One of the best things about last March's South By Southwest Film Festival was that I got to hang out with a bunch of Cinematipals like Kim, Erik, Pete, Jette, Snider and Gene ... and one of the best times we had together was during the world premiere midnight screening of Gregg Bishop's Dance of the Dead. It certainly helped that we were chilling at the Alamo Drafthouse, but the flick should play well in traditional cinemas as well.

Which brings me to the point: According to a recent press release, Dance of the Dead is now co-owned by the horror-lovin' Lionsgate and Sam Raimi's Ghost House outfit. I'll leave the specifics for the after-the-jump press release, but suffice to say that Dance of the Dead is sort of like George Romero meets John Hughes. (Read Peter's review here and mine right here.) Congrats to the Dance gang for snagging a pair of partners who actually specialize in high-quality indie-style horror stuff. (And while you freaks are waiting for Dance of the Dead to hit your town, feel free to rent Bishop's first flick. It's called The Other Side and (after watching it) you wouldn't believe how much it cost to make.

Remember the days when FBI profilers hunted serial killers the old fashioned way, assisted by their fellow law enforcement officers? But ever since Clarice Starling had to go and enlist the help of Hannibal Lecter, now it is just standard protocol to pair up with a serial killer.

Deal with the Devil is the latest version of that tale -- except this one is a comic book by Mike S. Miller. According to The Hollywood Reporter, it's just been picked up by Lionsgate. The story follows FBI Agent Anthony Goodwin, a legendary manhunter until his final case. The killer he was after, Kevin Runyan, turned the tables and became his hunter. He loses his career and his suspect -- who turns up four years later, asking for his help. Goodwin must decide whether to help the man stop a dangerous copycat killer.

Now that you know what Josh Brolin's George W. Bush will look like, you should know that you'll get to see him in action real soon -- probably sooner than you thought. The ever-courageous Lionsgate has picked up Oliver Stone's W, and plans to release it on October 17th. Of this year. That's 2008. Before the election. Notably, the movie hasn't even started shooting yet -- it goes into production on May 12th in Louisiana.

I never really thought the film would fail to find distribution, though early buzz on the screenplay has been fairly toxic. I did think there was going to be a race between when W would be finished and when Dubya would be finished -- that is, out of office. But apparently Stone is not messing around and plans to deliver the film in a few months, with Lionsgate hoping to capitalize on the furor that will surround the election.

Jeez -- maybe it's because I read too many blogs (or because I live in Pennsylvania, suddenly a battleground state), but it's barely May and I'm already tired of the election. Is W really how people will want to spend their leisure time in late October? I can't imagine, but I respect the folks at Lionsgate enough to think they know what they're doing. Incidentally: Dick Cheney remains uncast. Any suggestions?

Their batting average might not be all that stellar, but I'm still rooting for the After Dark team. In theory, their idea of snatching up eight indie / foreign horror flicks a year and offering them a brief theatrical run is fantastic. And I've no doubt that the AD crew does the best they can with the flicks and funds that are available, but let's face it: Their track record isn't exactly sterling, now is it? (Their flick recap can be found after the jump.) But things seem to be looking up in After Dark country: According to The Hollywood Reporter, the scrappy little distributor plans to get a lot more involved in the production side of the equation.

They've already announced Sean Ellis' The Broken* as the first AD08 title, but now we seem to have movies two and three. Production begins this month in Romania on both Faithless and Perkins' 14, the former a thriller about a woman on the run from domestic abuse, the latter a serial killer chiller. (Hey, the less I know about the plots, the better.) Faithless comes from the team of Stewart Hopewell and Tim Long, while Jeremy Donaldson's Perkins' 14 was apparently the winner of a screenwriting contest at Massify.com, which is kind of interesting. That flick will be directed by Craig Singer, whom Horrorfesters will remember from Dark Ride. This pair of flicks marks AD's first return to full-on production since 2006's An American Haunting.

(* Saw it at Sundance; dug it.)

After presenting The Spirit at last month's New York Comic-Con, Lionsgate feels good enough about Frank Miller's solo directorial debut to move it from its January 16th dead zone of a release date to Christmas Day, 2008. So instead of going up against Mall Cop, starring Kevin James as a wacky security guard, and the Notorious B.I.G. biopic, The Spirit will face off against Adam Sandler's Bedtime Stories, the supposedly ultra-heartwarming Marley & Me, The Tale of Despereaux, and the aftershocks of Twilight and The Day the Earth Stood Still.

"Adult" Christmas counterprogramming has not traditionally fared too well. Last year's Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem actually did okay, but remember Black Christmas? No? What about Darkness? The move is indeed a vote of confidence, but it might up throwing the film to the wolves. The key is to position it as a prestige picture rather than a throwaway. There's been enough fanfare around the promotional materials released thus far to make that look like a possibility. If Lionsgate can put it on people's radar in advance as a Christmas Movie to See, rather than have it randomly show up to compete against the holiday heavy-hitters, it could work.

