Director, producer and Oscar-winning screenwriter Roger Avary has been sentenced to 12 months in prison and 5 years probation for causing a fatal traffic collision while driving under the influence in Southern California.

The Ventura County Star reports that the Canadian born Avary, 44, was sentenced Tuesday.

In August, Avary pleaded guilty to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and to drunken driving and causing an accident.

Officials said Avary was driving more than 100 MPH when he crashed into a pole, fatally injuring his passenger, 34-year-old Andreas Zini. Avary’s wife, Gretchen Avary, 42, was ejected from the car and injured.

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Edward Brodie said he took into consideration Avary’s age and clean criminal record, as well as what the defendant has done with his life and the fact that he has shown remorse.

The maximum sentence was 12 years and eight months, but the District Attorney’s Office was asking for six years and eight months in prison. Avary has also reportedly reached a $4.1 million settlement with the victim’s family.

Avary’s lawyer asked for him to be allowed on the prison’s work furlough program so he may continue working on film projects and the judge agreed, if Avary qualifies.

Avary co-wrote the script for Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Pulp Fiction,’ for which the pair won an Academy Award. He is currently working on ‘Return to Castle Wolfenstein’ and it was announced this month that he had signed on to write and produce a sequel to 2006’s ‘Silent Hill.’

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Jessica Alba is in negotiations to join the cast of the third Focker family movie.

The Hollywood Reporter says the ‘Sin City’ actress would join Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro in the comedy ‘Little Fockers’ as an attractive pharmaceutical rep whose allure wreaks havoc among male characters.

The comedy reportedly picks up where 2004’s ‘Meet the Fockers’ left off, with Stiller and Teri Polo’s characters, Gaylord Focker and Pamela Byrnes having a child, or children, as they may be expecting twins. Aside from Stiller, Polo and De Niro, who plays Pamela’s father Jack Byrnes, Owen Wilson and Blythe Danner are expected to reprise their roles as Kevin Rawley and Dina Byrnes, Pamela’s ex-fiance and mother, respectively. Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand, who played Gaylord’s parents Bernard and Rozalind Focker in ‘Meet the Fockers,’ are not confirmed to return.

Jay Roach, director of the first two installments, will be taking the role of producer this time around and Paul Weitz will direct.

Production is expected to begin in the next few months.

Alba is also starring in the romantic comedy ‘Valentine’s Day,’ and alongside Danny Trejo in the Robert Rodriguez action thriller ‘Machete.’ As well, she will reportedly reprise her role as Nancy Callahan in the pending ‘Sin City 2,’ currently in preproduction.

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Scarlett Johansson is annoyed with “ridiculous” reports that she shed 14 pounds for her role in ‘Iron Man 2.’ The star says she couldn’t lose that much weight if she tried.

The 25-year-old beauty admits she did slim down to squeeze into a cat-suit to play Black Widow in the ‘Iron Man’ sequel, coming this May, but denies going to extreme lengths.

She tells Glamour magazine, “There was this rumor mill cranking out stories that I had lost 14 pounds – I could never lose 14 pounds. I hate seeing these ridiculous articles where (tabloids) guess someone’s weight. I can’t look at somebody who is 6 feet tall and 120 pounds and say, I’m going to get that body. That’s just never going to happen. You have to work with what you’ve got.”

But what people are saying behind her back is not all bad.

While she might be miffed with one rumour, Scarlett can hardly be irked by comments made about her by her ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’ costar Penelope Cruz. In an interview for the November issue of Vanity Fair Cruz, who has shared an on-screen lip lock with both Johansson and Charlize Theron, was asked to name the better kisser betwen the two. Cruz replied, “No matter how I answer that I will be in trouble. Both were pretty beautiful partners.”

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Your three year old is about to get very excited. Thomas the Tank Engine is en route back to the big screen.

