The man who brought us the videos for "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Bullet with Butterfly Wings," and who was at one point turning Scarlett Johansson into a diamond thief, is getting ready for a different feature. The Hollywood Reporter posts that Sam Bayer is teaming up with Michael Bay for the action thriller called Fiasco Heights.

Said to have shades of film noir, the film focuses on a gunman who heads to the crime-filled city of Fiasco Heights. There, he "teams with a degenerate gambler/private eye on the run from a syndicate to look for a beautiful femme fatale and a mysterious briefcase." Oh, those pesky briefcases and sexy women. THR says that there has been a few drafts of the script, but the most recent was penned by Kyle Ward. This is actually his spec, that was picked up last year in April, so I guess he got to bring his pen back to it after some rewrites.

So far, the project is moving along slowly, and time will tell if this Bayer feature fares any better than Brilliance, the ScarJo piece, which seems to have faded into the oblivion.

If there's one movie descriptive that can actually get my jaded heart racing, it's "in the style of L.A. Confidential." Sure, it's glib, and probably sells the potential film and its source material short, but I can't help it, it's a magical phrase. And The Hollywood Reporter (by way of Lakeshore Entertainment) used it to describe Barry Levinson's latest movie.

Levinson is set to direct an adaptation of Peter Dexter's novel Train, a story set in 1950's Southern California. It centers around Miller Packard, a white sergeant in the San Diego Police Department, who has little time for the hypocrisy and racism of his age. An avid golfer, he befriends a troubled young African-American caddy named Lionel "Train" Walk, who harbors knowledge of an unreported murder that haunts his past. The city politics and racism of the 50's surround the murder investigation, and threaten their friendship.

Dexter's books have been popular in Hollywood recently -- he was the pen behind Mulholland Falls and The Paperboy is currently in production with Paul Verhoven and Jan de Bont. Unlike with Falls, he won't be penning the script this time around. That job falls to Allison Burnett, who's a pretty popular writer at Lakeshore, adapting Fame and penning Untraceable for them.

Hopefully, a Cinematical reader or two can chime in on the book. From its reviews, the source material sounds pretty enticing. Here's hoping this can not only be a comeback for Levinson, but a noir rival for L.A. Confidential.

With the much buzzed-about Transsiberian expanding to Los Angeles this Friday, August 8th, Cinematical has been given an exclusive clip from the film for you to check out. Above, watch as Ben Kingsley, Emily Mortimer and a four-eyed Woody Harrelson discuss the advantages and disadvantages to living in the old U.S.S.R. while on a Trans-Siberian train ride from China to Moscow. Eventually, our young American couple (as played by Mortimer and Harrelson) will meet another couple and find themselves entangled in a web of drugs and murder. Cinematical's Jeffrey M. Anderson says Transsiberian "is more like a classic thriller in the Hitchcock vein, even taking place on a train as many of Hitch's films did." And speaking of Jeff, he's been all over this one -- check out his review over here, as well as interviews with both director Brad Anderson and star Emily Mortimer. Word of mouth is very good for this one (85% on Rotten Tomatoes), so definitely check it out when the film arrives in your neck of the woods.

Here's the current release schedule:

Aug. 8
Los Angeles (see theater list below)

Aug. 15
Chicago
Washington DC
San Francisco

Aug. 22
San Diego
Atlanta
Denver
Houston
Dallas
Seattle

Aug. 27
Minneapolis

I've always been a sucker for killer croc movies. But, as Scott Weinberg so eloquently wrote in the recent past: "There's maybe one true 'classic' of the sub-genre (that'd be Lewis Teague's and John Sayles' Alligator, of course), and the rest of 'em are pretty much floating crap." Scott was ranting about the limited theatrical release by The Weinstein Co. (actually, their "dumping ground" subsidiary Third Rail Releasing) for Greg McLean's Rogue, which was limited to ten US cities.

