The least you can expect from a director, approaching a story as venerable as Dracula, is that he or she will have the guts to take it seriously. Updating the legend to modern day is even more possible when you figure out new versions of old terrors. The 1958 The Return of Dracula, an economical and effective black and white horror film released by UA, stars the ageless Czech-American actor Frances Lederer. Before Lederer's death in 2000, he claimed that his only regret as an actor was appearing in this film, possibly because of its gore content (it was gory by the standards of '58, that is). Apparently, his regret wasn't that Drac was some sort of anti-Eastern European stereotype, seeing as how Lederer reprised the Count as his very last role in "The Devil is Not Mocked," an episode of TV's Night Gallery directed by Legend of Hillbilly John's Manly Wade Wellman. (The plot of that episode is the perfect example of the first story that comes to a novice horror-writer's mind, and which has to be discarded right away: During World War 2, Nazi soldiers commandeer a certain castle, and...)

Well, it scared me, but it must have been the actor, not the story. Lederer is a Dracula to reckon with in The Return of Dracula as he helps himself to the denizens of Carleton, California (population 1162). "His sole purpose is to establish a chain of domination, " says the Van Helsing guy, an "European Police Agency" investigator called Meiermann (Jon Wengraff). This budget Drac was exhibited as The Curse of Dracula, and The Fantastic Disappearing Man--the latter title is an apt description of this one's modest special effects. But I've got an alternate title: I Was a Communist Vampire. Director Paul Landres zeros in on the Red Scare to give this Dracula some teeth.

Gwyneth Paltrow's cousin, Katherine Moennig, has been in a few films, like last year's Art School Confidential, but has found most of her success on the television show The L Word as the infamous lovergirl Shane McCutcheon. She's gotten the chance to get frisky with Rosanna Arquette, be the daughter of Arquette's Nobody's Fool co-star Eric Roberts, play mom, and date a T-X. Not too shabby at all! Now she's got a new film project on the way, as Variety reports that she's been cast to star in an indie thriller called Remorse.

Centering so specifically on "themes of love, death, and the fragility of the mind," Remorse was written by Pete Cafaro and Andrew Kayros, and Big Brother camera operator Quinn Saunders will direct when the production gets in gear this March in Philly. Moennig also has a co-star, Eion Bailey. Honestly, I had no idea who he was until I checked out his IMDb list -- he's one of those guys you've seen before, but probably never knew his name. His roles include playing one of the hungry hyena-influenced pack on Buffy, Ricky in Fight Club, one of the Rolling Stone guys in Almost Famous, and a short stint on ER as Jake Scanlon.

So yeah, that's it. Someone's feeling remorse, presumably over someone's death, and that remorse has led to a fragile mind. Or, maybe, the person that died had a fragile mind. Who knows?! Fie these vague descriptions!

There seems to be a lot of thrillers coming from the world of independent film lately, and The Hollywood Reporter has brought word of the latest production. Simon Baker, who you might remember from The Devil Wears Prada, will leads a new psychological thriller from Dror Soref called Not Forgotten. Baker will star in the film as "a bank manager in a U.S.-Mexico border town haunted by the death of his daughter. He and his wife approach a Latina soothsayer to find out what happened to the girl, but the old woman's visions threaten to dredge up secrets from their tortured pasts." I guess they didn't think about the fact that a seer could see those sorts of things.

If this sounds like the typical creepy movie fare, producer Donald Zuckerman says otherwise: "The key points in this film -- the love of a family, Latino culture, spirituality -- are interpreted in a way we rarely ever see in the movies." Soref wrote the script with Tomas Romero (THR didn't specify which), and will produce with Zuckerman and Myriad Pictures as the feature sets up to shoot this January in New Mexico. This will be Soref's second directorial feature -- the first was an indie flick called The Seventh Coin in the '90s. While it's not too well known, it did boast a cast that included Peter O'Toole and John Rhys-Davies. Beyond that, he's been the head of a short film called Platinum Blonde in the '80s, and Weird Al's video, I Love Rocky Road. Coins, epic actors, Weird Al, and a short with Elizabeth Berkley? This guy knows how to traverse the seas of cinematic themes!

