Twenty-six years after the worst nuclear accident in history, Chernobyl is suddenly hot again — at least culturally. This weekend, "Chernobyl Diaries," a horror movie that follows a group of tourists on an excursion to the abandoned Ukrainian site of the meltdown, hits theaters just as a pollution travelogue by journalist Andrew Blackwell, "Visit Sunny Chernobyl," is arriving in bookstores. The movie, co-written and produced by "Paranormal Activity" creator Oren Peli and directed by visual-effects supervisor and first-time feature filmmaker Brad Parker, was inspired by the very type of extreme tourism Blackwell undertakes in his nonfiction book: visits to ravaged, sometimes unexpectedly beautiful polluted sites around the world. Blackwell canoed through Chernobyl while researching his book and also jogged in smoggy Linfen, China, and sailed ... Continue reading →

Los Angeles In the 1989 action movie "Lethal Weapon 2," Mel Gibson's character hitches a striking Hollywood Hills home to his pickup truck with cables and accelerates, dragging the home down the hill. It's a fantasy occasionally shared by the home's real-life owners, John McIlwee and Bill Damaschke. Photos: Reviving a Hollywood Icon Ethan Pines for The Wall Street Journal Built in 1962 the home sits on stilts 60 feet above the canyon ground. After paying $1.3 million for the 2,300-square-foot home, the couple plunged into a complex, multiyear renovation that cost roughly $1 million more—at one point Mr. McIlwee camped out in a sleeping bag to oversee construction. Maintenance for the unusually constructed home is constant, and can be a chore. But the couple ... Continue reading →

Pixar's "Toy Story 3" is the highest-grossing movie of all time in Mexico, where the animated adventure tale of children's toys Woody and Buzz Lightyear collected $59 million at the box office in 2010, more than megahits like "Avatar" and the "Harry Potter" finale. The follow-up from "Toy Story 3" director Lee Unkrich and producer Darla K. Anderson is also likely to have strong appeal with Mexican audiences -- and to boast more authentically Latino characters than a Spanish-speaking Buzz Lightyear doll. The duo's next movie is a still-untitled project about Día de los Muertos, the Mexican holiday of the dead, which Disney and Pixar first announced at CinemaCon last month. Pixar hasn't said how the idea of a Día de los Muertos movie came ... Continue reading →