If the amount of money someone sues Sacha Baron Cohen for reflects how pissed off they are about him making them look stupid on camera, then this Palestinian is by far the most pissed off. He's suing for $110 million.

[Chris Weitz directs extras, and Kristen Stewart, on the Italian set of "Twilight 2: Cruise Control"; image via Bauer-Griffin]

Blood Suckers: We made our own wishlist for who Summit should pick to helm the next Twilight sequel, but it looks like the fledgling studio had other plans. Bucking murmurs that a female director ought to be picked (and a fanboy consensus that the Summit-friendly Kathryn Bigelow should be offered the job), Nikki Finke reports that an offer has been made to Chris Weitz, who's friends with Summit's head of production. Weitz's last film was the enormous bomb The Golden Compass, a film he developed then departed from when he decided he couldn't handle an effects-heavy film of such scope. He changed his mind and eventually came back to Compass, though the finished flop killed what was intended to be a huge, youth-friendly franchise. That should work out well, then! [Deadline Hollywood Daily]

At long last, The Golden Compass, New Line's high-stakes attempt at launching yet another massively profitable fantasy franchise, opens today, though the buzz on the Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig movie is lukewarm at best (currently a 44% Tomatometer score). Will director Chris Weitz prove he can effectively trade in pastry-penetration for shiny magical trinkets and talking CGI polar bears, or would the overstuffed and overlong epic, as frigid as Kidman after a cosmetic emotion-removal procedure, not even manage to inspire Andy Samberg to roll out of bed this Sunday with a box of freshly baked cupcakes for a matinée showing? A sampling of what the critics are saying: