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The goal for a “found footage” horror film is to achieve realism. There has to be a sense of authenticity to the chicanery, otherwise it’s nothing but community theater leftovers covered by lousy camerawork. Picking up where “Paranormal Activity” left off, “The Last Exorcism” travels even further into absurdity, unable to construct a genuine mood to make the nightmare standout. Instead, it’s a film that spends 80 minutes calling attention to its own artificiality, when the intent is clearly to draw viewers in using the suggestion of reality.

A disillusioned evangelical minister, Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) has invited two documentarians along on a trip into the bowels of Louisiana, where he will perform one last exorcism after years of conning the faithful. Meeting nervous father Louis (Louis Herthum) and his suspicious son, Caleb (Caleb Landry Jones), Cotton and the crew are introduced to Nell (Ashley Bell), a virginal teen who’s exhibiting signs of demonic possession at night.

Arranging his traditional sham exorcism routine, Cotton carries out his fraud on Nell, confident he’s offered the family peace of mind. Unfortunately, Nell isn’t free of the demons, with Cotton and the camera crew caught up in something far more sinister.

The concept is stale, but brawny execution might’ve made “The Last Exorcism” stand up and shout like a terrific, suspenseful genre picture. Instead, director Daniel Stamm only marginally urges the material into dark corners, attempting to establish the documentary angle as a way to construct a feral horror experience by removing the barrier of fiction to create a more disturbing vision of demonic visitation.

The early going at least makes an effort to dupe the audience, displaying a semi-believable veneer of realism, watching Cotton worm his way into easy money with his tricks, earning the family’s trust while the camera catches his sleight of hand. For most audiences, what Stamm is aiming for here is enough. The film provides a surface feel of spooky occurrences and unlit suspense, playing up the POV chills as the camera heads into the unknown.

Look deeper, and the picture is a muddled pass at realism, with scoring cues helping to goose the suspense, a cast of established actors (Fabian’s been working in television since 1992) indicating up a storm when they sense the camera is locked on them, and a general cheating of angles to capture the dark magic (this single camera crew suddenly becomes three lenses when the exorcism scenes flare up).

There’s not much logic to Stamm’s vision, which pretty much disposes of the documentary structure when all Hell breaks loose in the second half. If Stamm wanted a standard horror experience, he should’ve committed to drama. Instead, he’s only half-realized the film’s perspective, leading to confusion and, worse, immediate disbelief.

“The Last Exorcism” touches on an intriguing crisis of faith for Cotton, but doesn’t explore it to any satisfying degree, preferring to veer into cliché overkill, with a ridiculous twist finale that appears tailor-made for cheap drive-in cinema thrills, while further inflating the feature’s rather brazen illogic.

Comparisons will be made to “The Blair Witch Project,” which is a fair film to introduce into the conversation. The difference is, the 1999 blockbuster felt out all four corners of the concept to create a trembling sense of doom. “The Last Exorcism” simply abuses the guise of reality to play as pedestrian as it can.

Kristin Kreuk ("Smallville," "Eurotrip"), Paula Patton ("Deja Vu," "Precious") and Lauren Germain ("Hostel Part II") have all emerged as candidates in contention to join the upcoming fourth "MIssion: Impossible" reports Deadline.

All three are testing for the role of a young female operative in the film which Variety reports will NOT be called "Mission: Impossible 4" or M:I-4. In fact there's talk the film could use a title relevant to the property that doesn't contain those words (much like "The Dark Knight" doesn't contain the word Batman).

The reason is the story hopes to bring a "fresh perspective" to the action-spy franchise and does not pick up where the last film left off. The idea of a 'team' lead by Ethan Hunt (Cruise) looks to be out the window, replaced by a kind of buddy movie minus the laughs. Cruise and Jeremy Renner will share equal screen time as the two leads.

Shooting kicks off in Vancouver, Prague, Dubai and the U.S this Fall.

Producer Lloyd Levin ("Watchmen," "Hellboy") has acquired film rights to Sebastian A. Jones' upcoming comic series "The Untamed" from Stranger Comics.

The story is described as a dark fantasy tale following the story of a man who makes a deal with the devil to be released from hell for seven days to reap vengeance on the seven souls who murdered him and his family.

His quest for retribution turns to one of redemption when he’s given a second chance to make the right decision, even though it may cost him his immortal soul.

