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From The Sun:

PAGANS have pledged to perform “rain magic” to wash away cartoon character Homer Simpson who was painted next to their famous fertility symbol - the Cerne Abbas giant.

The 17th century chalk outline of the naked, sexually aroused, club-wielding giant is believed by many to be a symbol of ancient spirituality.

Many couples also believe the 180ft giant, which is carved in the hillside above Cerne Abbas, Dorset, is an aid to fertility.

A giant 180ft Homer Simpson brandishing a doughnut was painted next to the well-endowed figure today in a publicity stunt to promote The Simpsons Movie released later this month.

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Click here to see the actual painting.

Man, the publicity push for The SImpsons movie is really full-tilt.

I was excited enough about all of those 7-11's turning into Kwik-E-Marts.

Here's a list of where they are, in case you'd like to visit one. I've been trying to organize some friends for a weekend trip to Washington, D.C. to see the closest one to Greensboro, buy some Squishees, Buzz Cola and Krusty-O's.

Who needs the Kwik-E-Mart?

I....dooooooooo.......

A clip from the upcoming Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There has leaked (or was leaked) on YouTube.

It features Cate Blanchett playing a young Dylan (and she is, eerily, a ringer for the Dylan in one of my favorite rock docs, Don't Look Back) in a strange conversation with Allenn Ginsberg (played by one of my favorite comics, David Cross of Mr. Show and Arrested Development).

The guy who plays...that is supposed to be John Lennon, right?...is kinda crap. But otherwise it looks like it's very interesting.

UPDATE:

For comparison, here's Dylan being punk before it was cool from D.A. Pennebaker's 1967 documentary Don't Look Back. In the clip he suggests that Time Magazine doesn't print THE TRUTH -- because if they did they'd print just pictures of "a tramp vomiting into the sewer" next to "Mr. Rockefeller or Mr. C.W. Jones."

HEA-VY.

My favorite part of the last Harry Potter movie?

Seeing this Get Smart trailer beforehand.

The audience went nuts for it.

I discovered Get Smart on Nick-At-Nite when I was a kid -- back when their line-up included nothing from the 1980s.

I thought it was some of the strangest, funniest stuff I'd ever seen (particularly because I finally understood where much of one of my favorite cartoons, Inspector Gadget, was coming from).

And, the rarity among things from our childhoods, it just got better as I got older.

Now, it's going to be a major motion picture starring Steve Carell as Maxwell Smart.

All right...would you believe a minor motion picture?

A puppet show with very sophisticated lighting?

Those who never saw Get Smart -- or just haven't seen it in a while -- can brush up before the movie with these episodes on Google Video.

So DC Comics sent me a copy of Action Comics #851.

The issue, written by comics superstar Geoff Johns and Superman director Richard Donner, is the fourth part of the "Last Son" story arc in which a boy arrives on Earth who seems to be from Krypton.

It's also in 3-D.

You heard me. 3-D. Like with the glasses and everything.

The premise is that Superman heads into The Phantom Zone -- a place where, among other things, Kryptonian criminals like General ("Kneel Before...") Zod are imprisoned. In the Zone you have to wear special goggles to make reality comprehensible or you'll go mad.

I don't mind telling you, I was pretty excited about this issue. I carefully cut the 3-D glasses out of the special insert, put them on and...

Well, that was about it.

It was all pinky and a bit strange...but not that exciting, in the end. Even with the glasses the blurred images gave me a bit of a headache -- and nothing seemed to be jumping out at me or zooming past.

Someone from a generation in which 3-D was considered genuinely exciting help me out, here. Was it ever thus? Was it never exciting? Is that why the whole 3-D thing went by the wayside, except as kitsch?

I read a good review of U2's new 3-D concert film the other day.

Maybe that will make me a believer.

Adrien Brody.

Jason Schwartzman.

Owen Wilson.

Oh, yes.

It's a new Wes Anderson movie.

The trailer is here.

What's your favorite Wes Anderson movie? That American Express commercial, while good, doesn't count.

