Darren Aronofksy’s drama “The Wrestler,” starring Mickey Rourke as Randy (the Ram) Robinson, a washed out pro-wrestler in comeback mode — both on and off the screen, it turns out — has pinned down the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion, providing the Lido with a grand finale. The Silver Lion for best director went to Russia’s Aleksey German Jr. for Kazakhstan-set “Paper Soldier,” centering around the Soviet space program in the 1960s.

Columbia Pictures has set “The Office” co-exec producers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky to write a script for a new ‘Ghostbusters’ film designed to bring back together the original cast of Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson.

The first film, which starred James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie, was based on Mark Millar’s graphic novel. After its recent box office success, Millar was reportedly approached by Universal Pictures who were keen on making ‘Wanted 2′… and it seems Millar is just as keen to develop the story.

The Ben Stiller comedy “Tropic Thunder” was the most-watched movie across North American over the long US Labor Day weekend, but it was “The Dark Knight” that made news by breaking the 500-million-dollar mark, industry figures showed Sunday. Debuting at second place was Babylon A.D., a sci-fi action thriller starring Vin Diesel and Michelle Yeoh which earned 12 million dollars.

The advent of computer generated (CGI) special effects has allowed Hollywood to bring more and more comic book heroes to life, and with the massive success of recent comic conversions such as Batman and Hellboy, it seems unlikely that the trend will stop any time soon.

Combined with its sensational performance at the US box office, “The Dark Knight” has totaled $919 million worldwide and become only the 10th pic to go past $900 million by that measure. It’s the second-best foreign performer this year, trailing only “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” with $466 million.

DreamWorks and Paramount’s holdover comedy “Tropic Thunder” continued to dominate at the Labor Day box office with three-day take of $11.5 million from 3,473 theaters, while 20th Century Fox’s Van Diesel sci-fi actioner “Babylon A.D.” grabbed the No. 2 spot with $9.7 million from 3,390.

The e-mails I receive indicate that reading a movie is perceived as some kind of esoteric exercise. Actually, it’s something anyone can do, including you, and you don’t need to be an expert, because the audience, and the film itself, are your most helpful collaborators.

Twentieth Century Fox’s Vin Diesel sci-fi actioner “Babylon A.D.” and holdover DreamWorks/Paramount comedy “Tropic Thunder” were in a dead heat as the Labor Day weekend got underway at the US domestic box office.

Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens have officially signed on to collaborate on “The Hobbit” and its sequel with director Guillermo del Toro. The trio previously penned the three screenplay adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkein’s “The Lord of the Rings.” The third pic, “The Return of the King,” won an Oscar for adapted screenplay.