When Marvel officially announced the release date for Thor last week (June 4, 2010), news quickly followed that Matthew Vaughn was no longer directing, a script was being fine-tuned and Marvel was in search of an actor to fill Thor's mighty shoes. Seeing as he's blonde, a very popular actor and has starred in films like Troy, the first name to pop into the minds of fanboys (and girls) everywhere was Brad Pitt. And whaddya know: Latino Review is saying this week that Pitt is at the top of Marvel's wishlist. Who woulda thunk it?

On paper, this does seem like a logical -- and realistic -- choice. Pitt is at a similar point in his career as Robert Downey Jr., Edward Norton and even Johnny Depp (who surprised fans by starring in three Pirates of the Caribbean films for Disney). If there ever was a right time for Pitt to take a leap and "do one for his kids," Thor would be that project -- especially since his gal Angelina has already starred in two Tomb Raider flicks. But then the guy would have to sign for at least three films (most likely), not to mention the fact that he'd need to be in phenomenal shape. Plus, perhaps Troy was Pitt's Thor, and maybe he's tired of all those giant blockbusters; maybe he'd rather do some smaller stuff.

However, then you look around Hollywood and, honestly, who else could play the Marvel superhero? Taking into consideration the move by Marvel to hire bigger names for their films, is there anyone else who could muscle-up and play Thor? Or is Pitt the only name that could truly bring this project to the next level?

After the gut-wrenching terror of No Country for Old Men (I haven't been that tense in a movie theater since, well, ever), I can safely say that I am incredibly relieved that the Coens' next film, Burn After Reading, looks like it is going to be a lot more fun. First Showing now has some stills from the Coens' black comedy, and it would appear that the brothers are returning to what I like to call their 'Raising Arizona roots.'

Burn is the story of a CIA agent (played by George Clooney) who is assigned to investigate the case of a former agent named Ozzie Cox (John Malkovich) who has taken his revenge on the agency by writing a tell-all memoir. When Cox's ex-wife (played by Tilda Swinton) steals the only copy and leaves it behind at her gym, the gym's owner (Frances McDormand) and star personal trainer (Brad Pitt) see an opportunity to engage in a little blackmail.

The Coen flick just got the nod to open the Venice Film Festival this year, but Burn will not be making an appearance at Cannes this year (which is a little strange considering the luck they had at the French festival last year). This makes it zero for two for Pitt now that his other high-profile film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, also failed to make the list for Cannes. Burn After Reading is scheduled for wide release on September 12th, 2008.

Now this is an intriguing movie premise. Variety reports that Paramount and Brad Pitt have grabbed up the rights for Lost City of Z, David Grann's yet-to-be-published manuscript about a group of lost explorers. Brad Pitt will be producing with his Plan B shingle as a potential starring vehicle.

Grann's book uncovers the forgotten story of British explorer Col. Percy Harrison Fawcett, who set out in 1926 with a group of explorers to find a legendary "City of Z" in the Amazonian rainforest. They disappeared without a trace, and over the next 70 years numerous explorers have tried to retrace their steps, including Grann himself. No one has ever succeeded.

The book, which will be published by Doubleday in February 2009, is an expansion of an article Grann wrote on Fawcett for the New Yorker. (There's an abstract available on the New Yorker site, but one needs access to Lexus-Nexus to obtain the whole thing.) It sounds like a page turner of a story -- rumors of Fawcett being held in captivity, murdered by native tribes, even a theory that the City of Z was a portal to another dimension. The early years of the 20th century were such a hotbed of exploration, too. Everyone wanted to find tombs and lost cities. There haven't been many serious movies set around the heyday of the tomb raiders, so this could be really promising. Or it could completely stray from nonfiction and jump into the realm of the metaphysical -- maybe Pitt is sorry he passed up The Fountain and wants to tackle Mayan spirituality after all?

If nothing else, at least fans of Max Brooks' book World War Z can be a little more at ease with the idea of a big screen version. AICN reports that they have gotten their hands on an early version of the script for the 'zombie drama' World War Z ... and what's the verdict? According to them, "I love this script. Love every dark, somber, upsetting page of it. This is a horror epic, a serious, sober-minded adult picture waiting to be made, and it's one of the best pieces of screenwriting craft I've encountered in a while." AICN's review also goes into detail about some of the plot for the film, so if you haven't read the book and like to be surprised you might want to avoid reading the whole review.

