The big question: if you were starving and stranded in the snow, would you eat your dead friends to continue surviving? It's the question often asked by those who have seen Alive or Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains. But that infamous Andes crash certainly wasn't the first case. There's also the story of the Donner Party. After some rumors back in February, Variety reports that Crispin Glover has officially signed on for a role in the film. They also say it has begun lensing, although IMDb and the Donner Blog say that the film is now in post-production.

The Forlorn will focus on that doomed group of pioneers known as the infamous Donner Party. On their way to California, these pioneers get stuck in what is now Donner Pass. With the beating snow and the quickly depleting food supply, a smaller group called the Forlorn Hope (hence the film's title) whip up makeshift snowshoes and attempt to find help. Their food runs out, many die, cannibalism occurs. Those that remained finally find help and a number of relief efforts are made to save the pioneers at camp. The first group was lucky, weak, but lucky. After that, starvation again led to cannibalism and by the time the final relief effort reached the camp, only one man was alive.

There is no word on who Glover will play, but the rest of the cast, led by Christian Kane (Lindsey from Angel), have their roles listed on IMDb. However, the list of character names doesn't reflect a lot of the Wiki summary and timeline, so I'm not sure if these names are actual Donner Party people, or made-up characters. Whatever the case, it should be an interesting and creepy tale -- but one I doubt will be a true and thorough examination of the story.

You want some blasphemy? Don't bother with that certain fantasy movie with that skinny lacquered redhead in it. Despite all the public outcry over that particular blockbuster's pro-Reformation message (isn't it risky for our cinema to endorse the policies of the heretic Martin Luther?), the Compass movie really doesn't give God much trouble for your entertainment buck. By contrast, The World's Greatest Sinner, a backyard-shot indie has a real beef with the Almighty. (Don't worry, kids, the Rock of Ages is tough enough to handle it!) As director, writer, producer, chief cook and bottle washer, eccentric character actor Timothy Carey shows the instincts of a French decadent. His Clarence Hilliard is a Southland Baudelaire who rails against the existence of God, and sets himself up as a false messiah. The hand-rubbed Letraset titles in the graphic above indicate the budget level of this berserk film. Much of it takes place in an early 1960s San Gabriel Valley a.k.a "The Inland Empire," so innocent and blue-horizoned that David Lynch would have refused to believe it.

This story came to my attention this evening via Variety's Mike Jones, who just wrote it up for Variety's fest blog, The Circuit. The Ann Arbor Film Fest, which has been around for 46 years, is facing the threat of extinction. The background: In 2006, the fest was targeted by legislators opposed to state funding of the arts and special interest groups who, claiming some of the films the fest showed in 2005 (including Crispin Glover's What is it?) were pornographic. The fest was asked by the state to follow certain guidelines in its programming in order to receive its past-due funding, and refused. In March 2007 the fest allowed the ACLU to sue the state on its behalf, citing the laws used by the state in censoring the arts as unconstitutionally harming the First Amendment rights of artists.

In order to keep the fest operating, the fest's organizers have come up with a unique grassroots plan to support it: The Endangered Campaign. They've created the handy informational video you see above to help explain why they need your help and how you can give it. To encourage your support, they've have promised to perform "Acts of Audacity" which those who donate will be able to vote on. The acts are all in fun, but promise to be at least mildly embarrassing to the fest folks performing them, and will be filmed and uploaded to YouTube for all to see. Here are the acts you get to choose from:

Option 1: Glam Rock karaoke through the streets of Ann Arbor in a yellow classic pick-up truck.

Option 2: Urban tobogganing in Detroit and Ann Arbor while dressed as giant animals.

Option 3: Recreations of famous scenes from classic movies with finger puppets.


Personally, much as I'd like to see Rope or The Seven Samurai enacted with finger puppets, the Glam Rock option seems like a winning choice, especially if they chose relevant, film-related songs for their karaoke extravaganza. "Girls on Film" might be a good choice, or Def Leppard's "Photograph," or perhaps something from the Flashdance or Footloose soundtracks. And we most definitely will want to see some serious parachute pants and mullet action going on.

Michigan's economy has been taking a beating lately, and now more than ever, they need to keep the arts alive in Ann Arbor. You can read more about the Endangered Campaign on the fest's official website.

I was lucky enough to get a seat in the packed house last night for a viewing of the first ever released footage from the upcoming Beowulf film, directed by Robert Zemeckis (or "Z", as Roger Avary calls him), and is written and produced by Neil Gaiman and Avary. The film is 100% CGI, and they used motion capture for all of the performances in the film. So close your eyes and picture Anthony Hopkins wearing a mocap suit with white balls all over it, and it's like you're on set!

