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Deadline reports that Warner Bros. bought a pitch for a World War II film centered on the Battle of Midway, an early, pivotal WWII battle (June 4-6, 1942) for the United States (positively) and the Japanese (negatively). Warner Bros. purchased the pitch from Bruce C. McKenna, a writer-producer on the recently concluded, Emmy-nominated HBO series, The Pacific. McKenna impressively wrote or co-wrote seven of the miniseries' ten episodes. McKenna was nominated for co-writing the last episode in the series.

Under the deal, McKenna will deliver a completed screenplay in just eight weeks. In case you're wondering, eight weeks isn't a long time to work on and deliver a filmable script, but Warner Bros. executives obviously liked McKenna's plans for bringing the Battle of Midway to the big screen, in 3D no less, to fast-track the first step in production. Deadline's report doesn't mention McKenna's involvement beyond writing the screenplay, but he'll likely produce, if not direct, the 3D war film. According to Deadline, McKenna's film has a price tag of $200 million (or more).

By Scott Weinberg (reprint from 3/18/2010 -- SXSW Film Festival)

Imagine a flick like Braveheart, 300, Gladiator, or King Arthur, only those films have just been stripped of all those boring scenes about kings and princes, peasants and slaves, taxes and trades, and all that jazz. The result would be a movie that looks a lot like Neil Marshall's Centurion, a fast-paced, visually stunning, and action-heavy period piece that focuses on what matters most in a Saturday afternoon matinee: the good stuff. Boasting nary a subplot or an extraneous character to deal with, Centurion seems fully intent on delivering an old-school action adventure that tickles the eye without taxing the brain. And it succeeds on all counts.

It's the story of Centurion Quintus Dias (Michael Fassbender), a trusted officer in the Roman army. Following a brutal attack by the barbaric Picts (ancient Scots are what they are, I do believe), Quintus finds himself stuck deep inside an enemy village -- but not for long. Quintus' escape is aided by the last few survivors of the legendary Ninth Legion, and together the small band of soldiers must make their way to a friendly border. Not only do they have a long way to go, but they also have on their tails a tenacious group of Pict trackers, which is led by the ferociously unwavering Etain (Olga Kurylenko).

Welcome to Framed, a column at Cinematical that celebrates the artistry of cinema -- one frame at a time.

Zack Snyder's 300 is a divisive film -- a title loved by fanboys and action junkies who hail it as one of the best movies of the past decade, yet looked down upon by other cinephiles who find all the growling dialogue and super slow motion hard to take seriously. One thing nearly everyone can agree upon is that it's a film with a very unique visual look.

Filled with hyper-stylized colors and computer-generated imagery, 300 is literally a comic book brought to life. Frank Miller's graphic novel is recreated with exacting detail in some sequences, which is at least part of why the comic crowd loves the film as much as they do.

Unlike most installments of Framed, this one isn't so much about how the director and cinematographer worked together to get a great shot. 300 is indicative of a newer kind of filmmaking -- one where visual effects supervisors and CGI artists are nearly as important as the cinematographer himself. Regardless of whether or not you think 300 is good, it's hard to argue against it being visually stunning. Even someone who's not a fan of CGI -- like myself -- finds some of the images in Snyder's film absolutely breathtaking. Is it an exercise in style over substance? Definitely -- but that style is still impressive.

Anything can become a reality show these days, particularly things revolving around interesting or bizarre jobs. From Deadliest Catch (crab fishermen) to Verminators (exterminators) we've seen it all -- or have we? G4 has announced their own new reality show, one inspired by this year's Best Picture Oscar winner The Hurt Locker.

Bomb Patrol: Afghanistan will follow a US Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit through basic training and tag along for a several month deployment to Afghanistan. For some reason I don't think there'll be any over-the-top Jeremy Renner types on this program.

Find out more about this new series after the jump.

Yesterday, word hit that Angelina Jolie had found her next project -- a romance set during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War. The announcement came from Reuters, who said very little about the project, referring only to a press release and including a few quotes. But it looks like there were some secrets hidden between the lines.

If a new report is right, when they wrote "Angelina Jolie to film" and "Jolie is starting work on," they weren't referring to Jolie jumping in front of the camera. They were referring to Jolie stepping behind it for her first feature film, from her own script, no less. Yep, on the heels of headlining Salt, it seems that Ms. Jolie has decided to take her career down a new path.

Variety reports that Doug Liman (Fair Game, Jumper, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, The Bourne Identity) will direct the big-screen adaptation of Hiroshi Sakurazaka's 2004 science fiction-actioner, All You Need is Kill, for Warner Bros. Liman will direct All You Need is Kill from Dante Harper's screenplay. Harper sold a spec script o Warner Bros. this past April for seven figures. Liman was attached to direct a new adaptation of Alexander Dumas' The Three Musketeers as well, but another, unrelated adaptation (in 3D, of course) has already gone into production, putting Warner Bros.' take on hold for the foreseeable future.

