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It looks like we're getting a newish Thelma & Louise. Over at Production Weekly's wonderfully brief Twitter feed, they report: "Amber Heard & Leighton Meester attached to star in Cowgirl Bandits a young version of Thelma & Louise, with Jessica Manafort to direct." Manafort has worked with both actresses before on her 2007 film, The Beautiful Ordinary, which focused on teens and their last day of high school. But this is a whole different corral.

Personally, I'm wondering if these are just some slow-moving bandits. Back in March of 2007, we learned about a new project called The Uncatchable Cowgirl Bandits of Nottingham, Texas. The film was said to zero in on some cowgirls who are also bank robbers. But they don't rob just any bank -- they "steal from a number of branches of a bank that are threatening their community and corrupting town leaders." PW has since confirmed that this is the same movie, so I'd think Robin Hood would make for a more apt comparison than Thelma & Louise.

Can you imagine Mandy Lane and Blair Waldorf in spurs, getting their bandit on? Especially tagged with being the new Thelma and Louise?

Indifference is, perhaps, one of the most frustrating attitudes one can have towards a film. If you love a film, singing its praises is a natural by-product. Hating a film can often times be an even more cathartic experience than loving a film, as vitriol is always easily on tap. But not particularly caring one way or the other? That's oddly frustrating for me.

The Stepfather, the most recent collaboration between producer J.S. Cardone and director Nelson McCormick (the last being their remake of Prom Night, a project I feel safe calling the most annoying horror film of 2008, and even that's being diplomatic), is another entry to a new Hollywood tradition of finding vaguely recognizable films from the 1980s and remaking them on the cheap. Now, I'm not one to bemoan this business model; it's fine if the end result has enough originality to it that there is at least the illusion that the film is something more than a commodity to draw in a big opening weekend.

Fortunately The Stepfather does have enough airiness to it and enough interesting performers in it to convince even a hardened cynic that money wasn't the only motivation for all involved, that creatively the team behind it did want to deliver to new audiences a story of the reverse-black widow, of a man who lulls vulnerable single-mothers into thinking he wants to join their family, only to bite their heads off (figuratively, there's no actual cannibalism involved) when their back is turned.

Read the rest at Horror Squad!

As much as we try to cover everything here at Cinematical, unfortunately some stories slip through the cracks. Here's a bunch of stuff we missed this week:

-- The first images of The Fallen, from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen have arrived online ... except it's the toy version of the Transformer, which means it's a toy and not very interesting. But that's an image of the toy up above, and you can see two more below (courtesy of TF08).



-- Robert Downey Jr., Tina Fey and Ben Stiller are in negotiations to lend their voices to a new animated superhero flick called Master Mind. This one, however, focuses on a brilliant superhero villain who loses purpose in life when he accidentally kills his good-guy nemesis. DreamWorks is currently eying a November 5, 2010 release for the film. [Hollywood Reporter]

-- Mickey Rourke has signed on to play a hit man who returns to New York (in disguise as a priest) to complete a botched hit in St. Vincent. Walter Hill, who directed the 1989 Rourke flick Johnny Handsome, is stepping behind the camera, and production is supposed to begin sometime later this year. [Hollywood Reporter]

-- Amber Heard is slowly becoming the next up-and-coming starlet, beating out ladies like Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley for the leading lady role opposite Johnny Depp in Rum Diary, based on the Hunter S. Thompson novel. Heard will play "the free-spirited girlfriend of a fellow journalist who cheats on him with Kemp (Depp), trying to convince him to run away with her." [Hollywood Reporter]

-- According to Upcoming Pixar, the short accompanying Up on the big screen will be called Partly Cloudy, and it will be directed by Peter Sohn (a storyboard artist and animator who also lent his voice to Remy's brother Emile in Ratatouille.) Partly Cloudy, which doesn't have an official plot description yet, will mark Sohn's directorial debut. [Slashfilm]

You know, they say that you shouldn't go into business with family and friends. Yet many people still do, and many people also begin to take the advice to heart sooner or later. But what about people you meet in a support group? That sounds totally rational, doesn't it? Let's take it a bit further -- imagine you go into business with strangers you know all have anger issues. It sounds like hell in real life, but may make for a funny film on the big screen.

