I Am Link

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--- Turkey Dinner - Eli Roth says that he is still working on a script for his slasher Thanksgiving, based on that fake trailer he made for Grindhouse back forever ago. He could make that movie for twenty fucking dollars, I don't see why he's been such a putz about it. Just do it! (As long as the part with him in his underpants remains.)

--- Fire Burns - Apparently an American version of The Girl Who Played With Fire, the second of Lisbeth Salander trilogy, isn't dead even though David Fincher's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo underperformed financially. (I thought it was a terrific movie anyway.) Screenwriter Steven Zaillan talked to EW about it; if it does get made it won't be out until 2014 though. Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara are both signed on for all three films; no word if Fincher would return.

--- Big Bad Elf - Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, aka Mr. Eko from Lost, has joined the cast of the second Thor movie as a villain named Algrim the Strong, who is "the most powerful of the Dark Elves." The bigger bad guy played by Christopher Eccleston manipulates Algrim into fighting Thor, or something. I just hope he and Chris Hemsworth wrestle.

--- New Flesh - Because being instantly dismissive of the entire thing was really the only way for me personally to address the news that David Cronenberg's Videodrome is getting remade, I didn't bother to even look up who the dude is that's been picked to do it - his name's Adam Berg and he's been directing commercials and such for awhile now, and apparently the good folks at Slash have been big fans and they offer up several of his commercials to show off his skills. That's great! Remaking Videodrome? Still shit.

--- Good Dog - Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the events that were depicted in Sidney Lumet's great Dog Day Afternoon, and in its honor The Film Experience devoted this week's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" to that fine and worthy flick.

--- Dancing Machine - Also at The Film Experience today is the 100th anniversary of Gene Kelly's birth and Nat lists his favorite 50 actors of all time, of which Gene sits in his top two. Since I've spent the majority of my life avoiding musicals like the plague I think that Singin' in the Rain (my review) very well might be the only Gene Kelly musical I've ever seen. (I mean besides Xanadu, but does that really count?) Dramatic gasp! I know, I know. I keep meaning to reboot that "Make Me Watch a Musical" series I very briefly started to set all that jazz right.

--- Casting Quickies - Normally each of these casting announcements would deserve their own bullet-pointed mention but since The Playlist tossed them all into one post I'll just plop 'em all out at once as well - gratuity recipient and ER actor Goran Visnjic has joined the cast of Ridley Scott's The Counselor, opposite Michael Fassbender and Brad Pitt.

Olivia Williams, always awesome, is going to play a detective in Breacher, an "Agatha Christie" type cop thriller that's already got Sam Worthington and Joe Manganiello on board, from the director of Jake's Bald Cop Movie.

And finally and most awesomely, our beloved Winona Ryder has joined the cast of that James Franco versus Jason Statham action movie we told you about a couple weeks ago. Winona is playing a biker chick (!!!) who's aligned with Franco's meth-dealer Gator. I want this movie inside of me.

--- John Dies Next Year - We've been waiting for this one so long we'd forgotten all about it - John Dies at the End is a terrific bizarre book, and Don Coscarelli, the guy who made the Phantasm movies, turned it into a movie starring Paul Giamatti. It's been done for awhile, but we're only now getting a release date - it'll be out early 2013.

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