I started writing a stage version of It s a Wonderful Life, and I brought it to Tony, Lepard said. He said, This is great but we d need 18 people to play all these parts. So he went looking for another script, and that s when he found this one.

For parents who regularly endure Justin Bieber videos and “Hannah Montana” repeats, the idea of “kid-friendly” entertainment can be hard to face. But what happens when you inject a touch of class and sophistication into a film that would seen to be designed for younger viewers? You get movies like “The Muppets” and “Hugo.” Happy holidays, everybody.

Stephenie Meyer, the queen of supernatural teen romance, was faced with a rebellion in her kingdom when “Breaking Dawn,” the final installment of her phenomenally successful “Twilight” series, was published in 2008. Many readers were dissatisfied with the wrap-up of the love triangle between mortal Bella Swan, vampire Edward Cullen and werewolf Jacob Black, and they took their complaints to Facebook, Twitter and fan sites.Three years later, the griping can begin anew with “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part One,” which quickly vanquishes whatever good will might have been built up by the earlier films in the series. Sour, clunky and sometimes unintentionally hilarious, the cinematic “Dawn” drives a splintery stake straight through the heart of the franchise.

Thursday, Nov. 17 — The documentary "The Kings of Flint" screened last Sunday as part of the East Lansing Film Festival — but it's already got a sequel. Michigan State University faculty members Geri Alumit Zeldes and Troy Hale host the premiere of “Flint Food Fighters” at 10 a.m. Friday in room 145 of the Communication Arts and Sciences Building on the MSU campus.

Prints of two of Rinty’s blockbusters,   "Jaws of Steel" and "Clash of the Wolves," were discovered a few years ago in the cabinet of a movie theater in South Africa. Orlean brought the 1925 "Clash" (released at the peak of the star’s career) on tour with.

Thursday, Nov. 10 — Yes, that really was a City Pulse clip on last night's "The Colbert Report" episode on Comedy Central: The "Brushfire over bullying" story was shown in Stephen Colbert's introduction to a segment on the controversy over Michigan's anti-bullying legislation and Republican lawmakers' attempts to modify the language in the bill. The article in the current edition was used as a jumping-off point for its look at the measure that passed the state Senate last week with a provision that protected “statements of a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction.”

In the secret language shared by twins Jack and Jill Sadelstein, the phrase “polly wolly zoom golly golly” means “I want to choke on my own vomit.” And that’s precisely what Adam Sandler proceeds to do for 91 soul-crushing, stomach-churning, laugh-free minutes in “Jack and Jill,” yet another movie that was made primarily because the star needed a vacation (for no apparent reason, most of the last third of the film is essentially a commercial for Royal Caribbean International cruises). Sandler gives his audience a trip, too — a first-class ticket straight to Hollywood Hell.

For non-singer and non-dancer Natalie Wood, making West Side Story was such a grueling experience that she almost bowed out of the production. She felt bullied by director Robert Wise. She also had qualms about her inexperienced co-star, Richard Beymer, whom she tried to have fired.

Translating Stephen Sondheim lyrics into Spanish sounds like an experiment destined to end in disaster. But, for the most part, the slightly revised West Side Story at Wharton Center works extremely well, even though the show ultimately clicks because of the way it honors the original material, not because of the tweaking.

Friday, Nov. 4 -- Remember the days when young men enlisted in the military because they wanted to fight to preserve the American way of life, or defeat a foreign threat or simply see the world? Bodi, Dom and Cole, the trio of young men from Michigan's Upper Peninsula who are the central figures in "Where Soldiers Come From," didn't join the National Guard for any of those reasons. They did it for the money and, as two of them note, a feeling of "I might as well do something with my life."