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There's a caveat or two with which I submit this list of our favorite con artists on film, to correspond with tomorrow's NY/LA bow of The Brothers Bloom (our review from Toronto is here; our interview with director Rian Johnson, there).

One: I have not seen the following -- David Mamet's House of Games, David Mamet's The Spanish Prisoner, and David Mamet's Frank Oz's Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. I know, for shame, boo and hiss and so on and so forth.

Two: I've seen but don't fully recollect either The Grifters or Nine Queens enough to feel comfortable including them as if I had (I also missed the English-language remake of the latter, Criminal, though I've been told that's for the best). If I were a slier man, then maybe I could fittingly deceive the lot of you, but I'm not, so I won't.

While I don't doubt that the characters in those films would be worthy of a slot on our list, there are still at least seven other con (wo)men in the movies worth shining the spotlight on, and I do hope that you do think that may make do when all's said and done.

Two weeks ago, we learned that Paul Newman has lung cancer (or may have lung cancer). And my first reaction was: will he still be able to do A Walk in the Woods with Robert Redford? Or whatever that long-ago confirmed final film is, if not that Bill Bryson adaptation? A couple years back the Oscar-winning actor said he's retiring after one "last hurrah," and it was speculated that he'd be re-teaming with Redford (his partner in both Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting). Unfortunately, the last we heard about A Walk in the Woods, there was no mention of Newman being involved.

Over at MTV Movies Blog, meanwhile, Shawn Adler's first thought was more like: "Is Cars really going to be his last acting role?" And thanks to MTV News, he somewhat received the answer. Apparently, the fine folks at Pixar (who are releasing their latest, Wall-E, this Friday) are including Newman's character, "Doc Hudson", in the script for Cars 2, which is set to hit theaters in 2012. Cars co-writer/director John Lasseter says they're "just waiting to see" if Newman will be able to reprise the role. If Newman can't do it, though, the sequel will be doubly sad, since it will also be missing Joe Ranft, who co-wrote, co-directed and voiced two characters in the first movie. The longtime Pixar collaborator died tragically in a car accident the year before Cars came out.

Would you still want Doc to appear in Cars 2 if not voiced by Newman?

Well, this is both exciting and infuriating: An official site has popped up for a movie called The Brothers Bloom, apparently the sophomore effort from Rian Johnson, whose hard-boiled-detective-story-in-high-school debut, Brick, was praised by pretty much everyone. The new film is described on the site as "a con man movie," and the few sketches there place it firmly in the first half of the 20th century. Because the characters are wearing slouchy hats, everyone who is speculating about the film is comparing it to The Sting, which is probably setting it up for spectacular failure -- I mean, the movie could be great and still not come within shouting distance of The Sting's virtual perfection, right?

What's infuriating about the news is that the Brothers Bloom site is essentially just a riddle: It consists of three sketches, a soundtrack and a few short quotes from writers who aren't named Rian Johnson. No information on plot, release date, stars -- nothin'. The only details I can find online come from a couple of interviews Johnson gave back in April. In those conversations, he described the film as "globe-trotting," and indicated that casting was already underway. And ... that's it.

If anyone knows more, please let us know. Meanwhile, we'll all just stew in our own frustration.

[via Solace in Cinema]

Now that it seems that Paul Newman is quitting acting after one more film, everyone is dying to find out what that film will be. And will it be the talked-about adaptation of Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, starring Newman and Robert Redford? Well, Newman hasn't announced his final project yet, but he has said that he hopes it will indeed be a reunion with his old co-star (they've paired-up twice before, in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting). Newman said they're "working on something but it's not by any means a slam-dunk." Redford jokingly added that, "The real question is whether he can remember his lines or not."

Know what I think would be funny? The two should do a really awful comedy where they have to dress up like women or something. That would end their careers on a shocking note. I mean, sure it would be great to watch the duo walking around in the woods together, but imagine how much more interesting it would be for them to work with the Farrellys. Either that or they should remake The Sting II as a good film.

Oscar-winning art director and production designer Henry Bumstead has died from prostate cancer, according to the Los Angeles Times. Bumstead, who was born in Ontario, California, in 1915, began his career during the Depression as an apprentice draftsman at RKO Studios but was quickly hired by Paramount Pictures where he was taken under the wing of art-department head Hans Dreir (Oscar-winning art director for Sunset Boulevard). After World War II he began designing films for Paramount and by the middle of the next decade his stint at the studio led him to work with Alfred Hitchcock on The Man Who Knew Too Much and then Vertigo, the latter which got him his first Academy Award nomination. In 1960 he moved on to Universal and collaborations with Robert Mulligan. He won his first Oscar in 1963 for Mulligan's To Kill a Mockingbird. Then the 70s saw him working a few times with George Roy Hill and earning his second Oscar for The Sting.

Bumstead had a fairly weak period during the 1980s, but after teaming with Martin Scorsese on the remake of Cape Fear in 1991, he was hired by Clint Eastwood for Unforgiven, which led to another nomination. From that point he worked with Eastwood on eight more films up until he was diagnosed with cancer during production of Million Dollar Baby. In 1998, Bumstead, who was known as "Bummy" to friends and colleagues, received a lifetime achievement award from the Society of Motion Picture and Television Art Directors.

In an interview with MovieMaker Magazine, Henry Bumstead summed up his life as a great success: "I'm very happy. Nobody could've had more fun than I had. I've seen the world first class and worked with lots of talented and wonderful people. Sometimes I wake up in the night and just can't believe that I've been able to raise four kids, send them all to universities and, at the same time, been so lucky to do what I've always loved to do. It's been a great life every minute of it."