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Angelina Jolie's pet project The Tourist might finally have a director, according to Variety. Internationally acclaimed director and writer Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck "hasn't formally entered into negotiations," but it's looking likely that the man behind the critically hailed film The Lives of Others will be hopping behind the camera for this 2011 release.

Jolie reportedly turned down the sequel of Wanted in favor of The Tourist (although the rumors of her return of the sexy tattooed assassin remain at large) but she was holding out on officially signing on to The Tourist until Spyglass found a director she approved of.

Strangely enough, Tom Cruise was originally set to costar but dropped out in favor of Knight & Day with Cameron Diaz. Jolie's latest film, Salt, was originally set to star Tom Cruise, but then he backed out, the writers did a quick fix-me-up on the script, and voila -- here's Evelyn Salt!

In any case, this remake of Anthony Zimmer is about an Interpol agent hot on the trail of a former paramour and criminal; the spy makes use of an American tourist to help find her. Sam Worthington (Avatar) costars as the tourist, and according to /Film, Jolie plays the ex. On the other hand, Variety is reporting that she plays the Interpol agent. Hollywood Reporter is taking the safer route and not saying what Jolie's role will be. Yikes!

2011 sounds like one of those things where the movie keeps getting pushed back more and more until the stars and director are all like, "Whatever, I have no idea what's happening with that any more." But remember when Angelina Jolie provided us guilty pleasure movies like The Bone Collector? I would be happy to see her as the spy or the criminal; what do you think?

In the same way that higher-profile actors are jumping on the video game ship sans shame, so too are movie writers like Wanted's Chris Morgan. Morgan has signed up for a rather daunting task – working as the story director for the massive and practically holy sci-fi series The Wheel of Time by the late Robert Jordan.

Variety reports that this job entails "overseeing the writing on the titles, working with executive producers and writers to help develop story arcs and helping to digest the book series' 10,000 pages and over 1,700 characters."

(Of course, Morgan and the other two screenplay writers, Derek Haas and Michael Brandt, were taken to task by fans for not sticking to the original comic book story all that much. However, compared to comic book purists, the wrath of Robert Jordan fans can be deadly. Or so I hear.)

Morgan isn't the only screenwriter who has dipped his toes into the pixellated pool. Saw director James Wan is one of the writers for the Saw video game, which surprisingly got some good gamer feedback from its preview at SDCC. And David McKenna, who wrote American History X, Get Carter, Blow, and Bully, wrote Scarface: The World is Yours, which got generally mixed reviews.

Tattoos in the movies have a storied history, from the simple, classic LOVE/HATE knuckle tattoos in The Night of the Hunter to the slick and sexy additions to Angelina Jolie's existing body art in last summer's Wanted. Recent movies like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Eastern Promises have used tattoos to great effect; in Button, Captain Mike's homemade tattoos both referred to his life on the sea as a sailor, which in that era was the most visible tattoo population, and his own father's discouragement of his hopes of becoming an artist. Instead, he brings his art with him everywhere he goes. And Eastern Promises based its tattoos (hello, Viggo in his undies sipping a shot of vodka getting tattooed) on the heavily researched Russian tattoos and their different signifiers in the gangster underworld.

Unfortunately, most recent movies have the tendency to slap some crappy tribal on a character to make him or her seem more bad-ass, which, given the context of tattoos in the movies, is kind of understandable. But what's not is just how freaking terrible they are! Here are my personal picks of the worst ink spilled onscreen, plus a bonus mention for the most gorgeous tattoos in a movie, both in design and story use.

White Dog
Samuel Fuller's follow-up to The Big Red One was shelved by Paramount Pictures before its scheduled release in 1982 because of fears that its premise -- a white dog has been trained to attack black people -- would stir up more controversy than box office. Fuller was understandably outraged; in his autobiography, A Third Face, he wrote: "The studio has used me as a scapegoat for their lack of determination and courage." The film, co-written by Curtis Hanson (LA Confidential), with a score by the legendary Ennio Morricone, later received acclaim when it was released in Europe but never received a home video release in the US and has rarely been seen here. Kristy McNichol plays an actress who adopts the dog; Paul Winfield is as an anthropologist who tries to reverse the training. The Criterion Collection DVD includes a featurette with Hanson, producer Jon Davison, and Fuller's widow, plus a print interview with the dog trainer and essays by J. Hoberman and Armond White. I'm buying, but even if you're not a huge fan of Samuel Fuller, you'd want to check it out. Rent it.

