Lana and Andy Wachowski have been largely absent from the film world since the 2008 release of Speed Racer, but the Matrix duo is back in a big way this year with the incredibly ambitious adaptation of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas.  The story involves six storylines taking place in different times and places, and for the film adaptation The Wachowskis have cast the same actors in multiple roles.  The road to getting the film made was incredibly rocky, and a new feature on The Wachowskis and Cloud Atlas sheds an eye-opening light on both the film’s road to production and the elusive filmmakers.  Hit the jump for more.

As they suggest on the commentary, Ride with the Devil was a film without a home. When Oscar season came it was ignored, and for a film like this to get any traction it would need boosters. The studio had also gone through some changes, so it was someone else’s film, and it doing well could make the new management look bad. So the tale of Jack Bull Chiles (Skeet Ulrich) and Jake Roedell (Tobey Maguire), two Missourian bushwhackers fighting in the civil war, was dumped and got lost in a great year of cinema. Through the Criterion Collection, it threatens and deserves to be reincarnated. My review of Criterion’s Blu-ray of Ride with the Devil follows after the jump.

Last summer’s Taking Woodstock was as close to a bomb as an “independent” movie could be, a fact that didn’t escape the attention of Focus Features CEO James Schamus: “My name is on that thing: I wrote it, I produced it… and I’ve got to take that bullet.” One person who apparently isn’t asking Schamus to eat hot lead over the failure of Woodstock is the film’s director, Ang Lee. Schamus recently revealed that he is in the process of writing another script for Lee to direct and that this time he’s “going back to the good old, tragic, suicidally depressing Ang!” Details – and handfuls of Celexa – are after the jump.

George Clooney continues to do no wrong.  The actor has been on a roll for the past couple of years and the one thing that I’ve come to love from the man is that he keeps on picking interesting films and working with only the best (or most promising new) directors.  The latest director to be blessed by Clooney is going to be Anton Corbijn for his new movie “The American”.  The long time famed music video director finally made his debut film with “Control” in 2007 and if you’ve seen the film, then you know why you should be excited about this one.  To find out all the details, just hit the jump.