Yet another head-scratcher coming from Universal Pictures this week as they have apparently picked up the film rights to the classic Atari and arcade game Asteroids. Yes, that’s right Asteroids… the game with a little triangular ship shooting giant rocks in space. I mean, we all know that big screen adaptations of video games are usually doomed from the start, but when you’re dealing with a game as simplistic as Asteroids, well, I really don’t know what to say.

This is the same studio that has movies based on Monopoly, Battleship, Candyland, Stretch Armstrong, and Major Matt Mason in development. Clearly they’re primarily interested in selling nostalgia, although somehow I think they might be taking the idea a little too far. The thing that kills me is that apparently there was a four-way bidding war for Asteroids. Are you kidding?! Matthew Lopez (Bedtime Stories, Race to Witch Mountain) is the man who has been hired to invent a story out of thin air. What other Atari games should Universal pick up the rights to?

Bad news Neil Marshall fans: it looks like he didn’t get the directing gig for Predators after all. Harry over at Ain’t It Cool News has been able to confirm the director for the upcoming reboot/sequel on behalf of his good buddy Robert Rodriguez, and it is Hungarian filmmaker Nimrod Antal. Latino Review first reported that Antal was a possibility just a couple of weeks ago.

Nimrod Antal’s filmography includes the subway thriller Kontroll, the Luke Wilson slasher flick Vacancy, and the upcoming heist movie Armored, which apparently helped sell Rodriguez the most. He had this to say about Antal:

“I always loved Kontroll, where he proved himself to be a very resourceful and original filmmaker. When I saw Armored, I could tell he’s also great with action and has a keen eye for casting. He reminded me of Quentin with how he was able to work with a group of very strong, singular actor talents and make it look effortless. I know he’ll be able to get the most out of what we want to be an outstanding cast. We really want to go with a character driven action movie, because that’s what we all remember about the original Predator, and we want to take it even further with this.”

Predators will start shooting in the fall in Austin, Texas at Troublemaker Studios. Rodriguez promises that he will have a “more upfront role as a producer than would normally be the case in Hollywood”. Also, the story will involve a group of people stranded on the Predator planet. What do you think about the choice of director? Is this movie shaping up to be something great?

Steven Soderbergh has never been one to take a lot of time off in between projects. Last year he completed his two-part epic Che (which still has yet to be released on DVD), and just a few months later his follow-up film The Girlfriend Experience was screening at Sundance. Now we’ve already got a trailer for his next movie, a corporate comedy/thriller called The Informant starring Matt Damon.

When I first heard about this movie, for some reason I thought it was going to be more of a straight up espionage flick (maybe it’s just that Damon’s look with the glasses reminded me of The Good Shepherd), but it’s definitely got a strong satirical edge to it. The fact that it’s a true story also interests me. In a way this feels like Soderbergh’s response to The Coen Brothers’ Burn After Reading, and it will probably also be a little too smart for mainstream audiences. Based on the non-fiction book by Kurt Eichenwald, Matt Damon plays Mark Whitacre, the vice-president of a company who becomes an informant for the FBI, feeding them details of an illegal price-fixing scheme from the inside. What they don’t realize, however, is that the man is bipolar and he also has an agenda of his own. The Informant is set to be released on October 9th. Check out the trailer after the jump.

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Fantasia is one of the largest (if not the largest) genre film festival in North America. It takes place every summer in Montreal, Canada, and features all kinds of horror, sci-fi, and action films from all over the world, often with an emphasis on Asian cinema. This year is no different, with two of the biggest films being Takashi Miikie’s Yatterman and Chan-wook Park’s Thirst. Other fairly high profile selections include Michael Dougherty’s long-delayed Trick’r'Treat, Uwe Boll’s Stoic and Jaume Collet-Serra’s Orphan.

This year’s festival takes place between July 9th and 29th. The full program schedule will be available online by the end of the week. Check out an extensive list of titles playing after the jump.

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I consider myself a fan of Vince Vaughn, but I have to admit, his last few films have been slowly dropping my confidence in him to the point where I’m not even sure I’ll actually see them anymore. He’s become such a big star that he just seems to be going through the motions a lot of the time, starring in questionable romantic comedies. Four Christmases may have made a lot of money, but it was absolutely terrible. On the other hand, I thought The Break-Up was surprisingly good. So now we’ve got a trailer for his latest film Couples Retreat, and I’m having a hard time judging whether or not this will actually be funny or just another dud.

It does seem to be targeted at a slightly older audience, if only because it’s about a group of couples who go to an island resort to participate in marriage counseling. What it has going for it is the fact that it was written by his buddy Jon Favreau, who once again co-stars, and it’s directed by their long-time friend Peter Billingsley (aka Ralphie from A Christmas Story) who has also produced many of their films over the years. Plus the cast includes Jason Bateman, Kristen Bell, Malin Akerman, Peter Serafinowicz, Jean Reno, John Michael Higgins and Ken Jeong. There’s sort of a Forgetting Sarah Marshall vibe to the whole thing, and you’d hope that a group of friends shooting a movie on a tropical island somewhere would lead to a fun (and potential funny) atmosphere. That said, the trailer itself didn’t make me laugh once. Couples Retreat hits theatres on October 9th; check out the trailer after the jump and see what you think.

