Mere days after Shia LaBeouf gleefully announced that Steven Spielberg had "cracked" the story for Indiana Jones 5 comes another confirmation that it'll rear its ugly head. Empire Online caught up with Indiana Jones' longtime producer, Frank Marshall, who didn't go so far as to green-light it, but revealed that they'll start hashing out ideas before too long.

"It's really about the script," said Marshall. "Once we see that, we'll see. We're not going to wait another 20 years. We'd all love to make another one. I'm anxious to hear the idea!" But he quickly added that he really didn't know what Spielberg was cooking. "Until there's a script, nothing's definite. I haven't heard the idea." (He should ask LaBeouf. I bet he knows.) Marshall also confirmed that Lucas, Spielberg, and Ford were equally eager to return for a fifth outing. "Yeah. We had a great time making the last one and, as Harrison said, we need to make this one soon. We're not getting any younger."

While talk is talk, and plans vanish, bear in mind that they were already chattering about a fifth outing before Kingdom of the Crystal Skull hit theaters, and were still dreaming of it after, despite the negative reviews and fan backlash. I have no doubt it'll happen regardless of what the fans say or think. When it does, that shrieking sound you hear? That'll be the death cry of my fangirl soul ... and I'm sure it won't be the only lament visited upon the heavens.

Ah, the sequel no one is clamoring for has reared its head again. To be fair, some people enjoyed Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and with worldwide gross receipts totaling nearly $800 million, the only question that remained was when Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Harrison Ford would be ready to give it another go. (Our own poll last year suggested that it was time to retire the franchise.) Reportedly, Lucas favored the idea of continuing with old Indiana Jones as the lead character rather than handing things over to young Mutt Williams, played by Shia LaBeouf. Research was being conducted to find an artifact that the movie could be based on.

In the UK to promote Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, LaBeouf talked to the BBC and revealed that he had spoken recently with Spielberg about another Indiana Jones movie: "Steven just said he cracked a story on it before I left. I think they're gearing that up." Spielberg is busy filming The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, so maybe he talked with Lucas between shots: "Hi, George, it's Steven. What if Indy searches for a shabti?" "Steven, what's a shabti?" "You know, George, the Sorcerer's Apprentice, the inspiration for that segment with Mickey Mouse in Fantasia?" "Of course, Steven, who do you think you're talking to?" "Well, George, the shabti was a figurine that was buried with the dead and performed hard labor for the deceased in the afterlife." "Ooh, I know, Mutt could try to get to it first, so he would never have to do manual labor for Indy any more!" "George, I think we've cracked it."

We'll wait to see if an official confirmation seeps out. Are you holding your breath for Indy 5?

Steven Spielberg's The Adventues of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn started filming with so little fanfare that I've nearly forgotten all about it ... but I doubt you diehard Herge fans have. Now you'll have a date to circle on the calender as Variety reports that Tintin will be hitting theaters on December 23, 2011, pitting it against Warner Bros Happy Feet 2 and Disney / PIXAR's The Bear and the Bow. (It may be two years away, but you can offer your box office predictions now if you like!)

At least, that's when it'll be hitting theaters on this side of the pond. Paramount and Sony plan to release the film in Europe first, as befitting its heritage and fanbase. There's no specific dates set, but they're eying a fall dates of late October and early November depending on what part of Europe you're in. If you're very wealthy, you could hop on a plane and catch it a few weeks early.

Variety also reports that the film will be released in 3-D. I guess that's a sign I've lost track of this project as I wasn't aware that was ever in doubt, but apparently the two studios have been debating that the past few months. Now after viewing dailies, they've decided that 3-D "would offer the best rendition" for the film ... and frankly the recent ginormous 3-D successes like Monsters Vs. Aliens probably helped convince them of that.

So, there you are, Tintin fans: December 23, 2011 in 3-D. Excited?

There's a caveat or two with which I submit this list of our favorite con artists on film, to correspond with tomorrow's NY/LA bow of The Brothers Bloom (our review from Toronto is here; our interview with director Rian Johnson, there).

