The Random - Emma Watson & Marilyn Manson, Bridget Jones, Avon Man, Green Hornet, Hack/Slash, Scream 4

The Sun have the rumour that Emma Watson (Harry Potter) is to play a princess in a film from rock star turned writer\director Marilyn Manson which will be based on the traditional story of Cinderella.

Working Title is developing a third installment in the Bridget Jones film series reports Variety.
The third Jones will see Zellweger reprise her role as a British publishing executive struggling to find love. The story will likely be based on author Helen Fielding's weekly newspaper columns from 2005 which has Bridget, now in her 40s, attempting to have a baby before it's too late.

20th Century Fox has acquired the comedy pitch Avon Man, from Hitch writer Kevin Bisch, and has attached Hugh Jackman to star.According to Variety, Jackman and Seed Prods. partner John Palermo will produce, along with Gary Foster at Krasnoff Foster Entertainment.The story follows men laid off from an auto dealership. One is reluctantly recruited into becoming an Avon salesman, and while the experience is initially emasculating, he uses his charm and good looks to become a top seller. The comedy takes on a Full Monty vibe when the car salesman sets out to save his financially strapped family and town by conscripting his buddies into the makeup business to win a regional contest.

Stephen Chow has bowed out of Sony's The Green Hornet, leaving the Columbia Pictures project to search for a new Kato, the sidekick of playboy-turned-vigilante Brit Reid, which is played by Seth Rogen. According to Variety, sources said Chow left on amicable terms and had several other projects he wanted to pursue that didn't fit with "Hornet's" production schedule. Michel Gondry is directing the film. Chow had initially signed on to direct the film as well, but then opted just to play Kato, the role Bruce Lee took in the original 1960s TV show.

The Hack/Slash comic-book film project is finally getting off the ground. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Fredrik Bond has signed on to direct it. The film is based off the comic book created by Tim Seeley and Stefano Casselli, which revolves around Cassie Hack, who symbolizes the one woman that survives at the end of most horror films, but has become much more than that. Not only has Hack survived, but she has transformed into a hunter of the supernatural serial killers who plague the world. The script was written by Justin Marks and the film, now with a director firmly in place after many had come and gone, is eyeing a winter start date for production.

According to E! Online, both Courteney Cox-Arquette and David Arquette will be returning for Scream 4. "We're going to be doing Scream 4," David Arquette told the site. "Kevin Williamson is writing the script at this moment, and hopefully Wes Craven is going to direct." Neve Campbell was said to turn down a chance to reprise her role in the sequel, but Arquette added, "I hope Neve does it. I really hope so."

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The Random - Green Hornet, Spider-Man 4, The Special Relationship, Michael Moore, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, 100 Bullets, Ant-Man

Cameron Diaz has been offered and is apparently in early talks for the female lead role in The Green Hornet for Sony Pictures says Entertainment Weekly. Michel Gondry is set to direct the film based on a script by actor/comedian Seth Rogen and his writing partner Evan Goldberg.

Gary Ross (Dave, Big, Seabiscuit, Pleasantville) is re-writing the script for Spider-Man 4 says Variety. James Vanderbilt penned the original script which was then rewritten by David Lindsay-Abaire. The project will go into production early next year for release May 2011.

MTV Splashpage translates a report from omelete.com in which Edgar Wright reveals he is still quite interested in making an Ant-Man film. He completed work on the first draft before Scott Pilgrim vs. the World built steam. "I'm very happy with the first draft and we need to get back into business," he tells Omelete.

Hope Davis is set to play former First Lady and current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in HBO Films/BBC Films' The Special Relationship says The Hollywood Reporter. The story chronicles the unique and sometimes turbulent political relationship between newly installed British Prime Minister Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) and U.S. President Bill Clinton (Dennis Quaid) in the late 1990s. Julianne Moore was originally set to play Hillary but has since pulled out due to a scheduling conflict with The Kids Are All Right.

Michael Moore's new global financial crisis documentary has now got a name - Capitalism: A Love Story reports Variety. The film takes a look at "the disastrous impact that corporate dominance and out-of-control profit motives have on the lives of Americans and citizens of the world." The film hits theaters on October 2nd.

In a story from The Hollywood Reporter Tyler Labine and Alan Tudyk will be co-starring in Tucker and Dale vs. Evil. The film, directed by Eli Craig, is being called "a genre-bending indie horror comedy." Labine will play the role of Dale and Tudyk will be Tucker. These characters are two happy go lucky hillbillies who are mistakenly accused of being killers. Also starring in the film is Katrina Bowen (30 Rock).

100 Bullets creator Brian Azzarello teases MTV Splashpage with the possibility of a television series or movie? "That's all I'll say. Television ... or maybe something that's not just TV," he quickly said.

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The Random - The Gate, Jack Ryan, Blitz, Midway Games

Alex Winter (Bill S Preston and director of Freaked) is going ahead with the remake of the Stephen Dorff film, The Gate. That's the one from the 1980's where the kids open a gateway to hell in the garden and little demon things come out to play. Bloody Disgusting had the news.

George Clooney would like to play Tom Clancy character, Jack Ryan, in a new film - “A source says he expressed interest in playing Jack Ryan when and if Paramount attempts to revive the Tom Clancy series.”

Jason Statham will play a sociopathic, destructive cop named Brant in the upcoming film adaptation of Ken Bruen's novel Blitz reports Crimespree Cinema. Set in South East London, the book follows three different police officers who must deal with their own issues alongside hunting down a serial killer hunting down cops all over the city in a quest for tabloid immortality. Paddy Considine will be playing Sergeant Porter Nash, an openly gay cop that works with the homophobic Brant. Nathan Parker ("Moon") adapted the script and Elliott Lester ("Love is a Drug") is directing.

Warner Bros. have got hold of many of Midway Games' assets in bankruptcy court for a cool $33 million, which includes studio rights to "Mortal Kombat," "Spy Hunter," "Joust" and several other game franchises, according to Variety.

