Indie Roundup reviews the past week of news from the independent film community and provides a peek at what's coming soon.

Opening. Two films opened yesterday which couldn't have less in common: Agnès Varda's essay film The Beaches of Agnès and Nia Vardalos' I Hate Valentine's Day. Tomorrow comes Anne Fontaine's comedy The Girl From Monaco.

Deals. Xavier Dolan's family drama I Killed My Mother, Kenneth Branagh's The Magic Flute, and Asghar Farhadi's drama About Elly have all been acquired by Here Films, the company formerly known as Regent Releasing. All three are headed for theaters next year. [indieWIRE]

Online Viewing. The 4th of July weekend inevitably brings thoughts of America as a land of immigrants, and that's the topic of Home, which debuts on Amazon VOD this week, featuring interviews with Mike Myers, Alfred Molina, and Liam Neeson. Also somewhat topical: if Michael Jackson had an impact on race in pop music, what about African-American musicians playing rock 'n' roll exclusively? Raymond Gayle's Electric Purgatory examines the issue (at iTunes). If you're looking for love, you have something in common with two women in the comedy/drama Arranged (also at iTunes.)

Box Office. Kathryn Bigelow's lacerating bomb squad thriller The Hurt Locker earned a per-screen average ($36,338) that bested even the giant robots, albeit on only four screens. Woody Allen's Whatever Works expanded to 35 screens and grossed $10,280 per outing. The combination of star Michelle Pfeiffer and director Stephen Frears could stir up only a tepid $5,338 per-screen at 76 locations for Cheri, which is less than the average for Duncan Jones' Moon in its third week on 21 screens. [Box Office Mojo.]

After the jump: David Hudson's The Daily takes a permanent (?) vacation, portending the end of the world as we know it.

As much as I enjoyed the shaky-cam mayhem of Cloverfield, I'm pretty bummed about the idea of Matt Reeves helming a remake of the 2008 vampire film, Let the Right One In. Even before the original film had hit theaters stateside, there were deals in place for Reeves to remake the film for U.S. audiences -- and that's what has me worried. Whenever something is remade for North America, what it usually means is that a little 'sanitation' is in order. For better or for worse, audiences tend to react badly to seeing children in a decidedly non-childlike way, and that's what made The Right One so memorable. But I guess I better get used to the idea, because Reeves recently told the L.A. Times that he's been scouting locations and that a second draft of the script has already been completed and now has the new title, Let Me In.

Let the Right One In was the story of Oskar, a young boy living in the suburbs of Sweden who begins a friendship with a vampire child named Eli who has moved in next door. For Reeves' remake, he's kept the time period in the 80's, but relocated the story to Regan-era Colorado. Most importantly, he's promised that he won't be making his Oskar and Eli any older in an attempt to appeal to the 'Twilight Crowd', and the success of his remake will all come down to who Reeves casts for his two leads. The director has already started working with Avy Kaufman to try and find the perfect cast, and luckily, Kaufman has experience when it comes to casting 'creepy kids', having been the casting director for The Sixth Sense and The Ice Storm.

After the jump: the original film's director and screenwriter give their two cents...

It looks like wolves won't be sharing the spotlight with vampires much longer. While our moon-led friends pop up in the likes of Underworld and the upcoming New Moon, a werewolf frenzy has taken over Hollywood, and there are no signs of it stopping, and no corner it won't touch. Less than two weeks after Teen Wolf was set to get the remake treatment, The Hollywood Reporter posts that Dimension Films is looking to remake John Landis' An American Werewolf in London. (Confirming a tip from Bloody Disgusting on Sunday.) Because apparently, no one is interested in making a new wolfy story.

This whole plan is still in the early stages, but per usual remake plans, Dimension wants "to make an elevated genre picture that will keep the fun comedy elements of the original as it seeks to be relevant to contemporary audiences." Relevant how? The wolf loves a girl in love with a vamp, and then finds an uber-creepy way to stay in her life?

Most remakes bring, at best, apprehension, but I really wish companies would stop with the cult classics. Or, at the very least, not all foam at the mouth to remake them. Dramas, action, horror -- these genres can often get remade well, because most of the success relies on quality and craft. But comedy and cult? It's as much about the time and place as it is about the talent involved.

Fine. Take our excellent Landis wolves and remake them. Make them "relevant." But whatever is done, I bet it won't be a cult classic, nor worthy of the name An American Werewolf in London.

