· Fanboys: Harvey says the movie has been moved to January "so we can do a major promotion with Comcast, who's arranging for a big advertising tie-in for us on the film." (TRANSLATION: "Bob's a little behind burning DVD's, so we're letting Comcast customers rip their own for a limited time only.")

· Crossing Over: "We're moving it to January. The market is just too crowded. Every week there are five more movies coming out. It's too crazy. Spring is much better—there are a lot more wide-open dates. The most important thing is to do well by the movie. Having it out in January gives us the opportunity to play the film at the Sundance and Berlin film festivals, which will be a big help to the movie." (TRANSLATION: "We're gonna try a pay-per-view premiere for festival guests at the Park City Marriott. Fresh ideas, Patrick! Hello?")

· Killshot: "Everyone has said that Mickey Rourke is amazing in The Wrestler and will be up for all sorts of awards, so we decided to move Killshot to a date a few weeks before the Oscars. That way we can capitalize on all the heat that's going to be around Mickey." (TRANSLATION: "Do you know anyone who might wanna buy a Mickey Rourke movie? Never been opened.")

· Shanghai: "It just couldn't be ready in time. The movie wasn't finished shooting until August and the director, Mikael Hafstrom, doesn't even deliver his cut until early November. He doesn't want it out now and neither do we. He needs time to make it as great as possible." (TRANSLATION: "Holy fucking shit, this sucks.")

Meanwhile, Goldstein also quotes an anonymous industry heckler who said, "Whenever I'm tempted to take a project to Harvey, I lie down and take a nap and hope that when I wake up, I'm sober again." It's probably safe at this point to cross that "Weinstein-resurgence" prediction off our list for the season.

• Harvey Weinstein explains it all for you [LAT]

The Weinsteins aren't leaving anything to chance, though, bringing out precautionary, surprisingly deferential big guns like producer Kevin Spacey just in case:

"I could not be more excited that Fanboys is being released this September and is the version of the film that the fans want," said Fanboys producer Kevin Spacey. "I am enormously grateful to Jedi Knight Harvey Weinstein for having allowed Trigger Street to restore Fanboys to its original story and am thrilled that it will first screen during Comic-Con. We believe in this film and are honored that George Lucas and all his team gave us permission to film at Skywalker Ranch and let us have so much fun with Star Wars. We also have a couple of surprises in the film that I think will bring added enjoyment to all the fans of Lucas' great and epic movies, and Trigger Street is proud to have produced this film and to have kept the dark side at bay."

"Jedi Knight Harvey Weinstein"? Great — so is this the part of Harvey's story where a disappointed Yoda is stuck raising his sunken business from the swamp? Goldman Sachs is asking for few spoilers, if so.

Meet Mark Millar. He's the dude who wrote the comic that Wanted was based on (along with several other good books too!), and since Wanted has proven itself to be a box office success, he now has a little bit of street cred in this town. Well, his lifelong dream has been to make a Superman movie, and he may just use that cred to do so.

As Millar says in an interview with the Scottish newspaper, the Daily Record:

"Since I was a kid I've always wanted to reinvent Superman for the 21st century. I've been planning this my entire life. I've got my director and producer set up, and it'll be 2011. This is how far ahead you have to think. The Superman brand is toxic after that last movie lost $200 million, but in 2011 we're hoping to restart it. Sadly I can't say who the director is, but we may make it official by Christmas."

Whoa, slow down there, Mark. I thought Bryan Singer was talking about restarting the Superman franchise himself, and making it more action oriented/less-sucky. And if so, who's this director Millar is referring to? Naturally the geekier regions of the Internet were up in arms about this, so Millar decided to clarify in the comments section over at slashfilm.com.

Millar writes:

" That Superman news is interesting, isn't it? In the interests of clarity (because I'm sure this will be picked up somewhere) a very well known American action director heard about my love of Superman, approached me and asked me to team up with he and his producer to make a pitch for this. We've been talking for several weeks now and, if this is going to happen, we'll know by Christmas. He has huge pull at WB so fingers crossed. But this is nothing more than a huge US name pulling me into his fold and making me part of a package."

So, there you have it, folks. The Superman franchise may or may not be restarted and either Bryan Singer or Mark Millar or both or neither will be in charge of it. Glad we could clear that up for you, fanboys.

