Brad Pitt may be taking a year off from Hollywood, but Ron Howard has a role for him when he's ready. Howard and producing partner Brian Grazer are planning to remake Vincente Minnelli's Lust for Life, a Vincent Van Gogh biopic starring Kirk Douglas as the mad painter. Oh, I'm torn - Vincente Minnelli is maybe my favorite single director of that era, and I'm generally against the idea of retreading his work. Then again, I don't think Lust for Life is his best film, and there's probably plenty to say about Van Gogh that Minnelli's artist-on-artist treatment didn't include. And it seems like  Pitt has decided, post-Angelina, that he's only going to make films if they are actually interesting, which is, of course, great. But all of the potential good here could very well be ruined by the drippy Oscar-bait syrup that Ron Howard willfully smothers on every film he touches.