Oh, the obvious jokes you can make about Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci being involved with a project called License to Steal. Considering they penned both of Michael Bay's robot-gasm installments, and Star Trek, plus produced The Proposal, one could say that this was their Hollywood life story.

But it's not. According to Variety, License to Steal is actually based on Marc Weingarten's Salon.com article The Learjeat Repo Man, which examines world of repo men. Not just any repo men that come after your flatscreen or your Prius, but the "big game" hunter who steal / repossess private jets, yachts, helicopters, and whatever else it is rich, corrupt people own. For the dangers they face (and oh, do they face dangers) they receive a cut of the overall value.

The script is being penned by Shane Salerno, Kurtzman and Orci are its executive producers. The project was shopped around by WME to three major studios, all with directors lined up to bid, and Salerno pitching it each and every time. McG took the project to Warner Bros., Timur Bekmambetov took it to Universal, and Bryan Singer took it to Sony. But Paramount snapped it up before anyone else had a chance to bid, and without a director attached. But Paramount has the dynamic duo pulling the strings, so they'll undoubtedly pull some major name in to tell the story they describe as "a smart, lighthearted action movie ... with a lot of unexpected plot twists." As you wait for the talent to hook themselves up, you can read the Salon piece, and dream of success and adventure ... either those enjoyed by Weingarten's repo men, or that of Kurtzman and Orci.

(Oversight! Thanks to ScreenRant for the photo up there! -- Weinberg)

I may have to hold my nose for this one. Hitman 2 is in development, says Variety, and 20th Century Fox has hired Kyle Ward to write a script that incorporates elements from "Hitman 5," a video game due for release in late 2010. So a movie sequel will be cribbing from a video game sequel, and more crappy product will fill the corporate pipeline.

Reportedly, the first Hitman was made for $30 million. It grossed $40 million in the US and $60 million overseas, according to Box Office Mojo. The overseas total and DVD sales must have pushed it well into the black, ensuring that a sequel would be inevitable. Putting aside the bottom line, the film itself was relentlessly mediocre. I entered with modest expectations, having heard that Fox had taken the project away from director Xavier Gens, who made the ferocious horror thriller Frontière(s). The studio denied the rumors, but Hitman felt flat and flaccid, only occasionally offering glimpses of the brilliance Gens had shown. Whether it was sophomore slump or studio interference, I ask you: did anyone leave the theater pumping their fist in the air, shouting, "More! I want more! More Hitman! Now!"

I didn't think so. Timothy Olyphant, who was so good in Deadwood, wasn't a very compelling assassin, and Olga Kurylenko supplied nothing more than decorative value. For those who care, Hitman 2 finds Agent 47 "at a low point. He must build himself back up psychologically and physically to reclaim his mantle as the world's most feared assassin." I can hardly wait.

It was just last week that anime fans the world over breathed a sigh of relief that Leonardo DiCaprio's live-action Akira was no more. But, that doesn't mean Hollywood has lost its taste for anime, and there are still plenty of other reboots headed our way. So while most of them have stayed in development limbo, two of the more popular titles: Cowboy Bebop and Robotech have started to make new ground, and some of the people involved are starting to talk.

Cowboy Bebop:
When the live action film of the beloved anime was first announced, fans were not thrilled with the idea. Plus, it probably didn't help that Keanu Reeves was taking the role of Spike. But, maybe we shouldn't count out the film yet, because when it comes to the film's screenwriter, there is good news and some bad news. But, let's start with the good news. In an interview with Anime Vice, Craig was asked about whether or not he was familiar with the series, and to his credit, Craig went into full fan-boy mode, telling them about some of his favorite episodes and that both he and Reeves have been meeting with Sunrise studio (the creator of the anime) to make sure that the original 'feel' of the show remains intact. According to Craig, "they [Sunrise] were very specific about their vision for the series, and how it might convert to a live-action film." -- sounds promising, right? Well, the bad news is that Craig has zero experience with sci-fi, and made his name writing about con-men and dysfunctional families. But, I'm going to remain hopeful that with Sunrise watching over the flick, there might be a chance we get something a little better than expected.

Read the rest over at SciFi Squad

Enchanted director Kevin Lima is on board to direct a new version of Mary Shelley's classic horror novel Frankenstein. Frank has a helluva twist, though; the scientist cooking up cadavers is an "antisocial" young woman in med school who decides to "create" her own friends. And... it's a romantic comedy. Can you say undead boyfriend?!

