New York City's Film Forum will be screening both The Godfather and The Godfather Part II during a special three week engagement beginning September 12. And yes, it's a big deal. The first two installments of Francis Ford Coppola's trilogy are often featured in repertory houses, sure, but Film Forum's presentation is of newly restored 35mm prints, which were produced under the direction of Coppola and cinematographer Gordon Willis and the supervision of film historian and master preservationist Robert A. Harris. The Godfather will run solo from September 12 through September 18, then The Goffather Part II will run solo from September 19 through September 25, and finally, back-to-back screenings will be featured from September 26 through October 2 (the double feature does, unfortunately, require separate admissions). As far as I can tell, neither of these digitally restored classics includes new computer-generated characters or backgrounds, and obviously the guns are likely to still be guns rather than walkie talkies.

If you can't make it to NYC for any of these shows, Paramount is apparently also releasing the restored films in other select cities, including Los Angeles and San Francisco. Or, you can check out the new versions as part of "The Godfather, the Coppola Restoration collection," which also includes a remastered Godfather Part III, on DVD or Blu-Ray beginning September 26 23 (the DVDs may be purchased in a 5-disc box set, which includes two discs of special features, or separately, in case you like to forget about Part III; the Blu-Ray versions seem to be only offered together in a 4-disc set).

In the absence of anything official from the land of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek, we must report on the tiniest tidbit we can. The latest "scoop" comes from E! Online and the mouth of Clifton Collins Jr., who plays Ayel the Romulan.

"Me and Eric [Bana] are the new Romulans," Collins said. "They had a linguist come in and invent Romulan!" Does that mean that Bana's Nero is a Romulan? There was much Trekkie buzz over Nero's funky ears on the first character posters, as well as writer Alex Kurtzman's explanation of them to UGO: "Nero isn't necessarily a Romulan ... It's all part of the plot." Perhaps "new" Romulans fall into that "not necessarily" category?

You will ponder more than that, thanks to Collins' description of what these new Romulans look like -- they may actually be inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean. "We're space pirates," Collins explained. "Think of Johnny Depp as a Romulan." That means eyeliner, doesn't it? Gobs and gobs of black eyeliner, the key accessory of all swashbucklers. No, in all fairness, E! is probably just stretching the quote a bit -- but it does explain the wicked tattoo Nero is sporting.

There will also be some surprise cameos in Trek, Collins wouldn't say who, but he dropped a hint. "There are certain things that as kids growing up, whether it's Star Trek or other shows at the time, all you got to do is really just hear their voice and your heart warms." Will the heart-warming voices belong to characters or actors from the original series? "Maybe." And that's all the news from the land of Trek, readers. Now it's time to amuse yourselves by trying to guess who the thrilling cameos could be! By the time we narrow it down, we may have an actual still or (gasp!) a trailer to discuss. Hey, a girl can hope.

Star Trek opens May 8th, 2009. Many, many, tiny stories from now.

As is usually the case when people and groups make a lot of noise over a film's perceived offensiveness, I suspect all the ruckus over a planned boycott of Tropic Thunder over its perceived treatment of people with mental disabilities has only served to give it additional publicity. Nonetheless, organizations such as The Arc are going ahead with plans to call for a boycott of the film. Slate has found the organization's instruction sheet for putting together protests of Tropic Thunder, a six-page bulletin suggesting techniques and talking points for mentally disabled self-advocates and supporters. Sample talking point: "Movies and media, like the movie Tropic Thunder, encourage disrespect of people with intellectual disabilities. We want that to stop!"

The whole thing is an interesting read. Ordinarily I'd say they haven't seen the film, but the organization claims that its leaders have had a chance to watch it and have concluded that "the film's depiction of people with intellectual disabilities is derogatory and demeaning." In that case, they've missed the point spectacularly. As others have argued, the film targets not the mentally disabled but Hollywood's infantile treatment of same. Simple Jack is a clever, incisive parody. And I say that as someone who thinks Tropic Thunder as a whole is pretty weak.

Whether or not you're offended by the use of the word "retard" in Tropic Thunder, it's hard to deny the difference between the intention of the humor and the ire of the groups protesting it. When Ben Stiller's character, Tugg Speedman, learns that he was mistaken in going "full-retard" with his miscalculated awards-bid performance as a mentally challenged man in Simple Jack, you either laugh or you don't, but you definitely get it. Stiller's point is that self-important actors often take crass or poorly formulated roles on the basis of subject matter simply so they can get a chance at the podium. At no point are we forced to laugh at a character meant to be taken as actually retarded; instead, we only get Tugg Speedman's really bad, really offensive interpretation of one.

