The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the bestowers of the Academy Awards, is filing suit in Los Angeles Superior Court to block the sale of Oscar statuettes that originally belonged to silent film stars Mary Pickford and Charles “Buddy” Rogers.

According to a story in the Hollywood Reporter, the Academy has filed the injunction against the estate of Beverly Lorraine Rogers, the late wife of Buddy Rogers, to prevent its three co-executors from selling the statuettes to anyone. The Academy is also asking the court to grant them the right to repurchase them from the estate for the price of $10 per statuette.

According to a stipulation enacted by the Academy in 1950, Oscar winners and their heirs are prohibited from selling the famous gold awards without first selling them back to the Academy for the nominal sum of $1.00. This controversial rule does not apply to Academy Awards won before 1950, and several older Oscars have been sold at auction and by private dealers for sums in the six-figure range.

Rogers, who passed away in 1999, was previously married to Pickford for 41 years until her death in 1979. Rogers received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy in 1986. Pickford won a Best Actress Oscar in 1930 for work on Coquette. She was also given an honorary Oscar in 1976 for her entire body of silent film work.

It is unknown if the Academy is trying to include Pickford’s pre-1950 ban Oscar for Coquette in the injunction.

Here’s a little something lite to take you into the Labor Day weekend- the poster for Vince Vaughn’s upcoming (deep breath now) Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights – Hollywood to the Heartland. Click on the poster to enlarge.

I. Balls of Fury (3,052 Theaters, Rated PG-13, Opened Wednesday): Ah, will Hollywood ever run out of sports to parody? I think ping pong falls somewhere between Ice Dancing (Blades of Glory) and Dodgeball (DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story) on the sport/not-a-sport scale.

This film also apes that Jean-Claude Van Dam classic Kickboxer in it’s premise. Dan Fogler stars as Randy Daytona, a down and out ping pong player who must train with a mysterious Asian master so he can enter an illegal, underground table tennis tournament. Every win in the tournament brings him one step closer to Feng (Christopher Walken), the man who killed his father, and also, to vengeance.

If you are not familiar with Dan Fogler, you might think that he is just a “Jack Black-type” the producer got on the cheap. But Fogler is a TONY Award-winning actor, known most for his role as William Morris Barfee in Broadway’s The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. So, he got acting chops.

Another reason to see the film is the fact that it’s written by Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon, the creative minds behind Reno 911 and former members of The State, one of the best comedy troupes of the 1990s.

2. Halloween (3, 472 Theaters, Rated R): The original Halloween was one of the first slasher films, was one of the most well received of the genre, spawned numerous sequels and served as inspiration for the Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street franchises.

So, it was only a matter of time before it was remade. I’m not saying that it needed to be remade, only that it was bound to be remade, eventually.

If you believe that the Horror genre could be home to a distinct cinematic vision, then Rob Zombie is a director with one. His work on House of 1,000 Corpse and The Devil’s Rejects were original takes on Horror and have acquired Zombie a fanbase.

So, we are almost guaranteed that Rob Zombie’s take on Halloween will be unique. But we have to ask, as we do with all remakes, will it be better than the original. And will Zombie’s unique take separate it enough from the John Carpenter version.

4, Death Sentence (1,822 Theaters, Rated R): A man sees his son killed by a gang. When the gang is put on trial, the prosecution gives them a plea deal of 6 months. This does not make the father happy and he decides to inflict his own punishment by tracking the gang members down and killing them.

A man disenchanted by the legal system taking the law into his own hands? That sounds a lot like Death Wish, doesn’t it?

Well, it should. Death Sentence is loosely adapted from a 1975 novel by the same name from Death Wish author Brian Garfield.

How loose is the adaptation? Well, the novel was a more direct sequel to the Death Wish novel and followed the main character Paul Benjamin to Chicago. According to Wikipedia, it followed Benjamin as he continued his vigilantism. No family, no gang, no dead son.

This movie is also marks a departure for Saw director James Wan, moving from the horror genre to crime thrillers.

So, what about predictions, first let’s take a look at what I predicted for last week:

1. Superbad
2. War
3. Nanny Diaries
4. Rush Hour 3
5. The Bourne Ultimatum.

And here’s how it really was:

1. Superbad
2. The Bourne Ultimatum
3. Rush Hour 3
4. Mr. Bean’s Holiday
5. War

A weak week, performance wise, from the new releases. Mr. Bean’s Holiday did better than I expected, but nowhere near #1. This makes me 9 for 20 and an accuracy percentage of 45%.

What do I think of this week?

1. Halloween
2. Superbad
3. Balls of Fury
4. The Bourne Ultimatum
5. Rush Hour 3

I think Halloween might pull in enough for the top spot, but Superbad will be able to hold on to the second spot. What do you think?

Gordon Gecko, the slick inside trader/anti-hero of Oliver Stone’s Wall Street (1987) may be gracing cinema screens once again, according to an interview with the film’s producer Ed Pressman in the West Australian.

