Summit Entertainment just announced via e-blast that they’ve today commenced photography on the third Twilight flick, the follow-up to New Moon, releasing November 20. David Slade (30 Days of Night, Hard Candy) directs; June 30, 2010 is the release date. Wait, are they really calling it The Twilight Saga: Eclipse? Wow… lame. I just hope the poster doesn’t go with some lame font/graphic choice that incorporates waxing/waning/eclipsed heavenly bodies… which, let’s be honest, it probably will. I mean, that’s a mortal lock, right?

It looks like the Julie Taymor-helmed Broadway presentation of Spider-Man, at least as currently configured, is dead. According to the New York Post, and other outlets, actors have been released from their contracts and Evan Rachel Wood is scrambling for movie work after huge cost overruns doomed the production. There’s an inexperienced producer that’s being hit with most of the blame, and maybe that’s the sum total of the truth, but it again makes one wonder — in these times especially, where are the regulatory controls, and oversight?

For those on the East Coast, Mac Rogers’ Viral bows this Saturday, August 15, at the New York International Fringe Festival, aka FringeNYC; there are also performances on Sunday, August 16; Wednesday, August 19; Sunday, August 23; and Wednesday, August 26. For tickets and more information, click here, or here.

Those in the Los Angeles area owe it to themselves to get down to the Michael Kohn Gallery by this Saturday, August 15. That’s when Dark Night of the Soul, an installed exhibition of the label-blocked musical collaboration between Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse, with accompanying “visual interpretations” (that would be photos) from filmmaker David Lynch, closes. It’s pretty cool, and doesn’t take too long to cycle through.

The axe falls on Ben Lyons… oh, and Ben Mankiewicz, too, actually; Chicago Tribune writer Michael Phillips and the New York Times‘ A.O. Scott will take over a re-revamped At the Movies when its new season bows on September 5.

Magnolia has picked up North American theatrical and V-O-D distribution rights for Serious Moonlight, written by the late Adrienne Shelly and directed by Cheryl Hines, it was announced today. The darkly funny film — Hines’ directorial debut — stars Meg Ryan, Timothy Hutton, Kristen Bell and Justin Long, and will be released to 50 million households through Magnolia’s Ultra VOD program in November prior to its December theatrical bow.

Needing some of this, really…

Just as a heads up, Kathryn Bigelow’s fantastic The Hurt Locker expands by about another 200 venues this weekend, pressing into the heartland…

Sure The Ugly Truth, Orphan and G-Force all hit theaters this weekend, but also expanding into many markets is The Answer Man, starring Jeff Daniels as the hermetic, bestselling author of a culturally defining religious tome who finds his crabby worldview challenged by both a bookstore owner (Lou Taylor Pucci) fresh out of rehab and a massage therapist and single mom (Lauren Graham) who puts up a facade of progressive properness for her 7-year-old son even as his behavior at school indicates he’s starting to feel the effects of his absentee father. Well worth checking out if you have a soft spot for show-up-wounded-type adult love stories.

Hella busy week, with some magazine interviews, DVD liner notes work, and loads of long-lead screenings, including Lars von Trier’s characteristically divisive Antichrist and the fashion documentary The September Issue, about Anna Wintour (the loose inspiration for Meryl Streep’s character in The Devil Wears Prada) and the creation of Vogue’s annually bloated, big-deal September volume, the 2008 version of which featured capricious cover gal Sienna Miller. I need to lay down some thoughts regarding Lone Scherfig’s An Education, too, and the ascendant star of Carey Mulligan, who does deliver on the hype.

Yes, I still need to see Sundance sensation The Cove, about which I’ve heard great things; that should be next Thursday, after screenings earlier in the week for Orphan, Oz-ploitation documentary Not Quite Hollywood, Scott Hicks’ The Boys Are Back, Richard Loncraine’s My One and Only and more. Looks like I dodged the bullet got pulled off of an assignment on G-Force, alas. So you’ll have to get your animated talking guinea pig fix elsewhere, it seems.

In advance of this week’s rather fetching and intriguing (500) Days of Summer, Movieline basically crushes on Zooey Deschanel, and tallies up her work as a long-lashed, eye-batting, idealized romantic counterpoint to a roster of mopey, quirky, vulnerable young men whose paths to self-actualization travel through her. Shared Darkness wholeheartedly endorses this crush; Deschanel is the bee’s knees.

