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...

"Slim pickings" is the best way to describe this week's releases. Isn't anyone planning to stay home and watch DVDs?

Two Lovers
Joaquin Phoenix can't decide between Gwyneth Paltrow and Vinessa Shaw. Directed by James Gray, this suffocating drama is dark, thoughtful, and "more true to real human existence than most of the dreck that comes out of Hollywood studios," wrote Kim Voynar. I wasn't quite as impressed by it as she was, but it's still my top pick in a slow week. Also on Blu-ray. Rent it.

12 Rounds
Wrestler John Cena stars in Renny Harlin's latest train wreck (as I described it in my review), a sober drama that resolutely refuses to embrace its loonier plot elements (fire engine smashing through New Orleans, an out-of-control street car). Aidan Gillen (The Wire) provides one of the few pleasures as an exceptionally-nasty master criminal. Also on Blu-ray. The "Extreme Cut" adds less than three minutes of footage. Skip it.

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li
I was hoping against hope that this might provide some cheesy fun, but Nick Schager slammed that door shut: "Fighting sequences are dreadfully lethargic ... their choreography is of a dull, unimaginative sort." Not even Kristin Kreuk can save this one. Also on Blu-ray. Skip it.

Also out: Jonas Brothers: The 3-D Concert Experience.

After the jump: "Indies on DVD" provides several good rental choices, a landmark film by Spike Lee hits Blu-ray, and a long-dismissed effort by director Hal Ashby gets dusted off.

Is the Toronto International Film Festival upon us already? I still have poutine stains on my shirt from last time! Yes, the 2009 fest is less than three months away, and TIFF has just announced the first batch of films that will play. All 24 will be making their North American premieres, so unless you've been to the festivals at Cannes, Venice, or Berlin, it's unlikely that you've seen any of them. Exciting!

In the "Masters" category are films by three directors who qualify for that distinction. Portugal's Manoel de Oliveira -- who is 100 years old (!) and has made 50 films, most of them in the last two decades -- has a new one called Eccentricities of a Blond-Haired Girl, about a man enchanted by a woman he sees from his window. Alain Resnais (Last Year at Marienbad), the 87-year-old Frenchman who got a lifetime achievement at Cannes this year, has Les Herbes Folles (The Wild Grass), a romantic adventure that begins with a lost wallet. And Hirokazu Koreeda, a Japanese spring chicken at 48, will present Air Doll, about a sex doll that becomes a real person -- Lars and the Real Girl meets Pinocchio? Koreeda made the haunting Nobody Knows a few years ago, so I'm onboard for whatever this Air Doll thing is.

The other 21 films announced today are from filmmakers ranging from the old and venerable to the new and enthusiastic. They span, the globe, too, representing countries you expect to see at international film festivals (France, Germany, Italy, etc.) as well as some with much smaller film industries, including Kazakhstan, Colombia, Malaysia, and Uruguay. The complete list of films and their descriptions is in TIFF's press release, as is information about buying passes. The festival runs Sept. 10-19. We'll see you there, right?

2012
You know that poem about the world ending not with a bang but a whimper? I don't think Roland Emmerich has read it as this end of the world flick has many bangs each followed by an Earth-shattering ka-boom. Apparently the Mayan calendar's prediction of the apocalypse comes true in the titular year and John Cusack plays a man whose family is in the midst of the cataclysm. The part about a government plan to build a sort of ark reminds me of George Pal's When Worlds Collide. The end begins on November 13.

Zombieland
I'm always leery of horror comedies. For every Shaun of the Dead or Return of the Living Dead there's a dozen straight to DVD movies that try to frighten and amuse at the same time yet end up doing neither. This humorous look at the zombie apocalypse not only looks pretty damn funny but also has some star power with Woody Harrelson, Abigail Breslin and Bill Murray. This one hits theaters on Ocotober 9, just in time for Halloween.

In the wake of the disputed Presidential election in Iran, film fans might find it interesting to take a look at Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. Directed by Nader T. Homayoung, the documentary provides an overview of Iranian cinema, spending most of its time on milestones -- both positive and negative -- from the past 40 years. SnagFilms has made it available for free online viewing.

Starting in 1997, Iranian cinema became "an international phenomenon," as Jeffrey M. Anderson wrote in his wonderful, extensive primer for GreenCine, "a New Wave on par with the French movement of the 1950s and 60s, the German movement of the 60s and 70s and the Hong Kong movement of the 80s and 90s." But Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution makes it clear that the country's cinema was flourishing in the late 60s and 70s, producing a flock of vital, progressive pictures that received little attention outside the local territory. Tantalizing glimpses of these films are featured, suggesting that further exploration would indeed be worthwhile. That all came crashing down with the ascendance of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979.

Khomeini's rule led to the idea of "Islamically-correct cinema," or as filmmakers interviewed in the documentary described them, "films about people in absolute poverty," preferably without any women. Some filmmakers found a way to express themselves artistically within the limitations imposed, eventually gaining international recognition, while nearly everyone was frustrated with censorship issues. The doc is very straightforward -- talking head interviews, archival footage, narration -- but the subject carries the day.

We've embedded the film after the jump for your viewing convenience. More information is available at the official site and at SnagFilms.

