Hard Candy director David Slade has been said to be the guy Fox has hired to direct a reboot of its Daredevil franchise, but according to a recent report by Variety, rethinking the adventures of blind vigilante Matt Murdoch isn’t the only comics-to-film work that the director has on his plate. Apparently he has also been chosen to direct a film called Coward, which is the initial storyline that kicked off the first five issues of the comic book “Criminal”. The exciting part of this news, apart from the fact that Slade is working on something new outside of the Twilight franchise, is that “Criminal” was a smaller book done by Ed Brubaker, who is one of the best comic book writers of the last ten years. Apart from his smaller original works like the “Criminal” books, Brubaker has had legendary runs on books set in the Batman universe, “Captain America”, and even Slade’s other upcoming adaptation “Daredevil”. Coward tells the story of a pickpocket and master thief named Leo. It’s the typical professional with a set of rules who takes one risky job and has everything blow up in his face storyline, but it’s also really cool and seems like it would be easily adaptable to film. Brubaker himself has written the screenplay, which is why I’m so interested to see how this one turns out. I think that his writing and Slade’s directorial eye could prove to be a great match, and if this one works out then [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly movie news round-up that comes from the land of the ice and snow, from the midnight sun where the hot springs blow. A-ah-ahh-ah! When it first hit the web, the consensus was that this red-band trailer for David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was nothing more than an illegal leak of someone video taping in a European theater. But since then, after some inspection, speculation and hearsay, it’s now believed to be a strategic leak in accordance with the styles of Lisbeth Salander. That could be the case. Lending credence to that theory is the fact that the audio is pretty clean, there’s an MPAA warning on the trailer (which was supposedly recorded in Europe) and days later, Sony has not taken it down. Either way, it’s a wicked trailer. If it’s a plant by Sony, it’s a brilliant maneuver.

NBC has decided to be a prima donna today, scattering all their announcements throughout the day. NBC has picked up three more pilots to series, rejected one, and made two more renewal announcements. First is The Playboy Club. As if I even need to explain the plot of the series with a title like that and a cast that includes Amber Heard. Think of the series as a Mad Men style period piece set within the classic chain of night clubs. Next up is Awake (formally known as R.E.M.), from Lone Star creator Kyle Killen, Awake is an Inception-style thriller starring Jason Isaacs. The pilot was directed by David Slade. Finally there’s Grimm, starring David Giuntoli as “detective whose mission is to protect humans living in a world where Grimm’s Fairy Tale characters actually exist.” As for the rejected pilot? It turns out that the reports from Monday were in fact false as NBC has decided to pass on David E. Kelley’s Wonder Woman. The producers are open to shop the pilot to other networks, but it seems highly unlikely it’s going to fall anywhere else before Monday’s upfronts. Well, it was fun while it lasted. As for the two renewals? Some rumors were in fact true on Monday as the other David E. Kelley series Harry’s Law has been renewed for a second season. Also renewed tonight is the hit Jason Katims series (and one of my personal favorites), Parenthood for a third season.

In all fairness, Daredevil is not a bad movie to take a mulligan on. Plus, if the rumor is true, they’ve got a solid talent at the wheel. According to Variety, David Slade will be directing a new entry into the Daredevil world for Fox. Call it a reboot, a sequel, a redo, a second shot or whatever you want, but the film won’t feature Ben Affleck or make mention of the previous film. So, it’s a reboot. Just for fun, if we consider the Spider-Man retooling going on and this new announcement, the timeline for when we’ll see other reboots becomes clear. The 2002 Spider-Man is now a 2012 version. The 2003 Daredevil will now probably be 2012 as well, meaning that we might see reboots of 2004′s Hellboy at some point, followed next by 2005′s Sin City, and 2006′s V For Vendetta. The new Superman puts a dent in that imaginary timeline, but the point is clear: the cycle must start over. We’ve run out of comic books to make. That’s just a best guess as to what order they’ll come around again in. Hopefully we’ll hear word of the Batman rebooting no more than ten minutes after The Dark Knight Rises premieres.

What is Movie News After Dark? This is a question that I am almost never asked, but I will answer it for you anyway. Movie News After Dark is FSR’s newest late-night secretion, a column dedicated to all of the news stories that slip past our daytime editorial staff and make it into my curiously chubby RSS ‘flagged’ box. It will (but is not guaranteed to) include relevant movie news, links to insightful commentary and other film-related shenanigans. I may also throw in a link to something TV-related here or there. It will also serve as my place of record for being both charming and sharp-witted, but most likely I will be neither of the two. I write this stuff late at night, what do you expect?

