Since today has been pretty light in terms of hype, and no stories have excited the internerds enough to truly qualify for an interesting roundup, I’m going with a topic I really enjoy writing about: the state governor training program popularly known as the movie Predator. Ever since Arnold Schwarzenegger took his political seat in California, making him the second cast member from the 1987 sci-fi actioner to be elected governor of a state (Jesse Ventura was the first), I’ve been waiting for the announcement that Carl Weathers, Shane Black, Richard Chavez, Elpidia Carrillo or Bill Duke is campaigning for a similar political position.

Former porn actor Sonny Landham, who played the Navajo soldier “Billy” in the movie, actually ran for Governor of Kentucky back in 2003, but he lost, which leads me to believe no more than one Predator costar can be in the office at any given time (Ventura led Minnesota up until 2003, the year Schwarzenegger took over in California). So, Landham should certainly try again in two years, as the “Governator” will be done with his second term in 2011.

If he wins, who shall be the next in line? I’m really hoping for Duke to run in his home state of New York. But if none of the original actors are interested, we can always depend on a whole new roster of candidates, thanks to the newly confirmed reboot of the Predator franchise, which Robert Rodriguez will be directing at some undetermined time (I’ve got serious doubts that it’ll really be rushed for the reported Summer 2010 release date). Any strapping young actors out there with dreams of a future in politics: tell your agents they need to get you in this movie.

Okay, enough of my own political dreams; and on to the few fresh responses to the reboot (particularly its titular pluralization) after the jump:

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Netflix and Film Independent got a jump on the deluge of independent filmmaking news that will be coming soon via Sundance by announcing a new independent film contest today that will be chaired by Josh Brolin and judged by Brolin, Dan Jinks, Bruce Cohen, and Dustin Lance Black.

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Frank Miller’s film adaptation of Will Eisner’s The Spirit is an elaborately stylized train wreck. It would be easy to see only the glaring dissonances, such as childish one-liners sharing the screen with a scene in which a man is bludgeoned with a severed head, and write off the film entirely. But this wouldn’t do it the justice it deserves. The Spirit is a kind of “what if?” that populates the daydreams of only the most committed comic book nerds, which by some miracle has actually been made into a film. It’s a film that exists to answer an outlandish hypothetical question: what if two of the greatest comic artists of all time, Will Eisner and Frank Miller, teamed up to make a movie?!? Fortunately for Mr. Eisner, he didn’t live to see the result

The plot of the film is really unremarkable, and serves only to deliver the more considered stylistic elements. One of the big questions the film needs to answer, but doesn’t, is whether or not it’s a comedy. And what does “comic” mean here?

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I had a chance to see Quantum of Solace last night, and while I didn’t enjoy it as much as Casino Royale (is Daniel Craig already wearing out his welcome as the new Bond?) it does have some spectacular action sequences. However, if the Blonde Bond wasn’t enough to shake up the franchise for long, what could happen if Bond were re-imagined by some of Hollywood’s top filmmakers? There are a lot of different things that could be done with the character if someone were given free rein to reinterpret Bond as they saw fit.

After the jump, we imagine the five hypothetical films that five wildly different working filmmakers might make if Bond were put in their hands. We’ve taken a bit of license here (although not a license to kill), so use your imagination with the Bonds that could be, no matter how extremely loosely interpreted.

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Chilean director Nicolas Lopez first came to Austin in 2005 for SXSW with his feature film Promedio Rojo in tow. That film was about a fictional comic-book nerd named Roberto Rodriguez who vies for the attention of the hot new girl at school while trying to bolster his self esteem. While Lopez was in town, he convinced producer Elizabeth Avellan (producing partner and ex-wife of the real-life filmmaker Robert Rodriguez) to watch the movie, and she liked it so much that she agreed to have the studio work on the CGI effects for his next feature. That film ended up being Santos, which is another tribute to geekery. It’s about a lowly comic-book nerd who grows up to become a successful comic book artist, and actually finds out that the heroes he’s been creating are real –– and that he has superpowers himself. It’s like Galaxy Quest for the comic-book set. In our full interview with Lopez from Fantastic Fest, learn why he makes his stars gain weight for their roles, why Santos had to be an international co-production, and why he wants to be the Chilean George Lucas.