The Hollywood Reporter says the cheeky steam train’s next feature will be produced by Julie Pistor of HiT Movies, a newly launched unit of HiT Entertainment. Josh Klausner (‘Shrek the Third’) has been hired to write the script.

Thomas, the star of the wildly popular Television series ‘Thomas & Friends,’ has appeared in films before, most recently the direct-to-video ‘Hero of the Rails.’ In 2000, a theatrical release, ’Thomas and the Magic Railroad,’ was spun off from the ‘Thomas & Friends’ predecessor, ‘Shining Time Station.’

“‘Thomas & Friends’ is a phenomenally successful and versatile brand that appeals to children and families worldwide,” said HiT’s Pistor. “Generations of children have grown up with the adventures of ‘Thomas & Friends’ with its storytelling tradition, positive values, timeless lessons and rich train history. We look forward to working with Josh Klausner to translate the classic ‘Thomas & Friends’ stories into a thrilling, big, modern adventure movie.”

Thomas the Tank Engine was created as a children’s book character by the Rev. W.V. Awdry in the 1940s, inspired by a toy. He now represents the world’s most popular preschool property, according to THR, with more than 100 million books and wooden train accessories sold globally.

“Rev. Awdry’s robust characters and stories continue to stand the test of time,” screenwriter Klausner said, “and I am excited to play a role in sending off Thomas and his friends on a new, exciting adventure.”

The new film project — a mix of live-action and CGI — is slated for a spring 2011 release. HiT is also planning a new CGI animated ‘Thomas’ series for next year.

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Film industry figures from around the world, including Woody Allen, David Lynch and Martin Scorsese have added their names to a petition demanding the immediate release of Roman Polanski from detention in Zurich.

The director was arrested Saturday on a thirty-year-old charge of unlawful sex with a minor. He had arrived in Switzerland to receive a lifetime achievement award at the Zurich film festival but found himself carted off to jail instead.

The petition, coordinated by the Societe des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques (SACD), has garnered over 100 signatures from directors, actors, producers and other industry elite.

These include directors Michael Mann, Wim Wenders, Pedro Almodovar, Darren Aronofsky, Terry Gilliam, Julian Schnabel, the Dardenne brothers, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Wong Kar-Wai, Walter Salles and Jonathan Demme. Actors Tilda Swinton, Monica Bellucci and Asia Argento, as well as producer Harvey Weinstein of the Weinstein Company, have also added their names.

“We demand the immediate release of Roman Polanski,” it says.

“Film-makers in France, in Europe, in the United States and around the world are dismayed by this decision,” the petition goes on to state.

“It seems inadmissible to them that an international cultural event, paying homage to one of the greatest contemporary film-makers, is used by police to apprehend him.”

According to The Guardian, Harvey Weinstein stated yesterday that he was “calling on every film-maker we can to help fix this terrible situation.”

Also, the five members of the Zurich film festival jury, headed by actress Debra Winger, released a statement yesterday, protesting that the event “had been exploited in an unfair fashion.” Jury member and producer Henning Molfenter, has now boycotted the festival. Others are expected to follow suit.

The Guardian also says that France’s Society of Film Directors has expressed concern that the arrest “could have disastrous consequences for freedom of expression across the world.”

And Polish film-makers have called on their government to prevent a “judicial lynching,” while more than 100 Swiss artists and intellectuals have signed a separate petition, also demanding Polanski’s release.

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Malaysia has banned the Sacha Baron Cohen movie ‘Bruno,’ which centers around the adventures of Austrian fashion journalist Bruno Gehard (pronounced “bruhe-noe gay-hard”), because it highlights gay life and has gay sex scenes, according to the AP.

An official from Malaysia’s Film Censorship Board, who refused to give her name, reportedly said “It’s banned because the story is based on gay life … There are a lot of sex scenes.” She added, “It’s contrary to our culture.”

Gay sex, or “carnal intercourse against the order of nature,” is punishable by up to 20 years in jail and whipping in Malaysia. The AP says sex toys, politically incorrect comments and jokes about religion were also factors.

