Steven Spielberg has yet another project that he's keen to make his next directorial gig -- according to The Hollywood Reporter, he's just snagged the rights to Chocky, John Wyndham's famous sci-fi novel.

Chocky is more famous in the United Kingdom than here in the States, as it was the basis for a television show in 1984. It centers on a young boy who has a rather tumultuous relationship with his imaginary friend. His father grows concerned that his son has not yet abandoned his imaginary friend for real ones -- and slowly, he begins to realize that the invisible friend is actually an alien consciousness that is residing in the boy's mind. It's old territory for Spielberg, right down to the government forces who are far too interested in the boy and his alien. Surely, Chocky is some reader's favorite book or childhood television memory, and I'm keen to hear your opinion of its big screen potential.

Nevertheless, don't get too excited, Chocky fans. Given Spielberg's break with Paramount, it's uncertain where the project will end up -- DreamWorks has optioned it, but all of its properties automatically end up with Paramount, which would require Spielberg to actually buy it back for his own development. And this is just one of a slew of projects Spielberg has acquired lately. He still has Tintin, The Trial of the Chicago 7, that long-delayed Lincoln biopic, Cowboys and Aliens, and The 39 Clues. All are technically owned by Paramount, all are "the next picture Spielberg wants to direct," and all need to be re-purchased if he wants to develop them at DreamWorks. So by 2009 or 2010, you might see Tintin, you might see Chocky, or you might see another project altogether. Spielberg is covering all his bases.

When two people walk away from a high-speed car crash with nary a scratch on them, you know you're watching an action movie. When an innocent, ordinary citizen is suddenly thrust into the middle of a national security crisis, you know you're watching a paranoid conspiracy thriller. When both these conditions have been met, nothing makes much sense, and things go "boom!" every 8-10 minutes, you know you're watching Eagle Eye.

Re-teaming star Shia LaBeouf and director D.J. Caruso from last year's immensely popular, faux-Hitchcockian Disturbia, Eagle Eye, which had a special screening at Fantastic Fest with Caruso in attendance, might welcome comparisons to The Man Who Knew Too Much or The Wrong Man but is actually closer in spirit to The Net, Irwin Winkler's 1995 attempt to wrestle with identity theft and other perils of the information age. Like that movie, Eagle Eye exploits the all too common fear of technology, but shoves the premise way past common sense, positing a world in which an anonymous voice on a cell phone holds the power of life and death over complete strangers.

With this role, LaBeouf ascends definitively into the Hollywood firmament of stars. While this may be good news for his legion of young fans and his accountant, it's bad news for the moral possibilities of the character he plays. Looking like Seth Rogen's younger brother with a scruffy beard and threadbare clothes, Jerry Shaw is a prodigal son living on the cheap in Chicago. He's devastated when he learns that his twin brother has been killed in an accident, but reconciliation with his stern father (William Sadler) is impossible.

It looks like another quiet week in the land of the geek -- particularly since all my friends are off at Fantastic Fest. If you're one of the lucky people attending, eat a Wild at Artichoke Hearts pizza for me at the Alamo Drafthouse. I lie awake at night thinking about it, and wishing for the skill to replicate it.

• The biggest news of the weekend was a story that hit Variety late Friday night: Stephen Chow has landed the role of Kato in The Green Hornet and the director's chair. Rumors and Seth Rogen's wishes have attached him for some time, but now it's official, and definitely shows that the project is going to be heavy on the comedy. (Incidentally, I never realized before now what huge Green Hornet fans my geek parents were -- let's just say Rogen's ears must be burning.) The movie is scheduled to be released June 25th, 2010.
  

• Tintin has run into some major financial problems. According to the LA Times, Universal has passed on the film, leaving Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson to scramble for a new studio to financially back them. It's as embarrassing as you can imagine -- not only because its two of the biggest names in the business, but because Spielberg may have to make nice with Paramount (who's financing half the film) just as he and David Geffen are trying to extricate themselves from it. It also leaves Spielberg without a project to direct, as Tintin was supposed to be next in line, and it delays the whole thing even longer. But hey, at least struggling directors the world over can now do something they never thought possible -- feel just like Spielberg!
  

