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.

Most movies involving superpowered characters are ridiculously costly affairs, but last month's Chronicle, a sort of found footage superheroic origin story, was far more cost effective.  The film was a pleasant surprise for critics and audiences, proving quite commercially successful over the last month.  For the film's younger director, Josh Trank, and writer, Max Landis, this has meant a huge jump in their respective profiles.  Now they're both lining up new projects, and Landis has signed on to write a Chronicle sequel for 20th Century Fox.

The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, two event movies adapted from the bestselling novels of Dan Brown, grossed a combined 1.24 billion dollars globally.  So of course Sony Pictures is looking to adapt the latest literary adventure of Robert Langdon, the "Harvard symbologist" who gets himself into all manner of trouble involving historical minutiae and conjecture.  While a consistent creative team worked on both of the previous films, The Lost Symbol will involve new personnel.  The newest is screenwriter Danny Strong, who will make his theatrical writing debut with the film.

For years, fans of the cancelled Fox series Arrested Development held out hope that the ensemble comedy would be brought back to life as a feature film.  It seemed a quixotic fixation, one of those stories that would show up every few months without ever actually resulting in a Bluth family reunion.  Now, six years after Arrested Development last produced new content, it is happening.  Just ask series co-executive producer Dean Lorey.

Opening in theaters on December 16th is a new documentary based on the life of legendary producer/director Roger Corman (The Wild Angels, Death Race 2000) called Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel. In addition to making over four-hundred movies as a producer and/or director, Corman is also responsible for introducing the world to some of the most influential actors and filmmakers of all-time. 

The documentary is directed by Alex Stapleton and features interviews with Academy Award-winners Robert De Niro (Raging Bull), Martin Scorsese (The Departed), Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind), Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs), and Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction), as well as William Shatner (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan), Peter Fonda (Easy Rider), Bruce Dern (Black Sunday), Pam Grier (Jackie Brown), Joe Dante (Gremlins), Peter Bogdanovich (Paper Moon), the late Irvin Kershner (Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back), the late George Hickenlooper (Heart of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse), the late David Carradine (Kill Bill: Vol. 2), and three-time Oscar-winner Jack Nicholson (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Terms of Endearment, As Good as it Gets). 

IAR's managing editor Jami Philbrick recently had an opportunity to sit down with Hollywood legend Roger Corman, as well as documentary filmmaker Alex Stapleton to discuss the making of Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel. The two filmmakers talked about the process of making the documentary, Corman's impressive career and the people he has influenced, how Stapleton obtained interviews with the A-list talent that appears in the film, Jack Nicholson's emotional breakdown, how filmmaking has changed since Corman began; and the secret to his amazing longevity. 

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 consumers looking to get the most possible bang for their buck, big summer movies filled with visual effects are the most obvious means of showing off the capabilities of their Blu-ray player.  Overwhelming visuals, subwoofer-straining bass, and window-rattling sound design are the standard for such movies, and this summer's Cowboys & Aliens has all three, so the just-announced Blu-ray and DVD release is an ideal means of showcasing an outrageously big television.  You know what else Cowboys & Aliens has?  Aliens.  And Cowboys, as played by Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, and Sam Rockwell.

Both eponymous figures, from the old west and outer space, respectively, will be present and accounted for when the Jon Favreau-directed, Steven Spielberg-produced spectacle arrives in stores on December 6th.  While the Blu-ray will, of course, feature all the accoutrements that are expected in the format, it will also boast an extended version of the film, a full seventeen minutes longer than the cut seen in theaters.

The unspeakably intelligent and consistently hilarious Fox series Arrested Development was cruelly canceled five years ago, cut down in its prime after just three seasons (more like two and a half, actually).  Since then, the possibility of a cinematic resurrection for the Bluth family has been like a mirage in the desert for fans of the show, an oasis teasingly glimpsed so, so far off in the distance every few months when a castmember, series creator Mitchell Hurwitz, or some anonymous source claims that Arrested Development will begin production somewhere down the line. 

At this point, it's not unreasonable to doubt that we'll ever see Tobias Funke's cutoff jeans on the big screen, but according to Hurwitz, along with stars Jason Bateman and Will Arnett, the movie will indeed happen, along with an abbreviated one-season television revival that would serve as a reintroduction to each individual player in the Bluth saga.

Apparently, DreamWorks is very happy with the upcoming sci-fi family film Real Steel, and the film's director, Shawn Levy, is becoming an even bigger deal as a result.  He's been signed on the direct a 3D remake of The Fantastic Voyage produced by James Cameron since February, but last week THR reported that he was looking at other projects because of an inability to get Fox to pony up the dough for a huge international movie (preferably Will Smith) to headline.  It looks like Levy may very well have opted out of Fox's Fantastic Voyage, because he's now signed on to direct the studio's new Frankenstein film, one of seven currently in development.