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• Variety says Tropic Thunder “has a good shot at staying number one through the weekend,” knocking The Dark Knight out of first place. It should “at least match the overall five-day take of last week’s Pineapple Express at $41.3 million,” but on a $90 million budget, it’ll take a lot longer for the Ben Stiller comedy to eke its way towards profitability.
• This story on Lionsgate’s revival of the Conan franchise makes no mention of Robert Rodriguez, who told a crowd at Comic-Con last month that he was personally shepherding the project and planned to direct the film. Curious..
• Willem DaFoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg will star in Antichrist, a “psychological thriller that evolves into a horror film” in the works from Lars Von Trier.
• Hillary Swank, who seems like an unrealistic candidate for a role that would require her to pretend to be French or to know something about getting fat, will produce and star in a film based on the diet book, French Women Don’t Get Fat.

Robert Rodriguez and Rose McGowan answer questions on upcoming Red Sonja with director, Doug Aarniokoski.

Highlights:

• Rodriguez is planning to restart the Conan franchise.
• RR apparently fell for Rose after she called him “Count Fuckula”
• Machete will be made starring Danny Trejo and it will be the first “Mexploitation” flick
• Sin City 2 & 3 have scripts
• Red Sonja will be so bloody, it will introduce the “Double R”

Read the liveblogging transcript after the jump.

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• For all the Sex and the City promotional madness and media hype, says Diane Garrett at Variety, “there’s no escaping the fact that the movie is a chick flick with strong appeal among an older femme demo but questionable interest among others. All the magazine coverage in the world — 63 pages in the May 23 edition of Entertainment Weekly alone — and Sex and the City TV marathons haven’t really moved the needle among men, many of whom suggest they’d rather be shot than sit through the movie.”
• Seemingly determined to try to recreate the relationship of Roger Vadim and Jane Fonda whether or not the Barbarella remake works out, Robert Rodriguez is apparently “shopping around Women in Chains!, a violent drama set at a woman’s prison starring his fiancee, Rose McGowan.” Oh, right––it’s camp, so it’s neither misogynist nor creepy
• IFC continues their Cannes buying spree days after the end of the festival, picking up Grand Prix winner Gomorrah. The Italian mafia flick has done solid business in its homeland since opening last week.
• The CineVegas film festival will honor Anjelica Huston. Don Cheadle, Rosario Dawson, Viggo Mortensen and Sam Rockwell with their Half Life award, while James Caan will be declared a Vegas Icon.
  

The NY Observer says Robert Rodriguez has lost Universal’s backing for his Barbarella remake, over the filmmaker’s insistence that his fiancee, Rose McGowan, play the title role. Rodriguez and McGowan “fell in love” on the set of Planet Terror, which led to the end of Rodriguez’s 16-year marriage to his producer, Elizabeth Avellan. According to the story, when the studio was first informed that Rodriguez intended to cast McGowan over “more famous names [like] Nicole Kidman, Halle Berry and Jessica Alba”, they re-calibrated Barbarella’s budget from $100 million to something “in the double-digit millions.” Rodriguez denies this; he says Universal will give him $60 million to make the film, no questions asked, but he thinks he needs $82 million, so he’s shopping the project around to other studios.

Of note: McGowan face was injured in a car accident earlier this year, leading to actress to obtain major plastic surgery. It’s possible that the studio is worried the 17 Cherry Darling obsessives that might pay to see McGowan in a Barbarella outfit may not even be able to recognize her (see this related rumor about the actress’ reported post-surgery trouble landing work). Also of note: not one of the three “more famous” actresses listed above has proven that she can actually open a movie.