• After all the build-up, the actual film seems rather beside the point. But New Moon is here and looking to do the box office what vampires do to their victims, except not leaving them dead, but rather filled up with money. The second installment of the Twilight series has already become the all time online ticket sales champion. In it's opening weekend it is expected to rake in in the range of $85 million domestic, although there is some buzz that it could, just possibly, if we can dare to dream, break the magic $100 million opening weekend figure. [Hollywood Reporter]

• And if you are worried that what with there only being a couple Harry Potter movies left and Twilight being half over, that we might soon be running out of fantasy mega-cycles at our multiplexes, set your mind at ease, help is on the way. Lorenzo di Bonaventura yesterday nailed the rights to produce a film adaptation of the six chapter literary fantasy series The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel. Bonaventura, Variety notes, presided over the launch of the Potter series which has currently grossed $5.38 billion worldwide while he was head of production at Warner Brothers. [Variety]

• Oscar's got a new director. The fantastically named Hamish Hamilton, veteran of directing live concert events will take the Academy's baton under producers Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman. [Variety]

• The Academy however, majorly dissed its once darling Michael Moore. His latest installment of the Michael Moore Yells at The Rich cycle Capitalism, A Love Story, failed to make the short list of 15 films up for the Best Documentary prize. The list which included favorites Valentino: The Last Emperor, The Cove and Every Little Step, will be winnowed down to five nominees in February. [The Wrap]

• Forbes has done the math on the most-overpaid stars in Hollywood, coming up with a showbiz equivalent of a PE ratio, calculating how much their movies gross for every dollar they are paid. Topping the list: Will Ferrell whose films earn a mere $3.29 for every dollar he has paid. [Forbes]

• The New York Times reports on how early very obscure Oscar buzz for Jeff Bridges' performance as a country singer in Crazy Heart transformed a movie that its distributor had deemed unreleasable into a major awards contender. [NY Times]

• Asked in an interview with CNBC's Erin Burnett about the pending sale of NBC/Universal to Comcast, CEO Jeff Zucker was tight lipped, saying "I'm incredibly interested to see what will happen...Time will tell." Asked about his decision to upend NBC's schedule with the Jay Leno Experiment, Zucker deflected the question, focusing on the show's spin, saying he thought it was unfortunate that the move had been portrayed as part of a cost-cutting strategy and that its just about making great shows. His team is focused on doing "whatever it takes to put on the best television," he said, which is something less than saying either "We are committed to giving Jay as long as he needs to find an audience" or, on the other hand, "What the hell have we done!?" [Hollywood Reporter]

That sound you just heard? Something like a cross between an asthma inhaler wheeze and a joystick being furiously toggled? That's the sound of nerds reacting to this news: Nerd auteur Sam Raimi has signed to direct a live-action version of nerd bible World of Warcraft. Yes the fantastical computer game about mages and orcs and other horrible things will be a movie, and the Evil Dead/Spider-Man maestro will ably steer the battleship. God protect us. [Variety]

Slightly closer to the middle of the nerd spectrum is Comedy Central's bawdy cartoon show Drawn Together, which had a great first season but then crumpled under the weight of its own crudeness. Anyway, Comedy Central is reviving the property to make a direct-to-video movie release about what happens when the characters realize their show has been canceled. I hope Foxxy sings! [THR]

That grunt-laughing thing from Girls Next Door, Kendra Wilkinson, has had her E! reality show renewed for another season. The Comeback only got one season. As did Freaks & Geeks, Undeclared, and My So-Called Life. Kendra gets two. At least. [Variety]

Could Jeff Bridges finally get the Oscar he so richly deserves? His new film Crazy Heart, about an aging country singer, just got picked up by the white-hot Fox Searchlight. He's apparently quite good in the film, which costars Robert Duvall and Maggie Gyllenhaal. I mean, really, if he didn't get it for Fearless or Lebowski, can he get it for anything? [THR]

If you can't DVR Ugly Betty or stay home on Friday nights to watch it next season, don't worry! You'll have another chance to watch the show, albeit in a slightly more annoying format. The TV Guide Channel has struck up a deal to air episodes of the show two weeks after their original air date. So you can watch Betty be crazy and ugly in a tiny square while a slowly-moving list of what else is on trudges on uselessly below it. Sounds fun! [Variety]

What will Johnny Depp do next? Nobody knows! Likely, though, it'll be strange and childlike with a slight hint of menace creeping at the edges. [THR]

Old-timey actress Jami Gertz (catch her on Entourage on Sunday?) has formed a production company called Lime Orchard Productions, and they're just now getting started on developing its first properties! First up is a James Mangold-directed feature called Words, based on the same-titled book about growing up in foster care. Also on their plate is the tentatively (and fabulously) titled I Wanted Zac, But I Got Jack Black, a high school project for the Disney Channel. Everyone's grown up since Lost Boys, huh? [Variety]