* The talk of the geek-o-sphere for some time is going to be the announcement of a massive and potentially trendsetting film/television cross-over adaptation of Stephen King’s multi-volume “The Dark Tower” mega-epic. Universal, which has had some very tough times lately, is taking what I’m guessing could be a make-it-or-break-it gamble on the project, the news of which was broken by Mike Fleming earlier.  I’m not a King reader, but I am intrigued by the fact that it’s a western-science fiction-horror cross-breed. In any case apparently the plan is to start with a movie, go to a 22 episode not-so-mini-series, and then onto another movie, another series, then wrapping it all up with movie. The idea being to provide fans with both the grandeur of theatrical films and the detail and time of a television series.

It’s intriguing but laden with potential pitfalls. One is that it demands an awful lot of time and people who aren’t following the series may feel shut out of the latter two movies. The other is that, quite frankly, I feel the “A Dangerous Mind” creative team of director Ron Howard and writer Akiva Goldsman — who I gather will be writing and directing the first two films and the entire first series at least, which could be some kind of record if that’s what’s really going to happen — simply haven’t indicated they’re up to this kind of material. I hate to say it but winning Oscars can be negative indicator sometimes.

It’s not that I doubt their ability to crank it all out. Howard is obviously a very competent director who knows how to make highly professional material and I have tremendous respect for him as an individual and one of the more positive forces in Big Moviedom. However, he’s always shown a tendency to play it safe and often a bit dull when the chips are really down creatively as a director and none of Goldsman’s movies have been all that inspiring to me either. All I’m saying is that I had a good feeling about Peter Jackson taking on “The Lord of the Rings” and I have a bad feeling about it, though I’d seriously love to be wrong.  Something tells me this project needs a real lunatic and Ron Howard is one of the sanest guys in show business. Huge King fan Quint at AICN has similar misgivings. He has a more riding on this than I.

* Simon Abrams is right re: “Kick-Ass” doing a lot better than people assumed. Even though I cover the weekend grosses here, we all make way too much of those openings and fail to look at the overall picture. Calling a movie a bomb that makes nearly half its budget in its opening weekend is just idiotic anyhow. The actual success of the film may have figured in the ongoing financial struggles between Lionsgate and Carl Icahn.

* If ever an actor was born to a play a hobbit, it’s Brit stand-by Martin Freeman. Despite tabloid stories to the contrary, he may be meeting his humanoid destiny as young Bilbo after all.

* I love the idea of Zhang Ziyi starring in a new film of the Mulan legend. Jan De Boont directing in English, however, not so much.

* So Clint Eastwood could have been Superman or James Bond, which would never have worked in either case and he was smart enough to know it. On other hand, he liked the Submariner. That almost could have worked. Almost. “Do you feel lucky, shark? Do ya’?”

* Oh, man more “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” finance problems. You’ve got to admire Terry Gilliams’ fortitude.

* James Franco’s SNL documentary has a distributor.  Mr. Franco has also entered TMI territory promoting “127 Hours.” As for just how Aaron Ralston passed his time before he was forced to his drastic solution, I guess even in the greatest extremes, a young man’s fancy must be satisfied from time to time.

* Tell the folks at Big Hollywood — a new Ronald Reagan biopic is in the offing. Monica Bartyzel has the details. I agree with her that Brandon Routh makes a lot of sense in terms of casting.

* Oh, and just because today is the start of the most solemn period on the Jewish calendar, Uwe Boll should go fuck himself. Twice.

I’m not the kind of guy who gets easily offended and tend to think that no topic is too sacred for art and everything is fair game and, even when something doesn’t work and turns out badly, you can’t blame people for trying. However, even I have my limit and this no talent attention seeking mega-assclown has found it because he actually seems to know he has no talent and no taste and he makes a movie called “Auschwitz” anyway.  No links and absolutely no embed of the beneath contempt trailer. I hope I’m never forced to mention his film or him ever again.

* Just what we need in L.A. Another indie studio has fired most of its staff.

* The Academy has apparently found Jean-Luc Godard and he might accept his award. The sad part is that it won’t be televised so, sorry, Jean-Luc, there goes your chance to have your work exposed to countless young people who might never have heard of you before. I’m personally a bit angry that the Oscars no longer televise the lifetime achievement awards. I guess attention doesn’t have to paid, after all. Who cares about history or greatness? I don’t care if some people were bored by the old presentations. I really don’t. If movies bore you, why are you watching the Oscars?