I vote "The Royal Tennenbaums," though I know some are partial to "The Life Aquatic."

It was finally confirmed at Comic-Con that Zachary Quinto, best known for his creepy clock-obsessed character on "Heroes", will play Spock in the upcoming Star Trek film, helmed by J.J. Abrams. Abrams did a fantastic job with Mission Impossible III, so I can't wait to see what he does with yet another stale franchise.

Even better, they've also confirmed that Leonard Nimoy himself will return to the film for a substantial cameo. "People have asked me why I'm doing this movie, and I think it's simple: It's logical," said the 76-year-old Nimoy, according to MTV.

Some of the other names that have been thrown around "Star Trek," which will turn back the clock on the franchise, include Matt Damon as Captain Kirk and Gary Sinise as Bones. Damon I'm not so keen on, as good as I think he is, but Sinise I would love to see as Bones. I think he has the acerbic wit down cold.

Who would you like to see cast in the classic roles? Is it sacrilegious to even make another movie?

Some of the still images of Heath Ledger asThe Joker that have been released (or leaked) ahead of the Batman sequel, The Dark Knight:

I'm relieved that Maggie Gyllenhaal will be taking over the Rachel Dawes role played by Katie Holmes-Cruise in the first film. Maybe she can make the character...you know...in any way interesting.

Now You can see (er...hear) a trailer that includes a horribly teasing little bit of the Joker's laugh near the end here.

Looks like Hunter S. Thompson's first novel, The Rum Diary, really is coming to the Big Screen.

The semi-autobiographical novel, published after Thompson became famous as a journalist and author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, concerns his early days as a reporter in Puerto Rico.

Johnny Depp is reportedly playing Thompson, a role he lived with Thompson to perfect in Terry Gilliam's film version of Fear and Loathing.

This is, apparently, strange movie news week.

Behold:

* My fanboy dreams come true, as they're apparently making a Jonny Quest movie.

* My Will Farrell nightmares come true, as he's apparently made another goofy sports movie. That's three of them now, for anyone who's counting. Four, if you count Kicking and Screaming. Which I don't. Does some studio boss have dirty pictures of him with a sheep or something?

* SNL digital short genius Andy Samberg (of "Lazy Sunday" and "D*ck In a Box" fame) has made his first film, Hot Rod. And it is apparently just effing awful. Which is disappointing, but somehow not surprising. I like the guy and hope they paid him enough to do it his way next time.

* Tom Cruise may make a cameo in the new Star Trek movie, playing the Enterprise's original captain.

* Apparently emboldened by the new Sci-Fi Channel series, they've released a new DVD edition of the 1980 Flash Gordon film. Flash Gordon: Savior of the Universe Edition features enhanced picture quality, sound, that awesome-in-its-ridiculousness soundtrack by Queen and some never-before-seen footage from one of the most unintentionally hilarious films of all time.

Joe posted some new Batman pics a couple weeks ago. Now Perez has some more up that I haven't seen before. I was skeptical of Heath Ledger at first, but I've slowly come to think that he might be pretty awesome as the Joker.

Couple more here.

A few strange and wonderful comic-booky things this week:

- The movie version of Alan Moore's seminal WATCHMEN now has an official Warner Brothers movie site, complete with production blog and cast list. It's happening...

- Edward Norton is not only playing The Incredible Hulk in the new movie (which is rebooting the character and hoping to wash the taste of the last one out of our mouths) -- he also pitched in on the script. Also, TV Hulk Lou Ferrigno, who is now a Los Angeles Reserve Deputy Sheriff, has apparently filmed a cameo for the film.

- Over at Blender, alt-country rocker Ryan Adams (whose new album is doing a lot better than I predicted) gives what should be some obvious advice about starting a comic book collection. Kids -- take it from me, a guy who, years into trying to purge his house of comics, still has boxes of them: if you're not hooked, don't start.