Step Brothers
Combining Will Farrell, John C. Reilly, Richard Jenkins, and Mary Steenburgen under one roof, Step Brothers mines familiar territory with sharp timing and plenty of belly laughs. Mine is, admittedly, a distinctly minority opinion. Available on DVD (single-disc rated, single-disc unrated, two-disc unrated) and Blu-ray, with an audio commentary by Farrell, Reilly, director Adam McKay, and a score by Jon Brion. Other features include deleted scenes and alternate takes, a gag reel, 'making of,' and a couple of gag featurettes. Rent it.

Much more on Wanted, The X-Files: I Want to Believe, and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian after the jump, plus Indies on DVD, Blu-ray Picks, and Collector's Corner.

Now that we've entered the final month of the year, look for our site (and several others) to spend some time looking back at 2008. We here at Cinematical will kick off our year-end festivities real soon, but in the meantime Yahoo Movies was first out of the gate with a list of the most popular movie trailers of 2008. Keep in mind this is only according to Yahoo's numbers and represents the most watched, not necessarily the best (we'll have that list later this month).

As expected, a good majority of this list is made up of big summer blockbuster-type stuff, and guess which flick leads the pack? Yup, the one with that damn bat. The top two (Dark Knight and Indiana Jones) don't surprise me in the least, but the next two are ... Twilight (3) and The Incredible Hulk (4)? Really? Those vampires even beat everyone's favorite boy wizard, Harry Potter, who came in at a disappointing sixth on the list, behind Iron Man. Check out the titles below -- anything surprise you? Did you expect Twilight to take the third spot behind whoppers like Dark Knight and Indy? Sound off ...

1. The Dark Knight
2. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
3. Twilight
4. The Incredible Hulk
5. Iron Man
6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
7. Wanted
8. Hancock
9. Sex and the City
10. Kung Fu Panda

A handful of geek news bits are the perfect way to end the week. There's all kinds of intriguing little quotes scattered all over the Internet tonight, and I've compiled them all below to give your mouse finger and Google toolbar a rest. Enjoy!

As always, the Old Canuckehead gets first grab -- X-MenFilms.Net was informed by Fox that the first X-Men Origins: Wolverine teaser is supposed to be attached to The Day the Earth Stood Still, which hits theaters on December 12th. Will we see the same footage that most of us glimpsed via YouTube bootleg from San Diego ComicCon? I bet we will!

Buried in that Ain't It Cool News scoop on J. Michael Stracynzki was the news that he had just finished his rewrite of Thor. I think the God of Thunder is moving faster than Captain America.

MTV's Splash Page caught up with Robert Downey Jr. and pressed him for word on the Terrance Howard/Don Cheadle swap. He stayed classy, of course: "I had nothing to do with that decision. I love Terrence very very much. That's all I'll say because I haven't talked to him yet ... I've always admired Don [Cheadle]. It's one of those situations where I still don't quite know what happened or why. Here's what happens too: things happen and you wind up commenting on them before you've actually talked to the people and it's in poor taste." He also stressed that the Iron Man franchise will be an "interactive" one, with he and Jon Favreau striving "to make sure we don't piss off the public that put us in the position we're in."

Continued after the jump.

According to a new survey over at Fandango, the hottest movie-related Halloween costumes of 2008 might have a little something to do with the year's biggest film. As far as men go, the number one movie-related costume this year will, of course, be The Joker (as played by Heath Ledger) from The Dark Knight -- with Batman following closely behind at number two. Iron Man/Tony Stark, Kirk Lazarus (black action hero from Tropic Thunder), Indiana Jones, Hellboy, Two-Face, Jigsaw (from Saw), Simple Jack (as played by Ben Stiller in Tropic Thunder) and Saul the Dealer (James Franco in Pineapple Express) round out the top ten. Simple Jack? Really? Can you do me a favor and punch the guy who dresses as Simple Jack at your next Halloween party?

As for the ladies, it seems slutty Playboy bunny is all the rage this year. Yup, The House Bunny (Anna Faris) topped their list, with Angelina Jolie's Fox (Wanted) coming in second. Hannah Montana, Gabriella from High School Musical 3 and Bella from Twilight round out the top five. Don't Bella and Gabriella look like regular girls? How do you create that costume -- by picking up some clothes at The Gap?

