I don't want to be mean, but if Roland Emmerich wants to keep the buzz going on his sci-fl flick 2012, he'll be lucky if he gets to make a deal before the advance reviews for 10,000 B.C. start flooding in. Variety reports that the "doomsday" director has started a bidding war for his next project; the apocalyptic adventure flick 2012. The film will be based on the Mayan doomsday prediction that the world is set to end in 2012.

The whole 'end of the world' thing seems as popular as ever; Nickelodeon is even toying with the idea of a kid's flick that uses that same premise (c'mon kids, let's head to movies and watch civilization become extinct!) Last spring, Michael Bay had also considered directing a film based on the book, 2012: The War for Souls by Whitley Streiber for Warner Bros. Emmerich's project, however similar it might seem, will not be using Streiber's book. Instead, his spec script was written in collaboration with Harald Kloser, who also worked with Emmerich on B.C.

According to Variety's sources, "Studio toppers read the script Tuesday, and indications are that nearly all of them were interested enough to meet with Emmerich and reps Wednesday to hear his budget projection and creative aspirations." Of course, you can't help but wonder if the studios desperation for new projects in the wake of the writer's strike might be the source of their enthusiasm. Well that, and the fact that like it or not, Emmerich seems to be able to rake in the box office. Never underestimate the power of a good opening weekend, I guess.

How do you think Emmerich will destroy New York City in this one?

Everyone knows that kids rule Hollywood. Without them a lot of movies wouldn't be made, wouldn't make millions and wouldn't sell a ton of merchandise. When studios aren't thinking of how to do well in foreign markets, they're thinking of how to succeed with the little ones. For the past twenty years, the Nickelodeon's Kids' Choice Awards have been showing us what the kids apparently prefer, and on Saturday they honored some more predictable favorites.

The Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest was the choice for favorite movie of the year, though surprisingly Johnny Depp was not the favorite actor. Instead the kids picked now-7-time-winner Adam Sandler, who also beat out Will Smith and Jack Black. The favorite actress was Dakota Fanning, despite the fact that kids didn't go crazy for her Charlotte's Web last year. Her competition was Halle Berry, Keira Knightley and Sarah Jessica Parker. Happy Feet won for favorite animated film, though it wasn't even nominated for favorite voice from an animated film, a category won by Queen Latifah for Ice Age 2: The Meltdown. Rounding out the movie-related awards this weekend was a special honor given to Ben Stiller, who received the "Wannabe" Award for being the person who kids most want to be like. Of course, they probably just want to be in the Museum of Natural History after dark.

Have you noticed how many animated movies have been in the theater over the past few months? There have been Monster House, Open Season, The Wild, Over the Hedge, Barnyard, Cars, and The Ant Bully to name a few, which doesn't even cover the glut of sequels and straight-to -video DVDs that have been released and re-released, including last week's The Little Mermaid: Ultimate Line Our Pockets Disney Adamantium Edition. Of those, only Monster House doesn't focus on talking animals, insects or vehicles. As a result, the novelty of both animated films, and the concepts they bring with them are making audiences weary, according to The New York Times.

Popular animated movies used to belong only to Disney, and they released them sparingly, not wanting to step on the toes of their own product. However, once Disney/Pixar became a force to reckon with, Disney was releasing CGI films on top of its own traditionally animated films, and began crowding the schedule with more films each year. These days, animated films crowd theaters with offerings from Disney/Pixar, Sony Imageworks, Dreamworks Animation, Warner Bros., and Paramount/Nickelodeon. It's a jungle out there -- or a forest, or a farmyard, or ... well, you get the idea.

This is typical of the Hollywood "me too!" syndrome that hits when something works well and starts making tons of money for a studio. Everyone else wants in on it. Horror films started making money, so now everyone is putting out a lot of horror movies. The Lord of the Rings opened the door for more fantasy films like The Chronicles of Narnia, and Eragon, and the popularity of X-Men gave rise to a slew of comic book movies including Spider-Man, Superman Returns and the upcoming Ghost Rider.

