2. Steven Spielberg is in serious talks to direct a new movie about Moses for Warner Bros that will hopefully remind you more of Braveheart than The Ten Commandments. Says an insider: “There have been glossy versions of the Moses story but this would be a real warrior story.” [via Deadline]

3. Uggie, the Jack Russell terrier who stole our hearts in The Artist, is apparently retiring. “He may do a couple of little things here and there because he enjoys them,” explains his owner, “but I don’t want to put him through long hours anymore. He’s getting tired.” [via Vulture]

4. “We have been working on this show for over a year and we wanted to partner with the right people. DJs are the new rock stars, it feels like the right time to make this show.” — Simon Cowell discusses his next reality project, which will see him partner with Jada Pinkett-Smith and Will Smith’s production company.

5. Are we the only ones who think that NBC giving Rainn Wilson from The Office his own spin-off about life at Schrute Farms is a really horrible idea? Did this network learn nothing from its misguided decision to air Joey? [via EW]

Bonus Buzz: The True Meaning Of Friendship

2. A People cover that surfaced on the Internet yesterday proclaiming that Twilight star Taylor Lautner is “Out & Proud” was actually a fake. Among the duped: Russell Simmons, who tweeted that he was “proud of Taylor Lautner for his bravery and his courage.” [via THR]

3. Van Halen — who have a new album due out on Interscope sometime in 2012 — have also announced plans to tour through the year with original frontman David Lee Roth. At 57, we’re wondering if his patented high-kicks will still pack the same punch. [via Rolling Stone]

4. Director Abel Ferrara and screenwriter Christ Zois are collaborating on a script that is inspired, in part, by the recent Dominique Strauss-Kahn scandal. French film stars Gérard Depardieu and Isabelle Adjani are rumored to be circling the lead roles. [via Vulture]

5. “Jail is really cold, I had no socks on. I’m fine though, bail was a lot even though I didn’t hurt anyone, I damaged some shit and I don’t know why rappers talk about jail like it’s cool. Oh my God I would go crazy.” — Tyler, the Creator blogs about the night that he spent in jail

Bonus Buzz: Unpublished Photos from the Set of It’s A Wonderful Life

Dracula 3D

You guys, I don’t even know where to start with this one. Watching this NSFW trailer for legendary giallo director Dario Argento’s 3D take on Nosferatu is an utterly befuddling experience — it leaves so many questions! Is this thing supposed to be serious, or is it some sort of jokey spoof trailer? Is that really a vampire who hisses at his victims? Are those 19th century fake boobs? And, most importantly, who was this trailer intended for? The incomplete visual effects (and insistent “visual effects work in progress” subtitles) would indicated this was some sort of “sizzle reel,” showcasing how awesome the movie will be for potential investors/distributors. Wonder how that went!

Apocalypses are a popular topic for filmmakers — though most are more interested in the narrative possibilities of the post-apocalyptic world than the event itself. Melancholia distinguishes itself by being something of a pre-apocalyptic picture, delving into the anxiety and fear of those who are awaiting the earth’s possible collision with a foreign object (timely!). After the jump, we’ll take a look back at a few of our favorite cinematic apocalypses.

strong>The Road Warrior

George Miller’s 1981 follow-up to his hit Mad Max has become, in the years since its release, the quintessential post-apocalyptic movie: set in a vast and mostly deserted wasteland, populated by meek survivors and leather-clad, mohawked marauders, its iconography became our go-to pop-culture conception of a crumbled and ravaged world.

Now from the looks of the trailer, it doesn’t appear that Hill is exactly doing Hamlet — Moneyball is a fast, witty, seriocomic drama, allowing Hill some comedic opportunities within a larger and more serious context. That is one way to go; there are others. After the jump, join us for a look at the strategies that Hill’s predecessors adopted in making their move towards drama, and how they fared.

Strategy 1: If you’re getting serious, get dead serious.
Example: Bill Murray in The Razor’s Edge; Robin Williams in Seize the Day

Murray used his participation in Ghostbusters as a bargaining chip to get Columbia Pictures to finance his dream project, an adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham’s 1944 novel (previously filmed in 1946, with Tyrone Power in the lead). Though Murray interjected some of his dry wit into the script (which he co-wrote with director John Byrum), he mostly played the role absolutely straight-faced—to its detriment. “Murray,” wrote Roger Ebert, “who is usually such a superb actor, has taken the wrong path in this performance, giving us moments when everybody in the film and in the audience is moved, except Murray. There are times when he seems downright obstinate in his performance, giving us a ramrod posture, a poker face, and eyes that will not let us inside. Perhaps, in his desire to make a break with the comic roles we know him for, he was overreacting.”

Robin Williams — who had done dramatic work at Julliard and appeared in the mostly-serious The World According to Garp — took a similarly solemn approach to his first full-on dramatic role, playing salesman Tommy Wilhelm in a made-for-PBS adaptation of Saul Bellow’s Seize the Day (a phrase associated with a later, better-known Williams film). He fared better than Murray; “Williams throws himself entirely into his character,” wrote Variety, “and his desperation is palpable.”

