Yo-ho-ho, and a pop-six-squish, unh-uh, Cicero, Lipschitz. Variety says Disney is close to signing Chicago and Nine director Rob Marshall to take the helm of the currently rudderless Pirates of the Caribbean 4, on course for a 2010 production start.

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney have been meeting with a number of directors in recent weeks, because the studio wants to pull the “Pirates” film together and have Depp star in it before he does “The Lone Ranger” for the producer and the studio. While Marshall’s involvement wasn’t immediately confirmed, sources said things look good enough that the studio has begun casting new characters that will appear in the picture.

It is big business for Disney, as the “Pirates” trilogy grossed $2.6 billion worldwide with Verbinski at the helm. Sources say unless things break down at the last moment, Marshall will be steering the pirate vehicle’s next installment.

In completely unrelated news, Ridley Scott is said to be “attached” to direct the prequel to Alien…

…in which the crew of a commercial towing ship returning to Earth is awakened and sent to respond to a distress signal from a nearby planetoid. The crew discovers too late that the signal generated by an empty ship was meant to warn them.

(thanks to Watermelons for reminding us both ships are preparing to launch.)

(via FirstShowing.net)

Part of the Man Trilogy (along with A Serious Man and A Single Man), The Other Man is based on a short story by Bernhard Schlink (The Reader) and directed by Richard Eyre (Notes on a Scandal). In case anybody is still in the dark about the plot after watching the trailer, here it is in words of mostly one syllable:

The tale of a guy who thinks his wife is a cheat, and then sets out to track down the other man.

[Incidentally, The Other Man has been an immensely popular title in film history, as far back as 100 years ago, with no fewer than 6 movies entitled The Other Man between 1911 and 1918. There was a movie called The Other Man in 2006 and there's another one due out next year. IMDb lists 28 movies entitled The Other Woman.]

Silhouettes and chunky fonts spell offbeat highbrow comedy.
(From Empire via LivinginCinema.)

Tough for me to tell from these remarks who’s the biggest girl and who’s the biggest dick.

Leave it to Howard Stern to bring out the sensitive side of Seth Rogan and Judd Apatow, both still nursing their bruised feelings because Katherine Heigl dared to suggest (2 years ago) that Knocked Up “paints the women as shrews,” while the men look “lovable.”

Apatow, “I hear there’s a scene [in The Ugly Truth] where she’s wearing … Underwear … with a vibrator in it, so I’d have to see if that was uplifting for women.”

…Apatow figured Heigl was “probably was doing six hours of interviews and kissing everyone’s ass, and then just got tired and slipped a little bit” when she made the remarks to Vanity Fair.

Regardless, Rogen said, “I didn’t slip and I was doing fucking interviews all day too … I didn’t say shit!”

yeah, you dudes are the epitome of considerate discretion.

“It all depends on how much coffee I have had that day,” Apatow said. “If I was fighting … with someone else about something I may handle it wrong, and if I’m in like total Buddha mood, I’d be like ‘I feel sad that she hasn’t learned the lesson of her journey yet,’” he said.

Apatow said he hasn’t spoken to Heigl since her remarks… After the remark, “[You think] at some point I’ll get a call saying ‘Sorry, I was tired…’ and then the call never comes,’” he said.

*sniff*

Rogen said he doesn’t feel bad since Heigl seems to run her mouth at most people, including Grey’s Anatomy staff.

“I gotta say it’s not like we’re the only people she said some batshit crazy things about,” he said. “That’s kind of her bag now.”

These guys were all smiles last week when they thought they had a male version of Beaches on their hands. Why so moody all of a sudden? Dying is easy, bromance-dramedy is hard.

I don’t usually feature a full-length look at a poster on the main page unless the design really grabs me. This one has enough hands to grab me in all sorts of inappropriate places. Passion of the Antichrist? And if that’s Charlotte Gainsbourg rutting in the roots, then who’s that striding across the bridge? (Bjork?)

(tally-ho! release the hounds! and thanks to RRA)

The Damned United will have a gala at Toronto in September — the trailer is making the rounds.  Peter Morgan is the writer.  It’s directed by Tom Hooper, who directed John Adams, one of the Prime Suspect episodes, Longford and one episode of Elizabeth the I – I knew there was a reason I was loving the trailer.  By the way, according to IMDb, Hooper will next direct an update of John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. I know, big shoes to fill but kind of exciting anyway.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a1GF5NbwKs[/youtube]

Eugene Hernandez of Indiewire posted the films that will be on the slate for Venice — visit the site to see the full list of out-of-competition selections and midnight movies:

