Charlize Theron was quick to cash in her chips after winning her Oscar and made Æon Flux. As it turns out, that was a good move because where the heck has she been lately. Anyone besides critics see or even care about North Country? Anybody?

The next Charlize Theron movie that no one will see is going to be a film called The Burning Plain, a drama directed by Guillermo Arriaga who wrote Babel but has never directed before. Since Babel was a piece of garbage, let’s hope he’s a brilliant director, brilliant enough to make up for his awful writing.

Sadly, The Burning Plain sounds like it’s right around the block from Babel. Variety describes it as telling “thematically connected” stories, which in Babel meant a bunch of completely unrelated stories tied together by some idiotic, contrived, stupid plot device involving a bullet fired by the barbaric children of dirty foreigners. Seriously, how weird is it that Babel portrays non-Americans so poorly yet it’s directed by a non-American? Self-loathing?

Charlize will play a character named Sylvia, a woman who tries to find common ground with her parents after a messed up childhood. Of the rest of the film Arriaga says, “There are very intense love stories here that take place in different places and times, with characters trying to find the healing powers of love, forgiveness and redemption.” God this sounds awful. I dread the day when I’ll have to sit through it and review it, because it’s being forced on me as Oscar fodder.