Sometime around Cannes last year we reported that Elizabeth Olsen and Dakota Fanning would be starring in a new movie by first time director Naomi Foner called Very Good Girls. It’s a story that Foner penned about a couple of young girls who have made a pact to lose their virginities, who then come into conflict with each other when they fall in love with the same “charismatic street artist.” All these months later it appears that this film is finally gearing up to happen, and there’s some news about who has been cast to play the deadbeat object of their misguided affections. No, it’s not the guy who played Nick from Family Ties like I suggested originally, Foner and company went in a completely different direction. According to a report from Deadline Leningrad, curly-headed manic pixie dream boy Anton Yelchin is in final negotiations to take the role. Those that saw him in last year’s Like Crazy know that Yelchin is no stranger to adeptly playing young love related melodrama, and the kid is just so cheek-pinchingly cute… so I guess this casting was kind of a no-brainer. There’s no telling what Foner is going to be able to deliver as a director, but I now find myself looking forward to this one on the strength of the cast alone. I hope it’s a story interesting enough to deserve so many talented young actors teaming up.

What is Movie News After Dark? It is a nightly film industry news column dedicated to hacking away with the precision of a drunkenly wielded axe at the world of entertainment news. It has lopped off a few heads in its day, so keep your eye on it. We begin tonight with an image from the special Fright Night event held at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin last night. In attendance were McLovin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), Anton Yelchin and Dave Franco, who looks just a little bit less stoned than his brother James. They made people drink other people’s blood and whatnot. Photo by Jack Plunkett

Big news out of Cannes, a bunch of people are getting together and they’re going to make a movie. Very Good Girls is noteworthy for a couple reasons. Mostly people will probably be interested in it because it’s starring Elizabeth Olsen and Dakota Fanning, who are cute young girls. But also, some other folks might be interested to hear that a pretty substantial crew of talent is supporting the two PYTs. Peter Sarsgaard, Dustin Hoffman, and Sissy Spacek are also signed on. You know who they are I’m sure. And most people have caught wind of who Fanning is by now, especially since she’s been in those gigantic Twilight movies. But what about Olsen? She’s become kind of an it girl recently, as she appeared in Martha Marcy May Marlene and Silent House, which both debuted this year at Sundance. In the past few months I’ve gone from having no clue that there was a third Olsen sister, to hearing Elizabeth’s name mentioned all over the place, so I’d say that she’s one to watch.

VE Day. 1945. The Allied Forces formally accept the surrender of Nazi Germany. For one night only, the teenage Princesses Margaret and Elizabeth are allowed out of Buckingham Palace to celebrate. Did that actually happen? I have no idea, but it’s the premise for the next project from director Michael Hoffman (The Last Station, One Fine Day, Soapdish). According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hoffman has cast Dakota Fanning as Margaret and is currently looking for his young Elizabeth (who people now know as the Queen of England (who just celebrated Ascension Day (so hopefully a young princess was allowed to go out and celebrate))). Historical fiction just hits me in the right spot, so I’m on board all the way. Hoffman continues to be an interesting director, and even though his work tends to be better if he writes the script as well, Girls’ Night Out was written by newcomer Trevor de Silva and was on the British version of the Black List (the list of great unproduced scripts) last year. Plus, Fanning has an undeniable talent. Now it’s just a matter of finding the best co-star for the job. Then, of course, there’s the question of how British fans will take the prospect of an American director toying around with their beloved royal family.

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr woos the FSR audience on a Date Night before giving a grade to the high school rockers in The Runaways

It’s a light week for movies here in the Magical Studio in the Sky. That doesn’t stop the Fat Guys from being The Runaways and having a sweet Date Night.

The Runaways is a faithful representation of a time and place in music history, and features some pretty decent performances from its cast, but with too little to separate it from all the other rock biopics out there, it hasn’t made much of a case for its own existence.

I was able to see The Runaways here at SXSW, which is kind of a cool experience. One minute you are watching some kick-ass girls rock out on the big screen, the next minute you can see some of the impact those girls had on rock n’ roll out on the streets of Austin. I loved the film, and I was pretty excited to be able to speak with the woman behind the curtain. When sitting with The Runaways director Floria Sigismondi I could tell that she was very much in control of how to tell the out of control stories of Cherie Currie and Joan Jett

The Runaways has plenty of components working against it. It’s an independent film that stars Kristen Stewart, who since her work in Twilight has been dismissed by many of us who avoid that series like the plague as a textbook example of the overexposed and the undertalented.

A new music video for the upcoming film The Runaways has been released today, continuing the promotion of this aggressively sexy movie about children (teenagers) singing aggressively sexual songs to throngs of adults. It’s a true story, so it’s okay.

Here’s something interesting that I learned tonight, following the Sundance press screening of The Runaways. Pedophilia is being sexually attracted to a pre-adolescent. However, there is a word for being attracted to 15-year old Dakota Fanning…

“The Runaways have the most chance of any group I’ve seen to tear this world apart.”

The first official look of The Runaways comes with the announcement that we’ll get to see a whole lot more of it.

If there’s one thing I think we all wanted today, it was some brand new photos from the upcoming tween vampire lovefest Twilight: New Moon.

Todd McFarlane is still working on that gothic Wizard of Oz project. And now, it looks like they’ve got a tone and a possible Dorothy. Things are moving, indeed.

Remember Twilight? That modestly budgeted movie released last year with vampires and some such? Well, it has officially begun casting for its next round and its bringing on a somewhat bigger name.

From Henry Selick, the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas and Neil Gaiman, one of the most brilliant writers of our time, comes the clever and delightfully dark tale of a young girl named Coraline and her wild adventure into an alternate reality.

Flashy visuals and a semi-unique premise do not a great action movie make. No matter how cool your idea may be or how much money you sink into the visuals, you still need to invest in characters and story. That is the lesson to be learned from Paul McGuigan’s sci-fi thriller Push.

Kevin Carr reviews the movies the studios didn’t allow him to see early this week: Pink Panther 2, Coraline and Push.

Neil finally returns to the Magical Studio in the Sky with stories from the land of milk and honey, otherwise known as the Sundance Film Festival. Kevin celebrates the return by berating him for only seeing one movie this week, although Neil defends himself because he saw 143 movies at the festival.