Movie News

In the classic 'Looney Tunes' Roadrunner cartoons, whenever Wile E. Coyote was just about to capture his nemesis, an anvil would suddenly come out of the sky and drill him right in the head as punishment for his arrogance. Hopefully the voters of the Academy Awards were taking notice, because there's a giant-size 'Anvil!' heading their way and it's picking up speed.

As detailed in the Hollywood Reporter, the acclaimed documentary feature 'Anvil! the Story of Anvil' took home the big prize at the International Documentary Association Awards last Friday, winning the award in the feature documentary category. The movie by Sacha Gervasi, which documents the fortunes and misfortunes of Canadian metal band Anvil, also won the previously-announced IDA award for music documentary, cementing its place as the most acclaimed and decorated documentary film of the season.

After an interminable rain delay, it looks like 'Moneyball' might be getting some play. 'Capote' helmer Bennett Miller is in negotiations to direct the baseball boardroom drama, according to a report in Variety.

'Moneyball' will star Brad Pitt as Oakland Athletics maverick general manager Billy Beane, who's been celebrated and sneered at for his using a statistical formula to assemble a pennant-contending team on a shoestring budget.

Better stock up on stakes and garlic, Hollywood -- it looks like vampire fever is here to stay; just ask Brad Pitt, the latest Hollywood heavyweight to fall victim to the bloodsucking bug.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Pitt's production company, Plan B, is set to produce 'Vlad', a revamp (pardon the pun) of Dracula's origin story. The action-packed project will focus on the Count's humble beginnings as Prince Vlad the Impaler, a bloodthirsty Romanian tyrant who had a habit of impaling his victims on large wooden stakes.

It was virtually a wall-to-invisible-wall 'Harry Potter' last weekend as ABC Family broadcast several installments of the franchise, including 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,' 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets' and 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.'

What was even more exciting (and of major note to Potterheads) was that ABC also broadcast footage from 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I,' the penultimate film in the series. The video has now made it way across the Web faster than you can say "expecto patronum!" Watch the clip after the jump.

Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Hudson, recently cast to play Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in 'Winnie' -- a new film about the wife of Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first black president -- has come in for some flack for being cast in the role.

According to AFP and other sources, the Creative Workers Union of South Africa, a group representing that country's actors, said "using foreign actors to tell the country's stories undermined efforts to develop the national film industry ... It can't happen that we want to develop our own Hollywood and yet bring in imports," the union's president Mabutho Sithole said in the Citizen newspaper.

It may be churlish after all these years to repeat the old Hollywood joke that on the night of the Golden Globes, you can't get a good waiter anywhere in town. Not that the reference is any less valid; the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, whose 100-plus members present the awards, is still a hodge-podge of mostly freelance entertainment writers and TV/film groupies who may have to carry extra day or night jobs to make a living in La-La-Land.

If Universal Pictures can imbue a fourth 'Bourne' movie with as much intrigue as the film's development process, they'll have quite a cliffhanger on their hands.

After news broke last week that 'The Bourne Supremacy' and 'The Bourne Ultimatum' director Paul Greengrass would not be signing on to direct the fourth installment of the 'Bourne' franchise, Universal quickly issued an exit statement from Greengrass insisting that the split was amicable. In it, he states, "My decision to not return a third time as director is simply about feeling the call for a different challenge."

So, is 'Bourne' star Matt Damon "feeling the call for a different challenge" as well?

In a move sure to please fans of 'The Twilight Saga,' the franchise's shirt-hating, six-pack-sporting star Taylor Lautner has signed on to bring Mattel's popular 'Max Steel' character to the big screen, Variety reports.

After years as a child actor, Lautner struck gold and reached international stardom as Jacob Black in the worldwide phenomenon of 2008, otherwise known as 'Twilight.' A comparatively small role in the first film expanded into a pivotal part in 'Twilight: New Moon,' and the actor notoriously expanded with it, in all the right spots.

Jack Black -- from 'Kung Fu Panda' to the Loch Ness Monster?

Black recently scored big in the world of animation with his turn voicing the title role in 'Kung Fu Panda,' and now Variety reports he'll return to 'toons with a new animated film pitch. The untitled project takes place in the world of cryptozoology, which deals with the search for such creatures of lore as the Loch Ness Monster, the Jersey Devil and Bigfoot.