Gaiman and Avary came down (to thunderous applause) to introduce the footage. Avary started to explain a bit but Gaiman thought this was something that would be best viewed without any setup at all. We then saw a short "taster" of material from the film set to a power rock soundtrack. Oh, and everything we saw was in REAL D (a 3D format), so we had to wear big giant clunky glasses, making us all look a bit like the late, great Roy Orbison. Pretty hot.

So, how many of you out there saw The Polar Express in 3D? Well, the 3D is that good, or in some cases much better. It's not extremely overdone, like everything seems fairly flat and 2D and then suddenly AHH! -- Grendel in your face. It's much more understated and subtle, more of an immersive aspect than a gimmick. After awhile you (thankfully) forget you're wearing the glasses, and it just becomes another part of the movie.

While 20 minutes of Beowulf was apparently screened last night at Comic-Con, the trailer and website for the film have landed online this morning. Although it's not 20 minutes, it certainly gives us a fairly dazzling look inside the world of Beowulf; director Robert Zemeckis' motion-capture follow-up to the disappointing Polar Express. But sometimes you need to sacrifice a film in order to learn and grow. Sure, Polar Express was fairly cool to look at, but it was just way too ... blah. Now, however, with Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman penning the script (which is based on an extremely old Anglo-Saxon poem), Zemeckis has a whole new world to play with. I figured he had improved the motion-capture technique since working on Polar Express, but I didn't expect to see him come this far. Visually, this movie looks amazing. The characters look so real (especially Angelina Jolie) that, for a moment there, I couldn't tell the difference between the real Angelina and the motion-capture Angelina. Until I saw the tail. I think there was a tail. Mmmm ... Angelina with a tail. Yum.

Anyway, Beowulf (Ray Winstone) tells of a warrior who must protect his town from the monstrous Grendel (Crispin Glover reuniting with Zemeckis for the first time since Back to the Future); an evil thing out killing all the towns folk. But once he gets Grendel out the way, then comes Grendel's mother (Jolie) -- a powerful woman who looks to seduce Beowulf before exacting her revenge for the murder of her son. Apart from Jolie, no one else really looks like the person they are in real life. Winstone is all bulked up and warrior-like, Glover is completely different and even Anthony Hopkins (who plays King Hrothgar) is hard to make out, with the exception of his, um, wide body shape. Stay tuned to Cinematical for much more Beowulf talk from Comic-Con; the film itself hits theaters (in 3-D on roughly 1,000 screens) on November 16.

Being a Wizard of Gore isn't enough blood and guts for Marty McFly's dad. Crispin Glover has been officially, penned in and cast as the lead in J. T. Mollner's upcoming indie horror movie The I Scream Man. He will play a vengeful ice cream man who is pretty crazy due to "brutal memories from his twist past," and ends up wreaking "bloody havoc" on a small California town. Well, I for one can't think of anyone better suited for it. Teamed with a cameo by classic horror filmmaker George A. Romero and it's a scream dream.

While it's no shock that Glover would be interested in a movie like this, his supporting cast makes things intriguing -- Fred Ward, Judd Nelson, Tom Sizemore and Haylie Duff. Oh, I couldn't have made that last one up if I tried! I guess Haylie just wants to make sure that she completely removes herself from her 7th Heaven days like Jessica Biel did. Wait... Will Haylie be in period pieces one day? Oh, the possibilities. But I digress. Last month, Fangoria posted about the movie and quoted Mollner as saying: "I aim to make this one of the most graphic, controversial, character-driven, sociopolitically aware and visually innovative horror films to date." (And he actually goes on to cite Polanski and Fellini of all people.) Now, I can buy most of them, but "most graphic"? What in the world is left to do in horror? We've had self-mutilation, guns, bombs, disemboweling, cannibalism. How much gorier can these guys get? Hopefully they'll all be satisfied once they hit the horror ceiling. At some point, the only way to top all of this will be to actually do it.

Academy Award nominated director Shane Acker's animated film 9, which is currently in production for Focus Features, is shaping up nicely to include a cast of top-line voice talent. The film, written by Monster House scribe Pamela Pettler, is an expansion of Acker's highly-regarded short film, and is being produced by Tim Burton, Timur Bekmambetov, and Jim Lemley; Focus CEO James Schamus made the announcement.

