• William Vince (1963-2008) - Producer - Oscar-nominated for producing Capote. He also produced Saved!, Just Friends, Ripley Under Ground, The Final Cut, The Snow Walker, The 4th Floor, Air Bud, Air Bud: Golden Receiver, Malicious and the upcoming films Push, The Stanford Prison Experiment and Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which stars Heath Ledger. He died of sarcoma June 21, in Vancouver. (CBC)

• John Barnes (1920-2008) - Film Historian - Co-founder of the Barnes Museum of Cinematography, which was in St. Ives, Cornwall, England (it closed in 1986) and author of multiple texts, including the five-volume "The Beginnings of Cinema in England, 1894-1901." He died June 1. (Guardian)
• Robert L. Bendick (c.1917-2008) - Director, Producer - Co-produced the Oscar-nominated documentary This is Cinerama and co-directed a follow-up, Cinerama Holiday. He died June 22. (Entertainment Insiders)
• Rodric Beckham (1914-2008) - Former U.S. Army-Air Corp. Staff Sergeant who spent much of World War II in a German POW camp. He appears in Billy Wilder's Stalag 17 along with other WWII POW survivors. He died June 21. (Entertainment Insiders)
• Howard Brandy (1929-2008) - Publicist, Producer - Handled PR for A Hard Days Night, Help! and Privilege and was a publicist for the Police Academy movies, The Karate Kid, Part III, Young Frankenstein, The Last Emperor, The Pope of Greenwich Village, The Last Seduction, Things Are Tough All Over, Runaway Train, Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man and Gorky Park. He also handled the Academy Awards campaigns for All About My Mother, Sexy Beast and Sweet and Lowdown and produced the 1970s exploitation films Blood from the Mummy's Tomb and The Take. He was apparently the inspiration for the cartoon character Dudley Do-Right, who received his own movie starring Brendan Fraser in 1999. He died June 21 in Los Angeles. (Variety)

While I'm sure many people are itching for more big-screen muppets, it looks like we're finally getting a peek behind the puppet superstars. Empire reports that a film company called Empire Film Group (no relation) is going to make a biopic about the legendary puppet icon -- Jim Henson. A screenplay has been written by Robert D. Slane (Come Away Home), and they hope to get a big-name director "like Penny Marshall." She could definitely make a decent film, and has been directorially free since 2001's Riding in Cars with Boys. However, I'm sort of with Empire with the idea of making it mirthfully quirky with someone like Michel Gondry.

We know all about Jim's accomplishments -- Sesame Street, The Muppets, The Dark Crystal... But what of his life? As great as his furry faux creatures are, there has to be a story. Skimming Wikipedia... The early days look pretty angst-free, with talk of his early accomplishments, and, get this, a BA in home ec in 1960. From there, you know what happens. While there were some struggles along the way, his success continued to grow into what we know today. So really, this won't be some traumatic sort of biopic drama, but maybe that's okay. Henson was all about the funny anyway, so why not have a light, fun story of his life?