The basic plot of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window -- man believes he witnessed a murder, has to prove it really happened -- has been reused for so many films and TV shows that it's not that surprising when another homage or ripoff comes around. Yet last year's Disturbia, starring Shia LaBeouf as a guy under house arrest who thinks his neighbor is a serial killer, bore close enough resemblance to be labeled an update on Hitchcock's film. And now, not surprisingly, Dreamworks, its parent company Viacom and Universal Pictures, are being sued for creating an unauthorized remake.*

The defendant in the case is not exactly related to Hitchcock's film, though; the lawsuit was filed by Sheldon Abend Revocable Trust, which owns the rights to Cornell Woolrich's original short story "It Had to Be Murder" (called "Murder from a Fixed Viewpoint" in the article), upon which Rear Window is based. Film business followers may remember the name Sheldon Abend from the important Supreme Court copyright case of 1990, Stewart v. Abend, in which Abend sued James Stewart and the production company Patron Inc. after Rear Window was aired on television.

If you've seen both Disturbia and Rear Window do you think the case is valid? Is Disturbia really that much more of a ripoff than Manhattan Murder Mystery, Head Over Heels and most of Brian DePalma's early career? Even Antonioni's Blow Up and Coppola's The Conversation are fairly similar in concept. Obviously some works, such as the Simpsons episode in which Bart thinks Flanders murdered his wife, are okay because they fall under the permissions of parody.

*Note: We accidentally listed Steven Spielberg as an executive producer on Disturbia, though he was not. That information has been removed from the post. [ed]

Remember that ginormous project called 39 Clues that was announced awhile back -- a worldwide mystery to span books, interactive games, trading cards and a movie deal, courtesy of Steven Spielberg? The first book in the series, The Maze of Bones, hits shelves all over the world next Tuesday, the same day as its interactive online game. Will it spark an obsession along the lines of Twilight or Harry Potter? Time will tell.

Steven Spielberg has confidence in it, though. Acccording to Variety, he's hired his old pal Jeff Nathanson to pen the script, marking their fourth collaboration together. They paired up previously on The Terminal, Catch Me If You Can, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Spielberg is still eying Clues' director's chair, and it will be interesting to see where this can fit into his busy schedule, where Tintin and Lincoln were taking precedence. Does he want this worldwide money hunt (the prize for solving the project's mystery is $10,000) to be over before the movie, or will the bloom be off the rose by then? What if the whole multiplatform concept fails spectacularly? Are the books still filmable? The ambition of 39 Clues leaves me doubting whether it can deliver -- but I can hardly pretend to have better judgment than Spielberg. At any rate, I'll be watching the book pages with interest to see what audiences make of The Maze of Bones -- if anyone out there buys it, give us the scoop!

While you suffer through those back to school blues ...

Guitar Hero: The Movie -- I have to start with this one. Have to! Because not only are we talking about a possible big-screen movie based on the popular video game, but we're also about to tell you who wants to direct the thing. Can you guess? Here's a hint: It's not Uwe Boll. And if it's not Boll, it has to be ... Ratner! YES! (I really do think I love this maniac in a totally platonic, yet sadistic way -- sorta how you love a great movie villain.) Anyway, Brett Ratner tells MTV that he'd love to make a Guitar Hero movie, possibly about "a kid from a small town who dreams of being a rock star and he wins the 'Guitar Hero' competition. One of these dreams-[come-true] kind of concepts." Ratner adds, "I would love to do a 'Guitar Hero' movie, if Activision would ever let me. I'm trying to convince them, but why would you have a movie screw up such a huge franchise? Not that I would make a bad movie. So that would be cool, to do a 'Guitar Hero' movie. " I'm leaving this one to you, folks -- have at it!