Pressman has been working with screenwriter Stephen Schiff in developing a story that not only returns the character to the big screen, but reflects the changes in world business that have occurred over the last quarter century. He said-

Wall Street was New York-centric. Today the markets are much more global, hence the title of the new film, Money Never Sleeps… The new film will be based in New York, in London, in the United Arab Emirates and in an Asian country. We’ve pretty well worked out the inter-personal relationships between the characters. We’re now talking about the business events.

Portrayed by Michael Douglas, Gecko embodied all that director Oliver Stone saw as wrong in corporate America. Of course, Gecko’s over-the-top ambition and drive didn’t stop him from becoming a hero to many. As Pressman explains-

That’s his appeal. Gekko is larger than life. His appetites are large. The audience enjoys a vicarious pleasure of seeing a world they would never be part of. In a funny way Wall Street was like The Godfather in that the real mob began dressing and behaving like characters in the movie. After Wall Street people started wearing suspenders (braces) like Michael.

And what has happened to Gecko since audiences last saw him being betrayed by his protégé Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) to rival Sir Larry Wildman (Terence Stamp)? Pressman reveals that much like real life trader Michael Milkin, whom the character of Gecko is partly based on, Gecko has done a stretch in prison for his illegal activities, but upon release has donated much time and money to charity work. Pressman hints, though, “a leopard doesn’t change its spots, despite appearances.”

Via Film Ick.

300 director Zack Snyder and producer Frank Darabont are teaming together at Warner Brothers to adapt writer Ray Bradbury’s classic short story collection, The Illustrated Man.

Bradbury’s book is a collection of unrelated short stories linked through the framing device of a tattooed storyteller whose tattoos come to life, telling each story. Published in 1951, the book had been previously adapted by director Jack Smight with Rod Steiger in the title role.

Snyder will direct while Darabont, Denise Di Novi and Snyder’s wife Deborah will produce. Snyder will also receive a producer’s credit. Alex Tse – who also scripted Snyder’s next film, Watchmen, which is currently set to start filming later this fall – will be handling the screenplay.

The book contains several of Bradbury’s most famous short stories including “The Veldt,” “Marionettes Inc.,” “Kaleidoscope” and “The Man.” In fact, one of the failings of the first film adaptation was that it only adapted three of the 18 stories in the book- “The Veldt,” “The Long Rain” and “The Last Night Of The World.” It seems that Snyder and scripter Tse have a hard job ahead of themselves deciding which stories to adapt. Unless they are planning on a five hour movie, they will invariably leave out a few good ones. It seems to me that this material would be better suited to a made-for-television miniseries, but that was said about Watchmen as well and Snyder seems to have that project well in hand.

Celluloid Dreams has snapped up the non-Asian distribution rights to iconic Japanese director Takashi Miike’s highly anticipated Sukiyaki Western Django Variety reports.

Miike’s tribute to the spaghetti westerns he used to watch with his father as a child, the story centers on a small mountain village where two rival clans are facing off over a hidden treasure when a mysterious gunman arrives.

Shot in English with a Japanese cast, the film is a crazy mixture of western and samurai film influences with characters dressing in samurai armor and ten-gallon hats and wield samurai swords and six shooters. Quentin Tarantino, a friend of Miike, makes a cameo.

The film is scheduled to screen at the Venice and Toronto film festivals before opening in Japan on September 15.

No US release date has been set.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is in negotiations to star in Witch Mountain for Walt Disney Pictures, a rehash of their 1975 family film Escape To Witch Mountain according to Variety.

Johnson will play a Las Vegas cab driver who picks up a pair of siblings with psychic powers on the run from those who would exploit their abilities. Johnson is essentially stepping into the role Eddie Albert played in the original.

The screenplay is by Matt Lopez while Andy Fickman is directing. Fickman and Johnson worked together on The Game Plan which is due out later this fall.

To commemorate the 90th birthday of pioneering comic book artist Jack “The King” Kirby, we’ve decided to premier our new, semi-regular feature, “Casting Comics,” by taking a look at the casting for an upcoming adaptation of a character Kirby helped design, Iron Man.

First appearing in March 1963′s Tales Of Suspense #39, Iron Man is in reality millionaire – and later, thanks to inflation, billionaire – industrialist Tony Stark. While on a business trip to Vietnam to see how a product of his Stark Industries was helping the war effort there, Stark is wounded and then captured by a Vietnamese warlord who demands that Stark build armaments for him. With the help of another captive, Yin Sen, Stark secretly builds a suit of mechanized armor that will not only help him escape, but which serves to keep his heart, in danger from a lodged piece of shrapnel, beating.

