Back in 2005, there was a short film called Enfants Terribles. (See the trailer here.) Written and directed by Terry Nemeroff, the black comedy starred Peter Facinelli, Leslie Zemeckis, and the wonderful Christopher Lloyd -- and focused on the uber-cheery themes of incest, murder, and grave robbery. Now MovieWeb reports that the film is getting the feature treatment under the title Thicker, and according to IMDb, it's about a brother and sister who try to steal back an inheritance that their newly-dead mother had buried with her.

All of the actors have returned (with different names), and will join the likes of Jason Lee, who has a lead role, along with Clea DuVall, J.K. Simmons, Peter Stormare, John Turturro, Rachel Miner, Amanda Plummer, Jon Gries, Bobby Cannavale, James LeGros, Frank Whaley, Jon Polito, and Glenn Plummer -- basically, one heck of a supporting cast. Seriously, it's like a who's who of character actors and well-known indie peeps.

At the very least, maybe this will help old-school Lee fans forgive some of his recent work. There's nothing like dark, deadly comedy to wipe away the Underdog. Production begins this May.

For a while I have been wondering what Michael Cera will be like when he gets older and can't rely on the super-cute teenage boy thing. Will he always be the same? Will he thrive? Or, will he grow up awkwardly and not being able to find work until he scores his own Little Children? I think I've finally found the answer -- he'll be Christian Bale!

Back in 1987, at the age of 13, Bale played Jum-Jum in Mio min Mio, an adaptation of an Astrid Lindgren novel that cast the young actor alongside the likes of Timothy Bottoms and Christopher Lee. Jum-Jum is the friend of a young boy who has been taken off to a magic land where his real father is king (Bottoms), and he is Prince Mio -- a boy who must stop an evil knight named Kato (Lee) and free some enslaved children. Pardon the Swedish, but the brief clip is worth it for a quick glimpse of the boy who would become the Dark Knight. My, how far he's come!

"When I was growing up, my favorite Christmas memory was the Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas record -- you know what I'm talking about? "Christmas, Christmas time is here. ..." You remember that song? My brother and I had it on LP, and we would play it on the slooooowest speed possible on the record player. So then, it sounded like four normal monotone guys just singing this boring Christmas song and then this demon from the ninth level of traitors and murderers screaming at them ..." -- Patton Oswalt, Feeling Kinda Patton

The enduring popularity (or, at least, the enduring familiarity) of Alvin and the Chipmunks can be explained by either the public's affection for innocent whimsy and charm or a perfectly-executed marketing plan that stretches back over four decades. Originally created in the '60s by songwriter Ross Bagdasarian, The Chipmunks were a fictional trio of singing mammals whose novelty recordings were immediately and strangely popular. In reality, The Chipmunks were a minor feat of engineering -- Bagdasarian would sing at half-speed, and when played back double-speed, his voice would be a full octave higher at normal tempo. It's a fairly cheap trick, and yet it resulted in a band -- or, rather, a brand -- that endured long enough to re-record Cheap Trick, on the 1981 album Chipmunk Punk. Thanks to the work of Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. and the entertainment industry's never-ending quest to turn old ideas into new money, The Chipmunks have been featured in music and animation virtually non-stop since their debut. Now, 20th Century Fox Animation has given us a new iteration of the Chipmunk saga, and the result is a surprisingly good-natured kid's film -- which, phrased less delicately, is a nice way of saying that Alvin and the Chipmunks did not make me want to die after I saw it at a 10:00 AM press screening whose audience was seemingly made entirely of screaming babies talking on their cell phones.

As most of us predicted, The Golden Compass took the number one spot, but didn't do nearly as well as expected. Compass was the only new release last week, so the rest of the top five was filled out by movies that have been around for a bit. Fred Claus was in its fifth week but still managed to cling to the number four spot and Enchanted still held onto second place despite having been in its third week of release. Here's the final tally:

1. The Golden Compass: $26.1 million.
2. Enchanted: $10.7 million.
3. This Christmas: $5 million.
4. Fred Claus: $4.7 million.
5. Beowulf: $4.4 million.

After a couple weeks of an anemic release schedule, we've got three films going into wide release, covering the genres of family comedy, science fiction/horror and romantic comedy.

