* Given the wave of movie science fiction we’ve had since the release of “Star Wars” back in 1977, it’s always been a disappointment to me how few of the most respected SF novels (“sci-fi” isn’t a term literary science fiction geeks approved of back in my day) have been made into movies. So, even though the book kind of baffled me when I read it not too long after it’s original release in 1984, it’s nice to see that a film version of William Gibson’s Neuromancer, the novel which is the original source of the word “cyberspace” — whatever that means. Vincenzo Natali (“Cube”) appears to be the helmer.

* It’s looking like “Iron Man 2” will not be a huge record breaker after all and may make (horrors!) significantly less than the $140 million “floor” we were originally given.

* The RZA (pronounced “The Ri-zuh”) is joining the select club of successful pop musicians turned movie directors that includes Prince, David Byrne, Rob Zombie, Paul McCartney (on the ill-fated telefilm, “Magical Mystery Tour”) and I’m sure some others I’m forgetting. Not surprisingly for the Kung-fu loving Wu-Tang Clan founder who worked on part of the “Kill Bill, Volume 1” score, it’s a stylized martial arts epic co-written with fellow Tarantino associate Eli Roth.

* Speaking of Paul McCartney, the one time Beatle, an outspoken vegetarian in real life, may be going in a very different entirely unauthorized and fictional direction as a brain-eating mop-topped zombie in a possible film version of yet another comic zombies-in-history novel, “Paul is Undead” which envisions a zombified fab four.  Sure, why not.

* An FCC decision to allow movie companies to send movies out over “secure high definition transmission lines” has Nikki Finke declaring movie theater chains dead.  I think she’s being a bit of a drama queen. Who knows what the impact will be. but it seems to me that the studios need theaters as much as the theaters need movie studios. Are they really so stupid as to kill a major income streatm? Don’t answer. But if movie theaters have survived the arrival of television, VCRs, DVD, Blu-Ray, and all the rest, I suspect they’ll survive this too — though I’m sure theater owners will scream bloody murder over it if the studios start releasing stuff while movies are in theaters, and they should.

Russ Fischer at /Film has an interesting take:

Is this an unfair decision that will hurt the already struggling theater business? That’s one way to read it. Could also be a kick in the ass for theater chains to alter their business model and provide a better experience to make theaters more inviting.

* If you’re not fussy about picture quality, you can see the trailer for the J.J. Abrams/Steven Spielberg collaboration, “Super-8” now.

* An observation. So far in my life, “fact based” supernatural horror tales are never factual. I’m hoping some day I’ll be wrong about that, but I don’t expect it. If there’s ghosts, there’s an afterlife. If there’s a devil, then there’s a God. And if some dude is really popping into people’s dreams, I’m a monkey’s uncle.

* The horror movie I have so far refused to even name, Roger Ebert has refused to rate. The movie “occupies a world where the stars don’t shine.”

* Speaking of the unspeakable, Dennis Cozzalio rediscovers a film that I forgot all about, but whose very title and ad campaign creeped the freaking hell out of me as a kid. It’s possible I’m still too big a cinema-chicken to ever see it.

* On the other hand, I suspect I’ll be up for the first ever horror film (or something kind of like a horror film) from Spain’s ingenious world-class director, Pedro Almodovar. Even cooler than a relatively old directing dog learning some new tricks is he’ll be reuniting with Antonio Banderas, who was Almodovar’s go-to male ingenue during his brutal filmmaking youth.

* Josh Brolin is apparently quite excited about maybe playing a younger Tommy Lee Jones in the “Men in Black 3.”

* I actually can’t remember whether or not I’ve ever seen Jim Hensen’s 1982 fantasy, “The Dark Crystal.” Now they’re making a sequel. Will I remember I wrote this item tomorrow morning?