- Director John Singleton is attached to films about two of Marvel Comics' most prominent black characters - The Black Panther and Luke Cage. Singleton isn't talking about which will be produced first, but he does throw out some ideas about casting here. I'd personally be against model Tyrese Gibson as Luke Cage. I'm sure he has the physique but I'm not sure he has the chops. I'd go with Wesley Snipes -- no, I don't care that he already played Blade.

Well...not here, of course.

But the pictures are out there.

It seems Vanessa Hudgens, Zac Efron's brainy love interest in the popular High School Musical franchise (and demonstrably less brainy love interest in real life) took some nude photos of herself. And, of course, they leaked onto the Internet.

Where I found them in about three minutes.

Would get fired (and possibly sued) for linking to them from here but I will note a few things:

1) There are a series of photos of her in progressively less clothing, in provocative poses, until she's posing naked and smirking for what seems to be a camera with a self timer.

2) She's doing so in what is clearly a bedroom and not (as has been reported) a bathroom. The curtain behind her just looks like a shower curtain. There's a bed and dressers in plain view.

3) The sort of creepy part about this (I mean -- besides her being the star of Disney films) is that, though she's 18 years old, the bedroom looks very much like the bedroom of a very girly high school girl. Christmas lights are strung along the ceiling of the room. Stuffed animals are visible on the fluffy bed on which she poses on all fours in what appears to be her sports bra.

4) Though she's turned out the big lights, turned on the string of Christmas ones and lit a series of tea candles on the dresser to "set the mood" she's left a half-finished plastic bottle of Dannon water (exactly like the one I'm drinking out of right now, eerily) on the dresser right beside her. This sort of kills the teenage girl faux romanticism of the scene and gives it a creepy, "I'm going to need to stay hydrated" porno shoot vibe. While the photo is undeniably aesthetically pleasing (in the strictest anatomy-drawing class sense, of course) the room and the way she's set it up sort of torpedoes any potential sexiness and just sort of makes my skin crawl. Mostly.

5) Female friends of mine who are hostile to the idea that every woman needs a Brazilian wax to be sexy have a new hero in Vanessa Hudgens. She makes their argument forcefully.

The number of news stories on these photos this morning is sort of staggering -- and many suggest that this is going to ruin her career with Disney, maybe even take down the entire High School Musical franchise. But as I look at them I wonder -- can that be right? It's not like she's doing anything really awful in them. They don't even rise to the level of misbehavior of some recent beauty pageant contestants. She just did what some (maybe an increasing number, and we can talk about and be disturbed by that if we're so inclined) 18 year old girls do when they're young and beautiful -- she privately documented her nudity for her boyfriend. I don't think it was for mass consumption -- though with Paris and Lindsay as warnings along the path of young fame she probably should have known better.

Let's hope this mistake doesn't doom her.

Joss Whedon fans take note:

Amazon's Gold Box Deal for today is Firefly: The Complete Series for $19.99 (!)

Firefly is the prematurely canceled cult sci-fi show that spawned the film Serenity and retains a fierce cult following. Part Western, part space opera, the show has great characters, terrific production and effects (by which I mean they look as though they could actually be happening -- a bit of gritty reality to the future and to space travel).

It's well worth looking into -- and for the price of the average DVD you can get the whole series plus DVD extras.

In this week's posts you can:

* Read my musings on Britney Spears looking like a drag queen (and the possibility that she'll spend the rest of her life performing for them).

* Find out whether Disney Channel's High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens (and new star of inadvertent teen amateur Internet pornography) is into the Brazilian wax!

* Check out pictures of Maggie Gyllenhaal in the new Agent Provocateur lingerie ad campaign!

* Consider "The N Word" with comedians Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, Chris Rock and Dave Chapelle -- all of whom used it to greater effect than Eddie Griffin, who was bounced from a Black Enterprise event for dropping it this weekend.

* Tell me whether you got screwed when Apple dropped the price of the iPhone just two months after its release (and whether the $100 store credit they're giving customers makes up for it).