Jones, Levin and Andrew Sugerman will produce. Andrew Cosby will make his directorial debut on the project.

Warner Bros. Pictures and have picked up Bruce C. McKenna's pitch for a 3D film about the Battle of Midway for Akiva Goldsman's Weed Road to produce reports Deadline.

The four-day battle itself, which took place six months after the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, is widely regarded as the most important naval battle in the Pacific during World War 2.

During it, the United States Navy decisively defeated an Imperial Japanese Navy attack against Midway Atoll, sinking four of their aircraft carriers and inflicting damage from which the Japanese never recovered.

McKenna is expected to turn in a script in eight weeks for a film that will likely cost around $200 million, a slightly cheaper price than the HBO mini-series "The Pacific" which McKenna served as co-executive producer and head writer on.

The battle has been portrayed on the big screen twice before - 1942's John Ford-directed "The Battle of Midway", and 1976's "Midway" with Charlton Heston and Henry Fonda.

Aliens
In a video interview conducted during the promotion of this weekend's "Avatar" re-release, James Cameron confirmed he's done a "complete remaster" of "Aliens" for the upcoming "Alien Anthology" Blu-ray boxiest and worked with the same colorist he used on "Avatar".

In comments that might cause controversy though, Cameron says he went in and "completely de-noised it, de-grained it, up-rezzed, color-corrected every frame". The film itself is famously heavy with grain because "it was shot on a high-speed negative that was a new negative that didn't pan out too well and got replaced the following year" says Cameron who adds that "We got rid of all the grain. It's sharper and clearer and more beautiful than it's ever looked. And we did that to the long version, to the 'director's cut'"

The worry is will the changes have a negative impact, much like the odd color timing on "French Connection" or the recently degrained "Predator" which made the various faces look very plastic (but admittedly didn't get a full director-supervised remaster). The Digital Bits has posted a piece about this with comments from people who claim to have seen the remaster.

"Everyone we trust who was involved, and/or has actually SEEN the new Aliens HD master for Blu-ray, reports to us that the film looks terrific. To the degree that DNR (digital noise reduction) was used, it was applied carefully and with a light hand, with an eye toward striking the proper balance between maintaining the detail and integrity of the image and the desire to reduce grain and address the deficiencies of the stock used at the time. There is apparently STILL grain left in the image, it's just no longer excessive or distracting."

Cameron seems to be getting around to his back catalogue it would seem, an interesting comment on Blu-ray.com says that Cameron is about to begin work supervising a similar remaster for "The Abyss". Will we be seeing that in 2011?

Avatar
While the upcoming Collector's Edition Blu-ray on November 16th will contain 16 minutes of additional footage in the cut, James Cameron tells The Oregonian that the disc set will also include another 45 minutes of deleted, unfinished footage.

Cameron also confirms the original four and a half minute opening sequence set on Earth will be included in this new 178 minute cut of the film. A look at the cover art for the release can be found online at the end of the featurette A Message from Pandora.

Baz Luhrmann
The Aussie director's "Moulin Rouge" and "Romeo+Juliet" are both set to score a Blu-ray release on October 19th. Both will feature new high-definition transfers from the original camera negative, supervised by Luhrmann and colourist Jan Yarbrough who worked on the highly acclaimed Blu-ray editions of "North by Northwest" and "The Godfather" trilogy.

Both releases also contain extensive new extras from featurettes and cut scenes, to commentaries and several strange sounding 'viewing modes'.

Bridge of the River Kwai
One of the big catalogue title restorations for the Fall, David Lean's wartime classic will score a two-disc Blu-ray Disc/DVD Combo Collector's Edition on November 2nd.

For the first time since its theatrical release, the film will be presented in its original 2.55:1 aspect ratio (all VHS/DVD editions trimmed it to the more regular 2.35:1 Cinemascope). The print itself has been fully restored and re-mastered from a 4K scan of the original negatives, while the audio is in newly-remixed DTS-HD.

Criterion
Criterion has announced its November titles with Lars von Trier's controversial "Antichrist" on the 9th, acclaimed 50's thriller "The Night of the Hunter" and Charlie Chaplin's "Modern Times" a week later on the 16th.

The biggest title though is the six-disc box-set "America Lost and Found: The BBS Story" which will include late 60's and early 70's American New Wave cinematic classics like "Drive He Said," "Easy Rider," "Five Easy Pieces," "Head," "The King of Marvin Gardens," "The Last Picture Show" and "A Safe Place".