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The Random - Sucker Punch, Predicament, The Wedding Doctor, Transformers 3, Mother's Curse, Kick-Ass, Alien Nation, Asteroids, Resident Evil

Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) has confirmed that he's trying to tone down his upcoming female insane asylum-set thriller Sucker Punch from an R to a PG-13 - Chud have more

Flying Conchords star Jemaine Clement will to star in the comedy heist film Predicament based on the novel by Ronald Hugh Morrieson - via Stuff

Jonathan Abrams has sold his romantic comedy script The Wedding Doctor to Relativity Media. The story follows a nervous bride with cold feet who seeks the help of a relationship analyst to make sure she's marrying the right person. Trouble is he decides that he is the one she should be marrying - THR)

Ramon Rodriguez, the college roommate of Shia LaBeouf in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, will likely have a bigger part in the sequel according to director Michael Bay - LA Times

A road comedy with Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand in the leading roles? That unexpected pairing may just happen in a film called Mother's Curse - via Hitflix

The world premiere of footage from director Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass will be presented at Comic-Con in San Diego on Thursday, 23rd July - Comingsoon.net have more

Sy-Fy is developing another spin-off series based on the 1988 film Alien Nation reports Variety. Sounds like District 9 has kick started the franchise again. The original film was set in 1991, when alien refugees had come to Earth three years before and were now attempting to integrate into Los Angeles. Tim Minear ("Angel," "The X-Files," "Firefly") is penning the update for Fox 21. This new version is set in the Pacific Northwest of the 2020's, two decades after the first alien ship crashed on Earth.

Universal Pictures has won the film rights to the classic 1979 video game Asteroids says The Hollywood Reporter. The game featured a spaceship that had to shoot down incoming asteroids to avoid collision, that's about it which means there's no backstory and a lot of creative freedom for Matthew Lopez who is adapting the script.

ShockTillYouDrop is reporting that a new live-action Resident Evil sequel called Resident Evil: Afterlife is in development for a September 2010 release. They've actually gotten confirmation from Sony that it is indeed happening. And that Paul W.S. Anderson is at least writing the script and that Capcom is on-board.

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The Random - Frank, The Zookeeper, Go Mutants!, The Testament, Scrubs, Burlesque, Lake Mungo

- Fox 2000 has set Enchanted director Kevin Lima to direct the romantic comedy Frank from Radar Pictures. The story centers on a teenage prodigy who's on the cutting edge of cell research in medical school and is encouraged by her guidance counselor to take a break from the lab and make some friends. After several unsuccessful attempts at socializing with her peers, she decides to use her scientific prowess and piece together a friend out of the med school's instructional cadavers.

- Adam Sandler, Cher, Jon Favreau, Sylvester Stallone and Judd Apatow are set to voice the animals in MGM's live-action comedy The Zookeeper, that stars Kevin James and Rosario Dawson. According to Variety, Sandler's Happy Madison shingle is also a producer on the film. Sandler will voice a capuchin monkey, Cher a giraffe, Favreau a bear, Stallone a lion and Apatow an elephant. Jim Breuer, Faizon Love and Bas Rutten round out the voice cast. The film centers on zoo animals trying to teach the keeper their methods of dating and mating to help him win back the woman of his dreams. Frank Coraci is directing from a screenplay by Jay Scherick and David Ronn, James, Rock Reuben and Nick Bakay.

- Universal Pictures has picked up screen rights to Larry Doyle's novel Go Mutants!, with Imagine Entertainment head Brian Grazer to produce. According to MovieWeb, Doyle will write the script. Go Mutants! is a teen comedy/adventure set in a high school where all of the tropes from classic 1950s alien invasion movies came true. Years later, the children of those mutant creatures have assimilated among the other kids. Doyle said the book and movie invites cameos from '50s fright fixtures like Gort -- the robot from The Day the Earth Stood Still -- and the creature from the black lagoon.

- John Grisham's 1999 novel The Testament is finally set to become a film over at 821 Entertainment Group says Variety. In the novel, a billionaire defies his greedy relatives and leaves his $11 billion fortune to a mysterious illegitimate daughter doing charity work in the Brazilian wetlands. A down-and-out lawyer helps her battle her relatives over the fortune. Mark Johnson and Hunt Lowry ("A Time to Kill") will produce.

- The resurrected Scrubs will shift from the hospital to the classroom next season with John C. McGinley's Dr. Cox and Donald Faison's Turk becoming med-school professors. The characters will visit the Sacred Heart hospital and regulars like Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke, Judy Reyes and Ken Jenkins will put in guest appearances.

- Cher is poised to star opposite Christina Aguilera in Burlesque, a contemporary musical for Screen Gems that Steven Antin will direct from a script he wrote. Aguilera will play an ambitious small-town Iowa girl with a big voice who comes of age in a neo-burlesque club on Sunset Boulevard that's run by Tess (Cher), a former dancer who struggles to keep the club open and gives the young girl a chance to shine. Cher will sing onscreen. While her voice has been heard in many films, Burlesque will mark the first time she'll be seen singing in a film she stars in.

- Screenwriter David Leslie Johnson has been set to write the remake of the Australian horror suspense film Lake Mungo for Paramount Vantage. Vantage picked up rights to Lake Mungo in November, when it premiered at the American Film Market. The story revolves around the paranormal events that envelop a grieving family when their teenage daughter apparently dies. The original, written and directed by Joel Anderson, used a faux-documentary style to lay out the film's mystery, but the updated version will take a more traditional narrative approach.

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The Random - No Nolan on Batman 3? 9, Star Trek 2, Jurassic Park 4, Neverending Story, Bourne 4, Red Dawn, Sean Penn

Batman-On-Film have the news that Christopher Nolan still has yet to commit to a third Batman film, and at this point he still isn’t interested in making another installment in the Batman series. Who would be a good director to take his place?

Focus Features has launched a viral site at 9experiment.com for Shane Acker's 9.

