Writer/director Andrew Stanton has been behind some of the very best films in Pixar’s repertoire (and that’s saying something).  He co-wrote Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3, and Monsters Inc., and he wrote and directed the magnificent one-two punch of Finding Nemo and Wall-E.  Stanton made his live-action debut earlier this year with the criminally underseen sci-fi epic John Carter, and now it looks like he’ll be returning to Pixar for his next feature, Finding Nemo 2.  Hit the jump for more.

I’ll use this week’s opening paragraph to offer a bit of foreshadowing. There’s a great chance that I’m going to be talking about 21 Jump Street here next week. Now, I’ll admit, I’ve never been one to laud the work of Channing Tatum. For the first time ever, though, I’m going into a film with high expectations for his performance. I think that everything I’ve seen of the film thus far looks terrific and Matt’s review and this NSFW extended trailer are just icing on the cake at this point.

On tap in this week’s “Top 5″ is a plethora of John Carter coverage including interviews with Taylor Kitsch, Andrew Stanton and more, a video blog recap of Topher Grace‘s Star Wars prequels edit, new images and a new trailer for The Cabin in the Woods, Silent House interviews with Elizabeth Olsen and co-directors Chris Kentis and Laura Lau, and the first image of Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer in The Lone Ranger. Per usual, a brief recap and link to each await after the jump.

As I said in the intro to my interview with John Carter producer Jim Morris, while it’s always great to talk with actors, if you want to hear why certain key decisions were made, you’ve got to talk with the filmmakers.  After all, while an actor might have a great behind the scenes story (like my interview with Taylor Kitsch), the producer can tell you what deleted scenes will be on the eventual Blu-ray, and what the filmmakers learned from showing the film to the Pixar brain trust.   But without a doubt, the best part of talking with a producer is the stuff that comes up that you weren’t expecting.  Like hearing about an R-rated cut of Galaxy Quest!   If anyone at the studio is reading this, fans would love to see this cut.  Think about a special edition home video release.  Please!

Anyway, the other week, Disney held a big press junket in Arizona, and I landed an exclusive video interview with John Carter producer Lindsey Collins.  During our extended conversation we talked about how the movie doesn’t talk down to the audience, how they showed the film to the Pixar brain trust and what they learned, deleted scenes, her favorite movie, actor and director, and like I already said, she talked about how Sigourney Weaver told her about the original version of Galaxy Quest.  Hit the jump to watch.