We've all sat down to watch a movie that I like to call the cinematic equivalent of 'civic duty'. Sure, it's not going to be a fun night at the movies, but its all for a good cause, so you shell out your hard-earned dollars. That is exactly the kind of film that I think The Boy in the Striped Pajamas will be -- well intentioned, but depressing as hell. The trailer for the Holocaust drama appeared on the net a few days ago, and I have to send this warning before you press play: you might want to keep a tissue nearby. Pajamas was directed by Mark Herman (who also wrote the screenplay) and the film shares a producer with the Harry Potter franchise (David Heyman).

Pajamas is the story of a young boy whose father is a high ranking guard in the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp. Through the course of the story, the cost of war and inhumanity is all shown through the friendship between the young German boy, and the boy in the 'striped pajamas' on the other side of the fence. Pajamas stars David Thewlis, Rupert Friend, and Vera Farmiga. The film is based on the novel by John Boyne, who, believe it or not, intended this story to be a 'children's book'. But if I had come across this story as a child, I might have needed some long-term grief counseling.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is expected to arrive in theaters in November; which leaves you with plenty of time to practice sobbing quietly in the movie theater.

How's this for a premise? A young reporter who lost the use of his legs in a childhood car accident is asked to look into a group of handicap "wannabes" before he falls in love with a physically-abled woman who, yep, desperately wants to be a paraplegic. Sounds pretty outlandish, doesn't it? But the truth is that there ARE people out there who'd prefer to be wheelchair-bound -- as "crazy" as that might sound to you and me. Strange but true, folks, and Carlos Brooks' oddly illuminating Quid Pro Quo does an appreciably good job of delving into some rather arcane issues.

Although he needs a wheelchair to get around, radio journalist Isaac Knot (get it? I Sick. Not.) is by no means disabled. Aside from the fact that he can't stand or walk, Isaac has no problem getting around New York City, chasing down story leads, and handling a fairly normal social life. (Aside from all the skittish single chicks who get freaked out at the sight of a wheelchair, that is, and all those lazy cab drivers.)

But when a decidedly strange story hits the wire -- apparently a man recently walked into a hospital and offered a doctor $250,000 to amputate a perfectly healthy leg -- Isaac becomes intrigued. Professional interest turns into personal business when a mysterious (and sexy!) informant pops up and offers Isaac an odd exclusive: She'll introduce him to the world of "wannabes" if he teaches her what it's like to be stuck in a chair all the time.

Variety reports that Peter Sarsgaard and Vera Farmiga (The Departed) have joined the cast of Dark Castle's Orphan. In a nod to Bad Seeds everywhere, the film focuses on a young couple (Sarsgaard and Farmiga) that have recently lost a child and decide to adopt a young girl to fill the void. Of course, nothing is ever that easy and the girl "is not nearly as innocent as she claims to be". David Leslie, a relative newcomer, wrote the screenplay based off an idea by Alex Mace. Already signed to direct is House of Wax helmer, Jaume Collet-Serra. Serra started off directing TV commercials and music videos, and Wax was his first big-budget production. Orphan seems like a definite step up for Serra; when your casting pool goes from Paris Hilton to Peter Sarsgaard you must be doing something right.

Sarsgaard has already completed the Philip Roth adaptation Elegy with Penelope Cruz, and is wrapping up work on two more literary adaptations. First up is In the Electric Mist; based on James Lee Burke's novel about "A detective in the deep South is led into a series of surreal encounters with a troop of Confederate soldiers" and Michael Chabon's The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. Farmiga is currently filming Nothing But The Truth, a political drama with Kate Beckinsale and will next star in a literary adaptation of her own called The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas for Mark Herman (Brassed Off). Orphan is set to start shooting next week on location in Toronto and Montreal, Canada.

I'm excited enough that Rod Lurie is returning to politics with Nothing but the Truth, a film loosely associated with the story of Valerie Plame. But I'm becoming more excited that it will feature a wide range of talented actors, from Kate Beckinsdale to Alan Alda to Matt Dillon to Vera Farmiga to David Schwimmer to Edie Falco to Harry Lennix to the just-announced Angela Bassett and Noah Wyle. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Basset and Wyle join the ensemble as supportive figures. Bassett is to play editor-in-chief to Beckinsdale's reporter and Wyle is to play the lawyer defending Beckinsdale's character, who ends up in jail for not revealing a source.

