The Screening Room

What a deal! Disney is set to aquire Marvel Entertainment, giving them access to the Marvel vaults and every character Stan Lee ever dreamed of. While it's a boon for Marvel shareholders, what might that mean for Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.)? Will Disney, notorious for scrubbing clean anything it touches, demand that future representations of Stark and his hard-partying ways be toned down?

Will the Punisher adopt a Mickey Mouse shirt instead of his death skull. Will Wolverine suddenly start playing nice? Will Minnie and Magneto run off together? Stay tuned. This should be fun.

I will say this: Marvel is late to the game as DC has been under Warner Bros. for years. Perhaps that's why the movies made from DC comics seem to have more of a soul and less popcorn. What say you?

(Photo by DAMIAN DOVARGANES/The Associated Press of Stan Lee with one of his creations at Marvel)

Thirst

Afghan Star

Taking Woodstock

Jerichow

Shorts

The studios declined to screen this films in advance for critics:

Halloween II

The Final Destination 3D

Adventureland - Ryan Reynolds and Kristen Stewart working at an amusement park and set in the 1980s? Well, you'd be there, too.
American Son - Don't let the Nick Cannon fool you. He's left behind his antics for grown-man fare as he plays a Marine who faces telling his friends and family that he's being deployed to Iraq amidst problems at home.
Batman: The Brave and the Bold - I adore this series and seriously can't quit humming its jazzy theme song. And I'm not the one when you're messing with the Big DC Three: Wonder Woman, Batman or Superman. This series pairs one of the comics titans three, well, titans with other lesser-known DC heroes. Red Tornado has a heart? Awwww. Who knew?
Californication: The Second Season - David Duchovny helped to build the Showtime original programming brand into what you see today with this series about a man with, shall we say, obsessions.
Children of the Corn: 25th Anniversary Edition - 25th Anniversay Edition? It was high camp then and perfect fodder for a remake. And someone finally made my dreams come true with Syfy's version. Love it!
Duplicity - Clive Owen and Julia Roberts play the spies who loved each other but not more than they love the con. The movie wasn't universally loved upon initial release. Give it another try here.
Fighting - Channing Tatum and Terrence Howard talk a whole lot about the title, but don't do enough of it. Come on! That's bait and switch! But, still. Channing Tatum and Terrence Howard.
Grindhouse Greats Collection - Cult movies? Check. Horror classics? We'll get back to you. Nevertheless, you know you want to see Madman of Mandoras, also known as They Saved Hitlers' Brain.
House: Season Five - Anyone with a chronic condition wants Dr. House as their doctor. Forget bedside manner; I want results! Seasons one through five are also available today as a set.
Lie to Me: Season One - Tim Roth affects an American accent the best way he knows how (dropped consonants and long vowels) in this series that examines lying.
Life: Season Two - The last season of the NBC show about a man framed and put in prison who gets out and resumes his life as a cop.
San Francisco 49ers: Five Greatest Games - Also out today is The New York Giants: 10 Greatest Games. In what sports fans heads does that make any sense? I guess the Chargers DVD will last five minutes. And, they're of ...
Otis Redding: Respect Otis Live - It's one thing to hear him sing "Respect." It's another to feel him sing it as you will on this DVD.
Scrubs: The Complete Eighth Season - Follow the antics of the staff at Mercy as they move to ABC, home of the broad comedy with a ginormous laugh track.
Smallville: The Complete Eighth Season - Lois crushes on Clark while Green Arrow and company save some of the day. Chloe, well, that's her in left field with Doomsday. If you're still reading, good for you. We welcome you, fellow geek.
The Suite Life on Deck: Anchors Away - Now, the boys are living on an oceanliner in, you guessed it, a suite. They're still so very cute! (And how slow is London anyway?)
Sunshine Cleaning - What job would you do in this recession? These girls (Amy Adams and Emily Blunt) decide to go in the cleaning business. As in, I'll clean up that gruesome crime scene, no problem.

