Disney/Pixar has developed a mobile animatronic version of WALL-E to roam the Disney amusement parks. /Film Twitter friend Jeremy C spotted the robot in the streets of Los Angeles and was able to capture this video footage of the droid in action. I want one, how much?

Paramount has released a new featurette for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull focusing on the directing talents of Steven Spielberg. It’s essentially just a bunch of shots edited together of Spielberg directing. There isn’t even interviews, so it might be considered more of montage than a featurette, but I digress.

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Also the Indiana Jones presence at Cannes is HUGE. The three new Indy banners shown above are on display on the Croisette. [badtaste]

Since Jason Reitman announced that his next movie will be a book adaptation, we’ve been trying to figure out which property he might be adapting. Reitman’s hint of “‘Thank You for Smoking,’ but instead of political it’s corporate” led many to believe that he might be working on a big screen adaptation of Max Barry’s Company. This was quickly debunked when Reitman appeared on the Howard Stern Show and gave out more details. Finally Latino Review has solved the mystery.

Jason Reitman will be making a big screen adaptation of Walter Kirn’s Up in the Air, which tells the story of Ryan Bingham, a guy with a simple goal: to accumulate one million miles in his frequent flyer account.

“Bingham’s job as a Career Transition Counselor–he fires people–has kept him airborne for years. Although he has come to despise his line of work, he has come to love the culture of what he calls “Airworld,” finding contentment within pressurized cabins, anonymous hotel rooms, and a wardrobe of wrinkle-free slacks. With a letter of resignation sitting on his boss’s desk, and the hope of a job with a mysterious consulting firm, Ryan Bingham is agonizingly close to his ultimate goal, his Holy Grail: one million frequent flier miles. But before he achieves this long-desired freedom, conditions begin to deteriorate. With perception, wit, and wisdom, Up in the Air combines brilliant social observation with an acute sense of the psychic costs of our rootless existence, and confirms Walter Kirn as one of the most savvy chroniclers of American life.”

The book was named one of Amazon.com’s Best of 2001. Time Out New York called Up in the Air “a hilarious, often ingenious ode to America.” The Washington Post called it “A dead-on, wry portrait of the life of the road warrior.” Another one of Walter Kirn’s novels, Thumbsucker, was adapted as a feature film back in 2005.

Jason has said that he plans to direct Up in the Air for around $112 to $15 million, later this year before he moves on to Pierre Pierre. Jason has already revealed that he wrote one of the roles for Reitman regular J.K. Simmons (who played Ellen Page’s father in Juno and Aaron Eckhart’s boss in Thank You For Smoking).

Universal has released a new International movie trailer for Louis Leterrier’s The Incredible Hulk. Most of the footage contained within has been seen in the last two trailers with a little more “Hulk Smash”, but it’s probably worth a look. I don’t know that many people excited for this film, but for some reason, I think Hulk could be a sleeper hit. Watch the trailer below and tell me what you think in the comments!

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The Incredible Hulk arrives in theaters on June 13th.

Time Crimes director Nacho Vigalondo revealed that David Cronenberg is in the running to direct the upcoming English language remake of the popular Fantastic Fest award winner. The original Spanish-language indie sci-fi thriller followed a man who accidentally gets into a time machine and travels back in time nearly an hour, and finds himself in a series of disasters of unforeseeable consequences. Cronenberg’s take on the story would no doubt be much different, and certainly a lot more interesting than your typical American horror remake. Timothy J. Sexton, one of the writers of Children of Men, is writing the English language adaptation. Check out the teaser trailer for the original film below. [Twitch]

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It seems like we’ve been reporting a new WTF sequel/remake/adaptation story everyday for the last week. The latest involves Jonah Hill, who is in negotiations with Sony to develop a movie adaptation of the popular 1980’s television show 21 Jump Street, which starred Johnny Depp. Hill would work on the screenplay, serve as executive producer, and possibly star. The show focused on a group of young cops who went undercover in high schools and colleges. I’m sure the Hill’s big screen take would likely take a more comedic approach. Hey, at least they aren’t making a sequel to Donnie Darko or Point Break… oh, wait… [EW]

Here is a round up of stories that just didn’t make the /Film front page, or what we like to call…. Page 2!

Cinematical has a photo of the I Love You Philip Morris billboard at Cannes.

Adam Brody talks to IGN about his preparation for the now defunct Justice League movie.

National Lampoon’s Homo Erectus looks horrible. Check out the red band movie trailer on Trailer Addict, if you dare!

IconFactory has released their Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Icon Set.