So Scott (and most of you reading this) probably didn't get to see Rogue in a theater, but I did -- even if I had to drive 45 minutes to the only multiplex playing the dang thing. Me and the five (!) other people at that Friday night screening enjoyed a good old-fashioned suspense tale that played very well on the big screen. In a review I wrote for another site, I described it as "a taut and thrilling ride ... brimming with well-earned tension." Radha Mitchell stars as a tour boat captain on a river in the remote Northern Territory of Australia. She and a group of tourists end up being stalked by a killer croc "with an exaggerated sense of territorial possessiveness."

Rogue is out today in an unrated version on DVD. Dread Central got an advance peek and agrees with me that it's a good flick. The DVD includes an audio commentary by McLean, a 46-minute "making of" directed by McLean, and a gallery of mini-docs on the effects, the music, and the setting. Let's declare today "Killer Croc Day"!

While The Dark Knight battled The Mummy on the mainstream charts, indie fans enjoyed much cooler movies. In its third week of release, Brad Anderson's Transsiberian continued its strong run, raking in $15,100 per-screen at the two locations where it's playing, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo. The film has grossed $125,000 so far. Also set in a cold clime, Frozen River, Courtney Hunt's "single mother smuggles illegal immigrants" drama, took in $10,471 per screen at seven locations on its opening weekend.

Two other debuting indies had decent results: black and white romantic comedy In Search of a Midnight Kiss made $7,300 at the two theaters where it opened and British comedy Sixty-Six scored $5,700 per-screen at its two engagements. No figures were reported to Box Office Mojo for documentary America the Beautiful or for Japanese melodrama Love and Honor.

indieWIRE highlights the success of holdover Man on Wire, James Marsh's completely charming and suspenseful doc, which earned $12,500 per screen at four locations. They also point to the returns of two films in their second week of release: period drama Brideshead Revisited ($5,284 per screen at 94 theaters) and high school doc American Teen ("a rather disappointing" $4,487 per screen at 39 locations). I saw the former on Sunday afternoon (packed, people lined up for the next screening) and the latter on Saturday afternoon (maybe 15-20 people). Different crowds, definitely, but Brideshead Revisited is much more likely to gain as it opens further.

How will you spend the 7th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks? Here's an idea: head to NYC's Two Boots Pioneer Theater for the opening night screening of Able Danger, an acclaimed independent film based around the conspiracy theory that U.S. intelligence was involved in the planning and execution of the tragic events on the morning of that infamous date. Even if you think the idea of a 9/11 conspiracy is ludicrous and in poor taste, the premiere screening should be interesting, because writer-director Paul Krik will be on hand for a Q&A. And this is the sort of city where people will likely show up for a debate. Of course, while subsequent screenings throughout the film's one-week engagement won't be attended by Krik, there could still be some engaging conversation to be had with fellow audience members. So if you can't make the initial showing, don't worry about missing out on all the fun.

The film, which stars Elina Löwensohn (Nadja) and Adam Nee, is a fictional thriller (Variety labels it a mix between The Maltese Falcon and Kiss Me Deadly) about a couple of 9/11 "truthers" attempting to expose the conspiracy using a hard-drive filled with data thought to be destroyed by a real classified government program named Able Danger. It had its world premiere back in January at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and has since screened at the Cannes Film Market (aka the Marche du Film) and opened the Brooklyn International Film Festival, where it won a special award of excellence. For more on the film, check out the website, where you can use a plane-shaped cursor to click on explosive links located on a graphic of the World Trade Center (classy!). You can also watch the film's trailer below, after the jump.

I was hoping that Universal was making a movie about me and my two lost Desert Eagles, but no dice. Instead, they've optioned Steven Grant's graphic novel 2 Guns, published by Boom! Studios, who is just optioning comic books left and right.

2 Guns is about two thieves, Trench and Steadman, who get it in their heads to rob a local bank. They believe it's a mob bank, and that they'll be ripping off fellow criminals. But unbeknownst to the other, neither man is actually a criminal, they're both undercover cops. But that's not the only crazy secret they uncover, as they quickly realize that their bank heist is a mob set-up to rob the CIA of $50 million.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Universal is hoping to turn it into a buddy cop picture in the vein of Lethal Weapon and 48 Hrs, but with "a modern spin." (Once again, I feel like I should check myself into an nursing home at the very thought that Lethal Weapon is old and musty.) No director has been attached, but Marc Platt (who's clearly anxious to make even more bullets fly after Wanted) is producing alongside Boom's Andrew Cosby and Ross Richie. No one has been attached to direct or do the script yet.

