Remember way back in 2009 when we told you Guy Ritchie was going to direct the big screen adaptation of the DC comic series Lobo for Warner Bros? Well, as you probably know, that never happened and the project was put on the back burner. . . until now.

What sparked this resurgence? The project has a new director attached and that man in Brad Peyton, who’s previous credits include the recent hit  Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. The deal was reportedly finalized just today for him to rewrite and direct the movie.

In case you’re not familiar with Lobo, the character first appeared in Omega Men #3 and was created by Roger Slifer and Keith Giffen. The story concerns a seven foot, blue skinned, heavily muscled anti-hero and interstallar bounty hunter who comes to earth in search of some fugitives intent on destruction. Once here, he teams up with a small town teenaged girl to help stop the mayhem and in the process learns a little something about humanity.

With Peyton now on board, we can expect to see the Lobo adaptation hit multiplexes late next year or in early 2014.

The original Vacation movie is a bona fide classic. The film was made during the primes of Chevy Chase, John Hughes and Harold Ramis, three of the most prolific names in 80s pop culture. It spawned a hit and miss franchise that most people remember fondly to this day. So this news was inevitable.

The Hollywood Reporter has announced that the guys who wrote Horrible Bosses, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstien, have turned in a script for a new Vacation movie and New Line is keen to give the duo the chance to direct too.

Daley and Goldstein’s Vacation script, first set up in 2009, plays like both a sequel and a reboot of the franchise that began with the 1983 Harold Ramis-directed comedy National Lampoon’s Vacationand continued with European Vacation, Christmas Vacation and Vegas Vacation.

A now grown-up Rusty Griswold, the son of the Chevy Chase character in the original series, experiences a misadventure with his own family.

In the old days (you know, before things like YouTube) we had to rely on newspapers, magazines and TV shows like Entertainment Tonight to get our movie and TV news. Now we’ve got the Internets and a whole bunch of new and cooler ways.

One of those new ways is the personal videoblog made by directors of big movies. Much like Peter Jackson did during his filmmaking adventures with The Hobbit, director Sam Mendes has taken up the cause and is doing video dispatches while directing Daniel Craig in the production of the next James Bond film Skyfall.

His first one is pretty short, only 90 seconds, but in it the director talks about his Bond nostalgia and few glimpses of actual filming taking place with Craig in action as Bond. It’s pretty cool and hopefully the first of many.

Check it out after the jump. Look for more from Mendes as production on Skyfall progresses. The movie itself arrives in theaters on November 9.

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It’s kinda funny. I was just watching Rodney Dangerfield and Keith Gordon in Back to School only days ago and now, some Keith Gordon news pops up. Internets, you’re got my number.

And what interesting news it is. It seems Christopher Nolan, who’s only done this one other time with Zack Snyder’s upcoming Superman reboot Man of Steel, has decided to shepherd a project and produce a film for another director. That director? None other than keith Gordon. I know, right?

Nolan’s company, Syncopy, has reportedly set up a supernatural thriller at Warner Bros and hired Gordon to write and direct it. Nolan’s former assistant Jordan Goldberg is apparently the guy responsible for bringing the project to Nolan so he can produce with partner Emma Thomas.

The project is reportedly based on a novel who’s title has yet to be revealed. However, knowing the movies Gordon likes to do (Including A Midnight Clear and Mother Night) I would expect it to be something cool and a little weird. As a fan of Gordon’s work, I’ll be following this one closely.

We’ve had rumors, of course, as we always do. First it was Jon Favreau who was going to come back for Iron Man 3. Then, he officially stepped away. After that, other directors were supposedly in the running.

But now, it seems, the decision has been made and the man in charge of Iron Man 3 is writer/director Shane Black. According to reports, Black is currently in those “final negotiations” but, of course, everyone in and around Marvel is not letting anything out just yet.

I know what you might be thinking: why Shane Black? The writer of Lethal Weapon 1 and 2? What does he know about comic book action movies? However, Black directing Iron Man 3 isn’t as crazy an idea as it might seem to some.

