At the beginning of this year, there was news that Drew Barrymore and Ellen Page were setting their sights on Whip It! -- a flick about snarky chicks, toughness, and roller derby action. It sounded like a whole wackload of fun. The rumored March start date came and went without a sound, but now, luckily, things are on track for this summer. Even better: The Hollywood Reporter posts that joining Page and Barrymore on-screen will be Marcia Gay Harden, Kristen Wiig, Juliette Lewis, and Zoe Bell.

Page is playing Bliss Cavendar, a beauty queen who runs away to join the roller derby league in Austin, Texas. Harden will play her mom, an ex-beauty queen herself who wants her daughter out of the skates and back on the beauty circuit. Meanwhile, Wiig will play Bliss' rolling mentor, Malice in Wonderland, Lewis will be top star Dinah Might, and Bell will be "a medical technician moonlighting as derby star Bloody Holly." With first-time feature director Drew Barrymore taking on a role as Page's teammate, that's one heck of a roller roster.

I wonder if 5'1" Page will have to take on 5'8" Bell? Hell, I'm trying to imagine how she'd do against anyone, being as teeny as she is. We should find out soon enough -- the film heads into production this summer in Texas and Michigan.

The now-untitled sci-fi thriller, which used to be called Game (from Crank writer/directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor), continues to put together one heck of a varied cast. They've got top names like 300's Gerard Butler, and even some old faces to spot. Last month, a certain serial killer and ex gay mortician (Michael C. Hall) joined the cast, which also includes Alison Lohman, John Leguizamo, Amber Valletta, and Kyra Sedgwick. (Johnny Whitworth is also involved -- you might remember him as the pensive artist in Empire Records.) Now Coming Soon reports that two more are added to the list -- one Mr. Chris "Ludracris" Bridges, and the toughest chick to hit the movies Zoe Bell (Death Proof). (Movies have tough women, but rarely are the tough women just as tough off the big screen.)

In a dystopian future, the film is about a mass-scale online computer game called "Slayers" where some humans control other humans. The top player, Kable (Butler), is the top warrior, and as everyone tracks his every move, he struggles to regain his self and bring down the imprisoning system. Ludacris will play one of Alison Lohman's "resistance group called HUMANZ that is protesting the way that the prisoners are being used as part of these video games." Bell, well, her character hasn't been shared, but I am pretty sure that she'll be a fellow warrior, or maybe a covert op of the resistance group. The flick is currently in production, but you're going to have to wait until 2009 to see it.

"Can it really be awards season already?" Our own Eric D. Snider asked that question when reporting that IFP (Independent Feature Project) announced the nominees for the Gotham Awards, honoring the best of indie films in 2007. And now the Alliance of Women Film Journalists (AWFJ) has announced their awards categories. AWFJ has two types of categories: the traditional "Best of" awards (film, director, actress, actor, etc.) are presented annually, but the "Special Mention" awards categories are "subject to change each year, depending on the list of films released during the year," according to their site. The awards aim to recognize "the amazing work done by and about women -- both in front and behind the camera."

Most of the categories from last year are back -- AWFJ Hall Of Shame Award(s), Actress(es) Most in Need Of A New Agent, Best Of The Fests, Movies You Wanted To Love But Just Couldn't, Best Depiction Of Nudity or Sexuality -- but seven additional categories have been added for this year's awards. Three of them sound generic: Unforgettable Moment , Cultural Crossover, Bravest Performance. Actually, "Unforgettable Moment" could be cool if it recognizes an isolated scene of genius in an otherwise horrible film, but what constitutes a "Bravest Performance"? Acting without make-up? Risking your life to do a stunt, a la Zoe Bell in Death Proof?

I really love the other four new categories, though: Sequel That Shouldn't Have Been Made (there are so many candidates, how will the AWFJ narrow them down?), Best Leap from Actress to Director (I'm looking at you, Sarah Polley!), Best Seduction and Most Egregious Age Difference Between The Leading Man and The Love Interest. Not to play the sexist card, but the latter two categories -- especially the "Age Difference" one -- would never be considered by a male-dominated critical group. Here's hoping the awards will call attention to lesser-known, quality films and the women that make them.