The Competition

Opening Film: “Baaria,” directed by Giuseppe Tornatore (Italy)
”Soul Kitchen,” directed by Fatih Akin (Germany)
”La Doppia Ora,” directed by Giuseppe Capotondi (Italy)
”Yi ngoi” (Accident), directed by Cheang Pou- Soi (China/Hong Kong)
”Persecution,” directed by Patrice Chereau (France)
”Lo Spazio Bianco” (White Space), directed by Francesca Comencini (Italy)
”White Material,” directed by Claire Denis (France)
”Mr. Nobody,” directed by Jaco van Dormael (France)
”A Single Man,” directed Tom Ford (USA)
”Lourdes,” directed by Jessica Hausner (Austria)
”Bad Lieutenant: Port Of New Orleans,” directed by Werner Herzog (USA)
”The Road,” directed by John Hillcoat (USA)
”Ahasin Wetei” (Between Two Worlds), directed by Vimukhti Jayasundara (Sri Lanka)
”El Mosafer” (The Traveller), directed by Ahmed Maher (Eqypt)
”Levanon” (Lebanon), directed by Samuel Maoz (Israel)
”Capitalism: A Love Story,” directed by Michael Moore (USA)
”Zanan-e-bedun-e mardan” (Women Without Men), directed by Shirin Neshat (Germany)
”Il Grande Sogno” (The Big Dream), directed by Michele Placido (Italy)
”36 Vues Du Pic Saint Loup,” directed by Jacques Rivette (France)
”Life During Wartime,” directed by Todd Solondz (USA)
”Tetsuo The Bullet Man,” directed by Shinya Tsukamoto (Japan)
”Lei wangzi” (Prince of Tears), directed by Yonfan (China/Taiwan/Hong Kong)

Now these are funny people. I don’t know enough about Newtonian physics to measure the magnitude of vectors and tangents of suburban tension in the teeny appletini teaser still after the cut.

(thanks to George at cinemarewind)

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The NY Times’ Jeannette Catsoulis on Hugh Dancy as Adam:

Playing a character who is mentally disabled can be a fast track to Oscar or to oblivion, and rare is the actor who can resist the statuette-winning, Hanks-Hoffman strategy of mannered tics and mechanical talk. And when you consider that not even Sean Penn could pull it off without making our eyeballs cringe, the performance of Hugh Dancy in the charming romantic comedy “Adam” is all the more impressive.

It’s a strangely short review.

And Huffpo’s Marshall Fine writes:

It would be simple to cynically dismiss Adam as condescendingly feel-good, but that’s a lazy reading of a film that is full of heart and wit. Give it a chance and you’ll find yourself drawn into this character’s life in ways that will both touch and amuse you.

It’s still too soon to tell how this performance will do overall.  But we’re keeping an eye on it.

This clip puts it all in perspective.  Here is Diablo Cody at Comic-Con freaking out when Stan Lee walks behind her.   I love her reaction – It’s like bullshitbullshitbullshitbullshit – HOLY SHIT!:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08KY8hHTPIM[/youtube]

Toy Story 1 & 2 have been redigitized for 3D and I hope the effect doesn’t feel as false as having Woody and Buzz Lightyear pretend to have stereoscopic vision by looking through only one lense in this teaser. Originally intended to suck our wallets twice, in October and February, Disney is now combining the experience for a double feature opening October 2nd. I love the originals in their original form, and not sure dimensional “enhancement” works any better for movies than it does for breasts. This “because we can” mentality reminds me too much of Ted Turner’s failed experiment to colorize black and white movies years ago. Do we need the extra sensory stimulation or can’t we enjoy the movie as they were first conceived? Toy Story 3D premieres June 10, 2010.

We learned yesterday from several sources that James Cameron is involved in 3Deifying Titanic as well, for a 2011 release. (Newsweek’s Pop Vox says, “Kate Winslet’s 34Cs to Hit Jumbo, 3D Screens”).

The Titanic conversion process will take up to 14 months to complete. It’s my understanding, due to insurmountable technical obstacles, that all the scenes with Billy Zane will still be two-dimensional.

More release date shell games.

• The Wolfman — February 12, 2010
• Green Zone — March 12, 2010

Variety provides a plausible explanation:

“We have seen just how enormous first quarter movies can be,” said Adam Fogelson, president of marketing and distribution for U, citing the $215 million that studios generated on the February weekend this year, versus the $136 million that pics earned on the November date last year.

Marketers believe next year could become “a perfect storm” for distribs, considering Valentine’s Day falls on a Sunday and will be closely followed by the President’s Day holiday, the next day.

So there’s only one alpha-male Iraq hero this Oscar season, and only one alpha-dog shapeshifter invited to the Feast of the Hunter’s Moon.

This Hulu vid of Conan O’Brien is the full thing, with ads and all.  You’ll eventually get to Meryl Streep.  Streep is probably looking at another Oscar (16th?) nod for Julie & Julia, unless the field is over-crowded.  So far, the strongest contenders are YOUNG — Carey Mulligan (who is absolutely brilliant in An Education and is, to my mind, the one to beat), Abbie Cornish for Bright Star, Hilary Swank for Amelia, Nicole Kidman for Nine (unless it isn’t a lead, which it probably won’t be), Audrey Tautou for Coco Before Chanel, Penelope Cruz for Broken Embraces, Charlize Theron for The Burning Plain (maybe?).

Anyway, eventually you’ll get to Meryl.  Judd Apatow is on the episode as well – and if you watch Part 2 you’ll see him as well.

Part 2 after the cut – hat tip, ONTD.

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