News of the film first emerged last February, when it was first announced that Brad Pitt's Plan B Productions would produce a feature film. The structure of the novel is a compendium of stories from survivors of a war between the living and the undead. The plot jumps time and space, so it must not have been an easy task to weave all these stories into one narrative. The task fell to J. Michael Straczynski (a comic book writer and a creator of TVs Babylon 5), and it would appear that he has done a bang up job of it.

Over at our sister site Moviefone, they have a piece up counting down Hollywood's 25 hottest on-set hookups. From Bogey and Bacall to Madonna and Warren Beatty, from Brad and Angie to Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn, those Hollywood stars just can't seem to keep their movie romances confined to the screen. We thought it might be fun to pit some of these on-set romances against each other, in sort of a celebrity hook-up showdown. Sound off and let us know which of each pair of hook-ups you think is hottest:








Which Hollywood hookups from Moviefone's list do you think were smolderingly hot? Which leave you cold? And whose hookups did they overlook?

So, IMDb has two stories about do-gooder celebs up this morning, one about Cameron Diaz calling the Oprah Winfrey show in support of her friend and fellow Angel Drew Barrymore, who was on the show to present a check for $1,000,000 to the United Nations World Food Program, and the other about Reese Witherspoon. Witherspoon is the cosmetic company Avon's "global ambassador for women's empowerment," and in that capacity, she kicked off Avon's partnership with the United Nations Development Fund for Women by announcing that Avon will be selling $3 "Women's Empowerment Bracelets" online to benefit the fund.

The slogan for the partnership is "Empower women, change our world," and if you go to the Avon website to the bracelet, it tells you to "wear the bracelet that could change the world." A sidebar on the bracelet's product page blithely tells you that the bracelet will "go great with the Speak Out Against Domestic Violence Keychain!" No, I'm not making that up.

Even though a lot of fans of The Coen Brothers haven't been all that happy with the results of their collaborations with George Clooney (I think I was one of the eight people in the world who actually enjoyed Intolerable Cruelty.), I've still got a good feeling about their CIA comedy, Burn After Reading. The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Focus Features will release the dark comedy on September 12th of this year.

Burn has an all-star cast including Clooney, John Malkovich, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, and Tilda Swinton. I would guess that it's been like 'old home week' on set; we all know that Clooney and Pitt are buddies, and Swinton could be an honorary member of the boys club after her Oscar winning performance in Michael Clayton (and judging by her acceptance speech, she seems comfortable with a little verbal rough-housing).

The comedy stars Malkovich as Ozzie Cox, a CIA vet who gets fired for being an alcoholic, and writes out his revenge in a memoir. His soon-to-be ex-wife (Swinton) accidentally leaves the memoir at a gym, where it falls into the hands of a trainer, Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt), and the gym's owner Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand), who want to exploit the discovery. It sounds like a pretty 'fluffy' flick, but I think we could all use a break from the Coens' more "intense" point of view, wouldn't you agree, friendo?

We've already brought you Brad Pitt selling Pringles. But how about the good old days when Brad acted his young heart out? Well, you could say acted, but his talents back in the '80s do not reveal the success to come. You can search around and find some embarrassing clips from his stint on Dallas, but I thought I would throw up a little pirate flavor.

Back in 1988, Pitt popped up as a high school student in an episode of 21 Jump Street. Along with Captain Jack Johnny Depp and Peter DeLuise (who is currently a director on the new Canadian show jPod), you'll also notice Cheryl Pollak -- who played smartie Paige Woodward in Pump Up the Volume. So her brother spends a night in jail, with his super-saucy mullet, and letterman-jacket Pitt teases him mercilessly because the bad dude partied without him. I have to say, Pitt's voice sure got deeper over the years. Brad totally could've pulled off a cross-dressing role back then.

Cinematical is live at the 2008 Independent Spirit Awards! Our own Patrick Walsh will report back throughout the afternoon.

It is officially raining, and the big-time stars are rolling out. Javier Bardem is looking very dapper, I'm pretty sure I just saw indie favorite The Rock (?), and crowd just collectively spazzed out over Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. I was just interviewed (insulted) by Jiminy Glick on Good Morning America so watch for that, though I'm not sure how much of it they'll be able to use. The discussion culminated with him dumping a barrel of popcorn on himself. Some quality journalism there! Seriously, I can't quite convey how funny Martin Short has been here today. Favorite line -- "I have lost weight, I'm doing Atkins. Not the diet, his widow."

