Funny story, actually: growing up, my dad would always take me to the movies, and sometimes he just wasn't all that concerned about those pesky MPAA ratings. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he did. I got to see a lot of great movies. But it is also why I saw Heavy Metal at the tender age of six. My dad saw the voice cast of John Candy, Eugene Levy and Harold Ramis and thought it couldn't be that bad ... but boy was he wrong. So you can imagine my amusement when Variety announced that David Fincher is going to head a film 'inspired' by the cult classic.

The original was released back in 1981 and was based on sci-fi and fantasy stories that were published in Heavy Metal magazine over the years. First published in the US in 1977, Metal was known for its over the top sex and violence. The update will definitely follow in the footsteps of the original film (and avoid the pitfalls of the 'sequel' in 2000), and will be an R rated animated film consisting of about eight or nine segments.

Fincher will only direct one of the segments in the film. Other segments will be helmed by Kevin Eastman (co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and Tim Miller. Miller's Blur Studios will also handle the animation for the film. Fincher, Eastman and Miller will produce with Paramount, and the rest of the directors are expected to be signed soon. So what do you think about an update? Can Fincher pull this off? Or are images of chicks riding polar bears with flaming swords best left to van art?

Since I lost track of these weak, straight-to-DVD American Pie sequels at some point after the fourth installment, I'm kind of going at this with a blind eye. Apparently, a direct sequel to last year's American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile is already in the works (making it the sixth Pie-related film to hit the streets), with pre-production taking place in Toronto as we speak. American Pie Presents: Beta House will feature the same four dudes (John White, Ross Thomas, Jake Siegel and Steve Talley) from Naked Mile, only this time they're all grown up and heading to college. Beta House? College? Hmm, I smell a frat-related teen sex comedy heading our way.

In fact, that's exactly what happens. Pic centers on Erik Stifler and his cousin Dwight Stifler (who, I imagine, are both cousins of the original Steve Stifler). Upon entering college, Erik (apart from his name ending in a 'K,' sadly, the two of us have nothing in common) joins the Beta House, lands a girlfriend and goes to war against the evil GEK house who -- you guessed it -- are out to destroy the weaker frats with their money, brains and guys named Bret. Right now, casting is underway for Erik's main squeeze Ashley. Moviehole describes her as being "super cute, confident, together, instantly comfortable in the new collegiate surroundings, she is a catch." Basically, she's every girl that wouldn't date you in college. Andrew Walker will direct, with Joel Soisson and Keith Birder producing. No word on whether Eugene Levy will once again make his "purely for the money" cameo. Anyone out there actually watch The Naked Mile? Is it any good? Are these American Pie Presents flicks worth a spot on my Netflix queue?

The UK's Times Online has an interesting piece up about great Hollywood director-muse partnerships, from John Wayne and John Ford, to George Cukor and Katherine Hepburn, to Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullman. As the article's author Ian Johns notes, these kinds of filmmaker-actor partnerships are less common these days, as directors have a wider array of big-name stars to choose from. Yet, there are still some profitable and creative partnerships out there. Martin Scorsese appears to have moved on from this 1970s and '80s pairing with Robert DeNiro to his modern creative muse, Leonardo DiCaprio, with whom he has made Gangs of New York, The Aviator, and now The Departed, with a fourth partnership -- a film about Theodore Roosevelt -- reportedly in the works. Russel Crowe and Ridley Scott worked together first in The Gladiator, then most recently in this year's TIFF offering A Good Year, and they went straight from that into shooting American Gangster together.

Johns goes on to make mention of Pedro Almodóvar's ensemble cast in Volver, where the director featured his favorite muse of the moment, Penelope Cruz alongside Carmen Maura, whom he directed in the 1980s. He doesn't mention my favorite director/ensemble combo of the moment, Christopher Guest and his amazing repeat performers, including Eugene Levy (with whom Guest also co-writes), Fred Willard, Catherine O'Hara, Bob Balaban, Michael McKean and Parker Posey, to name only a few. So pivotal are these actors to Guest's latest films that I can't imagine him making a film without them at this point. They work together with an incredible ease that makes the improvisational style of Guest's films really work.

The article does give props to one of my favorite director/actor pairings: François Truffaut and his on-screen alter-ego, Jean-Pierre Léaud. One of the greatest joys of watching movies in my cinematically geeky life has been watching Léaud grow from boy to man as Antoine Doinel, starting in 1959's The 400 Blows, the film that first earned Truffaut respect at Cannes, when Léaud was just 15, through 1979's Love on the Run -- a 20-year run of great filmmaking. Leaud worked with other directors as well, of course, including Jean-Luc Godard, with whom he made 10 films, including Week End in 1967 and, nearly 20 years later, Détective in 1985, but nothing ever quite matched the magic of Léaud with Truffaut.

Who are some of your favorite director-actor pairs? And who would you like to see work together more?

With his films Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, and A Mighty Wind, director Christopher Guest took the mockumentary approach he used in This Is Spinal Tap and brought it to a whole new generation. Guest assembled a cast of remarkable talent in Guffman, including Michael McKean (with whom Guest has worked for some 40 years), Eugene Levy, Fred Willard, Catherine O'Hara, Bob Balaban and Parker Posey, and worked with the same cast (adding some new talent along the way, including the spectacularly funny Jennifer Coolidge and perfectly deadpan Jane Lynch, building an almost unbeatable ensemble of comedy.