Cultivating a rich playboy public persona to hide his superhero activities, Tony Stark can be seen as publisher Marvel Comics variation on DC Comic’s Bruce Wayne/ Batman secret identity. But instead of keeping his heroic duties hidden, Stark introduces Iron Man to the world as his personal bodyguard and corporate mascot. For the upcoming film, director John Favreau has scored a casting coup in having Robert Downey Jr. (left) playing Stark. Growing the facial hair to match the comic character’s look isn’t all that Downey brings to the role. During one of the character’s periodic downturns, Stark took to drink, eventually becoming an alcoholic, though ultimately he would overcome his addiction. One doesn’t have to be an avid follower of the tabloids to know that Downey himself has suffered through, and emerged from, his own addiction problems. If the film addresses this plot line or if it is being saved for a future installment, expect Downey to bring an honesty to the material that many other actors might not be able to bring.

Tony Stark’s secretary and one-time love interest is Virginia “Pepper” Potts, a feisty red head. Plucked out of the anonymity of the Stark Industries secretarial pool after fixing an accounting mistake made by Stark himself, Pepper became Stark’s invaluable aide, known for her competance in helping Stark run his business as well as speaking her mind when needed. Although blond, Gwyneth Paltrow (right) certainly sounds like a strong choice based on her work in such varied films such as Sliding Doors (1998), The Royal Tenebaums (2001) and Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow (2004). Comics fans obsessing over Paltrow’s hair color need not worry, some early spy photos from the set clearly show her sporting an appropriate dye job.

“[Bubba Nosferatu] is dead to me,” Bruce Campbell announced Friday night on Fangoria Magazine‘s Fangoria Radio Show on Sirius Satellite Radio.

The announcement comes as a disappointing surprise to fans of the actor and director Don Coscarelli’s 2002 cult hit Bubba Ho-Tep, for which Bubba Nosferatu would serve as both a sequel and a prequel.

“It sleeps with the fishes,” Campbell continued. “Don Coscarelli is a very passionate filmmaker. We got to a few points [in developing the screenplay] that we couldn’t reconcile. I want to keep our friendship, so we parted ways. So I’m not part of that project.”

Campbell impressed critics in Bubba Ho-Tep as an aging, nursing home-bound Elvis Presley fighting off an attack from an Egyptian mummy with the help of another of the home’s residents who thinks he is John F. Kennedy (Ossie Davis). Although the film ended with a title card announcing Bubba Nesferatu, it was done as a joke by Coscarelli. It was only after intense fan reaction to the film that the director actually began developing the sequel, with screenwriter Stephen Romano.

According to reports, Bubba Nosferatu would have had Campbell as Elvis fighting a clan of Las Vegas vampires in both the past and the present while dealing with the machinations of his manager, Col. Tom Parker. Oscar-nominee Paul Giamatti, a professed fan of Bubba Ho-Tep, had already been lined up to play Parker.

Fangoria reports that Coscarelli plans on moving forward with the project anyway, though he admits that it will be hard to find an actor who can take over Campbell’s role.

As far as a return to the role that launched his career, the hapless Ash of the Evil Dead franchise, Campbell doesn’t hold much immediate hope.

“[Evil Dead writer/director] Sam Raimi still talks about it, but he’s in no rush to do it with everything else he has going on,” Campbell stated. “Sam jokes, ‘Maybe we can do another Evil Dead when we’re 70.’ ”

In 2004, an attempt was made by New Line Pictures to merge the Evil Dead franchise with that of the Nightmare On Elm Street and Friday The 13th series for a picture to be called Freddy Vs Jason Vs Ash. Campbell says that Raimi walked away from it due to lack of creative control. The pitch developed for the movie is now being adapted as a six-issue comic book miniseries.

Campbell also stated that the announced Evil Dead remake, featuring a new cast, was also a dead project.

“The feedback from the fans was 90 percent negative,” Campbell said. “It’s going nowhere. The remake has fizzled fast at Sam’s [production] company.”

On the positive side of things for his fans, Campbell did state that Burn Notice, the USA Network series on which he co-stars as a burned out ex-spy, has been picked up for a second season. He also stated that his agent and publisher are asking him to write a third book as follow-ups to his previous best sellers If Chins Could Kill: Confessions Of A B Movie Actor and Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way.

“All I have is a title at this point,” Campbell stated. “It’s called Surrounded By Idiots: Why You Should be Glad I’m Not Emperor Of The World.”

Via Bruce Campbell News Central.

According to noted film critic Roger Ebert, some folks at Disney, much like their character of Pinocchio, should have noses that are magically growing for telling lies.

Ebert is currently in negotiations with the media giant over what he calls his “association with the show [At The Movies] that Gene Siskel and I started more than 30 years ago.” Part of those negotiations involve the continued use of the show’s iconic Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down ratings for films that Ebert and the family of his late partner Siskel own a trademark on.

On Friday, a Disney spokesperson told the Associated Press that Ebert had “exercised his right to withhold use of the `thumbs’ until a new contract is signed.”

Ebert – whose health problems have kept him from appearing on the show for over a year, leaving current co-host Richard Roeper to pair up with numerous guest critics – issued his own statement later in the day, denying the Disney statement. In part is stated -