Based on Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Hillcoat's new movie is a dystopian tale of survival in a physically and morally ravaged world. The director talks to NPR's Steve Inskeep about the challenges of visualizing a post-apocalyptic landscape — and why the bleak tale is really a story of human goodness.

Lots of young fans — and many of their moms and dads — are excited about the arrival of Tiana, the heroine of The Princess and the Frog, the latest animated Walt Disney film. It's more than just a new movie to many: Tiana is Disney's first African-American princess, a role model many parents have been waiting for for a long time.

New Moon, the second movie in the popular Twilight" series, brought in more than $140-million in ticket sales in North America, starting with midnight screenings on Friday. That's the third biggest opening on record. Ben Fritz, an entertainment business reporter for The Los Angeles Times, says the audience for the movie was overwhelmingly female.