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Nothing like news of American remakes of Asian movies to get you through the week, eh? Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinsky is setting up a remake of South Korea's 2006 monster hit (pun clearly intended) The Host over at Universal, but he won't be directing.

Meanwhile, the Steven Spielberg/Will Smith Oldboy project gets a screenwriter for their remake of the 2003 revenge thriller.

A couple of months ago, I couldn’t have imagined saying this, but it’s starting to look as if the new Terminator film (that’s Terminator Salvation, the one sans Arnold and directed by McG, the man who brought us the Charlie’s Angels films) might actually be good. I know, I know.

It would only be fair of me to acknowledge that I have a certain degree of prejudice towards this project. I’m big enough to admit that I’ve cried at a couple of movies, but Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is the only movie to make me cry for the sole reason that it was so bad. I’m serious. It didn’t happen during Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, it didn’t happen during The Faculty (the single most disappointing film of my youth), but for whatever reason, T3 did it. So I wasn’t even sure that I was going to see this new one. Then a couple of things happened.

XBox 360 users are getting a much anticipated update to the dashboard tomorrow morning at 5 AM Eastern Time. A good number of these owners are new or returning Netflix subscribers who are excited for the update because it would allow their 360 to stream movies from Netflix, but it looks like they're going to have to settle for a crippled service for the time being.

The feature is incompatible with hundreds of movie titles; movies that are available to watch instantly on the Netflix website, but not through an XBox 360. Movies that just so happen to be Columbia Pictures movies. Columbia, as in the company owned by Sony. Sony as in the makers of 360 rival PlayStation 3.

In Android 207, an android—it's the one numbered 207—is trapped in a maze full of deadly booby traps, trying to find its way out. There's... not much else to it, really, but the twist ending reveals the nature and purpose of the android, as well as the maze.

An absolutely terrifying picture has surfaced on the web that supposedly features our first look at Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton’s new version of Alice in Wonderland. Most people don’t know that Lewis Carroll, the author of the original text, was an opium-addicted pedophile, but I feel like that might become common knowledge if the final film version is anything like we’re looking at here.

Then again, it could be fake. We don’t really know yet. It does have a certain photoshopped quality. But on the other hand, it feels like someone professionally screwed up did it. Honestly, it reminds me of Lost Girls, that infamous Alan Moore graphic novel that features Wendy from Peter Pan, Alice from Alice in Wonderland, and Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz going at it. It’s a good read if you’re willing to fork over the money (I’ve yet to see a library that stocks it).

Not content with making pornos on the big screen, Seth Rogen is now aiming his smut towards television. The actor-writer is developing a show for Showtime with his writing partner Evan Goldberg about three people in their 20s who learn about love and life while running a porn store.

Michael Giacchino has been named the musical director for next year's 81st annual Academy Awards.

Earlier this year at the 80th annual Academy Awards, he was nominated for an Oscar for his work on Ratatouille. He won't be up for any awards this year, since his only movie work in 2008 was Speed Racer, and it's ineligible because it makes use of an old theme song.

There's a new movie franchise on the way. It's based on a series of vampire novels aimed at young adults, it's popular with the goth set, it's got a female voice, and it's aiming to replace Harry Potter. No, I'm not talking about Twilight.

Producers Michael Birnbaum (John Tucker Must Die) and director Jeremiah Chechik (National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation) have optioned the rights to the House of Night series, Variety says.

Since I just mentioned this little film today, I figured it'd be nice to also feature it as today's short. The Wraith of Cobble Hill is a 15-minute short by Adam Parrish King. In 2006, it won the Short Filmmaking Award at the Sundance Film Festival. The film is a neighborhood drama about a Brooklyn kid's struggle with neglect and poverty, as well as the desire to lash out—all animated in claymation.