Watch out, zombies! The cowboys are coming! As soon as that buzz hits the air, hinting that a new theme is going to traverse the cinematic seas, the news starts pouring in. Recently, Jerry Bruckheimer began to look into remaking The Lone Ranger. Now The Hollywood Reporter has posted that American Film Market has bought the remake rights to the 1952 classic that is most-requested by American presidents -- High Noon. However, the film, which starred classic names like Gary Cooper, Lloyd Bridges, Grace Kelly, and Lon Chaney Jr., is not only prime presidential entertainment.

High Noon has a pretty memorable award record -- it won four Oscars, is considered to have suffered one of the biggest Oscar upsets (losing Best Picture to The Greatest Show on Earth), helped Katy Jurado to be the first Mexican Golden Globe winner, and is considered the 27th best film of all time by the American Film Institute. If all of this success never inspired you to see the classic western, it focuses on a marshal about to retire and marry when a man he put behind bars returns with a gang, thirsty for revenge.

Having secured the rights from late producer Stanley Kramer's wife, the new High Noon Productions is currently looking for a director and star, so they can begin production next year with a nice $20 million budget. Can they pull it off? Is there anyone who can fill Gary Cooper's shoes? Stay tuned!

I just heard on the radio that -- in addition to being the birthday of Madonna, Steve Carell and my own illustrious brother -- today marks the 58th anniversary of the death of Babe Ruth. (It's also, oddly, the day the Yankees have chosen to break ground on the new Yankee Stadium -- yes, they're starting the slow death of the current House That Ruth built on the day he died.) Anyway, hearing that news immediately sent me on a search for an image from the wonderful The Pride of the Yankees, the 1942 film about Lou Gehrig in which Ruth makes a brief appearance as himself.

As for the movie itself, I'm too blinded by my desperate love for Gary Cooper to even know anymore if it's actually good -- I have a feeling that it might be too emotional for some, and too sporty for others. That said, however, anyone who can watch the thing without crying at least twice (Gehrig and his wife, each keeping his illness a secret in order to protect the other? That speech? Hell, I get chills just thinking about the echo.) has no soul.

Can you believe that Gary Cooper died nearly 50 years ago?! It seems impossible to me that he's been gone so long -- he was born 105 years ago yesterday, and died at the early age of 60. The fact that he was gone before I was even born probably goes a long way towards explaining why he seems so distant to me -- I'm one of those people who looks at old stars with an embarrassing devotion, but for some reason Cooper's always been in a different category for me than other favorites like Cary Grant and Gregory Peck. While there's something familiar and accessible about those two, Cooper has an aloofness to him, like he's on a different plane than the rest of us. Though, intellectually, I know that not everything he did was serious, I can't help but think of him in films like Meet John Doe, and High Noon and The Pride of the Yankees -- roles with such gravity that he seems almost unreachable, so somber is his life.

If you need a Cooper fix (Really, who doesn't?), Vera Cruz is all over the various Showtimes this month, and Turner Classic Movies will be showing both Sergeant York and A Farewell to Arms (speaking of serious) on May 27.