A press release showed up this morning informing me that the third “Chronicles of Narnia” movie, “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”, has started shooting in Australia under the direction of Michael Apted.

Now, given how terribly misconceived last year’s “Prince Caspian” was, and how poorly Apted handled the James Bond franchise when he made “The World is Not Enough”, I am not exactly over the moon here. Then again, one could argue that the Bond films were already crippled by their own formula by the time “World” came along, so … ah, hell, I like Michael Apted, so whatever he has to do to make the next “Up” movie is fine by me.

But the real beloved-cult-novel news of the day is the announcement that a new version of Robert C. O’Brien’s “Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH” is in development at Paramount. The director is Neil Burger, who hasn’t exactly impressed me with “The Illusionist” or “The Lucky Ones”, but the book is strong, so I’m hoping for something that’s at least competent.

Yup, that’s me. Pre-emptively judgmental all the way down …