beach town where an estranged father (Kinnear) gets a chance to spend the summer with his reluctant teenaged daughter (Cyrus), who’d rather be home in New York. He tries to reconnect with her through the...

John Cusack and Amanda Peet run for their lives in this action-packed sneak peek.

By Larry Carroll

"2012"

Photo: Columbia Pictures

Nobody makes a better movie trailer than Roland Emmerich — the man behind "Independence Day," "The Day After Tomorrow" and "Godzilla." And while many might be tempted to insert a joke here about how good or bad those movies actually turned out to be, we'll hold our tongues and simply say this: "2012" looks awesome.

So, with our fingers crossed that the November 13 apocalyptic action flick actually delivers the goods, we present our shot-by-shot breakdown of the latest masterpiece by the world's greatest movie-trailer director:

Shot 1: "Mankind's Earliest Civilization ... "

Shot 2: Some Mayan ruins

Shot 3: " ... Warned Us ... "

Shot 4: Outer space. Uh-oh, this isn't looking good for the little blue marble we call home.

Shot 5: " ... This Day Would Come." Darkening forests and the eclipsed sun, with the words playing over them.

'Martian Child' has a ton of heart, in fact, if movies were rated on "heart" and not "entertainment value" I'd be forced to give this film 5 stars.

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Sadly (for 'Martian Child') we don't live in that world and if you bore the viewer while not really offering up any semblance of an ending then you're in trouble on the rating front. That's where Martian Child stands this weekend – on the precipice of being ignored and then instantly forgotten. Not healthy especially during the Multiplex-Producers catfight.

The story is right there in the title. The kid thinks he's from Mars. John Cusack is a science fiction novelist who has lost his wife. He's wildly successful but is searching for meaning in his life. He's contacted by an adoption agency to take a look at a Dennis, a kid who spends his days hidden in a cardboard box.

Not too terribly long after Sony Pictures decided to shuffle rom-com The Ugly Truth back a couple of months from April to July, we get word from the Hollywood Reporter that they've opted to similarly relocate disaster flick 2012 from its July date to a mid-November spot. Were Roland Emmerich and his tidal waves scared off by Gerard Butler and Katherine Heigl's opposites-attract antics?

No, probably not, but while Sony insists that the film could've been completed as originally scheduled, they're willing to capitalize on the weekend that served their Bond franchise so well in its past two outings. (Hey, who wouldn't kill to have four more months of post-production on their effects-heavy film?) One's willing to interpret the dual moves as the studio's efforts at making the most of a slate left light by that writer's strike a while back, just as Warner Brothers had by moving back Harry...

Sean Anders and John Morris, the writer-director pair behind the road-trip comedy Sex Drive, are in final negotiations to direct Hot Tub Time Machine, a high-concept male comedy that's set up at MGM. The flick revolves around a group of adult male friends who, bored with their lives, visit a hot tub where they once partied. After knocking a few back, they find it can transport them to a time two decades earlier and to their younger, raunchier selves. Jason Heald wrote Time Machine and Matt Moore (Martian Child, Final Destination 3, Take the Lead) will produce. Anders and Morris are also developing an untitled comedy for Summit Entertainment. It centers on a wild college sophomore who discovers that a woman, with whom he had a one-night stand with the year before, has been killed in a car wreck and that the baby he never knew he had fathered is now his.

No extras on the War, Inc. DVD? Really? I was so hoping for something -- a commentary track, a making-of -- that would help me understand why this seeming can’t-miss satire misses. Something about the film has been nagging me since I first saw it earlier this year, when it debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival, something unsatisfying and unfinished about it, and even now, even after a second viewing on the DVD just out , I can’t quite put my finger on it. The logical extension from 1997’s Grosse Pointe Blank -- cowritten, as War, Inc. was, by star John Cusack (Igor, Martian Child) -- this one posits a near-future world in which “great corporations,” the opening crawl tells us, “bestride the earth, replacing nations as the true creators of history, amassing powerful private armies to do their bidding.” And that could be the beginning of the problem,...

The cast is growing for Roland Emmerich’s upcoming apocalyptic action spectacle “2012,” and the latest to join the gang is Amanda Peet, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton, Oliver Platt and Danny Glover are already on board.

The film focuses on a little group of people struggling with the large-scale cataclysm ensuing from the end of the world in the year 2012, as predicted by the Mayan calendar.

Peet will jumps into the female lead as Cusack’s ex-wife. Cusack himself plays a limo driver who wants to become a writer, with Glover starring as the president and Thandie Newton playing the latter’s daughter.

Emmerich is directing a script he wrote with Harald Kloser. The two previously collaborated on the screenplay for Emmerich’s recent action spectacle “10,000 B.C.”

Peet was last seen alongside Cusack in “Martian Child.” She will next star in Chris Carter...

