Pictured Above: Augie (CHRISTOPHER MINTZ-PLASSE), Danny (PAUL RUDD), Wheeler (SEANN WILLIAM SCOTT) and Ronnie (BOBB'E THOMPSON) in a comedy about two likable losers forced to do community service-Untitled Mentor Project.

As we told you earlier, Universal Pictures has released their upcoming 2008 film slate, including a ton of photos to go along with what looks to be a pretty solid list. Above you can check out the first image from the Untitled Mentor Project (aka Little Big Men on IMDb), starring Paul Rudd, Seann William Scott and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, following up his superb debut as McLovin' in Superbad. Below, check out an image of Angelina Jolie from Clint Eastwood's The Changeling, which comes with the caption: "Christine Collins (ANGELINA JOLIE) is introduced to a boy claiming to be hers by Captain J.J. Jones (JEFFREY DONOVAN) in a provocative thriller that tells the shocking tale of a mother's quest to find her son, and those who won't stop until they silence her-Changeling, from director Clint Eastwood.

Lots more after the jump ...

When Cinematical did an in-depth interview with Joe Carnahan back in early April, we discussed some ways that a potential sequel to Smokin' Aces might work, if he was inclined to go there. If you haven't seen the movie yet, I'm not going to spoil anything, but the ending does leave some wiggle room for a potential continuance of the original story. Then again, a sequel can create entirely new characters, or go the prequel-route, so there's actually a lot of wiggle room for a Smokin 2. And now a prequel is in fact moving forward, though not in the way you might expect -- it's going straight-to-DVD with Carnahan's good wishes, though apparently not his deep involvement. The director noted on his personal blog yesterday that "Universal wants to move ahead with a direct-to-video prequel of 'Smokin' and asked me if I wanted to Godfather the thing and make sure we did a really cool story."

Carnahan noted in his statement that the DVD numbers for Smokin' were "astounding" and encouraged the studio to go down this road, and to do the prequel in style. "Whatever reluctance I have is alleviated by the fact that we can really do this balls out, hardcore prequel and not be constrained by ratings or any other puritanical MPAA bullshit," he wrote. Of course, the biggest thing on Carnahan's plate right now is White Jazz, which is furiously prepping for a fall start. Last time we spoke with him, Carnahan was eyeballing Charlize Theron to star alongside George Clooney, but there's been nothing but silence on that front since then. There was also some talk of getting Ray Liotta into the mix, which is a move I fully support. Here's hoping that when he's ready to drop some more news on the Jazz ramp-up (or the Pablo Escobar biopic, or any of his other projects that are swirling around) Smokin' Joe will drop me an email.

Universal has finally decided that it's time to bring some of their attention to producing family films. Variety pointed out that Universal Pictures has not released a film devoted to a family audience or even an animated film -- rather, a successful animated film -- in a very long time. Their last attempt at releasing an animated feature was last February with Curious George, which received less than perfect reviews and brought in a meager $69 million in box office sales -- just above its production costs. Chris Meledandri plans to change all of that with one great and still unnamed plan.

Meledandri is lobbying to create a 'new unit' at Universal Pictures that "will produce both animated and live-action pics that U will distribute worldwide under an exclusive five-year agreement." This new branch at Universal is much needed since they have been out of the CGI competition with other studios -- Dreamworks and Pixar to name a few -- and have a theme park that relies on attracting families for its admission.

How many films can we expect from the new family-oriented animation and live-action branch of Universal? Meledandri is expecting to release its first feature in 2009 and is predicting the release of about three films per year. It also seems that Meledandri is the right man for the job; he's responsible for the success of Fox's Blue Sky Studios and its release of films such as Ice Age and Robots; he is also currently working on The Simpsons Movie which is currently wrapping up production for a release this summer. Should Pixar and Dreamworks be shaking in their boots over their new competition? With Meledandri's resumé they should at least be shaking a little, but they may be shaking a lot when Universal announces what exactly is in the works for 2009.

Everyone knows that, over the past year, the ability of online outlets to influence the movie-going audience has increased by several orders of magnitude. Movie websites that pull in millions of unique viewers each month are now being given the kind of access once reserved for newsstand glossies, as they should be. But there's a rub -- wildly unprofessional behavior on the part of some online outlets, which is getting worse, not better. At a recent junket for a Sony film about a certain British secret agent, stars arriving in rooms reserved especially for online outlets were mobbed for autographs and targeted in the cross-hairs of cell-phone cameras. At other recent junkets, stars have reportedly been followed out of the room after they said their goodbyes by online writers hoping to score some unauthorized one-on-one time. After similar goings-on at the recent junket for the Angelina Jolie/Matt Damon drama The Good Shepherd, Universal Pictures has now hit back.

Universal's publicity department has fired off a missive to all the online outlets they deal with, stating that autograph and picture whoring is "reflecting poorly on the online press as a whole" and noting that they would "hate to have our online coverage limited even more," which suggests they've already limited it previously because of this behavior. So, on behalf of all people who follow the rules, will the autograph whores please grow up? Because if you don't, Cinematical is going to start printing your names.

Okay, so wayyy back in March, we reported on a rumor that Chuck Palahniuk's (Fight Club) novel Choke was being adapted for the big screen and, supposedly, heading into production with names like Susan Sarandon, Heath Ledger and Ryan Gosling in the picture. (Seeing as this is my favorite Palahniuk novel, this news made me happier than a sex addict at a porn convention.)

Well, guess what -- that never happened. However, I'm happy to say that, today, Dark Horizons tells us Universal Pictures has now acquired the film rights to Choke, tapping Paul Bernbaum (Hollywoodland) to write the script. Though there's no mention of the original rumor or the actors that surrounded it, I'm pumped to see more movement on the thing.

Choke revolves around a man who scams folks out of their money by pretending to choke in restaurants; he uses the money to keep his overbearing mother in a nursing home. At the same time, he visits sexaholic meetings to meet women. If the book sounds warped, well, it totally is. But, damn, it's so much fun too.