EXCLUSIVE: Fresh off his turn chewing the scenery and assorted less desirable substances in "Hot Tub Time Machine," Rob Corddry is coming back to the big screen.

The former "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" star is set to sign on for a role in "Butter," the offbeat dramedy that will start shooting later this month.

Jennifer Garner and Kate Hudson (the former of whom is also producing) are taking the two lead female roles, with Ty Burell set to play Garner's husband. (Jim Carrey won't be starring, contrary to several reports scattered around the Web a few weeks back.) Jim Field Smith, the director of "She's Out of My League" (a tonally different picture if ever there was one) will be behind the cameras when production kicks off in Louisiana.

Since leaving Comedy Central in 2006, Corddry has fashioned a nice little film career, mainly of character parts; he's played in "Semi-Pro," in "W." (as Ari Fleischer, natch) and as the incorrigible man-child in "Time Machine." He'll look to break out bigger as the lead in "Cedar Rapids," Miguel Arteta's recently wrapped movie in which Corddry will play a naive Midwestern salesman opposite former "Daily Show" costar Ed Helms. (Of course, the pair overlapped with Steve Carell on "The Daily Show," where Carell perfected characters like Produce Pete.)

Michael De Luca is producing and The Weinstein Co. is financing "Butter" (yes, you read that right), based on a very acclaimed script from a writer named Jason Micalleff that landed near the top of the industry-sanctioned Black List a few years back. The basic plot involves an Iowa woman (Garner) who attempts to win a butter-carving title formerly held by her husband, only to be thwarted by a young girl (Yara Ahahidi).

And if that doesn't get you in the theater, the prospect of Corddry and oleaginous substances should.

--Steven Zeitchik

Follow me on Twitter.

Photo: Rob Corddry. Credit: Kirk McCoy / Los Angeles Times

Exactly one month from Wednesday, Tony Stark, Pepper Potts and the other personalities of "Iron Man" will return to make witty mayhem in the superhero sequel.

And exactly three days after that, we could have a new domestic box-office record.

Stark himself, never lacking in suave self-confidence, probably wouldn't make such a bold boast. But it's entirely feasible.

According to just-released tracking surveys, director Jon Favreau's second installment in the Marvel franchise is showing astonishing levels of interest and awareness well ahead of its three-day opening next month. There are enough statistical indications to think that the first-weekend gross could top the $158.4-million haul for "Dark Knightl", the current record-holder for the biggest (non inflation-adjusted) opening weekend and the gold standards for movie debuts. 

We have no idea whether these two videos actually come from Werner Herzog, or what hallucinogenic substance its reader had ingested prior to offering his, er, unusual take on these children's classics. ("A monkey has bested seven adult men -- this should give you a dim view of human potential.") But they're pretty funny just the same. Ze tiger, indeed, dreams only of death.

-- Steven Zeitchik

She is introduced in her underwear, as a nod to French sensibilities...

EXCLUSIVE: All video-game adaptations these days seem like fraught propositions, but the movie version of "Gears of War" has seemed especially touch-and-go. First there were rumors that the property had stalled in development. Then the rumors were quelled. Then they started up again.

Now sources say the New Line project has really slowed down. The film's story and budget have been scaled back,  and director Len Wiseman, the filmmaker behind "Live Free or Die Hard" and the "Underworld" franchise (he's variously written, directed and/or produced the three films in the franchise), is instead turning his attention to "Nocturne," an apocalyptic thriller based on an idea from "Red Dawn" writers Andre Fabrizio and Jeremy Passmore. (Wiseman had previously been in talks to direct that property, which is set up at Fox. It's now official.)

In the "Gears" video game, main character Marcus Fenix leads a human group charged with protecting the fictional planet Sera from a pernicious enemy called the Locust Horde. Fenix is a former prisoner and soldier who comes with all the back story, and muscles, you'd want a movie action hero to come with, and the game features plenty of feature-ready weaponry and mythology.