At his Scanners blog, Jim Emerson gets this point, and smartly rails against complainers like the Special Olympics for making such a big deal out of a scene before even coming to terms with its purpose. He also brings up a brilliant historical parallel: In 1977, Randy Newman's single "Short People" was pulled from the air because it supposedly offended, uh, short people. "If you do satire or parody, you have to expect there will always be fools who will take it literally," writes Emerson. "Those people are called 'literalists.' And there ought to be a law against them."

It's hard to deny that, in any format, The Dark Knight has made a considerable impression on the moviegoing landscape (current gross: a bajillion dollars and counting), yet it's equally difficult to deny that the IMAX showings held their own potent appeal, thanks to director Christopher Nolan's use of proper cameras to help the action fill the screen -- and if any of you haven't noticed, that's a lot of screen to fill.

ComingSoon.net has confirmed that next summer's Night at the Museum and Transformers sequels will be showcased in IMAX, while it remains rumored that this fall's Eagle Eye and next spring's Watchmen will be as well. Now, while Paramount/Dreamworks and Warner Brothers have often been equally eager to offer up super-sized blockbusters in the format, I'm curious to know if audiences have subsequently raised their expectations for this fare. For me, the nearest location is well across town, and before The Dark Knight, the last thing I bothered to catch there was Beowulf in 3-D. (I can, however, attest that announced plans to format several theaters in the AMC chain for the IMAX experience are indeed underway a wee bit closer to my neck of the woods.)

So, without the draw of IMAX in its full effect, or even the likes of 3-D technology, do you find it any more worthwhile to go out of your way and catch an anticipated film at your nearest location, or will it take something truly special from here on out?

Tropic Thunder, starring Ben Stiller as one of a group of runaway actors whose work on a big-budget Vietnam epic goes horribly awry, is a funny, far-fetched mockery of modern Hollywood; the laughs don't maintain anything like a coherent intensity, but when they come, they're big enough to get you through the spaces between them. Some will mistakenly call Tropic Thunder a satire, but Tropic Thunder is in fact an example of satire's boisterous, bumbling sibling, the spoof. A satire's held with a light but precise grip, so the point can slice and the blade can cut; a spoof's more of a club, landing with blunt force and broad impact.

Star and director Stiller attacked the celebrity-industrial complex before, in 2001's Zoolander, and Tropic Thunder has more in common with that film than you might think; Stiller manages to mock action and thrills while also delivering them, and he's got a fine grasp of coarse celebrity behavior. Stiller seems drawn to characters whose self-centered arrogance is mixed in equal measure with self-loathing insecurity. We see an interview clip where Stiller's character, box office star Tugg Speedman, is informed by an interviewer how "Someone close to you said 'One more flop and it's over for him.'" Speedman pauses, and then asks his follow-up: "Somebody said they were close to me?"

Too much merchandising can saturate the classiness of a film, but I still think any actor who has played an iconic character should stick with that role through and through. Decades ago I was down for any movie star reprising a role for an animated spin-off (Mary Steenburgen, you're constantly giving me reasons to love you), and today I support anybody who follows his or her character to the world of video games. So, regardless of whether or not Francis Ford Coppola approves, kudos to Robert Duvall for being involved with Electronic Arts' upcoming game version of The Godfather II.

While other actors from the Godfather sequel have at least allowed their likenesses to be represented, just as they had with The Godfather: The Game before, Duvall's role in the game is more significant. Variety reports that his character, Tom Hagen, features prominently as an adviser to the player, and Duvall is recording new voiceover dialogue for this purpose. As with the first game, Al Pacino has chosen to not be involved (he's obviously holding out for that Scent of a Woman game to mark his video game voice work debut).

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.

As Hollywood is not an industry known for letting chick-lit properties slip through its proverbial fingertips, it should come as little surprise that the yay-for-life bestseller "Eat, Pray, Love" -- a memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert about her quest for peace in those three forms following her divorce -- is being indeed developed into a movie by Paramount, with Julia Roberts attached to star and a 2010 release date as rumored by the good ol' IMDb.

What's of arguably greater interest in this Hollywood Reporter piece is the fact that Warner Bros. has already snatched up rights to comedian Andrew Gottlieb's riff on the memoir, titled "Eat, Play, F*ck". The novel, to be published early next year, follows a man from Ireland to Vegas to Thailand as he seeks similar solace once his wife leaves him.

On the one hand, I'm all for snark, especially in response to such pre-programmed feel-good fare. On the other, this seems like a flash-in-the-pan proposition, unless "Love" hits it big and "F*ck" follows fairly soon after (ain't that usually how it goes?).

What say you, readers, about either project? I fully expect the typical fan defenses to crop up, but did any woman out there read that book and happen to be unimpressed? How about any guys who picked it up and couldn't put it down? Let's mix things up here, people!

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]