Lionsgate is very eager to get their remake of Conan the Barbarian up and shooting. How can they not be? At this point, Conan spin-offs Thulsa Doom and Red Sonja are neatly beating it in the pre-production department (Red Sonja already has a star, a director, and merchandise already!), and both were green-lit after Conan. A sad state of affairs for the Cimmerian, indeed.

But it looks like things are moving again. According to The Hollywood Reporter, they've has hired Dirk Blackman and Howard McCain to rework the script. They seem a pretty good fit for the pulpy source, being fresh off Outlander (which McCain also directed) and Underworld 3: Rise of the Lycans. They're still looking for a director, but would anyone be surprised if they decided on McCain?

They're replacing Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer, who wrote several drafts, apparently none of which was to the studio's liking. The CEO of Paradox Entertainment, Fredrik Malmberg, is aiming to stick close to the source material. He'd also like to become a franchise. (Is that a surprise to anyone? Thought not.) "There's no reason there couldn't be a Conan movie every two years. He's almost like Batman: He's a dark hero. He's a hard hero. He has to be badass, but we also have to like him."

Lionsgate is also looking to restart another long-delayed swords-and-loincloths project -- McCain and Blackman's Amazon, to which Scarlett Johansson has long been attached, has landed in the studio's loving hands. They're looking for a director for that, too. It wasn't that long ago that I wished for a resurgence of swords and sorcery -- and I'm getting it. It's going to be glorious! Chainmail bikinis and dudes with eight-packs, all worthy of being painted on the side of your van. Welcome back, 1980!

With five nominations, it looks like Superbad will be the star of the 2008 MTV Movie Awards, and its three jubilant male leads -- Michael Cera, Jonah Hill, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse -- deserve the kudos. But one major talent behind the whole affair has stayed relatively anonymous while these young up-and-comers bathe in the spotlight: Director Greg Mottola. The erstwhile independent filmmaker, responsible for some of the best installments of Arrested Developed and Undeclared, launched his career a solid decade before the rise of Judd Apatow with a charming little low budget comedy called The Daytrippers. Starring Stanley Tucci, Hope Davis, Liev Schreiber, Parker Posey and a host of other fantastic character actors, the film follows a wildly dysfunctional family over the course of a single day, as Davis, playing a worrisome housewife, tries to track down her unfaithful husband (Tucci).

Mixing warm humanity with pitch-perfect screwball timing, Daytrippers marked the sort of debut that told you a filmmaker had a big career ahead of him. After a modest premiere at the Slamdance Film Festival, it landed at Cannes, barely got a theatrical release and promptly vanished thereafter. Mottola turned to TV work, and slipped out of the film scene for a good ten years. These days, it's no easy task to track down Daytrippers on DVD -- you can nab second-hand copies on Amazon for decent rates, but not a single retail outlet carries it. Aside from the occasionally airings on cable, the movie has vanished.

Now that Blu-ray will officially take over the HD market with regards to DVDs, it's about time you pick yourself up a player. You'll find, though, that once you purchase a Blu-ray player, the DVDs are crazy expensive. Some, like massive special editions, cost up to $40-50. I'm sorry, but that's a lot of money for a movie. In fact, ever since receiving my Blu-ray player (in the form of PS3) back at Christmas, it took me forever to purchase my first Blu-ray DVD. That film came this past weekend when I splurged and picked up I Am Legend (for a whopping $35!). Ah, but now, Amazon has a wicked deal for those of you who desperately want more Blu-ray DVDs, but don't have the money to shovel out.

Right now, Amazon is running a buy two, get one free on a lot of their Blu-ray discs. Better yet, the discs are already on sale. For example, the Blade Runner (Five-Disc Complete Collector's Edition), originally priced at $40, is now only $27.95. You can even get 300 on Blu-ray for $23. Throw both of those in your queue, and you get to pick out one Blu-ray DVD for free! Not a bad deal if you ask me. Some of the DVDs they're offering on Blu-ray include Monty Python's Life of Brian ($19.95), The Departed ($23.95), Unforgiven ($19.95), Reservoir Dogs ($20.95), First Blood ($20.95) and a whole lot more. So check it out and have a blast -- you have until April 18.

[via Slashfilm]

What's the best way to give your own flagging video distribution a shot in the arm? Buy the most popular one on the planet. Google announced today that it was buying the popular online video sharing service YouTube for a cool $1.65 billion dollars in stock -- really nice payday for a company that hasn't even turned two yet.

YouTube is one of the most popular websites on the planet, breaking into the top ten with sites like Yahoo, MySpace, and of course -- Google. Earlier this summer, it was reported that YouTube was serving upwards of 100 million videos a day, with 65,000 new ones uploaded by users every day. That number will surely climb as they have more money and server space available to them through Google. Google's own GoogleVideo service tried to compete with YouTube, adopting a similar look and feel, but they never could match the popularity of the upstart company. If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em.

Now, why should movie lovers pay attention? With the announcements of both Apple's iTunes movies, and Amazon's Unbox services, mainstream movie distribution on the web has become something to start thinking seriously about -- ya know, it's not just speculation around the water cooler anymore. While there are other sites on the web that offer movie downloads, both Apple and Amazon have been the first mainstream sites to offer them in an easy-to-understand and affordable format. Google seems to be setting the stage for their own effort in the same arena.

Though Amazon.com has yet to initiate its widely-anticipated foray into the movie rental business (currently expected to be launching next month), it has today announced its intention to get into production. The company recently acquired the rights to The Stolen Child, the best-selling debut novel by Keith Donohue, and is now in the process of tracking down a screenwriter and director. The book actually sounds really disturbing -- it tells the story of "a 7-year-old [who] is kidnapped by forest-dwelling changelings, who replace him with a look-alike." The kid ends up "[roaming] the woods with a pack of feral children" while his replacement tries to fit in with his new family. YIKES.

Interestingly, Amazon's main role in the film will be in advertising. Sort of like Starbucks recently did with Akeelah and the Bee, Amazon will use its website to promote the hell out of the movie when release time comes. While this is sure to be incredibly annoying (I'm envisioning a movie-related version of ESPN's endless, odious shilling of their crappy cell phones), it'll be sure to get the film a massive amount of exposure, since everyone and their brother uses Amazon for, well, everything. And, if you click on the book title above, you'll get an idea of what they have in store -- for some reason, Amazon's been pimping the hell out of the novel for a while.

Though Amazon reps are still refusing to comment, the unending rumors about their involvement in a possible rival to iTunes turned into news yesterday, when Reuters reported that the company is "in advanced talks with several major Hollywood studios about creating a service that allows consumers to download and copy movies and television programs." The understanding is that the studios involved are Universal, Paramount, and Warner Brothers, and that all three are "enthusiastic" about an agreement, which could come soon. That said, however, it's by no means a done deal.

While the news of a major tech company jumping (maybe) into the movie downloading business would be noteworthy on its own, the fact that the company is Amazon - a retailer of frightening ubiquity - gives the report a completely different scope. Instead of just tech savvy kids doing the downloading (like they do now), Amazon offering the service creates the possibility of middle-American grandparents one-clicking their ways to laptops full of movies. While I'm not sure if this is cool or depressing, it's an image of undeniable power, and yet another sign of how much tech has changed the film industry over the past 10-15 years.