Spielberg Snags MLK Movie Rights

Actor indulges in wee-hours phone calls, prima donna behavior on set

(NEWSER) - With Russell Crowe's latest film on the horizon, a new book about DreamWorks is perfectly timed to take advantage of curiosity about the famously short-tempered actor. Some juicy details from Nicole LaPorte's The Men Who Would Be King: An Almost Epic Tale of Moguls, Movies, and a Company called DreamWorks, courtesy of Gawker :

• Crow began a 3am phone call with a Gladiator producer by barking: "You motherfucker. I will kill you with my bare hands."

Dakota Fanning-Kristen Stewart vehicle divides critics

(NEWSER) - Critics praise the performances in The Runaways, about Joan Jett's seminal '70s band, but whether the flick succeeds is up for debate. Some takes:

• "Say what you will about the Runaways," Peter Travers writes in Rolling Stone , but "they never played it safe. The movie does." He wants more out of the verboten relationship between Dakota Fanning's Cherie Currie and Kristen Stewart's Jett. Still, "Fanning scores a knockout."

If famed Packers coach's quotes don't do it, De Niro surely will

(NEWSER) - The upcoming movie starring Robert De Niro as Vince Lombardi will undoubtedly be the “greatest sports movie ever,” Julian Sancton writes. The famed Green Bay Packers coach was an inexhaustible source of quotable remarks, and a top-notch sports flick must have at least one memorable line, he writes in Vanity Fair . If Lombardi's wisdom somehow fails to do the trick, the film still has De Niro, star of the best sports movie ever, Raging Bull. Some Lombardi quotes: More»

Robert F. Kennedy film in the works at New Regency

(NEWSER) - If shelling out $10 to see a biopic about Robert F. Kennedy doesn’t thoroughly excite you, perhaps this will change your mind: RFK will be played by none other than Matt Damon. Well, make that might be played. Deadline reports the deal is done and Damon is attached—but the actor wants to see the script before confirming the project is a go. More»

Which films will be remembered, and which ones deserve it?

(NEWSER) - The shifting sands of entertainment technology make a look at the past decade's movies a tricky proposition simply because standing the test of time means something different almost daily. "The possibility of a digital, on-demand afterlife guarantees at least a theoretically universal long-tail immortality to blockbusters and curiosities alike," New York Times film critic AO Scott writes in summing up the work era succeeded "the rise of the indies in the ’90s." More»