We can't report on the production of every low-budget horror flick out there (mostly because it would make for some really boring stories), but Variety just tossed out a news blip on something called The Bleeding -- and this flick has too juicy a cast to ignore. According to Variety, the flick seems to be a standard enough tale of "an ex-Army Ranger searching for the killer of his parents who discovers a family of vampires in a former chemical weapons factory-turned-nightclub," which tells me it's probably based on a true story.

The first thing that struck me a little funny was the name of the production company: Indifferent Entertainment. Well, geeee. If you guys are so damn indifferent about your entertainment, why should any of US give a wet slap? Why not Apathetic Productions or Neutral Films?

That's just a little warm-up humor to get you prepared for this ensemble. Ready? Gathered together for a movie called The Bleeding will be: Vinnie Jones, Michael Madsen, DMX, Armand Assante, William McNamara, Michael Matthias, Rachelle Leah, Kat Von D, and Pittsburgh Slim. Heck, I don't even know all these people and it still sounds like The Bleeding will have one helluva wrap party.

The writer is first-timer Lance Lane. The director is veteran stuntman Charles Picerni. One of the producers is Frank Capra III. And it's called The Bleeding. Woo! Production begins in North Carolina next month.

If you're anything like me (lord held you), then you just can't resist a movie in which an inordinately large and aggravated animal decides to chew on a bunch of random stupid people. Doesn't matter how many "OMG it's hilarious!" comments I may see on the IMDb boards, nor does it deter me if every genre-friendly film critic stands up and screams "Dude, it's crap!"

If it's a movie about pissed-off animals eating dumb people, I've got 87 minutes to spare.

So a few months back I noticed a strange little label on a few of the more recent "nature sprinting amok" flicks: It was a little black and red skull logo with the phrase "Maneater Series" stuck on there. Oooh, a mystery! What's this "maneater series" of which this DVD case speaks? Where do they come from? Are there other films in the series? Does anyone besides me actually care?

OK, so as far as a very small amount of IMDb / Google research indicates, it looks like there are to be six Maneater Series titles in total. (Or maybe seven.) The suspects? Production company RHI Entertainment, cable network The Sci-Fi Channel, and DVD distributor Genius Products. Let's examine the flicks...

If you stretch your memory back, you might remember that Cinematical mentioned an indie snow flick last year, which was going to star Michael Madsen. Yes, ear-chopper extraordinaire. The Mikey Hilb film, called Deep Winter, is a buddy sports film about a skier and snowboarder who want to ski a dangerous peak in Alaska, and Madsen plays a bad-ass helicopter guide. I always thought that people who ski those ultra-dangerous slopes were crazy, so I'm not too shocked that they have added a little Madsen madness to the list.

Now the film has been shot and has a nifty trailer which you can check out. It seems to have all the bits that make a classic winter sports film -- the naysayers, life-long dedication, snow, avalanches, the pushing coach, gorgeous mountain shots and a little sexy lip action to boot. Personally, I'm digging it for the darkness to the non-snow scenes. The indie feel to those shots really seems to strengthen the tone -- instead of a bunch of snow bunnies, bright colors and typical mainstream hi-jinx. The cast is also pretty solid, beyond the creepy Mr. Madsen. There's Kellan Lutz, who is starring in the upcoming Prom Night remake, and Eric Lively, who played the creepy voyeuristic perv Mark on The L Word. Topping that off, there's also Luke Goss and Robert Carradine. I wonder if we'll get some screen time with Madsen and Carradine together -- a Sin City meets Lizzie McGuire faceoff!

Drug abuse is a terrible thing, kids. It land you in jail, ruin your reputation and turn you from a busy character actor into an uninsurable pariah. Case in point: Crazy Tom Sizemore just got fired from pre-production on a flick called The I Scream Man -- and if you can't hold on to a job in a movie with that sort of title, then you're definitely living life a little too hard. I know his drug problems are entirely of his own creation, but I really do feel for the guy. He went from working with Michael Mann, Oliver Stone and Steven Spielberg -- to a public dismissal on The I Scream Man. Ouch.

According to STYD.com, Mr. Sizemore was fired from the upcoming horror flick and replaced by sometimes co-worker Michael Madsen. The reason for his dismissal? Another visit from the "drugs and jail time" fairy. It might sound like I'm cruelly mocking the guy, but the truth is I feel really rotten for Mr. Sizemore. Here's hoping he can right the ship, toss that monkey off his back and mount a small comeback of sorts. In the meantime, J.T. Mollner's The I Scream Man will go into production this summer with Madsen, Dee Wallace, Haylie Duff, Fred Ward, Judd Nelson and the entertainingly bizarre Crispin Glover as ... The Ice Cream Man. (Yes, it's a horror movie.)

Directed by Oliver Assayas (Clean, Demonlover), the Cannes midnight selection Boarding Gate tells the story of Sandra (Asia Argento) -- a confused young woman trying to figure out her relationship with Miles (Michael Madsen), a financier who's fallen into a run of bad luck. Sandra and Miles used to be lovers, but that's over; Miles also used to hire Sandra to service visiting clients and turn their pillow talk into business intelligence; that's over, too -- but they still have plenty to talk about. ...

