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After the third film in the franchise, Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, took in $158 million worldwide, Universal thought it might be best to hold onto screenwriter Chris Morgan for at least a little while. Not only have they tapped him to pen a fourth installment in the lucrative underground racing series, but the studio has also picked up an untitled adventure pitch from the scribe too -- making it his fifth straight project for Universal. Other pics Morgan has worked on for Uni include a rewrite on the Angelina Jolie pic Wanted (currently in pre-production) and an adaptation of the graphic novel The Psycho. (Next up, Chris plans on officially changing his name from Chris Morgan to Universal's Biotch.)

No word yet on where the fourth Fast and the Furious will be set, but chances are they will keep things overseas in order to fully take advantage of the worldwide audience. Perhaps the new flick will even take place in several different cities -- it could be called Fast and the Furious: Where in the World Did I Park My Damn Car? I like that. As far as this untitled adventure pic goes, no one is saying a thing; all we know is that the script was purchased for $700,000 against $1.35 million, and that Stuber/Parent Prods. are producing. Seeing as Morgan likes his characters to do a lot of driving (he also penned Cellular, which had its fare fair share of automobile-related excitement), I'd imagine this new script includes at least one dazzling car chase sequence. Which reminds me ... my lease is up; I need to look for a new ride.

I have no doubt that there are going to be about a million-and-one new Simpsons items coming down the pipeline between now and when The Simpsons Movie is released this summer, but this mobile phone from Samsung is actually pretty nifty looking. Sure they come in Simpsons skin-tone colors, they'll probably come pre-loaded with Simpsons ringers, wallpapers, and everything else you can think of. But what has me so excited about it? That's right, the little donut charm hanging off the side. Call me crazy, call me insane, but that really makes me want one of these phones. Maybe I need professional help.

Check out FirstShowing.net where they have photos of these phones from CES in Las Vegas. Apparently these phones will also have exclusive content from The Simpsons Movie, probably in the form of video and audio clips, which would be pretty nifty. While only a hardcore Simpsonite would want to hold onto one of these phones, the novelty factor makes them pretty attractive. Although, if the phone shouts "D'oh!" every time it rings, then our love affair with them might be extremely short-lived.

Ok, so what's up with Kim Basinger and these "Help! I'm surrounded my thugs and there's no way out!" roles? First there was Cellular, in which she played a housewife who is taken hostage by a group of toughs with only a broken cell phone that dials one number to keep her connected to the outside world. Remember that one? Larry Cohen was going through, what I like to call, his "phone period," having written the screenplay for Phone Booth and the story for Cellular back-to-back.

Basinger has signed on to star in While She Was Out. Pic (which is neither a follow-up to Sandra Bullock's While You Were Sleeping nor a feature film version of the TLC show While You Were Out) revolves around a suburban housewife (Basinger) who finds herself lost in the woods and surrounded by a group of murderous thugs. Now, [cue cheesy closing line] all she has is a toolbox and her will to survive. A toolbox? WTF? Will she start by throwing screwdrivers at these guys? How much you wanna bet Craftsman invested a crap-load of money in product placement? Lifetime warranty baby! This way, if your wrench were to break while you were fighting for your life, simple return it to Sears for a new one. It's that easy. Anyway, Susan Montford is attached to direct and production is scheduled to begin this January.