Which is probably why (along with the millions of copies that the Xbox game and its sequel have sold) the project had generated a certain buzz: the script, from "Wanted" writer Chris Morgan and with some character work from veteran Billy Ray ("State of Play," Flightplan" the "24" movie), was to be a multi-generational epic with a big-canvas feel.

But the studio has now cut the budget, going from a film that would have cost more than $100 million to one that will cost a good chunk less than that. It's also reined in the story, turning it into a more simple, straight-ahead invasion story instead of a sprawling epic. Producers are looking for a new writer to handle all this, but haven't found one yet. And Wiseman, while technically still attached, will likely not be a part of it when all is said and done. (With him going, any possibility of Kate Beckinsale starring would go too; Wiseman is married to the actress and had talked about wanting her for a part.)  A New Line spokeswoman could not immediately be reached for comment.

Video games are among the more curious properties out there. They tend to get a huge boost early in development -- titles ranging from vintage games such as  "Asteroids" and "Missile Command" to more modern games such as "Shadow of the Colossus" and "World of Warcraft." But their appeal -- of a story that's already been told on the screen -- can become a complicating factor as development moves forward, especially since the interactivity that made them so popular won't be incorporated into the new medium, leading to obstacles on their road to the multiplex. (And when a property does get there one can wish it didn't  -- see under: Max Payne.)

As for "Nocturne," there's no casting yet (and there may yet be a new title), but the project, about a group of people who survive the apocalypse and the mysterious circumstances of how they got there, now has heat at Fox. One of the more venerable writing teams around, Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby (they wrote "Iron Man" and "Children of Men"), are writing a new draft. They're working off a version from Fabrizio and Passmore, who with the "Red Dawn" and "Missing in Action" remakes to their name, are no slouches themselves.

Original ideas are hard to get off the ground these days, but those behind them may want to be thankful for one thing: at least they're not developing video games.

-- Steven Zeitchik

Photo: Gears of War. Credit: Microsoft Games Studios

With “The Last Song” performing respectably at the box office this weekend, earning $25.6 million over five days, it’s fair to wonder whether Miley Cyrus isn't entirely delusional in thinking a serious, or at least a commercial, acting career lies ahead of her.

The tween pin-up has said repeatedly that over the coming years she wants to eschew singing in favor of acting. ("I'm really good at comedy," she recently told my colleague Amy Kaufman.) Producers, their hearts a-twitter at the fan following Cyrus comes with (if not exactly her Angela Lansbury-esque acting skills) have done their part; in recent months, they’ve attached Cyrus to projects ranging from an action-comedy called “Family Bond” to a remake of the Sarah Jessica Parker '80s dance movie “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.”

“Miley is coming of age as an actress, and you’re seeing her fans follow her even when she’s doing something that has nothing to do with 'Hanna Montana,' ” Disney executive Chuck Viane told us ahead of "The Last Song's” opening.

Of course, if you're trying to make this kind of transition, talent helps too. Like that of other emerging tween stars, Cyrus’ acting isn’t without promise, but it’s not without shortcomings either. In “The Last Song,” she’s perfectly fine playing to type as a pouty, lovelorn teenager, but runs into trouble when she’s trying something more  substantial.

Cyrus may also want to keep in mind that the path has been rocky for the many Disney Channel stars who’ve tried to walk it before. Zac Efron (and before him, in a slightly different way, Shia LaBeouf) parlayed their exposure and fan base into a significant film career. But most of the others to come from the network’s crop of shows and movies this past decade have thus far failed -- personalities like Vanessa Hudgens, Hilary Duff and Ashley Tisdale (whose careers have given us the combined cinematic output of “Bandslam,” “Material Girls” and “Aliens in the Attic”).

There’s an issue for Disney Channel stars trying to make the jump to movies, even frilly ones. The network's shows give their actors plenty of exposure, but they don’t exactly showcase their best acting. Even good acting gets lost there.

So it’s almost impossible for anyone casting these movies to know what an actor can or can’t do.  And it may be unreasonable for the rest of us to expect that because someone is a star there they’ll be a star anywhere else.

