With a Best Acting Oscar under his belt, and nominations pouring in for “Doubt,” it was only a matter of time before Philip Seymour Hoffman decided to direct.

Variety reports that he’s set to make his debut on “Jack Goes Boating” for Overture Films. Surprisingly, it’s a romantic comedy — albeit an unconventional one based on the off-Broadway play by Bob Glaudini.

Hoffman will star as Jack, reprising his role from the original play, will bring along his original costars John Ortiz and Daphne Rubin-Vega. The newcomer of the cast is the leading lady, Amy Ryan (”Gone Baby Gone”) who will play Connie, Jack’s love interest. Read more…

Terry Gilliam hasn’t been able to catch an easy break in the last decade, but the mad scientist filmmaker behind “Brazil” and former Monty Python star apparently cannot be stopped. First, his budget ran off a cliff alongside injury and natural disaster in 2000 with his epic re-imagining of Don Quixote, forcing the film’s production to a halt. Then, with scenes still left to be filmed in his Heath Ledger and Verne Troyer vehicle “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” the leading actor’s death threatened to kill a second Gilliam film in a row.

Now, after saving “Doctor Parnassus,” Gilliam is officially returning to finish “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote,” and he sounds even more determined than ever.

“Tony [Grisoni] and I have started rewriting ‘Don Quixote’ just this last week,” Gilliam told Empire. “I re-read the greatest script ever written and realize we gotta get rewriting! I really wanna knock that one out in the next month or so.” Read more…

Since we’re interviewing a ton of celebrities here at Sundance, we brainstormed what else — above and beyond the standard interview — could we do with them.

So what’d we decide? Our very own PHOTO BOOTH! Given MTV’s storied past with photo booths, it seemed natural. So keep checking in to get an inside look of celebrities in a way you probably haven’t seen before. Some of Hollywood’s biggest names will be swinging through our booth, so stay tuned. First up is Spike Lee, in town to promote his new film “Passing Strange.” Check out his first photo below and then his second after the jump. Thanks, Spike!

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In one of the strangest celebrity stories of 2008, Joaquin Phoenix abruptly announced he was quitting acting to pursue a career in music — and not in a guitar-strumming, Johnny Cash way, but as a rapper, with his first album to be produced by Sean Combs.

Only adding to the strange nature of this story is the announcement that Phoenix’s career makeover will be documented by his friend and fellow actor, Casey Affleck. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Affleck is helming a documentary that will begin shooting this Friday at Phoenix’s first public performance at a Las Vegas club. Read more…

Sundance is up and running and so is your MTV News movies team! Today marks the first full day of screenings and interviews at the fest and sure enough, it looks to be a jam-packed day for us.

How better to kick off the granddaddy of indie film fests than with an interview with Spike Lee? We’ll try not to mention how great Clint was in “Gran Torino.” Hmm…on second thought maybe we will.

Later on we’ll catch up with the brains behind one of the most talked about comedies here this year, “Mystery Team.” Judging by the clips we premiered here these guys could be a big story here this week. Read more…

FROM SPLASH PAGE: It’s over at last! According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros and Fox have settled their legal dispute over who owns “Watchmen.” To make a long story short — yes, you’ll be seeing the film on March 6th, as planned.

The fine points of the settlement were not released to the curious masses, but the deal reportedly includes a sizable payoff to Fox, and a percentage of the box office gross. Fox will not be a co-distributor of the film, nor will it co-own the “Watchmen” property, or be able to alter the film in any way. The studio will simply share in all the sweet money the film and its merchandising makes.

Read more about the “Watchmen” movie lawsuit settlement at SplashPage.MTV.com.

Last month, MTV caught up with Keanu Reeves about his dream project — a live-action remake of the anime classic, “Cowboy Bebop.” Reeves confirmed that he and Fox were “trying to do that” and that a writer was attached. Now, The Hollywood Reporter is confirming that Reeves is set to play Spike Spiegel, and that Peter Craig is writing the script. No director has been named.

The sound you might hear now is the howl of a thousand “Cowboy Bebop” fans, who have long been against Reeves’ casting and of an American remake in general. I’m not even sure that the news that the original Bebop writing and production team of Kenji Uchida, Shinichiro Watanabe, Keiko Nobumoto, and Masahiko Minami are coming onboard as producers and production consultants will help soften the blow. Read more…

The snow is blowin’ and the ice is turning really slippery, but the MTV News team here in Park City, Utah is ready to do what we do. Over the coming days we’ll be bringing you exclusive interviews with tons of big stars, and we’ll be covering the hottest events. So stay tuned, and check out our Day 1 photo gallery below.

There’s a lot cooking here in Park City, UT, with the Sundance film festival offering up a whole splattering of different movie genres. One of those of course is comedy, and in “Spring Breakdown,” “SNL” star Amy Poehler, Parker Posey and Amy Dratch serve it up by heading down for — what else — spring break.

We’ve got an exclusive look at this “Park City Midnight Series” flick, so watch the trailer below and then click here to watch three clips from “Spring Breakdown.”

For the vast majority of us out there who would love to go to this year’s Sundance Film Festival but because of dumb things like “work” or “expensive plane tickets” can’t, the benevolent technological overlords at Apple have got our hook-up!

In a partnership with Apple’s iTunes Music Store, Sundance and Shorts International have announced today that they will make available 10 short films selected to screen during the film festival as free (yup, free) downloads via their online media store (available in the US, UK and Canada only). The offer will only be available starting today through January 25, so film geeks should act now.

After the jump, check out the official announcement and a rundown of the films that are currently available for download on the iTunes Music Store. Read more…