He’s had a long relationship with Robert Downey, Jr. after working with him in the underrated Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang which, among other things, helped to revitalized Downey, Jr.’s career. He’s also been around and worked with many of the biggest action directions of all time such as Richard Donner, Renny Harlin and Tony Scott, so some of that has got to rub off.

Besides, what did Favreau really know about big budget comic book action movies when he took on the original Iron Man? Not that much but it seemed to turn out pretty well. I, for one, am going to give Shane Black a chance. Maybe you should too.

Having just watched the classic original recently this story is of particular interest to me. Following the trend of remaking classic films, next up from Fox and James Cameron is the reboot/remake of 1966 sci-fi adventure Fantastic Voyage, which was based on the novel by acclaimed author Isaac Asimov.

This project has been in the works for some time with several directors, including Darren Aronofsky, Timur Bekmambetoiv, Johnathan Mostow and Louis Leterrier, circling but with no final selection. That is, until now. Today, Fox and Cameron announced their choice to take on directing duties for the remake is Night at the Museum and Date Night helmer Shawn Levy.

The new film, a re-imagining of the original about a team of scientists shrunk to microscopic size inside a submarine and injected into a man to try to save his life, will be a big 3D release for the studio. The script was written by Shane Salerno and Laeta Kalogridis.

If you’ve watched any of Levy’s other movies you can see his talent but, for the most part, they’ve been comedies. His choice as director of this kind of huge budget sci-fi epic that will, undoubtedly, be mostly CG is an interesting one. Good thing James Cameron will be around if things take a turn for the worse once this thing gets going.

Look for Shawn Levy’s Fantastic Voyage to hit theaters sometime in 2013.

After The Maltese Falcon, Treasure of the Sierra Madre is probably Huston’s most famous film—the two may vie for the title of best known. It’s a great movie in the sense that The Godfather and Casablanca are great movies: memorable characters, rich in themes, steep in action, imminently watchable.  The kind of “old” movie for people who don’t like “old” movies.

I doubt anyone reading this won’t know the plot, but just in case, Humphrey Bogart plays Fred C. Dobbs, an out-of-luck drifter settled like dirt in one of Mexico’s dirtiest towns. He meets up with fellow drifter Bob Curtin (Tim Holt), and the two try to pick up odd jobs with even less luck than they started with. After taking brutal revenge on an employer who stiffed them, Dobbs and Curtin meet up with the grizzled and half-mad Howard (Huston father Walter, in an Oscar-winning role), a seasoned prospector looking for some men to share the costs of an expedition to mine for gold.

The three team up and head for the wilderness. Soon after, it’s clear that Howard is the most valuable member of the outfit, able to recognize Fool’s Gold and find the real stuff where the others see dust.  He’s also the mediator, picking up early on the paranoia and greed that will eventually lead to Dobbs’ ruin. At first Howard’s placating, going along with Dobbs to stave off his growing insanity, but as Dobbs’ mental instability increases, Howard becomes warily assertive, suggesting that stop while they’re ahead, planting suggestions in Dobbs’ head, and eventually convincing the group to pull up stakes and quit while they’re ahead.

When I first came back to the film after seeing it years ago, the character of Howard struck me as a first-rate candidate for a paper on behavioral studies and decision-making. The way he subtly becomes the leader who keeps the group together while consistently downplaying his role to elude confrontation made him the most interesting character for me. Of course, any such study would devalue the film, but it’s worth mentioning.

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[Note: I said that I would be covering all three of Huston’s war documentaries in one article, but upon watching Report from the Aleutians (and other personal/professional affairs), I’ve decided to draw them out. I may condense The Battle of San Piedro and Let There Be Light, but we’ll see. And I also have Across the Pacific to get into before Treasure of the Sierra Madre, but as much as I’m looking forward to covering that film, I’m enjoying myself all the same watching these.]

Before I even started considering a retrospective on Huston’s articles, I still wanted to watch all his films—at first the big ones, then go on to the ones that looked interesting, after that, eh, maybe the obscure-but-still-kinda-uh-well-liked ones? Then everything—if I could stand it—beyond. Either way, be it as casual viewer or retrospective writer on assignment, Huston’s WWII propaganda films weren’t something I was particularly looking forward to.

