Quickhits: Downloading Kong, Bob the Musical, A Director for Watchmen?

Posted Mar 25th 2006 6:00PM

Yes, even the weekend's got odds and ends:

According to a from-the-horse's-mouth report at AICN, 300 director Zack Snyder is in talks to direct the long-simmering Watchmen movie. Of course, since both Darren Aronofsky and Paul Greengrass had and then lost the job, the name of a director doesn't necessarily mean much in this case. That said, however, at least they're talking - after years of waiting, maybe the movie will actually get done.

Stepping bravely away from the screen-adaptation-of-an-established-show trend that is the key to movie musicals these days, Touchstone Pictures is working on Bob: The Musical, a musical comedy about "a mild-mannered man who suddenly hears the 'inner song' of people's hearts after being struck in the head." Awesome. The screenplay is currently being rewritten by John August, Tony-winner and five-time Oscar nominee Marc Shaiman is penning the lyrics and score, and Mark Waters (he of Freaky Friday and Mean Girls fame - I wonder if his contract requires the presence of at least one Lohan at all times) is set to direct.

Universal will kick off their new, UK-only download-to-own program with the release of King Kong next week. When the film comes out on DVD, it will also be made available over the internet and, for the small fee of £19.99, buyers will not only be able to download 2 copies of the movie (one that can be legally transfered to another video player, and one that has to stay on the hard drive), but will also get a DVD of the film in the mail. If the program works (read: makes lots of money), Universal plans to make about 30 other new releases available for download. I'm unclear on why anyone would bother to do this - it'll be interesting to see how many people choose the downloading option, and how Universal spins the numbers to make them sounds positive.

'Fone Finds