Uwe Boll told RT what his five favorite films are – and, considering he’s the man who cast Tara Reid as a brilliant archaeologist and made such clunkers as BloodRayne and Dungeon Siege, his picks are kind of surprising. (Apocalypse Now, Dances With Wolves, Clockwork Orange, Citizen Kane, and The Searchers.)

io9 has a first look at Killdroid: A Mechanical Love Affair.

Defamer counts down the Top Five Most Cringeworthy Facial Hair Moments in Cinematic History.

The new poster for The Strangers is kinda creepy. [bloody-disgusting]

AICN has the first test screening review of Kevin Smith’s Zack and Miri Make a Porno. The reviewer says “it’s similar to “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” - it’s a raunchy sex comedy that also wants to have a sweet romance at its center” and claims the hillarious dialogue is “some of the strongest stuff I’ve heard from Smith in years”, but says “the heart of the movie doesn’t really fly”. Sounds to me like something that might be fixed in editing. It’s also revealed that Justin Long makes a cameo.

Lucasfilm has announced that “Star Wars Weekends” at Disney’s Hollywood Studios will give a sneak peek at Star Wars: The Clone Wars , coming to theaters on August 15th. [ComingSoon]

FirstShowing takes a look at the 10 Best and Worst Rappers Turned Movie Actors.

Before you watch the documentary on the new special edition of Raiders of the Lost Ark, beware that a certain character’s identity, which may or may not be a spoiler from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, is revealed on screen. [filmchat]

The Movie Blog lists Five Ways Iron Man was better than Batman Begins.

Bloody-Disgusting has the first photo from Platinum Dunes remake of Friday the 13th.

Lance Henriksen (Near Dark, Pumpkinhead) has completed a cameo for Jennifer’s Body. [Shock]

Cinematical has the teaser poster for City of Ember. Meanwhile Fox Walden has launched the official teaser website at CityofEmber.com.

CinemaBlend has details on the 25th anniversary dvd release of WarGames.

Rotten Tomatoes Names Harrison Ford’s Ten Best Film Characters.

ABC News lists Five Science Fiction Movies That Get the Science Right.

Diablo Cody will be the next guest programer at Hollywood’s New Beverly Cinema: “To me, the movie night I keep hyping, because I’m so excited about it, is Little Shop of Horrors, the ‘86 version, and Labyrinth. And I’m going to do Nightmare on Elm Street 3 with Fright Night. Midnight Madness with Wet Hot American Summer. I’m gonna try and get both Reitman’s in and do an Ivan and Jason double-bill.” [shock]

Zap2It has script reivews of Fox’s two new shows - JJ Abrams’ Fringe and Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse.

Rejects has this fan art showing what the movie version of War Machine might look like in the Iron Man sequel.

Arcade Fire will be scoring Richard Kelly’s The Box. [playlist]

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa will be released into IMAX® theatres worldwide on November 7, 2008. [CS]

Audrina Patridge, one of the stars of MTV’s The Hills, will make her feature debut opposite Chris Carmack and Laura Vandervoort in the Charles Winkler-directed Into the Blue 2. [THR]

Jessica Alba does her best impersonation of the iconic Charlie Chaplin in the June 2008 issue of Allure. [justjared]

The CW has given a 13-episode midseason renewal to Reaper. [variety]

Andras Hamori’s H20 Motion Pictures has greenlit The Gate — 20 Years Later, a sequel to the 1987 horror film that terrified me as a child. [bloody-disgusting]

eBoy’s latest poster takes on Los Angeles.

The Mythbusters will take on Indiana Jones.

Rotten Tomatoes takes a look at New Line’s 40 years of independence (before getting gobbled up by WB), 25 movies to celebrate their legacy.

Thinkway’s WALL-E action figures have begun to hit Toys ‘R Us stores nationwide (although I’m told they aren’t supposed to street until next month). MWCToys has gotten their hands on a few of the figures in the set. The figures range from three to  five inches in size, and retail for around $6. There are more than a dozen figures pictured on the back of the card. I need these yesterday!

Cool Stuff is a daily feature of slashfilm.com. Know of any geekarific creations or cool products which should be featured on Cool Stuff? E-Mail us at orfilms@gmail.com.

The Pitch: The Blockbuster Video Living Museum offers tourists a glimpse of how Americans rented movies before the advent of services like Netflix and iTunes.

Video of the Day is a daily feature of /Film showcasing geekarific video creations. Have a video we should be feature on VOTD? E-Mail us at orfilms@gmail.com.

Did Slashfilm piss off the Ghost of April Fool’s Day? Topping off a day of odd movie announcements and rumors, Variety reports that director Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man, Aguirre: Wrath of God) will helm a remake of Abel Ferrara’s NC-17 classic Bad Lieutenant starring Nicolas Cage in the title role, formerly inhabited, and fantastically so, by Harvey Keitel back in ‘92. The remake is scheduled to begin filming late summer. Like Point Break 2, first word of this remake arrived last year and I believe that Ferrara himself was considering it.