With this weekend's box office performance, Cyrus will get at least one or two more cracks at big film roles; look for at least one of the 17-year-old's development projects to gain some new elements and momentum. But it's a long road from life as a stadium pop star to life as a film celebrity. Cyrus could well wind up being good at comedy. Let's just hope it's not the unintentional kind.

-- Steven Zeitchik

Photo: Miley Cyrus at "The Last Song" premiere. Credit: Chris Pizzello / Associated Press

Like everyone else who poses that question provocatively in a headline, we haven't the faintest idea of the answer. But a couple points did stand out to us as we watched the California governor's much-ballyhooed turn in Sylvester Stallone's upcoming "The Expendables."

First, judging by the line he utters, Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn't seem to be playing himself here, a departure from other cameos he's done while in office. Second, why in the name of Conan the Barbarian are a bunch of mercenaries hanging out in a church?

Anyway, as you see from the rest of this trailer, in all its thwomping soundtrack and cheap jingoist glory, the Lionsgate release features 80s-era stars like Stallone, Mickey Rourke and Bruce Willis all grabbing machine guns and fighting for some Cold War-style justice. So it's fitting that Schwarzenegger is here too.

There was, as you may recall, some controversy when the governor took the acting job; it came during the budget crisis -- um, one of the many budget crises -- going on in Sacramento. The fruit of Schwarzenegger's excursion looks like it turned out OK -- well, sort of. While the "He loves playing in the jungle" line is just funny enough when said to the man who once played Rambo (Stallone, who wrote the movie, is doing self-mocking irony now?), his other line, "Give this job to my friend here," may be a quote you don't want memorialized on film while holding the highest elected office in California. "The Daily Show" clip artists are already licking their lips.

At any rate, we wouldn't be surprised if this was the beginning of a new film phase for the man whose most famous line is "I'll be back." Actors who become California governors can go on to big things when they leave Sacramento. And since the Constitution prevents that kind of big thing for Schwarzenegger, he might have to opt for the other big thing, the kind that involves Avi Lerner action movies.

-- Steven Zeitchik

EXCLUSIVE: Joe Roth has been on the comeback trail since "Alice in Wonderland" became a global phenomenon. (See my colleague Claudia Eller's take on  the second and third acts of the studio executive-turned-producer's career.)

Now Roth is making a bid for another family-oriented movie. He's shopping a CG project to studios. It's an untitled pitch with an appealing peg -- the film will be a whimsical look at where everyday items go when they get lost (and how they come to life when humans aren't around -- think "Toy Story" meets "Skinny Legs and All").

And it comes with an attractive element: Thor Freudenthal. The director, who has been riding a hot streak of his own with the success of "Diary of a Wimpy Kid," is shopping it with Roth. (He would direct and Roth would produce.)

As with all pitches, this one's a long way from seeing its way to the screen. But kiddie fare couldn't be more in vogue, animation continues to sizzle like a cartoon bonfire, and these two gentlemen have among the more notable (at very different budgets and in very different ways) hits of this young year. So we thought we'd tell you about it.

--Steven Zeitchik

Photo: "Alice in Wonderland." Credit: Walt Disney Pictures.

After last appearing on the big screen in the more  dramatic "Changeling," Angelina Jolie will return to a gun-packing role in this July's "Salt."

In a newly-released trailer for the action-adventure, we see Jolie playing Evelyn Salt, a CIA officer charged with being a Russian sleeper spy. To prove her allegiance to the U.S. of A., Salt jets off on a mission during which she dyes her hair black and scoots around the globe (well, New York) evading capture.

The trailer certainly does a good job of setting up the confusing question "Who is Salt?" Frankly, we're pretty lost ourselves. Is she good or bad? And what's at stake? From what we can tell from the trailer, there's a young son involved in the plot and a missing husband whose discovery might help clear things up. 