The 51st edition of the London Film Festival kicked off last night with a red carpet gala for David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises. An article in Variety says that Cronenberg attended and even joked with the audience: "The reason you might not recognize London in this film is that it was shot in Prague." The now-notorious scene in which a naked Viggo Mortensen battles brutes in a bathhouse reportedly drew a round of applause.

Cast members Naomi Watts and Vincent Cassel were in attendance, as well as a treasure trove of celebrities, including Colin Firth, Martin Freeman and Elle McPherson. Check out the Cinematical photo gallery of the premiere below to get a taste of the red carpet.

Next Monday night, Robert Redford's political drama Lions for Lambs will have its world premiere, with Redford and stars Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep scheduled to attend. Other upcoming gala and special screenings include Bee Movie, The Darjeeling Limited, Into the Wild, Lust, Caution, Sicko and Things We Lost in the Fire.

Beyond the galas, the festival features a wide selection of world cinema. The "New British Cinema" section showcases 12 films, including Nick Broomfield's Iraq war docu-drama Battle for Haditha, John Crowley's tale of redemption Boy A and Simon Welsford's thriller Jetsam. "French Revolutions" highlights 14 newer titles from that country, while American titles like Hannah Takes the Stairs, Grace is Gone and Honeydripper are featured in other sections. The festival continues through November 1.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released the official list of all the films eligible for nomination in this year's foreign-language Oscar category. There are entries from 63 countries, more than ever before, including first-time contributors Azerbaijan and Ireland. It is from this list of 63 films that the Academy's committee will choose the five actual nominees, to be announced with the other Oscar nominations on Jan. 22.

The complete list of entries is here, but here are some of the more interesting aspects:

• Variety reports that Taiwan initially submitted Ang Lee's Lust, Caution, but the Academy nixed it, pointing out gently that apart from Ang Lee having been born there, Taiwan had no involvement in the production of the film. Taiwan was allowed to send its backup selection, Island Etude, instead.

• As previously reported, Israel's entry, The Band's Visit, was disqualified for having too much English in it. It was expected that Israel would send Beaufort instead, and that's what they did.

• The former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan has never submitted a movie before. This one, Caucasia, is not listed at IMDb, and neither is its director, Farid Gumbatov. Googling "caucasia" "farid gumbatov," the only results you get are other news stories reporting the Oscar entries. So at this point, we're basically taking the Academy's word for it that the movie even exists.

• As Monika Bartyzel already reported, India's been in brouhaha locally over their submission, Eklavya: The Royal Guard. Seems the film was a flop in India, both at the box office and with critics, and there were whispers that India's selection committee only chose it because one of the committee members worked on the film as an editor, while two other members are friends with the director. There had been some talk of replacing it with a less controversial choice, but that didn't happen. Eklavya it is.

• Australia submitted a film, The Home Song Stories, that's mostly in Chinese. Huh.

• Ireland, you may well imagine, mostly produces films in English. But this film, Kings, is primarily in the Irish language, sometimes known as Gaelic, which our friend Wikipedia says about 41 percent of Irish people consider themselves competent in. See? We learn things at the Oscars!

Starkwether, Homicide, Children of Thalidomide... It might have been a catchy, popular song, but there was a reason Billy Joel included it in We Didn't Start the Fire. In the '60s, Thalidomide was given to pregnant women to help them sleep and help ease morning sickness. Little did the women know that freedom from some bathroom retching often lead to serious side effects in their babies -- extremely short limbs, toes in the wrong places, and arms similar to flippers, as well as internal problems. That's a pretty huge price to pay for temporary comfort. Now a new German documentary is revisiting the topic.

Variety reports that Warner Home Video has gotten the domestic home entertainment rights to the European doc called Side Effects. The film focuses on the defects suffered by thousands of babies in Europe during the early '60s. It was originally a TV movie in Germany, which got into a legal battle because the company that manufactured the drug, Grünenthal, tried to block it. It might be bad press, but come on -- make a mistake that large and devastating and it's going to haunt you. Last month, Germany's high court gave it the green light, and everything is good to go. The piece will be released on November 9 as a double DVD, after its television premiere.