While I am a fan of Quentin Tarantino, I wasn't too thrilled with Death Proof. That is, except for the uber-excellent, arse-kicking ending and the beautifully tough Zoë Bell -- she's the Kiwi stuntwoman who jumped on the hood of the 1970 Dodge Challenger in the flick. If you didn't catch the Grindhouse extravaganza, she's also worked as Lucy Lawless' stunt double on Xena and as Uma Thurman's in the Kill Bill movies. Now there's great news coming from The Hollywood Reporter -- she's going to star in an untitled action flick for Marco Weber's Senator Entertainment.

Based on a story cooked up by Weber, and written by Sarah Thorp (Twisted), the film features Zoë as a U.S. soldier who comes back from an Iraq tour of duty and helps a girl in trouble. Bell says: "This film is a big challenge for me, especially the American accent, which I have to work on. But one thing is certain: I will be doing all my own stunts on the film." I couldn't ask for more. Not surprisingly, she got the gig because of her stint in Grindhouse. Weber says: "When I saw Zoë in Death Proof, I was immediately drawn to her ability and acting talent. Her background and likability made her a perfect choice for our lead." Here, here! Here's to hoping that they cook up a good story and create a great film around her. We don't have enough good, tough, (and female!!) action heroines out there.

Of all the guilty pleasures at Cannes this year -- and there were guilty pleasures at Cannes this year, for all of the art and drama -- surely the most tempting had to be the extended cut of Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof. Originally part of the vast and sprawling Grindhouse experiment, now QT's car-crashin', smack-talkin' carnival of mayhem was going to show on its own. Which, to be honest, it always kinda did; Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror, for all it's sins, nonetheless felt like a '70s trash-gasm; Death Proof, with all the yakkety-yak and funny bits, felt too modern. If I were smarter, I'd say something like I wanted to see Death Proof liberated from the cage of the Grindhouse conceit; really, though, I just wanted a nice snack of all-American cheese in-between the thoughtful, contemplative dramas; a little re-tox, if you will.

And Death Proof does have all the nutrition of a narcotic compound -- and making it bigger didn't mean making it any classier. Death Proof is a misshapen hybrid of early DePalma and '70s car-counterculture epics as a woman-watching killer who executes with his sweet-ass ride plays cat-and-mouse at full throttle. One set of sexy, leggy mice gets killed in what may be the best-shot high-speed car-wreck mass-murder sequence of all time -- a singular, if grisly honor. The next time our high-octane homicide artist goes after a car full of girls, though, the new set of mice are a bit better prepared ...

Several of us at Cinematical have had the opportunity to see Grindhouse, and we just couldn't stop talking about the movie(s). In fact, four of us decided to haul our virtual selves into a chatroom together so we could rant and argue about what we liked and what we wanted to change and what we wanted to see in a sequel. Kevin Kelly, James Rocchi, Scott Weinberg and I intended to spend maybe 15-20 minutes chatting but the final conversation lasted the better part of an hour. Here are the highlights, which I tried to group into general categories to break things up a little. The spoilers have been removed, so enjoy.


What we liked and disliked overall:

Scott: Aside from a few real moments of drag, courtesy of Tarantino's love affair with his own words, I liked the movie(s) a whole heckuva lot.
Kevin: I loved the experience as a whole, bit then when you break it down film by film, I get more critical. Unfortunately I think people will boil it down to Rodriguez vs. Tarantino
Jette: I liked it, but not as much as I thought I would ... I'm not a big fan of the Tarantino endless conversation.
James: I think the bigggest irony in it is that the lesser filmmaker -- Rodriguez -- made the better film.
Kevin: Yeah, that man loves his own dialogue so much, that you get characters talking like you think he would when you hang out with him.
James: And it's not that that's not fun, but if there's one thing that ,70s B-flicks weren't, it's "talky."
Jette: I think Planet Terror is the better film, but Death Proof has the more grindhouse-ish feel to it.
Scott: Funnier still that Tarantino is definitely the grindhouse expert (Rodriguez admitted as much during his SXSW panel), yet Rodriguez's film seems more in line with the alleged tone of the piece.
James: Death Proof really felt like a mash-up of DePalma and Russ Meyer, in many ways -- killers and cars and chicks.
Scott: Rodriguez went for John Carpenter. Tarantino went for De Palma.
Kevin: Right, just like those old 70s films that Tarantino loves so much, with the addition of talk, talk, talk.
Jette: I didn't think of Russ Meyer, but that's an interesting angle. I was thinking more of The Muthers at the end, but it's actually kind of Faster Pussycat-ish.
Kevin: Well, he didn't have an overt jiggle factor.

More after the jump ...

The Robert Rodriguez-Quentin Tarantino collaboration Grindhouse is a carnival funhouse/rollercoaster ride of a movie. You scream, clutch your date's arm, and wait frozen in suspense for the next scary moment. You know it's cheesy and silly and maybe you even can see the wires working the scary bits, but you don't care. You have a thrilling time, and maybe you even want to go again later. The next day, only a few highlights of the dark ride stick in your head -- but who cares? It's just a ride, you're not supposed to take it seriously. And if you don't care about taking a movie seriously, if you don't try to analyze Grindhouse or measure it up against the filmmakers' best work, you can enjoy the ride.

Most of the three-plus hours of Grindhouse fly by, although I can't say I was never bored. I couldn't help but compare the two features included in the movie with the exploitation films to which Grindhouse pays homage. Would Grindhouse have the same hair-raising stunts, eye-rolling dialogue ... and most important for many audience members, would the women be as scantily clad? (They certainly are on the current cover of Rolling Stone magazine.) Tarantino's segment Death Proof is the better homage to grindhouse, but Rodriguez's segment Planet Terror is more of a contemporary update of the old drive-in movie genre. If you don't want to see even cartoonish renditions of lurid decapitation, amputation, gunshot wounds, automobile crashes and cannibalism, Grindhouse is not going to appeal to you.

Austin held a regional premiere of Grindhouse on Wednesday night, and I was there on the red carpet to meet and shoot photos of the celebrities in town for the event. (That's Quentin Tarantino in the above photo, in case you've been living under a rock.) I'm not the world's best photographer, and I used a digital camera that I bought mainly for its ability to fit in my purse. But I had a lot of fun in front of the Paramount as the actors, actresses and filmmakers each made their way down the red carpet. It was so crowded and noisy that I didn't have the chance to ask many questions, but fortunately Cinematical's Kevin Kelly attended the Grindhouse junket earlier this week and posted a two-part report that tells you just about everything you want to know about the movie. Check out my photos after the jump.

One of AICN's legion of tipsters appears to have gotten his (or her) hands on a copy of Quentin Tarantino's screenplay for his half of Grind House, the retro-style collaboration with Robert Rodriguez - and, assuming that most sane people won't take the time to make up not only length (127 pages) but also cover art (in case you're wondering, it "features a muscle car with huge twin exhausts and a skull on the hood with some lightning bolts"), the write-up is pretty convincingly real.

According to the writer, QT's half of the film - entitled Death Proof - stars Mickey Rourke and stuntwoman Zoe Bell, and revolves around a guy named Stuntman Mike (that's Rourke) who, well, drives around in his kickass stunt car and kills people with it. Um, ok. If that idea appeals to you, go check out the write-up, because there are lots of spoilers therein. In general, however, the tipster wasn't particularly impressed by the script, describing the dialogue as "flat" and "not very clever" - not a good start for something from Tarantino, a man whose best work relies heavily on crackling writing. That said, however, there's reportedly a super-bloody car crash in the middle of the movie - will that get your asses in the seats?