If the public likes Avatar, it’s a possibility. After all, here we are exploring the surface of the planet Pandora. The interior remains to be seen.

Fantastic Mr. Fox is visionary director Wes Anderson’s first animated film, utilizing classic handmade stop motion techniques to tell the story of the best selling children’s book by Roald Dahl (author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach).

Mr and Mrs Fox (George Clooney and Meryl Streep) live an idyllic home life with their son Ash (Jason Schwartzman) and visiting young nephew Kristopherson (Eric Anderson). But after 12 years, the bucolic existence proves too much for Mr Fox’s wild animal instincts. Soon he slips back into his old ways as a sneaky chicken thief and in doing so, endangers not only his beloved family, but the whole animal community. Trapped underground and with not enough food to go around, the animals band together to fight against the evil Farmers - Boggis, Bunce and Bean - who are determined to capture the audacious, fantastic Mr Fox at any cost. The film also stars Bill Murray, Wally Wolodarsky, Eric Anderson, Michael Gambon, Willem Dafoe, Owen Wilson and Jarvis Cocker.

Watch the trailer in High Definition on Apple.com. Fantastic Mr. Fox hits theaters on November 13th 2009.

I personally am glad to see Wes doing something fresh. We've got some familiar faces in the mix, but this is new territory for him - and it's quite refreshing.

In what could be the first film in a noirish franchise for 20th Century Fox, Leonardo DiCaprio is attached to star as Travis McGee, a fictional Floridian gumshoe who lives on a houseboat, in The Deep Blue Goodbye. The film is an adaptation of the popular 1964 novel—nearly identical in title—by late pulp-fiction author John D. MacDonald. It marked the debut in an influential, entertaining 21-book series that spans an American landscape from the Kennedy to the Regan administrations. The screenplay was written by Dana Stevens (Sam Raimi’s For the Love of the Game, Blink).

In the novel, McGee, a trusty and attractive 6′ 4″ bachelor, faces anxiety and financial woes and works as a “salvager” in Fort Lauderdale, collecting monies and property for his clients. The plot revolves around treasure buried in the Florida Keys during WWII, a murderous felon who catches wind of this while incarcerated, and an eventual showdown between the two. Also: shady women with bedroom eyes. McGee’s aforementioned houseboat is called the Busted Flush, a prize won in a poker game that helps define his marina-bum lifestyle. 

Firm details on producer Robert Rodriguez and director Nimrod Antal’s Predators are pretty thin on the ground. We know that Alex Litvak has been writing the script and that much of the film is going to be shot on Rodriguez’ Troublemaker lot with some location shooting likely to take place in Hawaii, but besides the much discussed and seemingly impossible cameo role from Arnold Schwarzenegger there hasn’t even been much talk of any possible cast members. Who will be making up the human contingent, the team of commandos facing off against a whole heap of crab-faced Predators? The first name has been revealed, and it’s not a surprisingly a member of the Rodriguez rep company, none other than Machete himself, Danny Trejo.

In a short video interview with the Punch Drunk Critics, Trejo sings minor-key updates on Machete, Sin City 2 and Predators. As far as Machete goes, Trejo simply lists the other cast members, but when asked if he’ll be doing Sin City 2, says:

It’s kind of in the works. We’re going to do Predators next. So Sin City’s kind of… er… a thought process… We’ll be doing Predator[s] I think in about a month.

While this doesn't say that he will be acting in the film - it is hard to believe that it would be any other situation. I personally think it's about time Trejo gets some big, well deserved screen time in a major film. Although I'm a bit sketchy on this whole Predators thing to begin with.

We’ve known for some time now that Ron Howard’s first comic book adaptation will be a film version of the Image Comics series, The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft. The comic is a fictionalized story featuring a young Lovecraft who goes from a wimpy writer to an ass-kicker of the supernatural.

Speaking to the LA Times Hero Complex blog, Howard shared his excitement for the material—a project he will most likely direct:

Look, it’s challenging, but if we get it right, it could be really original and psychologically interesting and scary in a great way. And it’s a graphic novel, this is new territory for me.

So I’ve got literally half-a-dozen projects where essentially I’m waiting for drafts to come in, and there’s something I love about all of these ideas. We’ll just have to wait to see what comes to fruition. I sort of can’t bear the thought of letting any of them go. So maybe I’ve got the next five years spoken for.

Sam Raimi (Evil Dead series, Drag Me To Hell) has signed on to produce a supernatural horror film titled Refuge. British screenwriter Tom De Ville will write the script based on a pitch from up-and-coming British director Corin Hardy. At the very least, Hardy’s stop-animation work, is impressive. Very stylized, and likely to draw comparisons to Tim Burton. Check out some of Hardy’s music videos in our commercial director spotlight.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the story “centers on a remote town terrorized by a Yeti, the mythological creature native to the mountains of the Himalayas.”

But before Hardy and De Ville tackle the feature, they will first produce a short film with the same premise. The hope is that the short film will help Hardy refine his vision as the script is being developed. It seems to me that, while not stated, the short film test might also act as a proving ground for the yet-unproven young director.

The only thing that could make this better is Raimi directing. Although, if he is willing to produce, it means he may have some high hopes for the concept and the director. In any case - it could be about time we get a good horror film about the Yeti - a much under appreciated mythical creature.