I really feel like I have to start a Minimates collection. I really dig these uber-cute things -- especially when they pick movies that seem unlikely. Currently, you can get everything from Marvel zombies to Marty McFly. Now /film reports that there's going to be Minimates for the Oscar-winning The Silence of the Lambs. How cool is that!?

The figures to be included in the box set: Clarice Starling sporting her smart business suit, Dr. Lector in blue, the crazy Hannibal Lector with bite-proof mask, straight jacket, and gurney, and of course, a topless Buffalo Bill with his creepy, Death's Head moth. Don't worry, the latter has pants on, so there's no package-tucking with these toys. From one of the released pictures (check out /film), it also looks like the accessories include Bill's night-vision goggles. I wonder what else is in the set!

And those aren't the only tiny toys coming out this year under MGM Movie Minimates. There's also The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, For a Few Dollars More, Fistful of Dollars, and Platoon. (Which of these things is not like the others?) This should satisfy Clint Eastwood fans, but now I can't help but wonder what will come next. I have my request...

To the Minimates powers that be: please put out Heathers!

Back in October we learned that Oliver Stone's next film would be Jawbreaker, another 9/11-related project based on the book by ex-CIA Gary Bernstein. It seemed to make sense at the time, because Stone had just released the 9/11-based World Trade Center. Jawbreaker is likely still going to happen, but there is now another project that the director is possibly taking on first. According to Latino Review, Paramount Vantage has picked up Pinkville (aka "One Day in March"), which will be Stone's return to a subject he knows very well: Vietnam. The studio had been in a bidding war with UA, but Paramount, which handled production on World Trade Center and is also handling Jawbreaker, won out.

The pic, which may star Sean Penn and Channing Tatum, is set around the events of the My Lai Massacre. On March 16, 1968, more than 500 Vietnamese (or 367, depending on the source), including unarmed women, children and elderly, were slaughtered by American soldiers who were given a "search and destroy" order. The horrible mission was eventually reported to the American public in November of 1969, and the news led to increased outrage concerning the Vietnam War. Stone already used the massacre as inspiration for a major scene in Platoon, but apparently he feels there's still more to say, and specifically to say, about the events.

Pinkville, if it happens, will mark Stone's fourth film to directly deal with the Vietnam War (if you don't count his student film, Last Year in Viet Nam, or a less-direct film like Nixon), following the "trilogy" of Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July and Heaven & Earth. It should be a welcome return for the filmmaker, as he is, at least to me, associated with Vietnam (and the '60s and conspiracy theories) in the way that Woody Allen and Scorsese are associated with New York. Plus, the subject matter can now be made to have a different relevance -- both Penn, who starred in the Vietnam film Casualties of War, and Stone are probably interested in displaying parallels between that war and the current war in Iraq.

The rumor mill in France continues to churn out Cannes-related titles, and some new ones are in this latest batch. Virtually confirmed to be showing (out of competition, thank the Lord) are Over the Hedge (?!) and X-Men: The Last Stand, which opens everywhere on earth during the second week of the festival. Another eagerly awaited title, Steven Soderbergh's George Clooney starrer, The Good German, has shifted from a virtual competition lock to being unlikely to screen at all, not because it's bad but because it's now appearing that it won't be finished by the time the fest begins. What will be finished, however, is The Fountain, which is practically confirmed to debut at Cannes, though whether it will be in competition or not remains to be seen. Another part of what is shaping up to be a Hollywood-heavy festival will be the first look at Oliver Stone's World Trade Center. While the film will not be anywhere near finished by spring, Stone is expected to bring 20 minutes of completed footage to the festival, which will be screened in connection with an event honoring Platoon's 20th anniversary.

The official announcement of titles comes in about a month -- until then, prepare to hear lots and lots of rumors. (And, evil, mean, Kirsten Dunst haters, continue seething with rage, because Marie-Antoinette is the only title that is -- unofficially, of course -- confirmed for competition at this point. Ha.)

Odds and ends for a lazy Thursday:

•  The latest word on the street about the celluloid rumor mill that is Grind House (or is it just Grind now? It's so hard to keep track of this damn movie.) is that John Connor's dad Michael Biehn has joined the cast, as has the witchy Rose McGowan. Whether either is actually in the film is, as usual, another story entirely.

• Just in case you didn't know, Natalie Portman went to college. Harvard, actually - or hadn't you heard? In case you were wondering, going to college is great because you, like, make friends there. And they're, like, "always doing different, interesting things," and you can "remember how to be a person by being around them."  Not only did Natalie drop that bit of brilliance in an interview recently, but she also asserted than any actor who works for pay is "no different to a prostitute" - she only takes roles based on "artistic merit." Man alive. I'm not sure what's most disturbing about this whole thing: how pretentious it makes Portman sound, or the implication that she did the Star Wars prequels for artistic reasons.

• According to news reports, 10 additional minutes of Johnny Depp's work in Platoon have been recovered and added to the forthcoming 20th anniversary edition (due out in May). While it's unclear whether Depp's footage actually appears in a longer cut of the movie or as an extra, you Depp maniacs are finally going to get to see what he was actually doing - pre-Jump Street, even! - before Oliver Stone cut him almost entirely out of the movie.