There's a really neat-sounding small-scale sci-fi project in development at Overture Films called Pandorum. But for the news that Paul W.S. Anderson is involved, I'd be really excited. Pandorum will be about two spaceship crewmen who wake up on their ship with no idea who they are or what they're supposed to be doing. Soon, they "make a discovery that threatens the survival of mankind."

Anderson didn't write and won't be directing the film -- those tasks both fall to relative unknowns -- but he is reteaming with his Resident Evil cohorts to produce it. He's not exactly on my must list these days, since the Resident Evil franchise has pretty much died under his supervision and AvP isn't exactly a venerable addition to the list of ongoing big-name series. Pandorum's premise sounds cool, but then so did Event Horizon's until you actually learned what was going on. In any case, Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster (in a possible rare non-psychopathic role?) have signed on to star as our heroes, which is good news. I guess the big question is what exactly the two of them "discover" on that spaceship.

Pandorum is supposed to start production in August in Berlin, according to the Variety piece; no word on a release date. Sci-fi fans, make a note of it.

I know that Ben Foster is a really talented actor and I'm quite sure that he will go really, really far in his career. I wouldn't even be surprised if he becomes a Robert Redford type -- hugely popular and long-lasting. But still ... whether he's got wings as a mutant, or helps some creepy vampires attack a small Alaskan town, to me he's always the cute, goofy kid from Disney's Flash Forward.

Although the show was after my time, I would always stop to watch it when flipping through the channels. It was tres cute and starred Foster as Tucker and Firefly's Jewel Staite as Becca -- two best friends and neighbors who have been close since birth and are now in middle school. Above you get to check out their nervous kiss and final moment of the show. Man, they were cute kidlets.

This one is even better to check out Foster as Tucker, but embedding was disabled.

Last Rewind Answer: Kadeem Hardison played Theo's friend on The Cosby Show.

Oren Moverman's upcoming directorial debut, The Messenger, already seemed pretty tasty when Jessica posted that the super-talented Ben Foster had signed on to star. Then Jena Malone and Eamonn Walker signed on. Now, The Hollywood Reporter posts that Woody Harrelson and Samantha Morton have also joined the cast. Unfortunately, there's no word on who they'll all be playing, beyond Foster starring.

Foster will play an army dude who is assigned to one of the crappiest jobs out there, aside from cannon fodder. He gets teamed up with someone he doesn't like and has to inform families when their loved ones have died in combat. Somehow, he ends up falling for a soldier's widow, which I imagine complicates matters. THR goes on to state that this is being billed as "a poignant, life-affirming road movie." As a "road movie," it could be that Foster drives around to tell these families. However, he needs enough time to fall for a widow, so maybe we're going to get some military Three for the Road type action? Whatever the case, the film starts production on May 20, so maybe we'll hear more soon.

Who would you rather be on the road with: Ben Foster or Woody Harrelson?

If you had to pick one of the break-out stars in 2007, chances are Ben Foster would be one of the names at the top of the list. Between his performances in 3:10 To Yuma and 30 Days of Night there is no question that this young actor has earned the right to get his own starring roles. Besides, anyone that can make me laugh or scare the crap out of me in equal amounts deserves a little respect. The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Foster has signed to star in the military drama, The Messenger.

The story centers on an army man (Foster) who has been given the unpleasant assignment of informing families that a loved one has died in combat (talk about being the bearer of bad news). Forced to work with a partner he can't stand, things become even more complicated when he begins to fall in love with a soldier's widow. So far, only Foster has been officially attached to the film, so there is still plenty of time to fill out the rest of the cast.

The film marks the directorial debut of Oren Moverman, who is probably most famous for co-writing Todd Haynes' Dylan 'biopic' I'm Not There. Alessandro Camon co-wrote the script for The Messenger and is already hard at work on the Leonardo DiCaprio thriller, The Chancellor Manuscript. Foster has also lined up a role in the dysfunctional family comedy Birds of America, but for that role it looks like it's going to be another ensemble piece. Luckily for Foster, he's not the type of actor who fades into the background. The Messenger is scheduled to start shooting in April.

