· You likely saw this coming, but the controversial Star Wars: The Complete Saga Blu-ray release stormed into the history books this week with the biggest-selling debut in the video format's history. The 9-disc set earned $84 million worldwide, 515,000 units of which were moved in North America alone. That is half a million people taking this bad boy home, and it's not even the holidays yet. Don't tell Carrie Fisher. [Deadline]
· Tyra Banks not only wants to turn her young-adult novel Modelland into a movie franchise, she also wants to have an open casting call for the coveted lead what basically might amount... to a walk-on: "I'm looking for an Everygirl to possibly play one of the characters in the story." The Everygirls of the world thank you, Tyra. [AP via THR]
· Alex Proyas is apparently still serious about wanting to adapt John Milton's Paradise Lost (can't beat the option price!), roping Casey Affleck into negotiations to play the six-winged angel Gabriel. Or maybe he's not serious, per this actual line in today's report: "As for the coveted roles of Adam and Eve, Camilla Belle (10,000 BC) has been offered the latter role, while Rock of Ages star Diego Boneta is the frontrunner for the former." [Variety]
· The French action thriller Sleepless Night, which recently wowed viewers at the Toronto International Film Festival, is officially remake fodder: Warner Bros. and producer Roy Lee picked up the rights this week. [THR]
· Universal Studios theme parks in Hollywood and Orlando are using The Thing as the anchor of this year's Halloween Horror Nights festivities -- the first time in five years that Universal has used one of its own films as the event's main attraction. So maybe this isn't necessarily a story you'll be talking about today, but still. Five years! That seems insane to me. [Variety]
· The illustrious Movieline alum Christopher Rosen talked to Moneyball author Michael Lewis, who settled some of the fact and fiction around the much-mythologized (and quite excellent) adaptation of his best-seller. Great chat. [Moviefone]
· "Good taste is kind of an odd engine for worldwide pop appeal, but with a little goofiness thrown in there (see: 'Stand'), that's how they did it." If you must still dwell on the demise of R.E.M., here's one of the better, less mawkish appreciations out there. [Grantland]