So far three actresses has been rumored for the female lead in the upcoming fourth Mission: Impossible flick. Those has been Kristin Kreuk (TV’s Smallville, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li), Paula Patton (Precious) and Lauren German (Hostel: Part II). Now Deadline has confirmed that Patton has come out as the victor and has gotten the role. Not much is known about her part, other than the fact that she’ll play a young operative who has to work together with Ethan Hunt, who, as usual, is being portrayed by the always excellent yet underrated Tom Cruise.

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Last year we heard that Diablo Cody would be starting to expand her career from merely writing movies to producing them as well, and although she is listed as executive producer on both Jennifer’s Body and her Showtime series United States of Tara, one of the first projects she will be overseeing without writing it herself is an adaptation of the book Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament. Written by S.G. Browne, it is a dark comedy about a guy named Andy who dies in a car crash but comes back to life as a zombie. Although initially bummed out about this change in lifestyle, he eventually falls in love with another zombie named Rita after meeting her at an Undead Anonymous meeting. Although we hadn’t heard anything about this project in a while, it is apparently still in development, and now two pretty intriguing names just might end up starring in it.

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Just when you thought Dwayne Johnson was getting back to doing more action-oriented movies for grown ups such as Faster and The Fast and the Furious 5, he goes and signs on for something like this. I guess family films are where the money is, but it still seems more than a little embarrassing to be picking up Brendan Fraser’s sloppy seconds. When it was first announced that Fraser would not be returning for the sequel to the 3-D adventure film Journey to the Center of the Earth, a lot of people wondered how Josh Hutcherson could possibly carry the film on his own. Now we know that he won’t have to, if you smell what Dwayne Johnson is cooking.

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If you’re a fan of horror anthology films like Creepshow and Tales from the Crypt, you’ll probably be interested to hear that there is a new one in the works that is due to be released sometime next year. Genre movies composed of multiple short films used to happen a bit more frequently back in the ’70s and ’80s, but they have been all but dead lately… that is, until Michael Dougherty resurrected the idea with Trick ‘r Treat. Now director Adam Green (Hatchet, Frozen) is teaming up with Joe Lynch (Wrong Turn 2), Adam Rifkin (Detroit Rock City) and Tim Sullivan (2001 Maniacs) for a project called Chillerama. Read on to find out what each movie is about.

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Now that Zack Snyder managed to bring one “unfilmable” graphic novel to the big screen last year with Watchmen, someone else is finally getting the courage to try adapting another challenging comic series, this time for the small screen. Neil Gaiman’s Sandman is considered by many to be one of the most ambitious mainstream comics ever created, and became a flagship title for DC’s adult-oriented Vertigo imprint in the early ’90s. After going through development hell as a feature film for years (with Roger Avary attached to direct at one point), Warner Brothers have since decided that the ideal medium is television, and they are now in talks with a number of writers and producers to turn it into a series. At the top of the list of possible creative talent being considered is Supernatural creator Eric Kripke.

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Although we just launched the Game Junk podcast last month, we typically don’t post much video game-related stuff here on Film Junk simply because I know a lot of you aren’t interested. However, this is definitely something that is worth making an exception for. In case you haven’t heard, earlier this year the game studio formed by several ex-Lucasarts employees, Telltale Games, acquired the rights to both Jurassic Park and Back to the Future with the intention of releasing new games based on these classic movie franchises. Now this week they’ve unveiled the first piece of artwork for the Back to the Future game, and confirmed the involvement of both Christopher Lloyd and Bob Gale.

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Ironically, one of the things many of us tend to overlook every year at the Toronto International Film Festival is the line-up of interesting Canadian films. I guess I only have my own biases to blame, but this year there are quite a few intriguing flicks from The Great White North including Bruce McDonald’s Trigger, Daniel Cockburn’s You Are Here, and Mike Goldbach’s Daydream Nation, not to mention FUBAR II and this film by Carl Bessai. Repeaters is basically being billed as the concept behind the Bill Murray comedy classic Groundhog Dog re-imagined as an “aggressive, fast-paced thriller.”

