By BETSY PICKLE, Scripps Howard News Service

There's a reason that brains, intellectuals, nerds -- whatever label is slapped on them -- often are outcasts. They intimidate other people.

Thandie Newton, who lives in London with her husband and two young daughters, had several reasons to sign on for "Run Fatboy Run."It was written by American actor-writer Michael Ian Black and the English-born Simon Pegg and marks the feature-directing debut of former "Friends" star David Schwimmer. Working on her home turf was the first draw, she says.

"Leatherheads" looks like a movie that couldn't go wrong.

Making a comedy isn't inherently easier than making a serious film like "Syriana" or "Good Night, and Good Luck," actor-director George Clooney says.

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- After talking about "Leatherheads" and tweaking the script for several years, George Clooney finally had to get a move on."I couldn't do it another year later," says Clooney, 46. "I was getting too old; I had to do it quick."

In "Nim's Island," "girls gone wild" takes on a whole new meaning. This film isn't exploitation but celebration -- extolling the inner and outer strength of females (with no disrespect to the fellas) in a remote setting that requires self-reliance and courage.

The Rolling Stones are the Energizer Bunnies of rock 'n' roll. They keep going and going and going. That's a feat marked by "Shine a Light," director Martin Scorsese's new film of the Stones in action at New York's Beacon Theatre in fall 2006.

When she started working on what would become the film "Stop-Loss," director Kimberly Peirce didn't care about the "Band of Brothers" aspects of the U.S. military's fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. She cared about one brother -- her own.

Although "Stop-Loss" director Kimberly Peirce says she has met many soldiers who were willing to return to Iraq, she understood what the main character, Brandon, felt when he was stop-lossed."He knows that him going back isn't just him going back; it's his mother having to face another absence," says Peirce. "I went through it with my mother.

With "Superhero Movie," actor Drake Bell is going old school, aiming for the heights of parody classics like "Naked Gun" and "Airplane!" by working with such experts as Leslie Nielsen, Robert Hays and producer David Zucker.