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Nostalgia is still an extremely valuable commodity in Hollywood right now, with everyone trying to find ways to follow in the footsteps of Michael Bay and create the next massive blockbuster franchise. It seems a safe bet that G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra will not be nearly as successful as Transformers, but if it’s even half as huge, you can bet we’ll be seeing more ’80s cartoons on the big screen very soon. That being said, which animated show would you like to see adapted for the big screen next? Some of the choices on the poll have been previously announced but aren’t yet in production. Cast your vote and then discuss some of the other possibilities in the comments below.

Following up on last week’s announcement about adding more Best Picture nominees, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have introduced a couple of additional tweaks to the Oscars that will further streamline the ceremony.

The first change is that they have decided to relegate all of the special tribute awards (such as the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, Thalberg Award for creative producers, and miscellaneous honourary career achievement awards) to a separate ceremony in November, a black-tie gala limited to 500 invited guests. This will free up some time during the main Oscar telecast, and also allow them to give out as many of these special awards in a given year as they see fit. Win/win if you ask me.

The second, and slightly more confusing, change is that they have modified their method for selecting nominees for Best Original Song. Every year voters watch clips of the films where each song was used, and then rate it on a scale from 6 to 10. (Apparently the requirement of a song to be used in an actual scene, rather than over credits, is why Bruce Springsteen’s “The Wrestler” was shut out.) The new rule stipulates that a song must receive an average rating of 8.25 in order to be nominated, and if no songs qualify, there will simply be no nominees that year. It seems like this may be a way of slowly phasing out the Best Original Song category altogether, perhaps without ruffling too many feathers. Do you agree with these changes? Do you think they should just eliminate the Best Original Song category?

In stores this week, most of the major DVD releases are pretty terrible… but we’re here to help you weed through the crap to find a few gems. For the masochists, there’s a serious helping of movies that are “so bad they’re good” out today, including Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, 12 Rounds, Transmorphers: Fall of Man, and Uwe Boll’s Tunnel Rats. Look beyond that though and you’ve got Fred Durst’s critically-acclaimed The Education of Charlie Banks, the Michel Gondry/Joon-ho Bong/Leos Carax triptych Tokyo!, and a new 20th Anniversary Edition of Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing, not to mention Eastbound & Down: The Complete First Season and the long-awaited first season of 1990 comedy Parker Lewis Can’t Lose! My life is officially complete.

• Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (DVD, Blu-ray)
• 12 Rounds (DVD, Blu-ray)
• The Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience (DVD, Blu-ray)
• Two Lovers (DVD, Blu-ray)
• The Education of Charlie Banks
• Tokyo! (DVD, Blu-ray)
• Tunnel Rats
• Transmorphers: Fall of Man (DVD, Blu-ray)
• The Betrayed
• Sea Beast
• Dark Streets
• The Human Contract
• Do the Right Thing: 20th Anniversary Edition (DVD, Blu-ray)
• Lookin’ to Get Out: Extended Version
• The Life of Lewis Carroll
• RIP: A Remix Manifesto
• Eastbound & Down: The Complete First Season
• Entourage: The Complete Fifth Season
• Eureka: Season 3.0
• The IT Crowd: The Complete Second Season
• Parker Lewis Can’t Lose: Season One
• Stargate Atlantis: The Complete Fifth Season
• Flawless (Blu-ray)

While a biopic about Charles Darwin is probably not destined to be the most riveting thing ever committed to celluloid, it seems inevitable that it will spark at least a little bit of controversy. The man’s research forms the basis of modern evolutionary theory, and is still contested by many religious groups (although not so much by scientists). That said, it’s a bit strange how bland and unassuming the trailer for Creation actually is.

Starring Paul Bettany as Darwin and Jennifer Connelly as Darwin’s wife Emma, the movie supposedly explores the Darwin’s struggle over his own theories and the fact that they conflict with his wife’s religious views. It almost seems like the movie will try to explain how both points of view can co-exist (further supported by the accompanying logo for Mel Gibson’s distribution company Icon Films). Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, but I think there will definitely be a tendency for people to question the motives behind this project. Based on the book Annie’s Box: Charles Darwin, his Daughter, and Human Evolution by Randal Keynes, it’s seems a bit out of place for director Jon Amiel (best known for his Hollywood flicks The Core and Entrapment). Does this seem worthwhile to you? Check out the trailer below and see what you think.

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I’ve been a little slow on the uptake with this next bit of news, and although it’s nothing earth-shattering it will probably be of interest to some of you horror fans. A couple of months ago, Jackie Earle Haley was confirmed as the new Freddy Krueger in the upcoming A Nightmare on Elm Street remake/reboot. The movie is now currently shooting in Chicago, where Jackie Earle Haley has been updating his Twitter account from periodically.

Last week, he posted the above photograph of his morning cup of coffee on TwitPic. While it might not appear to be anything special, if you look closely at the right side of the pic you will notice a rather odd piece of cutlery! Kind of a cool little tease for the fans. The remake is being directed by music video veteran Samuel Bayer (The Smashing Pumpkins - “Bullet with Butterfly Wings”, Green Day - “American Idiot”), and also stars Rooney Mara as Nancy Thompson. It is scheduled to hit theatres on April 16, 2010. (Thanks to Jon Rocks for the heads up!)