Alvin and the Chipmunks
What's It All About: Jason Lee stars as a struggling song writer whose tunes finally become successful when sung by a trio of talking chipmunks.
Why It Might Do Well: There's definitely a market for family oriented comedy around the holidays, and yes the little buggers are really cute.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Disease riddled mutants will probably keep the chippers out of first place, but they should hit their target demographic and take home the silver.
Number of Theaters: 3,300
Prediction: $16 million

I Am Legend
What's It All About: Richard Matheson's classic horror novel is brought to the screen for the third time. This time around, Will Smith stars as Robert Neville, the last surviving human in New York City. A global plague has mutated the remainder of the population, but Neville struggles to find a cure for the plague using his own blood.
Why It Might Do Well: Smith can certainly bring them in at the box office. I suspect this will be the number one film next week.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Similarities to 28 Days Later may put some people off and some may see this as just another zombie movie. In fact, Matheson's novel served as an unofficial inspiration for Night of the Living Dead, so rather than being a Johnny Come Lately, I Am Legend is where the zombie formula began.
Number of Theaters: 3,500
Prediction: $38 million

You might remember that I wrote about The Criterion Contraption last month -- a blog by Matthew Dessem that hopes to review each and every Criterion DVD. The latest in the mix is one I have been waiting for -- Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy -- one of the most contested additions to the roster (the other being Armageddon... poor Ben Affleck). I didn't realize just how long it has been since I popped it into my DVD player until reading his great review -- one that isn't necessarily full of praise, but captures enough of Smith's essence that you can enjoy it either way.

From the first image, which just happens to be of Guinevere Turner (who has gone on to success collaborating with Mary Harron and writing and acting in The L Word), Dessem points out -- this is a film that is 100% entrenched in the '90s, from it's make-up, to its plaid, to Comic-Cons without star-studded line-ups. He's pretty hard on Ben's Holden McNeil, which is a fair assessment, although it can also be argued that the character's inadequacies make him the perfect Holden -- it might be unbelievable that Alyssa (Joey Lauren Adams) would fall for a man like him, but it's almost suitable -- he's the mistake she can't can't quite rationalize, which makes perfect sense with the passive ending. But even if you're not up for Affleck and his wordy speeches, there's Jason Lee. From slapstick to wordless acting, the review points out just how great Lee was in the movie.

Personally, I'm thinking it's time to pull out the plaid and pop in the DVD, which is kind of like Some Kind of Wonderful for the next generation -- the guy's friend realizes she's a lesbian, but tries him out and has disastrous results. The big difference: instead of offering diamond earrings, he offers a menage a trois with his best friend. What could describe the '90s better?

Many people don't transition well between careers, but Jason Lee smoothly slid from professional skateboarder -- with his own pair of Airwalks -- to slacker actor with no problem at all. Mallrats might not be a stellar example of comedic cinema, but it's an incredibly fun flick worth repeated viewings just to see Lee's Brodie Bruce talk about 'looking forward,' rant about escalator etiquette, rave about superhero sex, and drink out of a Dixie cup. Since then, he's acted in a number of films, but am I the only one who thinks that he solidly stink-palmed his own career?

After appearing in Kevin Smith's first studio feature, he followed the director to Chasing Amy, once again wooing us with the short-tempered tracer Banky Edwards. That follow-up was all Lee needed to form a loyal fanbase -- one that was helped by his continual involvement in Smith's films, as well as stints in others like Enemy of the State and Almost Famous. It was also a fanbase that allowed him to also take on some movies-for-money like Stealing Harvard and A Guy Thing without chastising him too much. So of course, he's been in crap, but the old crap ain't nothin' like the new crap.

You know, we're leading with Brittany Murphy and Jason Lee, but they're only the mainstream, comedic tip to the talent that is coming from the upcoming fantasy comedy The Other Side. There is Giovanni Ribisi (Lost in Translation), and I wouldn't be surprised if he got the gig due to his connection with Lee -- they were both in I Love Your Work, plus an untitled short that Lee directed last year and he's appeared in a few eps of My Name is Earl. But the cast also boasts Jim Broadbent, Tim Roth and Lili Taylor listed in the news from Variety, and IMDb lists even more -- Anjelica Huston, Fiona Shaw, Eddie Izzard, Rupert Friend, Eddie Griffin, Dave Matthews... You get the picture.

Directed by producer David Michaels, Other Side comes from the pens of Michaels and Phil Reeves, and it focuses on a grad student (Murphy), who is spending her summer working at a science institute on a remote northern island. While there, "she discovered an eccentric community of characters who are hiding a secret about a terrible tragedy that took place many years before." Lee, for one, is playing: a hippie, chauffeur, pilot, butler, bartender and bait shop clerk. Between him and the rest of the cast, I would say that they picked just the right people to pull off an "eccentric community," although I find it smirk-worthy that Murphy will play a scientist. This is a comedy, so I imagine she will be a very, very cute and giggly scientist. However, how interesting would it be if she was the one believably serious actor in the piece? I mean, she has completely 180'd before.