Boom! has a preview of Grant's comic online -- and maybe I am getting old, because I can barely read the text. Maybe one of you young whippersnappers will have better luck and can give me a proper review. Meanwhile, I'm going to go work on a script about my two lost guns and hope I can sell it to Warner Bros. If I add more violence, it could be a Guy Ritchie vehicle.

What is the appropriate reaction to have when a movie you love, adore, and cherish is somehow ... improved? I know, it's a strange feeling. I happen to think my all-time favorite film (A L I E N) is much better in its theatrical version than in its extended -- but where Aliens is concerned, I much prefer the longer version! It's something you have to approach on a case-by-case basis, of course, and it's the sort of movie-nerd activity that should be attempted only by those with a lot of free time -- or someone who gets paid to write about this sort of stuff. (Fortunately I am both.)

So it was with MUCH enthusiasm that I sat down with the brand-new Director's Cut of Dark City, a film that I absolutely love a whole lot -- and I know I'm not nearly alone when I say that. Like many of the finest sci-fi films, Dark City was pretty much overlooked for a good long while -- put once it hit DVD and heavy rotation on the cable channels, the sci-fi freaks found a film worth watching and re-watching, to say nothing of analyzing, deconstructing, and debating. And so I happily continue that trend by explaining what the fans will find in New Line's very impressive new Dark City package...

If you're going to return to the big screen after a long break and a big scandal, it probably helps to have the biggest co-star you can grab. It looks like Mel Gibson has done exactly that with his upcoming Edge of Darkness, because according to Variety, Robert De Niro is in talks to join the cast.

Edge is a big-screen remake of the 1985 BBC miniseries, and it centers on Thomas Craven, a Boston detective, whose 24-year-old daughter is murdered on the front steps of their home. Assuming he was the target, Craven begins investigating the murder, only to discover a startling conspiracy that reaches into high levels of government. Robert De Niro will play an operative sent to clean up the evidence, which probably means he'll engage in fisticuffs with Gibson at some point. The movie is set to begin filming this month in Massachusetts, and has a SAG waiver to continue if a strike occurs.

As I've stated before, I'm really looking forward to seeing Gibson acting again, and I love the idea of him pairing up with De Niro. It's a casting combination that I'm surprised hasn't happened before. I just hope the film, and its performances, can be judged on its own merit and not condemned because of Gibson's past behavior. And with that, I ask you to try and remain civil in the comments!

Was it the elephants that sent a Thai action star over the edge? Tony Jaa, the memorably acrobatic actor and martial arts expert from Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior and The Protector, disappeared while filming his directorial debut, Ong-Bak 2. Reportedly he became so stressed out that he sought solace in the jungle for two months -- with the film only 70% completed.

He emerged on Monday with tears in his eyes and vowed to return to work. Veteran director Prachya Pinkaew, who previously had a falling out with the star, agreed to come on board and help get the movie finished in time for its planned December 4 release. Jaa was expected to appear with his parents and production company execs at another news conference yesterday, but instead sent his lawyer with a list of seven demands (pictured). Wise Kwai's Thai Film Journal has been doing a bang-up job covering the story; as Wise Kwai comments, "This case is becoming increasingly weird."

Speaking of increasingly weird scenes, check out the trailer for Shinya Tsukamoto's Nightmare Detective 2 at Nippon Cinema, (which I found via Don Brown's ryuganji). I finally caught up with the first Nightmare Detective on Region 1 DVD last week; although the basic premise -- serial killer inhabitating a nightmare can make people wake up dead -- might sound like a simple riff on A Nightmare on Elm Street, Tsukamoto is such an amazing, visually inventive director that he stretches things far beyond the ordinary, in a way that's strikingly different than, say, the apocalyptic ambitions of Satoshi Kon's Paprika. Watch the trailer for the upcoming second installment, and rent the original to see Tsukamato's excellent, illuminating one-hour "making of" doc.