This weekend the news broke about Seth MacFarlane making a deal to get him ‘paid exorbitantly’ for making ‘Family Guy’ and such. But now it seems this deal includes ‘Family Guy: The Movie.’ Or should I say ‘Family Guy: The Movie 2.’ Because didn’t we already see a ‘Family Guy’ movie? As far as I know it went straight to DVD and frankly, it wasn’t that great.

Since the return of ‘Family Guy’ after its cancellation, I’m not really into it anymore. Maybe the jokes worked out on me. I would still see the movie, but I feel like they’re just long TV episodes. That’s what ‘The Simpsons Movie’ was for me. And a big cash in for its creators of course, making over $500 million worldwide. Not to mention all the merchandize deals they made.

I only feel ‘South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut’ was something different than the TV series. But I’m not sure how ‘Family Guy’ could create this atmosphere. Maybe they tried with the straight-to-DVD I mentioned above, but later felt it wasn’t worth a theatrical release. DVD is the best market for ‘Family Guy’ and maybe that’s where it should stay.

The four-time Academy Award winners (9 nominations) Joel and Ethan Coen are opening Venice this year with their new film ‘Burn After Reading.’ The movie will star none other than George Clooney, John Malkovich and Brad Pitt. It’s being produced by Working Title Films for Focus Features and finished shooting last Fall.

The comedy follows the story of a CIA agent who gets fired for being an alcoholic. After writing down his memoirs in revenge, he accidently leaves them in the gym, where the gym’s owner finds them.

‘Burn After Reading’ will open the 65th Venice Film Festival August 27.

Jay Scherick and David Ronn weren’t too pleased when their pitches at the Hollywood studios brought them nothing but rejection. Maybe it wasn’t until they stopped telling everybody they co-wrote ‘Norbit,’ that almost one year later they finally made a deal.

The script ‘Zookeeper’ is about a zookeeper who gets dating tips from the talking animals he works with. MGM made the deal and proudly describes it as ‘Hitch’ with animals. Apparently, Disney and Dreamworks were interested in the script too, both fitting candidates. And this way, Scherick and Ronn got “a $2 million advance against a $3 million if the project gets made.”

I just hope they bring something new to the ‘talking animals table.’ They pretty much have to, with that amount of money.