One: I have not seen the following -- David Mamet's House of Games, David Mamet's The Spanish Prisoner, and David Mamet's Frank Oz's Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. I know, for shame, boo and hiss and so on and so forth.

Two: I've seen but don't fully recollect either The Grifters or Nine Queens enough to feel comfortable including them as if I had (I also missed the English-language remake of the latter, Criminal, though I've been told that's for the best). If I were a slier man, then maybe I could fittingly deceive the lot of you, but I'm not, so I won't.

While I don't doubt that the characters in those films would be worthy of a slot on our list, there are still at least seven other con (wo)men in the movies worth shining the spotlight on, and I do hope that you do think that may make do when all's said and done.

Fill your hands you ... well, you know the line. You probably know this movie line by line, and your heart still leaps to see Rooster Cogburn flip that Winchester. So the news that True Grit is getting remade by Joel and Ethan Coen will either fill you with rage, excitement, or put you squarely into Swiss territory.

According to Variety, the Coen Bros aren't aiming for a traditional remake -- they want to return to the original Charles Portis novel, and make a more faithful adaptation. Their version will be told from Mattie's point of view, as the original novel is, and keep Cogburn as a side player. The Coens will undoubtedly amp up the Biblical tone and include the darker elements ... like what really happens to her after the snakebite.

Plans to remake True Grit have apparently been in the works for some time -- it originally begun at DreamWorks, but was left behind when Steven Spielberg and his shingle split with Paramount. Undaunted by the task, the Coens are tackling it before their adaptation of Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union.

So, what else can you say? It's the Coen Bros, who will undoubtedly tackle a period Western as ably as they did a modern, revisionist one. On the other hand, it's John Wayne. It's the movie he won his only Oscar for. Do you dare touch it? I'm veering somewhere between neutral and excited myself, while simultaneously praying I don't live long enough to see anyone remake The Outlaw Josey Wales.

*By the way, did you know True Grit's screenwriter, Marguerite Roberts, was from Colorado -- my home state. It was also filmed here. I honestly never knew this. I feel something akin to civic pride now.

We're still months away from the release of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (it opens on June 24) but Paramount and DreamWorks are wasting no time. According to Variety, Transformers 3 is already in the works, and it's got a release date: July 1, 2011.

This is the first official word that Transformers is getting the trilogy treatment, although it really comes as no surprise. But Paramount cautions that nothing is set in stone yet -- they merely wanted to stake their claim on the date. There's currently no direct competition, and the arrival of giant robots pretty much means there won't be.

The studios wouldn't confirm whether Michael Bay, Shia LaBeouf, and Megan Fox would return for number three, though Bay seems likely. However, LaBeouf and Fox are busy filling up their slates with John Grisham thrillers and Fathom adaptations, so we could see one or both of them drop out of the franchise. And would it matter terribly if they did? Does anyone really go to a Transformers movie for the human players and not the giant robots?

So, barring any other official word, here's where you can express your pleasure, speculate as to what a third installment would center on, whether Revenge of the Fallen will end on a major cliffhanger, and hope fervently that Megan Fox returns. It's just a guess, but I suspect she's almost as much of a draw as Optimus Prime.

Finding out how your favorite movies came to be is generally very rewarding and educational. You seek out The Seven Samurai, and thank the film gods that a robotic shark failed to work. At the very least, you can win trivia contests by knowing what Rosebud was, and impress your friends by telling them who was originally cast as Aragorn.

And then there's the stuff you wish you had never known. This week, you may have been one of the Indy fans who eagerly downloaded the Raiders of the Lost Ark transcript, where George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Lawrence Kasdan hashed out ideas for one of the greatest film characters of all time. Cool stuff. Useful if you aim to write books or movies someday. Then I read this bit about Marion and Indy, and their ideas for their early love affair gone wrong:

GL: I was thinking that this old guy could have been his mentor. He could have known this little girl when she was just a kid. Had an affair with her when she was eleven.

LK: And he was forty-two.

GL: He hasn't seen her in twelve years. Now she's twenty-two. It's a real strange relationship.

SS: She had better be older than twenty-two.