Friday the 13th
Marcus Nispel directs a rebooted version of the venerable series, which borrows elements from the first four films and adds precious few of its own. I'm tempted to say "skip it," based on my own review, but those first 20-25 minutes are pretty ferocious, and the "Extended Killer Cut" promises more of everything. Also on Blu-ray. Rent it.

Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon

Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail
Tyler Perry has grown his beloved character Madea "into a larger-than-life force of nature that is genuinely funny," wrote Eric D. Snider. He noted the writer/director's "tendency toward oversimplification," however, and commented: "Maybe if someone would do a better job of making films targeted at a black, female Christian audience, Perry's half-baked didacticism would suffer in comparison. In the meantime, this is the best there is, so it's nice that Perry is improving, albeit in small increments." Rent it.

Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon

Ghostbusters
The comedy classic with Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, and Sigourney Weaver stands ready to imprint itself upon your memory once again, in a new Blu-ray edition. One word to keep in mind before buying, however: grain. "Surprisingly heavy," says DVD Beaver; "heavy wash of grain that never quite dissipates," per IGN; "features plenty of the swirly stuff in most every scene," according to Blu-ray.com. Other than that important factor, which is claimed to reflect the original source print, reviews have been positive. Rent it.

Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon

Also out: What Goes Up, Morning Light, Sword of the Stranger, and a boatload of TV series (a list of the latter at TV Squad).

After the jump: Indies on DVD, more Blu-ray, and Collector's Corner.

There will be crunch this fall. "Crunch" as in furiously intense action from Thailand. "Crunch" as in Tony Jaa, madder than ever. "Crunch" as in Ong Bak 2, directed by and starring Jaa, now set to enliven the autumn theatrical release schedule. And if you can't wait until October 23, well, you can sit at home and watch the movie on September 25, according to Wise Kwai's Thai Film Journal.

Magnolia Pictures acquired rights to the film for its genre label Magnet in February and it was showcased at South by Southwest the following month. As I wrote at the time, Ong Bak 2 "features numerous insanely awesome fight scenes. Jaa explodes in every direction, his arms and legs delivering lethal blows as he lays waste to a variety of opponents, employing all manner of martial arts, straight fighting skills, and amazing dexterity with a variety of bladed weapons." To be fair, the pace is sometimes lumbering, and narrative clarity is not a strong suit, but those fight scenes are something glorious to behold.

Wise Kwai points to the official U.S. web site, which is only a placeholder right now, and to Mark Pollard's comments at Kung Fu Cinema about Magnolia's plan to make the film available on cable VOD, Amazon, and Xbox Live one month before the theatrical release. That's in line with how Magnolia has marketed and released other recent releases, and, in view of the modest returns for the original Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior a few years ago, makes good business sense. Meanwhile, Ong Bak 3, which will hopefully clear up some of the loose threads from OB2, is scheduled for release in Thailand in December.

Summer isn't only the time for bombs and blockbusters. Sometimes it's the time for sexy, romp-filled French classics like Jean-Jacques Beneix's 1986 film Betty Blue. Starting this Friday, the film will hit selected screens in a special, newly-struck 35mm Director's Cut print. We're not talking about a little scene here or there, but an hour of footage never released in the US.

The film focuses on the manic love between an imbalanced Betty and an aspiring novelist named Zorg. She's obsessively supportive of his writing, but quite temperamental about much else -- burning down their home, attacking his boss -- the usual imbalanced mania. The film was nominated for a slew of awards including Best Foreign Film at the Oscars, and has collected a sea of fans, although Roger Ebert certainly isn't one of them. Maybe if he'd seen this version... Cinema Libre, who's presenting the feature, promises that this footage more fully realizes and depicts central characters Zorg and Betty while also giving "more screen time to the secondary characters who add a sense of celebration and wild abandon with plenty of extremely funny moments along the way."

Rewinding the past seven days of the wonderful world of independent films:

Deals. Twilight fans will have the opportunity to see Kristen Stewart in a different type of role later this year. In Udayan Prasad's The Yellow Handkerchief, based on a story by Pete Hamill, Stewart jumps into a stranger's car. She and the driver (Eddie Redmayne) are soon joined by a newly-released convict (William Hurt) as they travel through rural Louisiana toward a hoped-for reunion with the ex-con's beloved (Maria Bello). Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired U.S. rights and is planning a theatrical release, according to indieWIRE.

Hans-Christian Schmid's legal thriller Storm will also hit theaters later this year, indieWIRE says, courtesy of Film Movement. Kerry Fox stars as a prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague; she must convince a witness (Anamaria Marinca from 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) to testify in order to convict a former officer of war crimes.

Box Office. Arriving with this year's Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in hand, Yojiro Takita's Departures took the #1 spot among indies. Set in and around a Japanese business tasked with preparing bodies for burial, the drama earned $8,327 per screen at the nine theaters where it opened in New York and Los Angeles, Box Office Mojo reports.

Also performing well in its debut weekend, Pressure Cooker grossed $8,151 at one theater in New York. The documentary, directed by Jennifer Grausman and Mark Becker, follows a high school culinary arts class in Northeast Philadelphia, where teacher Wilma Stephenson tries to help her students earn college scholarships. We've embedded the fiery trailer below.

After the jump: Outfest lineup, plus Transformers 2 in Los Angeles.