Somewhere between the extremes of telling your friends how great your Bloomin’ Onion at Outback is and helping dissidents organize protests in Iran, lies a middle ground on Twitter where you can find filmmakers giving updates on their latest projects.

Today, let’s take a look at a newcomer to Twitter, writer/director Jason Reitman. Thankfully, his first tweet from last Sunday turned out to be wrong and he has been dropping hints on how work on getting his latest film, Up In The Air, into shape. Most interesting, are the two tweets from today, when Reitman showed the work in project to his father, some guy named Ivan Reitman.

• This is the first and perhaps only tweet I will ever write. I’m three weeks into editing. I’ll try to be as forthright as possible.12:00 PM Jun 7th
• Week four of editing begins today. I’m two scenes and three montages away from a first cut. Current running time: 2 hours 4 minutes.9:40 AM Jun 8th
• Just got a sample of my new opening titles from Shadowplay, who did Juno and Smoking… These guys are awesome in a bottle.1:41 PM Jun 9th
• Everyone in my office is annoyed because we’re cutting a crying scene, so it’s just constant wailing coming from the editing room.1:41 PM Jun 10th
• Watched the film last night. 2nd act is really working. Lots of little trims to make. Cutting a couple scenes. Will be under 2 hrs by Mon.1:06 PM Jun 11th
• Today’s experiment: Open the movie with scene 2. Follow it with scene 3. Go to opening titles. Then show scene 1.11:33 AM Jun 12th
• tried it – RT @EthanRunt Start with scene 54, then 23, 1, 67, 29, end credits, 78, 15, 32, 23 again then opening titles, then studio logos?12:40 PM Jun 12th
• Reorder of scenes worked like a charm. Thank you all for your confidence, except @RockRollGhost @TryTheWine @PaperHeartMovie who doubted me.4:38 PM Jun 12th
• Moved the monorail scene later and it’s working like a charm. Yes, I’m editing on Saturdays.4:35 PM Jun 13th
• About to take part in one of the hallmarks of good editing… At the Grove seeing a trashy movie to boost my confidence.8:52 PM Jun 13th
• Running Time: 1 hour 59 minutes 34 seconds. Auditioning a few songs against picture right now.about 23 hours ago
• About to show a rough cut to my dad. Remember what it was like to show your homework to your folks…? Imagine a feature film.about 7 hours ago
• I love making my dad cry. Back in the editing room and cutting up a storm. Prob going to cut another five minutes this week.about 1 hour ago

The rest of us will get a look at the film, and perhaps a chance to cry, when it opens later this year.

We still don’t have a title for it yet, but Michael Moore’s newest documentary is now scheduled to debut on October 2.

According to the press release from distributor Overture Films, the film-

Will explore the root causes of the global economic meltdown and take a comical look at the corporate and political shenanigans that culminated in what Moore has described as “the biggest robbery in the history of this country” – the massive transfer of U.S. taxpayer money to private financial institutions.

Perhaps not so co-incidentally, the release date is a year and a day after the United States Senate voted for a $700 billion bailout package for Wall Street. It is also just two months short of the 20th anniversary of the release of Moore’s first documentary, Roger And Me.

Given its proximity, I would not be surprised if this new documentary bows a few days ahead of October 2 at the New York Film Festival.

Last month, we told you about a rather bold remake of Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes that was currently being kicked around 20th Century Fox. The proposed remake, titled Genesis: Apes, resets Conquest‘s story of how apes overthrew humans as the rulers of the planet from the near future to the present day. The concept was edgy enough to make me wonder if Fox would have the guts to go forward with the film.

Now it appears that the studio has taken a step towards actually making the film by announcing that they’ve hired Scott Frank to helm the film.

It is also now sporting a new name- Caesar.

If you’re unfamiliar with Frank’s work, he wrote the screenplays to Get Shorty and Minority Report before moving to the director’s chair for the indie crime drama The Lookout. Definitely, a good pedigree to take on this project.

Via CinemaBlend.

Forest Whitaker will be directing and starring in What A Wonderful World, a biopic of jazz pioneering trumpet player Louis Armstrong.

Although Armstrong has appeared as himself in a handful of films – noteably High Society (1956) and The Glen Miller Story (1954) -  his own life story has never been a subject for the big screen before. He was the subject of the documentary film Satchmo The Great (1957), which had originally started out as an interview with Edward R. Murrow done for his television show but then expanded.

The film is being scripted by Ron Bass and has been authorized by Armstrong’s estate.

As Whitaker stated to Variety-

Armstrong left a monumental mark on our lives and our culture. He lived an amazing life and, through his art, shifted the way music was played and would be heard after him, not just here in the U.S. but all over the world.

This will mark the second time Whitaker has played a jazz great, having starred in director Clint Eastwood’s Charlie Parker biography Bird in 1988. 

Production on the film is slated to begin next summer in Louisiana.

Via Variety.

Multi-hyphenate Ben Affleck has picked his next directorial project, an adaption of the Chuck Hagen novel The Prince of Thieves, which will reach the screen as The Town. Affleck is also set to script and star in the film as a career thief who falls for the manager of a bank he is planning on robbing.

The film is set to be filmed in the Boston suburb of Charlestown, a town similar to the gritty Beantown neighborhoods where he filmed his directorial debut, last year’s Gone, Baby, Gone.

Affleck is currently shooting the Mike Judge comedy Extract.