With Michael Bay's Transformers pulling in Daddy Warbucks dollars at the box office, it's inevitable that we'll soon be seeing a flood of films based on cartoons making their way to theaters. The question is: Will we be treated to quality adaptations of cartoons that actually do lend themselves to the big-screen treatment ... or will we have to endure a two-and-a-half-hour "epic" entitled My Little Pony: At World's End?

As it happens, studios are already answering this question, with a bevy of 'toon-based films set to hit cineplexes this year and in the not-so-distant future. First, after years of speculation and anticipation, The Simpsons Movie lands in theaters July 27. Then in August Jason Lee lends his voice to a live-action Underdog movie (he's the superheroic dog), and in December he pops up again (in human form this time) as David Seville in the live-action/animation hybrid Alvin and the Chipmunks. And next summer, the Wachowski bros. will try to spin cinematic gold out of Speedracer, starring Emile Hirsch and Christina Ricci (sorry, no Jason Lee this time).

Also on the horizon is a live-action CGI Thundercats flick, in which Lion-O and an army of humanoid cats (yes, you read that correctly) battle the evil sorcerer Mumm-Ra on a planet known as Third Earth. And last but not least is a real gem for the true cartoon aficionado: a live-action movie based on the Japanese anime 'toon Voltron, about five rebels who battle evil using robotic lions that unite to form one giant ass-kicking robot warrior (Voltron) when the individual lions inevitably get thrashed.

That's about it as far as upcoming cartoon-based film. Which other cartoons would you love to see made into movies? Personally, I'd love to see a crossover mash-up of two different 'toons, Alien vs. Predator-style. I mean, who wouldn't line up to see SVGB: Smurfs vs. Gummy Bears?

After seeing the new poster for Alvin and the Chipmunks, I just have to start off by asking, "What the hell has happened to the Chipmunks"? The Movie Blog now has the first look at the one-sheet for the CGI and live action update of Ross Bagdasarian's (a.k.a. David Seville) original creation, and while I'm up all for modernization (they were created in the 50's after all), I can't help but wonder why they decided to outfit the trio in thug wear. For God's sake, Simon is wearing what looks like a kangol.

Bagdasarian first debuted the Chipmunks all the way back in 1958 under the original name David Seville and the Chipmunks. At the time, he had already made a name for himself as the composer of a few novelty hits in the 50's including The Witch Doctor -- you can even hear an inkling of the Chipmunk voices to come in the "ooh ee ooh aah aah" portion of that song. Eventually, a cartoon was based on the "group" (The Alvin Show) and Alvin and the Chipmunks was born. There was also a cartoon series that was created in 83' and ran until 1991 -- although I think most of us could have done without the Chipettes.

Back in March, Monika broke the unfortunate news for Jason Lee fans that he had joined the cast as the put-upon manager/father David, who is for some inexplicable reason the guardian of three singing rodents. The movie was directed by Tim Hill, who you might remember was also responsible for Garfield -- and that really isn't making me feel better about the whole idea. Since this is a family film, it's no surprise that Fox has chosen December 14th as a release date -- tis' the season for family fare. Considering what they've done to the Chipmunks' appearance, I can only imagine what they have planned for Christmas Don't Be Late.

I wonder what sort of career and future Jason Lee saw for himself when he would step on his skateboard and zoom around. His start wasn't like most. As a professional skater, he made his way onto videos like Spike Jonze's Video Days and his own A Visual Sound. Heck, he even had his own shoe. But did he slide his Airwalks onto the board and skate around thinking that he'd go from Kevin Smith movies, to becoming a Scientologist, to eventually signing on for an Alvin and the Chipmunks movie?

In October, Kevin Kelly shared some of the history of the Chipmunks, which includes a creepy and hard-to-wipe-from-the-brain slow-down of the Chipmunks so that you can hear Ross Bagdasarian's real voice. Then, we got word from Matt Bradshaw that the film was gearing up. It definitely is. Variety reports that Jason Lee has signed on to obviously star as David Seville, their human father/caretaker, in the CG/live-action film. I don't know. I just can't hear the man shouting "Alvin!!!" with the same gusto, and the thought of him in this movie makes me twitch. Later this month, production will start on the film and they're actually fast-tracking it for a December 14 release, so I would imagine that the effects/Chipmunks will be pretty standard.