Movie Cricket

More big-name actors have signed onto "The Conspirator," Robert Redford's post-Civil War drama, which started filming last week in Savannah, Ga.

The movie stars Robin Wright Penn as Mary Surratt, the boarding-house operator who rented a room to John Wilkes Booth — and in whose parlor the conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln was plotted. The film follows Surratt's trial, and the Union war hero Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy, from "Atonement"), who reluctantly takes on her legal defense.

The blog "The Playlist" has a photo of McAvoy in costume (pictured at left), as well as one of recently signed co-star Evan Rachel Wood, who plays Surratt's daughter Anna.

Also new to the cast, according to Daily Variety: Tom Wilkinson ("Batman Begins," "In the Bedroom") as Reverdy Johnson, a U.S. senator and former attorney general, who is Aiken's mentor; Kevin Kline ("A Fish Called Wanda") as Edwin Stanton, Lincoln's Secretary of War and one of the conspiracy's targets; Alexis Bledel ("The Gilmore Girls," "Post Grad") as Aiken's wife, Sarah Weston; and Toby Kebbell ("Rock N Rolla") as John Wilkes Booth.

Justin Long ("Drag Me to Hell") previously signed on to play Aiken's best friend.

If there was a song to be sung — whether for TV, the movies or radio — Vic Mizzy could write it.

Mizzy, who died Saturday at his L.A. home at age 93, counted among his credits the scores to five Don Knotts movies ("The Ghost and Mr. Chicken," "The Shakiest Gun in the West," "The Reluctant Astronaut," "The Love God?" and "How to Frame a Figg"), two William Castle thrillers ("The Night Walker" and "The Busy Body") and others.

TV is where he wrote his most famous works: The theme songs to "Green Acres" (sung by the show's stars, Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor) and "The Addams Family" (in which he sung the immortal lyrics, "they're creepy and they're kooky..." himself). He also wrote underscore music for both series, along with many others.

Before TV, he wrote several top 40 hits, the biggest being "My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time," recorded by Doris Day in 1945.

Mizzy's songs have found new life in recent years. "The Addams Family" theme was revived in the '90s, for the movie version of the series. And a safety song Mizzy wrote to teach proper use of crosswalks, "In the Middle, In the Middle, in the Middle," was covered by They Might Be Giants on the band's 2000 children's album, "No!"

The Cricket is spending the day at the Wild Rumpus. New posts on Tuesday.

Six movies opening in Utah this weekend — including two fine movies about the perilous mine field that is childhood.

"Where the Wild Things Are" is a beautifully realized movie adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic children's book, about a tantrum-prone 10-year-old named Max (played by Max Records) who runs away to the land where the Wild Things are. As realized by director Spike Jonze ("Being John Malkovich") and his co-writer Dave Eggers (the novelist who also co-wrote "Away We Go"), this is a thoughtful and insightful look inside a child's imagination. The scenes in the real world may be a little emotionally intense for children, but they'll laugh and thrill to the scenes of the Wild Things (who are painstakingly brought to life through creations of Jim Henson's Creature Shop). Adults will get more out of this movie than the kids.

"The Boys Are Back" could have been a maudlin tear-jerker, and there are moments where this drama — based on Simon Carr's "inspired by a true story" novel — will have you reaching for the Kleenex. But the story, about a sportswriter who becomes a single dad when his wife dies of cancer, is bolstered by the lead performance of Clive Owen, who fights off sentimental impulses and makes the movie earn its tears.

The documentary "More Than a Game" is an enjoyable look at the friendship forged by five friends in Akron, Ohio, on the basketball court — four of them who played together since fourth grade, and a fifth who joined them in a prestigious high-school program. Of course, these five players wouldn't get much attention if one of them wasn't LeBron James, now an NBA superstar. But director Kristopher Belman (whom the Cricket interviewed) is careful not to let James' rise supercede the other players' stories.

The worst of the week, and one of the worst of the year, is "Law Abiding Citizen." Gerard Butler stars as an engineer who seeks elaborate revenge of the people who killed his family — and on the legal system, personified by Jamie Foxx's D.A. character, that let them off easy. This dimbulb thriller moves fast, but only to outrun its ridiculous contrivances, its gruesome violence and its repellent and contradictory political message.

Two more movies opening this week — the remake of the 1987 thriller "The Stepfather," and "Opa!," a long-on-the-shelf romantic comedy starring Matthew Modine — were not screened in time to get a review.

The writer-director of the hottest movie in theaters right now is making his next movie in Utah.

Director Oren Peli — whose low-budget thriller "Paranormal Activity" is burning up the box office in limited release — is prepping his next movie, a UFO thriller called "Area 51," in Utah, according to Fearnet and other web sites.

Word is that "Area 51" will tell of three teens who wander onto the secret Nevada base, and then bad stuff happens to them. (You wouldn't want to know too much going in, would you?)

"Paranormal Activity" was pushed on the midnight-movie circuit last month, but demand (and a well-orchestrated Internet campaign) moved it into a broader release. Last weekend, it made $7.1 million on 160 screens — a whopping $44,000 per-screen average.