More than 13 years after being nominated for an Oscar (for What's Love Got to Do with It), I'm happy to see Bassett getting more meaty roles. In addition to this part, which will probably be too small to garner too much recognition, she is set to star opposite Don Cheadle as the titular wife in the biopic Toussaint, and she's sure to be seen by millions and millions in Tyler Perry's next movie, Meet the Browns. Wyle, too, is deserving of making his mark on the big screen now that he's done playing Dr. Carter on E.R. Coming up for him is a father role in the 1963-set coming-of-age film Boy of Pigs and his directorial debut, a romantic comedy titled Prince Test.

The interesting thing about Nothing but the Truth is it somewhat seems to combine Lurie's The Contender (possibly my favorite political film ever), which also focused on a woman under heavy scrutiny, and his recent box office disappointment Resurrecting the Champ, which similarly dealt with the world of journalism. For the sake of this great cast, I hope Nothing but the Truth is closer to the success level of the former.

In just over a month, Rod Lurie is Resurrecting the Champ, he has got a remake of Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs on the way and now he's gearing up to direct another script of his -- something more like The Contender and less like raping violence. The film is called Nothing but the Truth (get the reference?), and it's a drama about a Washington D.C.-based female reporter who outs a CIA agent and is sent to prison for not revealing her source. Now that should definitely sound familiar -- the film is paralleling the case of Valerie Plame, whose CIA agent status was exposed after Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, wrote an opinion piece that criticized the Bush administration.

While the cast has not been finalized, a number of actors are in talks -- a collection of which would make a sweet pot of political drama. If all of the talks work out -- Kate Beckinsale would be the journalist, Matt Dillon would step up as the prosecutor, Vera Farmiga would be the CIA agent, Edie Falco would be the editor of the paper that publishes the story and as a wonderful cherry to the selection, Alan Alda would play the attorney trying to free Beckinsale from jail. That's more than enough to hook me, and I'd love to see more serious Beckinsale, free from the action and thrills. The question that remains -- will we get a commutation-gathering Scooter Libby in a sequel?

Vera Farmiga must be one of our great actresses -- for the first two-thirds of Joshua, she not only kept me enraptured by her performance, but also made me think I was watching a good movie. She plays the wife of a go-getter investment banker (Sam Rockwell), and the two of them share a lavish apartment in way-upscale Manhattan -- the kind of place where only the most abnormal problems are able to slip through the net. And so one does, in the form of the title character, the couple's bizarre nine year-old son who vomits at hearing Christmas carols, embalms his stuffed animal -- "this will guarantee him a glorious afterlife," he tells his father -- and sends off such an utterly emotionless, unlovable vibe that his parents huddle close together whenever conversing with him, like two lawyers who need to consult during a tricky business meeting. Anyone reading this script would be dead certain by page ten that they were in for a re-tread of The Omen, but it's thanks to Farmiga that the movie keeps you guessing, for a while.

It's made clear early on that her character suffered some kind of off-the-charts post-partum depression after the birth of Joshua (Jacob Kogan), and as the film opens, she's just given birth to a second child, one that mom and dad silently hope will not grow to have the demeanor of an adolescent Jeffrey Dahmer, like Joshua does. Joshua is never really a mystery to us -- he's consistently weird, but Farmiga frequently interrupts the story of his weirdness with her own story, one that's brimming with possibilities and wild misdirection. Her flat, spongy face is inexplicably swelled up with tears for much of the film, making us ask questions like: Is post-partum depression driving her mad? Did it also drive her mad nine years ago, during the Joshua pregnancy? Is Joshua's odd behavior somehow connected to that? There's one brief scene that nearly stands the movie on its head, when, in a quiet moment, Farmiga's character begins to talk to Joshua in a way that mothers do not talk to their nine year-old sons. It sends chills.

There's a film coming out in Korea in a week called Never Forever -- with a New York City release planned for this December. Although the film is in English, and stars The Departed actress Vera Farmiga, news stateside has been relatively lax. However, you might want to check it out. The film, which is described as the first Korean-American joint project, premiered at Sundance this year, and has gotten some pretty solid reviews. While many seem to cite a soap-opera element, the film's achievements seem to make it palatable. Twitch has got a small write-up of the piece with links to some of the film's reviews.

Basically, the movie is about Farmiga's character, a woman who is trying to have a child with her husband (David McInnis), but he is sterile. Distraught, he tries to kill himself and she goes a different route -- she finds an illegal immigrant and offers him a job in an attempt to save her marriage and have a baby. If he has regular sex with her, he'll get $300 for each session, plus $30,000 if she conceives. Obviously, it's the sort of scheme that's doomed. As Variety Asia describes it: "as Sophie finds herself drawn to her partner, Never Forever gets at the basic but profound truth that nothing so complicate can ever be reduced to something so simple." You can check out stills and video clips here, but be warned -- you'll have to navigate through mass question marks and Korean lettering, and it looks like the videos are members only. If anyone has come across an easily-accessible trailer, please throw up a link!

