Marathon Bombing movies were inevitable, but now the first one is in development: Boston Strong, the forthcoming book from Casey Sherman and Boston Herald reporter Dave Wedge, has been optioned to two screenwriters behind The Fighter.

Been checking the trades for news of a Bernie Madoff movie in development? Oh. Maybe Michael Chiklis can interest you in something more modest, but with all the scintillating twists the word "Ponzi" implies.

We're hearing today about a script setting a new land-speed circulation record among directors' agents, and why not: Who wouldn't savor the chance to have something called The Beaver on their resume? It's just a bonus that Steve Carell is attached, and that he spends all his time with his hand inside said beaver. What could go wrong?In what's being referred to as a "winning, whimsical" story splitting the difference between Being John Malkovich and Lars and the Real Girl, Carell would portray a man who develops a close relationship with a beaver hand puppet, "treating it as something close to a human creature with human feelings." Every studio around wants it, but producer Anonymous Content is waiting to land a director before actively shopping the project. On that front, Jay Roach has already turned it down, while other candidates' replies await. Obviously, of course, this sounds like a job for Brett Ratner, whose string of hits speaks for itself and whose finely honed sense of metaphor can only enhance to the multidimensionality of the title character. That is a DVD commentary we would pay good money to hear.

With Transformers having shattered all kinds of non-sequel box office records, Voltron in the development pipeline, and Gobots: The Movie awaiting the hedge fund capital infusion that will allow it to expand into a feature-length production, it's obvious that Hollywood is suffering from a serious case of robofever—and, as the THR notes today, the disease is worsening: Warner Bros. and Spider-Man star/occasionally portly poker enthusiast/burgeoning producer Tobey Maguire are getting into the Giant Fucking Robots business, announcing that they're teaming up to bring Robotech, yet another 1980s cartoon series involving oversized automatons and the human freedom fighters who love them, to your local multiplex: