The Will Ferrell comedy Step Brothers topped the UK box office at the weekend with a £1.68m haul in its first week of release. It stars Ferrell with regular sidekick John C Reilly as two fortysomething losers who still live at home with their newlywed parents. Other new entries on the chart included horror The Strangers, in third spot with £1.25m, and science fiction romp Babylon AD, in seventh with £536,000. Widely-praised indie comedy The Wackness opened way down in 15th place, with just £80,000 in its opening week.

The UK premiere of Choke, the new film from the writer of Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk, will open this year's Raindance film festival. The movie, which stars Sam Rockwell, Anjelica Huston and Kelly MacDonald, has already been the subject of excellent early reviews. This year's Raindance, London's annual celebration of all things independent in film-making, features a panel of judges which includes Oscar-winning director Peter Capaldi (It's a Wonderful Life) and veteran film-maker Nicolas Roeg. It takes place in London's West End between 1 and 12 October and will showcase 75 features and more than 100 short films.

Disney and Pirates of the Caribbean head honcho Jerry Bruckheimer have bought the rights to the second world war-themed novel Killing Rommel, according to Variety. Steven Pressfield's book, the fictionalised account of a British battalion's efforts to halt infamous German field marshal Erwin Rommel's north African campaign in 1942, was published in the spring. Pearl Harbor writer Randall Wallace is to work on adapting the screenplay.