Short Cuts: Nic Cage, New ‘W’ Photos, ‘Venom’ Spin-Off, ‘Watchmen,’ ‘Righteous Kill,’ ‘Ballast’ And More Blog Flotsam & Jetsam

Nicholas Cage is slated to star in John Carpenters new movie about every Jr. High students biggest fear. Cage will star as an inmate on a mission to save a teen who has been taken hostage during a prison riot while visiting for that annoying Scared Straight program. The film will most likely insure that no parent will ever again sign a consent form for their child to participate in the “Scared Straight” program again. [Slasfilm]

Harvey Danger frontman Sean Nelson co-wrote and stars in “My Effortless Brilliance” directed by Lynn Shelton. Nelson is a super nice dude, so we’re very happy about this. Not sure how it fell off our radar though. [SpoutBlog]

A slightly new trailer of Oliver Stone’s ‘W,’ plus images of George Dubya/Josh Brolin looking like a Texas Ranger and a Sheriff-looking Cowboy are out. It’s like he reversed roles with Tommy Lee Jones in “No Country For Old Men.” [RopeofSilicon]

It is now a proven fact that studios will stop at nothing to turn obscure comic-book characters into feature length film subjects to capitalize on Americas new found geek chic. Marvel Studios have announced they are planning a Venom spin-off. Sam Raimi also announced that he will not be touching this weak-ass project and thank god for that. The Spider-Man movies are harmless enough, but a movie devoted entirely to Venom? This shit is getting out of hand, god save us all. [IESB.net]

The bootleg “Wolfman” trailer from Comic-Con will probably go down in minutes considering the blog is under review and will probably get the axe soon. [Wolfman-Trailer-Blogspot] Speaking of, The “Wolfman” site is actually live now. We’re not sure why a fine actor like Benicio del Toro would have anything to do with Comic-Con bait to be honest. [Wolfmanmovie]

New images for “Dragonball Z” suggest this action, kung-fu, sci-fi flick is going to be a hilarious comedy. [DBTheMovie]

David Gordon Green originally wanted Huey Lewis to record a “Ghostbusters”-like theme for “Pineapple Express” and then he remembered the whole brouhaha back in the day: Huey Lewis in the News sued Ray Parker Jr. because his theme was much to similar to “I Wanna New Drug.” The super interesting aspect of that story was the lawsuit happened in 1984; the parties settled it quietly and signed a gag order. The news that a lawsuit between them existed at all came out 17 years later in 2001 when Huey Lewis spoke about the incident in a VH1 “Behind The Music,” episode compelling Parker Jr. to sue him for breaching the confidentiality agreement. [L.A. Times Soundboard]

The Times has an interesting article about filmmakers going the DIY route for distribution. The piece lists “Bottle Shock,” “Wicked Lake,” “The Singing Revolution” and “Last Stop for Paul” among the indies currently or recently taking the maverick route of getting their films into theaters by any means necessary (self-distribution). This group also includes “Ballast,” a Sundance ’08 winner opening in October, that we’re dying to see. [NYTimes]

No matter how much they try and class up the new DeNiro/Pacino film, “Righteous Kill” with a new poster, the movie still looks pretty stupid. Remember the days when a DeNiro-Pacino team-up was worth salivating over? Those were the days. Also, isn’t it disconcerting that Pacino looks like Billy Bob Thornton in the poster? [Empire]

Four new images of the “Watchmen” have been released. Repeat. Four. New. Images. Of. The.Watchmen.have.been.released. Proceed with caution try not to trample anyone underfoot in your mad scramble to the front door. [Empire]

Keira Knightly is fighting attempts to sex up the poster to this fall’s period piece “The Duchess.” The U.K. waif is standing up for flat-chested women everywhere, trying to stop the studio from airbrushing cleavage unto her surf board torso for the theatrical poster. Are the suits under some impression that by adding cleavage to the poster they will attract loads of horny twenty somethings looking for a three hour soft-core porn? We aren’t sure, but producers standing up to small breasted ladies seems to be a recurring as of late. [Cinemablend.com]

“Clueless” and “The Breakfast Club” deemed better high school movies than “Boyz N the Hood” by EW.com. Check out the rest of the list on their website for more amusingly misguided comparisons. [EW.com]