With Burke and Hare, John Landis has marked his return to the world of feature filmmaking. He’s kept busy the last few years, albeit not in the way his fans would prefer him to be, but still preoccupied nonetheless. However, this dark romantic comedy brings him back to the genre he once mastered. Like many of the director’s acclaimed comedies, Burke and Hare is about the unlikeliest of leads. The murdering duo (played by Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis) could easily slip into being nothing but despicable, but that has always seemed to be a fun challenge for Landis. The Blues Brothers, the Animal House gang, and so on, are not particularly “good” people. In most films, they would be the villains. Landis, on the other hand, always sets out to make them the heroes. Here’s what the personable John Landis had to say about how this isn’t his return, following antiheroes, being in the intimidating presence of Charles Bronson, and why he didn’t direct The Wolfman:

Do you believe in aliens? Little green men, hidden by the government for decades? Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in the film Paul sure do, and when they meet one that sounds just like Seth Rogen, they simply can’t believe it… until he starts swearing and smoking pot, ’cause that happens in every Seth Rogen film. So while the characters in Paul are lightening their mood, you can too with this game, suitable for either the theatrical or unrated version of the film, now available on DVD and Blu-ray.

Nerd do well Simon Pegg has got a lot going for him these days. He wrote a book that’s flying off the charts, he’s got a big franchise under his belt in Star Trek, he continues to get to write the kinds of movies that interest him, and a bajillion other acting jobs keep coming his way. Not bad for a little pasty dude from the UK. However, never one to let his nerd-cred expire, Pegg has lined up a new role that geeks all over the planet should find cool for several reasons. First off, despite the fact that Pegg is generally in huge movies these days his next project, A Fantastic Fear of Everything, is going to be a very small film that reportedly will cost under $4.9 million to make. Secondly, this dark take on a children’s author making the transition to crime novels has been written and will be co-directed by Crispian Mills, former frontman of the indie band Kula Shaker. There’s another 10 cool points right there. But that’s not the kicker, what makes this project sound interesting is the plot synopsis, which is pretty unique, and which instantly gets me picturing Pegg playing the role.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly movie news column that rounds up junk and stuff. It also likes J.J. Abrams’ movies, but not so much that it can’t laugh at them, as well. It is also currently being written by an author who is distracted with Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules. It’s surprisingly charming. Geek icon Simon Pegg released a book recently, “Nerd Do Well,” chronicling his life as a now-famous nerd. Personally, I can’t wait to read it. In the mean time, one passage about George Lucas and the Star Wars prequels has become a topic of discussion. Did Lucas apologize for the prequels? That’s the question of the day.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly movie news round-up that finds the darndest things. Like Sacha Baron Cohen’s beard, creepy Musketeer posters, Mark Wahlberg, Simon Pegg, Paul Walker and a way to make your tweets into epic cinematic adventures. You need this and you know it. We begin tonight with Sacha Baron Cohen looking crazytown as The Dictator, his latest mockumentary prank film. Only this time, it’s got a more concise narrative. Cohen will play the dual roles of a ruthless dictator who heads to the U.S. for a meeting at the United Nations and finds that his number two has replaced him with an unsuspecting sheepherder lookalike. The big guy has sort of a Cosmo Kramer meets Mr. T vibe going on, with all the frills of the late Saddam Hussein. That feeling deep in your loins is unbridled excitement. That’s a good thing.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a sad Doctor Who fan tonight, that’s for sure. With the premiere of a new season less than a week away, tragedy has struck. We must press on, but we must also remember fondly Elisabeth Sladen. There will also be a slew of interesting news, but first, some sadness… Elisabeth Sladen — best known as Sarah Jane Smith of Doctor Who fame — has passed away this week at the age of 63. For those who are not familiar with her work, she was one of the most famous companions in the long history of Who. She was the show’s heart and soul for a time, and reprised the character many times over the course of 38 years. That’s one hell of a run. She will be missed.

It’s not often that an argument about the fundamentals of the existence of a higher power takes place in an RV toilet, but it’s somehow the perfect setting for a character moment that stands as the centerpiece of Paul. Ruth (played by Kristen Wiig) is convinced of her belief in God without reservation, but when the foul-mouthed, chain smoking alien steps out of the water closet, it shakes her to the core. That’s not the sole example of religion or faith in the film. In fact, faith is the main theme of the entire movie. It just happens to be wrapped in a science fiction narrative and sprinkled with comedy and curse words.

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr starts a new regimen of drugs that comes in a clear little pill. The guy on the street corner told him that it would unlock the full potential of his mind, and he assured Kevin it was FDA approved. Why would this guy lie to him? While waiting for the drugs to kick in, Kevin decided to take a trip across the American southwest and search for skinny little aliens with fat man voices. He knows he’s safe, even if he’s picked up by the cops, because he’s retained a dead-sexy lawyer who runs his practice out of the back of his Lincoln Town Car.

There’s an old hobby that most everyone shares of creating dream teams. Maybe it’s figuring out the best possible basketball players to toss onto one roster (which dominates the Olympics in the 90s), maybe it’s thinking up physics-defying, time-travel-based bands which see Robert Plant playing with Buddy Rich and Townes Van Zandt, maybe it’s seeing some of the best in the comedy business come together to merge styles and create a movie. Paul is what it’s like when worlds collide. The dry, awkward humor of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost coming together under satire and humanistic comedy of director Greg Mottola with a healthy blend of Kristen Wiig, Seth Rogen, and Jason Batemen in tow. The results don’t explode into orbit, but the movie is as enjoyable as any other standard road trip comedy out there.