Variety reports that Heather Graham, Jennifer Coolidge, Matthew Settle (the cool art dad from Gossip Girl), and Amber Heard have signed on to star in a new black dramedy called Ex-terminators, which was written by Suzanne Weinert, and will be the feature directorial debut for Scrubs helmer John Inwood. So yes, this film will focus on "three women who meet in an anger-management therapy group and decide to form a traditional business using very untraditional methods."

This is feeling like one of those projects that could very easily be good, and just as easily be stereotypical and over-the-top bad. Whichever it ends up being, I imagine it will have a healthy dose of quirk involved, considering all the time Inwood has spent on Scrubs. Production began last week in Austin.

For all of the traditional complaints lodged against film critics -- too pointy-headed, too snooty, unable to enjoy a movie on the level of the simple pleasures it may present -- I worry that what I'm about to say may harm my standing in the field; namely, I liked Never Back Down. No, it's not The Battle of Algiers or Jules et Jim; it's a movie where good-looking 20-somethings playing good-looking teens offer American moviegoers the exciting prospect of Mixed Martial Arts action without the daunting possibility they might have to read subtitles. It's far below the fights-and-fury quality of Donnie Yen's Flash Point, another MMA action flick opening in limited release as Never Back Down splashes up on movie screens across America. And yet, Never Back Down seems to know what it is, and executes the rote and required moments in a film like this -- a template set by movies like The Karate Kid and Rocky and a dozen others -- with a certain amount of style and exuberance. Never Back Down revolves around good-looking people beating the holy hell out of each other; it doesn't pretend to be much more than that, and while the pleasures it offers are modest, it nonetheless delivers them.

If films could be a success based on the cast alone, I would say that The Informers was on its way to wonderful cinema. News about the project first came in May, and since then, the cast has slowly been coming together in a great, eclectic sort of way. This isn't some sort of Ocean's wonder-project of hunks, but rather a collection of randomness that looks pretty darned tasty -- the first batch had Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, Brandon Routh, Ashley Olsen, Jon Foster, Austin Nichols, and Lou Taylor Pucci, and then along came Winona Ryder and Mickey Rourke. Now The Hollywood Reporter has posted that Amber Heard and Chris Isaak have joined the cast.

Heard, who is the object of affection in the upcoming horror film All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, is said to be playing "a sexually promiscuous woman caught up in the decadence of the 1980s." This is pretty much what Ashley Olsen's character description was, so I wonder if she's become the Full House alum's replacement, or perhaps a fellow sexual cohort. As for Isaak, whose last film was John Waters' A Dirty Shame, the crooner will play "a sex-and-alcohol-obsessed father who takes his young son to Hawaii." The film is currently shooting in Los Angeles, and then it will journey to Uruguay and Buenos Aires to finish up.

We knew something was just a tad off when the only poster for the soon-to-be-released indie horror flick All the Boys Love Mandy Lane hit streets only two weeks before the flick was supposed to land in theaters. Not to mention the marketing campaign was non-existent (Cinematical has spent more time hyping up this film than The Weinstein Co. or Dimension Films). And so I'm not surprised to hear (via Shock Till You Drop) that rumor has it Weinstein/Dimension has officially dropped Mandy Lane from its July 20 slot. Keep in mind this hasn't been confirmed, and there's no information on whether the film will be released at a later date instead, but all signs are pointing to ... Mandy Lane getting screwed, but not loved.

The film, which first premiered at last year's Toronto Film Festival (to rave reviews from our own James Rocchi), focuses on a pretty girl (Amber Heard) who's invited to a weekend party at a secluded ranch. However, once there, partygoers begin mysteriously disappearing one by one -- and, well, so it goes. Could this hesitation on Dimension's part have something to do with the negative attention horror films have been receiving lately, and/or the box office failure that was Grindhouse? And what does this mean for the other fantastic horror-related films The Weinstein Co. picked up from various festivals throughout the year -- like, say, Teeth (which is a film I absolutely loved and haven't heard a peep about since seeing it in Berlin back in February)? Chalk this one up as rumor for now; we'll let you know when more info is revealed.