For those who haven’t seen it (do so), Keitel starred as a corrupt New York cop strenuously spiraling into an abyss of narcotics, thievery, naked disorientation, and betting/losing his monies on Darryl Strawberry (the irony). Ferrara’s is one of my favorite depictions of New York in film, because the city’s garbage and vice seeps into Keitel’s character until he’s forced to flush it out and face the consequences. And it may sound sensational, but the movie’s recurring theme of faith is like a punch in the gut and quite effective.

Apparently, Herzog’s remake will update the time period and cop to post-9/11. Last year, FilmStalker parlayed that the script by TV writer/producer William M. Finkelstein (NYPD Blue, Murder One) contained the following plot points…

According to the story Finkelstein is bringing the character back to life with a backstory of drug addiction, the showing of his promotion to Sergeant, the drug related murders of five illegal immigrants and a name for the character. Other than that they say that the drugs, sex, stealing and gambling are still going to play a major part in the story.

Hopefully this doesn’t turn into a case of “who’s bad?” between ‘92 NYC and ’00s NYC. That would make as much sense as remaking Larry Clark’s Kids in the present day. Respected producer Edward R. Pressman, who backed the original film, is on board again along with a long line-up of other producers including Stephen Belafonte and Nu Image/Millennium’s Danny Dimbort. I am a big fan of Herzog and dig/ignore a lot of Cage’s work, but I’m not yet convinced this will be anything other than a harder, more intimate version of Training Day.

Discuss: The talent involved strikes interest, but is an update needed? Who cares about debating whether Hollywood should remake the film, because they will remake anything, but do you personally think the times call for a new Bad Lieutenant, as it seems it will be heavy on commentary? I know we’ll get a lot of “well, it could be worse” below, but try to avoid that treaded route if you’ve seen the original. Add insight.

“This sequel is, like, so Hollywood.”

Surreal. It’s beginning to feel like I’m the windshield and Hollywood’s remakes and sequels are the insects. Jan de Bont (yes, Speed, Speed 2: Cruise Control) will direct a sequel to 1991’s Keanu Reeves/Patrick Swayze/Gary Busey starrer Point Break entitled Point Break: Indo. Yes, it’s a theatrical sequel from RGM and Essential Entertainment. IESB reports that Reeves and Swayze have most likely been asked to return. Bodhi lives! This wise-ass guy from my middle school cafeteria days owes me $5. IESB also has the official plot synopsis…

When Billy Dalton, military special ops and star surfer, is disqualified from the pro-surfing tour, he takes off for the coast of Bali looking for the perfect wave. While there he’s recruited by a private security force who are trying to find a gang known as The Bush Administration, surfing outlaws and modern day pirates who work like “The Ex-Presidents,” a bank robbing crew from Malibu twenty years ago.

The Bush Administration? Really? That rots my brain. Of note, however, is that the original screenwriter, W. Peter Illiff (Patriot Games, Varsity Blues and \m/) also penned this installment, so the bitchin’ dialogue should remain intact. The production company is also boasting that de Bont’s film looks to have the “most extreme action stunts ever caught on camera.” Hmm, cameo by MEG? Kidding.

As you may recall, a Point Break sequel has been kicked around for many months. I’m rather skeptical that Swayze will be back due to his health, and back in March Reeves spat on all sequels, so…maybe Lori Petty can return a la Sandra Bullock? But here’s hoping for a gnarly reunion, I know Busey is (even though his character already RIP’d). Too bad director Kathryn Bigelow has bigger fish to fry, like Iraq. Her original (she also helmed Near Dark and Strange Days) is still one of the most re-watchable popcorn movies of the ’90s; the action film equivalent to really, really good chewing gum, a nice contact buzz and the smell of Mr. Zoggs’s Sex Wax in the morning.

UPDATE: Stream the first Point Break in its entirety at HULU. via AzizIsBored

Discuss: What is Jan de Bont thinking? What are you thinking? What’s Gary Busey thinking?

The movie trailer for Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona has hit the web, in preparation of the film’s premiere at Cannes. The story follows “two young American women, Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) come to Barcelona for a summer holiday. Vicky is sensible and engaged to be married; Cristina is emotionally and sexually adventurous. In Barcelona, they’re drawn into a series of unconventional romantic entanglements with Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), a charismatic painter, who is still involved with his tempestuous ex-wife Maria Elena (Penélope Cruz). Set against the luscious Mediterranean sensuality of Barcelona, Vicky Cristina Barcelona is Woody Allen’s funny and open-minded celebration of love in all its configurations.”