SciFi Wire talked with the writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci recently about how they're planning to tackle the sequel to J J Abrams Star Trek. "I think the major lesson we learned is that fans were willing to accept differences and surprises, provided that they were somehow echoes or inspired by canon," Orci said in an exclusive interview earlier this month. He added: "We still have to be true to Star Trek the next time around, but we've also been blessed with being able to be unpredictable. And that doesn't mean we can just be shocking for no good reason and just throw everything away… It still has to echo everything that Star Trek has been."

Producer Frank Marshall talked with Coming Soon about the future of various projects and franchises he's involved in.

Bourne 4 "We'd like to shoot next year. It's trying to get everybody's schedules in the right place and getting the script right. We've done pretty well with these scripts that are pretty loosely put together, but I'd like the script to be really solid this time before we go forward. We're spending a lot of time on this story" says Marshall.

The Neverending Story - It sounds like the remake will be more faithful to the original book - "We love the book and we've always thought there was an opportunity (because) there were a lot of elements in the book that weren't in the movie. It's another one where we're still working on the rights and it's a huge thing to get it. Once we get it, we'll bring on a writer, but that's kind of off in the distance. But it's a great story."

Jurassic Park IV - It's still quite a long way away - "We just have to see if they can come up with a story. We don't have a story."

Marshall also is looking into an adaption of the New Yorker article The Last of the Metrozoids about art historian Kirk Vanedoe and his decision to coach a football team before he died of cancer shortly afterwards, and a film adaptation of Warren St. John's book "Outcasts United" about immigrants on a soccer team in Georgia.

Josh Peck (The Wackness, Special) and Adrianne Palicki have joined the cast of the remake of Red Dawn for MGM/UA says The Hollywood Reporter. The story follows a group of teenagers who form an impromptu insurgency when their town is invaded by Chinese and Russian soldiers. Peck will play Matt Eckert, the hotheaded younger brother of Jed Eckert (Chris Hemsworth - Star Trek, Thor) and star quarterback of their Spokane high school football team. Palicki will play Tonim a tough fighter the brothers encounter who develops romantic feelings for Jed, a Marine home on leave and the group's unofficial leader. John Milius directed the original 1984 Cold War-era actioneer, the new one will be handled by "The Bourne Ultimatum" and "Quantum of Solace" second-unit director Dan Bradley. Filming kicks off in September.

Sean Penn has dropped out of Universal's action movie Cartel as well as MGM's Three Stooges, according to several sources in Hollywood, including Hollywood Reporter and Deadline Hollywood. Word is that he's had private conversations where he's said that he doesn't want to work "right away" and wants to "regroup" and "just needs personal time."

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The Random - Primeval, Aronofsky/Portman, The Karate Kid, DiCaprio's Online Poker film, Honey Pot, Friday 13th, The Birds, Akira,

- British dinosaur-themed sci-fi series Primeval will not be returning for a fourth season reports Total Sci-Fi Online. The still popular show has fallen victim to substantial budget cuts at the fledgling ITV network in the UK which has seen other popular shows like crime procedural "Wire in the Blood" similarly get the axe before their time.

- Natalie Portman is attached to play the lead in Darren Aronofsky's supernatural thriller Black Swan says The Hollywood Reporter. Black Swan centers on a veteran ballerina (Portman) who finds herself locked in a competitive situation with a rival dancer, with the stakes and twists increasing as the dancers approach a big performance. But it's unclear whether the rival is a supernatural apparition or if the protagonist is simply having delusions. Mark Heyman has done a rewrite of John McLaughlin's original script for the film.

- Paramount Pictures has picked up an untitled film pitch about the world of Costa Rica-based online casinos for Leonardo DiCaprio to star in says the trades. Brian Koppelman and David Levien (Rounders, Ocean's Thirteen) came up with the idea which DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson Killoran will produce for his Appian Way production company.

- Paramount Pictures and Montecito Co. have picked up Liz Meriwether's action-comedy script Honey Pot says Variety. While the storyline is being kept top secret, the film will feature two female leads and be set in the world of international espionage.

- Steven Conrad ("The Pursuit of Happyness") has been hired to rewrite the remake of The Karate Kid for Sony Pictures says Risky Biz Blog. Conrad takes over for Chris Murphy who was originally hired to write the script of the reboot starring Jackie Chan, Jaden Smith and Taraji P. Henson.

- Talking with Movieweb producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form spilled on the progress of various Platinum Dunes projects.
First up, the sequel to this year's hit Friday the 13th remake. "We want to have fun. We want to present something that audiences haven't seen before. One of the things they haven't seen before is Jason in the snow" said Fuller.
The pair also admits that their planned remake of The Birds is still very much stuck in development - "We keep trying. I don't know. That is so hard to get the script right. We struggle with it. I won't have anything to say until the script is finished. We lay ourselves out there and get annihilated out there online all day long,and [The Birds] just opens us up to a whole different level of annihilation…it doesn’t feel like that’s up next for us.”

- The Leonardo DiCaprio-produced live-action adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo's classic 1988 anime feature Akira has been ditched according to Bloody Disgusting. The project was a two-part film that Warners and DiCaprio's Appian Way had been developing with Gary Whitta ("The Book of Eli") scripting and Ruairi Robinson directing. Now according to BD, who first broke the news of the project 18 months ago, not only has Robinson left the project but the overall project is "dead as a doornail" according to two sources.

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The Random - Bond 23, Inglourious Basterds, Ghostbusters 3, The Jetsons, In Praise of Shadows, Alien, Funhouse,

- UK Newspaper The Guardian speculates that the 23rd James Bond film will feature “the poppy fields and drug barons of Afghanistan.”

- Harvey Weinstein is attempting to get his hands on Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds and cut out 40 minutes of it, according to The Wrap.

- According to Harold Ramis through Coming Soon and HorrorMovies.ca, the Ghostbusters 3 is far from complete and no one has actually signed up to it. "I wrote the story for the new movie with them, and Dan and I've been consulting. We're just waiting to see a first draft and where we are...Everyone says they'll do it, they've all said they'll do it. No one has signed anything yet--we haven't signed anything either--but there's the spirit of willingness in the air."

