Slight morsels for you:

• So we've been filling you in on the upcoming Terminator 4 sequel, which last had rumors of an Arnie return. Now the folks at JoBlo say that Nick Stahl is considering a return in the role that Edward Furlong made famous. (He is part of the "option package" for upcoming sequels.) I'd be surprised if he didn't. We've been robbed of Carnivale, and he's already wrapped up the other films on his docket -- Quid Pro Quo, Ferris Wheel and The Speed of Thought.
• I've finally got some more news for you on Zach Braff's upcoming flick, Andrew Henry's Meadow. In March, there were rumblings that he would be penning an adaptation with his brother, Adam, and Barry Sonnenfeld was in talks to direct it. In an interview with VH1, he's now saying that Cory Edwards will be directing the film, which Braff describes as "if Terry Gilliam had directed The Goonies." It will be his first live-action movie, so I'm curious to see how he deals with the outcast kids who team up to save their parents, like Erik described here.
• Finally, there's more cast to add to the upcoming thriller that Jessica Barnes told us about last month, Pathology, which stars super-absorby hero Milo Ventimiglia. He, Alyssa Milano and Lauren Lee Smith will be joined by Keir O'Donnell, who was one of the Clearys in Wedding Crashers, Michael Weston whose last feature role was the dysfunctional dumpee in The Last Kiss and Mei Melancon, who was Psylocke in X-Men: The Last Stand. The film will get shopped at Cannes, and I'm sure someone will pick it up. What studio can refuse a bunch of young actors starring as medical students who make a game to see who can commit the perfect murder?

Since Hoodwinked's box office returns currently stand at more three times the film's budget, the Weinstein Brothers can't be blamed for wanting to reteam with the film's makers. To that end, they've acquired the rights to a pitch from Cory Edwards and Tony Leech who, along with Edward's brother Todd, wrote and directed Hoodwinked. The new film, another animated feature, is titled Escape From Planet Earth, and sounds completely fantastic: it's a comedy about a prison break staged by the various aliens imprisoned at Area 51. I mean, that's brilliant! Why has no one does this before? Seriously, it seems sort of obvious for an animated movie - what could possibly be more fun for an animator than creating an entire universe of aliens?

Leech will directed this movie all by himself, but the Hoodwinked trio are currently working together on a follow-up to the film for the Weinstein Company, tentatively titled Hoodwinked 2: Hood vs. Evil. (Ooooh the clever.)

Doogal, an animated flick about a dog and his pals, is based on a British TV series. However, because Americans apparently don't like accents, it's been redubbed for release here, with vocal talent including Jon Stewart, William H. Macy, Kevin Smith, and Whoopi Goldberg. Based on the new, behind-the-scenes clip that's up at AOL, the movie shares both the erratic charm and modern hipness that virtually all animated films seem to strive for these days, combining Dr. Phil and Ice Age 2 references with a story about selflessness and friendship. While the clip, which runs about five minutes, leaves one hopeful that the movie might not overdo the trendiness quotient (unlike, say, Shrek 2), five minutes can hide a multitude of sins. Adding to the charm factor is the rather diverting plot point of a solemn snail (Macy) who is "head over heels" in love with an oblivious, over-confident cow (Goldberg) - of course, this element of the movie will send chills straight to the heart of Americans who find it a little too close to those dreaded human-animal hybrids.

In addition to footage from the movie, the clip includes interviews with the cast, an executive producer, and one of the film's writers. What's odd, however, is that the writer is one Cory Edwards, better known as the writer/director of Hoodwinked, who has of late not exactly endeared himself to the animation community with his reactions to criticism of his film. Edwards' presence here is strange because he's not credited as a writer on Doogal - he's listed only as providing "additional voices." I wonder if he was brought on to change the cultural references from British to American, or if he's always been involved in an uncredited way - either way, though, it's awfully strange to suddenly foreground him as the writer in the movie's first American promotional footage. Though it's impossible to know how the movie will do in theaters, I'm guessing that Edwards has learned his lesson and will be keeping his mouth shut, no matter how harsh the criticism.

Doogal is released in the US at the end of this month.

After watching Hoodwinked, the Weinstein Company’s first foray into animation, one is not surprised to learn that the film has three directors (brothers Cory and Todd Edwards, and Tony Leech). In fact, the news is somewhat reassuring, because it potentially offers some explanation for the wildly schizophrenic work they have produced. Lurking beneath the surface of this (relatively) low-budget, modern retelling of Little Red Riding Hood are at least three distinct films. First is the traditional sweet animated story, complete with a bicycling, singing heroine who is briefly beset by an easily-resolved family conflict. Second comes the edgy, sarcastic 21st century cartoon, where all of the characters make knowing jokes, and people say things like “fo shizzle.” And, third, there’s the wildly unhinged, new style of animated film which stars a conniving, insane villain and his singing, action figure sidekicks. While all three would be fine on their own - the third, in fact, is fantastic - thrown together they result in an unfortunately uneven mess.