How do you imagine heaven? Peter Jackson's vision of the place may not be the same, based on an advance look published by Empire Magazine, and that's probably a good thing. The director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy has revealed a glimpse of his concept of the heavenly realm, from his upcoming movie The Lovely Bones, and it looks a lot like ... the Empire Magazine logo (if you click through to their site and enlarge the image; see part of it above). Yup, the Brit zine promises many more pictures in their upcoming issue, but for now all we have is one shot that makes heaven look like a studio with some clouds in the background.

If you haven't read the book, it's an absolutely devastating read, written by Alice Sebold from the point of view of a 14-year-old girl. Susie Salmon (played in the movie by Saoirse Ronan) narrates the tale from her own personal heaven: she was brutally raped and murdered by a neighbor / serial killer and has to come to terms with her own death while watching her family and friends deal with extreme emotional trauma. Susie's heaven is not like Warren Beatty and Buck Henry's Heaven Can Wait or, really, like most other heavens depicted in film, so this initial image is promising.

It's also in line with what Jackson told USA Today: "It is quite like the world of dream, using the magic of metaphor to convey Susie's psychological and emotional life." USA Today also has a different, exclusive image (see above), which shows a shadowy Stanley Tucci as the neighboring serial killer. Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, and Michael Imperioli also star. The Lovely Bones is due in theaters on December 11.

The latest theme to hit the Hollywood water supply and spread -- WWII Russia. Just as Defiance (the story of three Jewish brothers who escape Poland and join Russian resistance fighters) gears up to hit screens, the cast for another is just about set. Variety reports that Colin Farrell, Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess, and Saoirse Ronan are in final negotiations to star in Peter Weir's The Way Back, which Eugene wrote about back in October.

The film will focus on a group of soldiers who engineered a grueling escape from a Siberian gulag in 1942 -- walking thousands of kilometers through the Gobi desert and over the Himalayas to India and freedom. Like many stories these days, Slavomir Rawicz's tale has been challenged, but it's an interesting story, and true or not, it should make for a compelling film -- especially under Weir. Should the negotiations work out -- Farrell will be a tough and tattooed Russian, Harris will play an American, Sturgess will play a Polish inmate, and Ronan will be a Russian on the run who joins the fugitives.

I'm intrigued, and will definitely check this out, but could we please have more true, or at least confirmed accounts? Many stories coming out of WWII are compelling without added embellishments like food throwing over fences and hikes across the desert. I grew up hearing my grandfather's accounts of working for the resistance and escaping camps, plus reading accounts of fighters like the Kosciuszko Squadron -- there's plenty of cinematic war fare out there. Oh well, at least it's not more Iraq war cinema!

There have been notable women in the world since that first apple-curious gal was made from an extra rib, and Hollywood has even covered many of their stories. But it just can't seem to allow that bubble to burst fully into the X-X spectrum. The lack of female directors has been well chronicled: We've seen the challenge in following the Bechdel Rule, and the list goes on and on. Most recently, we've watched as Catherine Hardwicke earned the best box office opening for a female director ever, only to be axed and replaced by Chris Weitz for the Twilight sequel, New Moon. Not exactly the best way to wrap up 2008 and kick off 2009, but life goes on and so do we.

Hollywood also moves on, and luckily there are still women to watch for. Some are older, and some are quite young; a few have the pressures of sophomore features, and one isn't even real. But they're all women who will mold the face of Hollywood in 2009. Read on and make sure to comment with the woman (or women) of Hollywood that you're waiting to see in the new year!

City of Ember was the surprise closing-night film at Fantastic Fest, but I found out about the surprise a little early (which is always fun). I was able to see the film earlier in the week so I could interview director Gil Kenan, who showed up in Austin with surprise guest (to me, too!) Bill Murray for the closing-night festivities. Kenan has directed a pair of entertaining and visually stunning family-friendly features, the Oscar-nominated animated film Monster House and now the City of Ember adaptation, which opens in theaters on Friday. Not only that, but Kenan landed both of these projects right after he graduated from UCLA, where his short film The Lark won him a lot of attention. We talked about what he's done to make City of Ember as beautiful a film as it is, and how he found such compelling lead actors. He's currently linked to a new Robert Zemeckis production, Airman, and we took a minute to discuss that too. Check it out after the jump.

One of the most gorgeous-looking films I've seen this year is City of Ember, the Fox/Walden adaptation of Jeanne Duprau's young-adult fantasy novel about a post-apocalyptic underground city. Although the story is aimed at younger audiences, it's still enjoyable for grown-ups. The movie should be viewed on as large a screen as you can find, giving you the sense that you're this close to the fascinating and decaying city where the story is set.

The movie's prologue lays out the premise clearly. In the future, something goes haywire that causes the end of the world, but fortunately top U.S. scientists have created an underground city to keep a portion of mankind safe. The inhabitants will not be told about the Earth's past, so they won't be traumatized and will assume that their underground city is the only civilization. A box with instructions for returning to the Earth's surface will open in 200 years, which should be time enough for the Earth to be inhabitable again. However, over the course of time the box becomes lost, and after more than two centuries have passed, the city is starting to run out of resources and is falling apart.

