Disney has Pixar. Fox has Blue Sky. Paramount has, for now, Dreamworks. As seemingly the last studio to get into animated features, Universal has offered up the trailer for their maiden effort, The Tale of Despereaux, over at Yahoo! Movies.

Based upon the 2003 Newbury Award-winning novel by Kate DiCamillo, the film follows the adventurous antics of Despereaux (voiced by Matthew Broderick), a mouse with large ears and - I'm just guessing here - an even bigger heart, as he bucks the status quo of cowardice that seems to have imprisoned his kind to a fearsome existence.

Besides being an animated tale of a brave rodent with a tongue-tricky title and thus fated to merit comparison to those which have recently set lofty standards for similar fare, this project genuinely looks and sounds pleasant enough for all its yay-for-being-yourself familiarity. Besides, there's only more hope to be had when we're looking at a voice cast that includes the likes of Broderick, Kevin Kline, Dustin Hoffman, Sigourney Weaver, Stanley Tucci, William H. Macy, and Tony Hale, not to mention a Harry Potter veteran or two.

With its eye on the year-end holiday season, The Tale of Despereaux is scheduled to hit theaters on December 19th.

I have to hand it to the wardrobe people for Steven Soderbergh's The Informant since it's not easy making a guy who normally looks like this look like such a schlump. The Bad and Ugly have posted some behind-the-scenes photos for the comedic thriller, and even though there is nothing earth shattering going on, they are definitely a step up from the other pics floating around out there.

The Informant is based on the true-life novel by Kurt Eichenwald. The story revolves around Mark Whitacre (Damon), a rising star at the agriculture conglomerate, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM). At the urging of his wife (who had threatened to go to the FBI), Whitacre spilled the beans to an agent that he had been involved in a price-fixing scam with other major corporations over the food additive, lysine. As if that wasn't enough of a story, it was later revealed that Whitacre (one of the most high profile, whistle-blowers in history) was suffering from Bipolar disorder and had defrauded millions from ADM.

For such serious subject matter, it came as a bit of a surprise when casting announcements first went out for the film and the list was chock-full of comedic actors (including Scott Bakula and Tony Hale). Soderbergh later confirmed that the film was going to be a "dark comedy", which makes sense because Damon is a pretty funny guy, and a great straight man. Soderbergh has just begun filming on location in Decatur, Illinois and there is no official release date, but The Informant is expected to arrive in theaters in 2009.

Last night I had a chance to attend a party at the very cool Delta Lounge located on Main Street here in Park City. Gen Art and Delta were celebrating their second annual short films competition by throwing a party and awarding one lucky filmmaker with ten grand and two round-trip international plane tickets. Not a bad deal if you ask me. The film that won, Ctrl Z (or Control Z), was pretty damn funny. Basically, the finalists are narrowed down to five and then passengers on Delta flights (as well as online visitors) vote for their favorites. Ctrl Z featured the ever-so-funny Tony Hale (of Arrested Development fame) who, while working in his cubicle, discovers that by clicking the Ctrl Z button on his keyboard he's able to go back in time. Things escalate to a very hilarious conclusion, and we congratulate writer-director Robert Kirbyson on his win.

The host for the evening was actress Cheryl Hines, who you might remember from Curb Your Enthusiasm or last year's Waitress. She's also in a film called The Grand, which I loved, and kind of geeked out on her over. According to Hines, The Grand will finally see the light of day this March (fingers crossed). The party was hoppin', the drinks were flowin', and yours truly had a badass time. Check out our gallery below for photos from this event.

Bites for your Thursday:

• Tony Hale hasn't gone anywhere, but I'm sure that I'm not the only one who misses his work as Buster Bluth on Arrested Development. Frankly, I miss all their work, although I'm still glad George Michael Cera has been unleashed into the world of film. Anyway, according to Variety, Hale has signed on to co-star with Jeremy Piven in his car salesman movie -- The Goods: The Don Ready Story. The film also boasts the likes of Ving Rhames and Kathryn Hahn. The film will slip into high gear this Monday in Los Angeles.
• He co-starred as Memnon in The Scorpion King, his name is floating around James Bond rumors, and now Steven Brand has found himself more presumably action-infused work. Variety reports that he's not only got himself a regular role on a television series (Samurai Girl), but he's also got a part as "Boyd" in Jada Pinkett Smith's upcoming film, The Human Contract. As IMDb describes it, the drama is about a businessman with a dark secret who gets caught up with a stranger who convinced him to dump his life for another lived with "reckless abandon." I wonder if the stranger wears a red suit, horns, and a tail, carries a pitchfork, and is small enough to sit on his shoulder as well...
• Ah, Alan Blumenfeld. To some, he's the good-natured rabbi from Gilmore Girls. To others, he's the super bad guy Molly didn't want to find on Heroes -- the man otherwise known as Parkman's dad. (Bit of trivia: He also played Greg Grunberg's dad on Felicity.) Now Variety reports that the actor has a part in Righteous Kill -- that 2008 action flick with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. Will he be a good guy, or a bad guy? I'm guessing on the latter, since the cast is already full of cops. We'll be able to find out some time in 2008.

Okay, first it seems that we have another name change for the upcoming Jimmy Fallon indie film, Rockett. When Erik first posted about the movie, it was Eliot Rockett, joining the SNL alum with super Razzie winner Sharon Stone. Then, it became Rocket when Tom Arnold, Lucy Liu and Ileana Douglas joined the cast. Either that was a typo, or the filmmakers decided to go back to the titles roots and it is now called Rockett. With the extra "t" comes two extra cast members -- Jordana Spiro and Tony Hale.

You might recognize Spiro from the TBS series My Boys, which she stars in, but I remember her as the kidnapped girl in the Buffy episode entitled Reptile Boy. She has been cast as Fallon's childhood sweetheart, who he reconnects with after he returns to his hometown. (While devoted to his work, Fallon's character can't commit in his personal life, and then returns home when his estranged father has a stroke.) Anyone want to bet that Fallon finds that he can commit to Spiro? Then, we have Mr. Hale, who I'm sure everyone remembers from his stint as Buster Bluth on Arrested Development. He will play Fallon's childhood best friend. So, now we've his childhood links as well as Stone as Fallon's mother, Arnold as his father, Liu as his girlfriend and Illeana as... I'm not sure, but her character is "Christine Jacobson." Fallon definitely has a a good cast around him, so maybe this will be more like Almost Famous for him, and less like Taxi.