While it might sound like some sort of Adam Sandler comedy, Waking Madison is actually an indie thriller from writer/director Katherine Brooks. A woman named Madison, who lives in New Orleans, is suffering from multiple personalities. She makes her money with phone sex, and "is doing everything she can to lead a normal life." A bunch of things happen to leave her desperate and suicidal, so she locks herself in her apartment for a whopping 30 days to try and heal herself. She has a video camera to use as a video journal, and vows to kill herself on the 30th day, if she doesn't feel more at peace by the end of her isolation. Variety says that she's without telephone or outside stimuli, but the film's website says she's doing it with the help of Dr. Elizabeth Barnes -- either the doc is in there with her, or has contact with her somehow. Of course, since this is a thriller, there's also a "climactic twist."

The way Variety describes it -- as a woman who locks herself away, alone, to cure her illness, sounds pretty silly, but considering the summary on the film's website, it sounds like this thriller will be more than that. Sarah Roemer, who was Shia LaBeouf's love interest in Disturbia, has signed on to star as Madison, and Elisabeth Shue, of babysitting fame, will play the doctor. On the film's website, Brooks says that they've also cast Taryn Manning as Margaret, Erin Kelly as Grace, and Imogen Poots as Alexis. It'll be interesting to see what Brooks makes of the female-centric cast, and I'm curious to see how Roemer will handle what looks to be a pretty intensive role.

While they haven't started filming, production begins in New Orleans on November 5, the indie's website is already pretty impressive. There's video, blogs, informations, chat rooms, forums, as well as a member's area where you can sign up for extra content and to even help pick the cast. It really seems like Brooks knows how to get the message out. Her own story, which is on the site as well, is pretty interesting to boot. She ran away from Louisiana at 16, to go to California with a measly $150, and ten years later she's become pretty darned successful. I, for one, can't wait to see what she does with this!

Who is Ulrich Thomsen? He's played a neo-Nazi locked in a battle between good and evil (Adam's Apples), a famous pianist returning to his hometown (Allegro), a befuddled criminal forced into running a restaurant (Flickering Lights), a Templar Master in the late 12th century (Kingdom of Heaven), and even a villainous henchman (The World is Not Enough) among dozens of parts since 1994. His signature role is probably the lead in the intense dysfunctional family drama The Celebration. According to Variety, he has now signed on to star in The Frost, a psychological drama "turning on the disintegration of a marriage after a son's death."

The Frost sounds like an unusual beast. It's a Spanish/Scandinavian co-production, specifically involving Spain's Alta Realitat, Norway's Frost Media and Sweden's Gota Film. Director Ferran Audí is an experienced Spanish actor; The Frost will be his feature debut. The film is loosely based on Henrik Ibsen's 1894 play Little Eyoff, which has never been dramatized for the screen before.

Ibsen.net reported this past August that Thomsen would star in The Frost and added that Audí had written the English-language script with contributions by Swedish playwright Lars Norén. Ibsen.net also indicated that Swedish actresses Annika Hallin (the very good mystery thriller Kissed by Winter and the upcoming period epic Arn: The Knight Templar) and Bibi Andersson (Ingmar Bergman's Persona) would appear. With such good actors on board, The Frost looks like a strong contender for the festival circuit sometime next year.

Programming a film series or festival inevitably requires a degree of compromise, depending as it does on the oft-indecipherable whims of distributors, producers and sales agents. In recognition of the challenges and frustrations involved, I prefer to give programmers the benefit of the doubt. Yet I can't help but wonder what the Film Society of Lincoln Center had in mind with "10 Years and Running: Recent Hong Kong Cinema," a retrospective series that begins tonight in New York City.

Ostensibly, the program is intended "to mark the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region" with a "series of cinematic highlights." That sounds good, but the program lacks any balance. If the aim was to provide the very best of Hong Kong cinema since 1997, then why include Initial D and Confession of Pain, two moderately enjoyable yet ultimately inconsequential films by the directing team of Andrew Lau and Alan Mak (their much better collaboration Infernal Affairs is also screening). If the goal was to provide historical perspective on the decade, why ignore completely the wave of proto-Hollywood thrillers (Downtown Torpedoes, 2000 A.D.) that flooded theaters in the late 1990's, or the plethora of romantic comedies that followed in the wake of Needing You in 2000, or recent attempts -- by directors other than Johnny To -- to reawaken the action film (Flash Point, Invisible Target)? If the goal was to highlight popular hits, where are the films of Stephen Chow (The King of Comedy, Shaolin Soccer, Kung Fu Hustle)?

