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(CNN) -- This latest film from master filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar will be both familiar to his fans and viewed as a departure.

While it boasts a couple of his regular cast of performers (including Antonio Banderas for the first time in 21 years) it is not an original story (as most of his work is) and is instead adapted by the director and his frequent collaborator, brother Augustin, and based on a novel "Mygale" ("Tarantula" in the UK) by Thierry Jonquet.

It's also significantly darker in tone, more subtle, wholly unsentimental and rather more brutal than we're used to getting from Almodóvar.

World famous plastic surgeon Robert Ledgard (Banderas) lives in an isolated compound called El Cigarral, a magnificent mansion shut off from the world by trees, a wall and gates. In the compound's laboratory Robert is experimenting on a new kind of skin, one developed through the gene therapy called transgenesis, an ethically-challenged procedure that has been banned by Robert's superiors.

Using pig cells, Robert has developed a new kind of human skin that can resist disease, fire and puncture but still transmits other sensations, like human touch. He's achieved this by experimenting on humans, in strict violation of every ethical standard and contrary to the instructions of his medical superiors. One of these human subjects, a young and beautiful woman named Vera (Elena Anaya, "Talk To Her"), is his captive in the mansion and is Robert's latest guinea pig.

Vera lives in a sealed room. Her meals and other materials are delivered via dumbwaiter and her only contact with another person is when Robert is transplanting skin on to her or when he enters her room at night to give her some opium to smoke.

Robert lives with a caretaker, Marilia (Marisa Paredes, "All About My Mother," "Talk To Her"), who is his willing accomplice in this macabre medical experiment and acts as a mother figure to him. She makes meals for Vera and is the only other person with whom she has any contact. Marilia also dotes on Robert, whose tireless albeit creepy work was triggered by the death of his wife some years before, the victim of a horrible car crash and subsequent burning, hence the flam-resistant pigskin.

(CNN) -- The Jacksonville, Florida, man accused of hacking celebrities' online accounts for nude photos and other private information said Friday, "I am very sorry for all of this."

A federal judge ordered Christopher Chaney, 35, to appear in a California courtroom on November 1 to answer charges, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office said.

"What I'm most sorry about is that I had to drag my mom into all of this, and my family and my neighbors and they just want to live their lives," Chaney told reporters. He did not respond to questions.

Chaney is accused of hacking into the accounts of more than 50 celebrities, including movie stars Scarlett Johansson and Mila Kunis and singer Christina Aguilera.

A grand jury indicted Chaney on nine counts of computer hacking for gain, eight counts of aggravated identify theft, and nine counts of illegal wiretapping. If convicted of all 26 counts, Chaney would face a maximum of 121 years in federal prison, U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr. said.

The aggravated identity theft charge alone carries a mandatory two-year prison sentence, he added.

The suspect's attorney, Christopher Chestnut, said his client "remains very remorseful" and understands the importance of privacy.

Still, Chestnut indicated the potential sentence appeared harsh.

"People who murder kids don't get 120 years in prison," he said.

Earlier this week, Chaney told a reporter that he had became "addicted" to the intrusion and "didn't know how to stop."

"I know what I did was probably one of the worst invasions of privacy someone could experience," Chaney told CNN affiliate WAWS/WTEV in Jacksonville, Florida, on Wednesday.

(CNN) -- If you grew up in the 1980s there's nothing guaranteed to make you feel older than a trip to the movies. "Conan the Barbarian", "The Thing" and "Footloose"... What's next? "Top Gun"?

But if there have to be remakes, then let them all be as much fun as Craig Brewer's "Footloose."

Brewer's previous movies, "Hustle & Flow" and "Black Snake Moan," were southern exploitation pictures with a smooth retro gloss, their sleazy trappings disguising a heart of pure vanilla. But both showed a real feel for music: hip-hop and 12-bar blues respectively. That's a good starting point when it comes to "Footloose," a fairly trite rock-n-roll rebellion story that's redeemed by its faith in dance.

The 1984 original was the first screenplay by songwriter Dean Pitchford, and Brewer sticks close enough to the template that Pitchford shares a screenplay credit with him here. Both versions get bogged down in silly speechifying, but in almost every respect Brewer's high fidelity cover version improves on the previous movie. It's sharper, punchier, better written and mostly better acted too. If anything the city-country cultural divide cuts deeper today than it did in the Reagan era, but Brewer shifts the action a few degrees south and navigates a more even-handed course between them. His small town, Bomont, Tennessee, is quite sympathetically drawn. And if the city by-laws prohibiting loud music, drink and public dancing make the local elders come off like the Taliban, Dennis Quaid's Reverend Moore is not the shrill evangelical caricature John Lithgow played, but a concerned parent and pastor who assumes responsibility for protecting his flock in the wake of a personal tragedy.

(CNN) -- Should zombies rise up someday soon and take over the world because of an unidentified plague or virus that's caused the collapse of modern society as we know it, how would you react?

Such is the fundamental question of AMC's widely successful show "The Walking Dead," which returns this Sunday for its second season.

Based on Robert Kirkman's comic book, the series is one of the more odd yet complex dramas on television today. At its core, it's about survival and the psychological stress that spending every waking moment together has on a small group. But that could be said about all human beings in that surviving the world is something we do on a daily basis; the trick with "The Walking Dead" is that a pack of ravenous zombies could be lurking around the corner, ready to make you into dinner.

Viewers are consistently presented with questions of morality, instinct and terror, where plots are less about discovery -- there's no race for the cure -- and more about the struggle to exist.

CNN checked in with "The Walking Dead" showrunner/executive producer Glen Mazzara to see what's in store for season two, how the show finds its storytelling voice and just how they get that authentic zombie feel.

CNN: On average, how much are you thinking about zombies each day?

Mazzara: All of them. I wake up thinking about zombies. How do I keep them scary? What's new, what's different, what's fun that we can do with zombies?

CNN: How did this show become so popular on just a six-episode first season? What's the appeal?

Mazzara: It's visceral. There's an immediacy for anyone watching it, where they think, "what would I do?"

People buy into the idea that a plague could wipe out things. We've seen that, and it's in the zeitgeist now. It's playing on the everyman level where it's about the survivors and not about what happened to the collapse of government or infrastructure. You get in the car, and it runs out of gas, and then what? Meanwhile, you're being chased by zombies.

CNN: Remember the swine flu? That was a legit panic.

Mazzara: Yeah. It's like when you're watching a horror movie and the people move into a haunted house. And you're wondering, why didn't think just move out? Everything our survivors are doing, hopefully, strikes people as realistic. They're making decisions that ordinary people would make. And none of those decisions have very good consequences.

CNN: There's also weird psychological dynamics between the characters where they have to get along while also ensuring that they survive, they want to survive, and everyone around them survives too, because as far as they know, they're it.

Beijing, China (CNN) – About 60 million people today in China will no longer have to pay income taxes. Beijing raised the minimum levels for taxation, reflecting the growing paychecks – and prices - for average Chinese.

Rather than rejoice, Chinese netizens are howling about new tax regulations that impact couples seeking to marry. More galling is a new interpretation of tax law that says employees must now pay taxes on gifts of seasonal cakes – popular boxes of “mooncakes” traditionally given out for China’s mid-Autumn Festival in September – from their employers.

China raised the minimum income-tax threshold to 3500 yuan (USD 541) after pension, insurance and housing costs are deducted. The minimum taxable income was 2,000 yuan (USD 307). The move is aimed to help lower income families and boost consumption.

But latest version of China’s Marriage Law, which took effect Aug. 13, stirred much controversy across the nation as many complain the new law favors men over women.

According to interpretations of the previous law, property was divided down the middle in divorce cases. Now the new law says property belongs only to the person whose name is on the deed, often the husband – so many Chinese women now fear they’ll lose everything if their name isn’t on the deed.

(CNN) -- MTV has long since moved away from being a "music channel."

Just as "Video Killed the Radio Star" marked the ending of an era when MTV played its first music video on August 1, 1981 at 12:01 a.m., 30 years later, the success of the network's shows like "The Jersey Shore" have all but eclipsed the video star.

So what's a musician striving to connect with fans and sell records to do?

If you are lucky, you land an appearance on the Video Music Awards.

This Sunday MTV will air the 2011 Video Music Awards (aka the VMAs) live, marking 27 years of a successful annual award show. Last year's VMAs boasted the highest ratings since 2002, bringing in 11.4 million viewers and making it the No. 1 cable telecast of 2010 for the MTV network.

For musicians, the coveted spot has now become the performance slots during the award show. Those selected have been identified as key players within the industry and to be asked has become an honor and acknowledgment of the music that an artist has put out that year.

The musicians and MTV look to secure their audience base not through music videos, but by broadening the guest list, in particular the red carpet, to encompass all those within the MTV lineup from musicians, actors/actresses, celebrities and the reality stars that are the driving force of the network. So don't be surprised when the newest Teen Mom is standing next to the boys from The Buried Life on this year's pink carpet.