What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly movie news column that rounds up junk and stuff. It also likes J.J. Abrams’ movies, but not so much that it can’t laugh at them, as well. It is also currently being written by an author who is distracted with Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules. It’s surprisingly charming. Geek icon Simon Pegg released a book recently, “Nerd Do Well,” chronicling his life as a now-famous nerd. Personally, I can’t wait to read it. In the mean time, one passage about George Lucas and the Star Wars prequels has become a topic of discussion. Did Lucas apologize for the prequels? That’s the question of the day.

Since it’s Saturday and the likelihood of us finding a lot of news to write about is slim, I’d like to present you with a clip that will assuredly make you grin. If it doesn’t make you grin, you may want to have yourself checked. Sitting down to watch Big last night — because there’s no better background movie while you are working and cleaning a wrecked Reject HQ — I was reminded that the F.A.O Schwartz piano scene is one of cinema’s great moments of pure joy. There’s no pretense, no forced sense of fun and it fits neatly into the film’s tone of childlike wonder. As Robin explained when she wrote a Movies We Love piece about it some weeks back, it’s scenes like this that make Big one of the most rewatchable movies of all-time. This particular moment is a personal favorite of mine, and a scene that will undoubtedly brighten up your day. Check it out after the jump.

“The Hunger Games” is a fantastic book that I was going to write up for Print to Projector on the very day that it was announced for production. While this caused me to abandon writing my column that day, it also caused some celebration because the book deserves its popularity and its chance to be on screen. Now it appears that Seabiscuit director Gary Ross might be the one to bring child on child violence to its rightful place in our theaters and in our hearts.

It can be tough to be a kid. That’s what 12 year old Josh Baskin learns when he’s told he’s too small to get on a ride at a fair. This is especially humiliating because he’s told he’s too short in front of the girl he has a crush on.

Remember all of those movies you love to sit around watching and loving and talking about? Some of them were directed by women. You didn’t even know that. Did you, you chauvinist pig?

Artist Mitch Ansara has created what could be called one the first geekgasm of 2009: 1960s-inspired paperback book covers of novelized movie adaptations. Okay, so it might not sound so cool at first, but you’ve got to check some of these covers out.