Movie & TV News: Brief Interviews/Hideous Men, Speed Racer, iTunes Sales Drop, Downloads Not What Expected, 20 Most Over Rated Films, Happiness Sold Separately, Mike F

Brief Interviews With Hideous Men
Variety reports that principal photography has begun on the screen version of David Foster Wallace's "Brief Interviews With Hideous Men." Julianne Nicholson stars and John Krasinski directs as well as writing the screenplay. The story is of a graduate student coping with her recent breakup by conducting interviews with the men of the title.

Speed Racer
Joel Silver spoke to Empire Online about the "Speed Racer" feature and about Andy and Larry Wachowski and said: "They (the Wachowski brothers) said they'd never work again (after) the Matrix sequels. (After "V for Vendetta" made $70 million + domestically) The movie didn’t cost very much, so everyone was very happy. The next weekend Ice Age 2 opened with $70million and the boys thought that was very interesting . . . They wanted to make a big family entertainment. . . I’ve been struggling with Speed Racer for 11 years. They said, 'what if we did it?' I said yes,
obviously! They did a little pre-viz for us and it was just unbelievable." For the entire interview go here.

iTunes Sales Drop
The sales of iPods this year have increased by leaps and bounds. Despite that and the addition of Disney movies to its offerings at the iTunes Store, Forrester Research is reporting a drastic plunge at the Apple iTunes Store. They say that the iTunes service has seen monthly revenue fall 65% since January. It seems that while iPod purchasers are transferring music from newly purchased CDs to the devices, CD sales continue to fall, leading Forrester analysts to believe that new iPod buyers are packing the devices with pirated content.

Feature Film Downloads Not What Expected
A study by ABI Research reported by Informationweek.com says that if you watch the short video clips posted sites like YouTube, Yahoo!, and MySpace, it is doubtful that you have also downloaded feature films. That study found that only 5% of people who watch video on Internet have rented or bought a digital movie download. That even includes those who download bootleg copies of movies. Complaining of the long wait in downloading, the high price and the lack of "extras" you get with DVD's most of those surveyed preferred to rent or buy hard copies. They also sighted the difficulty of viewing the downloaded movies on television screens.

20 Most Over Rated Films of All Time
Premiere Magazine has posted it's list of the "20 Most Over Rated Films of All Time." The list includes "American Beauty," "Fantasia," "Field of Dreams," "Jules and Jim," "An American in Paris," "The Wizard of Oz" and "Gone With the Wind" among others, so there will be room for arguement. Let the barfights begin! (And anybody want to vote on most over rated magazine?)

Happiness Sold Separately
Julia Roberts will produce and probably star in "Happiness Sold Separately," based on the novel by Lolly Winston. It is the story of a woman who withdraws from her husband into a world of heartbreak and anger after she discovers that his affair with his nutritionist. Adapted and directed by Scott Coffey, an actor and longtime friend of Roberts, who said: "I've been looking for something to do with Julia for a really long time, and I finally found the project that was worthy of her. I couldn't get Julia out of my head when I was reading Lolly's book. Elinor is such a strong, complicated woman, and bringing her to the screen required Julia's integrity, empathy, humor and legs."

Mike Fright: Stand Up!