Blood on the tracks

In theaters Friday: Hannibal Rising and Norbit.

New on DVD: Flags of Our Fathers, Flicka, The Grudge 2, Hollywoodland, Running With Scissors and The Science of Sleep.

Celebrity birthday: On this day in 1978, Christopher Ashton Kutcher was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Also on this day in 1978, Demi Moore celebrated dropping out of high school by pursuing a career as a scantily clad pin-up girl. She was 16. Ashton, you’re one amazing cougar catcher—that much I’ll say. Your choice of movie roles, like your choice of middle-aged mothers of three, is truly brazen.

This is a fantastic week of DVD releases. Flags of Our Fathers, Running With Scissors and The Science of Sleep are all on my must-see list, with Michel Gondry’s Science at the very top. Let’s hope video stores are stocked with enough copies. I bet Flags will have about 30 copies, Running With Scissors will get about five, and poor The Science of Sleep will be lucky to get two.

Here’s an excellent Q & A with Guy Pearce, Sienna Miller and director George Hickenlooper about Factory Girl, which after being purchased by the Weinstein Company and supplemented with addition shooting in New York City, will finally see wide release later this month.

This is good news for Ben Stiller’s career. After the disaster that was Night at the Museum, he and Jason Schwartzman have agreed to team-up in The Mark Pease Experience. Sounds like a great concept. This article also alludes to Wes Anderson’s latest, a self-described murder mystery and spiritual journey called The Darjeeling Limited, shooting right now in India. The awful title aside, I’m excited about this movie for three reasons: Roman Coppola (who’s second unit camera work is the reason his sister’s films look so good) co-wrote the screenplay, whatever Wes Anderson can get out of Natalie Portman should be pretty interesting, and rumors are swirling that Anderson regulars Bill Murray and Kumar Pallana will appear in supporting roles.

Here is an unauthorized set picture from Darjeeling. Wow, Adrien Brody looks like he needs some help. I hope he works well with Jason Schwartzman and Owen Wilson. One thing The Life Aquatic lacked was true chemistry and camaraderie among the characters—even though many of the actual actors had worked together before. These guys are supposed to play brothers, and even though I am sure their personalities will be wildly, comically different, I hope they gel together well and don’t simply rely on quirky humor to make a lasting impression.

Here is the trailer for the new Seth Rogan/Judd Apatow joint Knocked Up. Basically, the guys who brought you The 40 Year-old Virgin take the same unapologetic adult humor and turn it into a romantic comedy about unplanned pregnancy with Grey’s Anatomy star Katherine Heigl. Props for using The Traveling Wilburys jaunty “End of the Line” in the clip. But something tells me Knocked Up is a little less date-friendly than this rose-tinted trailer suggests. Oh, that’s right, this does.

Its looking more and more like what once was a fantastic film called The Departed will now be the first entry in a somewhat tarnished The Departed trilogy. Scorsese’s masterful Boston crime drama will spawn not one, but two sequels. Read about it here. If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll understand why part two has to star a certain character. But what about the rumors of Robert De Niro joining the fray? He would fit right in, but I can’t imagine Marty sticking it out in the director’s chair for these sequels. He’s never directed one before, and I doubt he’ll start now. Plus he has three projects lined up including a Rolling Stones retrospective and a Theo Roosevelt biopic. My guess is he’ll stay on as an executive producer and let someone else sit in the director’s chair—maybe Quentin Tarantino, if he’s insane. Tarantino has been biting Scorsese since Reservoir Dogs. They might as well work together for once.

Finally, here’s the trailer for Julie Taymor’s Across The Universe, out this fall. I’m a huge Beatles fan, but besides being kind of pretty, this movie looks like a mess—a ‘60s hippy dippy mess. If you’re going to tell a story based on the narratives found in Beatles songs, why not just do a straight forward biopic of the band, like Walk The Line and Ray…either that or get David Lynch to direct something esoteric and bizarre based on the band’s psychedelic period. Across The Universe just reminds me too much of that awful Julia Stiles miniseries, The ‘60s, a few years back.