* Check out clips from shows coming out on DVD -- including 30 Rock, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and, of course, Flight of the Conchords.

If you missed any of it, it's all archived. Enjoy.

Also -- talk back, you lurking bastards!

So Britney's debacle has overshadowed the real news that came out of the VMAs: co-star Shia LaBeouf, who I bet is playing Indy's son, announced that the title of the new film is Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It's set to premiere in May 2008.

Thoughts, comments?

Runnin' Down a Dream, the David Bogdanovich documentary about Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, is being screened at select theaters next week.

The trailer -- featuring Eddie Vedder, Rick Rubin, Stevie Nicks, The Travelling Wilburys, Dave Grohl, Bob Dylan and Johnny Depp -- looks good.

If you live in Greensboro the closest showings are in DC and TN -- but the movie will be released Oct. 16 as part of a box set that includes three DVDs and one CD. Rare concert footage, interviews, all that good stuff. It's a Best Buy exclusive and, at $25.00 seems like a deal to me.

But here's the thing -- the film is apparently a butt-numbing FOUR HOURS LONG.

I love Tom Petty but come on, man -- don't do me like that.

I may have to watch it in installments, like a mini-series. But I can enjoy the coffee table book now.

It's official: Eric Bana will play the main villain, Nero, in the new Star Trek film. Probably best known as Bruce Banner in Ang Lee's "Hulk," he was also the hottie Hector in "Troy" (about the only good reason to see that movie). I'm also looking forward to him as King Henry VIII in "The Other Boleyn Girl" and Henry in "The Time Traveler's Wife."

There seem to be some strange movies becoming television shows lately.

The movies themselves are of course successful -- it's just strange trying to imagine them on the small screen.

The premiere of the Terminator TV spin-off, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, is drawing near and the AP reports George Lucas is planning a live action Star Wars television show thirty years after the first film hit theaters.

A "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" television show is supposed to have been in the works for a while now. The pilot apparently didn't fly at ABC but is now being shopped around. I actually think this might work really well, as long as the camp is left in for that old-school Avengers vibe.

Also, talk of an Ocean's 11 TV miniseries

There have been far, far too many television shows going to the big screen in the last decade or so -- and I'm wondering if reversing the formula is a good idea.

Maybe I'm just nervous because of the old Robocop TV series.

Some movies that were arguably better once they became TV shows:

1) M*A*S*H

2) Buffy the Vampire Slayer

3) In The Heat of the Night

4) Stargate

5) La Femme Nikita (Fairly good TV show, though not as popular as "Alias." I actually liked the movie remake Point of No Return with Bridget Fonda -- for whom I have a thing spawned by this film and Single White Female.)

7) Highlander (the movies were sort of all over the place. The show, while a bit much, was at least consistently interesting.)

Let me start with some wild hyperbole: I'm not sure I've ever seen a better Western than The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

And I've seen (and loved) a lot of Westerns. From John Wayne as Chisolm to Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday, from the grit of Sam Peckenpah's Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid and Eastwood's Unforgiven to the comic puckishness of Support Your Local Sheriff and Maverick.

But this one -- this one has it all. A strange, heartbreaking script that is at once timeless and topical. A knockout cast of some of my favorite actors (Brad Pitt, Sam Rockwell, a career-making turn for Casey Affleck). Great cameos (Nick Cave, James Carville). Beautiful, stunning cinematography. Brilliant, spooky direction.

And, beyond all that, it does not spare one of the greatest strengths of any authentic film of the genre: the ubiquitous weirdness of the Old West.

[SOME SPOILERS AFTER THE JUMP]

Went to see "Saw 4" with my little (18-year-old) sister this weekend.

And man did it make me feel old.

Well, new Bond Daniel Craig has signed on for four more Bond movies. That would make him Bond for one more movie than his predecessor, Pierce Brosnan (who made four Bond flicks) but wouldn't equal Sean Connery (six) or Roger Moore (seven).

I'm a die-hard Bond fan, love the books and the movies. I was very skeptical about Craig -- but he won me over with the excellent Casino Royale.