Dolby 3D has arrived. It made an impressive debut on Friday at Studio Movie Grill -- the only place in the Dallas-Fort Worth area that has Dolby 3D at the moment -- in the form of X Games 3D: The Movie. The film itself is not exactly my vision of cinematic heaven, but it offered a good showcase for an amazing new technology, which is vastly superior to any 3D I've ever seen. Maybe it's the glasses. They're hardly the cheap, roadside-gas-station-like sunglasses you're used to wearing for 3D movies. Each pair of the Dolby 3D glasses costs $28. Brian Schultz, the owner and founder of Studio Movie Grill, told me he purchased 900 pairs for each Studio Movie Grill. That's $25,000 per outlet, and the cost is increasing, since Studio Movie Grill is now available in Dallas (Royal Lane and Central), Addison, Plano, Lewisville, Arlington and at two locations in Houston. It was really cool to watch Dolby 3D previews of A Christmas Carol (starring Jim Carrey) and the Alice in Wonderland movie starring Johnny Depp that won't arrive until 2010. Lynne McQuaker, director of creative affairs at Studio Movie Grill, says one of the boldest examples of Dolby 3D promises to be the highly anticipated Avatar, director James Cameron's first feature film since Titanic. It opens Dec. 18. Studio Movie Grill will also show live concerts in Dolby 3D in the coming months. You can read all about it in this story, which appears in the GuideSunday section of The Dallas Morning News.

Photo: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs will make its Dolby 3D debut on Sept. 18

Inglourious Basterds

Shorts

Cold Souls

Post Grad

Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love

X Games 3D: The Movie

With such increasing demands from Twifans, Summit Entertainment has teamed up with Creative Entertainment to make an official Twilight fan Convention - or actually, 20 of them.

If you can remember back to late July and early August, the first fan-made and organized TwiCon was held at the Sheraton right here in Dallas which involved appearances from movie-spoof group, The Hillywood Show and special guest appearances from cast members Peter Facinelli, Kellan Lutz, Jackson Rathbone, Billy Burke, Alex Meraz, and Christian Serratos.

At the official Twilight fan Conventions, Summit Entertainment and Creative Entertainment hope to satisfy fans with all things Twilight with a schedule involving trivia games, costume contests, and guest appearances from a variety of cast members.

The first one is scheduled for August 28-30,2009 in Parsippany, New Jersey.

Book your tickets, vampire-lovers!

From The Associated Press:

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Fans seeking free tickets to a sneak-peek at the 3D sci-fi adventure "Avatar" have crashed the Web site for the upcoming James Cameron film.

Visitors to the site Monday who clicked to get tickets to a free 15-minute preview scheduled for Friday instead got an error message.

A representative for 20th Century Fox said the site was being repaired. The studio will unveil the film's trailer in theaters and online Friday, and fans who score tickets for special showings at 3D theaters across the globe will see extended previews.

You can meet one of the co-stars of The Time Traveler's Wife tonight at Cinemark Allen. Brooklyn Proulx will be at the opening of the movie tonight at Cinemark Allen around 6:30 p.m.

She'll sign autographs, and she won't duck out the side door when the lights go down. Proulx and her family are going to stay to watch the movie. The now 10-year-old actress, who lives in North Texas, plays the 8-year-old version of star Rachel McAdams' character in the movie that also stars Eric Bana (Troy) and is produced by Brad Pitt.

Dakota Fanning-dom, here she comes ...

District 9

The Time Traveler's Wife

Bandslam

Adam

Ponyo

Spread

The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard

The Regent Highland Park Village theater will close after today's movie showings.

Regent Entertainment took control of the theater in 2001. The theater had been showing award-winning films of late, causing cinephiles to take notice. Movies such as the Cannes-winning Tokyo Sonata and the Oscar-winning Departures in recent weeks had heads scratching as to the quality of the movies that were being brought in to the theater by Regent and if that quality would continue. (Remember: Paris Hilton had the Dallas premiere of The Hottie and the Nottie at the theater, so there was cause for concern.) The theater always had a mix of wide releases and art films from Regent.

That would be a "no." According to the press release, "Regent has enjoyed being a part of the Highland Park and Dallas community."

