Well, since Angels & Demons still has that big question mark hanging over the production, I guess Ron Howard wants to keep busy. Sci-Fi Wire reports that Howard's Imagine Entertainment and Paramount Pictures are in negotiations for the film rights to E.E "Doc" Smith's classic pulp sci-fi series, Lensman. Smith's grandson told Sci-Fi Wire that Imagine and Universal are negotiating for an 18-month renewable option for the film. He also went on to say, in what looks to be a carefully crafted response, "This is being negotiated now. One can only assume at that point if they believe it will be a profitable venture they would move ahead with at least one film."

The series first appeared in the '30s in Amazing Stories and at the insistence of friend and publisher Lloyd Arthur Eshbach, Smith later went back and re-wrote the story to work in the new stuff he was writing. The story focused on the struggle between two alien races: the Arisians and the Eddorians. The Arisians were in the role of the 'good' guys and the Eddorians are a power hungry race bent on war and destruction. The Lensmen are the result of selective breeding by the extinct Arisians to protect future generations from the Eddorians -- and armed with the 'Lens' which is way too complicated to explain but it appears to have something to do with telepathy and a pretty gaudy looking bracelet. Howard still has his political drama Frost/Nixon and the film version of Claire Messud's 2006 novel, The Emperor's Children, so I wouldn't start looking for Lensman any time soon.

[via ComingSoon.net]

Okay, so wayyy back in March, we reported on a rumor that Chuck Palahniuk's (Fight Club) novel Choke was being adapted for the big screen and, supposedly, heading into production with names like Susan Sarandon, Heath Ledger and Ryan Gosling in the picture. (Seeing as this is my favorite Palahniuk novel, this news made me happier than a sex addict at a porn convention.)

Well, guess what -- that never happened. However, I'm happy to say that, today, Dark Horizons tells us Universal Pictures has now acquired the film rights to Choke, tapping Paul Bernbaum (Hollywoodland) to write the script. Though there's no mention of the original rumor or the actors that surrounded it, I'm pumped to see more movement on the thing.

Choke revolves around a man who scams folks out of their money by pretending to choke in restaurants; he uses the money to keep his overbearing mother in a nursing home. At the same time, he visits sexaholic meetings to meet women. If the book sounds warped, well, it totally is. But, damn, it's so much fun too.