People much smarter than I are very fond of Assayas's work -- most especially Demonlover, a movie that elicited love-it-or-hate-it reactions from critics and viewers. Like Demonlover, Boarding Gate takes place in a hinky, kinky realm, a world of secrets and lies where big business, espionage, sex and emotional connection all combine. In Boarding Gate, though, there's one problem; the film has no motor to drive it. Sandra gets into trouble, sure -- and gets in deep -- but neither Assayas's script nor Argento's performance give us any reason to care if Sandra makes it though in one piece; the fact that Argento's character swings between seductive pouting and go-away petulance doesn't help. Argento may be an attractive mammal -- the film certainly thinks so, as it never skips a chance to show us her stripping down -- but as an actual actress, she's a washout. Not to be crass, but if Argento's line readings and character were as well-developed and fully-rounded as her breasts, I've no doubt Boarding Gate would have been a better film.

It's funny; I'm not not a big fan of blood and gore in the movies, and occasionally I get a little squeamish at the Hostel variety of horror, but show me a guy cleft in two with a broadsword and I don't even bat an eye. Sometimes, I even get a sick little giggle out of it. I've always enjoyed historical epics; why else would I have I sat through all of the classic "sword and sandal" flicks and their various incarnations of the last few years?

Variety announced that John Malkovich has joined an international cast that includes Michael Madsen, Peter O'Toole, and Virginie Ledoyen for Raoul Ruiz's Love and Virtue. The film centers on the crusading battles and romantic intrigue during Charlemagne's empire. The film was written by Mia Sperber and Stefano Prates, who used the epic poems The Song of Roland and Orlando Innamorato as inspiration for the story. The poems are full of all those things that are usually in medieval poems, like treacherous nobles, love-smitten knights, and Saracen armies -- which in the end guarantees at least a few large-scale battle scenes. No word yet on who Malkovich will play, but I'm sure it will involve one of his bizarre accents. Love and Virtue will begin production this March on location in Belgium and Luxembourg.

Believe it or not, I'm always down for a good boxing flick ... even though I find the sport itself to be quite boring. There, I said it! (Personally, I prefer one of them no-holds-barred kickboxing matches -- I don't know what it is, but I find them hypnotic.) In order to hold my attention, a boxing film has to have a solid story built around unique and troubled characters. Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa, Robert DeNiro as Jake La Motta or Russell Crowe as Jim Braddock -- all of them, great characters.

The most recent actor to enter the boxing ring is Michael Madsen, who will take on the character of Sean Kelleher in the contemporary boxing flick, Strength and Honor. Pic, which marks the directorial debut of Mark Mahon, will be set in the Irish county of Cork and focus on a boxer who must return to the sport, after promising his dying wife he would retire, so that he can help raise money to save his young son from the disease that claimed the life of his wife.

Starring alongside Madsen will be Vinnie Jones and Richard Chamberlain. Jones will take on the role of Madsen's arch-nemesis, Smasher O'Driscoll, while Chamblerlain will play Madsen's old school boxing coach. Filming begins in Cork next month.

According to reports on the foreign wires, ageless Hong Kong legend Andy Lau is in talks to star in the next film from critic-turned-director Olivier Assayas, a project that would mark Lau's English-language debut. As we reported back in February, the film, entitled Boarding Gate, already features a cast including Asia Argento and Maggie Q (and, if you believe the IMDb and various web reports, Michael Madsen and both Tony Leungs), and is set to shoot this summer in Hong Kong and France.

Early reports indicated the movie has an awesomely convoluted plot, involving "An Italian woman [Argento] who lives in London [and] has a passionate affair with a former financial big gun [Madsen]. She also had a second lover [a Leung], a contract killer who has to kill the big gun. Her second lover's wife [Yeoh] is behind the scenes, pulling the strings." So it sounds pretty damn great, no matter who Lau might play. The problem, however, is that Lau is supposed to be shooting a film with Derek Yee this summer as well, and it may be difficult for him to find time to appear in Boarding Gate. According to Lau, though, there is still hope, because Assayas has said he'll "try to work around my schedule."

I just wish we had a damn release date for this thing -- the combination of cast and director on this one is making it one of my most-anticipated upcoming projects.

I don't know about you, but when I hear "skiing and snowboard actioner," I think "Michael Madsen." Clearly I'm not the only one, because he's been signed to star opposite Eric Lively in Deep Winter, a film about "childhood best friends who want to be the first to ski a peak in Alaska." Alrighty then.

Does anyone else find this news a bit ... disconcerting? First of all, for some reason the though of big, lumpy Michael Madsen on a snowboard or skis sort of freaks me out. Second, when I read about this casting, I figured he'd be playing the Big Bad in some sort of stupid, snow-borne thriller. But no -- unless key information is being withheld, it actually sounds like a nice buddy movie, about Madsen and his pal. Aw. It would be awesome of this worked out well -- sort of a throwback to those nice, non-violent days when he was the dad in Free Willy.

I know Daryl Hannah was in Kill Bill, but other than that I thought she'd spend the last couple of decades under a pretty rock somewhere, dreaming of the glory days of Reckless and Summer Lovers. Apparently, however, that was just me, because according the IMDb, she's been working her tail off  - and, by the looks of the things, 2006 and 2007 will be equally busy. Hot on the heels of last week's announcement of her role in Dark Honeymoon comes the news that she will also star in Vice, an indie thriller from writer-director Raul Sanchez Inglis. The film "revolves around a group of conflicted police officers who become suspects when drugs go missing" and, in addition to Hannah, will feature her Kill Bill co-star Michael Madsen (both will also produce), as well as Mykelti Williamson and Mark Boone Junior.

Vice is due to begin shooting in Vancouver in a couple of weeks.