Director Ang Lee was given a reported $100 million to make this trippy, gut-wrenching, and moving picture. An adaptation of Yann Martel‘s novel of the same name, Life of Pi is an epic art house film that was somehow granted big studio treatment. How could this happen, you ask? If any excuse could be made, it’s likely that Fox knew Lee had something this special up his sleeve. Pi Patel (Irrfan Khan) is given a lofty request by a visiting writer at the beginning of the film: “Tell me a story that will make me believe in God.” What follows is a story that may not make you run to church but at least will make you reach for a tissue. Pi tells this man, played by Rafe Spall, a tale full of suffering and hope. As a boy, he and his family are forced to move out of India, along with the zoo they own. Like most trips in film, their journey does not go smoothly. The ship is hit by a massive storm and the family is lost at sea, leaving the young Pi (Suraj Sharma) alone on a life boat with a few of their animals. Soon, he discovers he has a starving companion along for the ride in Richard Parker, who happens to be a Bengal tiger.

Amelie is one of my favorite films for many reasons, and only some of them have to do with Audrey Tautou’s performance and appearance. The remaining reasons are due entirely to director Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s incredible ability to mix powerful visuals, a wild imagination, and a beautiful narrative into one perfect film. He’s made other films of course, both very good (A Very Long Engagement) and mediocre (Micmacs), but while they vary in quality they never lack an appealing element of wonder. And now he has two new films possibly lined up for the near future. Miller already mentioned half of the Jeunet news in last night’s Movie News After Dark when he reported that the French director’s next film may be based on the novel The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larsen. The story follows a young boy who fancies himself an amateur cartographer as he works his way across America on his way to the Smithsonian Museum. I’m not familiar with the novel, but a child’s head sounds like the perfect place for Jeunet to focus his next film within. If he takes the project on it will also mark his first return to an English language film since the fun but understandably maligned Alien Resurrection.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly movie news and commentary column that is a little disoriented at the moment. But don’t worry, it will find its way. Oh, there’s a few Michael Bay-related stories to talk about. That’s so much better… With the release of Transformers: Dark of the Moon happening this evening at 9pm or midnight or whatever, there’s been a lot of talk about Michael Bay, the most divisive man in cinema (at the moment). Today brought several must-reads, including GQ’s Oral history of Michael Bay exposé, which chronicles the life and times of the man who demands it all to be awesome. I also enjoyed this defense of Michael Bay piece by Jacob Hall at Movies.com. It’s a delightful look at the internal struggle movie-lovers face when confronted with pure, unfiltered awesome.

Earlier this year at SXSW, I had the good fortune of sitting down with visionary French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet the morning of the Austin premiere of his latest film, Micmacs. Since then, I’ve been holding on to the 13-minute interview waiting for the right time. And with Micmacs finally making its way into theaters this month (it opens in Austin and several other cities this weekend), now is certainly the time.

We’ve been singing the praises of Jean Pierre Jeunet’s latest film Micmacs for a while now, so I’ll spare you the rehash. Instead, I will show you two brand new exclusive photos from the film.

I can count on one hand the amount of films that I’ve seen in the last few years that I have absolutely loved in an almost instantaneous way. Jean Pierre Jeunet’s Micmacs is one of them. And to celebrate its release, we’ve got a special treat for you.

Sony Pictures Classics has released the first trailer for Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s latest film, Micmacs, which garnered some strong buzz from its recent appearance at the SXSW Film Festival. Personally, I was enamored with it.

Micmacs concerns a social misfit named Bazil (Daniel Boon), a man who has been dealt an unfortunate proportion of bad cards in his life. After enduring the death of his parents in his early childhood and the difficulties of having a bullet lodged in his head as an adult (this is a comedy, I swear), Bazil encounters a team of fellow eccentrics and outcasts with rather unique talents…

Traditionally, studios don’t enjoy it when they screen a movie before a film festival starts and a journalist then goes out and blabs about it all over the internet. The general rule around pre-screenings is that you hold all opinion until the day the film screens at the festival. Though, in the case of Jean Pierre Jeunet’s Micmacs, I don’t think anyone is going to give me any trouble for what I’m about to tell you.