- Robert Rodriguez tells MTV News that his live-action adaptation of classic sci-fi cartoon The Jetsons could go into production sooner than you think. "I've been developing [The Jetsons] for awhile," Rodriguez says and hopes to start shooting "next year" and confirmed the film will be live-action. Story wise "We're writing the script right now" says Rodriguez.

- James Franco has signed on to star in the indie drama In Praise of Shadows reports Variety. The drama tells the story of William Vincent (Franco), and recounts his eccentric and curious journey that brought him back to New York City after four years in exile to rescue the woman he loves from a crime syndicate.

- Sources at Fox tell EW that the studio is not interested in greenlighting an Alien prequel unless Ridley Scott himself directs.

- Eli Roth wants to remake Tobe Hooper's Funhouse. "It should be about the kids getting killed in horrible ways, put in different contraptions in the funhouse and the final girl being strapped into the ride and sent into the tunnels to be confronted by terrifying tableaux of her dead friends," Roth says. "A smart remake could be so much fun. Kill the kids in fabulous ways and continually reuse the bodies by making them freaks in the freak museum, sew their eyes shut, waxworks... That's the stuff I want to do in a remake of The Funhouse."

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The Random - Buffy, Last Airbender, District 9, The Hobbit, Saw, 1906, Iron Man 2, Heroes, Piranha 3D

- "I wouldn’t want to see it, no. The Kuzuis didn’t do a great job on the movie the first time around. It was Joss’ script at the age of 19, but they changed a lot of it. They said, ‘Look, we know best and we know how to make this movie,’ and it became quite schlocky and high camp" says Anthony Stewart Head on why he has no interest in the upcoming Buffy film franchise reboot - full details

- The first trailer for M Night Shymalan’s The Last Airbender, which will debut in theaters later his month, is set to hit online on June 24th according to producer Frank Marshall full details

- Peter Jackson will attend this year's San Diego Comic-Con to promote the Neill Blomkamp-directed District 9 - full details

- Dolph Lundgren says the budget for Sylvester Stallone's upcoming action team-up The Expendables is costing $70 million - full details

The DVD/Blu-ray of this weekend's Land of the Lost film will have 35 minutes of deleted scenes according to the director - full details

Tobin Bell says that Saw 8 is being conceived as the final chapter in the "Saw" series, however 'Final is a relative word. Especially in entertainment' - full details

Director Brad Bird ("The Incredibles," "Ratatouille") insists that "Lost," "Up" and "Star Trek" composer Micharl Giacchino score his next film, the live-action feature 1906 set in San Francisco and now in pre-production - full details

Mickey Rourke went to Russia, visit jails and has been training with a Russian language coach three hours a day for his role as Ton Stark's tattooed nemesis Whiplash in Iron Man 2. Rourke also says "I decided to do half my role in Russian - full details

Guillermo del Toro confirms that after a long selection process, the list of four potential contenders to play Bilbo Baggins in the upcoming The Hobbit film adaptation has been narrowed down to one and announcement is coming sometime in the next few weeks - full details

Ray Park ("Star Wars: Episode I," "X-Men") and Deanne Bray (TV's "The L Word") have joined the cast of NBC's Heroes next season. Park and Bray are set to be seen in multiple episodes - full details

STYD have news from the set of Alex Aja's Piranha 3-D that we thought you'd be interested in. According to our tipsters on set, Aja orchestrated a scene involving 500 extras being caught in a piranha feeding frenzy. "It was a bloodbath!" enthused one of their sources

Source: Dark Horizons

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The Random - Machete, Tintin, The B-Team, Hellraiser, Green Lantern, Maximum City, Beverley Hills Cop, Easy A, Wolfman Jack, Highlander,

- A script review is out for Robert Rodriguez's Machete spin-off feature film.

- Much like James Bond, Australian fans of Tintin will have to wait longer than everyone else as Spielberg's upcoming film version will be released on December 26th 2011, a week behind the US and well over a month behind Europe.

- Will Ferrell confirms his next project will be Adam McKay’s PG-13 buddy cop comedy The B-Team starring him and Mark Wahlberg as two desk cops, the latter finds the lack of action frustrating - full details

- Horror legend Clive Barker says that Pascal Laugier (Martyrs) will not be directing the remake of Barker's classic Hellraiser - full details

- Jaron Pitts, the man behind that cool fan made Green Lantern film trailer I recently posted, talks about the work to Popdose.

- Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle has acquired the film rights to Suketu Mehta’s 2004 book Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found which Boyle said was a big influence on him while filming the Best Picture winner - full details

- Screenwriter Derek Haas on writing Beverly Hills Cop 4: “Like with the first Beverly Hills Cop, we’re writing a straight up action movie that works as a police thriller, then Eddie Murphy is going to come in later and point out where he thinks he can riff. We haven’t gotten to that point yet.”

- Lisa Kudrow, Alyson Machalka, Thomas Haden Church, Patricia Clarkson, Stanley Tucci, Penn Badgley, Cam Gigandet, Malcolm McDowell and Daniel Bird have joined Emma Stone and Amanda Bynes in the Will Gluck-directed comedy Easy A.

- Dan Fogler (Fanboys, Balls of Fury) talks about a film loosely based on the exploits of legendary 70s radio D.J, Wolfman Jack. “It’s a tall tale - though instead of Paul Bunyon, it’s Wolfman Jack”, says Fogler, who’d play the lead. “The movie starts out like a traditional biopic, but then it turns into a spaghetti western! What happens is – and they’ll kill me for revealing this – near the end, James Brown teams up with Wolfman Jack to fight off Mexicans!"

- The script review for the Highlander remake is out. It doesn't sound too good - "they change a few things, including the ending, but mostly this is the same story with the same characters that we remember from the original. It isn't so much that the screenwriters (Art Marcum & Matt Holloway) are telling a different story, but that they are telling the same story in the wrong way - while all of the major characters from the original are included in the remake mostly as they were, they've been changed in seemingly minor, but truly significant ways that render them all lesser characters. "

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The Random - Sucker Punch, The Surrogate, Swift, Caught in the Crossfire, The Runaways, Your Highness,

- When asked about Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch, which stars Vanessa Hudgens as a supporting character named Blondie, Zac Efron admitted he wants in, too. "I think it's an all-girl movie," he told E! Online.