Universal/Imagine's American Gangster gunned down the competition to capture the top spot in the domestic boxoffice with an estimated $46.3 million in opening loot.

DreamWorks/Paramount's animated feature Bee Movie also generated significant buzz with its own honey of an opening, gathering $39.1 million in second place.

New Line's John Cusack-Amanda Peet starrer Martian Child bowed with $3.7 million in seventh place.

Lionsgate's Saw IV got chopped up by the new entrants and fell 65% in its second weekend to gross $11 million in third place with a $51.1 million cume. But Disney's Steve Carell comedy Dan in Real Life slid just 29% in its sophomore session to gross $8.1 million and finish fourth with a cume of almost $23 million.

In a limited bow, Warner Independent's documentary about war-torn Sudan Darfur Now grossed $24,000 from two runs in New York and one in L.A., or a solid $8,000 per location. The Don Cheadle-starring docu expands to 20 runs in 12 additional markets next weekend.

Industrywide, the weekend represented some needed good news for a town wracked by labor tensions, with the frame's $140 million in total grosses marking an 8% improvement over the same session last year. It was the first improved session after six successive weekends of year-over-year declines.

Year-to-date, boxoffice is still running 6% ahead of the same period of 2006 at a total of $7.85 billion. But fall grosses are off 4% compared with a year ago, at $966.8 million.

Gangster always looked to be the weekend's likeliest top finisher, despite an R rating and a running time two hours and 37 minutes, as pre-release tracking surveys showed moviegoers anxious to mob movieplexes.

Its opening was the biggest ever for Washington and Crowe but fell just short of being the best debut among pics over 2 1/2 hours with restricted ratings. Troy (2:43) still holds those bragging rights after unspooling with $46.9 million in May 2004.

Writer-director Menno Meyjes is setting sail on his Viking epic Last Battle Dreamer with Ryan Phillippe, Abbie Cornish and Sean Bean on board, producers said Wednesday.

Scheduled to shoot later this year, the project is backed by Future Films, with Handmade Films International handling sales duties.

Phillippe will star as a seventh-century Viking warrior named Thorfinn who, along with his older brother, the battle-scarred Hakon (Sean Bean), invades Britain.

Phillippe and Cornish will next be seen together in Kimberly Pierce's Stop Loss.

Meyjes describes Dreamer as "a love story written in fire and blood." Meyjes is now completing post-production on his biopic of Spain's most famous matador, Manolete, starring Adrien Brody and Penelope Cruz.

New Line Cinema is scheduled to roll out Meyjes' Martian Child, starring John Cusack, in the U.S. in October.

Phillippe is repped by David Guillod at UTA, Bean and Cornish by Tracy Brennan and Hilda Queally at CAA.

Oliver Platt has been tapped to star in ABC's comedy pilot The Thick of It, while Chris Lowell is the latest to join ABC's potential Grey's Anatomy spinoff.

Additionally, Steve Howey has landed the lead in Fox's comedy pilot The Beast, lifting the contingency on the pilot, James D'Arcy has been tapped to star in Fox's drama pilot Them, Lacey Chabert has been cast as a lead in Fox's untitled Liz Meriwether comedy pilot, and Tim Peper has nabbed a lead in ABC's comedy pilot Carpoolers.

Thick, from Sony Pictures TV and BBC Worldwide TV, follows the workers in the office of a low-level congressman. Platt will play the chairman of the Party Committee. Platt, who earned two Emmy nominations for his role on Huff, which was produced by Sony TV, next will appear in the features The Ten and The Martian Child and in ESPN's miniseries The Bronx Is Burning.

Lowell is set to guest star in the "enhanced" two-hour episode of Grey's designed to serve as a springboard for a potential spinoff from the hit medical drama centered on Dr.

Amanda Peet has signed on to star opposite John Cusack in New Line Cinema's The Martian Child. Joan Cusack also is joining the cast. Menno Meyjes is directing Martian, which is based on a short story from sci-fi author David Gerrold. The script by Jonathan Tolins and Seth Bass is described as an unusual father-son relationship, and a cross between Parenthood and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. John Cusack plays a man who, after the death of his wife, adopts a 7-year-old who believes he's from Mars. Peet will play Harlee, the best friend of the man's deceased wife. Joan Cusack will play the sister to her real-life brother's character.

Filmmaker Menno Meyjes, who wrote and directed the John Cusack film Max about the young Adolf Hitler, is stepping up to take care of New Line Cinema's The Martian Child, in which Cusack is set to star. Nick Cassavetes, who helmed The Notebook for the studio, was slated to direct but fell out because of creative differences. Meyjes will rewrite and direct Martian, which is about a sci-fi writer (Cusack) who, wanting to be a dad, adopts a 7-year-old boy who may be an alien. It is based on a short story by David Gerrold. Jonathan Tolins and Seth Bass wrote the original draft.