Tripping the Web: 8/16

News Item: "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" has been delayed until July of 2009, in order to strengthen Warner Brothers' lineup for next summer.
What you need to know: Well, this sucks. I'll openly admit I camped out for the last three books, and I was really excited to see how they'd translate a book as flashback-intensive as the sixth one. This makes sense, though, because WB's two biggest films for the first half of 2009 are "Watchmen" and "Terminator: Salvation," both of which are going to be rated R. Plus, after "The Dark Knight," it's not like they're short on cash at the moment.

News Item: About a day after "Half-Blood Prince" was moved, the film version of "Twilight" was moved up into its place.
What you need to know: I guess it's a strong move, given that it seems like the same set of people are into both the "Twilight" series and "Harry Potter." I know I'll end up seeing this movie at some point, because I have far too many friends who worship those books, but it doesn't look like a good translation of the book so far. And yes, I read the first one. Man card? Revoked.

News Item: Word has it that, in addition to B.J. Novak, Brad Pitt and Eli Roth joining the cast of Quentin Tarantino's long-gestating WWII epic "The Inglorious Bastards," Simon Pegg and Mike Myers are also on board.
What you need to know: This actually makes me think of the way films were made back in the 30s and 40s, where a couple marquee names would anchor a host of talented character actors. I've managed to resist the urge to read the leaked script online, but I've heard there are still a ton of parts to be cast, including the main villain. Plus, I mean, it's Quentin Tarantino. He's still the director that will draw an instant crowd for anything he puts out. And with a cast like this, "Bastards" might end up being the smash box-office hit that "Kill Bill" should've been.

News Item: In keeping with the mania surrounding (SPOILERS, not that it should matter by now) the death of Two-Face in "The Dark Knight" and who the villain in the theoretical third Christopher Nolan Batman film should be, a poster has circulated online touting the Riddler.
What you need to know: For one, Warner Bros. should be hiring this guy immediately. Even though this is a fake, it looks pretty awesome. Also, I'm torn, because the Riddler would work well within Nolan's universe, but he's always kind of been Batman's bitch. Given all the Mob subtext in the last two movies, I'd go with Phillip Seymour Hoffman as the Penguin. And then I'd kill Batman, but that's another blog for another time....

News Item: Early test screenings of the Megan Fox-starring, Diablo Cody-written horror film "Jennifer's Body" have indicated that the heralded nude scene involving Fox was nowhere to be seen.
What you need to know: I don't want to be a typical guy and say that this just took away my only reason for seeing this movie, but given that I didn't care for "Juno" very much, this pretty much just took away my only reason for seeing this movie.

News Item: Reports suggest that Lionsgate, after firing director Lexi Alexander upon her completion of the upcoming "Punisher: War Zone," want to trim it down for a PG-13 rating.
What you need to know: And here I was thinking that after "Iron Man" outgrossed "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Suck and Failure," combined with the massive success of "The Dark Knight," studios would learn to trust the target demographic of comic adaptations; in the case of the Punisher, people who like seeing Frank Castle fuck shit up. Silly me.

News Item: "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" has obtained only a 19% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 35% on Metacritic.
What you need to know: Just so you understand how terrible George Lucas' decisions have been lately, find the rejected Frank Darabont script for the fourth "Indiana Jones" movie online and read it. It'll make you hate what Lucas allowed to happen even more.

News Item: Tom Cruise's Nazi epic "Valkyrie" has been moved back into Oscar contention, by pushing the release date up from February 2009 to December 2008.
What you need to know: When he's not a national punchline, the man is talented. See: "Magnolia," "Vanilla Sky." For that matter, don't see: "Eyes Wide Shut." If this can bring him back from wherever he's gone, god bless.

News Item: Michael Phelps is poised to win his eighth Olympic gold medal tonight.
What you need to know: I'm aware that this is not movie news. At all. Maybe it'll be a movie someday, I don't know. Or maybe if "Aquaman" is made into a film, Phelps can play him. Point is, I had to give some love.