• Spike Lee has spent his own money to acquire Time Traveler, “a memoir by Ronald Mallett, one of the nation’s first African-Americans to earn a Ph.D in theoretical physics.” He’ll co-adapt and direct.
• David Gordon Green’s The Pineapple Express will screen at the Just For Laughs Film Festival on July 19, three weeks before Sony opens the stoner comedy wide.
• Passchendaele, a Canadian WWI drama about the famous muddy battle, will open the Toronto Film Festival.
  
• Universal will release the second Da Ali G Show theatrical spin-off, Bruno, on May 15, 2009, a date already occupied by the sequel to The Da Vinci Code.

Two days after the Universal Studios fire, there are a lot of rumors going around as to the extent of the damage. A FishbowlLA tipster from a revival house in Alabama fed the blog an email that they say came directly from Universal, warning that “nearly 100% of the archive prints kept” on the lot went up in flames, and as a result, the studio “will be unable to honor any film bookings of prints that were set to ship from here.” The tragic details after the jump.

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As if Toy Fair 2008 wasn’t reminding us enough about the intermingling of Hollywood and the toy and game industry, Hasbro and Universal had to go and announce a six-year partnership, which will result in at least four (mostly) board-game-inspired feature films. It wasn’t that surprising, considering the success of Transfomers and the anticipated success of G.I. Joe, both of which are based on Hasbro properties, and the still-shocking news from last summer that Ridley Scott is developing a Monopoly movie (not to mention that Hasbro had previously announced its intentions while switching from CAA to William Morris last year). Plus, this comes as a perfect follow-up to the recent Mattel/CAA team-up.

Personally, I’m wondering why the deal is so exclusive against brands that aren’t board games (Stretch Armstrong being the exception). I would love to see movies based on Mr. Potato Head, Lincoln Logs and Easy-Bake Oven. And as far as the games that aren’t getting any love, I’d be interested in movies based on Guess Who, Mouse Trap, Jenga and Risk (the Australians take over the world!!). Like me, the rest of the blogosphere has gone ga-ga for alternate ideas. Also, a lot of bloggers have been overly critical of the deal and have had some harsh responses to the list of properties that were optioned for the partnership. Check out some of my favorites after the jump.

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• With the WGA strike looking almost certain to begin by the end of the week, new complications seem to arise every minute.  Now two studios, Universal and New Line, have forbidden contracted scribes from complying with the WGA’s “script validation program.” It’s a rule insisting that, in the event of a strike, writers must submit evidence of all projects-in-progress to the guild. New Line sent a letter to their writers, which flat-out stated that adhering to the WGA rule wil be considered “a breach of your writing agreement.” The AMPTP has already ruled that the WGA rule is illegal; WGA, natch, disagrees. More here.
• Heath Ledger and Sean Penn are in talks to star in Terrence Malick’s next film, Tree of Life. The project has been in development for years, but of course, nobody knows anything about it. Except, at one point, it was going to star Colin Farrell and be shot partially in India, and neither of those things are happening anymore.
• Rebecca Miller (wife of Daniel Day-Lewis, and his director in The Ballad of Jack and Rose) will direct Julianne Moore, Winona Ryder and Robin Wright-Penn in The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, based on Miller’s novel. The plot concerns a dutiful wife” (presumably Wright-Penn?) “whose husband falls for a younger woman” (Ryder?), “freeing her to explore her buried sensuality and leading to a ‘a very quiet nervous breakdown.’”

• Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody has sold a pitch to Universal for a film called Girly Style, which The Hollywood Reporter describes as “a female-driven comedy set at a college.” Mason Novick, who Cody recently described on her blog as “totally my Rene Angelil,” will produce.
• A suspect has been arrested for stealing “computers, photographs and documents” from the set of the fourth Indiana Jones movie. The criminal mastermind was nabbed after contacting a number of movie blogs and offering the loot for sale.
• Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody have been cast in Splice, a sci-fi thriller about genetic engineering to be directed by Vincenzo Natali. Natali recently helmed a segment of the omnibus Paris, je t’aime.

Link: Why Hollywood Movies Prefer to Premiere in New York.

“But the real reason is that New York’s the home base for the burgeoning, always-hungry celeb-photo press, guaranteeing coverage…The joke is that I don’t think you have to show the movie. If you say “red carpet”, they’ll come, they’ll take the pictures, they’ll ask the same questions, and they’ll go home”

This reminds me of a great article I read in The Times a couple of weeks ago about the recent decline in the box office. In the article, Mr. Lynton of Sony said he would be focused on making, “only movies we hope will be really good.” Mr. Shmuger, of Universal, said the he intends to reassert “time and passion” in movie production. He goes on to say that some of his own summer movies should have never been made.

It is evident to me that Hollywood is willing to blow off their audience if it does not effect their bottom-line. But now, audiences are no longer taking Hollywood’s crap and are forcing them to actually think about making quality films. They are no longer fulfilled by the empty experiences of the multiplex. As audiences are turning away from the multiplex, what will we do now for our film watching experience?

Dave