Between Martin Scorsese with Boardwalk Empire, Michael Mann with his upcoming series Luck, Tony and Ridley Scott with The Good Wife, David Fincher with his upcoming House of Cards, Steven Spielberg with too many upcoming projects to name, and an ungodly amount of smaller names that have directed various pilots, many filmmakers have been trying their hand at a smaller screen. While that’s great, it isn’t enough. So it’s time to discuss what other filmmakers would be suited well for the idiot box. Here are seven filmmakers that should try their hand at television.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a little early this evening, but it’s still the same badass nightly movie news column that you’ve come to love and mostly ignore. Tonight it spends time around the globe, traveling to the south of France, the Hindu Kush, the future, the 18th century, the end of the Cold War, Asgard and Sequelville (it’s right between West L.A. and Century City). But it always comes back to you, dear reader, to bring you the goods. And the bads. And well, you know. The most interesting thing at Cannes yesterday might not have been Lars von Trier’s movie, Melancholia (which we reviewed and, as it stands, liked very much), it was von Trier’s comments during the press conference. From sympathizing with Hitler to extremely young naked women, he let it all out. To their credit, Vulture has captured all the best of it and delivered a list of the 10 most controversial things Lars von Trier said at the Melancholia press conference. “Should I talk about Spider-Man now?”

No, not Jay Sherman’s genius but misunderstood short film from that episode of The Critic. I’m talking about the let’s-just-start-calling-it-an-Alien-prequel that’s currently in production under director Ridley Scott. The rumor that Pearce may have a role in the project was originally broke by CHUD who received an email that looked something like this: “Evening Nick, my mate is working on Prometheus as OMITTED and met Guy Pierce on set today. She’s previously worked on OMITTED, OMITTED and OMITTED and I’ve no reason to believe she’s lying. I’ve not read anywhere about Guy being cast so thought it might interest you.“ That was a wonderful rumor, but not quite something that looked like a concrete story. But, following up on the story, The Playlist has managed to confirm with Pearce’s reps that he is indeed working on this new look-it’s-got-something-to-do-with-Alien-alright project. What this means is that Pearce will be joining a cast that is already full of buzzworthy and super talented names like Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Sean Harris, Kate Dickie, Rafe Spall and Logan Marshall-Green. Despite the fact that this is in at least some ways one of those dreaded prequels, could we be looking at the most relevant and potentially good thing that Scott has made in a long time? I’m going to go ahead and say “yes.” Opinion to be confirmed at a later date.

It wasn’t too long ago that we reported Werner Herzog had written a biopic about Middle Eastern political figure Gertrude Bell. Now comes word that Ridley Scott wants to make a movie about her himself, and he’s recruited Jeffrey Caine, the screenwriter of The Constant Gardener to write the script. While Bell is an interesting figure, who left a fancy lifestyle in Oxford to travel all around the Middle East and influence British international policy in the region, I’m not so sure that Hollywood is ready for multiple tellings of her story. I can see a Herzog version of this story flying in art theaters all over the world, but Scott tends to make higher budget, higher profile films. Would he be able to make a movie about a woman mapping the border of what would become modern day Iraq and keep it commercial? Perhaps the project won’t end up coming to fruition. Scott is simultaneously developing another film titled Gucci, which will tell the story of the relationship between Maurizio Gucci and his ex-wife Patrizia Reggiani. There’s a lot of fashion and decadence and murder inherent in this story which sounds like a project that will be much easier to find funding for than a Gertrude Bell biopic. Plus, I mean, if Scott goes in this direction he doesn’t have to worry about enraging Werner Herzog. Time will tell. Scott still needs to get through his post-production and promotional work on the upcoming sci-fi epic Prometheus. Then his future [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]

There has been a lot of hubbub over Ridley Scott’s upcoming sci-fi epic Prometheus. First it was described as being an Alien prequel, then it wasn’t an Alien prequel, and eventually it settled on being a film that had some strong ties to Alien. The casting has been in full swing, as names like Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, and Noomi Rapace have all been signed up to play key roles. Speculation and anticipation as to what the film will actually end up being is at a fever pitch, and Rapace has sat down with MTV to talk a little bit about her role.

