Today's Film News: Marvin Returns

By Katey Rich

Remember Space Jam, the 1996 movie that blended animated Looney Tunes characters with live-action actors? Warner Bros. is revisiting the concept with a feature film based on Marvin the Martian, the alien character forever intent on blowing up the Earth. Variety reports that the idea is to make it a Christmas story, "with Marvin coming to Earth to destroy Christmas but being prevented from doing so when he's trapped in a gift box." I think stunned silence is the appropriate response here.

Guillermo del Toro clearly has been dabbling in human cloning, since there is no way he can actually be participating in all the projects he's signed up for recently. The Hollywood Reporter announced today that he and Miramax will produce a remake of Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, a 1973 TV horror movie. Del Toro is somehow adapting the screenplay, despite the fact that's supposedly holed up in New Zealand with a bunch of hobbits at this point. This whole secret clone thing would probably make a great horror movie, to be directed by del Toro #1 of course.

Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards screenplay has been leaked widely online, despite not even having a cast yet, and now it's already finding a studio home without a single foot of film being shot. Variety says Universal and The Weinstein Co. are in negotiations to team up and bring the film to theatres.

And finally, The Reporter has published the findings of an interesting survey by parent company Nielsen, which finds that comedies suffer most from getting an R rating as opposed to PG-13. Horror movies, on the other hand, make virtually no more money by being accessible to a wider audience with a lower rating. Not good news for the upcoming duo of R-rated comedies, Tropic Thunder and Pineapple Express.