As is often the case with the translation of any geek property to the screen, this Friday's release of Max Payne seems to elicit just as many hopes and doubts as one would expect from a big-screen adaptation of a popular video game (well, one not directed by Uwe Boll, that is). So, coming from a position of relative ignorance when it comes to most titles (trust me, my PS2 gathers more dust than yours does), what's the current reading from fans on a film proudly rated PG-13, although based on a series of M-rated games?

And for which upcoming projects are you most hopeful: Halo -- that is, with or without Peter Jackson? Gore Verbinski's BioShock? Jerry Bruckheimer's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time? (And just when is The Rock's Spy Hunter coming out anyway? Do you care?) (Should I?)

As for my fellow ignorati: does this look to you like an appealing action movie regardless? Which video-game movies worked best despite your lack of familiarity with the source material? My vote goes to the first Resident Evil, with some moderate supporting love going to Silent Hill and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within -- no great blasphemy intended.

Oh, and just to keep things jumping, any thoughts on the following titles, or any left out, are more than welcome: DOA: Dead or Alive, Doom, Double Dragon, Hitman, the Mortal Kombat films, Street Fighter, Super Mario Brothers, the Tomb Raider franchise, Wing Commander.

Here's a question: Should any studio greenlight a sequel based on advanced buzz and before the original even hits theaters? Sure, if you're a fan of the Twilight novels, I suspect you'd want the studio to greenlight, like, a billion Twilight sequels, like, right this second -- but wouldn't it be a risky move? Nikki Finke over at Deadline Hollywood claims Summit's already prepping the sequel (New Moon), though that's about as far as she goes with it. Finke, however, does state the obvious: that even though the first Twilight film isn't due out until November 21, the latest trailer was viewed over 3.5 million times in 48 hours, the Twilight soundtrack has already hit the Top 5 Best-Selling Albums on Amazon (despite the fact that it doesn't come out until November 4th) and the merchandise for this sucker rivals that of the boy wizard, Harry Potter.

Okay, so obviously there's an audience for not one film, but two -- yet what if that audience doesn't like the first installment? Is that even possible? Is this the sort of film fans will love no matter what the final product looks like? And do you really take a chance greenlighting a sequel with a film whose audience is not comprised of the oh-so-lucrative teen male population. Are teen and pre-teen girls (and their moms) enough to carry this entire franchise?

And for you Twilight fans out there: While early, is there anything different you'd like to see from the sequel?

This is a follow-up of sorts to my piece on Mikael Hafstrøm's adaptation of Stephen King's 1408. If you're interested, you should check that out. There, I half-marveled at and half-lamented the fact that the film managed to transform 1408 from a spectacularly scary, quasi-Lovecraftian horror tale into a personal, abstract meditation on grief and loss. In effect, the movie transplanted the story from the conceptual, hard-horror half of King's ouvre (think Cell and From a Buick 8) to the character-driven half (Lisey's Story, Bag of Bones). It was still a good film, but it needed someone who understood the existential terror that King is so good at evoking: a glimpse of something so alien, so divorced from the world we know, that it is simply beyond our comprehension. That's scary. Give me a movie like that.

At the time I wrote that post, such a film already existed. I suspected that this was the case, but I hadn't read the source material, and so couldn't validly make the comparison. Now I can: Frank Darabont's The Mist understands the sort of paralyzing, staring-into-the-abyss horror that King does so well. Even more impressive: not only does it brilliantly translate that aspect of the novella to the screen, it – like 1408 – fleshes out dimensions that the author barely implied. I knew I loved the film when I saw it, but only now do I understand how accomplished it really is.

Say what you like about the collected works of Mr. Ridley Scott, but when this man sets out to make a science fiction film ... good things happen. The always-busy director has only done two sci-fi films, but those ones are called Blade Runner and A L I E N. Since Blade Runner in 1982, Scott has kept busy with big hits (like Gladiator) and big misses (like this past weekend's Body of Lies) -- but it looks like the man is heading back into the speculative realm once he's done with that crazy Nottingham project.

According to Variety, Scott will direct an adaptation of Joe Haldeman's The Forever War, which the filmmaker wanted to make a long time ago, but there were all sorts of rights issues involving FX genius Richard Edlund, who "bought" the book right when it was published. For his part, Ridley Scott seems enthused: "I first pursued 'Forever War' 25 years ago, and the book has only grown more timely and relevant since ... It's a science-fiction epic, a bit of 'The Odyssey' by way of 'Blade Runner,' built upon a brilliant, disorienting premise."

That premise isn't laid out all that well in Variety, so for that we'll look to Amazon: OK, so I was going to paste the whole breakdown, but here's my interpretation: It's the future and mankind is at war with the Taurans, only we use ships that allow its crew members to age really slowly, so when this one guy comes back home and cannot adjust to the 1-to-27-year ratio, he keeps signing back up for battle after battle. Or something close to that. Clearly I need to get this book. (More info here, but watch out for spoilers.)