The basic idea is that a group of people in rehab get a one day pass to go back into the world to make amends, only to find that they wake up the next day and relive it all over again. And again. Slowly their behaviour becomes more bold and destructive and they realize there are no consequences to their actions. The movie stars Dustin Milligan (90210), Amanda Crew (Charlie St. Cloud) and Richard de Klerk (Cole), and although the premise is cool, I’m not quite sure it will live up to recent time loop movies like Timecrimes or Triangle. A theatrical release for Repeaters is still TBA; check out the trailer after the jump.

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Life During Wartime
Written and Directed by: Todd Solondz
Starring:  Shirley Henderson, Dylan Riley Snyder, Ciaran Hinds, Paul Reubens

Todd Solondz might be the most polarizing comedy director no one’s ever heard of. The reputation of his films precede them and a shroud of controversy seems to surround his work, which frequently depicts explicit sexuality, including pedophilia and rape, not to mention murder, exploitation, and ridicule channeled through a pitch-black misanthropic irony. And yet you might as well be speaking another language bringing up his name and filmography with a mainstream crowd. Even in the circles in which he’s known, his sense of humor is a decidedly acquired taste. So specific, in fact, that his latest film, Life During Wartime, may come as a shock to his fans. And not the sort of shock they’re used to.

A direct follow up to probably his most well known film, 1998’s Happiness, Life During Wartime provides a notably more contemplative take on the lives of Solondz’s characters, who have been deliberately and entirely recast for this sequel. Yes, it has its moments of biting humor, dark caricatures, and discomfort, but this time around, he approaches them with a subtler, more refined eye. Happiness is a busy, sprawling movie — Wartime is a brief string of conversations reactive to the action of that film.

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The $20 million opening weekend for The Last Exorcism leaves little question that director Daniel Stamm will soon be moving on to bigger things. The question is, what will his next project be, and will it use a similar faux documentary style? The good folks over at HeyUGuys recently received a few hints from Stamm himself as to what that project may be. They put two and two together to determine that he will probably be teaming up with M. Night Shyamalan for the next installment in his Night Chronicles series. You have to wonder though, at this point, will a Shyamalan collaboration be good or bad for his career?

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When the marketing campaign for your indie film manages to attract the attention of local politicians and news media, you know you’ve done something right. Cheeky billboards for the upcoming Will Ferrell / Adam McKay-produced comedy The Virginity Hit have reportedly been turning heads across the U.S., with many outraged citizens demanding that they be removed. (A similar controversy erupted over billboards for the Elisha Cuthbert horror flick Captivity a few years ago.) The billboards in question advertise a toll-free help line for losing your virginity, and when the phone number is called, a pre-recorded message from the cast members offers humourous advice before directing callers to the movie’s website. Pretty clever, right?

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Earlier this week, some choice comments from James Cameron in Vanity Fair sparked debate over the reputation of 3-D films and the best use of the new technology. Cameron criticized Piranha 3D for cheapening the medium and using it as nothing more than a gimmick, claiming that the “biggest and the best” films are now also being made in 3-D. Well, now, in an effort to stand up for his movie (and sensing an opportunity for more publicity), Piranha 3D producer Mark Canton has bared his own teeth and fired back a passionate and long-winded statement of his own:

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Underwater dangers seem to be back in demand these days (movie-wise, that is). We had Piranha 3D earlier this month, along with its proposed sequel in development, and now news hits that Shark Night 3-D is moving forward in production. Those unfamiliar with the project might ask, “Who would be directing a film called Shark Night 3-D?” Well, it’s none other than Snakes on a Plane director David Ellis. With a resume that also includes two of the Final Destination films, Ellis certainly has a handle on creative deaths and gore, which makes him a perfect fit for the material.

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