- Halle Berry is in talks to star in the thriller The Surrogate for 20th Century Fox says The Hollywood Reporter. Based on the 2004 book by Kathryn Mackel, the story centers on a couple desperate to have a child who find themselves in an unbearable position when they find out the surrogate they hired to carry their baby is insane. Berry would play the wife who wants to have the child and the studio is apparently keen to have her involved but no formal arrangements or meetings have yet been made.

- Sony Pictures has picked up Swift, a script described as a reimagining of the Tom Swift adventure novels says Variety. This new version would feature Swift as one-half of a father-son team who are among the greatest inventors of all time. The character first appeared in a series of books that launched in 1910. Barry Sonnenfeld will direct.

- Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson has joined the cast of the police corruption drama Caught in the Crossfire says Variety. The drama concerns two homicide detectives who find themselves caught in the crossfire of a gang-related homicide and a group of dirty cops. Jackson plays a gang-banger who becomes a reluctant informant. Chris Klein, Adam Rodriguez and Richard T. Jones also star.

- Michael Shannon ("Revolutionary Road," "Bug") is in negotiations for a lead male role in The Runaways for River Road says The Hollywood Reporter. Kristen Stewart will play Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning is on board to play bandmate Cherie Curry in the bioic of the short-lived but highly influential all-female 1970's rock band.

- Natalie Portman has joined the cast of the comedy Your Highness for Universal Pictures reports Variety. Danny McBride ("Tropic Thunder," "Land of the Lost"), who wrote the script with Ben Best, plays an arrogant lazy prince who with his brother (James Franco) must complete a quest to save the kingdom and his brother's fiance. Portman will play a warrior princess that the lazy prince falls in love with.

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The Random - Tintin, Star Trek, Hung, Sex & The City 2, A Couple of Dicks, Gulliver's Travels, Creature from the Black Lagoon

- Paramount Pictures and Sony Pictures Entertainment today announced their release plans for the long awaited 3-D motion capture feature film The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by Spielberg, Peter Jackson, and Kathleen Kennedy. The highly anticipated film will be released by Paramount in the U.S. on December 23, 2011. The film will launch internationally in late October and early November, 2011 with Sony Pictures Releasing International handling Continental Europe, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and India, and Paramount distributing the film in Asia, Australia, UK and all other English speaking territories.

- James Clyne, one of the concept artists on the recent film release of Star Trek, has put up some sketches of his work for the film on his official site.

- Hung, HBO's new series starring Thomas Jane as a divorced dad with a huge penis who decides to get into porn, kicks off its ten-episode first season run on June 28th at 10pm ET/PT.

- The Sex and the City sequel is scheduled to begin a two-month shoot in New York City on August 19th, with two weeks filming in London - full details

- Ana de la Reguera ("Nacho Libre") has joined the cast of Kevin Smith’s A Couple of Dicks as the third major lead. Reguera plays a Mexican beauty named Gabriela, who is rescued by two veteran LAPD detectives (Bruce Willis & Tracy Morgan) and might hold the key to millions in laundered drug money - full details

- "The IT Crowd" star Chris O'Dowd talks to Suicide Girls a little about his Gulliver's Travels role.

- "We're about halfway through. Most of my stuff is still left. I've done a couple of scenes" says Dolph Lundgren this week about his work on The Expendables - full details

- Breck Eisner has dropped out of directing Universal's 'Creature from the Black Lagoon' remake. As of right now the re-imagining is being penned and produced by Gary Ross, whose father wrote the original - full details

Source: Dark Horizons

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The Random - Roadkill, Alien remake, Paul, Wichita, Castlevania, Tomb Raider, Al Pacino as Dr Death, Barney's Version, The Breed

- John Stockwell has signed to direct the action comedy Roadkill, written by Nick Ball and John Niven. Bill Perkins is producing and financing the indie via his Lleju Prods."Roadkill" revolves around two amateur private detectives who take on more than they anticipated when they agree to protect a high-end escort being pursued by a female assassin. While on the run, they discover what could be a government conspiracy.

- According to Bloody-Disgusting, Fox is developing a new origin story for the 1979 sci-fi classic, Alien. The site had originally reported that the project was going to be a straight-up remake of the film, but shortly thereafter the story was updated with information that another source indicated the new project was going to be an origin story and not a remake.The site was reporting that Michael Costigan, Tony Scott and his brother Ridley Scott, who directed the 1979 film, are all attached to produce, with Carl Rinsch set to direct.

- Seth Rogen, Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader and Jane Lynch are joining the cast of Paul. Starring in the Paul are Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead) and Nick Frost. The film will be directed by Greg Mottola (Superbad). The script, which was written by Frost and Pegg, follows two sci-fi lovers who find their "conspiracy dreams" coming to fruition when they visit an escaped alien at Area 51. Seth Rogen will be voicing the alien.

- According to Variety, Tom Cruise will most likely do the 20th Century Fox action comedy Wichita as his next film. He will star with Cameron Diaz in this movie that will be directed by James Mangold (Walk the Line). Fox hopes to release the film in the summer of 2010. Mangold is presently rewriting the screenplay with Laeta Kalogridis (Shutter Island). The story follows a secret agent (Cruise) who finds himself coming into and out of the life of a single woman.

The long-gestating film adaptation of the Castlevania video game is not happening says Bloody Disgusting. Paul W.S. Anderson and Ian Jeffers were writing the adaptation that originally had Sylvain White attached to direct. While the film had been out to other directors in recent months, the project has now officially been shelved for now.

Producer Dan Lin talked briefly about the upcoming reboot of the Tomb Raider film franchise to About.com "It's a great origin story that we're going to tell. A very character-oriented story. I would say more realistic than the past Lara Croft movies...I would say it's like Terminator - character-driven action. I think for me the Lara Croft games and movies have gone a little too action-oriented. I wanted to have action, but with character" says Lin.
So they are going back to the beginning like "Batman Begins" or "Casino Royale" in order to try and re-establish the brand. Rumour has it Megan Fox was up for the role of Lara Croft.

