Recently Richard Kelly teased on his MySpace blog "The last few months have been an amazing time for us on the editing of The Box. We're starting to work with a very famous band who is honoring us with being the first fillmmakers they've ever scored a film with." Who exactly that "very famous band" was Kelly wouldn't say but Pitchfork has an answer. They say Montreal's The Arcade Fire will be scoring Kelly's upcoming thriller. This is either a step forward for Kelly or a step back for The Arcade Fire. Only time will tell.

I posted a little written preview of this earlier, now here is on in video form. The trailer for Woody Allen's next (which plays at Cannes this week and opens on August 29), Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Nothing of the story is revealed in this clip but one things for sure, the film features a lot of making out.

This is via The Playlist. I was going to tell you what it is about but it's all laid out there in the first sentence of their story. I will say this, its got some more info down there about an upcoming Ed Lachman project. I'm sure you are all very excited about that.

Miranda July is making another movie? Yes.

We tried to ask him about it afterward, but got cockblocked from some wealthy, air-kissing sycophants, but during the Q&A following a Brooklyn screening of "Ken Park," the co-director and lauded cinematographer Ed Lachman revealed his next project would be lensing July's next film.

Who knew? Like we said, we tried to ask him details, but got disturbed and then gave up, but that was one eye-raising tidbit that came out of the film's screening (Lachman co-directed Ken Park with perv-cinema auteur Larry Clark and his cinematography work is currently being feted at BAM).

But further research tell us that July is currently working on the script which is going to be based on her performance "Things We Don't Understand and Definitely Are Not Going To Talk About." Apparently this multi-media stage performance which incorporated live and taped video segments included musical help from Jon Brion, so will he be scoring this thing? Let's hope so (Brion previously scored, Michel Gondry's "Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind," "Punch-Drunk Love" and in recent years produced an album with singer Dido that is expected to finally see release later this year.).

Either way, if Lachman is onboard, the project must be getting closer to fruition.

Miranda July last film, her debut, was the extremely auspicious "Me And You And Everyone We Know" in 2003 and we'd heard some rumors from a reliable source that she would never make a film again, so we were happy to hear she'll be back as 'Everyone' is one of our favorite indie films of this decade (yes, it's too precious for some, whatever, to those we say: ))< >(( . And we gotta throw down the gaunlet. The 'Everyone' score by Michael Andrews ("Walk Hard," "Freaks & Geeks") is probably our favorite (our one of a few) of this decade (at least so far).

Earlier this year Alia Raza directed a short based on July's short story collection "No One Belongs Here More Than You," with Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon and Lavender Diamond's tinkerbell, Becky Stark.

Maybe this good news will force something to come out soon. Lachman also said that the many Polaroid portraits he took of the actors – including the now deceased Heath Ledger – on the set of "I'm Not There," (he was the cinematographer) would soon arrive as an photo art gallery showing.

From /Film, a preview of Woody Allen's next, Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

And the last photo we bring you from Festival De Cannes, is our first official look at Woody Allen’s next film Vicky Cristina Barcelona about two young American women, Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson), who come to Barcelona for a summer holiday. Vicky is sensible and engaged to be married; Cristina is emotionally and sexually adventurous. In Barcelona, they’re drawn into a series of unconventional romantic entanglements with Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), a charismatic painter, who is still involved with his tempestuous ex-wife Maria Elena (Penélope Cruz). Of course, all of this is set against the luscious Mediterranean sensuality of Barcelona. The official plot synopsis lists a 96 minute running time and calls the movie “Woody Allen’s funny and open-minded celebration of love in all its configurations…”

From EW, a preview of the next season of Survivor with Jeff Probst.