It ends with "Please note: We don't know the future of the theater."

But what we know, as our Metro staff writes in today's paper, is that the theater will reopen in May with new, wide seats and dining. The story says the theater will be converted to an all-digital format. The new owner of Highland Park Village, Ray Washburn, also confirmed the closing.

(Photo of Paris Hilton at the premiere by Special Contributor Rex C. Curry)

I caught wind from our Garland blog that a movie called Breaking the Press would be filmed at Lakeview Centennial High School, and all Garland ISD students were allowed to attend and be extras. So, of course I called all my friends and told them this was our big shot at being movie stars.

It was a far-fetched idea.

My friend, Vishal, joined me at 10 a.m. to the Lakeview gymnasium to find a sea of people wearing red and blue. They were filming a basketball state championship game, Wildcats vs. Patriots.

So what was our job?

From Variety:

Disney has acquired the rights to film a new version of "The Diary of Anne Frank." The film will be written and directed by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet.

Mamet will produce with Andrew Braunsberg.

Mamet will use the famed diary, and the original play by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich, to tell the story of the young jewish girl who hid with her family from the Nazis in the an attic in Amsterdam. Mamet brings his own original take on the material that could re-frame the story as a young girl's rite of passage.

Braunsberg is best known for producing "Being There," and he spent a year gathering the rights from the Anne Frank Estate, and the estates of Hackett and Goodrich. He met with ICM's John Burnham, who recommended Mamet. Mamet sparked to the opportunity tell the story, and he is already writing the script.

Hackett and Goodrich also wrote the script for the 1959 George Stevens-directed film, which was nominated for eight Oscars and won three.

Mamet, who last wrote and directed the Chiwetel Ejiofor-starrer "Redbelt," makes his Broadway debut as director in December when he opens his new play "Race." A production of Mamet's play "Oleanna" also moves to New York from L.A. with Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles starring. The Atlantic Theater Co., which Mamet formed with William H. Macy, is bring Mamet's comic play "Keep Your Pantheon" to Atlantic's off-Broadway theater. The play is expected to include a new short Mamet work, called "School."

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra The studio declined to screen this film in advance for critics.

A Perfect Getaway

Tetro

Julie & Julia

$9.99

The Cove

Paper Heart

Multiple sources including CNN.com are reporting that director John Hughes has died of a heart attack in New York.

Hughes directing credits include Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science and Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

So the man who brought us Showgirls and Sharon Stone's, er, interrogation scene in Basic Instinct now wants to turn his attentions to the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Yeah, you read that right.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- "Basic Instinct" screenwriter Joe Eszterhas is moving from racy to religious for his next Hollywood project.

The writer whose credits include the sexually explicit megabomb "Showgirls" plans an original screenplay on the Virgin of Guadalupe, an icon of the Virgin Mary that supposedly appeared to a Mexican peasant in the 16th century.

Once notorious as a heavy boozer and smoker in Hollywood, Eszterhas overcame his addictive habits and found God after he was diagnosed with throat cancer.

"This is a labor of love for me," Eszterhas said. "I have been hoping for some time to write a film that is both entertaining and inspiring."

Eszterhas' as-yet-untitled Guadalupe project is being written for Mpower Pictures, founded by producer Stephen McEveety, whose credits include Mel Gibson's religious blockbuster "The Passion of the Christ."

"Basic Instinct" with Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone established Eszterhas as one of Hollywood's top screenwriters, while the much-anticipated "Showgirls" became one of the industry's all-time flops.

Were you at this weekend's Twilight convention in Dallas? I'm curious to hear how it went from the fans that were there.

And if you weren't there or if you just want to see the coverage you missed, here's your chance to catch up:

Story: For 'Twilight' fans at TwiCon, books are more than just a love story

Video: Twilight fans attend a masquerade ball

More: Coverage from the scene Saturday

More recent Twilight news:

Story: Flower Mound teen takes a 'Twilight' joyride in truck from film | Video

Blog: Bryce Dallas Howard joins the 'Twilight' cast for third film

Story: Dallas to host 4 days of 'Twilight' at TwiCon