I have a soft spot for nearly everything Danny DeVito's directed. Death to Smoochy was a waste of a cast and a concept, but most everything else -- The War of the Roses, Matilda, and yes, even the underrated Duplex (I haven't seen Throw Momma from the Train in forever, but toss that one in too) -- has a dark, unforgiving sensibility that I really appreciate. For one thing, I'm pretty sure that DeVito is the only filmmaker to truly get what Roald Dahl was all about.

DeVito's next directing project, and his first for the big screen since Duplex flopped in 2003, will be an adaptation of The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, a young adult book by a dude named Avi (yes, just Avi). It's about a 13 year-old girl who's crossing the Atlantic on her own in 1832 and gets caught in the middle of a mutiny. Saoirse Ronan, Morgan Freeman and Pierce Brosnan are attached to star.

The funny thing is, I read The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle at some point while traversing the middle school netherworld back in the mid-to-late 90's, but I'll be damned if I remember a single thing about it. (The plot does sound vaguely familiar. I think there might be a parrot involved, but I'm not sure.) To Kill a Mockingbird it ain't. But if DeVito (who also wrote the screenplay) can give it some character, I'm down.

Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for Death Defying Acts, starring Guy Pearce, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Saoirse Ronan and Timothy Spall. The film follows famed magician Harry Houdini (Pearce), who, while on a tour of Britain in 1926, enters into a passionate affair with a Scottish psychic (Zeta-Jones). Ah, but this psychic has plans of her own, and, along with her daughter (Ronan), attempt to con the magician by using the one event that's plagued him for many years: the death of his mother. Back when Death Defying Acts premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, our own Scott Weinberg said it was "lovely to look at and packed with some solid doses of charm and wit ... this is full-bore Hollywood fantasy all the way."

Death Defying Acts arrives in theaters in NY and LA on July 11.

Cinematical has just received this exclusive teaser poster for City of Ember (click to enlarge), due out this October 10th courtesy of 20th Century Fox and Walden Media. Based on the best-selling novel from Jeanne Duprau, City of Ember was written by Caroline Thompson (Edward Scissorhands) and directed by the very talented Gil Kenan (Monster House). Oh, but the talent doesn't stop there -- check out this cast: Bill Murray, Saoirse Ronan, Tim Robbins, Martin Landau, Toby Jones and Harry Treadaway. And did I mention it was produced by Tom Hanks?

And here's a synopsis for ya: "For generations, the people of the City of Ember have flourished in an amazing world of glittering lights - underground. But Ember's once powerful generator is failing . . . and the great lamps that illuminate the city are starting to flicker. Now, two teenagers in a race against time, must search Ember for clues that will unlock the ancient mystery of the city's existence, and help the citizens escape before the lights go out forever."

Early buzz tells us the film looks gorgeous, so that's definitely a good sign. We've also been told that the first trailer for City of Ember will debut in front of Prince Caspian this weekend. (Chalk up another reason to hang with those peeps over in Narnia.) Once again, City of Ember arrives in theaters on October 10th.

So who's excited for this one?

I was assigned to review I Could Never Be Your Woman last year about this time, but the theatrical release date was pushed back at the eleventh hour. The movie then had a fall release date ... which also vanished. Now this romantic comedy starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Paul Rudd and written/directed by Amy Heckerling has gone direct to DVD with no U.S. theatrical release at all. You'd think this must mean the movie is a real stinker, but that's not the case. (Entertainment Weekly has an interview with Heckerling that tells the story behind the release problems, which seem to be grounded in financial and distribution snafus.)

I Could Never Be Your Woman is almost an entertaining, lightweight comedy, except for one flaw: its message is about as subtle as those in a Disney sports movie. Rosie (Pfeiffer) is a 40-year-old TV writer/producer who fears she is growing too old for her job, and too old and ugly for romance. When she falls for Adam (Rudd, who was in Heckerling's Clueless back in 1995), who auditions for a bit part on her show, she continually tries to halt the relationship because the age gap worries her so much. The young people all seem to be jeering at her; the old guys get to be fat and jerky and have no trouble finding work or attractive partners. Meanwhile, her teenage daughter Izzie (Saoirse Ronan) has just started being interested in boys, and she is suffering from body issues too.

Best Supporting Actress

Nominees:

Cate Blanchett -- I'm Not There

Julia Roberts -- Charlie Wilson's War

Saoirse Ronan -- Atonement

Amy Ryan -- Gone Baby Gone

Tilda Swinton -- Michael Clayton

Predicted Winner: Amy Ryan

Gone Baby Gone had surprise written all over it. The first surprise was that Ben Affleck could direct. The second surprise is that Ryan's edgy, emotional performance as a morally mushy mom actually got noticed at the end of the year. The third surprise is that she could actually win. But it's no surprise that Ryan ("The Wire," Before the Devil Knows You're Dead) has been a rising star for some time.

Now it's your turn to vote ...