Raining has given way to pouring, and the red carpet is looking soggy and bare. It's ten minutes to showtime and I'm about to head under the big tent for the show. I'll do my best to update you on the winners as they happen, and if you get the Independent Film Channel you can join in the Rainn Wilson-hosted fun live. My thanks to Netflix for setting up this sweet little blogging suite for me, and as an active subscriber, I don't even have to feel like a shameless whore saying that. Sorry for the rambling nature of these posts, but it's been pretty hectic...

For more photos and coverage, head on over to Moviefone.

John Orloff got his break writing two episodes of the Emmy-winning HBO mini-series Band of Brothers. His latest script is another true-life tale -- Michael Winterbottom's A Mighty Heart, just out on DVD. Heart focuses on Mariane Pearl (Angelina Jolie), a reporter whose husband Daniel, an American journalist, was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan. The script just earned Orloff an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best First Screenplay. The awards will be held on February 23rd.

Cinematical: When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

John Orloff: I still don't know whether I want to be a writer! I went to UCLA Film School, and I had a great writing teacher who thought I had a particular skill in that department. So I kept taking that teacher for the whole time I was at UCLA, kept on writing. At the end of it I was 22, it was the late 80s, and people weren't really hiring young writers, so I started to work in advertising. Spent about ten years miserably working in commercials, until I met a woman -- who is now my wife -- who was working in the business as a development exec at HBO. And she was bringing home all these screenplays, and they were horrible! Just awful! And these people had agents, and they were working. So I pitched my wife a non-fiction movie that I had been thinking about writing for ten years, with the incredibly commercial idea of a sixteenth century English melodrama. It was actually about the Shakespeare authorship issue -- who wrote the plays? I wrote the script and had the misfortune of writing it two months before Shakespeare in Love came out. But I sent out this script, trying to get an agent, and did finally get "hip-pocketed" by an agency.

Cinematical: And that script eventually got you your big break with Tom Hanks -- pretty decent guy to start out with, no?

JO: Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, yes! The most important thing that happened out of the Shakespeare script was that Tom's company was among the readers. They liked it, and I met with Tom about another project, but every time I sat down with him I would ask if he had hired writers on Band of Brothers. I'm a huge World War II buff, and I think I eventually just wore him down. He finally asked me to write a script, and I wrote one episode. He was very happy with it and asked me to write another. So, that was my first paying gig.

Here's a phrase you might be hearing at some point in the near future: "Kids, pack up the car -- we're heading to Missouri to visit the brand new Brad Pitt museum!" I kid you not. According to a story over at Hollywood.com, Pitt's hometown of Springfield, Missouri is in the early planning stages of building a museum celebrating all things Brad Pitt. The decision comes after the town noticed -- their words, not mine -- "a growing number of fans making a pilgrimage to the area to learn more about where their idol spent his formative years."

Look, I understand the pilgrimage thing for folks like Elvis, Jim Morrison, John Lennon and that cupcake featuring the face of the Virgin Mary. But Brad Pitt? Springfield, Missouri? Really? I guess this means Springfield, Missouri has officially given up their quest to be known as the home of The Simpsons -- and I don't blame them. That's a fictional cartoon family, and this is a real-life human being, who, we've heard, melts the hearts of anyone who stares at his smile for more than 30 seconds. Literally! Like, their hearts melt and they go poof! (Can you tell I'm reachin' here?) Anyway, if you live anywhere near Springfield, Missouri, do let us know when this museum opens up. I'd personally love to go ... and I'll be wearing this mask when I show up -- for no other reason than to freak people out who walk past me.

So this is probably way too early to start getting excited about David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button -- but cut me a little slack; it's not like this guy is known for making movies with any frequency. Frankly, I should probably just take what I can get. Hollywood Elsewhere has received a scoop from the set of Button, and even if you only believe half of what was reported then things are still looking pretty good for the literary adaptation. According to Elsewhere, the news came from the husband of the costume designer for the film. There is no shortage of praise in the report and some of the highlights of what she said include: "the script was top-notch" and that, "Fincher and Brad Pitt were consummate professionals".

Button is based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's story about a man who finds love at 50 only to begin to age backwards, causing him some serious complications (and if you ever wondered how Pitt was going to age, then here is the chance for a sneak peek). The movie is a reunion not only for Fincher and Pitt (who worked together twice before), but also for Cate Blanchett as well (she also co-starred in the Oscar-nominated Babel with Pitt). Also in the cast are Julia Ormond, Elle Fanning (sister to Dakota), and Tilda Swinton. Pitt even got his family in on the film and his daughter Shiloh will be making her screen debut -- so much for keeping his kids out of the public eye.

