Deceased Soho resident Heath Ledger will be replaced by three separate actors—Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell— in his unfinished final role in "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus." [Ain't It Cool News]

Amazingly, it appears Madonna's debut as a film director and co-screenwriter, Filth and Wisdom, is not going to be embarrassingly bad. Given an exclusive early review, the Times of London declares the movie, which follows a diverse set of characters who share a house, a "frothy, life-affirming comedy" thanks to "sheer exuberance... celebrating London's ethnic stew." Also, the music rocks. There is "some clunkingly awful acting" and "stagey" scenes, blamed on Madonna's poor writing, but of course the terrible stuff was expected by film buffs and everyone else in the world. The Times is likely pulling some punches for its exclusive, the question is how many. This strip club scene from the film isn't genius, but it does hold out hope the movie might at least be smart:

Former Daily Show executive producer Ben Karlin seems like a decent fellow, right? He was responsible for some of the smartest comedy to air on American TV since basically ever, that Daily Show book was pretty funny, Deborah Solomon couldn't make him seem like as much of an asshole as she does most of her interviewees. And, as he said last August, when announcing his HBO production deal, he is a man of ideas. Hundreds of ideas. "At least initially, he said, he planned to revisit some of the half-formed notions in his notebook, which he likened to the aging Russian nuclear arsenal. “'Many of the weapons I have may still be good,'” he said. “'Others may not go off.'”" Apparently the idea which did go off was the one he borrowed from a guy in his building!

Popular character actor and mendacious old fool Ben Stein has a little movie coming out about how "BIG SCIENCE" doesn't want you to know the truth about evolution. Stein salutes the scientists who are bad enough to question Darwinism in his upcoming documentary Expelled, about an unscrupulous Nixonite hack who parlays his unlikely pop cultural fame into an inexplicable career as an entertainer/propaganist. Rex Sorgatz asks, "do you remember when Ben Stein wasn't bat shit crazy?" Actually, uh, not really. Trailer after the jump! [Fimoculous]

Since the MPAA tried to ban screeners of Oscar-nominated films over piracy fears in 2003, the risk of those screeners leaking to the Internet has actually fallen, according to research by journalist/programmer/dot-com founder Andy Baio. But a month before the ceremony, all but six of this year's 34 nominated films have been leaked online. Below, how movie studios' fear of piracy (okay, "stealing") was the best thing that happened to pirates. Plus, how a studio's fear of piracy kills a movie's Oscar chances.

The showdown between Hollywood studios and writers over absolutely critical issues like residuals and the Internet and fairness and competitiveness is about to end because everyone wants to put on their pretty clothes and go to the shiny party show. In which case, the Oscars will not suck. On the other hand, we've heard this all before, so get back on that picket line you lazy hack.

Award season is, as Sean Penn says, truly a season in hell — if, that is, one attempts to follow every twist and turn and nomination. Avoid the stress with this handy scorecard, which we'll adjust, periodically. For Golden Globe wins and Oscar nominations, we're only counting the big nine categories. No points for best soundtrack. Sorry.

Popular Mechanics invited top computer security experts to analyze the realism of upcoming techno-thriller Untraceable. Their verdict? The FBI scenes are realistic! The killing scenes less realistic. The bit where the killer takes control of Joan Allen's Diane Lane [Cannot even begin to explain that one -Ed] windshield wipers and speaks to her through her OnStar console is just dumb. The bit with the dangerous website run by a sociopath, registered in a foreign country, built around increasing traffic at any cost to the determent of its many varied innocent victims? Ludicrous! [Popular Mechanics, Related]

Dave Eggers, the do-gooder author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, had written a screenplay for the Kate Winslet-betrothed director Sam Mendes. "The untitled film...follows a couple, pregnant with their first child, as they travel America looking for the ideal place to settle down," says Entertainment Weekly. Will it be called "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genus? Probably not. Will it be a hit? Maybe. It's being produced by Big Beach films who made the funny-but-also-you'll-weep hit Little Miss Sunshine and distributed by Focus Films. Those things are good things. But! Not all bode wells for the film. Specifically, the cast.