Jolie is reprising the kind of role she's arguably best known for -- the tough chick with a beautiful-but-ruthless persona embodied in "Wanted" and "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider." She seems to handle the role capably, though at times she's a bit too serious for our taste. We know there's heavy stuff at hand, but could she smile once or twice? Also, her black wig looks so fake that it's actually distracting.

As far as the action goes, it looks like director Phillip Noyce has packed the film with both heart-stopping chase scenes and racy sex scenes -- it's no surprise that the trailer teases a scantily clad and, well, salty moment. But what's more appealing about the trailer is the mind-bending plot line, which could offer some complexity to go with the chases and the fights.

-- Amy Kaufman

Photo: Angelina Jolie stars in "Salt." Credit: Sony Pictures

EXCLUSIVE: With Chris Evans now locked and loaded as Captain America, momentum is building to cast the property's female lead.

Marvel has been heavily courting Emily Blunt to play the main character's girlfriend, reported previously as Peggy Carter. The studio, sources say, has made an offer to Blunt and wants her for the part -- but expect someone else to wind up in the role in the end.

Blunt, the Golden Globe winner and star of this award season's "The Young Victoria," brings with her a British and European following -- key if you're trying to convince global audiences to see a patriotic hero named Captain America (if only Marion Cotillard was available). She's also seen as someone who can give the franchise a prestige gloss. Casting her would be a move not unlike Marvel's coup in setting Robert Downey Jr. in "Iron Man," lending some serious acting cachet to a superhero franchise (and lord knows Chris Evans isn't going to achieve that here).

But according to sources, Blunt is close to signing on to other projects and will turn down Marvel's offer. That leaves the studio to decide between several other people on its short list, including Keira Knightley and Alice Eve -- both of whom, not coincidentally given the film's global designs, also come with British bona fides. [UPDATED, 1:24 PM -- Sources now confirm that Blunt has officially passed. There will be no Victorian charm amid the dueling WWII-era superheroes.]

Casting a female lead in most superhero films is in many ways harder than nabbing the male one. You have the luxury (or necessity) of using the part to expand the prospective audience. But you also have the tough job of convincing the person who can provide the expansion that playing the girlfriend in an effects-heavy blockbuster is something that's worth their time.

It might be wiser to go the Bond Girl route and cast, say, a lesser-known but still rising star (Gemma Arterton, also British, comes to mind) and create a buzz that way, instead of going with a widely known quantity ... although we have to admit that watching an award-winning prestige actress play the part would  be interesting, to say the least.

-- Steven Zeitchik

Follow me on Twitter.

Photo: Emily Blunt in "The Young Victoria." Credit: Apparition

EXCLUSIVE: Last week, we told you that the elements were coming together for a "Diary of a Wimpy Kid' sequel. Now we can report that Fox 2000 has greenlighted a sequel to its pre-teen hit, based on the second book in author Jeff Kinney's bestselling prose/comic series.

The production will work from a new script from Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah, who wrote the shooting script of the first movie, and will take a fair amount of input from Kinney himself. Star Zachary Gordon will come back too, in a plot that will closely follow "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules," the book that findss Greg and both his friends and antagonists back for a second year in middle school. Producer Nina Jacobson is also returning.

The box office for the film's second weekend of release showed a not insignificant drop of 55%, but given that a movie budgeted at $15 million has now earned $40 million in a little more than two weeks of release, the property is a windfall for the studio. And with a third and fourth book published and a fifth on the way later this year, "Wimpy" could turn into a nice little franchise for the studio.

Fox will probably need to hire a new director for the next film, though; it's unlikely Thor Freudenthal would come back behind the camera. There's also no start date as yet, although given the propitiousness of the March release date this year, don't be surprised if the film pops up again next year at this time.

-- Steven Zeitchik

Follow me on Twitter.

Photo: Book jacket for 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules. Credit: Amulet Books

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It only seemed like an April Fools' joke when we read it this morning-- Paul Greengrass would tackle a wholesome adventure. A remake. In 3-D.