With Survivor: Micronesia in the books, the reality franchise is now gearing up for season 17 by going back to Africa. The show will be setting up shop on the continent’s west coast in the country of Gabon. “I didn’t know where it was,” confesses host Jeff Probst. “I had to look it up on a map. It is probably the most remote place we have ever gone.” What does that mean in terms of wildlife? “We don’t know,” Probst says. “No one’s really ever hung out there. We’re going to leave a boma with some sticks and stuff, and the contestants will be given instructions that they need to finish it since we’re a little concerned because it’s so unknown. In Kenya [season 3], we had armed guards everywhere so that if something did happen, we could take care of it. We’re not gonna have that because they’re telling us it is so remote and will probably be remote forever. But a gorilla could wander into camp.” (You mean, Joel from Micronesia?)

Season 17 marks another big change for Survivor in that it will be the first time the show has been shot in high definition. “Survivor is one of those shows that you want to see in HD,” says Probst, while noting that the scenery will look a lot more stunning than the stranded contestants, “People with bug bites are gonna look worse, people that don’t have great bodies are gonna look worse, and people who are really attractive are probably gonna look… worse.” And what about you, Jeff? “I went through every scenario: Is there any way I can wear makeup? Is there any way I could not shoot in the middle of the day? And the answers are all no. I’ve just come to terms with it.”

Jimmy Fallon will be replacing Conan O'Brien on Late Night whenever O'Brien makes the switch over to the tonight show. Read more about it here.

Another Indiana Jones trailer.

Samuel L. Jackson is starring for director Gregor Jordan in the feature thriller that sounds an awful like a season of the television show 24, Unthinkable. The story is about a black-ops interrogator (Jackson) and an FBI agent who have just two days to find the locations of three nuclear devices hidden within the United States by a single terrorist.

The trailer for Star Wars: The Clone Wars. I'll definitely be seeing this but I'm not that excited. This is essentially the same as the prequels though, which were almost entirely CGI creations but the animation of the humans still feel a little off. Not that any of these films were ever about good performances.

Stop reading this now if you have not seen last nights episode of Survivor and plan on watching it in the near future. There will be a spoiler, quite a major one revealed in the next paragraph.

OK, so I am assuming you have seen the show now and seen what is easily the dumbest move in the history of the series. And this is coming from someone who has seen every episode of every season,except the first three of the Amazon season (release more seasons on DVD!). Even though my two favorite castaways were forced to leave the game due injuries (Jonathan Pennar and James) I can't really complain about the final four. Cirie (whom I hope wins), Amanda, Natalie, and Parvarti have probably played the game the best and deserve to win, especially after last night. Convincing Erik to give up his immunity necklace is some sort of brilliant move. Erik actually giving it up, after he had a guaranteed spot in the final four and was only one more challenge away from the final tribal council was the most boneheaded decision I have ever seen, maybe in my television watching history. At least when Ian made a similar move in the Palau season he regained some friendships, I don't even think Erik accomplished that. It made for some damn good tension but well, wow. How can you give up the chance at a million dollars on a promise a tribe mate, who has repeatedly lied to you, makes at the 11th hour? At least James will no longer go down as the dumbest survivor in history and for that, I can thank Erik.

UPDATE: This is an excerpt from Dalton Ross' recap of the episode over at EW. A pretty bold claim but I might have to agree with him.

I think you should sit down now because I'm about to say something that may shock you. Are you sitting? I have to assume so, because it would be very awkward if you were reading a computer screen standing up. Okay, here goes. This is the best season of Survivor since the very first one. There, I said it. And there's no taking it back, either. This is the Internet — crap statements like that live on forever. Not only is it the best season of Survivor since Richard Hatch took home the loot, but these past four episodes constitute the most amazing month-long run in the history of the show. Four straight blindsides done in the most dramatic fashion possible (Ozzy not using his hidden immunity idol, Jason not using his hidden immunity idol, Amanda shocking everyone with her hidden immunity idol, and then Erik — and I still can't even believe it as I'm typing it — giving away immunity for absolutely no reason whatsoever). That's right — no reason.

You know those mornings when you don't have to be in work until 1 so you sleep a little later than usual and once you wake up you just lay in bed wasting time? Then you find out the director of your favorite movie is going to direct a pilot for HBO. I really love those mornings.