Fantasia
Disney has officially announced the DVD and Blu-ray release of "Fantasia" and "Fantasia 2000" for November 30th, just a little over a month after the release of "Beauty and the Beast: Diamond Edition" on October 5th. Both the two-disc DVD and four-disc Blu-ray edition of "Fantasia" (both films are packaged together) will have 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and a boatload of extras.

Metropolis
Kino have announced the release of "The Complete Metropolis" on DVD and Blu-ray on November 16th. Fritz Lang's silent 1927 German sci-fi film, considering one of the greatest works of early cinema, has had 25 minutes of lost footage and the original Gottfried Huppertz score restored.

The original cut ran at 153 minutes in Germany, a version cut down to a mere 90 minutes internationally. A previous restoration in 2001 brought it back to 124 minutes, but in 2008 this lost footage was discovered and painstaking restored - bringing this cut up to a now essentially complete 147 minute runtime.

Sherlock
The idea of a contemporary take on Holmes sounded atrocious, but Steven Moffat surprised and delighted with this strongly reviewed three TV movie-sized first season which aired last month in the UK and airs on BBC America in the US in October. DVD and Blu-ray editions of the season have been announced for November 9th in the US.

Stanley Kubrick
The Digital Bits reports that Warners is apparently readying Kubrick's "Lolita" and "Barry Lyndon" for a Blu-ray release next year.

Their release, along with Criterion's upcoming "Paths of Glory", leaves only three of Kubrick's earliest and less well-known features - "Killer's Kiss," "The Killing" and "Fear and Desire" - yet to be translate upgraded to Blu-ray.

Quick Announcements

• Disney is releasing the Dick van Dyke musical/family classic "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" in a DVD/Blu-ray combo set on November 2nd.

• The acclaimed and quite dark British thriller "The Disappearance of Alice Creed" will score a DVD and Blu-ray release on November 23rd.

• IFC Films have announced that the controversial "The Human Centipede (First Sequence)" will score a DVD and Blu-ray release on October 5th.

• The original "Mad Max" will be coming out in a Blu-ray/DVD combo edition on October 5th.

• 20th Century Fox is rushing Robert Rodriguez's "Predators" to DVD and Blu-ray with an October 19th release date announced, around 15 weeks after the film's opening.

• Paramount is releasing the very first VistaVision film, "White Christmas", on DVD and Blu-ray on November 2nd with several featurettes and a commentary by Rosemary Clooney.

• This year's Sundance Grand Prize winner "Winter's Bone" will score a DVD and Blu-ray release on October 26th.

• Sidney Lumet's 1978 Motown musical adaptation "The Wiz" starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson will score a Blu-ray release on November 30th.

The BBC and "Doctor Who" showrunner Steven Moffat have confirmed today that the upcoming 13-episode sixth season of the series will be split into two blocks to air several months apart.

The split is the result of a request from Moffat to write a new story arc which involves a big plot twist in the middle of the season. Said twist will serve as a mid-season cliffhanger to be resolved in the second half of the season.

The move is not unexpected, various U.S. cable shows like "Burn Notice," "Stargate" and "Battlestar Galactica" have employed a similar technique, airing half their seasons in Summer, the rest in Winter.

With 'Who' the shows will have a Spring/Autumn cycle with seven episodes kicking off around Easter, the next six sometime in the Fall plus the annual Christmas Special.

The BBC had various scheduling issues with the series this past season. Too many competing shows, better than expected weather, the World Cup and constantly shifting earlier than usual timeslots led to many complaints and a slight dip in initial broadcast viewing numbers.

The show has finished shooting its upcoming Christmas Special and is about to get underway on production of the sixth season. Neil Gaiman confirmed the other day that a table read for the script of his episode takes place later this week.

John Hensley ("Nip/Tuck," "Teeth"), Thomas Kretschmann ("King Kong," "Wanted"), Chris Coy ("True Blood," "Greenberg") and comedian Skyler Stone ("Rules of Attraction," "The Island") have all joined the cast of a direct-to-DVD third entry in the "Hostel" film franchise which Sony's Stage 6 is releasing reports The Wrap.

The story is set around a Vegas bachelor party which turns grisly when the groom (Brian Hallisay) learns that his longtime best friend (Kip Pardue) has targeted him for ritual murder. Sarah Habel also stars.