Greengrass is of course the filmmaker who's stubbornly and brilliantly gone his own way, even when he's gone the studio way. The most recent two Jason Bourne movies were great not only because of solid acting and well-constructed action scenes but because they had the crisp editing and verite camerawork that Greengrass brought to their passion projects. As for those passion projects, "Bloody Sunday" and "United 93," well, they were near-masterpieces. And "Green Zone" was pretty strong too.

So what in the name of Donald Pleasence was he thinking in taking on "Fantastic Voyage?"

In agreeing to direct the (likely 3-D) remake of the 1966 medical adventure at Fox, Green was embracing something that seemed, while perfectly respectable, also boringly commercial. The original had an appealing conceit and an entertaining sheen but it was, in the end, an up-the-middle entertainment. It didn't seem to lend itself to Greengrass' many skills, which are contained in small, quick movements and grainy palettes, not the grand sweep of an underwater adventure (essentially what "Fantastic Voyage" is). And certainly not in the (oddly flattening effect, at least spiritually) of the new 3-D craze.

Sure, the Bourne movies are big, implausible thrillers. But they're fast, and Greengrass does fast. "Fantastic Voyage" ain't fast. Plus, there are only so many Paul Greengrasses out there. Unless we figure out a way to shrink -- er, clone -- him, every pedestrian movie he takes on is a promise-laden project he turns down.

Then again, if someone is going to remake "Voyage" -- and there have been many who've tried over the years, including, um, smaller lights like Roland Emmerich and Tarsem Singh -- it may as well be someone with this kind of chops. Maybe Greengrass will actually find some new and interesting uses for 3-D, just as he did for another technology/device that had been around for years, the hand-held camera. And Greengrass is particularly adept at editing (an area in which the first film was nominated for an Oscar) as well as another skill that could come in handy for "Voyage:" transporting us somewhere we never expected to be (such as a hijacked plane). Let's just hope this one doesn't carry him away from something more interesting.

--Steven Zeitchik

Photo: "Fantastic Voyage." Credit: 20th Century Fox.

It's been eight years since Pierce Brosnan last played James Bond, but the actor still sometimes feels he's living in the shadow of the iconic spy.

In a story in Thursday's paper, Brosnan, 56, acknowledged that in the public's eye, he's still "very connected to the image and history of Bond."

"It just lives with you. It permeates your life," said the actor last week in an interview at a Beverly Hills hotel. "And you know that going in, but the reality of it -- the overcoat is really large, and can be quite heavy at times. So you have to break the shackles of that."

Brosnan has certainly thrown his effort into trying to diversify: by the end of the spring, he will have appeared in five radically different films.

His most recent project, "The Greatest," on which he also served as a producer, opens Friday and tells the story of a father grappling with the death of his son. 

Even the star of that film, Carey Mulligan, said she initially identified with Brosnan as Bond.

“He is my generation’s James Bond,” said the actress. “I played the video game of him with my brother on Nintendo 64.”

But "The Greatest" is a far cry from an action thriller. It shares in the serious tone of March's "Remember Me," in which he was embattled in a different kind of father-son relationship with teen heartthrob Robert Pattinson. There has also been Roman Polanski's "The Ghost Writer," in which Brosnan played an emotionally distant former prime minister, as well as his less dramatic turn as a bearded centaur in "Percy Jackson and the Olympians." Later this month, he'll serve as the narrator on the environmental documentary "Oceans."

When we first watched the trailer for "Knight and Day," we wondered whether Tom Cruise was really acting, or instead just revisiting the loopy persona he's established over the last couple of years.

In the new film, out in June, Cruise plays Milner, a government agent who takes June (Cameron Diaz) out on a blind date. Soon, June discovers that Milner may have been hiding his true identity and she is pulled into his dangerous globe-trotting adventures. Meanwhile, a federal agent (Peter Sarsgaard) is trying to convince June that Milner is cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs and has recently suffered "a full-blown break from reality."