Elsewhere's scooper went on to say that, "some of the sequences they saw that had been edited were absolutely stunning. Her description of the mood of those who worked on it is that of bated breath -- a near universal belief that they have made an outstanding and moving film, one that transcends and one they wish not to jinx by too much loose talk". Well, if nothing else it is nice to know that I am not the only one betting big on this film. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is set for release on November 26, 2008.

With this latest bit of news, one things for certain: Kevin Macdonald is hurting when he should be playing. State of Play already lost Brad Pitt in November. He was having a slew of issues with the director, and decided to back out of his deal, which instigated Universal to make some threats of legal action. It was particularly crappy timing for the project, since it was set to begin filming when the actor bailed. Word later came that Pitt wasn't happy with the script, and thought it needed work. Presumably not interested in waiting the strike out, Universal disagreed, so they turned to wooing Russell Crowe to replace Brad.

The production will now begin in January, and Variety reports that star #2 is backing out -- Ed Norton. This departure, however, is because of a clash in start times -- State of Play now interferes with Norton's other project, Tim Blake Nelson's Leaves of Grass. So Eddie is out, and Universal already has its replacement -- Ben Affleck. So, as it stands now, Ben will be the "fast-rising politician who is caught up in a murder conspiracy. Crowe will play a journalist who leads a newspaper's investigation into the killing. He's conflicted in that he once ran the politician's campaigns, and he is now romancing his estranged wife." Still on the cast list, at least for now -- Helen Mirren, Rachel McAdams, Robin Wright Penn, and Jason Bateman. There is the possibility that Mirren will be the next to go -- she has a potential conflict with the upcoming Love Ranch, but they're trying to work things out.

So I ask you: Should State of Play frolic away, or is it time to shelve the project?

Well I guess things are going well on the set of The Incredible Hulk because Edward Norton and co-star Tim Blake Nelson seem to have become serious BFFs. Coming Soon.net reports that Norton and Nelson (sounds like a vaudeville team doesn't it?) will work together on the crime comedy, Leaves of Grass. Norton will direct the comedy about twin brothers who get mixed up with "murderous potheads" – which to me sounds like a contradiction in terms. Norton will play both brothers, of which one is a successful professor and the other is a low-life criminal who unfortunately is not exactly a mastermind. Nelson will produce as well as star in the flick, but there is no word on his role in the film.

Norton has some experience when it comes to directing comedy, since his first effort behind the camera was the 2000 romantic comedy, Keeping the Faith. Knowing how Norton likes to get involved behind the camera for his films, it wouldn't surprise me if he has some writing in mind for this project as well. Norton's latest project, the political thriller State of Play has hit a snag now that co-star Brad Pitt has left the project (although there is still the chance that Russell Crowe is going to swoop in and save the film by filling in where Pitt left off). So it's probably not a bad idea for Norton to line up another project just in case. Grass is reportedly scheduled to begin shooting on location in New Orleans this March.

On behalf of fans of vampire movies everywhere, I certainly hope we can chalk this one up to just a silly rumor. Bloody Disgusting is reporting that United Artists is pushing to snap up the rights to the fourth novel in Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, The Tale of The Body Thief. According to BD's sources, "here's speculation on my behalf, but UA = Tom Cruise, right? Might we be seeing Tom Cruise back as the Vampire Lestat?" The casting of Tom Cruise as the Vampire Lestat in Neil Jordan's 1994 adaptation of Rice's bestselling novel, Interview with The Vampire, caused an uproar among fans (and the author for that matter). Rice had been quoted as saying that Cruise was, "no more my Vampire Lestat than Edward G. Robinson is Rhett Butler".**

The story of Body Thief picks up with Lestat who has made a deal with a "body thief" to get the chance to switch bodies and to live like a mortal again. This would be the third attempt to make an Anne Rice book into a film, the last being the disastrous Queen of the Damned with Aaliyah and Stuart Townsend as Lestat. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Townsend's Lestat wasn't too bad all things considered. He definitely had the Lestat pout down pat, something that Cruise could just never quite pull off in Interview. Not to mention Cruise's avoidance of the obvious homoerotic content to the original story -- although kudos to Antonio Banderas and Brad Pitt for being the only two actors in that film to even hint at a little vampire on vampire action.

As we all know, Cruise's relationship with Paramount ended badly back in '06. Now that Cruise is calling shots at UA, could Tom be planning to "ruin" yet another Anne Rice property? Until we get some kind of official word on the project, lets just keep our fingers crossed that Cruise is going to leave the fangs to someone else this time.

**Rice did eventually back-track and reverse her statements once she actually saw the film and Cruise's performance.