After spending time with large, water-dwelling mammals and ticked off, sexually harassed female miners, writer/director Niki Caro is going to sit back and delight in some fine wine. The latest news from Cannes is that she is set to direct a screen adaptation of Elizabeth Knox's The Vintner's Luck, which Caro co-wrote with Joan Scheckel. Along with an impressive cast of actors that includes Jeremie Renier (In Bruges), Gaspard Ulliel (Hannibal Rising) once again delighting in wine, Vera Farmiga (The Departed) and María Ruiz, the production will reunite the helmer with Keisha Castle-Hughes, who she directed in Whale Rider.

Unlike Sideways, which focuses on the wine tasting with a side of dysfunction, Vintner's is just a smidge more fantastical. The book is set in 1808, and talks about Sobran (Renier), a young man who discovers an angel with "an appetite for earthly pleasures -- wine, books, gardening, conversation, and, eventually, carnal love." For the next 55 years, the angel Xas is his friend and adviser as he experiences everything from love and marriage to war and death. The Hollywood Reporter's description adds a few more grapes: "The film revolves around a peasant winemaker in 19th century France as he grapples with the sensual, sacred and profane while searching for the perfect vintage." It sounds like a pretty interesting story -- angels, sexiness, wine and the turmoil of life -- what else could we want? (And heck, any production with young actors that doesn't include the tabloid-crazy is a plus in my book.) Unfortunately, we'll have to wait a while for this interest to be fulfilled. The film isn't slated to shoot until next year -- February for shots in Auckland New Zealand and March for the Burgandy region of France and then Belgium.

Even the caterer from The Departed is getting more work these days, we hear. Vera Farmiga has just signed to star in a Miramax Holocaust-prestige pic called Boy in the Striped Pajamas, which will be aimed at a Christmas 2007 release. Based on a book by the same name from John Boyne, the story concerns a German family who move to the town of Auschwitz during the Holocaust; a friendship forms between the German family's little boy and a boy on the other side of the fence, which seems a bit unlikely. Weren't all the children pretty much killed right away at Auschwitz? Farmiga will play the German boy's mother, who slowly begins to discover what's going on at the notorious camp.

There's a jarring quote in the Variety article, which sort of took the wind out of my sails as I was reading it. Miramax honcho Daniel Battsek felt it was necessary to say "although it [the film] takes place during WWII, it is entirely relevant today," as if he's operating under a dead certainty that today's audiences probably think WWII happened in the 1600s. He's probably right, actually, but let's hope that's not the mentality that informs the making of the film. Next up for Farmiga is Joshua, a Sundance thriller that is making its way into theaters this summer. She also has another WWII film, In Tranzit, in the pipeline, although no release date has been set yet.

This film is instantly recognizable as an Anthony Minghella film in one respect -- it centers on characters who are pathologically determined to sweep something under the carpet, even if they have to stomp up and down on that 'something' to keep it under there. Like his brilliant Hitchcock-opera, The Talented Mr. Ripley, which never used the word 'gay,' no matter how many bodies stacked up like cordwood at the expense of Ripley's psychotic self-denial, Breaking and Entering centers on an up-market London couple -- the wife is so up-market she's 'half-Swedish' -- who also suffer greatly for having no 'word' that sheds light on their dilemma. Robin Wright Penn and Jude Law play the possibly un-proud parents of a high-functioning autistic child who is aggressively weird, excels at a flip-heavy style of gymnastics and knows that she will never, under any circumstances, be disciplined by her happening liberal parents, even when she throws things. They are resigned to just sit and age at an accelerated rate while she backflips across the kitchen table.

The impossible situation at home leads Jude Law's character to grab at a hobby when one is dangled in front of him. As a city planner, he has boldly moved his family to King's Cross, an urban location that passes for 'inner city' in London. He plans to sweep it into the 21st century with an expensive-looking urban renewal plan. Soon, his office becomes the repeated target of a gang of professional burglars who take everything not nailed down, right down to his little toy-soldier men on special order from Japan, that he uses as stand-ins for people in his scale model of the future, burglar-free King's Cross. Unable to accept the irony, Jude begins an amateur stakeout routine, waiting around outside his office at night in an SUV for the thieves to materialize, so he can accost them. It's somewhere around this point that the screenplay begins to drag the characters into directions they would never go, and towards people they would never interact with, so they can ultimately make decisions they would never make.