Hey, Michael Douglas! You've just won a Golden Globe! What are you gonna do now?

Hey! He's gonna play the original Ant-Dude in Edgar Wright's Ant-Man!

My week online: Raising Hell, praising Swoopes, previewing The World's End

Photography: Frank Ockenfels/Courtesy AMC

For all you Joe Leydon completists out there -- all three or four of you -- here's what I was up to this week:

Springsteen & I -- My interview with the director of the "crowd-sourced rockumentary," which will be back in theaters Tuesday.

Joe Leydon: Badass Critic -- I have a new title, thanks to the people who made Bad Kids Go to Hell.

Dennis Farina -- R.I.P.

Hell on Wheels -- Anson Mount and Common (above) are back in the saddle again.

The World's End -- I previewed the new Edgar Wright film -- but I couldn't say anything about it.

Longmire -- No, not that Robert Taylor. This Robert Taylor.

QFest -- They're here, they're queer, and they're screening all over the Greater Metropolitan Houston area.

The Attack -- Director Ziad Doueiri talks about the Arab League ban of his film -- and considers the subversive potential of bootleg DVDs.

Swoopes -- I talk to a couple of hot babes -- WNBA legend Sheryl Swoopes and ESPN host/correspondent Hannah Storm -- about the movie they made together.

As my dear, departed father might say: Hey, at least it keeps me out of the poolhall.

Don't worry, Edgar Wright: I won't spill the beans about The World's End

Went to a private screening of The World's End last night -- real private, in the sense that I was the only person in the theater besides the enthusiastic publicist, who laughed almost as much I did -- and a funny thing happened when I walked into the lobby: I was handed a personal note from my close, personal friend, director Edgar Wright:

To Whom It May Concern:

Thank you for coming along to the screening. We would love the audience to experience this film as you do and would really appreciate it if you didn't reveal some of the surprises, twists and actors that do not feature in the trailers. Forgive me for asking, as I know you would never dream of doing such a dastardly thing. Thanks for your co-operation and I hope you enjoy the movie.

Edgar Wright

Well, OK. Mind you, the major plot twist that kicks in after the first half-hour has already been revealed in the trailer, most of the summer-preview feature stories (including my own), and, oh, I dunno, about 30 or 40 trend-spotting articles that have included it among the summer's crop of  "Apocalypse, Wow!" movies. But never mind.

I plan on driving to Austin this weekend to interview Wright, co-star and co-writer Simon Pegg, and the lovely and talented Nick Frost. (And, of course, while I'm there, I'm going to visit The Original Hoffbrau, one of my favorite steakhouses in the whole wide world.) So far be it from me to reveal that Rosebud turns out to be a sled, everybody stabs the victim in the sleeping car, Pegg's character is lying about his mother being alive in the back of the motel, Sean Connery makes a cameo appearance as King Richard, and...

Oh. Wait. Damn. Think I'll quit now while I'm behind.

Countdown to Toronto

How many times have you seen this place in movies, commercials and TV dramas? Probably a lot more than you'd think. It's Honest Ed's, a massive discount store that takes up an entire block on the corner of Bloor and Bathurst in Toronto. And the gaudily lit storefront has proven irresistible for scores of directors and location scouts who have shot on location in Toronto over the decades. I never fail to smile when I see it in a film or television production -- particularly when that film or television production supposedly is set somewhere else (New York, Chicago, anywhere) and Honest Ed's is the dead giveaway that, well, somebody thought shooting in Toronto would be much cheaper. Or easier. (After all, eh, we're talking about one of North America's film production hubs.) Or both.

And when it pops up in a movie that is set in Toronto -- well, as I joked with filmmaker Edgar Wright after he directed Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, his prominent placement in his film of Honest Ed's (which, not incidentally, also looms large in the graphic novel on which Scott Pilgrim was based) must have been his way of telling the world that, yeah, this really is Toronto playing Toronto for a change.

But I must confess: The chief reason I enjoy seeing Honest Ed's is a sentimental one: It's very near the home of dear friends I look forward to visiting every year  that I cover the Toronto Film Festival. I'll be seeing Honest Ed's again -- up close, in real life -- in less than 48 hours. I can't wait.

They like him! They really like him!

When the Houston Film Critics Society announced Saturday their choice of a tune from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World -- "We Are Sex Bob-Omb!" -- as Best Original Song, many folks attending the HFCS awards show at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, were surprised and delighted. But the surprises didn't end there.

HFCS had already tipped off the film's director, Edgar Wright, about the upset victory. And Wright in turn graciously taped a thank-you speech (duly played for the MFAH audience) in which he praised the song's composer and lyricist (Beck), proclaimed HFCS members to be the coolest film critics in the known universe -- and, inexplicably, underscored his gratitude by brandishing a banana.

Of course, as Monty Python fans well know, it can be a tricky thing to defend yourself against a man brandishing a banana.

Edgar Wright isn't looking to bang extras in his trailer

                                     
At least, that's what the director of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World would have us believe. He more or less says as much here.