Hot chicks! Cool nicknames! Broken bones! Director Bob Ray spent five years documenting a fledgling, all-female roller derby league in Austin, Texas, and the result is Hell on Wheels, an energetic, snappy flick that's both entertaining and informative. Our friends at SnagFilms have made it available for free online viewing.

Dan Policarpo (AKA Roller Derby Dan) birthed the idea of a 21st Century version of roller derby, whose initial popularity peaked decades ago. Women readily responded, and Policarpo picked four that he felt would be good team captains: Heather, Anya, Nancy, and April. After he exited, the four decided to forge ahead with plans for a league, forming Bad Girl Good Woman Productions, even though they had no business experience. After two years of struggle, the first bout is held in front of 350 fans. Soon after that, the four decide to incorporate, which provokes a heated response from the players, who felt that they should have a voice in the business. Eventually things come to a head, a new league is formed (Texas Rollergirls) and emotions become heated.

"You not only get to follow women struggling with the world of business, you get to watch some kickass roller derby," wrote Jette Kernion in her review when the film debuted at SXSW in 2007. "Hell on Wheels follows all sides of the league controversies and offers us glimpses into the lives of the women involved."

After the jump: Watch Hell on Wheels!

You know things are bad in Hollywood when a production gets shut down just three days before it's supposed to start filming -- and when the production in question stars Brad Pitt and is directed by Steven Soderbergh. The last three movies those guys made together all had the word Ocean's in the title. What gives?

Well, according to Variety, Columbia Pictures chair Amy Pascal found the latest script revisions for Moneyball so different from what she'd originally greenlighted that she pulled the plug on Friday. Filming was supposed to start in Phoenix on Monday. This is the equivalent of canceling a flight while the plane is accelerating down the runway. Those script revisions must have really been something. Maybe Soderbergh had decided to turn it into a four-hour biography of Pancho Villa.

Moneyball is based on a nonfiction book that uses the 2002 Oakland A's baseball team as a case study for examining how less wealthy teams can compete with richer ones (like the Yankees) by hiring players whose statistics in certain areas -- but not the ones usually considered, like batting averages and RBIs -- indicate they'll perform well. Yes, it's a book about statistics. You can see why a movie would be a hard sell to begin with. But the book was a bestseller, appealing to baseball fans (who tend to love statistics) and readers who enjoy a good underdog story. Pitt was to play A's manager Billy Beane, whose theories about which players would be most valuable went against conventional wisdom but were ultimately vindicated.

Click image below to view entire poster

Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for Big Fan, one of my favorite films from this past Sundance Film Festival and a must-see for anyone who's ever taken their fandom a bit too far. Written and directed by The Wrestler screenwriter Robert Siegel, Big Fan stars Patton Oswalt as a lonely New York Giants fan living out his days as an overnight parking lot attendant on Staten Island whose obsession with his favorite football team leads to an unfortunate (and embarrassing) incident involving his favorite player -- forcing our big fan to choose between his team and the rest of his life.

From my Sundance review: "... this isn't a film about sports, it's a film about fandom -- about being so in love with something you go overboard and neglect your friends, your family and your life in order to feed your addiction. This isn't a comedy about the goofy football fan who gets off on chanting and screaming his team's name; it's instead a cold, lonely drama (with brief moments of awkward humor) about the neurotic football fan who'd give up everything (and I mean everything) to see his team make the playoffs."

For more on Big Fan, check out our Sundance interviews with Patton Oswalt and Robert Siegel, and check out the full poster by clicking the image below. Big Fan will hit theaters later this year.

Like it or not, the Karate Kid reboot continues to fight its way forward. First came Jaden Smith, then Jackie Chan, and then a spanky new name in The Kung Fu Kid. Now The Hollywood Reporter's Risky Biz Blog reports that the the film is getting some Happyness in the form of screenwriter Steven Conrad. Yes, the same man who wrote little Jaden and Papa Will's Pursuit of Happyness.