Animated films have always been a treasure for younger and older audiences alike, and are part of a dwindling part of the theater experience that people can still enjoy as a family. Are you still going to see animated movies?


Other animation on Cinematical:

The Demise of Hand-Drawn Animation

Studios Still Don't Get Animation

Dreamworks Choosing Quantity over Quality

Golden Globes Adds Animation Award

Last time I reported on the confusing family known as Viacom, I mentioned that MTV Films and Nickelodeon Films were being adopted (consolidated) by Paramount Pictures. Well, I was sorta wrong. In continuing my allegory, let me just say that MTV and Nickelodeon are not being sheltered so much as they are growing up -- although like many young grown-ups these days, they will continue to live with their parents.

In case you ever paid attention to the corporate logos preceding an MTV or Nickelodeon movie, you likely noticed that in addition to the MTV or Nickelodeon logos, the Paramount Pictures logo also flashed on the screen. This is because Paramount distributed the films. But now MTV and Nickelodeon are adults and can distribute themselves, just like Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics and Dreamworks. They're still part of the Paramount/Viacom family, of course, but they are trusted more than they were as children (er, production companies). Best of all, like the adultalescents they are, MTV and Nickelodeon get to retain their cool status as brands for teens and kids, respectively.

Producer Scott Aversano has been hired as president of both labels.

I'll admit right up front that I think this movie sounds adorable, so there will be none of my customary cynicism or unpleasantness in this post. (Disappointing, I know, but even I can be sappy from time to time.) The movie in question is called Mayfly, and it's only a pitch at this point, penned by Leo Benvenuti and Steve Rudnick. Recently picked up by Paramount and Nickelodeon Movies, the story will be turned into an animated feature about "a mayfly who accidentally oversleeps and, with the help of a tortoise friend, discovers the value of living for the moment."* I know -- who cares about flies, right? But wait. See, mayflies live only a day or so, so oversleeping is sort of a big deal. Tortoises, meanwhile, live for freaking ever ... you see where they're going with this, right? Seriously. Is this not adorable? I mean, granted it could turn into a pile of crap depending on whose hands it ends up in, but it would be sort of nice to see something so simple and optimistic-sounding in our multiplexes. (Yes, I'm ignoring the fact that Benvenuti and Rudnick collaborated on all three Santa Clause movies and Kicking and Screaming. Bygones.)

*It turns out that mayflies are really, really gross, hence my decision to feature a photo of a puppy instead.

A tiny bit of Hoodwinked, the animated retelling of Little Red Riding Hood that the Weinstein Brothers will be revealing to us all on Friday, will be offered to eager Nickelodeon viewers tomorrow night. The clip - which consists of the film's opening five minutes and will air at 8PM - follows in the rather distinguished footsteps of Wallace and Gromit, whose The Curse of the Were-Rabbit was previewed on the channel last fall. Though the quality of two movies is, shall we say, not comparable, it's nevertheless likely that Nick's target audience (2-11 year olds, apparently) will find Hoodwinked really appealing. Since they'll then refuse to go to bed until mom and dad promise a weekend visit to the multiplex, this is probably (yet another) very good move by the Weinsteins.

For those of you currently thinking of taking in a little revisionist fairy tale this weekend, our review will be up tomorrow.

Spurred on by continued success, the book-to-movie trend in Hollywood continues unabated with Fantasy/adventure properties topping the list of most sought after commodities. Today's announcement fits right into that form, as Nickelodeon Movies has annouced a film adaptation of Jeff Stone's adventure book series The Five Ancestors. Lawrence Bender and Karen Barber, but no futher cast/crew announcements have been made at this time. The Five Ancestors is a 17th century tale of five young monks, each specializing in a different form of animal kung-fu (reasonably standard eastern storybase so far). Their secret temple gets raided by a renegade monk, and the five are forced to take to the wild, surviving by their skill and training.

Do I know anything about this work? No, I don't. If you do, please feel free to share your thoughts with us. It sounds like an amusing story, although there was nothing that stood out in any of the plot summaries I read to make it sound any more impressive than the typical fare. Fans, here's your chance to tell us why this story deserves some silver screen love.