I don’t like movie musicals. It’s probably more accurate to say that I strongly dislike the vast majority of musicals. Too often I find that the songs and dance numbers take priority over the film’s story and characters, and that disparity leaves me disinterested in the whole shebang. And if I’m being honest, I really hate it when complete strangers suddenly bust out with the same songs and dance moves as if they’ve been secretly practicing them for weeks. (Unless the story is about the history of flash mobs of course, but who the hell would want to watch that?) There are exceptions, but they’re usually films that place as high a value on the story being told and the characters within as they do on the music and dancing and other gibberish. Ones I do like include Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, 8 Women, South Park: Bigger Longer and Uncut and Takashi Miike’s The Happiness of the Katakuris. You could say I lean toward less traditional examples of the form. Warner Bros. just released a series of 20 Film Collection box sets broken down by genre, and when the opportunity arrived to take a look at the one focused on Musicals I literally stood still at the chance. And yet… here we are.

Here is a riddle: how do you launch a major remake of a beloved modern classic (which was, of course, itself a remake of a remake of a remake) without a female star, a male star, or a start date? Well, in Hollywood, you just keep saying that it will happen. Warner Bros.’ remake of A Star Is Born has had a hell of a time making it to the big screen. Most notably conceived of as a Clint Eastwood directing vehicle and a Beyonce Knowles-starring dazzlefest, the production has been unable to lock down a male lead (remember when Tom Cruise was rumored? those were the days!), has had to reschedule after the one-two punch of Knowles’ pregnancy and Eastwood’s work on Trouble With the Curve, and now they’re facing their biggest challenge yet. Knowles? Yeah, she’s done with it. Variety reports that the actress/singer/prolific dancer has now left the project because “her schedule was already packed and that without a start date the scheduling became too complicated.” That does sound pretty complicated.

While we certainly all hope that Tom Cruise will return for more of the newly-revitalized Mission: Impossible franchise, he might also be looking to ramp up the musical portion of his career. No, Cruise isn’t following in the steps of his son to become a DJ (that’s real), but he might just take on the lead role in Clint Eastwood‘s A Star Is Born remake. We’ll next see Cruise rocking out as Stacee Jaxx in Adam Shankman’s Rock of Ages, so sure, he could totally be into this project, too. Deadline Rochester reports that “Cruise is talking to Clint Eastwood about joining Beyonce in A Star Is Born” and because he just “morphed into an Axl Rose-like 80s rock icon in Rock of Ages…he’d be able to handle the singing part of that comes with playing an over the hill musician who helps launch the star of an ingenue he falls in love with and who watches him slide while her star soars.” But despite this completely rock-solid logic, even Deadline says that they “have no idea if Cruise will say yes.” Journalism!

Since news is pretty slow after the summer months (since everyone goes on vacation after their vacation), the biggest announcement isn’t really news at all. It’s more of a dartboard for movie fans to throw sharp objects at, but that definitely has its place in our wonderful world of speculation. So put on your opinion hats, and let ‘er rip. According to Variety, Christian Bale has avoided choosing a project to work on after The Dark Knight Rises because he wanted to focus all of his energies on playing Bruce Wayne one last time. However, there’s also a list of movies that have their doors open to the actor: Clint Eastwood’s re-remake of A Star is Born starring Beyonce Knowles (Harry’s younger sister) Michael Mann’s securities exchange fraud drama Gold Spike Lee’s Old Boy remake Scott Cooper’s 1970s revenge throwback Out of the Furnace Darren Aronofsky’s Biblical epic Noah There’s no information beyond that, and it’s perfectly possible that Bale could pass on all of these projects in order to opt for something else, but given the list here, what movie would you rather see him in? My money’s on his beard-growing ability for Noah, but Variety’s announcement also ignores reports that Bale will be teaming up again with Terrance Malick. That could take years, but it’s at least something solid. What do you think? Where does Bale fit best?