The following image gives us the first close-up of the Sleestak named Enik from next summer’s $100 million incarnation of Land of the Lost starring Will Ferrell and Danny McBride.
The Sleestaks are a horned reptilian-insectoid species that inhabit the alternate world stumbled upon by Ferrell’s paleontologist and friends. In the original source material, Enik is a more evolved, pessimistic outcast of the Sleestaks that wears clothing and speaks.
Back in April, we praised director, Brad Silberling (Casper, Lemony Snicket’s), for choosing men-in-suits over CGI for the Sleestaks, in keeping with the campy ’70s Sid & Marty Krofft TV series. Pretty cool costumes aside, I’m getting a slight Mars Attacks vibe based [...]

UPDATE 2: TWC is getting back to us. Now they say tomorrow.
UPDATE: A reader from Outlander.solsector.net says, “There’s been no confirmation about the DVD date and nearest myself and one of the producers can tell there really isn’t a date set for the DVD much less a theatrical release. Plus, The Weinstein Company is contractually obligated to give outlander at least a limited theatrical release.” We’ll be contacting TWC tomorrow.
Recipe: Go into the closet and dust off Castle Grayskull. Place an E.T. figurine with its arms raised on one of the turrets. Pour a goblet filled with red wine all over it. Now set it on fire. Pretend it’s [...]

As reported by Jeff Wells awhile back, Religulous has started playing in two theaters (one in NYC and one in Claremont, CA) to fulfill Rule 12 of the Academy’s eligibility rules for Best Documentary nominations. The theaters themselves are out of the way (apparently the one in New York is all the way up on 181st St.) and the film is playing with very little accompanying publicity, as it doesn’t officially open until October 3rd; indeed I spoke with Chud’s Devin Faraci this morning, who saw the film last night in Claremont, and he told me that the theater was half full (although those in attendance enjoyed themselves), and [...]

Former Tori Spelling deflowerer, turntable spinner and current Terminator TV star, Brian Austin Green, has thrown his hat (sideways baseball cap?) into the casting ring for Batman 3. B.A.G. was wowed by Heath Ledger’s performance in The Dark Knight and feels deep down he’s the right thespian to play The Riddler in the next installment…
“I would love to be the Riddler,” Green told MTV in all seriousness. “I hope to God they don’t replace Heath and have the Joker [again]. So they need a new villain and The Riddler makes sense. …[My Riddler] would take years of preparation. It’s tough. Heath set the bar a new level.”
How do our readers [...]

With the risk of sounding like a broken record, Slashfilm feels that Lost Boys: The Tribe was a lost cause. Even some of the people who worked and starred in the direct-to-DVD afterthought seem to agree. But it leaves open the question: do you reverse the damage done and attempt a real sequel—as rumored—or do you let the original speak for itself? From the sound of this new interview, Kiefer Sutherland still isn’t against the idea of revisiting Santa Carla.
“Lost Boys was a massive part of my life, it still is,” Sutherland told Shock Til You Drop. “You can’t crap on that. And I’m not going to go out and [...]

Iron Man just bitch slapped The Dark Knight for having a BA in philosophy. To be more precise, a non-blackface Robert Downey Jr. candidly discussed his rabid thoughts about the biggest fanboy movie of all time to MovieHole. Nice.
“The Dark Knight. “My whole thing is that that I saw The Dark Knight. I feel like I’m dumb because I feel like I don’t get how many things that are so smart. It’s like a Ferrari engine of storytelling and script writing and I’m like, ‘That’s not my idea of what I want to see in a movie.’ I loved The Prestige but didn’t understand The Dark Knight. Didn’t get it, [...]

Minutes after the panel for Frank Miller’s green screen opus,The Spirit, was over at Comic Con, the Internet exploded like a million snarky bottle rockets, sending up enlightened texts like, “The Spirit, LOL, looks like Sin Shitty,” and the trusty “EPIC FAIL!” Yes, on that marvelous day, the vista view enjoyed from the confines of Twitter was like sipping a Corona inside the Green Zone. Well, the Con footage has now popped (pooped?) up on YouTube. I might as well let the Slashfilmbot take over from here. Samuel L. Jackson caps off this clip by declaring, “C’mon! Toilets are always funny.” Polite fanboy laughter only adds to the cringe factor, [...]