* As a gorephobe who nevertheless made it through “Zombieland” with a certain amount of wincing, I am not thrilled that the sequel will be in 3D.

* RIP director Clive Donner and actor Glen Shadix. You probably knew him as Otho.

I’ve been excited about this project for quite a while. The source material is wildly original, Wright is one of the most creative directors working today, and the cast is absolutely perfect — from Michael Cera and Mary Elizabeth Winstead in the lead roles, to Chris Evans, Brandon Routh and Jason Schwartzman as the evil exes. The movie doesn’t come out until August, so to help whet your appetite until then, check out the trailer below.

* Since about Wednesday (my day off) items about the upcoming Superman film being presided over by Christopher Nolan have been rolling out. First Latino Review broke the news in Spanglish that writer David Goyer, who has been involved with Nolan’s Batman franchise from the start, would be on board. Now IESB (via Bad Guy Wins) reports what it says are rumors that  the director of the Superman film will be Christopher’s writing partner brother, Jonah, making his directorial debut.

That seems reasonable enough especially given that Nolan’s going to be busy with the third instalment in his Batman franchise. I get a bit more skeptical about the idea that Nolan will be sticking around to direct the long-mulled Justice League movie which would presumably include the new Supes (whoever he may be; sorry Brandon Routh), the current Batman (just as long as no one gets into his eyeline), and Ryan Reynolds’ Green Lantern, but I suppose anything is possible.

* I could spend the next week trying to figure this one, but negative PR campaigns against Best Picture Oscar nominees have become de rigeur in recent years and the shrapnel is flying in more than one direction around “The Hurt Locker.” First there were stories from Pete Hammond and a typically voracious Nikki Finke about anti-“Avatar” e-mail blasts by producer Nicolas Chartier. Today there was a far more substantive front page news story in the Los Angeles Times on some disagreements among military people about the film’s putative claims to authenticity. The most serious allegation — which doesn’t appear to be anywhere close to being proven — charges that the crew drove a Humvee into a Jordanian village in order to film angry locals.

Though I think quite highly of Paul Rieckhoff of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a frequent guest on Rachel Maddow’s old radio show, I think his criticism is way off-base and was surprised to see him on the anti-“Hurt Locker” side. I don’t think anything in the film indicates that the dangerous-seeking behavior of Jeremy Renner’s character is supposed to be typical, but simply one person’s reaction to an insane situation. Still, it’ s easy to understand why some might kind of forget the movie, though attempting to mirror reality to some degree, makes no claims to being anything other than fiction.

Steve Pond covers the push-back by reporter-turned-screenwriter Mark Boal.

* An attempted revolt by British Exhibitors against Disney’s decision to greatly shorten the window in Europe between the release of Tim Burton‘s upcoming “Alice in Wonderland” and the DVD release has been put down. Earlier in the week, Kim Masters asked “Has Disney Gone Mad“? Maybe, maybe not. I’m still trying to remember what the dormouse said.

* Documentarian R.J. Cutler of “The September Issue” is making the switch to dramatic films with “Au Pairs,” writes Mike Fleming. Not that his temporary site-partner, Nikki Finke, is MIA. No, she has word that one of my favorite oft-filmed tales, Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers, is going to filmed by one of the least respected directors now working. In 3-D. Oh, joy. Let’s hope that rival film gets going soon with a decent helmer.

* Angelina Jolie has exited “Wanted 2” and is going to do a movie with Alfonso Cuarón (“Children of Men“) instead. Excellent choice.

* Remember that very cool, very profane, very hilarious trailer for “Kick-Ass” I ran here some time ago? Well, not everyone is amused. If studios want to make it a bit harder for kids to see this kind of material, I have no objection, but the focus on the horrors of children cursing amuses me. I’ve never heard more constant and strongest profanity used than I did during my schooldays between, roughly, the third and eighth grades.

* Unlike the Playlist’s Gabe Toro, I think Will Smith would be just about perfect for a remake of Alfred Hitchcock‘s “Suspicion.” For one thing, the film is one of Hitch’s weaker hit movies, despite being quite gripping for much of its length. It’s ending was famously changed and it’s ending is pretty much an insult to the audience’s intelligence. It would be nice to see someone do it right this time. In any case,  I don’t think Smith is as far from Cary Grant as Toro seems to think. It’s not his fault today’s Hollywood has a problem with making romantic films intelligent grown-ups can stand to watch.