Wait, how did we miss this Sundance pick? It's called August. It's about a the wild life of a would-be Silicon Alley dot-com entrepreneur—in 2001! In August of 2001! The Times description makes it sound positively irresistible:

"It might not have quite the innuendo of For Your Eyes Only, or even the ooh matron oomph of Octopussy, but the title of the new James Bond film has finally been made public. And it is Quantum of Solace." [Guardian] How the hell will anyone sing a brassy pop song about that? (Your bloggers discuss, below.)

Maybe that despised manager at Best Buy, who rushed to display of DVDs starring Heath Ledger, understood us better than we did ourselves. Amazon.com's chart of the most popular DVDs for sale, usually dominated by those recently released, contains three new arrivals: 10 Things I Hate About You, A Knight's Tale and Brokeback Mountain — in 6th, 11th and 13th place respectively. All three movies on the online retailer's top 25 list star the Australian actor who died, of an apparent overdose, on Tuesday. (Of course more want to remember Ledger as high-school hero, or lusty knight, than as sad gay cowboy, the 28-year-old star's most critically acclaimed role.) After the jump, the chart.

Some cinema-goers weren't impressed by the shaky amateur feel of the hit Manhattan monster movie. "I wish a bootlegger would go tape that movie in the theatre with the steadicam setting on."

Cloverfield, the movie in which an assorted group of Manhattan party-goers are picked off by an unexplained monster, reaches for authenticity. The movie, which brought in a hefty $41m over the weekend at the box office, is shot in the style of an amateur video. Apart from a cameraman who manages to keep shooting and cracking jokes even under alien attack, the yuppie characters are more or less credible. The one plotline that prompted a harrumph of disbelief from a downtown audience: the protagonists descend into the subway at Spring Street, walk along the tunnel, run from some alien cockroaches, and, within a few minutes, discover they're already at 59th Street. That's some express line. (After the jump, if by some miracle you haven't seen it, the Cloverfield trailer.)

Oliver Stone is hoping to direct a film based on the life and presidency of George W. Bush. "Here, I'm the referee, and I want a fair, true portrait of the man," Stone insists. "How did Bush go from an alcoholic bum to the most powerful figure in the world?" Laconic, stoic Josh Brolin is attached to play our smirky, snickering President, but you needn't worry too much about inappropriate casting—everyone looks embarrassed and lost in modern Oliver Stone movies. [Variety]

Feast your eyes on the trailer for upcoming thriller Untracable. The high concept: "People visit a website that is livestreaming a murder — an increase in traffic speeds up the process of death." The film's erratic killer has "no vision beyond page views." [Filmoculous via Kottke.org]

Slate film critic Dana Stevens is temporarily off my shit list for correctly noting that "The Host" was one of the best 10 movies of 2007—I'd forgotten that! And it so was! Bonus: Remember how great Anthony Lane's review was? (And also Dana is A-OK for giving an honorable mention to the DVD release of "Idiocracy." Temporarily!) [Slate]

Each Friday, NYT.com General Manager Vivian Schiller and 'Times' deputy managing editor Jonathan Landman write an in-house email on the subject of The Future and The Internet and The Newsroom. This week, we hear about the quietly-revamped movie pages: "Web sites need to be reference sources. So every actor, director, cinematographer, gaffer — and every film — has its own reference page, with encyclopedic and reliable data supplied by our terrific colleagues at Baseline Studio Systems. Thanks to Baseline, Our movie database now has over 900,000 people and 200,000 movie titles. Like IMDB, except that it's true. Want to know who mixed the sound for Titanic? No problem. Did Bosley Crowther like the 1962 version of Billy Budd? Easy to find out. Do you like trailers? You could lose yourself here for days. 'All in all,' says Ariel Kaminer, 'I really do think it stands as the best movie site in America — and that's a title with a LOT of competition.' Anybody want to argue?"