Pickings are scarce this week if you're looking for more serious fare. Maybe with the British comedy Hot Fuzz ready to drive rentals and sales, DVD distributors felt comedy was the way to go. Everything's Gone Green is an award-winning Canadian comedy based on an original screenplay by Douglas Coupland (Generation X) that met with mixed reaction during its limited release -- only 57 out of 100 at Metacritic, based on 17 reviews. Edward Havens at FilmJerk called it "decent if unspectacular," which just about sums up the tone of many critical views. I haven't seen it, but it's still my blind pick of the week -- there are enough positives to suggest a rental is worthwhile. Kim Voynar posted a clip that gives a taste of its favor.

Starter for Ten has a surprisingly strong 91% rating at Rotten Tomatoes. It didn't sound that intriguing to me -- a British romantic comedy starring Last King of Scotland's James McAvoy -- and the reviews I read were not enthusiastic (Nick Schager called it "scrawny and superfluous"). Still, it might be just the thing for you romantics out there. On the other hand, a consumer warning should probably be issued for would-be romantic comedy The Darwin Awards, according to the reviews I read, so don't be misled by the stars on the box. Scott Weinberg was particularly disappointed: "Deadly dull ... dry and uninvolving."

Here's one doc that sounds good: Los Zafiros: Music from the Edge of Time examines a musical group that was called the Beatles of 1960s Cuba. Jason Anderson at Eye Weekly said: "Best of all are the clips of the group in its heyday, performing a seamless blend of American doo-wop and Afro-Cuban rhythms." It may be a slow week, but that doesn't mean you can't tap your toes at the movies.

Despite the fact that some commenters doubted the movie would ever reach production when it was announced late last year, Universal is pushing ahead with its screen version of Wanted, a dark series of comic books by Mark Millar. In the hands of Russian director Timur Bekmambetov (Night Watch and its sequels) since December, the movie now also has its star: According to The Hollywood Reporter, Scotsman James McAvoy has been signed to play the movie's main character, a young man who, after his father's death, discovers that dad was an ass-kicking supervillain. Though he's currently best know for playing Mr. Tumnus in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, McAvoy has several movies coming out in the next few months, including Starter for Ten (in which he's quite good) and The Last King of Scotland -- hopefully those films will teach the world that his ears are not actually pointed.

Described as a priority for Universal, Wanted is scheduled to go into production early next year, with a "reasonable" budget of under $100 million.

More release dates were moved around this week, as studios struggle to get the last quarter of 2006 in order. The most recent changes range from dumped indies to major releases rescheduled to increase Oscar exposure. Here are the details:

• First and most importantly, Alfonso Cuarón's spermless futuristic thriller Children of Men has been pushed back from mid-September to Christmas Day. Can you say ... Oscar? The buzz on this one is that the people at Universal think they've got an award-worthy film on their hands, and want to give it as high-profile a release as possible.
• Since we saw a production still from Killshot -- a story about a couple in witness protection (Diane Lane, Thomas Jane) being tracked by a hitman (Mickey Rourke) and his nutso protege (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) -- back in December, all of the perceptible progress on the film has been backwards. It was originally slated for release in March of 2006, but was then pushed back a full six months to October. And now? The movie's been pulled and not rescheduled. Yikes.
• Harsh Times, another film that has already appeared on release schedules several times this year (the most recent date was September 8), is now slated to hit theaters November 10. Directed by David Ayer from a script he wrote before penning Training Day, it's been described as very similar to that film in terms of character and structure, with Christian Bale in the central crazy guy role. It's hard to know here if the studio thinks Bale's reportedly flashy performance merits some attention during awards season, or if the date changes have been for internal reasons.
• Starter for Ten, an indie British flick, has been pulled by from its October release, and is now slated to hit some time in 2007. (From a personal point of view, I find this very irritating -- I already saw and wrote up a review of the thing, and it's not even coming out now?! Damn you, Picturehouse!) The movie is a well-acted coming-of-age story about a young man's first year at Bristol University; its 1985 setting is an excuse for a great freaking soundtrack, if nothing else.