We posted the full lists after the jump (for men, women and couples), and feel free to tell us what movie-related costume you've created for Halloween. Better yet, show us -- in about a week from now, we'll be officially launching our Fourth Annual Halloween Costume Contest. Prizes, pictures, voting -- it's oh so much fun. Do join us.

• Legendary actor Paul Newman passes away at the age of 83.
• Cinematical sits down with Daniel Craig and Marc Forster to discuss Quantum of Solace. What happened to the line, "Bond, James Bond?" Check out these new images from the film. Oh, and James Bond doesn't think he'll ever seduce a man.
• Could Steven Spielberg direct Superman?
• Exclusives: Images from Steven Seagal's Kill Switch. First poster for Clint Eastwood's Changeling. New poster for Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York. Trailer for The Pleasure of Being Robbed.
• Fan Made: Holy hottie Hellgirl! Cozy up to some nifty Star Wars slippers. What do the economic bailout and The Dark Knight have in common? Look out ... it's Angelina Jolie: The Doll.
• Odd News: From Wanted to ... Moby Dick? American Psycho: The Musical? Awesome! Someone wants a Lethal Weapon 5 ... but who?
  
• Countdown: Five Fall/Winter Trailers to Watch, Four Casting Choices for Brett Ratner's Batman, Three Awesome Movie-Related T-Shirts to Buy, Two Photos of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland ... and one week in review!
• Cinematical Seven: Top Movies Within Movies Since 2000, and Sex Addicts on the Silver Screen.
• Fan Rant: Leave Keira Knightley's skinniness alone!
• They're Back: Captain Jack, Ghostbusters, I Am Legend prequel, Cars 2 gets an earlier release
• Insert Caption: How to Lose Friends and Alienate People
• Interviews: Gary Cole and Spike Lee
• Reviews: Eagle Eye, Nights in Rodanthe, Choke, Miracle at St. Anna
• And finally ... Cinematical hits up Fantastic Fest.

It's difficult (and a little silly) to try and judge an entire quarter-year's movies in one lump sum -- but that's what we seem to do at the end of every Summer Movie Season. That's when all our excitement, expectations, and final reactions come colliding together and we find ourselves thinking: "Was I actually looking forward to that piece of crap for four months?" But to me, each summer is like a walk through a carnival: Some of the attractions dazzle me, others simply don't interest me, and a few are just a waste of tickets. But once early May rolls around, I'm always ready for another trip to the Hollywood Movie Carnival. (It's where you find all the tentpoles!)

So while I'm elated to greet the upcoming season of "prestige movies," there's little denying that we've had one hell of a good summer, cinematical-ly speaking. I'm not talking about box office grosses, because frankly that stuff is so unimportant. What matters is that we got some good flicks, a few pieces of mindless (yet well-made) popcorn adventures, and even a few great films that will enjoy a very long shelf life. So while I'm not exactly sure that 2008 represents the finest Summer Movie Season of all time, I'd definitely say it was more good than bad. But if you can think of a summer that was better than this one, you know where to throw your comments. (In the comments section.)

Though he won't be appearing in the latest installment of the Terminator franchise, Arnold Schwarzenegger can still be considered involved, at least as an authority on the series. Unfortunately, as such an authority, he's apparently confused and underwhelmed by the early footage he's seen of Terminator Salvation. According to the Los Angeles Times, the "Governator" was recently given a private screening of scenes from the sequel -- either the same as or similar to the stuff shown at Comic-Con. In response, Schwarzenegger reportedly said: "They showed me some footage, but I don't have a feel for the movie. I didn't see enough. I wasn't sure who the Terminator was. I don't know if there is one or if he's the star or the hero. These are the things that determine the success and how strong the movie will be."

Well, that isn't so negative. Schwarzenegger is merely unsure of what's going on in the movie after seeing scattered sequences. Why nobody told him the basic plot is unclear, and it is strange he'd have no clue if any of the characters he was watching were Terminators or not. Still, that's not his fault nor a specific problem with the footage. However, the way he seemed to shrug it off and wish the filmmakers well is unfortunate. Meanwhile, he's claiming how much he loves Wanted and Will Ferrell movies, including Step Brothers and Semi-Pro and getting excited about this summer's box office numbers. But Terminator Salvation? He just says that if it's good it could break records and hopes it will make a lot of money, acting as if he might not even see it.

Despite the California governor's seemingly less-than-thrilled reaction, I remain excited about the fourth Terminator movie.

[via Rotten Tomatoes]