Alexander Payne, who masterminded Election, About Schmidt and Sideways, has signed on to direct the pilot Hung, which revolves around a well-endowed man who is plodding along in middle age as a struggling father and high school coach. The character was once a high school sports legend, and his luck returns when he figures out a way to use his best asset.

Here are the first seven minutes of Speed Racer. I kind of want to see this just for the sheer audacity of how it is put together, thought I'm not sure if I could take the onslaught of colors for two hours. And even though he is just a kid, do you think we could get a little bit of a better performance from the junior Speed Racer?

Directed by Judd Apatow.

Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt will star in the Marc Webb-directed romantic comedy 500 Days of Summer.

Clark Gregg, Minka Kelly, Matthew Gray Gubler and Rachel Boston round out the cast of the film, which centers on a man (Gordon-Levitt) who falls hopelessly in love with a woman (Deschanel) who doesn't believe in love.

The Swedish Hancock trailer. Exactly the same as but with cussing!

Directed by Mr. Madonna, Guy Ritchie.

Its too big, I know, but the player screws up when I adjust its size. I'll just have to do some more posts to move it down on the page.

Its been 10 years to the month that Seinfeld finished its run on television and Newsweek marks the occasion with a debate on whether the show still holds up. It's not much of a debate, really, as even the writer taking the anti- side concedes the show's verbal dexterity and the must-see-ness of its best episodes.

Johah Hill will not be in Transformers 2 after all, according to this.

Johnny Knoxville and Parker Posey will star in John Waters' upcoming Christmas movie, Fruitcake. Little is being revealed about the plot, though it is said to center on a boy, named ''Fruitcake,'' who runs away from home during the holidays after he and his parents are busted for shoplifting food. He meets up with a runaway girl, who was raised by a gay couple and is searching for her birth mother. I am guessing this will be a very straight forward, sobering drama.

Heather Graham, Jennifer Coolidge (For Your Consideration, Joey), Matthew Settle (Gossip Girl), and Amber Heard (The CW's Hidden Palms) are starring in the indie black dramedy Ex-terminators, which will mark the feature directing debut of Scrubs helmer John Inwood. Here is the reason I am posting this story, this plot description. The story is about three women who meet at an anger-management group and decide to form an interesting business together. I mean, wow, could you get a more exciting and less vague log line? I want to see this now, I must know what this interesting business is. I must.

EW has the first look of Oliver Stone's upcoming George Bush biopic, W. It features a pretty extensive article on the history and the fast nearing production of the film and also gives us the first photos of James Brolin and Elizabeth Banks in character.

This ultimately might be what makes me buy a blu-ray player:

Dear Criterion Collection Newsletter subscriber,

We’ve got some exciting news for this fall, and we wanted you to hear it first.

Our first Blu-ray discs are coming! We’ve picked a little over a dozen titles from the collection for Blu-ray treatment, and we’ll begin rolling them out in October. These new editions will feature glorious high-definition picture and sound, all the supplemental content of the DVD releases, and they will be priced to match our standard-def editions.

Here’s what’s in the pipeline:

The Third Man
Bottle Rocket
Chungking Express
The Man Who Fell to Earth
The Last Emperor
El Norte
The 400 Blows
Gimme Shelter
The Complete Monterey Pop
Contempt
Walkabout
For All Mankind
The Wages of Fear

Rainn Wilson's new movie The Rocker has gotten itself a trailer that you can check out over here. Weirdly enough, it is directed by the guy who made The Full Monty and honestly looks better than I had expected, if a little over the top at times.

Not really sure why but Tom Cruise now has an official website. In all seriousness though (and is there any other way to be when dealing with Cruise), watching his 25 year retrospective you forget how many really good films he has been in.

The Alamo Drafthouse has posted photos from the Pineapple Express screening on their flickr page. Nothing that exciting but in that second photography you will notice a noticeably handsome arm jutting just into frame, adjusting his rolled up sleeve. I feel like it really makes the photo complete.