Described as a Groundhog Day/Starship Troopers mash-up, All You Need is Kill was originally published for a young adult audience ("light novel" in publishing parlance) with illustrations by Yoshitoshi ABe. All You Need is Kill centers on a future war between humans and aliens, the Gitai. The central character, Keiji Kiriya, a young, raw recruit, dies on the first day of battle, but reawakens the next morning, alive, unscathed, and headed for the same battle. Caught in a time loop, Keiji attempts, to learn from his mistakes, living longer each time. On the 158th "day", Keiji meets an experienced, female soldier, identified only as the "Bitch of War' who may (or may not) hold the key to Keiji escaping the time loop.

Peter Briggs' independent WWII horror film, Panzer 88 -- which revolves around a five-man German tank crew that encounters a supernatural beastie as they drive across Russia -- has been generating buzz since it first came to light earlier this year. Gary Kurtz, a producer on the first two beloved Star Wars movies is overseeing, which is a pretty big deal. It's being directed by Briggs, who's best known for co-writing the screenplay for Hellboy. Now comes the biggest news of all -- Richard Taylor and Peter Jackson's Weta Workshop have signed on to handle the film's physical production.

Although this story broke within a Geoff Boucher L.A. Times article covering Kurtz' attendance at the major Star Wars convention in Orlando two weeks ago, I'd received a heads-up email from the director with details of Weta Workshop's involvement ahead of time, and kept it quiet until everything was officially in place. That's now happened, so we can spread the news about this exciting project.

Get the scoop and dig into Briggs' personal story board art after the jump.

Even the most original filmmakers in the world are resorting to sequels these days. With Pixar preparing follow-ups to many of its favorite titles, now one of John Lasseter's biggest idols is joining in the fun of revisiting the past. According to a Japanese interview translated by the Studio Ghibli lovers at Nausicaa.net, legendary animator Hayao Miyazaki is following up his recent fairy tale Ponyo with a sequel to his 1992 effort, one of his least fantastical, Porco Rosso. Set during the Spanish Civil War, it will be titled Porco Rosso: The Last Sortie (thanks Miyazaki for making me learn military vocabulary) and other than that the Oscar-winning filmmaker just says that it "should be interesting."

One thing I find interesting already about the choice is that Porco Rosso is by far Miyazaki's least-popular (read: least-seen) film of the past 25 years. It's typically more common for someone to return to a film that has a lot of fans or at least made a lot of money. Even I would prefer another go at the world of My Neighbor Totoro (hopefully gaining new fans through its Toy Story 3 tribute), for instance. But the good thing is this should make more people go and rent Porco, which is an exciting animated action-adventure about an ace Italian pilot-turned bounty hunter with the face of a pig. It also, to Disney's delight I'm sure (they distribute his films in the U.S.), has more potential to appeal to boys than many of Miyazaki's films before or since, which tend to have female protagonists.

Rarely a day goes by when Angelina Jolie's name doesn't pop up somewhere. This woman is not only rumored for just about every project out there, but she's actually in talks for half of them. But most of the projects were revealed to be nothing more than chatter at this point, as Jolie explained to MTV last month. Maleficent is "being discussed," Cleopatra will come if "we can do something original," Kay Scarpetta fare is "very in development," and Serena, well, she's "talked about it."

But now it looks like the actress has found herself a sure bet -- a love story set during the Bosnian War.

Battle: Los Angeles and Skyline both promise a showdown between mankind and evil extra-terrestrials bent on destroying us -- but before that happens, it appears we have to deal with another conflict first -- a potential legal battle between the two projects.

Sony Pictures Entertainment has their gaggle of lawyers investigating legal action against Skyline filmmakers Greg and Colin Strause. The issue is that the Strause brothers own a special effects company named Hydraulx and they were hired to do visual effects work on Battle: Los Angeles -- and they forgot to mention they were working on their own alien invasion film at the same time.

While many are quick to view this as a "David Vs. Goliath" tale of two filmmakers being threatened by a giant corporation, things aren't so clear cut. As a Deadline article points out, the Strause brothers were hired for the Battle: Los Angeles job and considered for directorial duties -- meaning they had access to storyboards, the script, and all kinds of other goodies that they could have incorporated into their own film or used to enhance what they were doing. At best, there seems to be a definite conflict of interest thing happening here.

Of course, what seems to really have Sony up in arms is that Universal is set to release Skyline -- which garnered a lot of attention at Comic-Con -- on November 12th, several months ahead of Sony's much larger project. Sony could simply be rattling its legal saber to convince Skyline to shift to a later release date so as not to interfere with Battle: Los Angeles' debut.

Both sides were largely reluctant to speak on the issue, although a spokesman for the Strauses did offer this: "Any claims of impropriety are completely baseless. This is a blatant attempt by Sony to force these independent filmmakers to move a release date that has long been set by Universal and Relativity and is outside the filmmakers' control." While we don't know all the details yet, we do know the Strauses were involved with both projects and they overlapped. Does this sound "baseless" to you or does Sony have a legitimate complaint? Play Nancy Grace in the comments section below.