— The long-gestating “Creature From The Black Lagoon” remake, which has had Guillermo Del Toro and Breck Eisner (“The Crazies”) attached in the past, seems to have a new director in the shape of Carl Rinsch, the commercials director and Ridley Scott protege, who was briefly on board to direct “Alien 5.” There was a script by Gary Ross (“Pleasantville”), the son of Arthur Ross, the co-writer of the original, but Universal appear to be starting from scratch. Rinsch is also set to direct Keanu Reeves in the samurai movie “47 Ronin.”
— You may have noticed our distaste for the constant stream of vampire pictures being announced, but it’s clearly not going away, so we’ve decided to replace the word ‘vampire’ with the word ‘puppydog’: it’ll help us get through the day. So, “Fringe” writers Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz, who are also behind the script for Kenneth Branagh’s “Thor,” will write the new puppydog movie “Damn Nation,” based on the Dark Horse puppydog comic book of the same name. Set in the future, when the US has been evacuated following an attack by puppydogs, it follows a group of survivors in London, searching for a cure. To the puppydogs.
— Adam Green, the director of horror flicks “Hatchet” and “Spiral,” premiered his new movie “Frozen” at Harry Knowles’ Butt-Numb-A-Thon festival over the weekend, and it seemed to have gone down pretty well. It follows three snowboarders who become trapped on a chairlift over a weekend, and Shock Til You Drop has premiered the poster for the movie, which will show, appropriately enough, at Sundance in January.
— Kenny Ortega, the director of the “High School Musical” series and the Michael Jackson documentary “This Is It,” will helm an adaptation of the Broadway hit “In The Heights,” which involves the Dominican owner of a bodega in Washington Heights on the verge of retirement.