Sure Shots: Dakota Johnson; World War Z; The Smurfs 2

* Dakota Johnson may be best known as the daughter of Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith, but she's quickly getting out of her parents' shadow with a number of small roles in some big flicks. She had a brief appearance in The Social Network as one of Justin Timberlake's sexual conquests. She appeared earlier this year in teen drama, Beastly, and she'll pop up in Jonah Hill's 21 Jump Street remake as well. But now she's also snagged her first real leading role, as Variety reports she'll topline teen comedy, Gay Dude. Nicholas Braun(Red State), Hunter Cope, and Dreama Walker(Gran Torino) also star in the story about two best friends who pledge to lose their virginity before graduation, only to have one come out as gay. Chris Nelson is directing.

* Paramount isn't afraid to unleash zombie Hell on every other studio's holiday season. They've decided to drop their zombie war film, World War Z, into the crowded December 21st 2012 spot. That puts them up against Johnn Depp's Lone Ranger, Ang Lee's Life of Pi, and Philip Noyce's Hunter Killer. Somebody's going to blink and bail out. Count on it. Marc Forster is shooting World War Z right now, with Brad Pitt, James Badge Dale, Bryan Cranston, Matthew Fox, and Mireille Enos starring.

* I stand by my defense of The Smurfs, even if it makes me a social pariah amongst my critic colleagues for a few more weeks. I can always take solace in the fact that the film has kicked ass at the box office around the world, meaning that the planned CGI/Live-action trilogy is going to happen. That's at least three more hours my friends will have to suffer through. Muhahahahaha!  Sony isn't wasting any time getting the ball rolling, either, setting the smurfy sequel for August 2nd 2013.