It certainly looks like Woody Allen’s sexiest movie. I’m sure a lot of men will check it out just for the scene where Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz get it on. And apparently there’s apparently a sexy threesome scene between Bardem, Johansson and Cruz. Although there is something creepy about knowing that Woody Allen is standing behind the camera. Wait, didn’t he write this movie too? If you were a 72-year-old famous Hollywood director, what’s to stop you from essentially writing a dream porn where you could cast your fantasy starlets. I’m sure we’ll hear more about the movie when it premieres at Cannes.
Continue reading…

UPDATE #1 : I just received an email from Kotaku editor, Brian Ashcraft, who originally spoke with Konami’s Aki Saito in person and here’s what he said: “Hey Hunter, [Saito] said Paul Thomas Anderson, not just Paul Anderson, but specifically ‘Thomas.’ Hope that helps!” I just asked Brian again if Saito possibly meant to say director Paul W.S. Anderson (Resident Evil), and he added, “Saito’s handling the movie negotiations, so I’d assume he knew.” The awesome madness continues! More as it develops…

UPDATE #2: Collider talked to someone involved with the production who has confirmed that Paul Thomas Anderson is NOT involved. My guess is that Saito meant to say Paul W.S. Anderson, who has a history of video game movie adaptations. The original news story follows:

Get out of here, Konami! At a press conference for this summer’s Metal Gear Solid 4, Konami’s Aki Saito, who’s apparently hands-on with the Metal Gear feature film adaptation, told a Kotaku reporter that 1.) the franchise’s feted creator, Hideo Kojima, will not be directing the movie version and 2.) director Paul Thomas Anderson is a possibility…

Regarding to potential directors, Saito says, “Paul Thomas Anderson is interested.”

What would The New Yorker say if this became a reality? Saito also communicated how carefully Konami, the vid game’s publisher, is handling the adaptation, much to fans’ satisfaction, and expressed a certain weariness over Hollywood’s video game flick graveyard…

“Often Hollywood adaptations have the original game creator involved at the beginning, but somewhere along the line they fall out of view. This is why it’s very important for us to carefully pick the studio for this project.”

PTA handling a grandiose spy action film would be bananas and make for a highly unforeseen and no doubt controversial follow-up to his masterpiece, There Will Be Blood. Venturing into pipe dream land, I’m not sure if I’d rather see Tarantino’s Grand Theft Auto (the Internet fantasy fave for Rockstar’s franchise at the moment) or this. Not sure why Saito would just throw PTA’s name out there if there wasn’t some truth to it.

Brief MGS synopsis: Metal Gear Solid follows Solid Snake, a retired soldier who infiltrates a nuclear weapons disposal facility to neutralize the terrorist threat from FOXHOUND, a renegade special forces unit.

Discuss: !?! QT’s GTA or PTA’s MGS, which would be more badass?

Summit Entertainment’s big screen adaptation of Twilight just recently entered post production, but the filmmakers are already talking about the possibility of filming the sequels back to back. And for good reason.

“Our vampires can’t age…if they were like 45, people would say ‘What’s up?’” laughed director Catherine Hardwicke told MTV. “[Filming them together] could be the case. Then, you just get it done.”

“[We like the idea of] shooting them back to back, and shooting them simultaneously as they did with ‘Lord of the Rings’,” producer Greg Mooradian explained. “From a production standpoint, it’s a great thing to do. But it’s quite an undertaking.”

The lead stars are already contractually signed to at least three films, if the studio actually decides to greenlight them. And production on the big screen adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s New Moon and Eclipse novels could go into production immediately.

“The goal is to keep it moving quickly,” he explained. “[That will] give the audience a sense of knowing that the next installment is going to come at a really specific increment of time.”

UPDATE: A number of readers have pointed out that the above model is 1) FAKE, 2) LAME, 3) “Probably left over from Small Soldiers” and 4) Not worth talking about

Like a good number of 20somethings, a ThunderCats movie makes me want to run far far away and hide from the Langolier that is booming ’80s nostalgia. Furthering my phobia, Snarfs were probably a distant ancestor of LOLCats. Above is an alleged head model rendering of one the film’s combative furballs (probably Panthro) from Warner Bros‘ 2010 all-CG adaptation of the cult cartoon series/ironic mall T-shirts. No lie: it looks like a surfing steakhead vampire from Lost Boys: The Tribe.

The film will mark the directorial debut of Jerry O’Flaherty, a video game art director on Gears of War (he also got a shout out on Daikatana, nice) from a script by Paul Sopocy (Bijou Phillips’s upcoming It’s Alive). Some sites are linking to an old Vanity Fair piece that lists Hugh Jackman and Jessica Simpson in the cast, but that article’s a total hoax.

Discuss: Does George Lucas look like a grumpy, retired ThunderCat?