With all of the little tykes and tots who have hit the big screen over the years, one would think that it might be one heck of a daunting challenge to narrow the list down to a top 25, but I think Moviefone may have done it. They've posted a list of the Top 25 Child Stars of All Time, and they've hit just about every child star I can think of, including a few I forgot about.

The list starts with Kirsten Dunst. She might not have had a lot of movie gigs in her early days, but she certainly wowed audiences with her portrayal of Claudia in Interview with the Vampire. I, for one, was so impressed that I had a much different vision of her future career, and am still waiting for the day that she can tap into what made her shine all those years ago. From there, we've got a collection of old and new names, moms and sons, and all the biggies.

The queen of children's entertainment Shirley Temple meets up with newer talent like Anna Paquin and Christian Bale (remember Empire of the Sun?). There's also some funky trivia tidbits as well. Growing up, I was a rabid fan of Hayley Mills, from her classic In Search of the Castaways, to her brief stint in the first incarnation of Saved by the Bell. But did you know that she was cast to be Stanley Kubrick's Lolita before Disney got her out of the deal?

Check out the list, and weigh in below. Do you think they got it right, and is anyone missing?

There is some interesting international news coming from Variety. They're reporting that Cache director Michael Haneke is gearing up for his next film, having just wrapped a U.S. remake of his thriller Funny Games. The new project is interestingly called The White Tape or the Teacher's Tale. Over at Variety, it's all in quotes, so I assume it's the full title, and not two possible titles. Very little is being said about the feature -- it will be co-produced by X-Filme Creative Pool and Les Films du Losange, and will be set in a Northern German village before the first World War. That's the only official news to go on, but there are a few more bits over on the IMDb message boards. It's going to be about the rise of the Nazis, and apparently, actor couple Susanne Lothar and Ulrich Mühe were rumored to be starring. Obviously, with Mühe's passing this week, that won't be the case.

The other news bit is of the more classic variety. Daniel Brühl, who starred in Goodbye, Lenin!, is going to head a new adaptation of Kafka's The Metamorphosis as the giant insect previously known as Gregor Samsa. While I'm not a big fan of the story, it's looking to be an intriguing new project as both the ever-creepy Stephen Rea and one of my favorite young actresses, Anna Paquin, are also starring. I presume they will play Gregor's sister and father, which leaves his mother yet to be cast. Metamorphosis will mark the directorial debut for FeardotCom producer Limor Diamant, so hopefully this will be much, much better -- not that it would be hard to improve on the Stephen Dorff flop.

While it's pretty old news that Bryan Singer has signed on to produce Trick r''Treat for Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. through his own Bad Hat Harry Productions, some new cast announcements in Variety have made the film a mini X-Men reunion.

Michael Dougherty, who was a writing partner on Superman Returns and X2 wrote the script and will direct. The plot revolves around a small town one Halloween night, and will throw a bunch of interconnected stories at us, including one that involves a high-school principal-turned-serial killer. Singer must have liked what he saw in Dougherty's script because he not only signed on to produce, but plans on being present on set throughout production. The reunions don't stop there though -- Anna Paquin (Rogue) and Brian Cox (William Stryker) from the first two X-Men films have signed on to star. Leslie Bibb and Dylan Baker round out the rest of the cast thus far

This is Dougherty's first time directing a film, which might explain Singer's close involvement. Singer is also currently busy with the Superman sequel and the upcoming You Want Me To Kill Him? for 2007. Trick 'r Treat has already started filming in Vancouver but a release date has not been set -- gee, a horror movie about Halloween? I wonder what date they will choose to release it?

[via Movie Web]

More odds and ends than you can shake a stick at:

• I have to admit that I'm sort of amused by this concept: a movie about someone who actually followed through on their threat to move to Canada when Bush was elected. Entitled Blue State, the film stars Anna Paquin as the mover (which is funny, what with her being from Canada and all) and Breckin Meyer as the token male, and will be produced by Paquin Films - bet you can't guess who owns that sucker.

• You know that movie Woody Allen is going to make in Paris? Well, he's taking a Brokeback wife along: Michelle Williams has reportedly agree to star. She'll be playing, well, one of a bunch of Americans. In Paris. For the love of God, Woody -- throw us a plot-bone!

• Because we can never get enough heartwarming stories (Has anyone actually tested that? Personally, I hit my limit about 13 misunderstood youths ago.), Aaron Eckhart has ridden the Thank You for Smoking wave into yet another one. Eckhart's personal story of redemption is called Bill, and he'll star as "a man fed up with his job and marriage who bottoms out when he catches his wife cheating. He finds a catalyst for a resurgence when he reluctantly mentors an unruly teen." Ah, the unruly teen. How many lives have they saved? The movie starts shooting next  month.

• When I tell you that Universal has acquired a story about a small town "saved by baseball," what do you imagine? A touching, period piece? Or perhaps a story about a town triumphing unspecified tragedy by coming together behind an underdog high school team? Ah, but you'd be wrong -- gloriously, bizarrely wrong! In fact, Time of the Their Lives is about people who literally DON'T DIE because they play baseball. (I hope this doesn't mean that they actually play 24/7. How impractical would that be? Not to mention boring.) Then, somehow, a misguided kid gets the town involved in "a winner-take-all game between townsfolk and the devil's ringers" for his own soul. While I admit the whole thing doesn't make a lot of sense, it sounds more than weird enough to be interesting. Right?
  

• Bukowski: Born in to This - There is a morbidly fascinating fly-on-the-wall vibe that pervades John Dullaghan's profile of the late Beat writer Charles Bukowski, a base familiarity that parallels the Ham On Rye author's own inimitable hard-lived life and style. Epic in scope (and length), first-time director Dullaghan compiles dozens of meticulously screened hours of archival footage, coupling the best of it with new interviews with Bukowski survivors to present a terrifically real character study of a little-studied real character. The watchable Chuck-alike Happy Hour, starring Anthony LaPaglia as a booze-addled writer, is also just out.