Over the past 24 hours my Twitter feed has been abuzz with reactions to the announcement that Alcon Entertainment was close to signing a deal to make more Blade Runner movies. Capitalizing on the wave on controversy, i09 sat down with Alcon executives Andrew Kosove, Broderick Johnson, and Bud Yorkin to ask them more about their plans for turning this cult classic into a modern franchise. When asked why they wanted to go after the rights to Blade Runner Johnson said, “We’re intellectually fascinated and ready to explore the themes that the movie invokes and the underlying material. At the end of the day those are the things that make great movies. Those and characters, it’s an opportunity of a life time to try and explore this further.” Kosove added, “I think that there’s a unique aspect of Blade Runner, and it is absolutely right to be re-address now at this time in human history. That is the concept of what it means to be a human being. What does it mean to be human, to have empathy, to have feelings?”

Alcon Entertainment has announced that they are in final negotiations to acquire the rights to the world of Blade Runner and elements from the short story that inspired the film, Phillip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” With these rights they could make any number of sequels, prequels, or spinoffs of the 1982 classic. I can hear groans in the back of the room already, but one thing that Alcon producers would not be allowed to do is the dreaded straight remake, and as a matter of fact company co-founder Broderick Johnson says, “we never would want to remake it”. I’m not sure if he can be trusted though, if I were ever to write a screenplay for some sort of college comedy I would probably name the jerk head of the jock fraternity Broderick Johnson. He may be setting us all up for one big cinematic wedgie. But taken at face value, all of the quotes coming out of the Alcon camp are saying all of the right things. They seem to be focusing less on the marketing potential of a potential franchise and more on the storytelling potential of Blade Runner’s rich mythology. Co-founder Andrew Kosove explained to 24 Frames, “The risk is not just getting a movie made but coming up with a story that really justifies coming back to one of the great science-fiction stories.”

Scott is doing a great job stirring up a bunch of hype and speculation for his upcoming sci-fi epic Prometheus. First it was supposed to be an Alien prequel, and then it wasn’t an Alien prequel. Eventually it was explained to have some thematic tie to the Alien universe. What has been clear for a while, though, is that the cast looks impressive. Already on board to play key roles were Michael Fassbender, Noomi Rapace, and Charlize Theron. Fassbender and Rapace have become pretty hot properties in the film world over the last year or two, and Theron is a big name that has turned in great performances in the past. This should indicate that the source material of Prometheus is nothing to sneeze at. I can’t imagine this being any sort of cookie cutter sci-fi romp and still being able to lure in all that talent. Well, a couple more names have started to fill out the cast, and I’m excited about one in particular. The Daily Mail reports that Idris Elba, Kate Dickie, and Sean Harris have joined the cast. I’m not familiar with any of Harris or Dickie’s work, but I’m always glad to see Elba signing on for film roles. He is, of course, an actor from the constantly pimped to you everywhere you go HBO series The Wire, which is the best thing on television, ever. That show was full of great acting, and Elba’s role as Stringer Bell was one of the most important [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]

Remove your forehead from your palm. Apparently one of the strains of DNA from Alien making its way into Prometheus is the Space Jockey. That makes more sense than it should considering that the original script idea was focused solely on the character. According to Screen Rant, the icon will be brought to living, breathing status by H.R. Giger (and will be 8-feet-tall and practical). The movie also comes complete with a giant, partially human head piloting a space craft. Does that mean Ridley Scott is teaming with Cheech and Chong? One can only hope. One take on this, which I’m borrowing from Brian Salisbury, is that creating this vision of the Space Jockey steals the mysterious impact of the character’s appearance in the first film. It’s a good point, and it’s still unclear how much desire there is to see that character on screen in the first place. What do you think?

Want to feel insignificant? Stop reading this review and take a second to contemplate 6.8 billion. It’s an extraordinarily vast, staggering sum, almost unfathomable. And yet, throughout the world, every day, 6.8 billion people laugh and cry, love and fight, experiencing the joys and heartbreaks that are fundamental to life, as their own stories are written. Last summer, YouTube put out a global call for user-generated submissions of home movies depicting life on July 24, 2010. Life in a Day, the resulting film (assembled by director Kevin MacDonald, with an assist from producer Ridley Scott), culled into an hour-and-a-half from 90,000 entrants, is an extended montage of select clips drawn from the submissions.

Those holding their breath for the Alien prequel to go away, or to pass over without doing much damage to the franchise can breathe easy now. They may even want to use that fresh influx of oxygen to cheer. Deadline Bisbee is reporting that from the bones and ashes of the Alien prequel comes Prometheus, rising like a phoenix who invented fire. Mixed metaphors aside, the universe of Alien is expanding and opening its arms for an original story with original characters. Noomi Rapace is on board to play a scientist named Elizabeth Shaw, and the second major role of Vickers is being battled over by Charlize Theron and Angelina Jolie. So what the hell is it about?

