I normally wouldn’t post eight minute clips of movies, but The Hurt Locker is still in limited release and I loved it, so I want to tell everyone about it, like the time I touched my first boob (thanks, mom).   As you’ll see in this clip, The Hurt Locker is a great movie for the same reason Public Enemies was a disappointment: details.  Hurt Locker has them, Public Enemies tries to skip them.  There’s nothing too complex about Hurt‘s plot and it doesn’t have some brilliant insight into the horrors of war or the human condition, but it takes you into the world of guys who defuse bombs for a living and makes you feel the tension right along with them.  And it’s not that phony, bullsh-t tension where they shake the camera around and keep cutting between a foot on the gas pedal and Vin Diesel grimacing. It comes from simple, fully fleshed-out scenes.  Every hack director and editor in Hollywood should watch The Hurt Locker with their notebooks out and their Axe bodyspray in the off position. Best non-bukkake-related movie I’ve seen all year.

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(“I want a sandwich this big.”)

Guillermo Del Toro is so busy collecting paychecks from ten different projects that I can hardly keep track.  According to IMDB, he currently has eight projects in development, seven that he produced currently in post production, plus writing and directing two Hobbit movies, not to mention that vampire book he co-wrote for some reason.  He’s so busy that now he’s handing off projects to his ‘proteges,’ like this remake of Don’t be Afraid of the Dark, which is good because I’m sure the public absolutely couldn’t wait for this gem.

Guy Pearce is in final negotiations and Bailee Madison is set to star with Katie Holmes in “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark,” Miramax’s supernatural thriller being directed by Guillermo del Toro protege Troy Nixey.  “Dark” is based on a 1973 ABC telefilm about a young girl who moves in with her father and his girlfriend and discovers they are sharing the house with demonic creatures.  Del Toro and Matthew Robbins wrote the script. [THR]

Yep, a TV movie about a haunted house.  Does anyone remember that or care besides Guillermo Del Toro?  It doesn’t matter, he liked it and now he gets to remake it.  Welcome to the era of cinematic karaoke.

The Hurt Locker is an Iraq war movie from Point Break director Kathryn Bigelow, starring Guy Pearce and Papa Doc from 8 Mile.  The accompanying music sounds a little Let the Bodies Hit the Floorsie for my tastes, but it looks like it’ll at least be better than Stop Loss.  Besides, The Hurt Locker is a totally sweet name.  It should not be confused, however, with Bill Hurt’s locker, which contains some rather disparaging drawings of Ed Asner.

Lost amid the Dark Knight hullabashitstorm this weekend was the limited release of Death Defying Acts, a biopic of Harry Houdini starring Guy Pearce and Catherine Zeta-Jones-Douglas-Nahasapeemapetalon.  The $20 million dollar biopic received middling reviews, and grossed $5,000 on two screens.   That also makes three magic-themed posts in a row for those keeping score at home.

The big miss added to The Weinstein Brothers slump.  Since splitting with Disney in late 2005, they’ve bought Grace is Gone for $4 million, which made $50,000, and spent $54 million on Grindhouse, which earned $25 million.  Of course, that doesn’t take into account DVD sales. 

Genius Products, the Weinstein brothers’ DVD distribution arm, has lost over $50 million since the Weinstein Company exchanged film rights for a 70 per cent stake in Genius in 2006. The Weinstein Company is now delaying taking some film-distribution payments to redress Genius’s short-term losses.

I don’t understand fancy money talk, are they gonna make someone where a dress?  Anyway, let’s hope they don’t hit the poorhouse before they make Inglorious Bastards.  Things are looking pretty bad for the Weinsteins – an inside source tells me it’s getting so that their yacht waiters can barely afford matching aprons.

^{WATCH THE TRAILER FOR TRAITOR AFTER THE JUMP}

Traitor stars Don Cheadle as a former US Special Operations officer wanted as a terrorist being tracked by Guy Pearce and Jeff Bridges Daniels.  It’s based on an idea from Steve Martin (wuzzah?) and is being directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff.

This has potential.  Cheadle’s one of the best actors around and Guy Pearce’s is no slouch, but so what.  I won a spelling bee in sixth grade and you don’t see me bragging about it all the time.

[via Cinematical]