Ukraine has also banned the film.

A Muslim-majority nation of 28 million people, Malaysia has strict morality rules and a history of zealous censorship. Other movies that have been banned from the country include but are not limited to, ‘Scarface’ (1983), ‘Blade’ (1998), ‘Zoolander’ (2001), ‘Sin City’ (2005), ‘Brokeback Mountain’ (2006) and ‘Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.’ The last, another Sacha Baron Cohen project which mocked the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, was also banned in Kazakhstan and Russia.

Beyonce Knowles recently made the news when she vowed to respect the country’s strict dress code during a scheduled October 25 performance just outside of Kuala Lumpur. The singer cancelled an appearance there two years ago amid fear of protests.
 

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Mickey Rourke is in a race against time to get the mafia movie, “The Ice Man,” made.

‘The Ice Man,’ the true story of hired killer Richard Kuklinski, is based on the bestselling book of the same name by Philip Carlo, who is suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease. Rourke, who is cast as Kuklinski, told the New York Post he wants to get it made while Carlo is still alive. He said the greatest challenge of making the movie was “getting it released in time” for Carlo, because, “He doesn’t have much time.”

Rourke talked to the Post at a party celebrating the author’s latest book, “The Butcher,” a biography of another hit man, Tommy “Karate” Pitera. Carlo attended the party in a wheelchair.

Other non-fiction works by Carlo include ‘Gaspipe: Confessions of a Mafia Boss,’ about the life and crimes of Anthony “Gaspipe” Casso, the head of the Lucchese family; and ‘The Night Stalker: The Life and Crimes of Richard Ramirez.’ Ramirez terrorized Los Angeles County for fourteen months in the 1980s, stealing into homes in the middle of the night and taking twenty-nine lives. Carlo spent over two hundred hours with Ramirez on San Quentin’s death row.

According to his own website, Carlo was raised in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, “ground zero for the New York Mafia” and as a youth was “literally surrounded by mafiosi.” When he was sixteen years old, Carlo was shot in the head in a gang war on Avenue X.  He was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s in 2004 and wrote both ‘The Butcher’ and ‘Gaspipe’ while suffering from the disease. He is currently writing ‘Killers,’ which is “an intimate look at how he managed to get all these criminals to talk to him while being stalked by the grim reaper himself.” He is also researching a book about Colombian drug lord Juan Carlos Abbadia, aka “Lollipop.”

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Wanna buy the Terminator? If you have more than $30 million lying around, this could be your chance.

Halcyon, the group that owns the rights to the ‘Terminator’ franchise is being forced to restructure its finances. And The Los Angeles Times says that, as Halcyon’s only valuable asset is the “Terminator” rights, any deal would involve an investment in or outright sale of the rights.

Halcyon filed for Chapter 11 protection last month and has hired FTI Capital Advisors to “evaluate strategic alternatives” and help the company negotiate the process and assess the value of its assets, which it also claims include first-look rights to the works of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick – though, according to a report in Variety, that agreement was terminated before the company filed for protection.

“Based on our extensive due diligence, we believe the value of the Terminator franchise alone is substantially greater than the $30 million Halcyon paid for it in 2007,” Kevin W. Shultz of FTI said in a statement. “In our view, Halcyon enjoys a wide variety of strategic options and we intend to explore them all.”

Meanwhile, the company will reportedly continue to operate and will keep developing the next ‘Terminator’ movie and other feature film projects, though what a sale would eventually mean for the franchise is unknown. Clint Morris, who runs the website Moviehole.net is musing that the certainty of a McG directed ‘Terminator 5′ starring Christian Bale as John Connor might be in jeopardy.

‘The Terminator’ has changed hands several times in the past. The L.A. Times says Halcyon’s Derek Anderson contended in a previous bankruptcy filing that the rights are worth more than $60 million, more than twice what Halcyon paid.

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