Instead, the showcase is limited to the tried and true: Lau and Mak (three films), Wong Kar Wai (two films) and Johnny To (three and 1/3, counting his contribution to Triangle) fill eight of the 13 slots. That's not to denigrate the quality of the selections nor to discourage anyone from attending, but it looks like a lost opportunity to showcase less-heralded gems of recent Hong Kong cinema. All that being said, if I lived in New York I'd park myself in the theater for the entire series, which runs through October 25; I've seen most of them, but not on the big screen.

After less than four way-too-brief years in prison, CNN reports that French rock star Bertrand Cantat has been released. In 2004, he was convicted of manslaughter in the death of French actress Marie Trintignant. His sentence was pretty brief as it was -- only eight years. Now he's out for good behavior, although the actress' mother, Nadine Trintignant, opposed Cantat's release and considers it a blow to those who work to end violence against women. The terms of his release: he must regularly see a judge, undergo therapy, and stay silent about his crime until July 2010. After that, I guess he can have at it.

As the story goes, Trintignant in was Vilnius filming a movie her mother was directing, based on the life of writer Collette. She was staying with her boyfriend, Cantat, in a hotel when they had a terrible, physical argument near the end of shooting. She suffered a serious skull fracture, and soon died. This was one setback she couldn't rise above -- in her youth, her younger sister died, which sent her into troubled shyness and made her stop speaking. It was, however, ended when she decided to become an actress. An an obituary written by The Guardian, comments: "She didn't like secure roles, she declared, she loved monsters, speaking 'for those who don't deserve being spoken for.'" It makes you wonder what she would say about everything now.

My latest starting point is DVD Talk; their list is not comprehensive, but I appreciate the simplicity. Looking over what's out this week, I realized I need to watch more movies in theaters! I haven't seen any of these releases yet, but I plan to do some catching up. My rental picks begin with Patrice Leconte's My Best Friend. Monika Bartyzel called it "an entertaining, solid comedy." Daniel Auteuil plays "a completely conceited art dealer who is stunned to learn that none of his so-called friends like him" and is inspired to gamble on himself. The DVD from IFC includes a "making of" feature and the trailer.

The Trials of Darryl Hunt "tells the story of ... a black man who was tried and convicted for the rape and murder of [a] white newspaper reporter," according to Christopher Campbell. "Hunt was sentenced despite there being no physical evidence, simply off a testimonial given by a former Ku Klux Klan member." ThinkFilm's DVD includes bonus interviews and an "exclusive HBO featurette."

Another doc, Crazy Love, about a long-term relationship with, shall we say, questionable elements, made James Rocchi wonder: "What movie didn't get in to Sundance because this horrible, clammy, grim and pathetic tale of co-dependent madness did?" But Kim Voynar had a very different view, describing it as "an engaging, intelligent" film. Magnolia's DVD features an audio commentary by co-director Dan Klores and the couple, deleted scenes and other extras.

Other titles that sound intriguing include documentary Girl 27 (a woman hired as a movie extra in the 1930s is instead raped at an MGM party) and the box set Carlos Saura's Flamenco Trilogy (including Blood Wedding, Carmen and El Amor Brujo) from Criterion.

With so many film festivals to choose from, I tend to drift toward the ones that are short in length (four to seven days, at the most) and remain in one theater throughout. For a guy that doesn't like to make too many decisions or travel too far, the Big Apple Film Festival is a perfect fit. For the first time in our history, Cinematical will be co-sponsoring a film festival this year, and we decided to pop our co-sponsoring cherry (so to speak) with a little gem currently heading into its fourth year. From the Big Apple Film Fest website: "The BAFF is dedicated to showcasing and promoting the highest quality films from the New York City independent film community, as well as additional specially selected films from across the country and around the world. Additionally, each year, we are proud to honor a variety of New York City based filmmakers, writers, actors and artists who have played an influential role in the growth of independent filmmaking in the Big Apple."

