We have an unofficial motto around here: as fast as they're dealing at Sundance, we're typing to tell you about it! Of course, we're all benefiting from the great coverage already being provided by indieWIRE. In the third deal announcement of the day -- and remember, the festival doesn't officially begin until Thursday night -- HBO Documentary Films has picked up The Black List: Volume One.

The doc, directed by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, "presents a fascinating series of mini-portraits of 20 influential African Americans." Elvis Mitchell (pictured), former film critic for The New York Times, interviews names like Lou Gossett Jr., Chris Rock and Keenan Ivory Wayans. Mitchell, an affable interviewer, also served as one of the producers. The Black List: Volume One is part of a project that will include "a traveling exhibit, portrait book and a user-generated campaign designed for multiple platforms," and no, I have no idea what that last phrase means.

The reason for the portrait book --director Greenfield-Sanders had originally intended to become a filmmaker, but became fascinated by portraiture and switched to photography full-time. (He is currently a contributing photographer to Vanity Fair.) He then dipped back into filmmaking with Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart, a 1998 Sundance premiere. More recently, he made Thinking XXX, a brisk, entertaining doc for HBO based on his best-selling book of porn star portraits. FYI: The porn stars were more comfortable posing for pictures nude, rather than dressed.

A source told indieWIRE that HBO is planning a theatrical run later this year to quality the film for Academy Award consideration. At some point, of course, it will show up on the pay cable channel, but a separate deal is also planned for the DVD.

Here's one of the great disappointments of 2007: Hot Fuzz only earned $23.6 million in the U.S. despite being one of the best reviewed and most hilarious comedies of the year. Now, here's something even more tragic: the Wayans brothers are set to make a similar movie, one which will probably be a huge hit, easily doubling or tripling the box office of Hot Fuzz. According to Variety, Keenan Ivory Wayans, Marlon Wayans and Shawn Wayans will parody cop actioners in the same way they spoofed horror films in the first two Scary Movie installments (3 and 4, which the brothers hate, were made by David Zucker). The main difference with this project, though, is that most of the gags and send-ups will have to reference relatively old movies. Unlike the Scary Movie franchise, which attempts the most timely of horror allusions, this new project won't have as many contemporary releases in the cop action genre to make fun of.

Well, there are at least two old movies the Wayans have to joke on: The Last Boyscout and Bulletproof, both of which starred their formerly better-known brother Damon. No matter what, though, the Wayans' cop movie (probably to be titled "Cop Movie") will not be as funny as Hot Fuzz. It may not even be as funny as Loaded Weapon 1, unfortunately. But it will likely share the same type of replication-as-parody sequences as that 1993 action spoof. The only thing that can keep one from being too cynical is that the Wayans did give us a lot of brilliant comedy on In Living Color, and we can always hope for a return to that talent despite our having put up with White Chicks and Little Man. This time around, the Wayans brothers will be making comedy gold at Paramount rather than at Scary Movie's Dimension, with Keenan Ivory Wayans once again directing. Whether or not this will affect their involvement with the Munsters movie is unknown.

Hopefully we'll never again have to see Marlon Wayans' face on the body of a little person, or covered by a white-girl mask. If he and his brothers (Shawn and Keenan Ivory) want another franchise (they are still going with the Scary Movie series), they could possibly make one out of their next project. The Wayanses are turning their comic book Super Bad James Dynomite into a live-action feature film for Rogue Pictures with Marlon starring as the title role. Dynomite is a 1970s blaxploitation-era detective -- ala Shaft and Dolemite (which is apparently being remade) -- who has been in prison for the past 35 years, or so. When he's released in the present, he retains his 70s look, complete with exaggerated afro, and sets off to find the criminal who framed him.

The comic is full of adult material, so turning it into a franchise wouldn't be as easy as it has been for superhero titles. The Wayans brothers aren't reported as being interested in sequels, but I'm sure Rogue would love a franchise if the guys were down and if the first movie does good business. Of course, there are a few reasons why the movie might not be too successful. The most important of these reasons is that blaxploitation doesn't need another homage. Between the Shaft remake, Jackie Brown and the spy comedy Undercover Brother, we've seen enough tributes to and jokes on the genre recently to last us another 35 years. Plus, the Wayanses already covered the territory with the blaxploitation spoof I'm Gonna Git You Sucka. The bottom line, though, is that the original films are just too enjoyable by themselves to require any kind of hindsight rehash. If Dynomite is only a single shot film, Rogue should be fine. The studio also just bought another script from Marlon and Shawn, which was co-written by Xavier Cook and Mitchell Marchand (The Wayans Bros. television series).