HBO was super impressed with first time director Ian Palmer’s buzzed-about documentary, which sounds like the unholy child of Step By Step and Fight Club. They purchased the remake rights to turn the documentary into… a series? Danny McBride‘s Rough House Pictures is attached, which sounds promising.

Apparently, we don’t learn why exactly the families hate each other, but hate each other they do. They even send taunt videos back and forth, like in the WWE, only there’s no need for bad acting because it’s all real. Well, I’m not waiting for the remake. I don’t care whose ass I have to kick to get a screener, I will see this awesome sounding movie. (Deadline)

Director: Davis Guggenheim

Synopsis: Filmmaker Davis Guggenheim follows a handful of promising kids through a system that inhibits, rather than encourages, academic growth, Guggenheim undertakes an exhaustive review of public education, surveying "drop-out factories" and "academic sinkholes," methodically dissecting the system and its seemingly intractable problems. 

The new film Catfish wants to get people talking, but maybe not in the way it has. Since its premiere at Sundance, the film has made an impact on viewers. It begins with NY photographer Yaniv Schulman starting a Facebook relationship with a Midwestern family, then goes to a dark place. Some people are calling bullsh*t on filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost. They’re sticking to their story though.

“This question of whether the film is real or not never occurred to us while we were editing because why would you ever suspect that people would be suspicious of something that actually happened to you,” Joost said at a roundtable in Los Angeles today. “But when we started showing it at Sundance, that’s when we started getting questions from the audience. When we were making the film, there were many times when we thought wow, this is too good to be true in a lot of ways, or I can’t believe that just happened the way that it did or that we captured that in the way that we did, but it really happened. That’s the truth.”

More after the jump…

Other viewers are angry that they’re being a sold a thriller. The title is mysterious, the tag line is “Don’t let anybody tell you what it is.” If you don’t get a massive shocker, that might be a cheap marketing ploy. The filmmakers stand behind Rogue’s campaign too.

“That is part of the movie,” Joost continued. “That’s I think the crux of the second act. What I like about it being marketed that way is just that it kind of has you looking in a different direction and expecting something and the film ends up being a lot more than that.”

So the film doesn’t end with the filmmakers disappearing under a bundle of sticks, but it’s got something to think about. If you take their word for it that all this Facebook mystery really happened, you can learn from their experience.

“I think it says that the internet and social networking is sort of a perfect distraction and fantasy for people to fill any empty space in their lives, whether it’s just to fill time and distract them from a real life situation that’s uncomfortable,” Ariel Schulman said. “A bad date or a boring dinner, just hop on your phone and you’re on the internet and you’re surrounded by 1000s of people. Or it can fill a much simpler void which is my life isn’t what I want it to be I am not who I want to be. Let me create a better self, at avatar. Bam, five minutes later you’re up and going.”

Suspicion comes with the territory. Certainly in a world where even Hollywood films use a documentary style, the filmmakers understand skepticism. “I think that there has been a trend for a while of the mockumentary and also the fake documentary which is kind of a different thing,” Joost said. “The Cloverfield and Blair Witch Project type thing and then even more recently, those commercials that are trying to look like YouTube viral videos where something totally crazy happens and a visual effects company manipulates it. So I think people are trained now to be suspicious about what they see and wonder what the motives are behind it.”

Catfish opens September 17.
 

Directors: Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman

Synopsis: In late 2007, filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost sensed a story unfolding as they began to film the life of Ariel’s brother, Nev. They had no idea that their project would lead to the most exhilarating and unsettling months of their lives.

Release Date: September 17, 2010

Director: Casey Affleck

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix

Synopsis: A documentary on Joaquin Phoenix‘s transition from the acting world to a career as an aspiring rapper. 

Release Date: September 10th 2010

^{"You serious, bro?"}

A little backstory: Joaquin Phoenix went crazy, grew a beard, quit acting, started rapping, and Casey Affleck was there with a camera to capture it all. Online speculation has been that the entire breakdown is fake (and crazy). Now, we will have the opportunity to judge for ourselves this September.

Deadline reports that Magnolia has bought the distribution rights to Casey Affleck’s I’m Still Here: The Lost Year of Joaquin Phoenix. Or, as it should be called I Get Pooped On: That Time Somebody Pooped On Joaquin Phoenix.  That’s right. The film is said to include cocaine use, hookers, oral sex with a publicist, loads of full frontal male nudity, and somebody poops on Joaquin as he sleeps. We’re not naming any names, but c’mon.

^{I can kind of see it around the eyes.}

You may listen to the Lost Highway soundtrack on repeat or enjoy Mulholland Drive for reasons beyond Naomi Watts’s chest, but you’re not a true fan of David Lynch until you have his face printed on your stylish tote bag. And Lynch is giving you the opportunity to do just that. Anyone who donates $50 to the production of his upcoming documentary Lynch Three, can win a limited-edition print of the director’s self-portrait on a poster, tote bag, or T-shirt.

