What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly movie news column born exactly one year ago today. And it’s very happy to still be around and well on its way to taking over the planet. It is convinced that it will have a very productive 2012 in that area, especially once humanity’s reign of terror ends later this year. In the mean time, it would like to thank you all for reading. Now enough of that mushy stuff, lets do the news. We begin this evening with an image of biker Jemaine Clement in Men in Black III. He’s playing an alien biker who turns out to be the villain in this time-traveling storyline…. And we wonder why that movie has had so many production problems? Either way, I’ll watch Jemaine Clement eat soap if I have to, as that guy is quite funny.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s sorry that it didn’t send flowers. How was it supposed to know that it was your birthday? It’s only a nightly movie news column.. We being this evening with an image of Joss Whedon directing the shit out of The Avengers alongside Cobie Smulders and Samuel L. Jackson. It’s part of a group of images that hit the web this week. In moving images news, reports are now saying that a trailer for The Avengers will drop on Tuesday, October 11. They just had to beat the new iPhone to the punch, didn’t they?!

As Hollywood continues to suck the blood out of 1980′s and 1990′s cinema to appease their hungry gods and their demands for still more crimson liquid, news on yet another remake has come to life. And, whereas this morning’s news about a Romancing the Stone remake had me chomping and gnashing and damning people I’ve never met, I can’t say that I entirely hate this newest idea, particularly because it comes pre-packaged not with a pie in the sky list of possible lead actors, but with a genre-appropriate screenwriter. Talented, inventive writing! How about that! Sony has just signed Source Code scribe Ben Ripley to a development deal to write “a contemporary reimagining” of Joel Schumacher‘s Flatliners. The original film hit theaters in 1990 with one of the most awesomely nineties-era casts to ever gather in service for a sci-fi flick about kinda dead people. It starred Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts and William Baldwin, Oliver Platt, and Kevin Bacon as medical students who begin to experiment with near-death experiences to see just what’s on the other side. Of course, there are consequences to having your heart stopped repeatedly to get a glimpse at a realm that the living aren’t meant to see. Who knew? Not much else is known about the direction Ripley will take the film, but the writer has already proven himself adept at traversing both experiences and locations by way of the human mind and its perceptions, so Flatliners seems like a perfect fit. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe not all [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]

With the Toronto International Film Festival mere weeks away, cinephiles everywhere are prepping to ship off to America’s hat for ten days of films and fun, all fueled by bagged milk and and trademark Canadian politeness. TIFF has already established itself as North America’s premiere film festival (duking it out with Sundance for top billing), but this year, the festival’s programmers have truly outdone themselves when it comes to putting together a drool-worthy schedule. This year’s TIFF has already announced the bulk of their lineup, including The Ides of March and Moneyball and their documentary and genre picks, but they now round out their programming with some final and spectacular picks.

For a film with Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman to get theatrically dumped, it’s a pretty clear sign that the final product didn’t turn out so hot. The dumpee is Joel Schumacher‘s Trespass. That’s right, a Joel Schmucher film with two recognizable stars is getting rushed in and out of the market. Apparently, it will be hitting DVD and VOD three weeks after its October 14th theatrical release. VideoEta already has the home video release date listed as November 1st. Millennium picked up the film about a month ago and even with the hit and miss star power involved, one would think it would get a bigger release than this.

Joel Schumacher jumps around from genre to genre whether he succeeds in them or not, but some of his best work is in the world of thrillers. Movies like Flatliners, The Client and A Time to Kill are at the top of his personal best list, so hopefully finding that tension again will churn out a winner. According to Variety, Schumacher is attached to direct The Hive. Written by Thirteen Ghosts screenwriter Richard D’Ovidio, the story focuses on a 911 operator who has to confront a killer from her past in order to protect a little girl. Schumacher may have struggled to find the plot in the past few years – with Twelve and Blood Creek (starring Superman!) – but his forthcoming Nic Cage-starring Trespass is set for release this September, so we’ll get to see if he’s still got what it takes to make a solid thriller. Statistically speaking, he’s bound to be due a good one soon, right?

“Isn’t it funny? You hear a phone ring and it could be anybody. But ringing phone has to be answered, doesn’t it?” I don’t think there is anyone out there who doesn’t agree at this point that Joel Schumacher has lost his edge. But before falling of the face of the earth with films like The Phantom of the Opera and The Number 23, he delivered what would be his last great film: The 2003 morality thriller Phone Booth. Stu Shepard is a publicist working in New York City, and he’s everything except a decent human being. From his wife, to his “girlfriend” and his personal assistant, Stu takes advantage of everyone and everything at his disposal. Little did he know how everything was going to change once he picked up the phone today.

Joel Schumacher, remembered most for alienating Batman fans in the mid-90s, has set his cast for the upcoming Twelve, based off a novel by young writer Nick McDonell.

The biggest superhero mistakes that Hollywood seems to finally be avoiding this Summer. Don’t worry – we mention the rubber nipples.

No other superhero has changed faces or directions more, for better or worse, than the Caped Crusader. Batman’s long strange trip through film is a tale of success, followed by a hellacious fall. But as Alfred would remind us, “Why do we fall,sir? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.”