But Cruise's character here seems eerily similar to a certain persona he's employed in the past. At one point, right as Milner abducts June, he assertively tells the man sharing a dinner table with her, "Please, for your own safety, please stay in the booth." It's just the type of condescending tone of voice Cruise had during his now-infamous interview with the "Today" show's Matt Lauer, in which he told the host, "Here's the problem. You don't know the history of psychiatry. I do."

In fact, much of the trailer seems recycled. Diaz, as usual, is all too breathy and giggly and ditsy and wide-eyed to be taken seriously. Really, how many times now has she taken on the dumb-blond-who-becomes-savvy role?

Then there are the cliched action scenes we've seen a million times: the car chases that result in gun wielding, the death-defying escapes through curvy streets, the formerly innocent woman who quickly learns how to handle hardware like a pro. Plus, there's a fugitive odd couple who will defy the odds and probably end up together, a la "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," or "The Bourne Identity."

Interestingly enough, Cruise seems to be the best part of the film. Maybe that's because he does the crazy maniac so well. Will "Knight and Day" offer something new to audiences, or is this just more of the same tried-and-true action film formula? Vote with your fingers.

-- Amy Kaufman

Photo: Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz star in "Knight and Day." Credit: 20th Century Fox

The little-known Irish film "The Secret of Kells" caught even insiders by surprise when it received a feature animation Oscar nomination earlier this year, edging out the likes of "Ponyo" and "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs." This Friday, "The Secret" will be revealed to Los Angeles moviegoers.

For the film, the artists drew from the scroll-work designs and microscopic detailing of the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript of the Four Gospels likely dating to the early 8th century. The attention to detail did not stop there; one of the characters, Brother Aidan, has a cat named Pangur Ban -- which happens to be the title of an ancient poem jotted down by an unknown Irish monk in the margin of a manuscript. Mick Lally, the voice of Brother Aidan, chants the poem in the original Old Gaelic over the closing credits of the film.

Director Tomm Moore says, "We learned the poem in school, along with the story that a monk had written it in the corner of a page he was illuminating. It was only later that I learned that the last line can be translated as 'turning darkness into light' or 'turning ink into light,' which I thought was a nice reference to creating an illumination."

You can read my full Calendar story here. And click through to the next page to read an English translation of the poem and see an image of Pangur Ban from the film.

-- Charles Solomon

Many tweens across the nation eagerly await Miley Cyrus' every move, twittering about the starlet's latest song or boyfriend. But Julie Anne Robinson, who directed Cyrus' first dramatic role in "The Last Song," barely knew who the young actress was before the two met on set.

"I was sort of dimly aware of her," admitted Robinson, who used to live in England, where Cyrus is not as popular as she is stateside.

These days, however, Robinson is acutely aware of Cyrus' star power: The director's feature debut, which was written specifically for Cyrus by modern romance master Nicholas Sparks, is likely to make $10 million at the box office on its opening day alone.

"The Last Song," which hits theaters Wednesday, stars Cyrus as a rebellious teenage girl who falls in love with a hunky local (Liam Hemsworth) while spending the summer at the beach house of her father (Greg Kinnear). 

The story is a far cry from some of the projects on Robinson's resume, which include work on productions at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Court and the Royal National Theatre in London. She later went on to work alongside directors Stephen Daldry and Sam Mendes before landing a spot in the BBC director's training course. But it was her work on the BBC miniseries "Coming Down the Mountain" -- a 90-minute film about two teenage boys, one of whom has Down syndrome -- that got her noticed by Disney. 

Before the film's release, Robinson took a few minutes to chat about how to avoid making a Nicholas Sparks story trite and what it's really like to work with Miley Cyrus. 

When it comes to watching Universal's "Green Zone," Brian Siefkes is not a disinterested observer.

Siefkes served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and was a member of the Army's Mobile Exploitation Team Bravo, which carried out the hunt in Iraq for the highly touted (but ultimately nonexistent) weapons of mass destruction -- the heart of the "Green Zone" plot.

