In 2013, A&E will debut Bates Motel, a prequel inspired by Psycho that tells the story of Norma (Vera Farmiga) and Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore). It comes from Lost executive producer Carlton Cuse and looks to have a bit of Twin Peaks inside of it. The production has released a teaser that also features some of the cast and crew speaking to their vision. It’s all a bit too obvious on the marketing side, but it’s not hard to imagine this being a freaky, scary exploration of a life that led to a delusional killer. And why does this look like a movie, while everything from Hitchcock looked like it was made for TV?

Sundance veteran Drake Doremus returned to Park City this year with a very different film than 2010’s Douchebag. For his 2011 entry, Doremus brought along Like Crazy, a sensitive and romantic film that doesn’t rely on anyone taking their shirt off or ludicrous meet-cutes or casts packed with tween pop stars to make it work. I saw the film back in January at Sundance, and it is one of two romantic dramedies with a young, hip cast from the festival that has stuck in my mind these many months. The other one, the Freddie Highmore-starring The Art of Getting By (retitled from its Sundance name, Homework) has remained in my brain mainly due to how much I hated it. It’s frowned upon to spit when speaking about films, but that’s been the best way I’ve found to physically express how terrible that movie was, and how emotionally disingenuous. On the flipside, there was Doremus’s Like Crazy, which stars Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones (with co-starring appearances by Jennifer Lawrence and Charlie Bewley). Not to get emotional over here (because, you know, gross), but Like Crazy is one of the best films about long distance relationships I’ve ever seen (and I know from long distance relationships).

Once again, Freddie Highmore is set to play an artistic talent, but this time he’s a little older and a little angstier. There’s no need to talk about how difficult creating a sweet and sour movie about the frustrations of teens is because it’s a nearly impossible genre. However, this trailer for The Art of Getting By (formerly called Homework) sells the film on a lot of strengths. I’d offer a synopsis, but, you know, the trailer sort of does that all on its own. Check it out for yourself:

An evil wizard named Flagg seeks to subvert the Kingdom of Delain by placing a monarch in power that will listen to his every whim. With King Roland’s two sons – Peter and Thomas – Flagg sees an enemy to fear and a child to manipulate into the tool of destruction he needs on the throne.

Kevin Carr takes a look at this week’s movie releases, including Saw VI, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant, Astro Boy and Amelia.

The folks at Summit Entertainment have released a new trailer for the upcoming IMAGi entertainment animated adventure Astro Boy via my favorite alien hostile takeover service, Hulu.

The first teaser trailer for Summit Entertainment’s Astro Boy has hit the web with a flash of cool CG-animation.

Looking back during its DVD release, the film is still holding up as one of the better films of the year and easily the first great film of 2008.

Seeing how the film has already received a 76 percent approval at Rottentomatoes, this is an early contender for the most overrated film of the early year. Apparently it was okay, for once, for critics to check their brains in at the door. I guess I didn’t get the memo.

We continue our week-long feature of Paramount’s Spiderwick Chronicles, a film that has twice the Freddie Highmore for the same price.

Today we start our coverage of our featured film of the week. In between Jackie Moon, we get a little magic thanks to Paramount’s The Spiderwick Chronicles.

Rounding out Paramount’s lineup for the first two months of the year is a little Fantasy movie that could be a surprise hit.

As much as I would like to recommend August Rush, I simply can’t. It deserves at least one Academy Award in the music department and I’ll tell you why.