Photo: Focus FeaturesGood news for animation fans – the folks who brought you “ParaNorman”

and “Coraline” have a brand new project in the works.

Laika, the Oregon-based animation studio who’ve earned critical acclaim and solid box-office returns with their ambitious blend of stop-motion animation and CGI, have announced they’re partnering with Focus Features to make “The Boxtrolls.”

The fantasy is based on “Here Be Monsters,” a popular novel for children from artist and author Alan Snow. The announcement comes as “ParaNorman” has won two Annie Awards (the animation industry’s Oscar), and is up for an Academy Award as Best Animated Feature.

“The Boxtrolls” tells the story of a community of eccentric underground dwellers who dress themselves in cardboard and survive by scavenging the cast-offs of the wealthy people of Cheesebridge. For some time, the Boxtrolls have been caring for a child who lost his parents as a baby, but as the daughter of a well-to-do family befriends the lad and his companions, they’re targeted by a maniacal exterminator who is convinced the Boxtrolls are monsters and not to be trusted.

Watch live as Bruce Willis and costars arrive for the red carpet premiere for "A Good Day to Die Hard," direct from London, England.

Melissa McCarthy in Universal Pictures' 'Identity Thief'

Though Melissa McCarthy has been steadily stealing scenes on big and little screens since the late 90s, her Oscar nominated performance in “Bridesmaids” propelled the Emmy winning actress into a whole new stratosphere of popularity.

Now McCarthy stars opposite Jason Bateman in the R-rated road-trip comedy “Identity Thief,” which opens wide this weekend. We all know McCarthy has a long scene-stealing future ahead of her, but here’s five facts about her that you might not know.

Photo: Steve Granitz/WireImage

Directing the new "Star Wars" movie ("Episode VII," not one of the now increasingly confusing supposed spin-off films) apparently isn't enough to keep J.J. Abrams busy, as he's now got his eye on expanding his Bad Robot empire to the world of video games.

Abrams and Gabe Newell, the head of game developer Valve, spoke at a panel at DICE Summit in Las Vegas on Wednesday, where they made the surprise announcement that their respective companies would be joining forces to produce games and movies, combining their strengths to learn from each other and, in theory, take their respective mediums to the next level.

Soderbergh on the set of 'Magic Mike' (Photo: Warner Bros)

Steven Soderbergh will talk to you only in 45-minute chunks of time. For most press junkets, the standard interview time is a mere 4 minutes. So when I got a chance to interview the director of "Magic Mike," we had plenty of time to talk.

Soderbergh has had one of the most enviable careers out there. The director has made Oscar favorites like "Traffic," Hollywood blockbusters like "Ocean's Eleven," and art-house flicks like "The Girlfriend Experience" and "Che." Most remarkably, he navigates these very different spheres of filmdom without changing the way he makes movies. Soderbergh not only directs but also shoots and edits his films, no matter what the scale of the project.

Recently, Soderbergh has been making movies at a breakneck rate. Since 2011, he's cranked out five flicks, including "Side Effects," which comes out this week, and a Liberace biopic for HBO, "Beyond the Candelabra." When the latter airs sometime later this year, that will be it, according to the director. He's either retiring from big-budget movie making or he's taking a long extended break. He's not sure.

In this interview, the first of two parts, Soderbergh talks about what he wants to do during his retirement. It looks as though a Hawaiian vacation or catching up with his stamp collection isn't at the top of his priority list. No, Soderbergh wants to take time away from the Hollywood rat race to reinvent the language of cinema.

[Related: Malik Bendjelloul talks about his Oscar-nominated movie ‘Searching for Sugar Man’]

Photo: Coatwolf.com

The filmmakers behind 2011's indie cult hit "Bellflower" are turning to crowd-funding to help complete their new film "Chuck Hank and the San Diego Twins." Calling the new project "influenced heavily by 80s action films and side-scrolling video games," Coatwolf Productions have produced a short video outlining exactly what they need the additional funding for.