Take a look at the trailer for The Spirit here.

Now that we know the storyline for Crank 2: High Voltage is going to be a little wacky, it might give these latest behind-the-scenes photos some context. The Bad and the Ugly scored some pictures of the returning Amy Smart in all her topless glory (the pics are a little NSFW, so consider yourself warned), along with Jason Statham, and Corey Haim (rocking one heck of a mullet) hard at work on the action thriller.

Picking up where the last film left off, Statham returns as Chev Chelios, the hitman with a need for adrenaline. This time, though, he's got a busted artificial heart that requires jolts of electricity to keep it pumping. There is also something about a 100-year-old gangster named Hu Dong, but it all gets a little confusing after that.

Earlier in the week JFX Online paparazzi had taken some photos on set (mainly of Smart), but had been asked to remove them (the photos are still all over the web, so JFX has since put them back online). Their reporter even took a few cheap shots at the production, but has since retracted those comments. Writer-directors Brian Taylor and Mark Neveldine have already taken their fare share of criticism for the first film, but I know for a fact there are plenty of people who couldn't care less about the critics, and they can't wait until Crank 2 hits theaters in 2009.

Warning: This post contains some spoilers for the original Descent.

It's been a while since we've heard anything about the promised sequel to Neil Marshall's The Descent, and fans of the film who rolled their eyes at the initial announcement may have gotten their hopes up. But no: the sequel is still going forward with Descent editor Jon Harris making his directorial debut, and James Watkins (My Little Eye), who had nothing to do with the first film, writing the screenplay. The new info is that Shauna McDonald and Natalie Mendoza, who played protagonists Sarah and Juno, will reprise their roles in the sequel. The cast will also have some Y chromosomes this time around, in the form of Gavan O'Herlihy, Joshua Dallas and Douglas Hodge.

The plot will involve "the survivor" -- that would be Sarah -- "forced back into the system of caves she battled her way out of in the first film, in a bid to locate the rest of her group." Shockingly, this probably means that the sequel will take the American "Lionsgate ending" (in which Sarah gets out) as canon, rather than the original ending, where Sarah's escape is a dream sequence and the final shot shows her remaining in the cave. I suppose this could be explained to overseas viewers (who were, after all, responsible for more than half of the first film's $57 million box-office) by claiming that she got out later, in some other way. But it'll be tough.

I was one of the hardy souls who endured the recent Larry The Cable Guy atrocity Witless Protection, and when I wasn't bleeding out the eyes or praying aloud for the sweet release of death, I was noticing something peculiar: The film has an FBI character named Alonzo Mosely, which was also the name of an FBI character in Midnight Run. In and of itself, that could be a coincidence. But take into account that both Alonzo Moselys are played by the same actor, Yaphet Kotto, and that both are responsible for tracking down on-the-run witnesses who are supposed to testify against the Mafia, and you realize this was done on purpose.

So that's cute, I thought. I figured they probably hired Kotto, realized how similar the character was to the one he played in Midnight Run, and renamed the new character as a little inside joke. Universal Pictures isn't laughing, though, and not just because they watched a Larry The Cable Guy movie. According to The Hollywood Reporter's law blog (not written by Bob Loblaw, unfortunately), they're suing Lionsgate for copyright infringement and seek to stop all further distribution of Witless Protection, including the DVD release scheduled for June 10.

That's right: If Universal wins the case, the movie will be taken out of circulation. Regardless of the legal ramifications, I see this as a victory for society.

Frank Miller's place in comic book history is already secure, but these days, he's aiming to leave a sizable IMDB entry too. Miller revealed exclusively to MTV Movies that
not only is there renewed interest in a film adaptation of his comic miniseries Hard Boiled, but that he's hoping to direct it himself. "We're talking about [it]. I've got a really unusual way I want to do it."

After co-directing Sin City, and helming The Spirit himself, he's officially caught the bug. "I'm in love with directing. I've found a way to expand my career. Comics and directing are really two sides of the same coin. That's what Robert Rodriguez taught me ... good drama is good drama."

Hard Boiled was originally published in 1990 by Dark Horse, and is one of the few Miller comics out there that the man himself didn't illustrate. It is about a humble insurance investigator named Carl Seitz, who unexpectedly discovers that he's a cyborg assassin named Nixon. Though psychotic, he's also heralded as the savior of the robot race. It was remarkably violent for its day -- and still is. At one point, it was in development to be directed by David Fincher, and starring Nicolas Cage.

People are really hating on Miller for this swerve in his career, but frankly, I think it's pretty cool. I always admire anyone who can transition from one field to another -- and it is always exciting when an author gets to helm their own work. Alan Moore should have totally gone this route.