This year, the festival runs from November 14-17, and, as always, all films will be screened at the historic Tribeca Cinemas in lower Manhattan. Opening the festival will be two films that have garnered major buzz on the fest circuit so far: Owl and the Sparrow (Audience Award winner at the 2007 Los Angeles Film Festival) and Suffering Man's Charity, directed by Alan Cumming, and starring Cumming, Anne Heche and Carrie Fisher. Cumming will also be on hand to receive BAFF's annual Golden Apple Award. This year, a total of 54 films will screen over the course of four days, with everything from feature narratives, shorts, documentaries and student films to check out. In fact, yours truly will also be sitting on a panel on Saturday, November 17, where I'll talk (along with others) about new media distribution. It's a pretty fun festival, there's an opening night and closing night party held inside Tribeca Cinemas (free drinks!), and -- better yet -- you'll get to hang out with some of your favorite Cinematical peeps (that's me, right?). Tickets go on sale this November 1st, and you can check out the entire program (as well as find information of purchasing tickets) over here. See ya there!

Persepolis, the French-produced animated drama about an Iranian girl, continues to take the world by storm, winning the People's Choice award at the Vancouver International Film Festival, which ended Friday.

The film is apparently a force to be reckoned with. It was chosen to represent France at the Oscars at the exclusion of other worthy entries like La Vie en Rose. It was a jury-prize winner at Cannes. It's had a place of honor at other fests, including being the closing-night film at the New York Film Festival. It seems a shoo-in for a spot in Oscar's Best Animated Feature category, and is a likely contender for the foreign-language category as well.

You cannot stop Persepolis! You can only hope to contain it.

Meanwhile, Garbage Warrior won the People's Choice documentary award at Vancouver. The directorial debut by the U.K.'s Oliver Hodge, the doc is about a maverick architect who has sought to build self-sustaining, eco-friendly, off-the-grid houses -- hard to do in a land of bureaucratic housing regulations and arcane zoning laws.

The audience award for Most Popular Canadian Film went to She's a Boy I Knew, a documentary in which director Gwen Haworth -- formerly Steven Haworth -- tells her story. Up the Yangtze was named Best Canadian Documentary, and Normal, about strangers brought together by a young person's death, won the Western Canada Feature Film award.

Just the other day, before the Academy was set to release the list of eligible foreign films for an Oscar, Israel found out that their own submission was a no-go -- disappointing news for sure. While Israel is bummed, India has gotten quite ticked off -- at least their Oscar selection committee has. Reuters reports that they are not too happy with a letter they have received from Hollywood's Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science, which they say contained "disparaging" comments.

India had selected Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Eklavya: The Royal Guard to be their Oscar shot, as Eric D. Snider pointed out in September. The thing is, it was reportedly considered a flop by both audiences and critics -- this isn't a case of moviegoers raving and critics wretching. To make things even more complicated, Bhavna Talwar, the director of the second-place Dharm (Religion) took the committee to court. She claims that she was slipped in second because of Chopra and his producer's connections with some of the selectors.

So, the Academy wrote a letter to the committee to express their surprise over the selection ordeal. To add insult to injury, they then told the selectors that they should have better standards for their selection process. Ouch! Vinod Pande, the chairman of the committee told Reuters: "It was a little disparaging the way things were put in that letter." He also said he's told them that they have "strong democratic values and that an aggrieved person had every right to seek justice in court." Nevertheless, they are meeting this week to see if they want to stick with the first choice. Either way, they're not going to escape some embarrassment.

This past spring, there was a bit of a filmmaker/subject kerfuffle. Director Paolo Sorrentino said he was going to make a film about ex-Prime Minister of Italy, Giulio Andreotti. Sorrentino said that he had met with the controversial figure twice to discuss the project. However, Andreotti then said he had never met him. Regardless of the ex-PM's memory, the project is pushing forward. IMDb says the film, Il Divo, is in post-production, and The Hollywood Reporter has posted that it will be released next May by Lucky Red in Italy.

Italian actor Toni Servillo, whose work with Sorrentino already garnered him a David di Donatello award for his work in Conseguenze dell'Amore, will star as Andreotti. On and off from the '70s through the '90s, PM Andreotti made waves with boatloads of scandal and accusations -- mainly involving "allegedly strong but shadowy ties to both the Vatican and the Mafia." (I'll let you make your own assumptions on that one!) Many say that he has also hit the screen before -- as the basis for Don Licio Lucchesi in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part III. Whatever the case, it's sure to be a pretty interesting drama, and one that should fire up the ex-PM if he ever remembers to see it.