What's more, Siefkes appears as an actor in "Green Zone," playing Keating, the right-hand adviser to Matt Damon's U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller.

In the film's press kit, Siefkes is quoted praising the film's accuracy. "What you see us doing in this film is an accurate representation of what we did over there," he said in the film's publicity materials. "It's what we experienced."

Now, having seen the finished movie, Siefkes has a more complicated appraisal of how his part in the movie came together, some of the disputes surrounding its production, and how much creative license director Paul Greengrass and screenwriter Brian Helgeland took in bringing the story to the screen. It's not the only recent war movie whose accuracy has been debated--similar conversations were held around "The Hurt Locker."

Although the film received largely enthusiastic reviews (including nice notices from Times critic Kenneth Turan and Chicago Sun-Times reviewer Roger Ebert), "Green Zone" flopped at the box office, putting one more stake in the Middle East conflict movie coffin. There are many theories about why audiences stayed away, as the $100-million "Green Zone" only has grossed $30.8 million in its first 17 days of release, just slightly more than what Greengrass' previous film, "The Bourne Ultimatum," grossed in its first day.

24 Frames asked Siefkes for his thoughts about the film, and here's what he has to say:

Of all the source material a director can choose to adapt, a graphic novel is probably the trickiest. Take one on and you're not only competing with the images audiences might conjure up from the book's prose, but you're also attempting to trump the images published in the book itself.

That's one of the reasons "Kick-Ass," Matthew Vaughn's upcoming adaptation of the popular teen-superhero comic series, will be such a closely watched experiment. And it's why Dean Parisot, like any filmmaker who accepts the mission, will have his work cut out for him if he takes on the upcoming "SEAL Team Seven."

The director of the Jim Carrey comedy "Fun With Dick and Jane" and the Drew Barrymore comedy-drama "Home Fries" is in discussions to direct "SEAL," a political action film that mixes the Tom Clancy submarine thriller with a dollop of fanboy fantasy intrigue.

Based on M. Zachary Sherman's 2006 graphic novel "SOCOM: SEAL Team Seven," the project, which is being developed by Walden Media, has Navy SEALS investigating a mysterious submarine drowning in the Persian Gulf, as well as battling forces in the underwater kingdom of Atlantis.

Parisot might seem a slightly unlikely candidate for the assignment, but he's had his share of genre credits with movies such as the sci-fi comedy "Galaxy Quest." Plus the filmmaker could have a bit more time now that "Central Intelligence," the Ed Helms comedy that he's set to direct, has been pushed back. That should give him more opportunity to get the look and feel of the thing right, opportunities he'll likely want to take. Comic fans tend to push adaptations they don't like underwater.

-- Steven  Zeitchik

Photo: Jacket image from 'SOCOM: SEAL Team Seven.' Credit: Image Comics

With the $43.3-million opening of "How to Train Your Dragon," the animation category, as it does seemingly every year, continues to outdo itself.

In 2006, four animated movies reached the magic mark of $100 million in domestic box office. In 2007, five films did. Last year, no fewer than eight movies topped that figure. It's starting to feel a little like the latter stages of Wayne Gretzky's 92-goal season: The only record it keeps breaking is its own.

With installments in powerhouse franchises like "Shrek" and "Toy Story" coming this summer, and new additions to the canon such as "Despicable Me," 2010 promises to be another banner year at the box office for the category.

But as animation continues to mature, the success doesn’t apply equally. In fact, it seems to apply unequally. And, from a quality standpoint, it tends to favor the lesser movies.

Sure, Pixar has its annual blockbuster, an "Up" or an "Incredibles" that is also exceedingly well-reviewed. But a look at the larger history shows a notable pattern, one in which audiences tend to more tightly embrace movies that critics tend to push away.

"Shrek 2" and "Shrek the Third,” for instance, are two of the most profitable animated films in the category's history (they sit at No. 1 and No. 4, respectively, in all-time domestic box office), even as they drew lukewarm reviews. Critics' favorites like "Coraline" and "Wallace & Gromit?" They’re way down at Nos. 61 and 75. (The latter two each cracked 80% on movie-review site Metacritic, surpassing the middling reception for the two "Shrek" sequels.)

