* Johnny Depp is apparently wanting to star in a new version of Dashiell Hammett’s “The Thin Man,” or perhaps the series of really fun movies starring the great William Powell and Myrna Loy that the original 1934 movie adaptation spawned. I’ve no particular clue why he’d want Rob Marshall — not a bad director at all, but also not a great one and prone to ADHD editing — when he could have his pick. Of course, selecting a Nora Charles to go with his Nick will be half the fun — the possibilities are pretty endless though for some reason the only person I can think of right now is Cate Blanchett. She’s great, but don’t ask me why she comes to mind. It’s probably the fatigue. One big problem: Nick and Nora are a couple of merry alcoholics — or at least huge problem drinkers. It’ll be interesting to see how they handle that aspect of the property in today’s more abstemious world, although I suppose Nick Charles isn’t that far removed from Jack Sparrow or Keith Richard.

* They worked mostly in other media, but they all had their moments in the movie sun: RIP Barbara Billingsley, Tom Bosley and, er, Bob Guccione.

* Cinephile’s cinephile uber-blogger David Hudson, who is based in Germany, gives us a fascinating post-mortem look at a writer and filmmaker I’ve never heard of until now, Thomas Harlan. The key fact here: Harlan’s father directed “Jew Suss,” the most notorious narrative antisemitic film produced by Joseph Goebbel’s Nazi UFA, and had been actively dealing with the legacy.

* Sometimes an actor blends so seamlessly into a part you wonder whether she is really even acting at all.

* In the battle of Hobbit-man Peter Jackson versus the NZ/Oz/U.S. unions, it sure looks like the unions blinked. This is probably the first such battle where I’m glad of it.

* “Giallo” is the name for the subgenre of bloody horror flicks from Italy that predated American slasher films with more mature characters and a heck of a lot more style from directors like Mario Bava and Dario Argento. Apparently wanting to get in on the whole self-awareness thing, Argento, who unbelievably is only just turning 70, made a movie actually called “Giallo” starring Adrien Brody. Brody says the producers didn’t pay him and is suing them and blocking the release of the movie for the time being. That’s always a mistake — not paying your star, I mean.

* Ben Affleck is considering switching from character-driven crime fiction adaptations to a character-driven fantasy-drama adaptation, “Replay.” I gather the book by the late Ken Groomwood is an old favorite of my highly esteemed colleague Will Harris and won a World Fantasy Award in 1987. Why have I never heard of it before?

* “Heckraiser“?

* Today’s tie for the “is this really news” prize: Robert Downey, Jr. “eyes” playing a really intense guy who gets involved in paranoid wackiness. Also, crazed lunatic Mel Gibson follows the path of reformed ear-biter Mike Tyson and will appear in “The Hangover 2” according to the totally awesome-in-my-book Jodie Foster, who seems to be doing whatever she can to try and salvage her widely discussed movie, “The Beaver” by trying to help repair his insanely in-shambles image. Talk about strange bedfellows.

* I don’t know whether there’s some sort of game of managing expectations going on or if interest really is limited to younger males and no one else, but I’m starting to hear rumblings that “Kick-Ass” is not expected to kick ass do hugely well at the box office this Friday. If so, then Matthew Vaughn has got to be one of the least lucky talented mainstream directors ever after generating so much excitement with his film, at least in the fanboy realms.

My main rumbling comes via this Playlist piece which alleges that nothing has been done to expand the interest in the film beyond those who’ve never heard of the comic book.  Literally speaking, that’s not true because I’d never heard of the comic book before hearing about Vaughn’s film of it, though I am certainly a member of the Geek American community. The main thrust of the piece itself is actually on the possibly stronger hopes for “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” which, as a commenter offers, does seem to have more cross-gender appeal. It also has a well known star and the comic genius Edgar Wright going for it. We’ll see.

In any case, Vaughn appears to be doing what all prudent directors do before their next big film comes out, lining up the next gig just in case the current film really does tank. This story is a glorified rumor, but it does look possible that Vaughn’s next gig might involve a gangster/science fiction vampire comic book written by, of all people, controversial English talk show host and film geek, Jonathan Ross who is leaving the BBC because of a scandal caused, I kid you not, by tasteless prank phone calls. Here, he’d get a promotion. In any case, I’ll always remember him for “The Incredibly Strange Film Show.”

* Never fear, however, “Iron Man 2” will be here in 26 days. Of course it’ll do ridiculously well, but I remember some naysayers just before the first movie came out. Seems all those good reviews were a bit worrisome and even smart people like Michael Phillips and A.O. Scott, if memory serves, were worried the movie was a little too good to make monster bucks.

* The biggest news in my personal movie world is word via the Los Angeles Times of the resurrection of the statue that classic-era superstar Myrna Loy (“The Thin Man,” “The Best Years of Our Lives”) posed for when she was just a young student and which graced the front of my alma mater for decades. As the News Editor of the Venice High Oarsman (“Rowing, Not Drifting”) back in the pre-pre-pre-pre MySpace era, I was on the Myrna-vandalism beat. This gladdens my heart. A picture, however, would have been nice. Maybe I’ll get to work on that a bit later.

* If you were already fantasizing about someday buying Ryan Reynolds’ Green Lantern get-up via E-bay, you’re out of luck unless you were playing on buying some software. It’s going to be a CGI suit.

* Sharon Waxman thinks the Weinstein brothers may be in the lead to buy back their old company.

* Merrick at AICN has some details on the new Jack Ryan non-novel-based reboot or prequel or whatever it is. It’s plot, we’re told, will involve terrorists and a plan to destroy the economy. Cyber-terrorism? If so, they’ll have their work cut out for them making it cinematic. I guess they’ll just wind up nuking another American city half-way through the film and then expect us to buy a happy ending when it’s all over.

* I thought for sure the story/rumor/probable b.s. about Quentin Tarantino reviving Lindsay Lohan’s career would turn out to be today’s weirdest item. Then I came across the one about what we’re told is Chris Rock‘s latest writing gig. The first weird bit is that he’s purportedly taking over a script last worked on by David Mamet. Now, I’m a pretty big Rock fan — I even kinda sorta liked “Head of State” — but I’m also a Mamet fan, and let’s just say that I don’t often mention them in the same breath.

It gets weirder still because the movie in question is a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s classic, “High and Low,” which was originally going to be directed by Martin Scorsese but is now going in a very different and less promising directorial direction with Mike Nichols. Kurosawa and Chris Rock, also not people I would ordinarily put together. As Beaks points out, however, this whole business of making ridiculous comparisons could be avoiding by simply going back to the original source material of “High and Low,” Ed McBain’s police procedural/business thriller, “King’s Ransom.” It’s similar but also very different than the Kurosawa movie in a way that tells you something about the differences between the Japanese and American cultures, and in some respects more relevant now than it’s been in some time.

I still can’t quite imagine Rock writing it, but you never know, I guess. Also, I give him credit for having interesting taste, assuming there’s a word of truth in any of this.

* The weekend box office “actuals” are finally in after the weekend confusion about which film came out on top. “Clash of the Titans” earned $26.6 miillion while “Date Night” was over-estimated by nearly $2 million and got a still very healthy $25.2 million.

* I don’t think there’s any way you can make me care about who’s writing the He-Man movie.

* If you’re in the mood for some real critical inside baseball and controversy. Glenn Kenny picks another fight, this time over age and ethics in this post and the ensuing comments. Personally, I like it better when Kenny writes about movies. I get enough meta at the DailyKos diaries. On the other hand, the Gang of Four clip is way cool.