It may seem stranger than fiction, but George Clooney's latest film, paranormal comedy "The Men Who Stare at Goats," was inspired by real events.

"It's funny, there are things that are made up in this screenplay, but the wackiest things are actually the real ones," said Clooney

Like starring alongside a goat.

Clooney's role as Lyn Cassady, an operative of the New Earth Army, required him to play opposite the farmyard animal to demonstrate the army's psychic warfare strategies, among them the ability to kill goats by staring at them.

Known for his dry sense of humor, the actor said of his four-legged co-star: "This goat was a particularly nice goat. The goat was a great actor."

Read more of this article on CNN's The Screening Room here.

There has been a resurgence of interest in horror recently, with zombies and vampires in particular colonizing our cinema screens in ever greater numbers.

As if to feed our renewed appetite, some of the genre's living legends are once again back in the director's chair delivering terror at 24 frames per second.

Check out our interactive featuring Wes Craven, Sam Raimi, George Romero and John Landis, including exclusive video clips of these titans of terror talking about the genre.

The countdown to the release of James Cameron’s 3D sci-fi epic thriller “Avatar” has started.

Twentieth Century Fox has announced that the movie will have its world premiere in London’s Leicester Square on December 10.

A few lucky audiences have already caught a sneak peek at snippets of the highly-anticipated film, which is tipped as having the potential to change the face of cinema.

Do you like 3D films? Are you planning to watch "Avatar"? Tell us in the comments below

A 25-minute preview was screened at Comic-Con in July to glowing reviews, and a 15-minute clip of the movie was shown to sold-out audiences in select theaters around the world on “Avatar Day” in August.

In a year of big 3D releases, including Disney’s "Toy Story" and Pixar’s "Up," "Avatar" - which tells the story of a war between humans and the native species of the jungle planet Pandora - is turning into the year’s most hyped.

The movie, which combines digital 3D technology with Cameron’s trademark epic storytelling, is being hailed as revolutionary. That it is Cameron's first film since record-smashing "Titanic" more than a decade ago is only serving to increase the feverish anticipation.

"Avatar" is released worldwide on December 18

Are audiences finally getting tired of ultra-violent splatter flicks, typified by the "Saw" franchise?

First screened as a low-budget indie horror at Sundance Film Festival in 2004, "Saw" went on to become a global phenomenon. Are you sick of splatter? Is old-fashioned suspense making a comeback? Tell us below

"Saw VI" is the latest installment in the multi-million dollar franchise featuring modern horror icon the "Jigsaw Killer." It hit cinemas over the weekend hoping to pull in dollars from horror-hungry Halloween audiences.

And it probably would have done pretty well if it wasn't for another, rather newer, horror phenomenon: "Paranormal Activity."

The microbudget flick which is becoming a box office wonder pipped "Saw VI" to the top spot at the U.S. box office this weekend.

Does this mean audiences are tiring of the splatter horror genre revitalized by Eli Roth in 2005's "Hostel," and sometimes known by its detractors as "torture porn?"

Or, is it just that "Paranormal Activity's" huge success surprised everyone? Made for somewhere in the region of $15,000, "Paranormal Activity's" rise to the top is already legend in Hollywood.

It's worth noting that the "Saw" series remains one of the most profitable franchises in horror history.

Since the first installment bled onto screens in 2004, the first five movies have delivered a combined box office take approaching $700m worldwide, according to boxofficemojo.com, with international takings accounting for around half this haul.

DVD sales and TV are likely to easily surpass this total again - and all for a quintet whose combined production budget clocked in at less than $100m, the price of a middling summer blockbuster.

So, despite the competition, it's unlikely that this is the dying breath of torture porn.

What is almost guaranteed in the wake of  "Paranormal Activity" is a wave lo-fi horrors trading on bumps in the night, hoping for similar success.

When we think of a night out at the movies, most of us envisage either a multiplex or small art house theater. But, all across the world people are watching films in more diverse environments than ever before.

New York City is a hub for experimentation of all kinds and when it comes to thinking outside the screen the city has an impressive resume. The Manhattan Shorts Festival began in September with Nicholas Mason projecting short films on the back of a panel truck on the street.

What's the most unusual place you have watched a film? Tell us below

Each summer, people enjoy "movies under the stars" in various city locations from Central Park to disused river piers.  Likewise, TV station HBO hosts an outdoor "film festival" in neighbouring Bryant Park, and one organisation even projects classic films onto the side of the venerated St Patrick’s Old Cathedral on Mulberry Street. At parties organized by Rooftop Films, guests can watch underground films on rooftops with the iconic Manhattan skyline in the background. While arts/entertainment organization Gen Art recently welcomed fall in the city by projecting various film clips mixed to music onto a billboard high above the city as part of a series of screenings.