This week, on a very special episode of Reject Radio, co-director of the Oxford Film Festival Melanie Addington joins fan favorite Luke “Fat Albert” Mullen to discuss the prospect of being sued by Bill Cosby, the prospect of “just doing it,” and the prospect of stealing David Slade’s agent. Plus! We find some spare time to review The Last Exorcism and Make Out With Violence without devolving into a fist fight.

No matter who it is that finds his way into the director’s seat for Wolverine 2, we’ll have our fingers crossed that Wolverine doesn’t get too angered by the noticeable lack of chocolate scones in crafts services and go all Snickety-Snick on everyone, leaving the entire crew in a bloodbath of Fox-funded terror. You didn’t know they were using the real Wolverine instead of an actor? It’s going to surprise everyone, we think. The real challenge for anyone in the director’s seat is pulling the franchise out of the quality gutter that it finds itself in. Rumors are circulating that the production may have found just that – a talent that took another series from appallingly bad to mildly annoying in one fell swoop.

Hollywood turned in its assignments early this week with releases on Wednesday and Thursday. Now Fat Guy Kevin Carr hands out his grades for the latest installment of The Twilight Saga and the big screen adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Squeeeeee! Kevin and Neil run around the Magical Studio in the Sky without their shirts on, desperately trying to shape-shift into a werewolf so they too can be worthy of sickly-looking Bella Swan’s fickle infatuation… yet they still have a better time than they did when they saw The Last Airbender.

In this line of work, there often comes a time when the ability to be objective comes in handy. When it feels great to throw away prejudgments and biases and give a movie a chance, no matter how bad its bloodline may be. Such is the case with The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. There’s bad blood in this family — really bad blood — in the form of two films that were poorly constructed and shoddily executed on just about every level. But like any interesting rebellious child, Eclipse breaks the mold at the hands of a craftsman. It becomes something new — something oddly watchable, at times enjoyable and surprisingly unlike what has come before.

Matthew Vaughn might be the top choice for Fox, but they’ve got a list of talent a mile long. And by a mile, I mean there are six names on it.

I never — not in a million, gazillion years — thought I would type the above headline. But here we are. Record this date into history. I have been impressed by a trailer for a Twilight movie.

It all begins with a choice, says the poster for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. I’m certain that for some of you — many of our regular readers — that means the choice to completely ignore and avoid Twilight like the plague. And for good reason, there isn’t much in these movies for those who have not already been indoctrinated into the cult of Twilight. Yet for those who are, this concept of “choice” means a lot.

Today, we see the first trailer for Twilight: Eclipse, and it’s mostly just fan service. All of those broody teen superhumans (and unhumans) talking about how much they will fight, if the fight happens. It’s all very romantic, I suppose.

At this point, I feel like I’m making fun of this entire process. Perhaps I’m just trying to point out the absurdity of this marketing ploy — the releasing of a ten-second teaser that is teasing a teaser trailer which will go online tomorrow. It’s a little much, for any movie. The fact that it’s Twilight: Eclipse only makes it easier for the comment section below to get a little rowdy.

There’s no easy way to go about this little piece of news — I’ll just come right out with it. Summit Entertainment has announced that the first trailer for Twilight: Eclipse will debut online on Thursday (March 11) at around 6:00a PST / 9:00a EST. The contents of this 90-second teaser are being kept under wraps until it debuts, but we can tell you this: it will include Edward (Robert Pattinson), Bella (Kristen Stewart) and Jacob (Taylor Lautner).

There’s a really dirty joke about teenage girls and soccer moms here somewhere, but I’m resisting out of respect for Twilight fans. In fact, I’ve long thought that their fandom should be commended.

Listen up, Twilighters, because I’m only going to say this once. Nikki Finke has confirmed that the final book in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series, “Breaking Dawn,” will be broken into two films.

The IMAX Corporation announced today that they will be distributing The Twilight Saga: Eclipse in their gigantic-screen format. This of course, is exactly what fans of the franchise have been yearning for: to see Edward sparkle in glorious IMAX.

Twitards assemble! Summit Entertainment is trying to replace another one of our beloved actors/actresses for an upcoming Twilight sequel.