TIFF just rolled out its last wave of titles, so I’m going over them with a fine-tooth comb, looking for last-minute surprises and revelations to highlight in a post for the NOW blog. (None so far, and we don’t seem to have “World’s Greatest Dad”, which bums me out.)

So I’ll just throw a bunch of interview links at you: Here I am talking to Eli Roth about his role in “Inlglourious Basterds”, and over here I talk to Peter Capaldi about “In the Loop” (and his role in the “Torchwood” miniseries), and then this is me talking to the directors of “The Boys: The Sherman Brothers’ Story”.

See? I’m busy already. It’s nothing compared to what’s coming, but it’s helping me build up some momentum.

Over at the AV Club, something wonderful has happened: Writer Josh Modell has watched John Carpenter’s “Big Trouble in Little China” for the very first time, and the result is both a fine celebration of a uniquely weird movie and an interesting essay about experiencing a cultural artifact removed from its context.

As usual for the AV Club, the comments are as much fun as the article. Maybe more so, because they’re all about “Big Trouble in Little China”.

Have you paid your dues, Jack? Yes, sir, the check is in the mail.

Neill Blomkamp’s “District 9” pwned the weekend with an estimated $37 million gross, adding another feather to producer Peter Jackson’s cap and vaulting the previously untested Blomkamp — known until now as the guy who was supposed to make the “Halo” movie — onto Hollywood’s action A-list.

I may have some issues with the movie, but I couldn’t be happier for Blomkamp, who’s a filmmaker with a potent, visceral vision — or for Jackson, who had the decency to find something else for the kid to do when “Halo” collapsed. Jackson’s been one of my favorite industry people ever since the grand old days of “Meet the Feebles” and “Braindead” at TIFF; I’m pretty sure he gave me his cold during our “Heavenly Creatures” interview back in ’94, but I don’t hold it against him.

So, yeah. Now that everyone’s confident in everyone else, let’s get Fox to put Blomkamp in charge of the “Predator” reboot and see what happens when humans and aliens get to shoot each other without all that cumbersome allegorical subtext getting in the way.

Oh, don’t make that face. You know it’s coming.

The politics of “District 9” are sparking all sorts of conversations around the web this weekend, and I’m doing my part with my latest Sympatico/MSN gallery, assembling eight other allegorical SF movies for readers to consider and debate.

And yes, “White Man’s Burden” is science fiction. It’s set in an alternate universe, so there.

So, here we are at the end of another week, surrounded by new movies and pressed for time. Shall we run down the list?

“Bandslam”: The “High School Musical” girl who isn’t Sharpay turns up in another teen-targeted, music-tinged romp; Matt liked it, and I’m always happy to see director Todd Graff, who played Hippy in “The Abyss”, get work.

“District 9“: Neill Blomkamp’s highly anticipated SF actioner about aliens and apartheid works really well as a straight-up chase picture if you ignore the pretensions to gravity and the whole allegory thing. Mostly, it’ll leave you wishing he’d been able to make that “Halo” movie. This is not a bad thing.

“The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard”: What happens when Will Ferrell isn’t available to make a Will Ferrell movie about a super-committed car salesman? You cast Jeremy Piven and hope for the best, apparently.

“Idiots & Angels“: Bill Plympton’s latest absurdist feature follows the adventures of a hard-drinking jerk who grows a pair of wings and starts acting like a better person. Well, the wings do most of the work. And as is often the case with Plympton’s features, this would have been much more enjoyable as a series of shorts.

“Ponyo”: Hayao Miyazaki takes a run at the dynamics of “The Little Mermaid” in his latest lush hand-crafted import, dubbed into English by the likes of Liam Nesson, Lily Tomlin, Tina Fey and one of the Jonas brothers. I had to miss it, but Andrew and Jason were both charmed.

“Spread”: “Ashton Kutcher, man-whore” is one of the decade’s great meta premises, isn’t it? Or at least it should be. But from Rad‘s take, it sounds like David Mackenzie’s follow-up to “Young Adam” is just as tone-deaf and ickily fixated on the mechanics of boinkery as his debut.

“Tetro“: Francis Ford Coppola reclaims some of his mojo after the debacle of “Youth Without Youth” with this confident family story, featuring fine performances from Vincent Gallo, Alden Ehrenreich and Maribel Verdu. It goes wrong in the last 45 minutes, but you can see what Coppola is trying to do, and frankly, it’s just nice to see him focusing on human emotions again.

“The Time Traveler’s Wife“: You know that twinkling, blurry credit sequence some movies use? And how it’s almost always a guarantee of banality? Well, here we are again with this limp, mopey tale of longing and disconnection. Rachel McAdams blows Eric Bana off the screen without even trying … yeah, like that’s a surprise.

Also, the After Dark Film Festival kicks off tonight at the Bloor Cinema; if you’re at all curious about this year’s crop of films — which features a whack of zombie-themed entertainment, including “Dead Snow”, “The Revenant” and “Grace” — you should really get down there. Fun people, good times. And I did mention the zombies, right?

So, um, I talked to Francis Ford Coppola a couple of weeks ago.

It was just a phone interview, tied to tomorrow’s release of “Tetro”; someday, I hope to sit down with him in person for a proper conversation, possibly with a couple of bottles of good red wine.

We talked for about half an hour. It was supposed to be 20 minutes, but he was very generous with his time … and with his answers, as you’ll see if you click over to the extended interview on the NOW site. And don’t forget the audio clips.

Coppola isn’t the only director I talked to for this week’s issue; I’ve also got interviews with Bill Plympton and Neill Blomkamp, directors of “Idiots & Angels” and “District 9”, respectively. Unfortunately, for some reason they’re not up on the site at the moment, but I’ll post the links as soon as I have them … assuming I can get to a keyboard, as I’m spending most of my day running around bagging chats for next week’s paper. (UPDATES: There they are!)

Jeez, you’d think there was a festival on or something.