Guffman, Best in Show and A Mighty Wind all took the mockumentary approach, dealing, respectively, with a play in a small town, an eclectic group of characters taking part in a national dog show, and the reunion of 1960s folk singers for a concert. Guest's previous three films with this ensemble worked, not just because of their mockumentary style, but because of the brilliance and energy of the cast, who worked improvisationally, with very little script. With his latest effort, For Your Consideration, Guest and co-writer Levy break away from the mockumentary mold to take a narrative approach, while still retaining the improvisational freedom that give the cast the room to make their characters their own.

Are you ready to check out some brand new movie pics? C'mon now, don't sound too excited. On this edition of Movie Pics, we ask you to consider some images from Christopher Guest's new film, Jet Li and Jason Statham prepare to kick your ass right out of the theater and -- wait -- so that's what Kurt Russell will be driving in Grind House. Read on my fellow picture freaks:

• This fall, Christopher Guest returns to his mockumentary ways with For Your Consideration, a film that appears to poke fun at the way certain actors handle the tremendous burden that is Oscar buzz. As far as cast goes, Guest has assembled a few of his regulars (Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara and Fred Willard, among others), as well as some new blood (ahem, Ricky Gervais). While I haven't been crazy about the last couple Guest flicks, the plot, the cast and these new pics have certainly kicked my anticipation meter up a few notches. [via JoBlo]
• Before he calls it quits as a martial arts action star, Jet Li will make sure he kicks as much on-screen ass as possible, what with his role as a mysterious assassin in the upcoming film Rogue. Pic revolves around an FBI agent (Jason Statham) who, after his partner and family are killed, sets out to avenge his buddy's death by targeting the man (is Jet Li a man or a machine?) responsible. Cinema Blend has the first images from Rogue, which also stars Luiz Guzmán (I take it we won't get to see a fantastic jump-kick from Mr. Guzmán) and Devon Aoki.
• Word on the street is that Quentin Tarantino has officially taken over the city of Austin (Jette, I want you on set, STAT!), while shooting Death Proof -- his half of next years double feature masterpiece, Grind House. Tarantino describes Death Proof as "sort of a slasher film, but instead of a knife, it's a car." Well, thanks to the good folks over at AICN, we now have pics of said car, which will be driven by Kurt Russell -- who I'm hoping brings a little old school awesome to the role.

Every once in a awhile, I like to do something different with the little thing we call Trailer Park. Seeing as today is Father's Day (in the US, anyway), I figured we ought to take a look back at some of the great movie dads over the years -- dig up some old trailers and pay tribute to the man, the myth, the legend -- the Dad.

Like with real fathers, movie fathers come with a whole host of flaws. These aren't the perfect men by any means, but if there's one thing they all have in common, it's that they love their family. Sure, they may not understand why their kids refuse to be around them and constantly argue their decisions but, at the end of the day, everything always seems to work out ... unless your last name is Corleone.

What follows are the trailers for five films in which Dad is the hero ... or villain, depending on how you look at things. Personally, these are some of my favorite movie fathers. While they may not be the greatest of all time, I've found something inside each one of them to connect with on, ya know, one of them higher levels. We're celebrating Father's Day in this week's Trailer Park:

• Bloodrayne - Teutonic terror Uwe Boll directs movies no more than gravity directs objects to Earth. His grasp of pithy things like story and character development is nearly non-existent, and his penchant for adapting video games has earned him a reputation as a sort of idiot savant (only without the savant part), kind of like if the kid on the porch in Deliverance only knew how to play the riff that Vanilla Ice nicked from Queen's "Under Pressure". His latest, a shameless Blade ripoff about a half-human, half-vampire avenger (Kristianna Loken), is miscast, barely written and staged with the skill of a spastic with cataracts. Currently residing on the IMDB's Bottom 100 (at #34), it and Boll's rotting body of work have elevated the oeuvre of Ed Wood, whose non-charting Plan 9 From Outer Space was once considered the worst film ever made, to common hack status. At least the inclusion of the free PC version of the Bloodrayne 2 video game will help soothe buyer remorse.
 

• Notable among American films debuting in foreign territories this weekend are The Pink Panther, bowing on hundreds of screen across France, Germany, and Australia, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which is moving on to China after a tremendously successful release in Japan. Poor Tristan Isolde, meanwhile, will stagger into Spain and New Zealand, hoping that somewhere on earth, people won't have heard how bad it is.

• Catalina Sandino Moreno, an Oscar nominee for Maria Full of Grace, will lead an multi-national cast in The Heart Of The Earth, a Spanish-UK-Portugal co-production set to begin shooting in Spain and Portugal later this month. The story is yet another of those inspired-by-real-events, this one about an uprising at a British-owned silver mine in 18th century Spain. Among Moreno's costars will be Brits Sienna Guillory and Hugh Dancy, as well as Cuba's Jorge Perugorría.

• One of the increasingly rare children's book adaptation not being done by Walden Media is Aussie Unjoo Moon's version of The Wicked, Wicked Ladies In The Haunted House. Written by Pulitzer-winner Mary Close, the book, aimed at a grade-school audience, is "a suspenseful ghost story cum mystery in moody, atmospheric prose that blends dark magic and a dry wit occasionally reminiscent of Roald Dahl." Moon hopes that the film will be shot by Oscar winning Memoirs of a Geisha lensman Dion Beebe, to whom she happens to be married.

• Canada's own Walk of Fame is exploding with stars: it was announced recently that Pamela Anderson, Brendan Fraser, Eugene Levy and Robert Goulet are 2006's honorees, and will be inducted at a June ceremony. Surely Eugene Levey never imagined he's be lucky enough to one day share a stage with both Pam Anderson AND Robert Goulet.