A true story of riches to rags, the book Skeletons On The Zahara will be adapted into a screenplay by Public Enemies scribe Ronan Bennet [Deadline]. The book, written by Dean King tells the true story of a merchant vessel captained by James Riley that was shipwrecked in Africa. The crew then trials through the Sahara, before they are captured and made slaves. Riley eventually wrote a memoir of the event, republished with a new title: Sufferings in Africa. Read the full story

Betty Anne Waters, a film with some major Oscar potential, has officially had its title changed to Conviction. Perhaps in an attempt to redeem the disaster that was Amelia, Fox Searchlight picked up the film a while back, and has settled on an October 15th release date. [The Playlist] Read the full story

Sam Rockwell loaded the bases in The Assassination of Jesse James and hit the grand slam in Moon in probably two of the most underrated performances of the last decade. Needless to say, his casting notes are now getting my attention. And his next role might be biblical. Read the full story

To continue on the Oscars,  Here are some of the top ten films that they missed when handing out the nominations about a month ago.

Here are the rules: If a film is nominated already for something I cannot use it.  Even if it’s that the film wasn’t nominated for the proper award. Therefore I can only nominate films that have completely omitted from the list at this year’s awards ceremony. Read the full story

Duncan Jones‘ Moon was widely overlooked for the greater portion of 2009, but pretty much everyone who saw it (except me) was thoroughly impressed. I thought Jones‘ low-budget visuals were breathtaking, and Rockwell puts forth an admirable lead performance, but I had several issues with the story. Nevertheless, I am still looking forward to the director’s follow-up sci-fi film Source Code, which — according to The Playlist — has just received another noteworthy cast member in Jeffrey Wright (Syriana, Casino Royale, W.). Read the full story

It’s safe to say that Mira Nair‘s Amelia – a Fox Searchlight production — was one of 2009′s biggest busts. Most people figured that a Hilary Swank biopic was going to be a shoo-in for awards left and right, but the film completely bombed with both critics and audiences. Well, it looks like Fox Searchlight is out for some redemption, as Variety reports that they have acquired the rights to Tony Goldwyn‘s Betty Anne Waters, another true story set to star the Oscar-winning Swank. Read the full story

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has announced its longlist for the 2010 Orange BAFTA awards, with Lone Scherfig’s An Education ahead of the potential nominees with 17 mentions including best film, director, actor Peter Sarsgaard and actress Carey Mulligan. Read the full story

A few weeks ago we asked you what you thought of film this year. We got an crazy number of responses and was very happy to see the results. For each category we have a 2nd runner-up, runner-up and your number one choice. Check them out and discuss below!

What do you think of the results? What are you looking forward to next year?

After developing a list of thirty incredible films from 2009 that I enjoyed more than the rest, I was forced to choose only fifteen of those to call my “favorite films” of 2009. Like choosing fifteen orphans to take home and love and fifteen orphans to march off a cliff, I begrudgingly chose my fifteen favorite films of 2009. Staring at the list for what seemed like hours on end I ultimately decided to stop even trying to make a “final” decision and stick with my gut. Even if my gut immediately disagrees with my brain and vice-versa. As painful as it was to decide on these films and leave out so many other great ones, whether you agree with what is on my list or the order of my list is really not too important. What is important is that you see these films. 2009 was a great year for cinema. To only see the large films that had the budget to saturate your daily dose of advertising mania, no matter how great those films may be, would be a shame. 2009 proved the art of cinema is still alive and well, and we shouldn’t take it for granted. Don’t take my word for it — go see these films. You may not love them as much as I did, but joining in on the discussion, whether for or against, is all that really matters. So without further avoidance of the inevitable, This is my fifteen favorite films of 2009. I really enjoyed them and I hope you do too. Read the full story

Editor’s Note: This is first of five lists highlighting our main staff’s favorite films this year. Check back throughout the week for more countdowns.

Let’s just make something clear here; this is my list. Not your list, not the guy who writes for that other site, this is my list. I’m saying this because there’s some choices here some may go “huh?” to, and that’s fine. I think 2009 was a fairly inconsistent year, with a year that had great films (see below list), but was also oddly disappointing in the time we had to wait between movies. I also found myself connecting to certain films that others did not. As a result, the films I liked may be ones people forgot or which were received to a mixed reaction. Read the full story