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It's the mid-week report of the good, bad and you-know-what-the-what here, as we compile the movie news from the past week and a half. Yes, you'll have more at the end of the week—but for now, let us all cringe together as we see stomach news of the 2012 motion sickness experience, an MIB without Will Smith, and the audacity of some people to shoot a barely visible topless scene and hype it up like it was Basic Instinct 3.

THE GOOD

• For years, there have been several attempts to do a sequel to Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, none of them ever came close to moving ahead. Speaking to MTV last week, director Robert Zemeckis set the record straight: that this time he is personally involved and really excited to do the sequel, and that he has commissioned original scribes Jeffrey Price and Peter Seaman to write the screenplay. Let's hope they can also get Charles Fleischer and Bob Hoskins back.

I know what you're thinking. Don't worry. At Comic-Con this year, Zemeckis assured his fans that the 2D characters will remain as 2D animation, though that doesn't necessarily mean we won't see 3D-animated characters in the film.

• I wasn't excited for a Lobo movie. I find it ridiculous that anyone would want a Lobo movie, let alone one directed by Guy Ritchie—though I guess if you're gonna make a movie out of a crass comic book character who was originally nothing more than a parody character that inexplicably became popular, a crass humorist and wanton stylist like Ritchie is as good a choice as any. Still, even I can't help but widen my eyes when the rumor pops up that Clancy Brown might be up for the title role. Clancy Brown!

A source tells Comics2Film that WB is taking cues from Hellboy: Since the main character will be mostly unrecognizable under heavy make-up/CG anyway, there's no reason to hire a "name star" as opposed to an actor who can nail the role. Clancy Brown is certainly the latter. Of course, this is all hearsay for now, but if true? Awesome.

Did you know that Wil Wheaton did uncredited voice work as Romulans in the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie? Abrams first revealed it in the DVD commentary, but now Wheaton has come out and blogged about how that came about.

• Here's the very early For Your Consideration ad for A Serious Man. Nice and to the point. Via Awards Daily.

• We've written extensively (here, here and here) about the discovery and restoration of Fritz Lang's long-lost original cut of Metropolis, and now it's finally going to see the light of day next year—February 10, to be exact—at the Berlin Film Festival where it will receive a gala ceremony, Variety reports.

THE BAD

• Holmes for the Holiday. 'Nuff said.

• Mission: Impossible III wasn't exactly a great movie, but it had some fun set-pieces and a sense of team espionage that made it the best of the trilogy; so when news came that Abrams and Cruise are gearing up for a fourth film, I held out hope. But the script is now in the works, and it looks like this thing might shoot sooner than later. Given Abrams' more likely commitment to Star Trek, will he be able to come back to directing duties? He gave MTV a pretty straightforward answer: "My guess is, given other things, that I will not be directing the movie."

• It took them 5 years to make a sequel to Men in Black, and it was a monumental disaster of a movie. Now 7 years later, we're on the eve of another one. Etan Cohen  (Tropic Thunder, Madagascar 2) is on the script for Men in Black III. As if the franchise being played out isn't enough of a deterrent; Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, or even director Barry Sonnenfeld, are currently not officially signed on yet. Without those three (and all three, mind you), why the hell would you even bother?

• Stream of consciousness: "What movie is this? It looks like The Mummy 4. Why did they replace Encino Man with Donnie Darko... No, wait, they just said sands of time. That's that video game. Huh. So they cast an American to fake a British accent to play a Persian prince? Unggghwhy is there blood coming out of my --"

• Second The Road trailer proves that nobody really knows how to market this movie. The first trailer made it look like a low-budget 2012, and now this second trailer tries their hand in giving off the vibe of a touching man-defending-his-family-from-evil story, especially with the triumphant one-liners and inspirational music. Yeah, no, that's not the movie at all.

THE WTF

• 2012 will have D-BOX screenings. It sounds perfectly fitting, but it might also be a horrifying idea. The movie is 158 minutes long (which is a WTF in itself). Imagine spending most of it being thrown around along with earthquakes, tsunamis and all kinds of end-of-the-world shenanigans.

If you're unfamiliar with D-BOX, it's essentially a motion technology that would make your seats move, shake or rumble according to a realistic programmed sequence synced with the movie, simulating an immersive experience. Many Blu-ray discs already come equipped with a D-BOX feature for use with their home equipments, but currently there are only seven theaters in North America (6 in the US and 1 in Canada) that are equipped with the technology.

• In a hidden video in the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Blu-ray, Michael Bay claims that the third Transformers movie can't get any bigger than the second one, so instead he'll put focus on the robot characters, making the story darker and more emotional instead of "just action, action, action." No shit?

• So you know how Moon Bloodgood shot a topless scene for Terminator Salvation, and then it was left out of the movie in order to secure a PG-13 rating, and McG hyped it up (I still remember how he got up on a table at WonderCon and asked the crowd to cheer if they want to see her boobs—classy) to make it sound raunchier than it really is? In truth, not only could you not see a damn thing, but it's so tame that I can't even decide if it's worth an NSFW warning. See for yourself: io9 has the clip.

• Have the Coens found their John Wayne in The Dude? Variety says Jeff Bridges is reported in talks to star as Rooster Cogburn in the Coen Brothers remake of the western classic True Grit, which would make it one of the more interesting casting choices in recent memory. This is rather surreal to comprehend. Other actors in the film include Josh Brolin and Matt Damon. It does sound weird that the Coens would pursue something like this, but knowing them, we might be in for something more original than we expected—fingers crossed.

• Turns out that it's not a bad idea to make a $150 million biopic in which the main character will not appear. Oh, wait—IT IS. That's what producer Barrie Osborne (The Matrix, Lord of the Rings) is doing, with his latest production, a big budget period movie about the life and teachings of the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Since Islamic law forbids showing the image of the prophet, he will not be seen onscreen. So is it going to be first-person view Doom-style, or are they just going to make a Muhammad movie without Muhammad? The movie will use English-speaking actors and is hoped to "bridge cultures." Can you say, wishful thinking?

THE SAD

Special mention. Shel Dorf, co-founder of the San Diego Comic-Con, has passed away. He was 76. Mr. Dorf, thank you for paving the way for this convention giving me a consistent week of fun every year.