One of the actors who will lend his voice talents to the film is Lord of the Rings alumni Elijah Wood, who will take on the title role of "9." Other notable actors joining Wood on the film include Academy Award winner Jennifer Connelly, actor/filmmaker Crispin Glover, Academy Award winner Martin Landau, Christopher Plummer and the versatile John C. Reilly. "This exciting and thought-provoking story has already drawn a strong filmmaking team together to work with Shane in bringing his visionary fantasy world to life. These splendid actors will provide compelling characterizations to go with the visual brilliance," says Schamus.

9 is an action-packed tale which takes place in a post-apocalyptic world parallel to our own. In this world, articulate and fully-mobile rag dolls must fight for survival. In their struggle they find strength and leadership in one of their own, 9, whose qualities may help them survive. Having seen Acker's short film on which this feature is based (which you can catch at YouTube), all I can say is "cool." Acker is an obviously gifted filmmaker with a bright future ahead of him. If the feature version of his short turns out even half as well as the original, he'll have a terrific film on his hands for sure.

H. G. Lewis -- not to be confused with Wells -- is the director known for such heart-warming classics as Boin-n-g, She-Devils on Wheels and The Gore Gore Girls. Another one of his creations, The Wizard of Gore, has been re-made by Jeremy Kasten, as Scott Weinberg shared last May. Kasten's last horror film, The Thirst, starred Matt Keeslar, Jeremy Sisto and a melange of Joss Whedon compatriots, whereas this taste of gore is featuring a whole mess of Suicide Girls (because no one seems to care about their names), Kip Pardue, Bjiou Phillips and Crispin Glover.

FilmIck gave a heads-up on Friday about the flick's website, which is now up and running. But be warned: There are Suicide Girls, which means nudity, and the trailer automatically plays when you open the page -- so, NSFW. However, when you're nestled in an appropriate location with your computer, you can see Crispin creep across the screen slicing into random women and men, Kip looking completely ridiculous in a noir detective get-up and Bijou looking like ... well, Bijou. The premise might not sound like anything, but this is a role made for Glover, and he really runs with it.

In case you're wondering what the hell it's about -- Glover plays Montag the Magnificent, a magician whose magic looks like murder -- he basically slices and dices into his helpful assistants. Everyone is disgusted, he's popular, and Edmund Bigelow (Pardue) seems to think its great until the bodies of Montag's on-stage "victims" start to appear, and the hunt for the killer begins. (Is it really someone other than the magician?)

I know, I know. Today's all about Oscar nominations. But I still want to talk about the amazing day I had at the Moviefone house for Unscripted shootings. First, I get there and Heather Graham and Victor Rasuk have just finished taping an episode (for their movie 'Adrift in Manhattan'), and they came back to the greenroom to get their coats. They were both very cool, really friendly and all. And apparently Heather had asked Victor if he'd slept with some girl he'd mentioned as being a "big influence" on him, and he hadn't answered her, so she was like, "well, obviously the answer to that question is yes."

No sooner had Heather and Victor left, than in come Zooey Deschanel and Chris Klein for their Unscripted shoot, for their movie 'The Good Life.' They roll into the house with their entourage --

[Note: If the video plays slowly for you, feel free to download it straight from Netscape. Also, the running time is just over 10 minutes.]

Cinematical recently attended a screening of What Is It?, which was written and directed by Crispin Glover. He also plays a small role in the film, and has been touring (it also screened at Sundance last year) with a print and his "Big Slide Show", where he reads and shows images from several of the books he has published. He's an extremely interesting guy, very well-spoken, highly intelligent, and couldn't have been nicer. It presents a real conundrum, because on one hand you have a really strange film, but on the other you have an intelligent person telling you why they made the choices they did in making the film. With Crispin Glover, it was like yin and yang / night and day.

Now having said that, What Is It? is without a doubt one of the most disturbing movies I've ever seen. There is a lot of stuff in here that will make you queasy, uncomfortable, and possibly even offended. A word of warning to the wise: if you're offended by people killing live snails in pretty graphic ways, you're going to want to avoid this one. Also, if you're disturbed by scenes of graphic sexuality, you'll want to skip this. Additionally, the use of a cast made up almost entirely of actors with Down's syndrome feels exploitative at times, and that could be bothersome to some people. If you can get through all of that, there's also a fair amount of swastikas on display, nude women wearing animal masks, a character in blackface, a mom forcing her disabled son to inhale smoke from a pipe through a tube, and Shirley Temple as you've never seen her before.