According to Variety, the writer and one of the executive producers of this potentially awesome project is Karey Kirkpatrick, the writer of The Spiderwick Chronicles, Charlotte's Web, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and James and the Giant Peach, among others. He also directed the Eddie Murphy vehicle Imagine That,

Both Lima and Kirkpatrick have a bunch of projects that are in development, although Lima's have more of a family-friendly vibe (The Spook's Apprentice, Candy Land, The Incredible Mr. Limpet, and Thumb). Kirkpatrick's optioned projects include writing, directing, and producing Captain Abdul's Pirate School, about a girl who is sent to pirate school and plans a mutiny against their evil school principal slash lead pirate, as well as the more adult-minded The Best a Man Can Get, which he is also writing, producing and directing.

Based on distributor Fox 2000's track record, Frank could be focused more on the rom-com than the potential for blood and a cool chick lead, but maybe indie production company Radar Pictures (the peeps behind Richard Kelley's The Box, and remakes of The Amityville Horror and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, among a number of other projects) will make sure that we get a dash of gore with our giggles and girly goodness.

I'm voting for Kat Dennings as our protagonist -- she's smart, snarky, and sweet, and she plays the perfect "outsider." Who would you cast?

(Thanks to Zach for noting that Kirkpatrick is a man. Oops.)

It's looking very likely that David Fincher will be joining a social network soon. Make that The Social Network, a movie based on a script written by The West Wing's Aaron Sorkin about Facebook.

Just like in those good old dot com days, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg hatched the site in his dorm room in 2004, which now boasts over 200 million users. The Social Network will follow the site from its, uh, humble Harvard beginnings to marketing buzzword. By the way, Zuckerberg's net worth is $1.5 billion, according to Forbes' list of the world's billionaires in 2008.

IMDb lists the project as on track for 2011, and Variety says the team is hoping "to begin production later this year."

The real questions are whether or not the project will tackle some of the issues looming over Facebook, such as your right to privacy and who owns the information you upload to Facebook, and if the idea and/or code was Zuckerberg's to begin with.

Next up: Scorsese will direct a film based on the Tweets of Courtney Love.

After resisting overtures for a decade, a best-selling author received an offer he couldn't refuse. John Grisham has finally allowed his 1999 novel The Testament to be optioned, according to Variety. Grisham will have "the right to provide creative input, which he didn't always have in the past -- one of the factors that pushed him away from Hollywood until about three years ago, when his fans prodded him to end his self-imposed movie moratorium."

The Testament revolves around a self-made billionaire who leaves his entire fortune to his illegitimate daughter, a young woman who lives and works "with a primitive tribe of Indians in the deepest jungles of Brazil." An attorney who's seen better days helps her battle the billionaire's relatives for the fortune. Producer Mark Johnson says: "It had the best of the courthouse stuff that John writes so well, plus this exotic adventure in deepest Brazil."

It's been six years since Runaway Jury hit the screens, so is the time right for more big-screen Grisham? I jumped off the Grisham bandwagon after The King of Torts, which had a smug, off-putting, moralistic tone; his formula -- idealistic young hero / heroine fights the corrupt system -- felt stale and predictable. If nothing else, Grisham's books offer the comfort of familiarity. Legal thrillers, the more formulaic the better, are a Hollywood staple, and usually attract a dependable audience. Shia LaBeouf is attached to The Associate, his latest best-seller, and others are in development. Will Grisham's creative input on The Testament result in a better movie?

Universal has been busy readying remakes of many of their classic horror icons -- The Mummy kicked it off to a slow start ten years ago (gee, it's due for another remake!), The Wolfman hits theaters this fall, and allegedly The Bride of Frankenstein, The Creature From the Black Lagoon, and The Invisible Man will follow. But they're not just planning on remaking their stable, but option a few younger and fresher versions of their icons too.

According to Variety, the studio has optioned Larry Doyle's upcoming novel Go Mutants! It's a teen comedy / adventure story set in a world where all those classic 1950s alien invasion movies actually happened. A few decades later, the offspring of those invasions have assimilated among the rest of the population, and are happily attending high school.

It's too early to tell if it'll be another Monster Squad, as the book doesn't hit store shelves until next summer, but Doyle promises you'll see cameos from Gort and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. One of those is not like the other, so all bets are off as to who else you might see, but I'd put money on the Mole Man and the Metaluna Mutant. Perhaps he'll reach beyond the creature feature cast, and throw in the Invisible Man -- you can't tell me that sly creep didn't use his gift to father a few brats and avoid the child support.