Al Pacino is in negotiations to star in the Jack Kevorkian biopic "You Don't Know Jack" says The Hollywood Reporter. Kevorkian, also known as Dr. Death, assisted in more than 150 cases of suicide and had beaten the state court system in Michigan numerous times, but was finally convicted after he willingly sent a videotape of himself euthanizing a terminally ill man to "60 Minutes." He was convicted of second-degree murder in 1999 and is serving his sentence in a maximum-security prison in Michigan. The film will trace his rise as he builds his infamous "Mercy Machine," conducts his first assisted suicide, and starts a media frenzy with his epic legal battles defending a patient's right to die. Barry Levinson is set to direct the film.

Dustin Hoffman will star alongside Paul Giamatti in the indie drama Barney's Version reports Variety. Hoffman will play a retired cop and father of the story's title character -- who has led a reckless life highlighted by three marriages, two children and status as a "person of interest" in the mysterious disappearance of his friend.

Arrow in the Head have the news that Jean Claude Van Damme is joining a horror film called The Breed. Van Damme said that "it's set in a village where strange things happen," but he wouldn't say anymore, "you know, let the movie speak for itself!"

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The Random - Welcome to Hoxford, The Ushers, Martin Luther King Jr, The Irishman, Legend of the Magic Bell, Last Warrior, A Very Private Gentleman

- Comic book creator, Ben Templsmith, talks about who he would like to star in the Welcome to Hoxford adaption. “I always saw someone like Katee Sackhoff [Starbuck in "Battlestar Galatica"] as Dr. Ainley or, in my dreams, Winona Ryder,” Templesmith told MTV News. “The main delusional character obviously has a bit of a Riddick vibe, and I do love Vin Diesel’s voice, but really I have no idea on him. I would say Lance Henrikson would make an awesome leader of the wolf pack.”

- Green Knight Ventures is planning a 3D contemporary adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's classic novel "The Fall of the House of Usher" says The Hollywood Reporter. Poe's 1839 tale tells of the mysterious goings-on in the house of Roderick Usher, who has recently buried a sister whose presence still haunts the house. The Ushers, will look at a grown brother and sister who have lived in the same Martha's Vineyard house for a long time but begin to feel trapped there, and who then bring in a real-estate broker to help them resolve their crisis. Claire Forlani, Dougray Scott and Rufus Sewell star in the film which Stephen Kay is attached to direct.

- DreamWorks has landed life rights to Martin Luther King Jr. and is already developing a biopic about the famed civil rights leader reports Variety. The aim is to create a "definitive portrait of his life" that will probably cover everything through to his assassination in 1968 in Memphis.

- Vincent D'Onofrio and Vinnie Jones have joined the cast of Jonathan Hensleigh's The Irishman says The Hollywood Reporter. Ray Stevenson, Christopher Walken and Val Kilmer star in the story of real-life mobster Danny Greene. Hensleigh and Jeremy Walters penned the screenplay based on Rick Porrello's book. Linda Cardellini, Fionnula Flanagan, Bob Gunton, Laura Ramsey, Steve Schirripa and Paul Sorvino have also joined the cast.

- Terence Chang and John Woo’s Lion Rock Productions are set to produce the $30 million budgeted 3D fantasy epic Legend of The Magic Bell reports Screen Daily. Based on a Chinese classic, the film tells the story of a warrior (Renee Yuan) who falls in love with a beautiful demoness but is forced to transform her into stone in order to save humanity. Their paths cross again 5000 years later when the warrior has been reincarnated as a demon hunter.

- Cuba Gooding Jr and Olivier Martinez and are in final negotiations to star in the $15 million post-apocalyptic action film The Last Warrior for Hannibal Pictures says Screen Daily.
John Eyres penned and will direct the story set in the not-too-distant future. It sees the head of security at a war-mongering corporate go after a rogue soldier who has been genetically enhanced.

- George Clooney is set to star in A Very Private Gentleman Focus Features says Variety.
Based on the Martin Booth novel, Clooney will play an assassin who hides out in an idyllic Italian town before carrying out a final assignment. He resists his usual aversion to human interaction, and his friendships and romantic entanglements complicate his mission

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The Random - Hannibal Lector, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Chow Yun-Fat, Piranha 3D, Lindsay Lohan, Steve Wiebe, Star Trek, Spider-Man 4, Killer Elite

- Universal has apparantly confirmed that a new Hannibal Lector film will be made, with the Oscar-winning actor and director Ridley Scott both on board, according to Digital Spy. "As far as we know, [this project] is alive," a Universal spokeswoman said. "Anthony Hopkins and Ridley Scott are both very committed. We like what we've got, and the revised script is really, really good."

- Monica Bellucci has joined the cast of The Sorcerer's Apprentice for Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Productions reports Variety. The story revolves around a sorcerer who recruits and trains a young protege to help him fight the forces of darkness in modern-day Manhattan. Bellucci will play Veronica, a sorceress and the long-lost love of Nicolas Cage's character, Balthazar Blake. Jay Baruchel, Alfred Molina, Teresa Palmer and Toby Kebbell also star.

- Twitch have new photos of Chow Yun-Fat as the ancient philosopher in the upcoming biopic Confucius.

- Christopher Lloyd has joined the cast of Piranha 3D according to Bloodydisgusting.

- Lindsay Lohan another job. She will star in the indie fantasy comedy The Other Side alongside Woody Harrelson, Giovanni Ribisi, Dave Matthews and Alanis Morissette. That's what Variety have to say about it.

- Stride Gum has offered King of Kong star Steve Wiebe $10,001 in quarters if he can beat the King Kong record at E3 - PRN

- George Lucas gives Vulture his brief review of Star Trek: “I liked Star Trek growing up and I’ve seen the new one. It’s good. I liked it.”