• Mark Millar Has "Big Name Action Director" For a Superman Returns Revamp? Announcing at Xmas? Madness. [/Film]

Lionsgate is planning a limited 100 theater run of the Clive Barker adaptation on August 1st.

This move fulfills Lionsgate's contractual obligation with production entity Lakeshore to give it some sort of theatrical run. The plan is to subsequently release Meat Train quickly down the line (October?) for a DVD release.

Barker himself has released a statement encouraging his army of Barkerites—an easily excitable bunch instantly recognizable by the variety of sharp metal objects jutting out of their heads and their tendency to shout, "Blooood...yess....bloooood," wherever possible—to rise up: "This is exciting! I really think, this late in the day, that grassroots support for our movie could significantly improve our chances of reaching a much bigger audience theatrically. The picture is worth the effort, I believe." We'd caution that while the Lionsgate board is no stranger to intimidation—there was that infamous Rize strategy meeting in which David LaChapelle's clown-faced, krunking henchmen held the marketing department hostage until they promised to incorporate glitter-lettering on the posters—that sometimes, killing them with kindness is the best route in these matters. Taking a page from the TV playbook, perhaps sending in boxes and boxes of a significance-laden-item—say, in this case, cuts of meat (animal—not human!!)—might quickly make the studio reconsider, particularly after they run out of fridge room and the office starts smelling like week-old death. Just a thought.

• Barker Endorses Meat Train Fan Campaign [shocktillyoudrop.com]

Fanboy 1: You suck for re-cutting 'fanboys.' You really do.
Brill: U suck for e mailing me your bullshit whining. U r gonna like fanboys better because of me and then u can kiss my ass

Fanboy 2: I am going to contact my booker and suggest that as a company, we do not pick up this film for presentation. You have ruined a wonderful concept. Brill: You seem so important and so knowledgeable, obviously you have formed a real considered opinion and the fact that you will not book us into your theatre is so unfair. I implore you sir please reconsider. Direct your wrath at me, but don't take it out on the movie..... What can we do to appease you Chris? You dumb cunt. E mail me again and I will hunt you down fucker... try me.

The editors at /film vouch personally for the legitimacy of these exchanges, but we're not here to arbitrate authenticity as much as look on in numb awe as Fanboys — which by some critical accounts isn't worth the film it's shot on — and its accompanying drama build to a disappointing climax all but guaranteed by the fact that the moral imperatives at stake belong to a few hundred cellar-dwelling Star Wars obsessives and the guy who directed Little Nicky. Is it just us, or do you smell sulphur?

• Fanboys Director Steve Brill Threatens to Kick Real Fanboys' Asses! [/film]

This is clearly a vain attempt by the Weinstein Company to avert Star Wars fans' impending boycott of all of their films. Well, guess what? It's not going to work, Darth Weinstein!

There was never any doubt that you would release both versions of the movie on DVD — probably months apart, so as to leech as much money from Star Wars fans as possible! ...

There is only ONE VERSION OF FANBOYS - THE ONE THAT WAS MADE BY STAR WARS FANS! ... If you release your mutilated anti-fan version of FANBOYS in ANY FORM, you can look forward to a lifetime boycott of your studio by every Star Wars fan on the planet.

As such, the Fanboys supporters are sticking to their picket plans for this weekend, with sizable protests scheduled in both New York and Los Angeles. Knowing what we know about Harvey, though, we expect this to be all the compromise these guys are going to get. Moreover, where the hell are all the Wong Kar-wai fans to protest Harvey's cut of the long-delayed Norah Jones / Jude Law / Natalie Portman road flick My Blueberry Nights, finally opening April 4 with an ugly, sludgy sheen added in edit bays sequestered deep inside the Weinstein Death Star. Even Roosevelt and Stalin had the common sense to ally against the Axis 65 years ago; with art-house romantics and and sci-fi geeks on the same page, we're confident Harvey Scissorhands wouldn't have a prayer.

• Geeks Get Their Movie... Kinda [The Hot Blog]

• DARTH WEINSTEIN MAKES A DESPERATE LAST-MINUTE ATTEMPT... [Stop Darth Weinstein]