In 2011, major studios experienced a new found reticence to finance huge and ambitious genre projects, no matter how sure a thing they may have seemed.  One of the most frequently-cited examples of this economic sensibility was The Dark Tower, a cinematic trilogy and two season television series adapting the novel series by Stephen King.  Universal Pictures abandoned the project last summer, though director Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer seemed confident that The Dark Tower would find a new studio home.

If history repeats itself, as it inevitably tends to do, The 84^th Academy Awards airing this Sunday, February 26^th on ABC are sure to be a hit that will invariably leave us all with a belly ache from an exorbitant amount of laughter. What else would anyone expect when you take the team of Billy Crystal as returning host, and Carol Leifer as writer? There are simply certain combinations that just work, and this is definitely one of them.

Of Crystal’s decision to host again, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak has recently been quoted as saying, "I'm thrilled to welcome Billy back to the Oscar stage," adding, "He's a comic legend and an Oscar icon, and it feels good to have him back where he belongs."

Crystal's thoughts on the subject, "Some of the best moments of my career have happened on the Oscar stage. I am thrilled to be back there. Actually, I am doing this so that the young woman in my pharmacy will stop asking me my name when I pick up my prescriptions.”

The 2012 Academy Awards will serve as Leifer’s seventh time writing for the Oscars and her third time working with Crystal for the show. A little bit of Oscar trivia will show you just how special this union is, only Bob Hope has hosted more Academy Awards presentations with an impressive nineteen ceremonies between 1940 and 1978. It has been a while since we have seen Crystal at the helm as his last appearance as host was in 2004, and this year will serve as his ninth appearance as the evening’s master of ceremonies.

In last year's ensemble comedic caper Tower Heist, disgruntled employees in a luxury building decide to embark on a criminal enterprise evening the score after their ultra-wealthy boss cons them all in a massive Ponzi scheme.  In the spirit of the film, which arrives on Blu-ray and DVD this week, a sampling of the abundant bonus features from Tower Heist are available online now, after being successfully heisted from the Blu-ray (heisted with the explicit permission of Universal Pictures, of course).

192 episodes over eight seasons apparently weren't enough of 24, as a movie continuing the terrorist-foiling Jack Bauer has been in development for some time now.  It's been well over a year since the last time we saw Keifer Sutherland screaming at suspects and generally acting without regard to jurisprudence. 

It's also been about eight months since any updates on the 24 movie, about which Sutherland and producer Brian Grazer remained enthusiastic and hopeful, despite some setbacks.  Now, it seems that 20th Century Fox and Imagine Entertainment are aiming to get production on 24 underway in the spring of 2012.

Over this past summer, Universal Pictures blinked in a game of big-budget chicken that, had the studio kept its foot on the gas, would have been a monstrously ambitious project.  In July, Universal put The Dark Tower into turnaround, leaving the adaptation of author Stephen King's fantasy series without a home, despite the involvement of director Ron Howard, producer Brian Grazer, screenwriter-producer Akiva Goldsman, and leading man Javier Bardem as the iconic gunslinger Roland Deschain.  We've heard very little about The Dark Tower since July, when Universal kicked it to the curb, and Howard has moved on the the Formula One racing drama Rush, but Grazer himself says that the project has shaved almost a third of its budget, and he's confident it will become a reality.

Have you ever seen One Hour Photo, the 2002 movie starring Robin Williams as a photo-guy who becomes dangerous obsessed with a family whose film he develops?  Odds are you haven't, and that's a damn shame, as it's an incredibly well-directed, messed up movie with a strong central performance from Williams.  Mark Romanek, who directed the movie, has made only one feature film since, but it appears he may very well helm a humdinger for this third film, as he's the frontrunner to direct Sony Pictures' The Lost Symbol, a sequel to The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons.

For awhile there, it really looked like Universal Studios was going to show some cajones of unparalleled size by financing The Dark Tower, an adaptation of the seven-novel series by Stephen King that would span a hugely expensive  motion picture trilogy and two limited-run seasons of a television series.  Along with his writer Akiva Goldsman and producing partner Brian Grazer, director Ron Howard was zipping through preproduction, even snagging Oscar winner Javier Bardem to play the principal character, Roland Deschain.  In May, they hit some serious budgetary speedbumps, but the project was not yet dead at Universal until now, as Deadline reports that the studio has opting against proceeding with The Dark Tower.

The very first official clip from Cowboys & Aliens carried the weight of some exposition, setting up the more-or-less mutually beneficial relationship between Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) and Colonel Dollarhyde (Harrison Ford), two gunslinging  types who aren't big fans of one another.  Just hours later, a second clip from Jon Favreau's latest would-be blockbuster has appeared, and this time, there's nary a line of expository dialogue, alien footprints, or grudge punches.  Instead, this excerpt highlights a galloping action scene, with Craig and Olivia Wilde pitted against a flying alien abduction machine.  There's a terrific sense of geography and old-school heroism here, along with a listen of Harry Gregson-Williams' anthemic score.

A new clip from Cowboys & Aliens is available for the purposes of providing about a minute of entertainment while enticing you, the moviegoer, to throw down some hard-earned cash on a ticket or two for what looks to be a grand time at the movies.  The clip starts with the beautiful Olivia Wilde, teases with a fleeting glimpse of an extraterrestrial and his/her/its footprint, then sets up the contentious relationship between the mysterious Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) and Colonel Dollarhyde (Harrison Ford), teasing with a fleeting glimpse of an extraterrestrial and his/her/its footprint.  it is impossible to deny the fun in seeing the westerned-out Ford and Craig decking each other in the face.

Despite death being a truly universal human experience, there aren't a lot of movies that point their thematic focus directly at dying, except for horror films like the Final Destination series, which turn death into a spectacle.  Director Gus Van Sant's latest, Restless, looks to be all about exiting the realm of the quick, but it leavens the proceedings with a ghostly kamikaze sidekick named Hiroshi (Ryo Kase) and the inarguable adorableness of Mia Wasikowska.  In an excellent new trailer for the film, you'll see  Henry Hopper as a grieving young man who falls for Wasikowska only to find she's not long for this world.