Chris Murphy was originally slipped into the screenwriter gig, but now Conrad has taken over the story. Instead of fightin' in the U.S. of A., the action travels overseas to Beijing, where a young kid named Dre (Smith) moves with his single mom (Taraji P. Henson ofHustle & Flow and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). Beyond the culture shock, this tyke must deal with jerky little bullies -- ones who will probably get a taste of justice after the kid finds a fighting mentor in a man named Mr. Han (Jackie Chan).

Conrad must be working fast, because the project will start filming next month. Now the only question that remains: what tone will this have? Feel-good teen fare? Sappy melodrama mixed with tormented tykes finding inner strength? Could it possibly have a whiff of humor a la The Promotion?

Diane Lane's grabbing the reins in Disney's new film Secretariat. Lane will be starring as Penny Chenery, a housewife who takes over her father's thoroughbreeding farm after he falls ill. She learns the ropes fast, and her horse Secretariat goes on to win the 1973 Triple Crown. Secretariat will focus on her relationship with the prize-winning horse, which is a nice change from movies focusing on relationships between, say, Lane and Richard Gere as in 2008's weepy Nights in Rodanthe.

Randall Wallace, who wrote the screenplays for Atlas Shrugged, We Were Soldiers, Pearl Harbor, and Braveheart, is directing; he also directed We Were Soldiers and The Man in the Iron Mask. Mike Rich is behind the script; he also penned similarly inspirational flicks The Nativity Story, The Rookie, and Finding Forrester.

Secretariat sounds a little bit Seabiscuit-y and a little bit you-go-girl, with a distinct possibility for sappiness. Is Disney aiming for Diane Lane's demo or horse-loving young girls? It's too early to tell, but I'm just happy to see a movie with a strong female lead who isn't just interested in shoes and dudes. And despite some missteps with films like the aforementioned Nights in Rodanthe,Jumper, and Untraceable, Diane Lane pretty much rocks.

The speedy cyclist may have had his own chances to shine on the big screen, most notably when he shamed Vince Vaughn's Peter La Fleur in Dodgeball, but it's time for Lance Armstrong to get his biopic. The Hollywood Reporter posts in a surprisingly short news blip that the athlete's cinematic story might finally be coming out of gestation. An unnamed writer "well-versed in sports comeback stories" has signed on, and production could kick into gear early next year.

It's about time. There's only so many times one can watch Breaking Away before they want something new, and Armstrong's story is not only ripe for a bio, it's also a ridiculously recognizable story. There aren't many athletes who become as recognizable outside their sport as the cancer-beating cyclist. He beat the disease out of his testicles, lungs, abdomen, and brain, and went on to break records and win the epic Tour de France seven consecutive years.

Almost three years ago, Jake Gyllenhaal was seen all over the place with Armstrong, and it soon came out that Sony was quietly developing a feature and Jake wanted to nab the part. But three years is a long time, and Jake's busy with Persian life, so I imagine the casting door is wide open. So who should play Lance? Is Mr. Gyllenhaal right for the part, or is someone else better suited to battle cancer and kick arse in the Tour?

As I drink my fourth cup of coffee and contemplate a nap, I look to my right at smiling, dapper Clint Eastwood and desperately want to know his secret to life. Because he's already finished his Nelson Mandela biopic / rugby film, and is probably prepping Hereafter or casting around his desk drawers for another script to film as he casually puts it on the awards path. How do you do it, Clint? How?!

According to Variety, Invictus, formerly The Human Factor, will arrive in theaters on December 11, 2009. Starring Matt Damon as rugby player Francois Pienaar, and Morgan Freeman in the daunting role of Mandela, it's based on John Carlin's book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation. It follows Nelson's release from prison, his election as president, the fall of apartheid, and his use of the 1995 Rugby World Cup to heal the nation. Its new title comes from the the William Ernest Henley poem which Nelson has recited often. And while that's a lot of history for one movie, this is also the director who did two WWII movies in one year.

Invictus' release date pits it against the long awaited The Lovely Bones, which is also being groomed for award season. Who will be victorious? Who will fail? Who cares, as long as Eastwood's still in the game, right?

