What is Movie News After Dark? For tonight, it’s simply a movie news column working on a very, very slow news day. So it has opted for fun instead of informative. It’s betting you won’t mind. We begin tonight with the thought of big, badass robots killing the whole of humanity in Robopocalypse, a film that director Steven Spielberg will now direct for July 3, 2013. Fox and Dreamworks were announced as the studios putting up the money today, which means that Daniel H. Wilson’s excellent book will finally get some big screen love. If done right, it could be massive.

The first official image of Leonardo DiCaprio playing the gangbusting icon in Clint Eastwood‘s J. Edgar has been released (as you can see above), and it’s just a taste of what the make-up department has in store for the actor as he journeys through the neck-flap, skin-sagging years of J. Edgar Hoover’s life. The film will see DiCaprio wear a ton of aging make-up, because he’ll be playing the adult version of the nation’s former top cop through his rise to power in the 1920 through the man’s death in 1972. Consider it a reverse Benjamin Button. It looks great, but the bigger concern is that Eastwood seems to think he’s a one-take director at this point in his career, and he’s not. His last few efforts have been sorely lacking. However, maybe a biopic about absolute power is just what the doctor ordered. As such, by way of comparison, check out this picture of J. Edgar Hoover to give you an idea of how close DiCaprio is and where he’ll be headed.

A genre nearly as old as filmmaking itself, the western thrived throughout the years of the studio system but has zigzagged across rough terrain for the past forty or so years. For the last fifteen-ish years, the struggling, commercially unfriendly genre was either manifested in a neoclassical nostalgic form limited in potential mass appeal (Appaloosa, Open Range) or in reimagined approaches that ran the gamut between contrived pap and inspired deconstructions (anything from Wild Wild West to The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford). But last December, True Grit – a bona fide western remake that relied on the opportunities available in the genre’s conventions rather than bells, whistles, or ironic tongues in their respective cheeks – became a smash hit. Did this film reinvigorate a genre that was on life support, as the supposed revitalization of the musical is thought to have done a decade ago, or are westerns surviving by moving along a different route altogether? Three westerns released so far this year – Gore Verbinski’s Rango, Kelly Reichardt’s Meek’s Cutoff, and, as of this weekend, Jon Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens – suggest mixed directions for the dusty ol’ genre.

Russell Edgington is a prime example of a great villain. Not only was he smart and calculated, but he also had the power and strength to get things done on his own. And when Edgington got down and bloody, he looked cool doing it. The vampire king was one of the few vamps on True Blood that seemed interested in actually having fun. He always looked as if he was going to a party and simply looking for a good time, especially with the help of his slick 70s style wardrobe. Sadly, Edgington isn’t around this season, but don’t fret. As actor Denis O’Hare says below, the plan is for him to return. Things didn’t end well for Edgington last season, but the King of Mississippi had persistence and ambition, so there was no real reason for us to be doubting his return. While Denis O’Hare isn’t on this season, the actor was still kind enough to make the time to discuss his role on the show. Throughout my whole chat with O’Hare he wore his love for Edgington on his sleeve. From discussing the character’s past to his childlike wonder, the actor remained enthusiastic.

There will inevitably be a movie about the mission to kill Osama bin Laden – this much is certain. Recent news has established that Kathryn Bigelow might be the first to try to put into play one of several projects related to last week’s assassination amongst several that are being shopped around. The reasoning is clear, as the material lends itself inherently to cinematic expression. The mission itself, in short, feels like a movie. Whether or not this movie (or movies) will have anything to say beyond what we already know and think and feel is unknown and, in Cole Abaius’s terms, it will be difficult for such projects to escape an inherent potential to come across as a shameless “cash-in.” My personal prediction is that the first movie that arises from bin Laden’s death will, at best, be an exciting procedural that visualizes an incident we are currently so invested in and preoccupied with. But I doubt that anything released so soon will remotely approach a full understanding of bin Laden’s death as catharsis for American citizens, as a harbinger for change in the West’s relationship to the Middle East and the Muslim world, as a precedent for the possible fall of al Qaeda, etc. In short, we won’t be able to express cinematically (or in any other medium, for that matter) what the death of bin Laden means until the benefits of time and hindsight actually provide that meaning. This is why I think any movies about Osama