It would be a neat curiosity, since the bulk of Huston’s work was based on novels, and this would be one of the few (perhaps only? I haven’t gotten that far ahead in my research) Huston works not based on existing material. Nevertheless, my first glimpse of Report from the Aleutians (1943)’ first five or so minutes all but confirmed my fears—I figured it’d be dated, being all 70+ years old, WWII-ish, and well, topical really. It dealt with something that happened a long time ago and whose importance would be all but lost on my generation and probably my parents’ as well. And even if you like documentaries, at first glance it looks like not much more than simple propaganda—which really was my greatest fear with all three.

I find propaganda fascinating (if you don’t, check out Disney’s war cartoons—ever wanted to see Donald Duck as a Nazi?), but when I’m watching the film for the sole purpose of better understanding Huston, I just got this image of the US Propaganda Department breathing down his neck and telling him everything he can and can’t talk about—which is to say not the ideal collection of films to give insight to the man.

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I first became aware of director Sebastian Gutierrez when I watched one of his first films, She Creature. I’ve followed his career since that time and watched most of his other movies with interest. His latest, Elektra Luxx, the sequel to his ealier film Women In Touble, chronicles the exploits of former porn star trying to change her life now that she’s discovered she’s going to be a mother.

I caught up with Gutierrez during the recent SXSW Film Festival where his film screened to a packed audience, not once, but twice. Here’s what he had to say about the film, his creative process and working with his movie star wife Carla Gugino.

The Flickcast: This film is a sequel of sorts to your earlier film Women in Trouble, correct? Was your plan always to make a sequel to that film? I also heard you are actually going for a trilogy, correct?

Sebastian Gutierrez: Yes, it’s a trilogy. We felt that Star Wars, LOTR, etc. shouldn’t be the only stories allowed to spread out over three movies and thought we’d compete with them.

TF: If you had to tell someone who had never seen Women In Trouble what Elektra Luxx is about, what would you tell them?

SG: It’s about one day in the life of a recently retired pornstar as she tries to make it in the straight world.

TF: How did you approach making the film? Was their a complete script or was some of the film improvised?

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The DGA, which unveiled the small-screen nominations in eight categories last Friday, will announce the winners Jan. 30 at its 62nd annual awards ceremonies at the Century Plaza Hotel. AMC’s Mad Men received three Directors Guild of America TV nominations for drama series and HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm and Fox’s Glee each got a pair for comedy. The nominations included a trio of season finales in Mad Men, Curb and ABC’s Lost. In the comedy category, two shows — the pilot for ABC’s Modern Family and Glee — also received nominations.

Thomas Carter scored a nomination in the TV movie-miniseries category for TNT’s Gifted Hands — The Ben Carson Story along with Bob Balaban for Liftetime’s George O’Keefe, John Kent Harrison for CBS’s The Courageous Heart of Irene Sandler, Ross Katz for HBO’s Taking Chance and Michael Sucsy for HBO’s Grey Gardens.

Here’s the complete list of nominations:

MOVIES FOR TELEVISION/MINISERIES

The nominees for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television/Miniseries for 2009 are (in alphabetical order):

BOB BALABAN

“Georgia O’Keeffe” (Lifetime)

THOMAS CARTER

“Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story” (TNT)

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The Directors Guild of America announced the nominations for its 62nd annual awards today with Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker, James Cameron for Avatar, Lee Daniels for Precious, Jason Reitman for Up in the Air and Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds all as nominees for its top feature directing award.

The DGA will reveal the winner Jan. 30 at an awards gala at the Century Plaza Hotel based on voting by its 14,000 members. Cameron won the DGA trophy in 1997 for Titanic and Tarantino was nominated in 1994 for Pulp Fiction. Bigelow, Daniels and Reitman are first-time nominees.

The DGA’s Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film has matched the Best Director Academy Award in all but six years since 1948 including last year when Danny Boyle won both trophies for Slumdog Millionaire.