Welcome back to Junkfood Cinema; because who wants to live past 30? This is the weekly internet column that inspired The Biggest Loser. Every Friday I shovel a hot, heaping helping of cheese into your gullet and laugh as you struggle to tell me you are lactose intolerant. I will dissect exactly what makes it a bad film but then, like a person with severe bipolar disorder, I will proclaim my embarrassingly powerful love for it. And just when you think internet film journalism has reached an all time low, I hit you with a disgustingly tasty snack food item to compliment the film and wreak havoc upon your girlish figure. This week’s snack: Legend

Well over a billion opinion-owners have commented about the power and innovation of YouTube, but while watching videos of cats in sinks, it somehow feels like it’s not living up to its potential. Now it might be on the right track. Director Kevin MacDonald and Producer Ridley Scott will be showing their latest film Life in a Day on YouTube at the same time that it debuts at Sundance. The film especially belongs on Youtube, though. It’s a film created by exhaustively combing through over 4,500 submissions of daily life shot by people all over the world on July 24th, 2010. The crowd-sourcing technique was done a bit earlier with the Beastie Boys’ Awesome; I Fuckin’ Shot That (a title which screamed out its method), but the subject matter here lends itself completely to a deeper documentary film. From all the people that sent in tapes, 26 were chosen from a startling variety of countries, and the film will air for free on its official YouTube page; once on January 27th at 8pm EST and once again on January 28th at 7pm Local Time. Check out one the teaser clips for yourself:

Executives at Fox (and for that matter, Natalie Portman) are in love with a recently completed Alien prequel script by Damon Lindelof. That’s the word on the street. It’s word that should come with some cautionary optimism for Alien fans. The good news is that the tension between director Ridley Scott and the moneybags at Fox may be over thanks to said script. A few weeks ago there were rumblings of a major rift, much of which was driven by the director and studio not seeing eye to eye on issues like budget and rating. Scott wanted to deliver a bigger, harder R version of Alien — it had fans drooling and Fox slamming on the brakes. But according to the latest reports, team Lost Lindelof swooped in at the last minute with a script that makes it all better.

Although her husband thinks she’s the new Sigourney Weaver, Milla Jovovich isn’t on the short list of actresses being looked at for the leading role in Ridley Scott’s new 3D Alien movie. The production has seriously looked at Abbie Cornish (who you know and will know from Bright Star and the forthcoming Sucker Punch) and Carey Mulligan (who you know from being adorable and Oscar-worthy in everything), but the front runner is apparently Noomi Rapace from The Original Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. All the usual caveats apply here (including that she’s not actually Ripley because Ripley hasn’t been born yet in this story), but if Rapace gets the job, it tells us one thing about the character Scott and company have in mind: she’s a bad ass. This would be great news not only because Alien is a stand out as far as strong female leads are concerned, but because it would mean introducing Rapace to a larger American audience as a woman who could make you want to move in with her and then beat you in the face with the butt of her gun for thinking it. Sounds like a brilliant casting choice. [Deadline Mansfield]

Last week I tackled Portal; and the response was interesting. While I’d love to see Portal as a movie — that was really an intro-session into the Valve universe, and a step toward discussing my next Pixel to Projector nominee — Half-life. Almost anyone that is a fan of first person shooters has a soft Spot for Valve Software’s launch title — and with good reason. The ever silent Dr. Gordon Freeman is iconic in the gaming community, as are many of the characters that fill his world. From Vortigaunts, The Combine, Alyx Vance, the ever present Headcrabs, and of course — the mysterious G-Man — Half-life is rich with characters and situations ripe for transition to the big screen.

Gemma Arterton was born the same year that Aliens was released, meaning she was -7 years old when the first Alien was brilliantly unleashed unto the world. That’s not a slight against her (especially since she couldn’t have controlled when she was born), but it’s an interesting fact in light of her going to meet with Ridley Scott about possibly acting in his new prequel endeavor for the franchise. The young actor told the Sunday Times, “Ridley Scott saw Alice Creed and loved it. He wants me to meet for Aliens: The Remake, or something.” Clearly, if she can figure out what the film is, she might be acting in it. [The Playlist]

Whether you love him, hate him, love to hate him, or hate that you love him there’s no denying that Tom Cruise’s career decisions in terms of what directors he will work for have been second-to-none. Or, maybe they have been. You decide.

We’re celebrating with war movies all week long. Today we learn the true meaning of teamwork when a mission doesn’t go as planned.

Everyone’s numbers were just a little less than predicted, but in our second weekend into the Summer 2010 movie season, we’ve established two things. Iron Man 2 is no Iron Man and Russell Crowe and is no Denzel Washington.