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr puts on his ghostbusting gear to take on the two big spiritual flicks in the theaters. He suffers through a tsunami in Hereafter and struggles even more to get through Clint Eastwood’s latest Oscar-bait flick. Then he sets up a stationary video camera to capture any strange goings-on while he sleeps. He plans to sell the film to Paramount as Paranormal Activity 3: More Shots of Nothing Happening.

The sort of movie for which the critical cliché “tone poem” was invented, Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter evokes an eerie serenity in the face of death. With three interlocking storylines centered on our awareness, perceptions and ultimate acceptance of the afterlife, on what the notion that you start dying the moment you’re born really means, the picture ought to cast a particular, carefully controlled spell. Yet Eastwood, an adept handler of “meat-and-potatoes” narratives and more naked emotions, fails to transform the precise, melancholic sensibility at the heart of Peter Morgan’s screenplay into an affecting cinematic experience. Long-winded, ponderous and without much in the way of compelling drama, Hereafter sputters across three countries, filled with haunting imagery but never offering the visceral, subtle transcendence of a film by a more adept chronicler of spiritual sensations.

It’s a miracle that any movie gets made at all. Even after the green light is given, schedules and budgets have to work out, mechanical sharks have to stay operational, and weather has to play nice. Plus, there are a million other pieces that have to fall into place just right or the whole thing could be off. The film geek news of the week is that Clint Eastwood was offered the roles of Superman and James Bond, which is incredibly cool, but it would have created a far different career for the man. It may have changed his trajectory completely, but if he’d accepted the Bond role, there are at least 6 films that either wouldn’t have been made or wouldn’t have been the same without him.

These 20, alongside hundreds of others, redefine what it means to be a movie veteran.

Two men. The city against the West. Who emerges victorious and who emerges with only blood and sympathy on his side?

Deadline is reporting this week that Leonardo DiCaprio is in early talks to star as J. Edgar Hoover in Clint Eastwood’s Hoover biopic. DiCaprio is said to be interested in starring in this period flick about the early years of the FBI.

After seeing Invictus get rightfully shut out on Oscar night — lets fact it, folks, the movie was bad — director Clint Eastwood is moving on to what is sure to be his next Oscar-grab biopic. This time, he’s bringing his lens back into the confines of the United States, putting focus on the controversial FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.

Rob Hunter loves movies. He also loves playing drums in a Genesis cover band. These two joys come together in the form of cash money payments that he receives every week and immediately uses to buy more DVDs. This week sees a couple fantastic films from Criterion, two surprisingly entertaining TV series, and more. Oh, and smegma.

As I reach into my grab bag of critical terminology to describe my reaction to Eastwood’s latest, I come up only with well-worn rhetoric that, nonetheless, fits perfectly to the experience one has walking out of this film: Invictus is disappointing, a major missed opportunity.

Kevin Carr sits his chubbiness down and sees if The Princess and the Frog, Invictus and The Lovely Bones can make the grade.

Kevin and Neil find themselves in not-so-familiar territory by not totally fighting about this week’s movies. While Neil hasn’t seen The Princess and the Frog, he and Kevin pretty much agree about the other new releases like Invictus and The Lovely Bones.

Bryce Dallas Howard has joined Clint Eastwood’s next movie, the supernatural drama Hereafter…

Earlier this week, the Gotham Awards kicked off award season, with the nominations for the Indie Spirit awards following shortly after. And today, we have our next round of honors and for the most part, the first major awards to be handed out.

Clint Eastwood is less than a month from releasing his next film, Invictus, and it already appears as if the old goat is working on his next masterwork…

Warner Bros. has released the first trailer for Clint Eastwood’s next film, Invictus, which tells the story about Nelson Mandela and some white dude…