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time: In case you're interested in seeing what a standard Persian-esque set looks like, Korben.info has put up a few select shots (see one above) of the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time set. Based on the popular video game (hurray for themes in posts!), Prince of Persia stars Jake "I didn't know he was Persian" Gyllenhaal as a young prince who teams up with a hottie princess (Gemma Arterton) to stop an evil ruler from doing evil things.

A director has been chosen to remake Poltergeist and Cinematical says we likey him ... after the jump ...

A few days ago it was confirmed that Steven Spielberg was putting The Trial of The Chicago 7 on the back burner to work on Tintin full-time. But despite earlier reports that Paul Greengrass had been chosen to take over, it looks like Chicago 7 is still without a director. According to CHUD, they contacted Greengrass and he confirmed that while he thinks it's a 'wonderful project,' and he had considered it; the timing just wasn't right -- and something tells me that a certain spy flick might have taken priority.

The trial of the so-called 'Chicago 7' (eight, if you want to be a stickler for details) was one of the defining moments of the 60's counterculture movement. During the '68 Democratic convention eight people (including the infamous Abbie Hoffman and Black Panther, Bobby Seale) were arrested for inciting a riot and conspiracy. The trial was recently made famous in the documentary, Chicago 10, and according to earlier reports, Sorkin's script is loosely based on Brett Morgen's animated doc.

Erik brought us some casting news earlier in the year, but it seems like nothing is written in stone when it comes to this movie. Spielberg has packed his slate for the coming year, but if I had to choose from his upcoming projects, I would have loved to see him tackle this story (not to mention getting his hands on an Aaron Sorkin script).

Sound off below on who you would like to see take the reigns for The Chicago 7, that is if it ever gets made...

Less than three months ago, Eugene told us George Lucas was hinting that his Indiana Jones franchise might continue on with Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf) as the main character and that Indy (Harrison Ford) would be more of a secondary figure. But MTV Movies Blog now reports that Lucas has had a change of mind and instead plans to make a fifth installment with our beloved hero still in the lead. During promotions for the new Star Wars: Clone Wars movie, he apparently stated that, "Indiana Jones is Indiana Jones. Harrison Ford IS Indiana Jones. If it was Mutt Williams it would be 'Mutt Williams and the Search for Elvis' or something."

Could it be, as MTV suggests, that due to fans' dissatisfaction with Mutt and/or due to LaBeouf's problems with the law that Lucas no longer sees the character as a viable investment? Or did he merely come to his senses about how much more money the movie would make with Ford starring? Lucas says that "Indy 5" is still only an idea but that people are researching possible artifacts to base the movie around. Personally, I don't care what kind of MacGuffin is used, so long as the Nazis are the villains again. The commies in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull just didn't do it for me. I know the temporal setting can't be WWII anymore, but Indy could always head back into South America and battle the Nazis who escaped to Argentina and Brazil and elsewhere.

A lot of us totally lost it while watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull when our hero hides inside of a refrigerator and survives government testing of a nuclear bomb. Some people went so far as to coin a new term, "nuke the fridge", which is akin to the now-well-known "jump the shark" term, only specifically for film series. It makes sense, though, that they'd be having even bigger issues with the scene over in Japan, where the movie opened mid-June. After all, the country did experience two atomic attacks at the end of WWII and probably understands the ramifications of such a blast better than any other part of the world.

According to the website Japan Today, film critics Ken Terawaki and Hiroo Otaka have been the most outspoken. Otaka wrote against the use of the scene in the movie magazine Kinema Junpo, noting that the scene narratively serves no real purpose and complaining that Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) goes about his adventures unscathed. He also points out that children today -- in both Japan and the U.S. -- are unaware of the real damage caused by a nuclear blast. Other people have been expressing their disapproval on message boards, including one on the film's Japanese website. Not everyone is upset, however, and apparently some people are coming back with the "it's only a movie" retort.

Just to be accommodating, I think Steven Spielberg should include the short documentary Hiroshima Nagasaki August, 1945, which graphically shows the effects of at least an atomic bomb, as a supplement on the Japanese version of the DVD.

[via Fark.com]