A Critical Moment’s Brad Schreiber has up a great piece on The Huffington Post, stemming from an interview with Errol Morris pegged to The Fog of War, about how that film helped shift his feelings and create a sort of sympathetic revulsion for the recently deceased former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara.

Over on her Screen Daily blog, Fionnuala Halligan takes stock of Tenderness, gruff headliner Russell Crowe‘s long-shelved cop drama collaboration with Aussie director pal John Polson, and why it was given the snuff-release of a single London theater.

A late-ish notice, but in the wake of David Carradine’s recent death, the May Blu-ray release for Circle of Iron — reportedly one of the films of which Carradine was most fond — is getting another push at major retailers, I’ve noticed.

Los Angeles-based Maya Entertainment has signed a partnership deal with home entertainment giant Blockbuster to present groundbreaking Latin cinema from acclaimed filmmakers and star talent in major U.S. markets. The series launches on July 17 and runs through  September 10; Maya Entertainment and Blockbuster will provide eight-city theatrical releases for a curated slate of eight Latino-themed films. “This alliance is the perfect extension of Maya’s mission,” said Moctesuma Esparza, founder of Maya Entertainment. “With Blockbuster as a partner in this venture, we will extend the reach of this program tenfold, and provide the national film-going audience with consistent, high-quality cinema from top Latino filmmakers and talent.”

The series, programmed by Maya’s acquisitions executives, Jose Martinez, Jr. and Tonantzin Esparza, kicks off mid-month with The Line, a Tijuana crime story centered around a veteran assassin as he tracks down the elusive head of the Salazar Crime Cartel; Andy Garcia, Ray Liotta, Armand Assante, Esai Morales and Danny Trejo all star. Other films include Vicious Circle, Bajo La Sal, Sultanes del Sur (Southern Sultans), Once Upon a Time in Rio, Crónicas Chilangas (Chilangas Chronicles), Bad Guys and Máncora. Featured actors in the movies include Paul Rodriguez, Quinceañera‘s Emily Rios, Robert Zepeda, Jordi Molla, Irene Azuela (who won an Ariel Award, Mexico’s Oscar equivalent, for her performance), Elsa Pataky and Danny Strong. Following the theatrical tour, the films will all be available exclusively for rental at Blockbuster stores, pegged to Hispanic Heritage Month in September. For more information, click here.

For those interested, author and Food, Inc. interviewee Michael Pollan will be part of a live Facebook chat this Thursday, July 2 at 6 p.m. Eastern. If you have a Facebook or Twitter account, it’s simple to participate; click here for more information.

Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood Daily has been acquired by Mail.com Media Corporation, presumably for a nice payday. MMC, a digital media company that owns and operates the Mail.com portal and email service as well as a growing portfolio of lifestyle brands — including HollywoodLife.com, MovieLine.com and OnCars.com — announced its acquisition and long-term, multi-year partnership today. “We’re thrilled to be working with Nikki. As a world-class journalist, she is unequivocally recognized by the entertainment and business community as a unique voice and leading authority on news coverage of major media, especially Hollywood,” said Jay Penske, the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of MMC. “With this acquisition and partnership now complete, Deadline Hollywood Daily can continue to extend its reach and
influence, and finally have the web platform it deserves. Ever since the first scoop of Nikki’s that I read, I quickly realized that she has raised the bar on — if not changed the game of — entertainment journalism, and her work perfectly embodies our mission at MMC: to provide the most original and most authoritative content on the web.”

On the run all day today, with multiple interviews for Michael Mann’s Public Enemies, and the rather striking Los Angeles Film Festival documentary competition film Branson. Plus a couple other screenings that’ll keep me out past midnight. And I’ve already been up for over two hours. Huzzah!

For those interested, Food, Inc. director Robert Kenner will be part of a live Twitter chat this Friday, June 19. It’s simple to participate; at 10 a.m. Pacific time, log in to Twitter, put #foodinc in the search bar, and hit enter. You’re now following the conversation. If you have questions, be sure to include the #foodinc tag.