James Brolin has gotten on board David O. Russell's Nailed, while Kirstie Alley has also joined the cast of the political romantic comedy. Brolin replaces James Caan, who left the film three weeks ago largely due to a dispute with Russell over the way his politician character should choke on a cookie. Cowritten by Kristin Gore, the movie revolves around a woman (Jessica Biel) who starts up a relationship with a congressman (Jake Gyllenhaal) after she's shot in the head with a nail. Alley will play Biel's aunt, a veterinarian who can't remove the nail and is thus incapable of stopping her niece's uncontrollable behavior.

Woody Harrelson and Samantha Morton have joined the cast of Oren Moverman’s The Messenger.

The duo join the already announced Ben Foster (3:10 to Yuma), Jena Malone (Into the Wild) and Eamonn Walker (Unbreakable).

This marks Moverman’s directorial debut after writing scripts for (this is where I get exciting about the project) Todd Haynes’ Bob Dylan biopic I’m Not There and Ira Sachs’ Married Life.

Common is going to be in the next Terminator movie, the one with Christian Bale in the future blowing shit up. I could write more about this but I really don't care enough about it.

This is apparently concept art of Harvey Dent once he becomes Two Face in The Dark Knight. This fits with Christopher Nolan's direction of reality but I don't know. It almost seems a bit too much. How could anyone live through this? Then again, I should hold my judgment until a final version is released and I can see it in motion.

I thought I had already posted this but I was wrong. A new trailer for The Dark Knight has shown up on the internet. I saw this last week before Iron Man, not much to say other than it looks fantastic and Heath Ledger's performance could be something special.

Collider.com talked to writer/director/producer Adam McKay who says that he and Will Ferrell are definitely planning a sequel to 2004 comedy hit Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.

"I'm looking to do another movie, I might do this other movie called 'Channel 3 Billion' which is kind of this science fiction/Brazil type comedy. Then after that, Will and I are like let's do 'Anchorman 2'... so you're talking like 2 years maybe we'll do it. But we're going to do it, for sure," he said.

Pineapple Express

In lieu of an actual review I thought it was a better idea to recap the entire event, hitting on the most interesting aspects as well as the movie. This is going to be a little scatterbrained and stream of consciousness, so I am sorry for that. I originally intended to take notes but then I got caught up in everything and never picked up the pencil again. There will be no cohesive narrative to this story, just my random thoughts and memories from one of the best movie theater going experiences of my life.

We showed up to the Alamo Drafthouse on Lamar an hour early with the parking lot packed and were greeted to a line of about 200-300 people wrapped around the side of the building and around the corner. I had a bad feeling that the night was going to be filled with waiting in lines. It was then we walked into the theater and realized all we had to do was check and and were placed in a line inside, one made up of about 20 people and right next to the bar.

After only about a 10 minute wait we were ushered down the hall and towards the theater. Before we could enter we had to have security guards wave one of those metal detector wands over our body and Emily's bag was checked. My small video camera and her digital camera were discovered at this point and she was made to return them to the car, my plans to film the post film Q & A were dashed.

Entering the theater I was given a free box of popcorn. I was one of the first in so I had pretty much any choice of seats I wanted, outside of the first two rows of stadium seating, which were reserved. I chose four rows up on the left aisle, knowing the theater would be completely full I wanted to avoid any and all chance that I would have to be seated next to a stranger. Pre-show entertainment was already playing on the screen, a variety of hilarious old anti-drug psa's. One featuring Sonny Bono (a clip is embedded below) and another with the message that its okay to have a few drinks after work, it gives you a sense of accomplishment, just don't get high. Also, one of the stranger trailers I have ever seen, from the Peter Fonda film The Trip (also embedded).





As the theater filled to capacity, and then even past that point (folding chairs were brought out to make new rows along the wall and in the front walkway) AICN'S Harry Knowles made his way to the front to to introduce the film. He mentioned that we were the first audience to see the film outside of test screenings and that he received over 7,000 entries for this contest and that we should feel very lucky we were picked to see the film, I did. He then introduced the special guests, David Gordon Green, Seth Rogen, James Franco, and Danny McBride. Nothing much was said at this point, just thanking everyone for coming out to "get drunk, nibble on some food, and watch our crazy movie." Danny McBride added that if David got up and left during the movie, its because he has diarrhea.