There's a little film called Get Some gearing up for production that is being called a "teenage Fight Club." Hmm ... A movie about teens beating the crap out of each other ... how uplifting! The film will follow a "rebellious" kid, played by Sean Faris (Yours, Mine and Ours), who is having troubles fitting into his new school. Somehow, he gets lured into an underground fight club along the way. Now, the Palahniuk, adult version of this tale had grown men pummeling each other to find strength, meaning and reason to their lackluster lives -- and for the main guy -- a little mental clarity. If this takes on the same tone, I won't be surprised if some parents get a bit ticked off.

As we learned last month, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane star Amber Heard had signed on to co-star as a girl whose "loyalties are put to the test when her boyfriend severely beats up Faris' character." Now, Variety reports that Djimon Hounsou (recent Oscar nominee for Blood Diamond) is also starring in the drama, although there is no word on his role. Since it's a starring role, I would imagine that he's either going to be a teacher at the school that's instrumental in trying to stop this, or a fight-hungry man instrumental in getting this all together -- or maybe a blending of both. The film will begin shooting in July, directed by Jeff Wadlow, from a script by Chris Hauty and Robert Munic. I, for one, am interested to see what they make of this premise, because it really needs to walk the fine line, unless there is a surprise twist and all the guys are pillow fighting. My question: Fight Club inspired middle-aged men to toughen up with their own underground clubs. Will the same happen in high schools across the country?

Last September, I was lucky enough to make it out to the midnight madness TIFF screening of All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, the horror homage by first-time-feature director Jonathan Levine. You might remember James Rocchi's glowing review of the film here. After a long period of quiet on the movie front, Bloody Disgusting is reporting that Dimenson Films is finally sending the flick to theaters this July 20th -- less than a month away! If you don't find this news exciting, you might want to give Mandy Lane another chance.

The premise is simple -- Mandy, played wonderfully by Amber Heard -- is the easily-loved popular girl who is admired by all men, and loved by the popular and loner alike. However, there's a bit of darkness that surrounds the girl -- the film starts with a death due to her appeal -- which is never good when kids are planning for a weekend in seclusion. She, her unpopular best friend and some group of popular kids head to a ranch and start getting picked off while Levine channels a bunch of horror films from the past. Heck, there are even a few scenes that were even dead-on homages to Dazed and Confused. While it is, by no means, immensely original, it's entertaining in a way that many of the current horror movies aren't. Then again, I'd take Scream over the present torture porn films any day. Besides, after all the sequels this summer that haven't quite lived up to hype, wouldn't something a bit different be a nice change of pace?

21 year-old Amber Heard has just landed another starring role in Get Some, a teen drama that will be directed by Jeff Wadlow, who helmed the 2005 horror film Cry_Wolf. The story of Get Some is being described as, believe it or not, a teenage version of Fight Club, although presumably with not with enough blood to earn an R-rating. Sean Faris will also star in the film as an Iowa teen who moves to Florida and gets involved with the underground club. According to HR, Heard will play a young lady whose "loyalties are put to the test when her boyfriend severely beats up Faris' character." I guess that means she takes pity on the guy who can't cut the mustard and romance blooms. The film was written by Chris Hauty, whose most recent credit is the 1996 film Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco.

Get Some is only the latest of several films that Heard has signed on for, but that haven't gotten around to being released yet. She's also the lead in the much talked-about horror film All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, which premiered last year at the Toronto film festival, and she recently signed on for The Pineapple Express, with James Franco and Seth Rogan. If that's not enough, she's also got a TV deal going, starring in Hidden Palms, a Kevin Williamson series that premieres tonight. So get used to the name Amber Heard -- you're going to be hearing it for a while.