NYC is not the only U.S. city to embrace the concept of the unique screening location.  Chicago, LA, New Orleans, Santa Cruz and many other cities host film events in venues like steamboat stations on the Mississippi.

Of course, America is the creator of the famous drive-in movie experience. While multiplexes popping up all over may have hastened the demise of the drive-in experience for the masses, companies like MobMov - tagline: "the drive-in that drives in" - are working to keep them alive. With chapters nationwide, Mobmov seeks out an audience and where one is available they find a makeshift screen and a projector, audiences drive up, tune in their radios, and the rest is history.

Across the world the story is the same. Wherever you go, you can find unique screening venues.

In the UK, Secret Cinema shows films in surprise venues that reflect the subject matter, like a recent screening of Gus Van Sant's "Paranoid Park" at Shipwright Yard, Southwark.  Parisians flock to La Pagode, a large red pagoda that used to be a ballroom and has found new work as a makeshift cinema. Australians can watch their favourite flicks on a huge outdoor screen on Bondi Beach; in Vienna patrons watch films on a screen in front of the impressive City Hall; and Romania’s Anonimul Film Festival screens movies in Sfantu Gheorghe in a sandy part of the Danube’s Delta. Even the UAE, has recently gained its first roaming giant outdoor movie screen, and Iran subsequently followed suit opening its largest open air theater to date.

Indeed, for some, it is watching movies at an indoor cinema is an aberration. In Indonesia and Thailand, films are projected onto any large available building or wall and communities and travelers alike come together to share the experience, often over a beer.

Resorts and towns across the Amazon have started to host tiny film festivals in an attempt to attract tourism; where films, often with the forest as their subject matter, are projected under the jungle canopy. Many countries without a wide network of theaters, such as those in Africa and Central Asia, or those tackling the issue of censorship; rely on a cheap projector and guerilla film screenings for the opportunity to share an experience many of us take for granted.

More than movies are hitting the big screen these days. Sony is offering gamers a chance to play at its hotly anticipated new PlayStation3 game “Uncharted 2: Among Thieves” at  four digital cinemas in the U.S. today and tomorrow.

The sneak peek comes a week before the game’s official launch in the U.S. on October 13.  And with the theater experience offering image resolution that Sony says is four times better than most high-def TVs, it's easy to see why gamers are excited. 

But Sony, which also sells digital cinema systems to theaters, thinks cinemas should be celebrating as well. Would you go to cinema to see anything other than a movie? Do you think cinemas will become digital destination centers? Tell us below.

As the electronics giant sees it, gaming events like the “Uncharted 2” preview are just one example of how so-called alternative programming – basically anything other than film - can help movie theaters fill their seats during non-peak times.

Sony foresees an age where theaters  regularly screen everything from sporting events to music concerts, and there are already signs of theaters branching out. In England, a movie chain is planning to show the country's upcoming World Cup qualifier match against Ukraine, which isn't being aired on TV, live in cinemas across the country.

Not sure what to see at the movies Friday night? If you’re like most people nowadays, chances are you go online.

Nearly all people who watch movies, regardless of their age, are online, and an overwhelming 93 percent use the Internet to find out information about new movies that are out, according to Moviegoers 2010, conducted by entertainment marketing firm Stradella.

For instance, the average moviegoer spends nearly six hours more a week on the Internet than they do watching TV, while 73 percent of respondents have profiles on social networking sites.

Sites like Facebook and Twitter may play a particularly important role for younger moviegoers, the study said: 74 percent of teens and young adults enjoy sharing their thoughts and opinions on movies with others, and 75 percent of them trust a friend’s take on a movie over a critic’s.

Now it’s easy to be cynical about the findings of the survey of nearly 4,000 moviegoers – it was, after all, sponsored by several big online media companies, including AOL, Facebook, Google and Microsoft.

But there is one indisputable fact - movie content has been behind some of the more pioneering Web sites of the past decade, including reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, info center the Internet Movie Data Base and geek news center Aint It Cool.

Each proved a benchmark with its coverage of the movie world that was noted, copied and built on, often by bigger and more mainstream media. Part of their success is down to the fact that they recognized public appetite for movie content online – and exploited this to best effect.

Where do you get most of your movie news and reviews from – friends, magazines, critics or online? Post your comments below.