We might not know exactly what Sylvester Stallone is doing next, but we do know he's apparently got a thing for remaking old Charles Bronson films. Not long ago, Stallone expressed interest in remaking Death Wish, and now Dark Horizons tells us the aging action star will star in a remake of the 1972 Bronson flick, The Mechanic (and though they say nothing of the man also directing, other sites are jumping to that conclusion). DH also claims the film's budget clocks in at around $40 million, and that MGM is looking at folks like Ryan Gosling, Ben Foster, Cillian Murphy and Elijah Wood to co-star.

The original film revolved around an aging hitman (played by Bronson, and now Stallone) who befriends a young man that wants to become a professional killer. Over at IMDb, however, they claim the film will be totally re-imagined as a thriller in a post 9/11 world. A few days ago, Stallone struck a deal to star and produce two new action films, though there was no further info on what those two films would be. Perhaps Sly is off the Death Wish train and now setting his sights on The Mechanic? Could one of these (or both) eventually become the film(s) included in that deal? Which would you rather see Sly remake: Death Wish or The Mechanic?

Dysfunctional families and indie films go together like peanut butter and chocolate, and Birds of America, directed by playwright Craig Lucas, has dysfunction in abundance. Morrie (Matthew Perry), who raised his younger siblings Jay (Ben Foster) and Ida (Ginnifer Goodwin) after their father's death, now lives in the family home with his wife, Betty (Lauren Graham). Morrie is a college prof desperately seeking tenure, and the person who is most in a position to make that happen for Morrie is his friend Paul (Gary Wilmes), who lives right next door with his wife, Laura (Hilary Swank), in their perfect house, with their perfectly maintained flower bed, with their perfectly adorable infant.

Morrie is one of those guys who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders, and he represses his emotions so tightly that the stress of it all has manifested itself in a case of constipation so extreme he has a home office set-up in his bathroom so he can work while trying to ... work all that out. Betty, meanwhile, wants desperately to have a perfect life and a child like Laura, but Morrie won't consider parenthood until he makes tenure. Since their whole future happiness is dependent upon whether Paul recommends Morrie for tenure, both Morrie and Betty go overboard in trying not to offend Paul and Laura -- even to the extent of not complaining that Laura's dog does his business in Morrie and Betty's yard. Unlike Morrie, the dog does not have a constipation issue, so they are constantly cleaning up after it.

Say all you want about Josh Hartnett kicking vampire ass (never in a million years did I think Hartnett would kick anyone's ass), but when it comes to 30 Days of Night, Ben Foster clearly steals the show. I had a chance to catch the flick last week, and Foster brings new meaning to the word 'creepy.' I won't say too much about his character since I'm sure there's a lot of you who haven't read the graphic novel, but I will tell you that he plays a dude named The Stranger. And when he first arrives in town, all beat up and freaky-looking, no one knows what to make of him. Is he good? Is he bad? Is he wearing deodorant?

Thomas over at Reelz Channel sent in this scoop to us earlier today; apparently, during a recent interview promoting the film, 30 Days of Night screenwriter Brian Nelson teased fans with the sort-of-promise that The Stranger will be back in future sequels. Do keep in mind that Reelz spits out a few spoilers prior to dishing this info, so if you want to avoid them, you might want to stick here -- I'll just give you Nelson's quote: "I'll just tantalizingly say it is possible you might see more of The Stranger in the future." There's no word on whether Foster would return to the role (his stuff was so good in 30 Days, they added additional scenes to give him more screen time), but I imagine they'd fight to have him come back and join in on the fun. 30 Days of Night hits theaters this weekend. Oh, and there should definitely be a sequel. The film rocks -- the studio knows it, the fans know it -- so let's just get it underway.