City of Ember was the surprise closing-night film at Fantastic Fest, but I found out about the surprise a little early (which is always fun). I was able to see the film earlier in the week so I could interview director Gil Kenan, who showed up in Austin with surprise guest (to me, too!) Bill Murray for the closing-night festivities. Kenan has directed a pair of entertaining and visually stunning family-friendly features, the Oscar-nominated animated film Monster House and now the City of Ember adaptation, which opens in theaters on Friday. Not only that, but Kenan landed both of these projects right after he graduated from UCLA, where his short film The Lark won him a lot of attention. We talked about what he's done to make City of Ember as beautiful a film as it is, and how he found such compelling lead actors. He's currently linked to a new Robert Zemeckis production, Airman, and we took a minute to discuss that too. Check it out after the jump.

A few weeks back I received an early copy of the Iron Man SE DVD, and although we all griped a little bit about the lack of an audio commentary -- I'm pretty sure the fans are still happy with that purchase. So now let's try it again, only instead of Iron Man, we'll be picking through the 3-disc Special Edition of Louis Leterrier's The Incredible Hulk. And while it's definitely a good package (provided you dig the film), here's one simple warning right out of the gate: The third disc is nothing more than a "digital copy" platter. Maybe I'm missing something, but I just don't see the big appeal of "digital copies." Why the hell would I want to overstuff my hard drive -- when I have the DVD sitting right here??

Anyway, the Special Edition has lots to recommend it, and the main feature is certainly something to see -- doubly so if you happen to have Blu-Ray. (I do not.) Even better the second time around, The Incredible Hulk is a simple yet very well-made action adventure flick in which a fugitive scientist must avoid the military while trying to get a powerfully monstrous alter-ego out of his system. Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, William Hurt, and Tim Roth bring an excellent air of professionalism to "yet another" superhero movie, and while it might not have been the Action Event that Iron Man was, I think it's safe to assume that Marvel and the fans were pleased with the big green semi-sequel as well.

So on disc one we get an audio commentary with Leterrier and actor Tim Roth, as well as six deleted scenes that run about 14 minutes total. The deleted footage is mostly early (Brazil) stuff and a few villainous rants between Hurt and Roth. (All good cuts if you ask me.) As far as the commentary goes, it sounds a lot like a cool Brit and an enthusiastic Frenchman talking about their action movie. I'm only about fifteen minutes into the chat-track, but it's pretty amusing stuff...

Read on for the Disc Two delights.

One of the most gorgeous-looking films I've seen this year is City of Ember, the Fox/Walden adaptation of Jeanne Duprau's young-adult fantasy novel about a post-apocalyptic underground city. Although the story is aimed at younger audiences, it's still enjoyable for grown-ups. The movie should be viewed on as large a screen as you can find, giving you the sense that you're this close to the fascinating and decaying city where the story is set.

The movie's prologue lays out the premise clearly. In the future, something goes haywire that causes the end of the world, but fortunately top U.S. scientists have created an underground city to keep a portion of mankind safe. The inhabitants will not be told about the Earth's past, so they won't be traumatized and will assume that their underground city is the only civilization. A box with instructions for returning to the Earth's surface will open in 200 years, which should be time enough for the Earth to be inhabitable again. However, over the course of time the box becomes lost, and after more than two centuries have passed, the city is starting to run out of resources and is falling apart.

If the current financial crisis is getting you down, how about a post-apocalyptic vision of poverty and murder to cheer you right up? Or, then again, maybe not. The Hollywood Reporter announced that Dominic Monaghan (LOTR) and Freddy Rodriguez (Planet Terror) have signed to star in the horror-thriller, Fortuna.

The flick is set in a future of extreme wealth and poverty. The world's elites have devised a way to reduce poverty by offering citizens the chance to compete in a mysterious game known as Fortuna, in which one person will be whisked away to life of riches and luxury -- what could go wrong? Well, if you have ever seen a movie before you can probably guess that maybe the prize isn't all it is cracked up to be.

Writer-director Barthélémy Grossmann will appear alongside Rodriguez and Monaghan as one of the contestants, and the film is expected to start shooting on location in Bulgaria. According to THR the production is already underway, and, "ghetto like sets are being built for a film Zilber compares to 1973's post apocalyptic thriller "Soylent Green."

Grossmann is a relative unknown to most of us in North America, and this appears to his first foray into English film making (but the recognizable faces of Monaghan and Rodriguez should help the project earn a little attention). Even though it might not be the most original idea for a film (I like to think of it as Running Man meets Regannomics) but I guess everyone has financial collapse on the brain anyway, why not turn it into big-screen entertainment?

Despite having six new wide releases last week, only Beverly Hills Chihuahua and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist cracked the top five. In its third week of release, Appaloosa expanded into an additional 1,031 theaters, allowing it to take the number five spot. Here's the top five.

1. Beverly Hills Chihuahua: $29.3 million
2. Eagle Eye: $17.7 million
3. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist: $11.3 million
4. Nights in Rodanthe: $7.3 million
5. Appaloosa: $5 million

Body of Lies
What's It All About: In this Ridley Scott film, Leonardo DiCaprio plays a CIA agent tracking terrorist activity in Jordan, with Russell Crowe playing the veteran agent who helps him infiltrate the terrorist underground.
Why It Might Do Well: This film reteams DiCaprio with William Monahan, the screenwriter behind The Departed, and the flick is sporting a 70% fresh rating at rottentomatoes.com.
Why It Might Not Do Well: This being an election year, there are already enough lies kicking around.
Number of Theaters: 2,500
Prediction: $26 million