Onto the self-portrait itself. I’m a little disappointed by it. I know that art is subjective and Lynch has proven himself time and time again in the creative world, but it looks like it belongs on Regretsy. Why isn’t this sculpted out of steak, or printed on dead skin? At least tell me the pen he used to draw it was involved in a stabbing. Give me something here. (via Cinema Blend)

Have you always wanted to co-direct a movie with Ridley Scott but have been prevented from doing so by your crippling fear of 30 Odd Foot of Grunts guitarist Russell Crowe? Good news. Scott and State of Play director Kevin MacDonald are partnering with YouTube and Sundance to give everyday sacks like you the chance at finding your inner filmmaker.

The documentary will be called Life In a Day, and feature video entries from DIY filmmakers around the world. The only real guideline is that you need to shoot and submit your footage on July 24th, 2010. Everyone whose footage is selected will receive a co-director credit in what is surely to be the longest opening credits sequence ever. This idea has actually sparked the imagination of several directors. In fact, Uwe Boll‘s firsthand experience with Epic Fails has him in talks to direct Break: The Movie (Ed. Note: Lie), and Brett Ratner is spending a lot of time on ChatRoulette. A frightening amount of time actually. (THR)

StudioCanal’s documentary Babies takes a look at one year in the life of five babies living in Mongolia, Namibia, San Francisco, and Tokyo. This film is bound to get biological clocks a-ringing. So fellas, keep your ladies away from this one or you’ll soon be up to your elbows in doody (not your own) and be forced to watch Yo Gabba Gabba (not ironically).

Soothe your teething gums with these links… 

_{25 Babes James Bond Has Boned (Holy Taco)}

_{Sacre Bleu! French Goalie Breaks Leg In Half (TotallyProSports)}

_{World’s Greatest Sleeping Bags (TheChive)}

_{Leo, Tobey, and David Blaine are broin’ out (FilmDrunk)}

_{15 Fake Magazines That Should Exist (SuperTremendous)}

_{Spanish LOST Promo Looks Like Perfume Ad (Pajiba)}

_{The 2009 NFL All-Criminal Team (CelebJihad)}

_{Dragon Backpack: Badass or Super Badass? (Unreality)}

_{Get To Know Rachel Uchitel (Asylum)}

_{Jay Cutler Beaten By Small Children (BustedCoverage)}

_{Nine Ridiculous Lawsuits Filed By Inmates (RegretfulMorning)}

_{World’s Strongest Beer – Penguin Suit Not Included (MadeMan)}

_{NASCAR Collection Funds College Tuition (AllLeftTurns)}

_{In Russia, Cat Fights You (NothingToxic)}

_{Drunken Teens In A Hot Tub (Atom)}

Below are a couple new clips from THIS IS IT, the Michael Jackson tribute film that arrives in theaters next week for a 2-week limited run that we’re sure, based on pre-ordered tickets alone, will get extended. 

The first clip is a featurette that gives us a glimpse of just how huge this concert tour was going to be and how meticulous the preparation had to be to pull it all off. 

The second clip is a string of shots showing how Jackson and his backup dancers put some of the choreography together. Not since… ever… has goose stepping been so cool.

Tonight, National Geographic Channel is airing an all-new documentary called "Hitler’s Stealth Fighter."  Apparently in the final months of World War II, American troops discovered a top-secret facility in Germany with an advanced, jet-propelled aircraft like no one had ever seen before.  It was called "The Horten Ho 229."

It was shaped like a massive bat wing… like something out of Star Wars.  But its wooden body was most definitely man-made.  So what did Uncle Sam’s army do with it?  Well, they brought back to the United States to be studied, of course.  And everything that they learned about the Third Reich’s mystery plane stayed a mystery… until now.

Screen Junkies had a chance to check out an advance screener of the doc, and it’s definitely worth watching.  Aside from showing you this prototype of airborne insidiousness inside and out, it also makes you think about what might have happened had Hitler and the Nazis gotten their plane manufactured en masse and into the skies.  It’s some scary scheisse.

"Hitler’s Stealth Fighter" airs tonight at 9PM ET/PT on National Geographic Channel. 

Check out some more images and clips after the jump:

_{RIDGECREST, CALIFORNIA: A full scale replica of the Ho 229 bomber made with materials available in the 1940s at prefilght. (Photo credit © Linda Reynolds / Flying Wing Films)}
 

_{UNITED KINGDOM: A blueprint of the Horten Ho 229 flying wing fighter/bomber. (Photo credit © Arthur Bentely / Flying Wing Films)}

Engineered Engineered long before its time, the Horten 229 was the product of two brothers‘ desire for vengeance:

Rare archival footage of Northrop Grumman’s test flights of their early flying wing prototype:

Archival scenes of Adolf Hitler and stealth fighter airplanes from World War II:

The new teaser for Michael Moore‘s Untitled Bailout Documentary has arrived, and it doesn’t give too much away, other than Michael Moore’s angry again.  "Angry Moore" is really evident here.  He breaks out his classic sarcastic Moore voice, bringing his pitch up an octave while gently coaxing the audience to bend over for the banks.  "This time it’s personal" reads the text at the end of the trailer.  This time, I believe it.  Kudos to Moore’s marketing team for borrowing the tagline from Jaws 4: The Revenge. [via The Playlist]

Director: Michael Moore

Cast: TBD

Synopsis: TBD