If I'm forced to choose I have to go with Connery as the best Bond -- but because the first Brosnan was the first Bond I ever saw on the big screen I feel like he'll always be my generation's Bond. Timothy Dalton was the first Bond I ever saw (on video, in License to Kill) -- and I thought he was good, but he didn't have the scripts and his second (and last) Bond movie was no good.

Roger Moore -- I really consider his entire tenure a sort of embarrassment and find it hard to believe that anyone was ever coked up enough to buy him as Bond.

So IESB has some blurry photos of Zachary Quinto as Spock in the new JJ Abrams flick. There's video, too.

Also, it's not been verified, but details of the plot are leaking, and it sounds pretty cool. Click here for spoilers if you want to know what may or may not be true.

Empire Magazine has an exclusive interview with Heath Ledger about playing The Joker.

According to the magazine the role involved Ledger "marinading himself in nothing but Joker before shooting."

Ewww...

Slight spoilers if you know absolutely nothing about Sweeney Todd. I don't think there's anything here that isn't in the trailer.

Quick note: For those who don't know, Sweeney Todd, coming to theatres Dec. 21, is a movie version of Stephen Sondheim's award-winning Broadway musical. Sweeney is the Demon Barber of Fleet Street -- a man wronged who wants revenge on those who wronged him.

So I was playing around on the Sweeney Todd Web site. I've been waiting for the movie for a long time now, really looking forward to it. But it's also been tinged with nervous anticipation -- will they be able to pull it off? I love Johnny Depp, and I didn't want him to screw this up.

Well, thank goodness, he hasn't. At least not from what I've heard. If you go to this link and click "Enter site", another window will open. In the top right corner is something called Audio -- click on it, and you can listen to parts of some of the different songs. I'm pleasantly surprised with Depp -- he's not bad. It's a hard role to sing, and what little I've heard impresses me.

However. Helena Bonham-Carter.

It's unfortunate that her and Burton are a thing because she's going to be hearing a lot of director's couch comments. She's awful -- she can't sing -- it's more of a fast talking, and there's no power at all behind it. Not to mention she sounds like she is trying to hurry through the lyrics as fast as she can so she can stop singing -- she doesn't seem to believe she should be singing, either.

She just annoyed me in "Bit of Priest" and "Worst Pies in London". And I'm even trying to cut her a break -- Angela Lansbury defined that role, and she's who I hear in my head when I listen, but I was willing to give someone else a chance. When I first heard Carter's name, I thought it could be a bit of inspired casting -- provided she could sing. Yeah, well, I will now be going to the movie dreading her moments.

All I can hope is that she can bring something to the role besides her singing. Except that I really feel like Mrs. Lovett is almost a sweet woman who's a bit demented -- she clearly loves the boy and has a thing for Sweeney, and thinks they can all be a happy family of sorts, with a few murders thrown in here and there -- not a demented woman who's scary, which is how I think Carter will play it -- Bellatrix does Mrs. Lovett.

On the other hand, listening to Alan Rickman in "Pretty Woman" didn't upset me. Does he sound like an actor singing? Yes. But it doesn't annoy me. He sounds like Snape singing, which turns me into a giddy fan girl inside.

Of course, you can listen to "Green Finch" if you wish to torture yourself. I hated it in the production I saw, and I hate it here, too. And I have no idea who the girl is who sings it, only that she is slightly better than the soprano who sang it on my soundtrack.

So now I'll still see it opening weekend, but some of the air has been let out of the balloon for me. What do you guys think? Am I being too hard on her? Anyone agree with me?

The more I see of Heath Ledger as The Joker, the more I like it.

But the design of the Bat suit is worrying me a bit. Do you see how much extra crap seems to have turned up on his torso -- etchings and contrasting colors and articulation. The shape of the cowl seems to have changed and become more teched-out as well.

To my mind Batman should always look dark, simple and deadly. He's not effing Iron Man. It's not important for us to see how much gadgetry we can jam into the suit to sell variant versions of the action figure later on. That's how you get to the George Clooney era Bat Suit. That way lies doom.