Scott Spiegel ("From Dusk Till Dawn 2") will direct from a script he co-wrote with John Fasano. Chris Briggs and Mike Fleiss will produce. Eli Roth, writer/director of the first two films, will not be involved.

Chris Rock has joined the cast of "2 Days in New York," the sequel to 2007 romantic dramedy "2 Days in Paris" reports Production Weekly.

Julie Delpy will reprise her role as Marion and return as director on the project described as dealing with the difficulty of relationships and the complexities of being a woman without being completely consumed by a relationship.

The character will have a child and a new lover in the film. The child's father, Adam Goldberg's character in the first film, will not appear but Delpy's father Albert will reprise his role as Marion's father.

Rock's role is unspecified. Shooting kicks off in October with a Cannes 2011 debut planned.

Scribes Stephen J. Rivele and Chris Wilkinson ("Ali," "Nixon," "Moneyball") have been hired to pen a new version of the script for the Antoine Fuqua-directed Tupac Shakur biopic reports Vulture.

A previous draft was described as largely documentary in style, a cold straight up approach to the facts of the rapper, poet and actor's life slain in a Las Vegas drive-by shooting in 1996. The new version focuses on the last day of Tupac's life and flashes back to events in the four years leading up to it.

Rivele says he sees Shakur as "sensitive, very romantic, talented young poet" forced into creating a gangster persona due to the realities of the hip-hop record business. Shakur was entering a new phase of his life and the unscrupulous people around him "saw he was going to leave, that they were going to lose him, and so I think they decided to kill him" adds Rivele.

Despite no cast being locked as yet, the Antoine Fuqua-directed film could begin shooting as early as mid-November.

Brad Pitt has been offered a role while Scott Cooper ("Crazy Heart") is being considered to direct "Brownsville Girl", a film based on the eleven-minute Bob Dylan song for Winkler Films reports Pajiba.

The story follows a man who leads a life of theft and murder over two decades in an effort to hold on to the woman he loves. Jay Cocks ("The Age Of Innocence," "Gangs Of New York") apparently penned the script at the behest of Dylan himself.

Pitt and Cooper were linked to "The Hatfields And The McCoys" earlier this year, Cooper is also considering the family drama "Lie Down in Darkness".

William Hurt will star in and Curtis Hanson ("L.A. Confidential") is set to direct the GFC-themed "Too Big To Fail" for HBO Films reports Deadline.

Based on Andrew Ross Sorkin's book, the project is described as a dissection of the 2008 financial crisis and the power brokers in both D.C. and Wall Street who decided the fate of the world's economy as the system teetered on collapse.

Hurt would play Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Other roles to be cast include Paulson's successor Timothy Geitner, Lehman Bros CEO Richard Fuld and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke.

Peter Gould adapted the script while Sorkin will serve as a consultant on the project. Filming kicks off in the early fall.

John Cusack has revealed through his Twitter account that he's set to play legendary writer Edgar Allan Poe.

"officiali- will play edgar allen poe in fall-a-film called the raven, send any poe- gold - my way as i begin this journey into the abyss" says the tweet.

At last report, James McTeigue ("V for Vendetta") would direct the project which re-imagines the author as something of a mid-19th century profiler who joins the hunt for a serial killer whose murders are inspired by his stories.

The film's setting takes place during the final week leading up to Poe's death in 1849, during which the author essentially vanished for several days with no account of his whereabouts. He was found wandering the streets of Baltimore in great distress and repeating the name Reynolds before dying several days later in hospital.

Hannah Shakespeare and Ben Livingston penned the screenplay.

Stephen Dorff is in negotiations to star in the indie thriller "Carjacked" for Gold Rush Entertainment and Mass Hysteria Entertainment reports TheWrap

Maria Bello plays a single mother who finds herself and her child carjacked by a thief (Dorff) who has no intention of letting them go. Ron Perlman, Saffron Burrows and Giovanni Ribisi were linked to the key roles in previous incarnations.

Peter Medak ("Species II") directs from a script by Michael and Sherry Compton, while Dan Grodnik is producing. Shooting kicks off next month in Louisiana.

Neil Marshall ("The Descent," "Centurion") is set to direct the food-themed horror thriller "Underground" for Ozla Pictures reports Deadline.