Back in February I relayed the news that Ivy Miller and Wyatt Trips were reconnecting on the big screen. The still untitled romantic comedy will star Reese Witherspoon as a professional softball player who has to choose between two men -- Paul Rudd's white collar executive and Owen Wilson's 94 mph fastball hurler. (You can see Reese train here.) Well, this little picture was written by James L Brooks, the helmer of Terms of Endearment and As Good as It Gets, so it shouldn't come as too big of a surprise that he's eyeing Jack Nicholson for a role -- according to THR.

It turns out that Bill Murray has been in talks to play the father (presumably of Reese's character), but then lost interest. Meanwhile, Nicholson has been feeling the acting itch, so he might step fill the open spot for the director who helped him win two of his three Oscars. This, however is far from a reality right now. As the news post states: "Nicholson's deals are known for being notoriously hard to close and this one is still in the early stages." So Jack could easily lose interest as well before production kicks off later this month.

I say have at it and then find Nicholson something juicy. I'm not talking about the gigs that got him his more recent work, but something edgier, in line with his work in Easy Rider and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Wouldn't you agree?

The old-school Sam Raimi fans are having a ball this weekend (I hope) with the director's long-awaited return to horror, the very cool Drag Me to Hell. And of course all of you know Mr. Raimi as the director of the Evil Dead trilogy and / or the Spider-Man trilogy, but it's easy to forget that this filmmaker has one rather impressive batting average. Doubly so if you're into good-time matinee-style genre flicks! So here's a chance to look back over some of the man's other films, mostly ones you've heard of (and probably seen by now), but flicks that are certainly worth a fresh look every now and again. I'll start with one of my true favorites ...

The Quick and the Dead (1995) -- Raimi's ode to the old-school western is an addictively entertaining mixture of A) a great ensemble, B) tons of nifty visuals, and C) tongue-in-cheek affection for the old-fashioned western tales. Plus it's not every day you see Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe, Leonardo DiCaprio shoot it out amongst themselves. And if you're a fan of character actors, this movie is an all-you-can-eat buffet of colorful performances: Keith David, Kevin Conway, Lance Henriksen, Tobin Bell, Pat Hingle, Gary Sinise, and on and on it goes. Great fun, especially if you love westerns.

Darkman (1990) -- Long before he was handed the keys to Spidey's cinematic web, Sam Raimi was already thinking about superhero movies. And he didn't even bother going with an established character! He and his brother just created one called Darkman! Just about everything that works so well in the Spider-Man series is included here, from the playful tone and stylish action to the crafty compositions and strong performances. Liam Neeson as a faceless vigilante! How can you not love that?

A hockey movie from Kevin Smith seems like the most natural thing in the world -- so natural, in fact, that this news seems like a nonevent. What is surprising is the source material and writing partner Smith is employing, as he's teaming up with Mitch Albom to film an adaptation of Warren Zevon's song Hit Somebody. If you're a hockey fan, you know the bittersweet song about a Canadian farmboy who desperately wants to play hockey, but is good for nothing but fighting. I've embedded it below so you can check it out and follow along with Smith's ideas.

The film will be set in the 1970s in the final days of old-time hockey, the World Hockey Association, and blood-splattered ice. "The song's been one of my favorites since I heard it and I've always seen this whole movie behind," Smith told MTV News. I got in touch with Mitch because Warren Zevon has passed on and we started talking about it and he was into it and into what I was kind of pitching." While the story will have some comedy, Smith is styling it to be one of his most serious films yet. "I never once thought about winning awards or anything, but that movie I think can do it. If I play my cards right and we get the right people in it, it could be an award-type movie."

He's aiming to start filming in 2010 or 2011, naming it as the "the one I really want to do in a big, bad way." Perhaps this film is that "something else" he was hinting at. I think Smith could really get under the skin of a broken down hockey player, and if there's one person who can rescue the sport from being condemned to Slapshot remakes, it would be him.