2. MGM is planning to reboot WarGames, with Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses, The King of Kong) attached to direct. Considering that the 1983 original, which starred Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy, was a movie about the Cold War, we wonder if they’re planning to shift its focus to the Middle East to make it feel more relevant. [via Variety]

3. Remember how we told you yesterday that the beefy Winklevoss twins had dropped their case against Facebook? Well, it turns out that it was because they are launching a brand new suit that will determine whether Mark Zuckerberg “intentionally or inadvertently suppressed evidence” during settlement proceedings. [via The Daily Beast]

4. Word has it that the lovely Emma Thompson may write the screenplay for the Will Smith/Jay-Z film adaptation of Annie that will feature Willow Smith in the titular role. Seriously guys, is there any way this movie can fail? [via Vulture]

5. We suppose it was bound to happen eventually, but it looks like Cars 2 will be Pixar‘s first “rotten” movie on Rotten Tomatoes — not that what the critics think will affect sales of tickets/merchandise tie-ins. [via Slashfilm]

Bonus link: World’s Most-Wanted Hacker Says He’s Never Felt Safer

2. “I believe the writers are six weeks away from a draft. I know a little bit. But I don’t know — the fellas went off and cooked it up. I don’t know what happened when they put the elements together. When we last got together [in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey], part of it was that Bill and Ted were supposed to have written the song that saved the world, and it hasn’t happened. So they’ve now become kind of possessed by trying to do that. Then there’s an element of time and they have to go back.” – Keanu Reeves talks to MTV about Bill and Ted 3

3. Will Smith and son Jaden will co-star in a yet-to-be titled sci-fi adventure flick for director M. Night Shyamalan about “a young boy who navigates an abandoned and sometimes scary Earth 1,000 years in the future to save himself and his estranged father after their ship crashes.” [via PopEater]

4. More exciting Record Store Day news: Jerry Lee Lewis will perform at Third Man Records’ Nashville stage for a live concert LP that will be produced by Jack White and released by the label. [via TwentyFourBit]

5. The Flaming Lips’ musical based on Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is in the early stages of production with Des McAnuff, who co-created the stage version of Tommy, at the helm. Says Wayne Coyne: “It’s really become a perfect combination of my fantastical robot-world vision and [McAnuff's] little, internal, humanistic version of what that music is.” [via Guardian]

Bonus link: Human Centipede: The Musical!

Dennis Rodman and Jean-Claude van Damme in Double Team

We’re generally all for The Worm, and will also stand up and argue that van Damme’s early output (pre-Universal Soldier, really) encompassed some of the best martial arts films ever made. So we’re not hating on either of these actors for the sake of it, but still, there’s no doubt that putting them in a film together was a casting balls-up of the highest order, made worse by the series of hackneyed basketball references that littered the script.

2. Still need proof that the British version is better? MTV is worried that upcoming episodes of Skins may violate federal child pornography statutes, and as a result, executives have ordered the show’s producers to make changes to tone down some of the most explicit content. [via NYT]

3. Andrew W.K. is hosting a “party” at 4chan. The live Q&A on the site is scheduled for February 13 at 7 pm. [via NYO]

4. Robert Downey Jr. has dropped out of Oz, the Great and Powerful, Disney’s upcoming prequel to The Wizard of Oz that Sam Raimi is set to direct. The studio is in discussions with Johnny Depp to replace him. [via Heat Vision]

5. Will Smith wants to do a remake of Annie with Willow Smith in the starring role. The Karate Kid reboot made more than $350 million worldwide; we bet this one will perform even better given the fact that Jay-Z is in talks to work on the music for the film. [via Variety]

Bonus link: Winona Ryder Finally Agrees To Sleep With Generation X

2. Aaron Sorkin has some not so kind words for Sarah Palin, Caribou huntress: “…I don’t relish the idea of torturing animals. I don’t enjoy the fact that they’re dead and I certainly don’t want to volunteer to be the one to kill them and if I were picked to be the one to kill them in some kind of Lottery-from-Hell, I wouldn’t do a little dance of joy while I was slicing the animal apart.” [via HuffPo]

3. In spite of the fact that Speed Racer was such a flop, Warner Bros. has tapped the Wachowski siblings to make Hood, a “top secret,” modern update of the Robin Hood tale — and they want Will Smith as their star. [via Vulture]

4. We love Mario Batali’s response to the question “Which living person do you most despise?” from Vanity Fair’s Proust Questionnaire: “Anonymous angry bloggers … all of them.”

5. Listen to a new Björk song that pays homage to her recently deceased friend, fashion designer Alexander McQueen. [via P4K]

Bonus link: 18 Famous Websites As Understood by a Five-Year-Old