I don't want to get into too many specifics about the rest of the movie, seeing as how it won't be released until August. I will just touch upon my initial thoughts and a few random items I noticed.

• The movie starts with a prologue shot in black and white that really has nothing to do with the rest of the story, I sort of love it for that fact. It features Bill Hader and is very funny. It could be cut from the movie and nothing would be missed but I hope they don't.
• Tim Orr shot this, immediately making this the best looking of all the Judd Apatow produced film, even though it is the least interesting visually of David Gordon Green's films.
• I'm not 100% positive but I don't think David Wingo did the score. At least I can't imagine it was him. It's very synth heavy with a number of 80's songs dominating the soundtrack. Though I didn't recognize it in the movie, I noticed during the closing credits that the film features a song by Shaq.
• Huey Lewis' theme song plays over the closing credits.
• The film is very much in the vein of 80's action/comedies like 48 Hours and Midnight Run, just much funnier and crazy. The third act is out of control.
• Don't go into this worried about the plot, it's basically an excuse to watch Seth Rogen and James Franco run around, be funny, and shoot lots of guns. Their is a bit of heart in this, as it's more about friendship than a drug war.
• This is a career changing performance for James Franco, please find more good comedies to put him in.
• David Gordon Green is really good a filming action scenes.
• This features probably the funniest fight scene I have ever seen, with Rogen and Franco doing battle with Danny McBride in his home.
• Before the fight, Danny McBride delivers what may be the best moment of the film, a monologue about his dead cats birthday.
  
• Craig Robinson is very funny in his limited screen time.
• The trailers only hint at the hilarity and craziness this film offers.

The film ended with rapturous applause. Tim League, the owner of the Alamo Drafthouse, went up front to start a contest. They had five people come up to a table in the front and were given a few small supplies, including a miniature pineapple, and they were to race to see who could make the pineapple into, well, essentially a bong. Of course the dreadlocked gentleman won and was given a signed Pineapple Express poster.

Next, Harry Knowles came back up front to re-introduce the guests. They took their seats and the Q & A followed. This is where my note taking should have come in handy but since I had abandoned that at his point, my memory will have to do. Here are a few of the details I remember:

• Seth Rogen dominated the conversation, with the others only receiving a couple of questions each.
  
• The idea for the film came from Judd Apatow who thought it would be funny to make an action film starring two stoners. Rogen and co-writer Evan Goldberg then just took the idea and put a lot from their lives into the story, such as the drug dealer who always wants to hang out.
  
• Seth Rogen has smoked a lot of weed in his life
• David Gordon Green hopes that this film gives him the opportunity to explore other genres, saying he didn't want to get bored making nothing but dramas.
• James Franco doesn't think much of his early films.
• Most audience members didn't ask relevant questions. With the guests actually skipping over a few to get to the next question.
• Everyone on the set of Knocked Up watched The Foot Fist Way over and over in their trailers.
• Danny McBride and Seth Rogen were both injured in their fight scene.
• There is a real Pineapple Express, its just not what you would expect it to be.

The be honest, I wish the Q & A had gone one longer, I could have watched it all night. Someone from Fantastic Fest filmed the whole thing, so hopefully it will show up online sometime soon. After it was over, the guests made their way to the hallway outside the theater where everyone soon crowded around them. I took a photo of James Franco's back on my phone before making my way to the exit. It was only once I was in the lobby that Emily told me nobody was standing around Danny McBride. I rushed back in to see him standing basically alone on the outskirts of the group. Once he saw Seth Rogen leave, he followed suit. I was about two feet from him and couldn't think of a word to say.

I will definitely be seeing this again once it is released. I need to view it in a normal atmosphere to see if the whole experience clouded my over all judgment of the film, because where it stands now, this is the best film I have seen all year.