That last R-rated clip from 30 Days of Night was pretty cool, but wait'll you get a load of this new one. It's definitely more my kind of thing, since I prefer zombies to vampires, and the clip makes the pic look more like a zombie movie. What could be better than Mark Boone Junior driving around in some kind of chainsaw-esque tractor, slicing through multiple baddies while simultaneously blowing away others with a shotgun? Exactly. Nothing could be better. In fact, I think I like this scene better than that sequence in Dawn of the Dead where they're driving the modified bus around. But that partially has to do with my appreciation for Mark Boone Junior. He just looks like the perfect guy to be in charge of a task like this. Anyway, once again you have to prove you're 18 (or otherwise get through the sign-in page) in order to watch the clip. Or you could just wait until Friday when the movie hits theaters.

Cinematical wimp pansy editor-in-chief, Erik Davis, saw the film and loved it, even though he's probably back to sleeping with a night light. He even claims it's the most beautiful horror film he's ever seen. For those still out of the loop, the movie is based on Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith's graphic novel about a small town far up north where the sun disappears for a whole month -- ripe time for a crop of vampires to go on a rampage. Directed by David Slade (Hard Candy), it stars Josh Hartnett, Ben Foster, Melissa George, my favorite supporting actor these days, Danny Huston, and, of course, Mark Boone Junior.

I'm not much of a horror buff myself, but if there is more stuff like this new clip, I'm pretty much sold on going to see it. And though I don't think I've ever needed a night light, I bet I'll have at least one nightmare as a result. It just looks like that kind of movie. At the very least, I'm sure I'd at least get freaked out the next time I'm walking around late at night in the snow. Between 30 Days of Night and the recently released The Last Winter, I'm pretty set never to go up to the arctic circle.

Let me preface this story by telling you I'm: a) a total wimp when it comes to horror flicks, and b) I slept with a night light in my room until I was at least 19. With that in mind, our friends over at Sony/Columbia Pictures emailed me the other day with a proposition: They were doing a screening of 30 Days of Night, followed by something called 'Dining in the Dark,' and asked if I was interested. Even though I'm in no way a horror buff, I'm a big fan of director David Slade (loved Hard Candy!), and was looking forward to seeing what he did with 30 Days of Night, an adaptation of the graphic novel about a bunch of vampires who invade a small Alaskan town under, well, 30 straight days of night. I wasn't quite up to speed on this whole 'Dining in the Dark' thing, but I figured -- what the hell -- they'll be candles, it'll be spooky, and we'll have a blast.

But before I tell you about dinner, let's talk about the movie. Ryan will be bringing you a full-on review of 30 Days when it hits theaters next week, but I'll get the ball rolling by saying it was pretty damn good. Visually (and I credit the novel, cinematographer Jo Willems, and Slade here), the film looked absolutely incredible. There's this one overhead shot which sweeps across the entire town and shows vampires feasting on residents that's, quite simply, brilliant. The quick cuts are fantastic, and there's definitely more than one scene where you'll be jumping out of your seat. Additionally, I'm starting to really dig Josh Hartnett. He's good in this film, and I'm loving the role choices he's taking on lately (between this film and Resurrecting the Champ). Melissa George doesn't do a whole lot for me, but she's fine here as Hartnett's estranged wife -- and I'm glad the two of them didn't talk about their struggling relationship too much while a group of nasty-ass vampires were invading the town (although there are some cheesy moments sprinkled throughout). Even so, the end (if you've read the novel and know what happens) is damn powerful. Oh, and I can't say enough about Ben Foster -- this guy is all kinds of creepy here.

After the jump: How I go from 30 Days of Night to eating dinner in the pitch black.

It was almost a year ago when Jette brought us a first look at some of the behind-the-scenes for the big-screen version of 30 Days of Night. Since then, there have been teaser posters, fancy websites, the promise of new short films, and the R rated trailer released in August ( who could forget, of course, the image of Josh Hartnett hacking at a child with an ax -- something like that tends to stay with you). Shock Til You Drop is now hosting three new posters for the vampire flick. Fans of the graphic novels have been pretty eager to see what Ghost House and director David Slade (Hard Candy) have planned for the story of a group of vampires descending on a small town in the wilds of Alaska for a 30-day feeding frenzy.