David Cohen penned the story of an ambitious young chef who ventures into the terrifying underbelly of extreme cuisine served up in gourmet underground supper clubs.

For those unfamiliar, these clubs serve outlandish cuisine prepared by a gourmet chef, usually food that's legal in other countries but not approved by food & drug authorities in respective countries. Cohen, Taka Ichise, Jeremy Platt and Erin Eggers will produce.

Judi Dench has signed on to the Marilyn Monroe semi-biopic "My Week With Marilyn" reports The Daily Mail.

The story is based on a diary by Colin Clark, a young actor who worked for Laurence Olivier when the veteran actor shepherded Marilyn Monroe around London while she shot "The Prince and the Showgirl".

Kenneth Branagh and Michelle Williams are set to play Olivier and Monroe respectively, and Simon Curtis directs the project.

Dench would play actress Sybil Thorndike, a fellow Dame who played the dowager queen in the film and one of the few people on the set who understood and got on with Monroe.

Dench will start shooting her scenes on September 20th, two weeks prior to the main body of the shoot. This is being done to accommodate Dench’s commitment to James Madden’s "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel".

Kyle MacLachlan and Rosanna Arquette have joined the cast of Bruce Beresford's multigenerational indie drama "Peace, Love & Misunderstanding" for BCDF Pictures.

Christina Mengert and Joseph Muszynski's script centers on a conservative lawyer (Catherine Keener) who takes her son and daughter to the house of their estranged, hippie grandmother (Jane Fonda) in Woodstock after her husband leaves her. They each find love in unexpected places.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Chace Crawford, Elizabeth Olsen, Nat Wolff and Marissa O’Donnell also star. Claude Dal Farra, Brice Dal Farra, Lauren Munsch, and Jonathan Burkhart will produce. Shooting wraps this week in New York City.

"Transformers" and "Star Trek" co-scribe Alex Kurtzman will make his directorial debut on the family drama "Welcome to People" for Dreamworks Pictures says Vulture.

The story follows a struggling twenty-something junk dealer who returns home to Los Angeles for the funeral of his estranged record-producer father.

His late dad's last will stipulates that he delivers $150,000 in cash to a 30-year-old alcoholic sister he never knew existed. Determined to keep the money, he makes contact with her and her troubled teenage son anyway but doesn't reveal who he really is.

Kurtzman, Orci and Jody Lambert co-wrote the script.

Roadside Attractions and Liddell Entertainment have acquired U.S. and Canadian rights to the Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor-led black comedy "I Love You Phillip Morris".

"Bad Santa" filmmakers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa helmed the based on a true story feature about a charismatic conman who escapes the Texas prison system on four separate occasions and is in love with his cellmate.

The film's unapologetically edgy comedy and showcasing an affectionate gay male relationship at its heart has lead to some divided though generally positive reaction at its festival premiere and in subsequent international releases.

Consolidated Pictures picked up the film in 2009 and postponed the film's release several times, leading to a legal battle with producers EuropaCorp.

EuropaCorp scored back the rights and have now locked in a deal with Roadside who will give the film a limited release on December 3rd.

Aaron Paul, the younger lead star in AMC's "Breaking Bad", has joined the indie feature "Right Angle" reports Variety.

Based on Adam Niskar's "Busted", the story follows a hard-drinking, promiscuous salesman who becomes a quadriplegic after a tragic accident and struggles to come to terms with his predicament.

Michael Burke ("The Mudge Boy") directs from a script he co-wrote with Mike Young. Gary Gilbert and Jordan Horowitz ("The Kids Are All Right") will produce. Shooting will take place in Michigan.

Freida Pinto ("Slumdog Millionaire"), Tahar Rahim ("A Prophet"), Mark Strong and Antonio Banderas are all in discussions to join Jean-Jacques Annaud's 1929-set romantic drama epic set against the rise of the oil industry in the Middle East reports The Daily Mail.

Hans R. Ruesch's 1957 novel "South Of The Heart", a fictionalised take on the formation of Saudi Arabia, will form the basis of the story about a well-educated Arab prince who is married to a beautiful princess and "is confronted with the problem of what the discovery of oil will bring to the Bedouins" says producer Tarak Ben Ammar.

Rahim and Pinto would play the prince and princess in the film, described as a "big romantic story about oil, religion, tribes and tradition". Shooting will take place in Tunisia.