Today's Film News-- At Last!

By Katey Rich

Apologies for the absence of film news this week, but it has been a horrendously slow news period. Maybe most of the industry got its hands blown off by fireworks during the holiday and didn't have the energy to create any news? Regardless, today is the first day there's been anything worth reporting, and as you can see, none of it is terribly earth-shattering. Just bear with us. Maybe some Dark Knight news will pop up soon to make us all interested again.

"The world is kind of already filled with a lot of paranoia and unease," screenwriter Carl Ellsworth tells The Hollywood Reporter this morning. But Ellsworth isn't planning to ease that tension, oh no: "So why not scare the hell out of people again?" Because the Cold War is back as long as you replace "Commie" with "terrorist," Ellsworth is scripting a remake of the 1984 thriller Red Dawn, about a group of high schoolers who defend the country against an invasion by Soviets and Cubans. Dan Bradley, a second unit director and stunt coordinator on movies like The Bourne Ultimatum, will direct.

The possibility of an actors' strike is even less likely now that AFTRA, a union similar to SAG, has accepted a deal with the AMPTP, despite SAG's campaign for the union not to accept. Variety says the 62% "yes" vote isn't enough to stop SAG in its tracks, but is an indication that no one is ready for yet another labor strike.

Small but interesting news: The National Hockey League has officially sanctioned the movie Breakfast With Scot, which marks the first time a professional sports league has allowed its logos and uniforms to be used in a gay-themed movie. Variety writes that Tom Cavanagh plays an ex-NHL player who, with his partner (Ben Shenkman), takes temporary custody of an orphaned boy named Scot. Well, given the hockey following in Canada, you kinda had to figure that the NHL would be the most progressive sports league around.

And finally, you wouldn't think elves and dodgeball would mix particularly well, what with all the swords and mystical powers, but Rawson Thurber seems to be aiming to give it a go. The Dodgeball helmer will write, direct and produce an adaptation of the cult comic Elfquest, about a society of elves on a journey on an Earth-like planet. The Reporter says several studios had attempted a movie version of the series before Warner Bros. got its hands on the property.