Cowboy hat rockin’ movie master Robert Rodriguez is getting ready to unleash another children’s flick this August, something along the lines of his trippy kids’ films “Sharkboy and Lava Girl” and the “Spy Kids” trilogy. Much like those older films, “Shorts” is a fantasy adventure flick that aims to take children’s imaginations to unimaginable places.

“It’s a kid’s movie and it’s all about a wishing rock,” 13-year-old Jimmy Bennett, star of the “Shorts” and the young Captain Kirk in May’s “Star Trek,” explained. “People make wishes that go bad.” Read more...

Leslie Mann is as known for her roles in comedies like “Big Daddy,” “The 40 Year Old Virgin” and “Knocked Up.” She is also the wife of Judd Apatow and mother to their children, which probably helped her land roles in those latter two. It seems appropriate then that she’s starring in the upcoming family-friendly flick “Shorts,” for which a hot new trailer was recently unveiled. In the movie, she plays a soccer mom whose life is turned upside down by a magic rainbow rock, “Alice and Wonderland”-style.

“It’s a series of short films,” Mann explained. “It’s about a kid who finds a magic rock. And whoever is holding this rock, whatever they wish for, it will come true.” Read more...

First published in 1985, “Less Than Zero” defined a generation. It also helped launch the impressive careers of Robert Downey Jr., James Spader, and “American Psycho” author Bret Easton Ellis. Now, Ellis is hoping to reunite the others for a follow-up movie about what happened after the party ended.

“What I’m working on now is a sequel to ‘Less Than Zero’,” the novelist explained to us recently. “It’s coming out next year, in May of 2010.”

And just like last time, Ellis (whose latest novel-turned-film “The Informers” opens in limited release April 24th) thinks the book would make a great movie. Read more...