True, some of these lesser-performing films were given different marketing budgets and release patterns.  But you pretty much can't orchestrate a better test case than the one completed this past weekend, when DreamWorks Animation's "How to Train Your Dragon" opened on the same weekend as "Monsters vs. Aliens" the year prior. Here were two animated films from the same studio, released on the same weekend exactly one year apart, both in 3-D. And yet, despite drawing far weaker reviews, "Monsters & Aliens" grossed about 30% more. (It is telling that "Dragon" received an 'A' on CinemaScore -- even though not as many moviegoers went to see the film as the studio had hoped, those that did really liked it.)

There's also a whole tier of middling animated films -- "Bee Movie" and "Chicken Little" and "Over the Hedge" -- that seem to have no problem grossing $125 million or more. And even among the Pixar hits, the higher-quality films tend to lag relative to their more mediocre counterparts; "Ratatouille" and "Wall-E," for instance, both didn't fare as well as "Cars."

We shouldn’t be entirely surprised by this gap -- live-action films, after all, have seen audiences' and critics' tastes diverging for years. But animation was supposed to be an exception. It was possible to create great films that also happened to be huge money-earners, the business' stalwarts kept reminding us (and as the landmark best-picture nomination for "Up" this year confirmed).

Turns out it's not that simple. You can create really good animated films but, as a rule, you'll have more success if your films aren't that great. Animation is like everything else, a little less like Gretzky and more like a solid right-wing, fallible and prone to foibles.

-- Steven Zeitchik

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With "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" one of the year's first sleeper hits, plans are under way to develop a follow-up film based on the second book in the popular series.

"Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules" is expected to follow its corresponding novel closely -- it will track the adventures of Greg and other preteens awkward, clever and occasionally confident in a new year of middle school, with a school talent show a linchpin of the narrative.

Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah, who wrote the shooting script on the first picture, have been hired to write the second movie, and author Jeff Kinney will again be heavily involved in development, a factor that observers say made the first movie both a creative and commercial success. Producer Nina Jacobson is once more producing through her Color Force production banner.

The X-factor is director Thor Freudenthal, who according to sources has not ruled out but is nonetheless unlikely to return for the second film (he's meeting on the teen supernatural movie "Agnes Quill" at Paramount, to which he's been attached for some time, as well as other projects).

Sources say that Fox 2000, which financed and distributed "Diary of a Wimpy Kid," has not yet committed to making the second movie, but there is a sort of development urgency to it; both preteen audiences and preteen stars have a tendency to age very quickly in franchises of this kind, suddenly making a movie feel very different. No one likes deep voices where they didn't hear them before.

Fortunately for the studio, most of the legal issues are locked up. Zachary Gordon and other cast are signed, and Fox has an option all five books in the series, which ends when Greg finishes middle school (the last book is set to be released this year). The studio will likely make a final decision after seeing both a script and more box office results.

Made for $15 million by the studio's Fox 2000 label, "Wimpy Kid" proved almost an instant success, earning $21.8 million in its first weekend.

Parents like the film because, well, their kids like the books and because the movie is a slightly more elevated, edifying form of the preteen genre. "Wimpy Kids" is also the kind of property that Hollywood executives like these days -- there's built-in brand awareness, the ability to franchise numerous films and, maybe most important, a manageable price tag.

-- Steven Zeitchik

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Months after revealing that he was battling prostate cancer, Dennis Hopper was back in front of the cameras on Friday morning when he received the 2,403th star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

The 73-year-old actor, who disclosed his cancer last October, appeared to be in good spirits as he arrived for  the ceremony on Hollywood Boulevard in front of the Egyptian Theater. He appeared having lost a significant amount of weight; his face, shaded partly by a newsboy cap, appeared gaunt and a heavy jacket hung off his body.