Eric Lavallée

There are three groups of people that are staying away from Paul Thomas Anderson's next film: a.) Companies afraid to fund a project that can potentially lean to the left, b.) Hollywood players who prefer being on good terms with Tom Cruise, C.) and production companies without deep enough pockets for an auteur film of this stature. Everyone else can apply. While this project won't find a partner in Universal (did they not like the experience funding an auteur film in Basterds?), there is word that the River Road (who backed Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life) are the only ones with the balls or the deep pockets to finance such a project.

Here's hoping that the first purchase out of SXSW receives at least 1/20th of the overwhelming support that Paranormal Activity got in its box office take. After the film's premiere screening at the Austin-based film festival, Magnet didn't waste much time securing the rights to Monsters - the company know for its Six Shooter series have grabbed Gareth Edward's indie film debut which is part road movie, part sci-fi.

There's definitely an air of familiarity with the best actor predictions you'll find below - I get buzzing on future film performances based on the already established filmography, but if I use this year's Oscar winner for Best Actor, then I should expect the unexpected.

You can now refer to Julianne Moore as cinema's Queen of Dystopia. After taking some pretty rough turns in Children of Men and Blindness, she'll now pair with Kirsten Stewart on hubby Bart Freundlich's Backwoods, which should not be confused as a U.S remake of Koldo Serra's The Backwoods starring Gary Oldman.

The trades report that the Weinstein Co. have melted for the small-town America war of the butter sculptures comedy starring Jennifer Garner and the newly added Kate Hudson.