- Spider-Man 4 will film a small portion of the movie at Dundalk, Ireland’s massive wind turbine - dundalkdemocrat

- Jason Statham will star in the $40 million action thriller The Killer Elite reports Variety. Based on real events and Ranulph Fiennes' best-selling novel "The Featherman", the story follows a group of former British special forces members who are being hunted by assassins.Statham will play a former Navy Seal who is forced out of retirement to save his closest friend.

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The Random - Van Damme & Vinnie Jones, Flow My Tears, Rachel Weisz, Takashi Miike, Kevin Spacey, Nicole Kidman, The Secret, The Gunslinger

- Jean Claude Van Damme and Vinnie Jones will play rival assassins in the action thriller Weapon for Flagship Films reports the trades. Jones will play a master sharpshooter while Van Damme's character is skilled with a knife. The two join forces to take down the head of a drug cartel who is backed by the DEA. Russell Mulcahy will direct

- The Halcyon Company (Terminator Salvation) picked up first-look rights to sci-fi author Philip K. Dick's estate in 2007. Now they've selected Dick's Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said as the first of his works they intend to turn into a feature film says The Hollywood Reporter. Set in a futuristic, dystopian world, "Tears" is the tale of a celebrity who wakes up after an assassination attempt to find no one has ever heard of him.

- Rachel Weisz is loosely attached to play MGM icon Hedy Lamarr in Amy Redford's indie feature Face Value says The Hollywood Reporter. The Austrian-American actress garnered fame in the 1940s and was most famous for playing Delilah in Cecil B. DeMille's "Samson and Delilah." In real life she was also an accomplished scientist who helped create a method of changing frequencies, a forerunner to modern wireless communications.

- Hanway Films will handle international sales on Takashi Miike's samurai pic Thirteen Assassins reports Variety. Based on Eiichi Kudo's 1963 film and set in the shogun era, the story follows thirteen assassins who come together for a suicide mission to kill an evil lord.

- Kevin Spacey has signed on to portray Jack Abramoff in the biopic Casino Jack reports Variety. Abramoff was a high-powered lobbyist whose bribery schemes and fraudulent dealings with Indian casinos ultimately landed him in prison.

- Nicole Kidman will no longer be involved in Woody Allen's latest untitled project reports Variety. Antonio Banderas, Anthony Hopkins, Josh Brolin, Naomi Watts and Freida Pinto co-star in the London-set project and plot details are unknown.

- Universal Pictures is set to adapt Mike Richardson's graphic novel The Secret into a major feature film reports Variety. The Dark Horse comic revolved around a group of high school students involved in a prank that goes horribly wrong, but puts a spin on the teen horror thriller.

- Warner Bros. Pictures has landed John Hlavin's revenge thriller spec script The Gunslinger says The Hollywood Reporter. "Gunslinger" follows an ex-Texas Ranger who will stop at nothing to find and punish the men who killed his brother and rescue his nephew.
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The Random - Toy Story 3D, Inglourious Basterd, The Losers, Fantastic Mr Fox, Cemetery Junction, The Big Bang, Conan, Fast & Furious, Station,

- Disney’s 3D versions of Pixar’s Toy Story and Toy Story 2 will premiere at the 66th annual Venice Film Festival. The films will surround the Golden Lion award ceremony at the Palazzo del Cinema at Venice Lido, where the Venice Film Festival will give lifetime achievement awards to the Pixar aniamtors.

- NY Times have a big feature on Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds that has this interesting piece of news - "Not to mention a shelved subplot about African-American soldiers stuck behind enemy lines. 'I have a half-written prequel ready to go if this movie's a smash,' he said."

- Wes Anderson’s animated adaptation of Fantastic Mr. Fox will be released under Fox’s Fox Searchlight “indie”-focused label. The film is currently scheduled to hit theaters on November 13th in the States, but on October 22nd/23rd in UK and Russia.

- Jason Patric (The Lost Boys, Narc) may be the bad guy in the comic book adaption of The Losers. The good guys currently consist of Jeffrey Dean Morgan as the team leader, Zoe Saldana, Iris Elba and Columbus Short.

- Matthew Goode ("Brideshead Revisited," "Watchmen") has joined the cast of the dramedy Cemetery Junction for Sony Pictures says The Hollywood Reporter. "Cemetery" takes a period look at a group of twenty-something men working at the Prudential insurance company in the 1970's and their relationships with each other as well as the women in their lives. Goode will play Mike, a go-getter dating his boss' daughter. Ralph Fiennes, Felicity Jones, Christian Cooke, Tom Hughes, Jack Doolan and Ricky Gervais star.

- Antonio Banderas will star in the neo-noir detective thriller The Big Bang for says Variety.
Banderas stars as an L.A. private detective who's hired to find a missing stripper. The trail leads to the New Mexico desert. There the private eye finds a trail of bodies and contends with a brutal Russian boxer, three LAPD detectives and an aging billionaire looking to perfect the nuclear physics equivalent of the Big Bang.

- James McTeigue ("V for Vendetta," "Ninja Assassin") is tipped to be helming the upcoming Conan the Barbarian reboot film for Nu-Image/Millenium as Brett Ratner has left the project.

- Fast and Furious screenwriter Chris Morgan tells MTV News that all the talk of another sequel is not just true, but things are moving quickly. "It seems like there will definitely be another one. I just got out of a lunch with Universal, just pitching the story around. We were figuring out if we do another one, and what it would be. It has to come from the characters, so where are these characters after this film - what are they doing?" says Morgan.

- CBS Films has acquired screen rights to Johanna Stokes's comic book mini-series Station reports Variety. In the miniseries, five nations have sent their finest astronauts to operate Earth's first multinational space station, but when one turns up dead, the remaining personnel race against time to discover if it was sabotage, an accident or murder.

- Vin Diesel, director John Singleton and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura are teaming for a film adaptation of the video game The Wheelman for Paramount Pictures reports Variety.
Diesel produced, voiced and had his likeness used in the game about an expert driver who comes out of retirement to protect a woman from his past.