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 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?

You might know Edgar Wright as the director of last year’s underseen screen gem Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, and you might know Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as the onscreen and screenwriting duo from the upcoming Greg Mottola comedy Paul. But probably you know them all from the work they did collaborating on the awesome action comedies Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Those films were written by Pegg and Wright, they starred Pegg and Frost, and they were directed by Wright. And according to Simon Pegg, they’re all ready to have another go at it. He told MTV, “Edgar has coughed up that [Scott Pilgrim] furball and we’re now in the process of regurgitating [Paul], so Edgar and I are planning to get together in the next few months to start working on the next in the ‘Blood and Ice Cream’ series. And I hope Nick will be more involved in the creation of that.” So does this mean that now that Pegg and Frost have written together we may get a three-man writing team for the next, ‘Blood and Ice Cream’ movie, as he calls it?

As the only literate Reject, it’s my duty to find the latest, the greatest and the untouched classics that would make great source material for film adaptations. I read so you don’t have to. The end of the world is coming pretty soon, and the best way to be prepared for it is to read this book by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Don’t be caught with your pants down during the end times. Know your future, gird your loins, avoid gorgeous red heads that make you angry for no apparent reason, and keep a close eye on that neighborhood gang of kids that seems totally harmless. They’re probably hanging out with the Antichrist.

The greatest thing about the possible Ant-Man movie is that no one on the planet has any idea how anyone could pull it off, but since Edgar Wright is in the creative driver’s seat, that normally debilitating fear vanishes like a superhero who gets so tiny you can’t see him. Wright told the LA Times that he’s had a casual meeting with Marvel head Kevin Feige, and that he’s sitting down to take another pass at his Ant-Man script with Joe Cornish. The same small-budget elements seem to be in place, and Wright claimed that, “this one’s not about about the urgency of summer tentpoles and things going into production without a script.” Magical golden words for fans that like their spectacle with a little meat to it. If that script doesn’t keep him busy enough, he has a new idea for a project that will have him partner up with Simon Pegg again. It could very well be the third film of the Cornetto Trilogy that that every single human on earth has been waiting for.

Paul is an alien from outer space who likes to moon people, use his invisibility powers to show up randomly naked, and laugh just like Seth Rogen. There’s a new trailer for the film out today, and even though it says nothing about the exact quest the alien and his new spaced-out friends (played by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost) are going on, it’s still a shiny example of some solid comedy. Plus, there’s at least three major science fiction film references just in the trailer alone.

I write this with all due respect to director Michael Apted, his actors, the rest of his creative team and even C.S. Lewis himself. But, really, is there anyone out there who actually cares about these Narnia movies? Was there a big clamoring for this second sequel? Would anyone’s world end if the last four books remained where they’ve probably always belonged – on bookshelves? There must be a devoted audience somewhere, as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian raked in some serious box office cash. Surely, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader will surpass Tangled and the infinitely superior latest Harry Potter to own the weekend, giving Fox and Walden Media sufficient cause to dial up the next one.

Like a shooting star sent from the heavens above the first teaser for Greg Mottola’s latest film, Paul has finally arrived. The film reunites Simon Pegg and Nick Frost for the first time outside of their work with Edgar Wright in a story about two buddies on a Winnebago road trip across the United States. Their travels through Area 51 bring them in close contact with an alien named Paul, and soon the adventure is on as they’re forced to evade the feds, entertain the ladies, and have a good time at Comic-Con! The film co-stars Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig, Jane Lynch, Sigourney Weaver, Bill Hader, Blythe Danner, Jeffrey Tambor, Joe Lo Truglio, and the smooth vocal-stylings of Seth Rogen as the title alien. Check out the teaser below.

With the Andy Serkis and Simon Pegg led film Burke & Hare, John Landis appears to be fusing the two things he has done well in the past 35 years of filmmaking: silly comedy and blood-spilling horror. Based on this first trailer though, it would appear as if the pendulum is swinging more to the side of silliness than it is to violence. It certainly fits into Landis’ filmography somewhere in between the gnarly nature of An American Werewolf in London and the ridiculousness of Three Amigos, telling the true life story of William Burke and William Hare, a pair of intrepid wanderers who take to the business of collecting bodies. But when the well of fresh ones run out, they find a way to make their own. Of course, the film itself (based on this first trailer) is far sillier than the actual act of murder. If you don’t find murder to be fun, that is…

Several new images have emerged this week from the set of John Landis’ upcoming horror comedy Burke and Hare, starring Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis. The film is described as a “black romantic comedy” about two bodysnatchers in 1828 Edinburgh.

Word from Dread Central is that John Landis is returning to horror. I’m going to give everyone a second to finish howling with delight. No, that was not a werewolf joke…….yes it was.

Superbad Director Greg Mottola and company have set up a production blog for his forthcoming flick,Paul, so that fans can keep up-to-date on the filming, download shirtless pics of Seth Rogen and send ice cream cones for Simon Pegg to autograph and send back.