We went three Indiana Jones movies without much noticeable change in Indy's get-up -- and people didn't find that boring, they found it iconic.

Rolling Stone's Peter Travers chooses the top ten DVD releases of the year in the latest Rolling Stone.

Coming in at #1: The Blade Runner: The Final Cut DVD

Go check out (and groan at, and whine about) the others here.

Great place for Christmas present ideas, at the very least.

The trailer for the next Batman movie is intriguing, but they're being a bit stingy with shots of Heath Ledger's Joker.

I guess you don't show the whole shark doing it's thing in the Jaws trailer...

Hard to find good bootleg copies of the IMAX prologue that was shown with I Am Legend, but they're out there.

Comedian David Cross (Arrested Development, Mr. Show) has been taking some flak for his appearance in the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie.

So, he decided to answer the "Why? God, Why?" question via this funny and brutally honest blog post.

Short answer: It's an effing kids movie, you're taking it too seriously and of course he did it for the money.

Next.

...and I have to say, I think it deserves the hype.

I read screenwriter Diablo Cody's book last year, and hoped Juno would be as funny, touching and cool. Done, done and done.

Cody and actress Ellen Page both richly deserve their Golden Globe nominations. I loved that quiet, almost zen-like hilarity Michael Cera brought to Arrested Development and it's back (along with Jason Bateman's on-the-edge placidity) in Juno. Also, The West Wing's Allison Janney and J. K. Simmons (a sociopathic white supremicist on Oz and J. Jonah Jameson in the Spider-Man films)?

Sold.

Also, I have almost the entire soundtrack stuck in my head. Sonic Youth, The Kinks, The Moldy Peaches, Belle & Sebastian, The Velvet Underground and Cat Power. Yeah -- I'm going to actually go out and buy this one.

Saw Sweeney Todd this weekend, and enjoyed it much more than I'd expected to.

Here's my thing about musicals: I don't hate them. I just hate it when they take themselves too seriously. When there's dancing and singing involved it's very easy to go of the tracks of drama and into melodrama. And, though I know this makes me awful and closed-minded, I have a really hard time not laughing when people burst into a song in a way that I'm supposed to find moving rather than mirthful.

So -- Guys and Dolls I like. Les Miserable, not so much.

I dug Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Dreamgirls was too much.

Like Chicago, I feel like Sweeney Todd split the difference pretty well. I never saw the stage show, so I have to assume that most of the credit for the movie's tone should go to director Tim Burton, who has spent decades mixing the dramatic and the hilarious to great effect (Beetlejuice, Batman, Ed Wood).

The plot seems tailor-made for Burton -- a strange alchemy of Dickensian morality play and morbid, surreal storytelling worthy of Edgar Allan Poe. Which is a perfect playground for Johnny Depp (who seems almost preternaturally attracted to the weird), Helena Bonham Carter (who seems to have made a career of playing kind of creepy goth chicks) and Sacha Baron Cohen (who, with Borat under the belt, took to the sliminess and ambiguous nationality of his character like a fish to water).

I won't ruin any major plot points for you, but I will say this: if you're hoping for a happy ending, you might be better off seeing PS. I Love You.

... and editors and other people to check behind them.

Joaquin Phoenix made a statement while accepting an award by using cards instead of speaking -- only problem is, he apparently doesn't know how to spell his own name.

Comedian Zach Galifianakis (The Comedians of Comedy) interviews Michael Cera (Arrested Development, Juno) in this clip from Cinematical.

Wizard!

Our new intern in the office today suggested there was "not enough Michael Cera" in Juno.

I agreed that he didn't get enough screen time, but given the size of those shorts, I think it's impossible to say there wasn't enough of him.

LucasFilms released the following photo from the set of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

How excited am I about the new Indiana Jones flick? This is me at a movie theater recently, when I caught sight of the new Indiana Jones poster for the first time...