Based on the graphic novel by Steve Niles, Night stars Josh Hartnett as the local sheriff and Melissa George as his wife -- it's up to both to save their town before the vampires wipe it clean. Ben Foster (3:10 to Yuma) also stars as "the harbinger of the vampires. Well really a scout who was sent into the town because he can be out during the day. He is tentatively known as a "bug-eater", not a vampire but something akin to a ghoul. They find him snooping around town and trespassing so they arrest him" -- at least according to the message boards at IMDB, and since I haven't read the original graphic novels, I'm just going to have to take their word for it. 30 Days of Night is set for release on October 19.

[via Solace in Cinema]

After skating the edges of the Western genre for years, with his 'urban Western' Cop Land and his country western-flavored music biopic Walk the Line, James Mangold has finally taken the plunge and made a full-on Western with 3:10 to Yuma, and the result is a success. While very faithful to the 1957 original -- some scenes are actually recreated word for word -- this film is also Mangold's own, stirring up the same ideas he's always shown interest in. If you're a Mangold fan, you know there are shadings of the classic High Noon situation in all of his films, with the good but under-pressure man standing by his principles as he's deserted by everyone around him, and 3:10 is no exception. This time, the good man is a poor, hobbled rancher named Evans, played by a typically dour Christian Bale. Evans is so broke he's about to go under when an opportunity presents itself -- he can make a fistful of cash if he's brave enough (or stupid enough) to walk a notorious and recently captured gangster named Ben Wade to the train station that will take him to prison.

Stepping into the shoes of Ben Wade is Russell Crowe, who plays the part as though he's certain that he's the film's good guy. When the film first catches up with Wade, he's sullen and bored with the criminal life, and prefers to sit up on a ridge and draw pictures of wild life, while leaving the scheming to his frustrated goons. Not that he's a pacifist -- Wade is a man capable of quick, brutal violence (even with a fork), although not prone to hatred or stupidity or any of the other dull characteristics we'd tend to associate with a man who robs and kills for a living. In fact, Crowe's (and Mangold's) decision to give Wade an abundance of good qualities to cancel out the bad ones may be a bit too much at times -- after all, we don't really want to root for this guy, do we? It's always something of a cheat when a movie tells us that the bad guy has taken many lives in the past, but doesn't really show us that side of him during the film.

By the looks of the new site for the vampire flick 30 Days of Night, this movie is going to be one nicely designed bloodbath. Sony just launched the fancy flash site for the film version of Steven Niles' graphic novel about a group of vampires descending on a small Alaskan town for a non-stop feeding frenzy.

Night is directed by David Slade (Hard Candy) and the script was written by Stuart Beattie (3:10 To Yuma). Josh Hartnett stars as a local sheriff trying to keep a group of locals alive, and Ben Foster (who gave us a behind the scenes look at the film, last February) is an ancient vampire that is none-too-pleased with the attention-drawing antics of his kind. The site looks like it was designed in the spirit of the original graphic novel, plus, along with the teaser clips and downloads, there is the promise of a nifty-looking shooter game.

There has already been talk of shorts set in the Night universe produced by Sam Raimi's Ghosthouse, more comic books, and don't forget the possibility of multiple sequels (Ryan got the chance to speak with Niles about the film, as well as female lead Melissa George). So, combined with the solid teaser trailer Scott told us about last month, it's looking like this graphic novel has the potential to spawn a whole new horror franchise. The film is also expected to get a little extra buzz with the cast, along with Slade and Raimi, answering questions about the film for a ComicCon panel this weekend -- stay tuned for that report. 30 Days of Night hits theaters October 19th.