Actor James Franco, already being anointed the “new” Heath Ledger thanks to his pop-cult crossover in Pineapple Express, will likely draw comparisons to Dirk Diggler come this December. With a supporting role in Gus Van Sant’s Oscar-buzzing Milk, Franco will join the magical club of major actors who have rocked fake dicks on screen. Here’s a classy story from the set via Flawed Hollywood…
“This scene went on for a long time, like half the day, and it’s getting old… and I go over to Sean and I guess he didn’t know that I was wearing a prosthetic. I go, `Sean, you’re such a great actor but you wouldn’t do a [...]

In the new issue of Zoetrope, Francis Ford Coppola’s slept-on literary magazine, John Hughes has written an elegant and amusing foreword to his short story, “Vacation ‘58,’ which became the classic road-trip comedy National Lampoon’s Vacation. It’s a whirlwind tale, with Hollywood quietly snapping up the rights, and Hughes, to his amazement, finding himself adapting the screenplay, suddenly outfitted with the sine quibus non of show biz.
“This was all happening during Hollywood’s post-Shampoo era of gold chains, red Ferraris, and big sideburns. As a print humorist—envisioning myself as Chicago’s Booth Tarkington Jr.—I willfully knew nothing of show business. …When I arrived at the incipient powerhouse Creative Artists Agency in my [...]

Inspired by stream graphs and the works of Edward Tufte, Xach.com has developed a new way to display Box Office information graphically. Each graph shows the trends in the top 25 movies at the box office each weekend throughout a year of time. The color is based on the movie’s debut week. The idea is that the long-running movies will gradually start to stand out from newer movies with different colors. The above graph shows 2008 so far. Click on the image above to see it in full resolution. Look at how Iron Man (blue), Indiana Jones (Purple) and The Dark Knight (Brown) stick out. Head on over to [...]

During Comic-Con this weekend, the chainsaw began sputtering once again for Evil Dead 4. Director Sam Raimi, there promoting his comeback horror film, Drag Me To Hell, announced the return of Bruce Campbell’s Ash to fans…
“I love working with Bruce Campbell… He’s super willing to do anything to make it right. He’s a very funny guy, but mostly he’s got this quality where he will physically do anything to get the shot done right, so I would love to work with Bruce again because I’d love to test those limits.
I’d love to make another Evil Dead picture. And actually that’s in the wheelhouse. I’d like to work on it with [...]

Tonight, we can all sleep soundly. The Joker has been apprehended, and I imagine he looks a lot like Slashfilm’s resident spam commenter Jerry “Crack Corn” Butler. The above 20 year old, real name Spencer Taylor, was busted for stealing posters and memorabilia for The Dark Knight from a movie theater in Michigan. Cops arrived on the scene—no doubt wondering if this was the day—and booked the costumed goon on charges of felony larceny and malicious destruction of property. At this time we do not know if Taylor/Joker said “I want my phone call!” in a cold blooded cackle. Thanks to Andrew for the tip.
via Smoking Gun

When it comes to interviews, George Lucas is like that dad who never says anything too out of line, but leaves you pissed off and checking for emotional and totally unnecessary welts. In a new interview with the Times Online, he discusses Indiana Jones 5 and takes more shots at Crystal Skull and Steven Spielberg…
“If I can come up with another idea that they like, we’ll do another. Really, with the last one, Steven wasn’t that enthusiastic. I was trying to persuade him. But now Steve is more amenable to doing another one. Yet we still have the issues about the direction we’d like to take. I’m in the future; [...]

Here are various tidbits that didn’t make the /Film front page in midst of the Comic-Con madness. We like to call this Page 2.
Tyrese Gibson says he’s in talks to star in the Thundercats movie. According to Coming Soon, he didn’t discuss characters or live-action vs. CGI et al.
Shia LaBeouf got LaBeouf’ed by the law. Has the new Busted Tee playing up his arrest been released? I was asleep.
Wesley Strick (Doom, Wolf, Cape Fear) will pen New Line’s A Nightmare on Elm Street remake. The film is being fast tracked for a release next year to coincide with the franchise’s 25th anniversary. The trades report that the film will keep [...]

I’ve put out the word for further confirmation from our staff—against terrible odds of hangovers and lipstick shenanigans—but a rumor is quickly circulating that Lionsgate/Marvel has kicked director Lexi Alexander off Punisher: War Zone. The film, which opens this December, is finished filming but apparently HUGE creative differences arose over…final cut? There’s a lot of speculation going around. Over at AICN, Knowles says the film’s composer is off the project as well, and Lionsgate is now transplanting the score with shitty heavy metal—as we suffered through yesterday while watching the rather kickass and ultra violent footage from Comic-Con.
Apparently Alexander’s candid potty mouth is contractually wired shut for the time being. [...]