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The Random - Funny People, Vinnie Jones and Howard Chaykin, Little Fockers, Iron Man 2, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Dr Who, Love Child,

- Video of a young 20-something Adam Sandler making prank phone calls that was shot by his then roommate Judd Apatow will kick off the pair's upcoming comedy Funny People... full details

- Vinnie Jones and Howard Chaykin are teaming for a spy action drama, starring Jones, that is eyed as a U.K.-Canada co-production... full details

- Raven Symone is rumored to be up for the role of the Focker's babysitter in the upcoming third film in the series Little Fockers... full details

- Jon Favreau has confirmed that 'Mad Men' actor John Slattery has a role in the upcoming Iron Man sequel... full details

- Clancy Brown has joined the cast of Platinum Dune's upcoming A Nightmare on Elm Street remake. He will be playing a character named Allan... full details

- Claire Bloom is said to be filming a part for the upcoming Doctor Who specials featuring David Tennant's final stint in the role... full details

- Donald Sutherland, Rossif Sutherland, Rebecca Romijn and Sarah Roemer have joined the romantic comedy Love Child for Myriad Pictures and Alcina Pictures says Variety. The story centers on an ex-con on parole who finds his plan to go straight is thwarted by a loan shark, who reminds him of a hefty debt he has to repay.

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The Random - Predators, Christopher Lee, Nazi Zombies vs Jesus, Burlesque, 20000 Leagues Under the Sea, Iron Man 2, Primeval, Tron 2, Dazed & Confused

- According to Bloody Disgusting the Robert Rodriguez produced Predators reboot/sequel is being written by Alex Litvak (co-author of the recently sold Medieval). It is also due out on 9th July 2010.

- Christopher Lee is returning to Hammer Horror, according to Filmstalker, with a film called The Resident a.k.a. Invasion of Privacy. He's set to star alongside Hilary Swank and Jeffrey Dean Morgan and it is written and directed by Antti Jokinen. A doctor suspects that she may not actually be alone in her new apartment, a converted loft in Brooklyn, and it seems that her landlord has a wholly unhealthy obsession with her.

- Pop singer Christina Aguilera has been cast in her first feature film titled Burlesque in development at Screen Gems. The film is a contemporary musical where Aguilera will play an ambitious smalltown girl with a big voice who finds love, family and success in a Los Angeles neo-burlesque club. Burlesque is being pitched as Moulin Rouge meets Cabaret, using established songs that will be updated and worked into dance numbers. Former actor Steve Antin will also be making this his feature directorial debut.

- SciFi Wire talked with McG today and got confirmation that Dwayne Johnson is not involved in 20000 Leagues Under the Sea. "I've never spoken to Dwayne Johnson. You can be the first to report that I have no idea where that came from. I wish him every success, but I never spoke to Dwayne about this," McG said. He still claims he's going after Will Smith for the lead role.

- The Daily Mail, Paltrow has been getting in shape for a “risque scene” alongside leading man Robert Downey Jr. “Iron Man imagines Pepper in a dominatrix outfit,” a source tells the news outlet. “Gwyneth had to be filmed in a very revealing black leather corset complete with a bullwhip.”

- Despite rumors of its cancellation, ITV dinosaur-themed action series Primeval will return for a fourth season "provided ratings remain strong" says producer Adrian Hodges. "As of this moment no final decision has been taken - as we knew it wouldn't be - but we are very confident about the future of the show. ITV always said they would look at the recommission at some point towards the end of the run or later and that remains absolutely the position" said Hodges to Total Sci-Fi Online. The show is also being developed as a major feature film says Digital Spy. No word on who is involved just yet.

- Comments from British actor Michael Sheen on Twitter have revealed that he's playing a non-human villain in a secret project currently shooting in Vancouver and that he's 'Personally very happy to see so many Tron fans' indicating he's likely starring in the currently filming sequel ... full details.

- Stephen Fry let slip last week that filmmakers are coming up with ideas to use a fully constructed set of Jerusalem currently sitting dormant in New Zealand and Peter Jackson has come up with an idea in which Nazi zombies go back in time to stop Jesus from being born. Jackson’s manager denies the report saying he's committed to 'The Hobbit' films for now... (full details.

- Matthew McConaughey says that he'd be up for doing a Dazed and Confused sequel but director Richard Linklater has to "pick the right way to do it"... full details

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The Random - Lobo, Tribes of October, Help Me Spread Goodness, The Pale Horsemen,

- Latino Review have put together a video rundown of the latest Lobo script. Will the main man's big screen adaption be any good?

- Cinepro Pictures has announced a cast for their upcoming post-apocalyptic thriller Tribes of October. Philippe Martinez, who is better known as a producer more than a director even though he's got three small films under his belt, will be directing. Martinez's cast includes Ray Stevenson, Jaime King, Stephen Moyer, Robert Duvall and James Caan. The production, budgeted at a fairly low $25 million, is eying a summer start in Michigan, and will be shot using green screen to create a unique look and distinct universe. Tribes of October is set in a future in which New York has become surrounded by an endless desert plagued by heat storms, and the city's technology has decayed so much that nothing made after 1960 works. In this environment, a detective (Ray Stevenson) is on the hunt for a Mafia don (James Caan) who is going after the remnants of the NYPD, led by Robert Duvall. Stevenson's detective character is simultaneously searching for the love of his life (Jaime King). Stephen Moyer plays another cynical and street smart detective

- Ben Stiller will be taking on quite a challenge. The actor/filmmaker is set to direct a project called Help Me Spread Goodness for Participant Media, a production company that has a mandate that says their films must compel social change. Help Me Spread Goodness, written by Mark Friedman, is about a Chicago banker who gets swindled in a Nigerian Internet scam. It's described as a drama with comic overtones.

- Underworld franchise co-creator Kevin Grevioux will finally be making his directing debut with an adaptation of his own comic, The Pale Horsemen. The yet-to-be-published graphic novel is described as a modern day supernatural thriller that revolves around a gang of NSA sponsored hitmen who are forced to work together to uncover who killed their mentor.

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