* Roger Ebert‘s voice as a writer is one of the strongest of any film critics and is stronger than ever these days. Sadly, of course, he hasn’t been able to actually talk in some time due to the complications of his cancer surgery, but he has found something like his spoken voice again through some new digital technology and will be exercising it on the show of an old Chicago acquaintance of his, Oprah Winfrey, this Tuesday. (Via Herc and HuffPo.) Ebert discusses the technology on his site, and if you’re curious if how the two dates Ebert and Winfrey went on back in the day helped pave the way for her media empire, read here.

* The dynamic duo of Finke and Fleming have broken the news that “Dark Knight” helmer Christopher Nolan will be leading — though probably not directing — a new Superman reboot that will definitely not follow on the (in my view) somewhat underrated Bryan Singer/Brandon Routh semi-sequel to the Richard Donner/Richard Lester films of the seventies. I’m sure me and half of everyone reading could probably write a novel length essay about this. From my end, at least, that’ll have to wait.

* The apocalyptic battle over the rights to “The Terminator” winds on. Last night, Nikki Finke claimed the exclusive that something called Pacifore had purchased the rights for $29.5 million. Today, since Pacificore is a Santa Barbara-based hedge fund with presumably no knowledge of how to make a blockbuster franchise film, they are today reportedly in negotiations with the former bidding adversaries, Sony and Lionsgate as to actually making new Terminator films. Ben Fritz of the L.A. Times Company Town blog has the details. Apparently, if the negotiations don’t go well, legal action may be in the cards. Gotta love show business.

* And a fun casting story to top everything off. Did I ever tell you people I actually know people who’ve actually been on UCLA stages with Tim Robbins back in the day? It’s really true. Well, I just got a few degrees of separation closer to the “Green Lantern” movie since the very talented writer-director-actor-dramaturg and Sarandon-ex (<sigh>) has joined the cast of “Green Lantern” where he’ll be playing the Peter Saarsgard’s dad. Heat Vision has the scoop.

This morning started out movie-ish, as I arrived just a couple of minutes late for the annual “Master of the Web” panel devoted to online geek film blogging and reportage, this year featuring such occasional or frequent guest stars here as Devin Faraci of CHUD fame and ex-Moriarity Drew McWeeney, now of HitFix. After answering many of the usual questions — no, they don’t allow advertising to influence reviews, if you’re want to start a career writing about movies, expect years of hard unpaid labor, to be followed by severely under-paid harder labor, etc — the movie stars arrived.

Brandon Routh and Sam Huntington, pals in real life, will be reprising their winning hero/sidekick act from “Superman Returns” with a darker but comedic, action/supernatural edge in the upcoming “Dead of Night.” An adaptation of the  “Dylan Dog” comics series from Italy’s Tiziano Sclavi. After some semi-rough clips from the upcoming film, Routh and Huntington were accompanied onto the very crowded podium by lovely co-star Anita Briem (“Journey to the Center of the Earth,” “The Tudors”), who had to put up with a question about a supposed liaison with Megan Fox. (I couldn’t find any links to back this one up. My apologies to pervs and gossip hounds alike.)

After responding that, no offense to the very attractive Ms. Fox, that the two had merely been at the same party and did not even get around to saying “hi” to each other. Sam Huntington responded with words to the effect that they were unable to say “hi” because they were too involved with making out. Big laughs ensued.

Yeah, not big news, but that’s what I’ve seen. Bruce Simmons has a more detailed play-by-play on the panel.

Elsewhere:

* Luke Y. Thompson notes a somewhat lower budget around the con. I don’t know because the crowds are so thick it’s nearly impossible to get to the places were the big elaborate booths are not.

* Speaking of Devin F., he notes fan factionalization as the “Twilight Fans” congregate.

* And, finally, though it has no direct relationship to movies in case any con attendees are actually reading this, it’s time to plug my the work of my cartoonist pal, Randy Reynaldo, and the fact that he (and sometimes I) may be found at booth S14 in the con’s least populated area, the legendary Small Press Pavilion (really just a section). Come, take a break from the crowds and check out a great comic. Tell ’em Bob sent you.