David Lynch Wants Your Money, Hefner Takes Back Playboy, Ruffalo Directs, Inception Without DiCaprio

- Got fifty bucks? David Lynch wants your money to fund the final installment of LYNCHthree, a documentary trilogy that follows his life and work. LYNCHone was cut from 700 hours of footage shot over two years post-Inland Empire. A behind-the-scenes look at Inland Empire comprised LYNCHtwo. Now, LYNCHthree will be shot by the director of the first two installments, who goes by the pseudonym "blackANDwhite."

Lynch hopes that people "are excited to be a part of our journey" as they pursue this unique form of financing. Producer Jon Nguyen adds: "There are so many questions that we would like to ask David, and building a network of his fans allows us to hear what they would like to ask him if they could hold the camera." Donations are welcomed here, where you can select your thank you gift (Lynch's self portrait, above) in the form of a collectible print on a t-shirt or tote bag.

- Meanwhile, 84-year old Hugh Hefner wants to buy out the Playboy franchise for $123 million dollars (or $5.50 a share). His announcement yesterday saw stocks swell 41% (close to $5.55 a share, the highest in two years) and invited a counter bid by rival Penthouse. FriendFinder Networks owns Penthouse, and their CEO Mark Bell wants a piece of 57-year old Playboy but has not revealed the amount of his imminent bid. A bidding war is not certain; Hefner currently owns almost 70% of the company's Class A shares (and ~28% of the Class B shares) and shows no signs of wanting to let it go or merge it with another entity. Playboy has, after all, been his baby for almost six decades. Yes, there is debt, but that little bunny logo's selling power is golden.

- Mark Ruffalo's recent directorial debut, Sundance entry Sympathy for Delicious, earned less than stellar reviews, but the talented actor still has hopes to prove himself a talented director as well. While promoting The Kids Are All Right, Ruffalo admitted to Black Book, "If it takes another ten years, I’ll probably make three movies in my lifetime. I hope it doesn’t take that long for the next one. I learned a lot making [Sympathy for Delicious]. I made every mistake you can possibly make making that movie."

Currently working on a script about a ex-porn star/actor/junkie/street poet single-handedly raising a child in Hollywood, Ruffalo wants to bring humor into the father-child's "beautiful relationship" while mining for "golden nuggets." The pic sounds eerily similar to Sofia Coppola's upcoming Somewhere, in which a bad-boy Hollywood actor (Stephen Dorff) re-examines his life when his daughter (Elle Fanning) comes to stay with him. Mining Hollywood cliches is apparently the easy part.

- LAT's Hero Complex reveals Brad Pitt or Will Smith could have been bending cityscapes in place of Leonardo DiCaprio in Inception. The expectations and stakes are high for Christopher Nolan's latest, but casting DiCaprio, despite his more tenuous box-office record (compared to Pitt and Smith), may have been one of the film's best-laid plans. The risky nature of Inception --brand-new material and more brain-bending complexity than most contemporary films --demanded star-power to lure moviegoers. So far, Nolan and DiCaprio are successfully wooing critics. Something to consider while watching the film this weekend: how would Pitt or Smith have played the 'dream thief' differently, and how might that have changed the film's reception?