If you're one of those people who have been itching for more fan-food about 30 Days of Night, this should please you. A ton of pictures have been released for the film -- an appropriate 30 to be exact. Lots of stills action to go through. While it's pretty much a still-by-still account of the great trailer that Scott alerted us to the other day, their resolution is high enough to get a closer look at all of the scenes contained within. There's the usual terror and crying of any horror movie, and of course, an ominous axe. There are good shots of Josh Hartnett and Melissa George (Camilla Rhodes from Mulholland Drive), a Buffy-esque brow-wrinkly Joel Tobeck and an incarcerated, vampiric Ben Foster (Angel from X-3). Don McKellar fans might also recognize Mark Rendall in there -- the kid who played Taylor Brandon Burns in Childstar. Unfortunately, just like the trailer, there's only that little itty bit of Danny Huston's Marlow.

The horror thriller follows an Alaskan town that has to try to defend itself against a horde of vampires said to be the last of their kind. Unfortunately, they're in the middle of 30 days of night, so their wait for the sun to rise is just a wee bit longer -- and the vamps also don't seem to be affected by that whole home invitation thing, which makes things easier. The movie is an adaptation of Steve Niles' 30 Days of Night, a graphic novel that came out in 2003. Perhaps I, along with some others at Cinematical, are being overly optimistic, but this is looking like one great flick. I never really minded Hartnett, and actually like him on occasion, and I don't see how you can go wrong with Foster and Huston as insidious baddies. My only regret: Melissa George would've made a great, mysterious female vamp -- her mysterious look was great in Mulholland.

Matthew Perry is a funny guy. His charm alone is (almost) enough to carry the stunningly self-important Studio 60, and before that he was great on some no-name sitcom with that chick from Office Space. His movie roles haven't been quite as successful -- I don't think we'll be seeing The Whole Eleven Yards any time soon, and you'd have to work hard to find romantic comedies as unmemorable as Fools Rush In, Three to Tango, and Serving Sara -- but he's giving it another shot. Perry will star with everyone's favorite Million Dollar Baby, Hilary Swank, in the independent comedy Laws of Motion. We all know Perry can do comedy, but Swank? Unless we're counting The Next Karate Kid, she's not the first person I think of when I want a hearty chuckle. We'll see if she can pull it off.

Perry will play "a husband struggling with life in a repressive career and community along with headaches caused by his free-spirited brother and sister." Swank will play "the all-too-perfect neighbor of Perry's harried character" -- a supporting role. Ben Foster is in negotiations to play Perry's brother. Foster is probably best known for playing Angel in X-Men: The Last Stand, but I immediately thought of the unbelievably whiny Russell on Six Feet Under. Laws of Motion will be co-produced by Hilary Swank Productions, which I am assuming is Hilary Swank's production company. The film is supposed to start shooting this month, but the press release doesn't mention a writer or director. Hopefully, they've got those minor details sorted out!

James Mangold's Cop Land is a stellar example of an "urban western," a contemporary film that beautifully updates the genre's plots and themes -- without the saddles n' spurs that Hollywood seems to be so afraid of these days. You could tell by watching that wildly underrated flick that Mangold had studied a lot of the classic westerns, and I can't wait to see his take on the real deal. 3:10 to Yuma stars Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, a potentially explosive acting duo. It's a remake of the 1957 Glenn Ford/Van Heflin film. The plot's a simple one: Outlaw leader Ben Wade (Crowe) is captured and awaiting the 3:10 train to Yuma for his trial. "Small-time rancher" Dan Evans (Bale) agrees to hold the outlaw, a battle of wills ensues, and in true western style, the whole thing culminates in a shootout, which Mangold says "has the potential to be one of the great movie gunfights." Ben Foster, Peter Fonda, and Alan Tudyk will costar.

Here we have the first two official pictures from the film. As you can see, Crowe and Bale are in full-on intense mode, and I would imagine these shots are taken from the climactic showdown. If you want to really have some fun, put the pictures up so they're facing each other and make your own gunfight. Feel free to add voices and sound effects, I won't judge. You can take the 3:10 to Yuma this October.