Spain reveres its flamenco tradition; Ireland won hearts with Riverdance. What form of national expression does England bring to the global table? Morris dancing - a folk-infused activity whose practitioners hop backwards and forwards waving handkerchiefs.

But what England also has is a genius for poking fun at itself, in particular its more eccentric cultural legacies. "Morris: A Life With Bells On" continues that gift in the finest traditions of "This Is Spinal Tap" and "The Full Monty."

The film's premiere in London's West End is like no other I’ve ever seen: The usual red carpet has been replaced by green Astroturf bedecked with straw bales, milk churns and a couple of dozen morris dancers hopping away. What is your favorite mockumentary? "Spinal Tap," "Borat," or maybe "Best In Show?" Tell us below.

Yet, despite a paltry half-millon dollar budget and a production base set on a chicken farm, ex-investment banker and first-time filmmaker Chaz Oldham managed to recruit seasoned talent including the venerable British actor Sir Derek Jacobi, French star Dominic Pinon and Naomie Harris, who joined the production straight from the premiere of "Pirates of the Caribbean."

The exceptional script of this British-made mockumentary follows a documentary crew on the story of Britain’s finest morris dancer Derecq Twist - a man determined to go beyond the boundaries of dance who inevitably falls foul of the ultra-conservative guardians of the dance.

International fascination with the film has been high, with 120,000 hits in a peak week on the movie’s website and fourth place from 248 entries at Seattle Film Festival. Hopes are high to lure a U.S. distributor on board.

The English are polarized about the prospect of morris dancing at the opening ceremony of the London Olympics in 2012. Some believe we should flaunt it, others would rather curl up and die than present it to the world.

Last word on the subject of morris dancing goes to Sir Derek Jacobi, whose talent in turn was discovered by another peer of the English acting realm, Sir Laurence Olivier:

“When you say ‘morris dancing’ usually people smile - never too maliciously but there’s a hint of malice behind their smiles. But it is so essentially English that the other half who are smiling are really genuinely fond of it and rather proud that its something that is so essentially English, nowhere else in the world will you see it, it’s ours and we mustn’t let it die.”

Designer Tom Ford has made the move from runway to the big screen with a flourish with his directorial debut “A Single Man,”  a highly stylized account of a gay college professor dealing with the loss of his lover.

Colin Firth has sparked Oscar buzz with his performance, which won him the Best Actor award at the Venice Film Festival, and the Weinstein Company bought distribution rights for the movie at Toronto. That means the public will soon get their own chance to judge whether designer-turned-director Ford is as successful behind the camera as he was in bringing sexy silhouettes to the catwalk.

The former creative head at Gucci isn’t the only one to find a second calling in the movies. He joins a long list of "hyphen" directors - musicians, journalists and artists who have switched careers to become filmmakers.

Singers alone could fill up a list. Madonna made her directorial debut last year with "Filth and Wisdom," which was received with about as much as enthusiasm as her earlier attempts at acting, while heavy metal rocker Rob Zombie, who revived the "Halloween" franchise and is reportedly lined up to remake "The Blob," has made a name in horror films.

To be sure, some have been far more successful than others. One of the most notable crossovers of late has been British artist and Turner Prize winner Steve McQueen, who made a splash at Cannes last year with "Hunger." His picture about an IRA hunger striker won the Camera d'Or for best first feature film at the fest.

Former entertainment journalist and film critic Rod Lurie, who broke out with his 2000 film “The Contender” starring Joan Allen as a Vice President nominee under scrutiny, has also developed credibility as a director of political films.

The most successful crossover of all? Perhaps Woody Allen, who started out as a stand-up comic before taking up position behind the camera. But you tell us, who do you think are the best film directors to cross over from other fields? Tell us in the comments below.

"This Is It," the documentary that follows pop star Michael Jackson in the months before his death, will have a global launch in 25 cities on October 27-28, according to the film’s distributor. Are you planning to watch the Michael Jackson documentary? Tell us what you think about the movie in the comments below.

A 6 p.m. PT event in Los Angeles on October 27 will launch premieres of “This Is It” worldwide. Simultaneous debuts will be staged in 15 cities, including London, New York, Rio de Janeiro, Berlin, Johannesburg and Seoul, Sony Pictures said.

The documentary chronicles Jackson’s rehearsals for concerts that were scheduled to have taken place this past summer at London’s O2 Arena.

Directed by Jackson’s choreographer and creative director Kenny Ortega, the film draws on more than 100 hours of footage shot between March and June.

The public will be able to view the film, which will have a two-week run in theaters, three hours after the red-carpet premieres. Tickets go on sale September 27.