#573. Movie Buzz

1. Transformers bags a ton of change with US$60m opening day
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen scored a huge first day take of US$60.6mil (about RM220mil) on Wednesday, the second highest opening day ever after The Dark Knight's US$67.2mil (RM242mil) last July.Poor critical reception doesn't seem to have dampened the fans' enthusiasm for the sequel.After this weekend's anticipated fan frenzy, it is expected to come close to, if not match, The Dark Knight's five-day US$203mil (about RM730mil) haul last Summer.

2. Dark Knight wins big at Saturn Awards
The 35th Annual Saturn Awards, presented by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, saw The Dark Knight cleaning up with five honours.Sci Fi Wire reports that the Batman epic won Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film, Best Writing, Best Supporting Actor (Heath Ledger), Best Music and Best Special Effects.Best Fantasy Film was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button while Iron Man picked up the statuette for Best Science Fiction Film.Battlestar Galactica won three in the TV category: Actor (Edward James Olmos), Actress (Mary McDonnell) and Syndicated/Cable TV Series.Leonard Nimoy picked up the Lifetime Achievement Award. Come on, you all know it wasn't just for In Search Of ...

3. Early Avatar footage causes a sensation
James Cameron screened some footage from his highly-anticipated 3D CGI epic Avatar, due out at the end of this year, at the recent CinemaExpo International in Amsterdam.
According to Dark Horizons, the response was almost unanimously overwhelming, with attendees giving it a standing ovation.It seems the footage was so realistic that even alien creatures and landscapes seemed utterly believable.Can we believe the hype? Heck, why not - it's better than sitting around waiting for the world to end, that's for sure.

4. Oscars to double Best Picture nominees
And that means we'll have nine losers instead of four! Well, it seems that in keeping with the practice of critics, critics circles and circular critics issuing Top 10 lists of movies, the Oscars are going to expand the Best Picture nominee field to 10 from the current five.The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said in a statement reported on the LA Times' The Envelope site that it was returning to the days of yore when Best Picture nominees could stretch up to that number.The first 16 years of the Oscars saw at least 10 films competing. The final year of this practice, 1943, saw Casablanca walking into the misty night with the statuette.Academy president Sidney Ganis said in its statement: "Having 10 Best Picture nominees is going allow Academy voters to recognise and include some of the fantastic movies that often show up in the other Oscar categories, but have been squeezed out of the race for the top prize."

5. Life As We Know It to change for Heigl
Grey's Anatomy star Katherine Heigl (who's sticking with the hit show after earlier reports had her being written out) will headline the drama Life As We Know It.Yahoo! Movies says the drama tells the story of two single people who suddenly become the guardians of an orphaned girl after her parents, mutual best friends to both parties, are killed in an accident.Heigl adds what sounds like a meaty role to an already solid film portfolio that includes the 2007 comedy Knocked Up, 27 Dresses, and the upcoming The Ugly Truth in which she co-stars with Gerard Butler.Life will be directed for Warner Bros by Everwood creator Greg Berlanti, although no start date has been set.

6. Daniel Craig to get shaken ... and stirred?
Current James Bond Daniel Craig is reported to be in early talks to star in Dream House, a psychological thriller to be directed by Irish filmmaker Jim Sheridan (In America, My Left Foot) for indie producer Morgan Creek, Yahoo! Movies reported.Reps stress, however, that the two sides have not reached a deal.The David Loucka script sees a man (Craig) who moves his family to an idyllic small town, only to find his house haunted by its former inhabitants, who were murdered there.Working with a pedigreed director like Sheridan could help establish Craig as a more prestigious actor post-Quantum of Solace while keeping him in the realm of the commercial.Like other Bond actors, Craig has faced a crossroads coming off 007 hits.His recent role in Defiance, for example, essentially saw Craig taking on a more art house version of the Bond character of hit man and vigilante - as did his earlier turn in the Steven Spielberg revenge drama Munich.

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#571. Movie Buzz

1. Zookeeper adds more star power
Live-action funfest The Zookeeper from MGM Films has added more star power to its already formidable stable at hand, Dark Horizons reports.Adam Sandler, Cher, Jon Favreau, Sylvester Stallone and Judd Apatow will provide voices for the animals in the comedy.The film revolves around zoo animals trying to teach the keeper their methods of dating and mating to help him win back the woman of his dreams.Sandler, Cher, Favreau, Stallone and Apatow (who will voice a capuchin monkey, a giraffe, a bear, a lion and an elephant respectively) will join a stellar cast that already includes Kevin James, Rosario Dawson, Jim Breuer, Faizon Love and Bas Rutten.Frank Coraci (Click, The Wedding Singer) is directing from a screenplay by Jay Scherick, David Ronn, Kevin James, Rock Reuben and Nick Bakay. Shooting is set to start later this summer.

2. Vacancy helmer to tackle Predators
Nimrod Antal, the Hungarian director who advertised a Vacancy to Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale in that 2007 horror-thriller, is set to direct the next Predator movie, entitled Predators.Latino Review reported that Antal was picked to direct what is hoped to be a franchise relaunch, scripted by relatively new writer Alex Litvak from a treatment by Robert Rodriguez. Yep, that Desperado and Sin City guy. Rodriguez is also producing the movie.Antal's next release will be Armored later this year. The action thriller starring Matt Dillon, Laurence Fishburne and Columbus Short is about an armoured truck security guard who is pressured by his colleagues into aiding and abetting them in a robbery of one of their own vehicles.

3. Fincher to film Facebook saga?
David Fincher (Se7en, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) is in talks to direct the story of how social networking giant Facebook was founded.Variety reports that the director is in "advanced talks" with Columbia Pictures to film the Aaron Sorkin-scripted The Social Network.The movie will deal with Facebook's phenomenal growth from its humble 2004 beginnings when it was set up by Harvard sophomore Mark Zuckerberg.The trade paper said the studio hopes to get the project going before the year is out.

4. Go Mutants! Those 50s' monsters and aliens are back
Although it won't be a sequel to the 1950s-inspired Monsters vs Aliens.We're talking Go Mutants!, which Universal has just optioned for a movie, from the upcoming novel by Larry Doyle (I Love You, Beth Coooper).According to Variety, the story is set in a world where many of the 1950s alien invasions and monster attacks were true! The children of these ETs and creatures have now somehow infiltrated human society and "blended in".Doyle told Variety the story will include appearances by such 1950s staples as Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still and The Creature from the Black Lagoon.Oh yeah, if there was any doubt about the genre of Go Mutants!, it's a teen-level adventure comedy.

5. Don't say it, Hissss it
Jennifer Lynch, daughter of David, hasn't been in the limelight much since her cult movie directing debut Boxing Helena in 1993.Now, she's set to make her mark with a movie that looks visually striking, and at the same time pretty unsettling - if not downright disturbing.Hissss is the title of this fantasy/horror project currently in post-production. We've seen the trailer (check out the link below) and it looks pretty darn intriguing - not to mention gory and creepy.ShockTillYouDrop.com has the details, and Lynch told the site that "it's going to pretty outrageous."The movie stars Mallika Sherawat (we like it already!) as the Nagin, a legendary creature capable of turning from woman to snake.Slumdog Millionaire's brutal yet sympathetic police inspector Irrfan Khan is also in the movie.The trailer resembles not just a slick horror movie but in parts, it bears the look of one of those 70s/80s cannibal apocalypse movies.You know, the kind you insisted on watching in the cinema and then spent the next 20 years trying to burn the images out of your head.OK, we're sold, and we can't bloody wait.
Surfing: http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=10499

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#569. Movie Buzz

1. You can run, but you can't hide in Zombieland
Sony Pictures has just put out the trailer for its upcoming horror comedy Zombieland, due out in October (check it out at the link below).The movie stars Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg as two survivors of a zombie apocalypse who now travel the ravaged countryside trying to stay alive and kick as much undead @$$ as possible.Also appearing in this one are Amber Heard, Abigail Breslin and Bill Murray. Sounds like juicy fun? Check out the "Zombie Kill of the Week" Contest!
Surfing: http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/zombieland/

2. Brody, Whitaker and Wood re-enact Das Experiment
Adrien Brody, Forest Whitaker and Elijah Wood are set to star in the remake of the German thriller Das Experiment, Variety reports.The remake will be directed by Paul Scheuring (creator of Prison Break) from an adapted screenplay which he wrote.The original, directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, was about a group of average guys recruited to be prison guards AND prisoners in an experiment to see how the "guinea pigs" are affected by power, roles and control.Brody will play the prisoner "leader" while Whitaker is a guard whose assigned power corrupts him.Filming is set to begin in July.

3. Heard and Panabaker check into Carpenter's Ward
Amber Heard (The Stepfather) and Danielle Panabaker (the Friday the 13th remake) have checked in to horror maestro John Carpenter's The Ward, now in pre-production for a 2010 release.The Hollywood Reporter says Heard will play a new patient at a psychiatric ward who encounters a mysterious girl haunting its corridors at night.Panabaker will play one of her fellow patients, a snobbish sort whose escapades have made her a prime candidate for electroshock therapy.This is Carpenter's first film since 2001's Ghosts of Mars and his first directing work since a 2006 episode of Masters of Horror.

4. We ... belong ... remade: a new Bride of Frankenstein is coming
Universal is developing a remake of a classic from its, er, classic movie monster era - The Bride of Frankenstein.The Risky Biz Blog reports that the studio is working with Imagine on the project, which will be directed and co-written by Neil Burger (The Illusionist - yeah, that period piece where Ed Norton scammed Rufus Sewell).The original Bride starred Boris Karloff and Elsa Lanchester as the Monster and his Bride, and is best known for that classic moment when the former, heartbroken by the latter's revulsion of him, told her "We ... belong ... dead" right before she destroyed them both.

5. Michael Sheen to play Blofeld?
Michael Sheen (The Queen, Frost/Nixon) is in negotiations to play classic James Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, The Guardian newspaper reports.While the rebooted 007 (Daniel Craig) has tangled with a shadowy organization known as Quantum in his first two outings, not much is known about the agency or its real leaders.If Blofeld is being considered as a choice of villain in what was originally said to be a trilogy, then it could well be that Quantum has replaced the old SPECTRE in the Bond Rogues' Gallery.In the earlier films, SPECTRE (SPecial Executor for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) was the big bad enemy agency, and Blofeld was its head.He finally showed his face in You Only Live Twice, where he was played by Donald Pleasence as a cultured, cat-loving gentleman with a monocle and a scar.Other actors who have played the role include Charles Gray and Telly Savalas. Blofeld was last seen being dropped down a factory chimney in the pre-credit sequence of For Your Eyes Only.Besides being a thorn in 007's side, Blofeld also murdered his wife Tracy (Diana Rigg) in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

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#567. Movie Buzz

1. Trek's regained fame is not pie in the sky
At least according to a nifty pie chart published on Sci Fi Wire (check out the link below).In a recent item, the sci-fi-themed news service cites several reasons why Star Trek is hot again - not the least of which is the fact that it's 2009's highest-grossing movie Stateside to date (at least until Transformers: ROTF opens).Among the reasons: It was featured in the MTV Movie Awards opening sketch (2%), it made it to the satirical "news" website The Onion (12%), President Obama loves it (15%) and most of all, because it's actually good (50%).Check it out ....
Surfing: http://scifiwire.com/2009/06/9-reasons-star-trek-is-no.php#more

2. Coming - a movie about online gambling
Paramount has picked up an untitled pitch from Brian Koppelman and David Levien (Rounders, Ocean's Thirteen) that takes place in the world of Costa Rica-based online casinos.Comingsoon.net says the film is reportedly to star Leonardo DiCaprio with his Appian Way partner Jennifer Davisson Killoran as producer

3. Australia scribe to make directorial debut
Stuart Beattie, co-writer of Australia, will make his directorial debut with an adaptation of the young-adult SF novel Tomorrow, When the War Began, according to The Hollywood Reporter.Beattie also wrote the screenplay.Tomorrow is the first novel in a popular series of seven written by Australian John Marsden and published from 1994-1999.The Tomorrow Series, as it is known, details the insurgency efforts of a band of Aussie teenagers fighting off an enemy invasion and occupation of their homeland.The filmmakers plan to make a trilogy of features from the first three books and then, if they're successful, spin the next four off into a TV series.

4. Portman to headline Aronofsky's Black Swan
Natalie Portman is attached to play the lead in Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan, according to Comingsoon.net. It's a supernatural thriller set in the world of New York City ballet.Black Swan centres 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.However it is unclear whether the rival is a supernatural apparition or if the protagonist is simply having delusions.

5. Jason Voorhees to romp in the snow?
Slaybells are ringing in Sequeltown. It'll be a Winter Slaughterland for Jason Voorhees with the Friday the 13th (remake) sequel if the producers have their way.Producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form told Movieweb they would like to have fun with the sequel and show audiences something never seen before, like Jason in the snow.
If things go well, they said, the sequel would be made in time for release on Aug 13, 2010 ... yes, it's a Friday.Still, if Jason doesn't throw at least ONE hard-packed snowball with razor blades, nails and barbed wire in it, we'll be asking for a refund.

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#565. Movie Buzz

1. No live-action Akira from DiCaprio ... hooray, you say?
The proposed live-action version of Japanime phenomenon Akira from producer Leonardo DiCaprio has been scrapped, according to Bloody-Disgusting.com.The website, which broke the news of the planned remake almost two years ago, cited two sources as saying the project is dead following the departure of its director, Ruairi Robinson.This may be good news for fans, many of whom made no bones about their objection to the project.Not only was the action shifted from the futuristic "New Tokyo" to "New Manhattan", the remake also proposed to cast a Caucasian actor as Tetsuo.Good riddance to ill-advised notions, we say.

2. No World War Z for Foster just yet
Quantum of Solace director Marc Foster has deflated zombie fans' hopes for the moment with news that the script for World War Z has yet to be completed.According to a report on Dark Horizons, Foster told a Swiss website that the script is "far from realisation" so he is likely to begin work on another project, Disconnect, while waiting.WWZ, based on a "docudrama-type" novel by Max Brooks, tells of a worldwide zombie outbreak through the accounts of survivors and veterans of the war.
Disconnect is apparently a film about how people deal with new technology and the disruption it causes to interpersonal relationships. Hmmm ... sounds like another docudrama.

3. Roy Rogers rides again
He was the most popular Western star in Hollywood from 1943 to 1954 and made more than 80 movies with his longtime "co-stars", and now Roy Rogers may be reinvented for a new century.Nashville-based 821 Entertainment and the Roy Rogers Family Entertainment Corp are collaborating on a trilogy of movies with the "umbrella title" King of the Cowboys, according to Variety.The films will be a series of fantasy adventures featuring Rogers, his longtime leading lady Dale Evans and his horse Trigger.Rogers died in 1998. His legacy includes more than 100 episodes of his own TV show, an estimated 88 films with Evans and Trigger, and over 400 items of merchandise with his name and/or likeness on them.In his heyday, the Western icon also sold 120 million comic books!.No casting details have been announced yet.

4. Frost/Nixon writer joins Bond team
Peter Morgan, who wrote Frost/Nixon, The Queen and The Last King of Scotland, has been signed to the Bond 23 scripting team.He will join Bond writing veterans Neal Purvis and Robert Wade on scripting chores for the as-yet-untitled 007 movie, according to Variety.

5. Wolverine co-stars off to Mars
Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins, who played Gambit and Kayla respectively in the recent X-Men Origins: Wolverine, are set to star in John Carter of Mars.The Hollywood Reporter says Kitsch will play the title character in the adaptation of the tale by Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs.Carter is a Civil War veteran who finds himself transported to Mars and caught in a war between the two dominant factions.Collins will play Dejah Thoris, heiress to the throne of one of the warring kingdoms.Wall.e's Andrew Stanton will direct from a script he co-wrote. Filming is set to begin at the end of this year for Disney.

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#507. Movie Buzz

1. Ghostface set to Scream again?
Plans are afoot to bring back the Scream franchise as another trilogy, Entertainment Weekly reports.Kevin Williamson, who wrote the original trilogy, has apparently been working on a new set of scripts that will bring back most of the surviving characters from the first go-around.Courtney Cox-Arquette and David Arquette have already been approached to reprise their roles as TV journalist Gale Weathers and Deputy Dewey Riley respectively.There is no word as yet on Neve Campbell's participation, or whether the new trilogy will feature the "Ghostface" character that was responsible for much of the mayhem in the previous films.

2. Javier Bardem signs up for Wall Street sequel
Is Wall Street no place for old men? Javier Bardem, Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actor in last year's multiple-honoree No Country for Old Men, has signed up for Oliver Stone's Wall Street 2.Deadline Hollywood Daily reports that Bardem will play a hedge fund manager whose wheeling and dealing led to the suicide of a man who happens to be the mentor of Gordon Gekko's son-in-law-to-be.The film will be set in late 2008 with Gekko, played once again by Michael Douglas, anticipating the coming financial meltdown but also having his hands full with his daughter's upcoming wedding.Shia LaBeouf plays the young trader who is about to marry into the Gekko family. The daughter's role has yet to be cast, with the film scheduled to begin shooting in August for a February release.

3. Amanda Bynes' two-pic pact with Screen Gems
Amanda Bynes has signed on for a two-picture deal with Screen Gems, Variety reports.
The actress will first co-star in the Will Gluck-directed comedy Easy A before she and Screen Gems president Clint Culpepper craft a star vehicle for her second project.Culpepper said that Bynes, who gained fame as star of Nickelodeon's The Amanda Show, has been on his radar for some time."She's one of the few who can make that graceful transition from kid to adult star because she has such strong comic chops," Culpepper told the trade paper.Scripted by playwright Bert V. Royal, Easy A stars Emma Stone as a high school student who is victimized by a false rumor that she lost her virginity, until she exploits the rumour mill for her own benefit and becomes wildly popular. Bynes has signed on to play a puritanical high school queen bee.

4. Totally remaking Recall
Sci Fi Wire reports that Kurt Wimmer (Equilibrium) has been hired by Columbia Pictures to write a new version of of the 1990 sci-fi action movie Total Recall which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger.Total Recall, based on the Philip K. Dick story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale", was resurrected for remake status earlier this year by the studio and producer Neal Moritz, under his Original Films banner.

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#505. Movie Buzz

1. Who did in Houdini?
Jeff Nathanson (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and the Rush Hour movies) has signed to write and direct the adaptation of William Kalush and Larry Sloman's Harry Houdini biography The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America's First Superhero for Summit Entertainment.The book, published in 2006 by Atria Books, insinuated that Houdini was a spy for Britain and was asked to be an adviser to Czar Nicholas II's court in pre-revolutionary Russia.According to Cominsoon.net, the book also portrayed the master magician and escape artist as a debunker of con artists who pretended to be spiritualists, leading to the theory that his death was caused by the spiritual movement as payback.

2. Bryan Singer returning to X-Men?
Many X-Men fans were disappointed when director Bryan Singer decided to fly off and direct Superman Returns instead of sticking around to direct X-Men: The Last Stand, the third movie in the trilogy he kicked off with X-Men in 2000 and followed up with X2 in 2003.In a recent interview for the July issue of Total Film, Singer mused about returning to the franchise:"I'm eternally intertwined with X-Men now," he told the magazine. "What takes an audience four hours to watch - the first two movies - took six years of my life. So, to not be part of it ... it's a shame."

They also asked Singer whether he wished he had directed the third X-movie, to which he replied, "It's weird for me to watch it, because I'm so close to the universe. And also Brett is a good friend of mine. But, of course, I would love to return to that universe."He also spoke of the possibility of directing the in-development X-Men Origins: Magneto (which was announced years ago with David (Blade: Trinity) Goyer attached to direct).

The director was a bit cautious about committing to it, as he expects the film to cover some of the same WWII Nazi Germany territory he's covered before."The only thing that concerns me about Magneto is that if the prequel were to follow the track I used in X-Men, which is Magneto's history in the concentration camp, then I've lived in that world."Apt Pupil, X-Men and now Valkyrie...I've lived in that Nazi universe for quite a while. I just might need to take a little break before I do something like that."

3. 50 Cent caught in the Crossfire
Curtis Jackson, better known as rapper 50 Cent, has joined the cast of the police corruption drama Caught in the Crossfire.The drama revolves around two homicide detectives who find themselves caught between a gang-related homicide and a group of dirty cops.Jackson will play a gang member who becomes a reluctant informant.According to Dark Horizons, the movie also stars Chris Klein, Adam Rodriguez and Richard T. Jones.

4. Sony and Sonnenfeld to re-imagine Swift
Sony Pictures has picked up the rights to the script Swift, described as a re-imagining of the Tom Swift adventure novels.According to Dark Horizons, this new version would feature Swift as one half of a father-and-son team (who first appeared in a series of books that launched in 1910) who are among the greatest inventors of all time.Barry Sonnenfeld (Men in Black) and Ben David Grabinski penned the script which will be developed as a directing vehicle for Sonnenfeld.

5. Halle Berry eyes Verhoeven's Surrogate
Halle Berry is in discussions to star in the upcoming Paul Verhoeven-directed thriller The Surrogate for 20th Century Fox, Variety reports.The movie is based on a novel by Kathryn Mackel about a childless couple who appoint a surrogate mother to carry their child to term.Complications arise when they realise that the stand-in mom is, what's the medical term, insane.Berry has not been on the big screen since 2007's Perfect Strangers with Bruce Willis - who, curiously enough, will soon be seen in a sci-fi thriller entitled Surrogates.

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#503. Movie Buzz

1. Chevy chases John Cusack back in time
Veteran funnyman Chevy Chase has joined the cast of a time-travel comedy starring John Cusack, The Hollywood Reporter says.Hot Tub Time Machine will see Cusack and some buddies whisked back to their younger days - in their jaccuzzi.Chase plays a repairman who may be the enigmatic force behind the friends' journey in time.

2. Tintin movie to get 3D release, set for late 2011
Tintin fans, you have more than two years to wait before The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn arrives in cineplexes.The good news is that audiences in the rest of the world will get to watch it well ahead of their US counterparts.The film is set to arrive in international markets from late October through early November 2011, with the US release set for only Dec 23 of that year.Variety reports that the Steven Spielberg-directed animated film will also be released in 3D.Jamie Bell is providing the voice of Herge's intrepid beloved-the-world-over boy reporter hero. Others in the cast include Daniel Craig, Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis.Peter Jackson is up to direct the second film in the series.

3. An Alien reboot - why, in the name of all that's holy?
It's only a rumour for now but with the dearth of imagination and innovation in monster movies these days, it could also be inevitable: a reboot/remake of Alien.Bloody-Disgusting.com reports that music video director Carl Erik Rinsch has been linked to an Alien tale that features the "one monster, one ship" premise of the original directed by Ridley Scott back in 1979.

4. Cruise, Diaz to lead interwoven lives in Wichita
Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz are up for the action comedy Wichita for 20th Century Fox, Variety reports.The movie, to be directed by James Mangold (the 3:10 to Yuma remake), will feature Cruise as a secret agent who - when his schedule permits - is involved with a single woman, played by Cameron Diaz.The movie is scheduled for a summer 2010 release. Both Cruise and Diaz, last seen together in Vanilla Sky, are said to be in "advanced negotiations" for their roles.

5. Wentworth Miller to experience Bioshock?
Prison Break has ended after four seasons on TV, so star Wentworth Miller has some free time on his hands ... to star in a movie adaptation of Bioshock, perhaps?While his involvement in the project has been rumoured before, Miller updated his Twitter page on Wednesday to read: "Prison Break may be ending, but I've got things in the works. Hint...one word: Bioshock."OK, so is he going to play a role in it ... or just play it on his Xbox/PS3/PC? Heh, let's wait and see.Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) is up to direct the adaptation of the hit videogame, which is about an underwater city where the builders' plan for a utopian society has gone horribly wrong.

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#501. Movie Buzz

1. Jake Kasdan tells Bad Teacher how to behave
Director Jake Kasdan (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story) will take on the comedy Bad Teacher next, The Hollywood Reporter says.Year One scripters Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg wrote the screenplay, about a foul-mouthed teacher who is dumped by her, shall we say, older male patron.She sets her sights on a male colleague and goes all out to woo him in her own inimitable way, putting her in direct conflict with her school's model teacher.No casting details were announced.

2. Videogame fans despair - no Castlevania movie for you
If you were counting on watching vampire hunter Simon Belmont battle his way through hordes of bloodsuckers in the long-promised Castlevania movie, you'll be better off playing the videogame instead.Word from Bloody-Disgusting.com is that the Paul W.S. Anderson-scripted project is officially cancelled.The most recent director attached to the project was Sylvain White (Stomp the Yard).The movie was to have focused on the origins of Dracula - at least, the version of Dracula in the "Castlevaniaverse" - and how the Belmont clan came to be humanity's last hope against his campaign of evil.

3. Disney eyes another remake
Disney is planning to remake another one of its family features - this time, it's the 1986 Flight of the Navigator, about a young boy who gets taken on a wild ride by aliens.The original movie had the 12-year-old being abducted in 1978 and reappearing eight years later, still the same age and with no memory of what happened to him.NASA finds a link between the lad and a mysterious downed spacecraft, which the boy then escapes in.Brad Copeland (Wild Hogs) is writing the remake, which was announced in various news sites recently.The plan has drawn fire from the original film's fans who fear that another beloved childhood memory will be destroyed. Given the track record of most remakes, their worries are justified.

4. Planned Buffy movie sounds buggy to us
Would you make a Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie without any connection to Angel, Spike, Willow or Xander? Say, someone already did that - back in 1992. But the director of that first big-screen Buffy, Fran Rubel Kuzui, has apparently held on to the rights to the character and is now developing another movie.According to The Hollywood Reporter, this one is thus far being developed without the services of Joss Whedon, who wrote the original and then developed the middling property into a cult hit on TV (the series ran for seven seasons from 1997-2004).Although Whedon's involvement has not been completely ruled out, the filmmakers have not contacted him about it yet.The trade newspaper said the proposed film is being referred to as a remake and/or relaunch, but is not touted as a sequel to either the original movie or the TV series.

5. WWI drama wins Palme d'Or at Cannes
The black-and-white World War I drama White Ribbon picked up the coveted Palme d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday.The movie, set in a German village on the eve of the war, was directed by Michael Haneke who had previously won the Director award at Cannes for his film Cache in 2005.Variety reported that the festival's Grand Prix award went to A Prophet from France, a prison drama which had been widely tipped to win a prize from the time it was screened early at this year's festival.The only award won by a US film was the acting nod for 52-year-old Christoph Waltz as Colonel Landa, the Nazi "Jew hunter" in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, a movie which has received mixed reviews so far.

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#465. Movie Buzz

1. Disney embarks on Stan Lee's Nick Ratchet project
Stan Lee, the Man who created so many beloved Marvel Comics superheroes, has a new idea for a different kind of hero - and Disney has bagged the project.The Hollywood Reporter says a script is being written for Lee's concept of Nick Ratchet, which is about a mild-mannered policeman whose life is taken over by his videogame avatar, the hardboiled character of the title.Richard LaGravenese, writer of The Fisher King, is on board to direct. Douglas Cook and David Weisberg (writers of The Rock) are working on the screenplay.

2. Ghostbusters 3 ready to roll by late 2009?
Production on Ghostbusters 3 could begin as early as November or December this year, according to an article in the LA Times.Dan Aykroyd, one of the original Ghostbusters, said the script is by Year One writers Lee Eisenberg and Gary Stupnitsky and will feature a new generation of spook-chasers taking over from the old team.The original gang is back - Aykroyd will be joined by Harold Ramis, Bill Murray and Ernie Hudson - and Sigourney Weaver is also returning, the article said.

3. Another techno-thriller from Wargames scribe
Producer Walter Parkes, who also wrote the screenplay for the 1983 John Badham techno-thriller Wargames, is returning to the sub-genre with an adaptation of the novel Daemon.The book, by Daniel Suarez, is about an electronic game designer who dies and leaves behind a deadly legacy to combat mankind.According to Variety, Parkes will co-write the adaptation with David DiGilio, who wrote and produced a short-lived 2007 TV series called Traveler.Parkes also wrote the script for another techno-thriller (of sorts), Sneakers.

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#464. Movie Buzz

1. Hayden Christensen to gesture hypnotically as Mandrake
Mister Pre-Darth Vader, Hayden Christensen, will star in director Mimi Leder's (Deep Impact) upcoming movie based on the vintage Lee Falk Mandrake the Magician comic strip, Comingsoon.net reports.Jackson Mandrake, an underground magician and escape artist, is forced by the CIA to break an undercover operative out of maximum security containment.He succeeds, only to find that the agent has gone rogue and offers Mandrake a spot in his criminal operations ... or else.Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond, Push) has also been cast, most likely as Mandrake's buddy Lothar.

2. Chace Crawford to step into Kevin Bacon's Footloose shoes
Gossip Girl star Chace Crawford will replace Zac Efron in the upcoming Footloose remake, says The Hollywood Reporter.Crawford will take the Kevin Bacon role in the movie, to be directed by High School Musical helmer Kenny Ortega for a likely 2010 release.In the 1984 original, Bacon played a free-spirited city lad who came to a small town where dancing and rock 'n' roll had been banned.

3. SHADO on the big screen
UFO, Gerry Anderson's fondly remembered 1970s show about a covert organisation battling alien invaders, is headed for the big screen, says Variety.Producer Robert Evans is working with ITV Global to make a movie from the series.UFO focused on the efforts of SHADO (Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organization) to combat an invading alien race, which had been kidnapping and dismembering humans for years to use the body parts (ick!).The original series was set in 1984 (hah) while the new one will show a bit more vision and fast-forward us to 2020.

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#442. Movie Buzz

1. 'Star Trek' screened in space
"Star Trek" has been beamed aboard the International Space Station.Paramount Pictures said they transferred director J.J. Abrams' sci-fi franchise reboot to NASA's Mission Control in Houston. The movie was uplinked to the space station on Thursday.NASA astronaut Michael Barratt watched the film on a laptop Friday inside the Unity module.The 50-year-old astronaut said he remembered "watching the original 'Star Trek' series and, like many of my NASA co-workers, was inspired by the idea of people from all nations coming together to explore space."

2. Ninja scribe lands Brothers in Arms gig
Ninja Assassin co-writer Matthew Sand has landed a new gig, as rewrite man on a WW2 film set to be directed by Denzel Washington, The Hollywood Reporter says.The tale, Brothers in Arms, is about an all-black tank battalion which overcame the prejudices of the time to prove itself with honour.

The 761st Tank Battalion was at the forefront of the Allies' push into Germany and liberated more than 30 towns en route.The movie will be based on a non-fiction book co-written by Anthony Walton and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Yes, THE Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of the NBA and Game of Death fame.

3. Berg to board Battleship game-to-movie project?
Hasbro's classic boardgame Battleship is heading for the big screen as an epic naval adventure, according to The Hollywood Reporter.You know the game - it's the one where you and an opponent place your battleships, cruisers, submarines etc on a grid without revealing the location.Then each of you calls out "shots" to particular points on the grid and an opponent must declare if a shot hit, thereby allowing the player to focus fire on that area in the hope of sinking a ship.

While it's not hard to figure out how this play mechanic is going to be transferred to the movie, we wonder how the excitement and interest are going to be sustained over the course of a whole movie.Well, for starters, the project is wooing Peter Berg to come on board and direct it. Berg does bring a kind of edge to ordinary-sounding projects (The Rundown) and his Very Bad Things still sticks in the head till today. It wasn't exactly naval, but it certainly didn't sink either.

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#437. Movie Buzz

1. Van Damme stabs, Jones shoots - but will he score?
Action star Jean-Claude Van Damme and football hardman-turned-actor Vinnie Jones will star in Weapon, about two assassins who team up to take down a drug cartel chief.The only catch: the drug lord is backed by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) for whatever reasons.According to an item on Dark Horizons, Jones will be a sharpshooter and J-CVD will be a knife expert.Russell Mulcahy (Highlander, Resident Evil: Extinction) will direct.

2. Ratner has a taste for Youngblood
Director Brett Ratner (X-Men: The Last Stand) will bring his comic-to-movie "cred" to another adaptation, Rob Liefeld's Youngblood.Given that Youngblood - one of the pioneer titles put out by Image Comics back in 1992 - hardly registers today, we're not optimistic about this project.Still, Liefeld apparently told MTV's Splash Page that writers Chad Damiani and J.P. Lavin will be handling script duties on the Youngblood adaptation.

3. Rachel Weisz sizes up Hedy Lamarr
Mummy marvel Rachel Weisz is up for the part of screen icon Hedy Lamarr in an upcoming biopic of sorts, Face Value.Lamarr, who is best known as Delilah in the Victor Mature biblical epic Samson and Delilah, was also a scientist whose frequency-changing techniques and radio guidance system for torpedoes paved the way for modern wireless communications.The Hollywood Reporter says Face Value, an independent feature to be directed by Amy Redford (yes, the daughter of Robert), will most likely focus on the scientist portion of Lamarr's life. The Austria-born Lamarr retired from the screen in 1958 and passed away in 2000.

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#436. Movie Buzz

1. A new Fright Night mulled by DreamWorks
OK, so this one is at least over 20 years old. The horror-comedy fan favourite Fright Night is also being eyed as prime remake material, this time by DreamWorks SKG. The Hollywood Reporter said no creative team has been signed yet but the new movie will retain the comedic-horror tone of the original.The 1985 Fright Night directed by Tom Holland was a horror movie-loving teenager who realised that his new next-door neighbour was a vampire.He enlisted the help of a fading horror movie star, played by Roddy McDowall, to slay the vampire. A sequel followed in 1988, with the sister of the lad's vampire neighbour showing up to exact revenge.

2. Cliffhanger feels the remake breeze
Sylvester Stallone's exciting 1993 thriller Cliffhanger is the latest remake announced by Hollywood. Phew, these days they're not even waiting for the 20-year mark.The original had Stallone as an expert mountain-climber being forced to assist a gang of hijackers.No details on the new one except that it will focus on a group of young mountaineers, Variety reports.Neal Moritz, who is currently working on the Escape From New York remake (oh, you didn't know?), will produce this one too.

3. Belle of the serial killer ball
Belle, an upcoming biopic from First Line Media, will highlight the life story of turn-of-the-20th-century serial killer Belle Gunness, who operated out of her farm in Indiana.Gunness is said to have murdered at least two husbands and dozens of suitors to whom she wrote enticing love letters, luring them - along with their stuffed wallets - to her home where she would, well, work her mojo.The Hollywood Reporter says producer Ed Bass (The Killing Jar) is set to make his directing debut on the film.Gunness was born in Norway in 1858 and emigrated to the United States in the 1880s. She gained notoriety after her crimes came to light as a "Lady Bluebeard". Details of her life and crimes can be found at the link below.No casting has been announced yet.Surfing: http://www.laportecountyhistory.org/belleg1.htm

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#422. Movie Buzz

1. To strip and die outside L.A.
Antonio Banderas will head out on the trail of a missing stripper in The Big Bang and find nasty Russians and a potentially world-changing conspiracy.According to Variety, Banderas' character will be a hardboiled Los Angeles private eye who is hired to find a missing stripper and follows her trail into the New Mexico desert, where he tangles with a nasty Russian boxer, the LAPD and a billionaire who is trying to recreate the Big Bang.Filming begins in Spokane, Washington, in September under director Tony Krantz, who among other credits was executive producer for three seasons on 24.

2. Go West, young Mechanic
Simon West (Con Air) has been signed to direct the remake of the old Charles Bronson thriller The Mechanic, Variety reports.Jason Statham has been cast in the Bronson role, as a veteran hitman who takes a young protege under his wing. The catch: the kid is the child of one of his victims!Jan-Michael Vincent played the understudy in the original but no one has been signed for the role in the remake as yet. Hey, why not make it a gal?

3. Hyde and go freak
Keanu Reeves is in talks to play the world's most famous (or at least most frequently filmed) dual personality, in a retelling of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.Universal Pictures is developing the movie, which would bring the tale forward into a modernday setting, The Hollywood Reporter says.

4. Rosario Dawson goes behind bars for Percy
Seven Pounds star Rosario Dawson will step into prison for Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief for Fox 2000, but it's no ordinary jail for her. Dawson will play Persephone, the imprisoned wife of Hades, Greek god of the underworld, says The Hollwood Reporter.Appearing as her spouse will be Steve Coogan (Tropic Thunder), in this tale of Zeus' half-human son Percy Jackson who is on a quest to save the world - and possibly Olympus as well.Already cast are Catherine Keener, Pierce Brosnan, Uma Thurman, Sean Bean, Kevin McKidd and Melina Kanakaredes.The movie, directed by Chris Columbus (Home Alone), is based on Robert Riordan's series of fantasy-adventure books.

5. Meat Train's Cooper to play Green Lantern?
Bradley Cooper, star of the gruesome horror flick Midnight Meat Train and one-time best bud of Sydney Bristow on Alias, is apparently a front-runner for the role of The Green Lantern.The DC superhero is scheduled to hit the big screen under director Martin Campbell (Casino Royale) and early reports had tipped Star Trek's new Captain Kirk, Chris Pine, for the role.However, HitFix.com reports that Cooper is now in the running and said to be pretty close to nailing the part.The Green Lantern, a.k.a. courageous test pilot Hal Jordan, becomes a member of an intergalactic peacekeeping corps when he is chosen by the dying Green Lantern guarding Earth's side of the galaxy to be his successor.

6. No Dwayne for 20,000 Leagues
Despite earlier reports that Dwayne Johnson (formerly The Rock of WWE fame) has been cast in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo, director McG says otherwise.
He told Production Weekly that the role is still being offered to Will Smith, and that he has never even spoken to Johnson about the role.The movie is being made for Disney, where Johnson had his last two starring roles, Race to Witch Mountain and The Game Plan.In McG's reimagined Nemo, the captain of the futuristic (for its time) submarine Nautilus teams up with a mystery woman and a fugitive whaler to find a lost city with vast stores of forgotten knowledge - and a doomsday weapon.

7. Quinto thanks journo for Spock role
Zachary Quinto has credited a journalist from his hometown for helping him land the role of Spock in JJ Abrams' new Star Trek movie.According to a report on IMDB.com, Quinto had just landed his role as Sylar on TV's Heroes and was interviewed by a journalist from a small paper in Pittsburgh, who asked if there was any other role he'd like to play.Quinto, who had just heard about Abrams' next project, said he would like to play Spock. The interview was syndicated and picked up by other journalists, who then started asking him if it was true his dream since childhood was to play Spock.Quinto admitted that he gladly played along, and eventually the repeated exposure helped him land the part.

8. Huston, we have splashdown
Danny Huston, currently putting mutants in their "place" as the conniving villain Stryker in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, has signed on for a role in the Clash of the Titans remake.The Hollywood Reporter says Huston will play Poseidon, god of the sea. The main Greek deities will be played by Liam Neeson (Zeus) and Ralph Fiennes (Hades).Huston was previously seen as the leader of the ferocious vamps in 30 Days of Night.

9. Jackman kicks out dead people
Hugh Jackman will star in and produce Ghostopolis, an adaptation of a graphic novel by Doug TenNapel.The Hollywood Reporter says Jackman will play a guy who works for the Supernatural Immigration Task Force, whose role is to send ghosts that have escaped into our world back to the dead realm of Ghostopolis.When a young boy is accidentally sent over to Ghostopolis, Jackman's character must team up with the ghost of an old flame to bring him back to the land of the living.No director or screenwriter has been attached to the project yet.

10. Scarlett's directing debut goes to DVD
Scarlett Johansson has directed a movie - well, part of a movie. And the thing is, that part won't be seen in the movie, but only in the DVD release.Zap2It.com reports that the actress' segment for New York, I Love You was removed, with producer Emmanuel Benbihy describing it as a "compelling, albeit unconventional, narrative" that did not fit in with the rest of the film because it did not feature an interpersonal relationship.(Other directors on the project include Brett Ratner, Jiang Wen, Shekhar Kapoor, Natalie Portman and Mira Nair. The film is an anthology of love stories.)The New York Post, however, reports another possible reason for the removal of Johansson's shot-in-black-and-white segment featuring Kevin Bacon, describing it as unwatchable.

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#420. Movie Buzz

1. Tomei and Tyler are neighbours
Marisa Tomei and Liv Tyler will play neighbours in 10A/10B, yet another Hollyweird remake of a Korean horror film.The original was entitled 301/302, and told of the unhappy events that follow two people living next door to one another in an apartment building.Park Chul-soo, the creator of the original, will write and direct the remake. Tyler will play a "culinary perfectionist" and Tomei a failing actress, Variety reports.The movie is described as a psychological thriller.The most recent Hollywood remake of a Korean movie was the just-in-theatres The Uninvited, which sprang out of A Tale of Two Sisters.

2. Wanted: Someone to iron out The Details
James McAvoy (Wanted) is up for a black comedy entitled The Details, according to Variety. He is joined by Laura Linney, Elizabeth Banks and Laura Linney in the feature, written and directed by Jacob Estes (Mean Creek).The movie will revolve around a young couple (Banks and McAvoy) who find their back yard infested with raccoons.Disagreements over how to handle the animals soon get out of hand, leading to some wild, and supposedly darkly comic, over-reacting from all involved

3. Don't be afraid, Katie
Way back in 1973, John Newland - the actor-director responsible for such beloved old-time suspense and horror TV shows as One Step Beyond and The Next Step Beyond - made a TV-movie entitled Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, which has gone on to become one of the classics of the decade.The movie, about a young couple who inherits a house haunted by bizarre little demons that seem to be stalking the wife, is now being remade with Katie Holmes in the lead.The remake, due out in 2011 according to IMDB, is being written by the needs-no-introduction Guillermo del Toro and his Mimic writer Matthew Robbins, and directed by newcomer Troy Nixey, who made a well-regarded Canadian short fantasy film, Latchkey's Lament.The new Afraid expands the terrorised family, by adding one young daughter to the mix. Kim Darby and Jim Hutton played the hapless couple in the original. No other cast members have been announced for the remake yet.

4. Death Note on the bus to Remake City
Well, kind of. Hollywood - repped in this case by Warner Bros - has set its sights on the 13-volume manga hit Death Note and will make a movie based on the first three volumes.Variety reports that the production will not, however, be adapted from the three Japanese-language movies already made from the comic series. But, really, how different can they make it?Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba tells of a student who finds the titular object, which allows him to kill by merely writing the name of the victim on the page, while picturing that person in his mind's eye.The script will be written by Charley and Vlas Parlapinedes, whose script for War of the Gods - a tale of the illegitimate son of a Greek king battling against the imprisoned Titans and their demon army - is currently in production under director Tarsem Singh (The Cell).

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#418. Movie Buzz

1. Deadpool to return, in his own movie
So X-Men Origins: Wolverine seriously messed with Deadpool's place as a player of prominence in the Marvel Universe.That hasn't stopped Marvel Studios and Fox Studios from spinning off the "merc with the mouth", played partly by Ryan Reynolds in X-MO:W, into his own movie.The Hollywood Reporter did not give specifics about how Wade Wilson (Reynolds) is to be given his own movie, given what happens to him in Wolverine.Still, movies being what they are ... don't be surprised if the Deadpool movie glosses over (or even ignores) the events of Wolverine and goes off on its own path.

2. Wolverine shreds the competition
X-Men Origins: Wolverine, hit by an Internet leak of a near-complete work print weeks before its release, shredded all comers at the US boxoffice over the weekend. The "biopic" of comics' most popular mutant pulled in US$87mil (RM313mil) at US cineplexes for the first summer weekend, and racked up an impressive US$73mil (RM263mil) in international markets.THR.com reported that Wolverine was far ahead of the rest of the pack, with the Matthew McConaughey-Jennifer Garner rom-com <>Ghosts of Girlfriends Past coming in a respectable but distant second on a haul of US$15.3mil (RM55mil).

3. The scent'a claws, 2
Wolverine is such a big deal at the movies that Hugh Jackman's Seed Productions is already at work developing a sequel to X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Variety reports. And here we thought that the first X-Men movie was already the "sequel". Well, in our humble opinion, the character needs to move on after four X-films and our advice is, don't even think of setting this one in the "Lost Memory" years. It will just be too stale.We need to see the guy dealing with the crap that happened in his life in X-Men: The Last Stand and hopefully, tangling with some giant mutant-killing robot Sentinels for real this time (as opposed to Danger Room simulations). Or else.

4. Watchmen's Goode steps into the 70s
Matthew Goode, who really gave the Watchmen a tough time as their traitorous ex-comrade Ozymandias in the recent superhero epic, is heading even further back in time than that alternate-1985-set movie.The Hollywood Reporter says Goode has joined the cast of Ricky Gervais' 1970s comedy about insurance men, Cemetery Junction.The movie, co-written by Gervais (The Office) with Stephen Merchant, will see Goode in a nasty role as a man who uses the boss' daughter to further his ambitions. Ralph Fiennes and Gervais will also appear in the film.

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#416. Movie Buzz

1. Reboots should be afraid of their directors ...
Brett Ratner may no longer be associated with the Conan the Barbarian reboot but word from CHUD.com is that another director is already in line for the job.
He's James McTeigue, longtime first assistant director to the Wachowski Brothers, and who scored an impressive debut with V for Vendetta.There's talk, though, that McTeigue not being a guaranteed hitmaker of Ratner's stature may result in the Conan movie's budget being trimmed. That is just not on!

2. No barbarian days for Brett
Director Brett Ratner (Rush Hour, X-Men: The Last Stand) is no longer linked with the Conan the Barbarian reboot. According to Empire Magazine, Joe Gatta - the producer of the planned new Conan film - said neither side's timing could fit which led to the mutual parting of ways.Ratner had been linked with the proposed movie for at least six months. He was the latest in a long line of filmmakers and actors associated with a third Conan movie.If past trends are anything to go by, we might see a repeat of the whole Superman fiasco here: where folks come and go and finally, we get a dull-as-dishwater effort a la Superman Returns.Crom, but there'll be hell to pay if that happens.

3. Free Willy Willy Willy
Warner Bros is banking on the premise that Everybody Loves Whales, and has picked up that script by Jack Amiel and Michael Beglar.The script is based on the true-life 1988 rescue of three grey whales found trapped under the ice near Barrow, Alaska - yep, the very same town so famously savaged by vampires in 30 Days of Night. According to Dark Horizons, it's based on a book by Tom Rose about the massive rescue effort that involved both the US and then-Soviet governments as well as locals, environmentalists, corporations and the military.

4. Lone Ranger director unmasked?
Could Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire director Mike Newell be the man to put the Lone Ranger through his paces in a new tale of the classic western hero's adventures? Production Weekly says Newell is in negotiations to direct the movie, set for a 2010 release and rumoured to have George Clooney and Johnny Depp on board as the Lone Ranger and Tonto respectively.The studios behind the project are Disney Pictures and Bruckheimer Films. Newell's latest project, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, is currently in post-production for a 2010 release.

5. More gossip on Piranha 3-D casting
More casting news on the Alexandra Aja-directed Piranha 3-D "retelling" due next March: director of the original Piranha Joe Dante will have a cameo in the movie, Sci Fi Wire reports.Other sites, meanwhile, have weighed in with more casting news. Jessica Szohr of TV's Gossip Girl has joined the cast, along with Jerry O'Connell (Sliders, Mission to Mars).The trio join confirmed stars Elisabeth Shue and Adam Scott as menu choices for a horde of ravenous prehistoric piranha, unleashed by a tremor from their hidden subterranean cavern into a lake resort.

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#398. Movie Buzz

1. Venom wants to eat your brainsss ... and cash
He may have been blasted into a zillion slimy flecks of alien goop at the end of Spider-Man 3 but Venom, like all good Marvel villains, is coming back.Word from Sci Fi Wire is that the human-alien symbiote who hates Spidey with a vengeance is set to star in his own spin-off movie from Sony, and the studio has signed Zombieland writes Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese to work on the screenplay.No other details on the movie were forthcoming. Zombieland, set for a late 2009 release, is about "the most frightened man on Earth" trying to lead a band of survivors to safety in the middle of zombie outbreak. Sounds ... juicy.

2. Buffy heading back to the movies?
She began "life" as the central character of a less-than-successful movie and went on to a stellar seven-year run on television ... now Buffy the Vampire Slayer may be heading back to theatres.Sarah Michelle Gellar, who played TV Buffy from 1997-2003 (the role was played by Kristy Swanson in the first movie back in 1992), is reportedly in negotiations to play the character in the proposed movie, reports Showbizspy.com.The TV series ended with Buffy awakening the "potential" of every Slayer on Earth. An "eighth season" of the show followed in comic-book form from Dark Horse. Word has it that if the new movie materialises, it will focus on a much older Buffy, who could even be a mother by now. Gellar is said to be "excited" about the idea.

3. Rorschach in your dreams
Jackie Earle Haley, who recently won raves for his role as the uncompromising vigilante Rorschach in Watchmen, is the new Freddy Krueger.Various news sources including trade paper Variety report that the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street will begin filming in May for an April 2010 release.Music video specialist Samuel Bayer will handle directing chores, from a screenplay by Wesley Strick.

4. And MIB makes three
According to reports from the ShoWest movie trade event that's currently going on, Sony Pictures has announced that there will be a third Men in Black movie.No further details were announced, not even a release date.Two Men in Black movies starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones have been released so far, the first one in 1997 and the second in 2002.

5. Trek sequel confirmed
Even before the movie's release, Star Trek has bolstered Paramount's confidence sufficiently for the studio to greenlight a sequel.JJ Abrams' new movie is scheduled for an early May release, but the writing trio of Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof have already been signed to write a sequel.Abrams is set to return as producer for the film, to be released in 2011, but it has not been confirmed if he will direct as well.

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#397. Movie Buzz

1. Wolverine a victim of Weapon P
As in Piracy. Almost a month before the film's release, a work print of the movie with some missing footage and a few unfinished effects sequences, but reportedly near DVD quality, was leaked to the Internet.Online file-sharing and peer-to-peer sites had it up on April 1, and it was no joke. This humble Movie Buzz scribe saw it posted on his regular online haunts while looking for, er, stuff; still, in the name of not wanting to ruin the fun of watching Wolvie rumble in his full CGI-enhanced glory on the big screen and in THX come late April, he just surfed away from the temptation.

According to a report on Dark Horizons, 20th Century Fox executives then scrambled to get the copies yanked after learning of the leak.According to the website, such leaks of work prints are far easier to trace to the source than handheld camera jobs and telesyncs of finished prints (which by then have been reproduced in the thousands).Our money's on Deadpool. He's a real d*ck that way.

2. So fast, so furious
Fast & Furious, the fourth movie in the F&F franchise, smashed aside all competition to break boxoffice records and set a US$72.5mil (RM260mil) benchmark for an April opening date.The previous record holder was Anger Management with US$42.2mil (RM152mil) in 2003.F&F, which sees original stars Paul Walker and Vin Diesel reuniting to bring down a drug lord, also scored a US$30.1mil (RM108mil) international haul.Looks like there's still a lot of gas in the tank for the franchise, despite the critical drubbing this fourth outing took ... expectedly.Last weekend's champ, Monsters vs Aliens, pulled in US$33.5mil (RM120mil).

3. Arterton to offer Perseus a quantum of solace
Gemma Arterton, who played the unfortunate Ms. Fields in Quantum of Solace, is set to play the Greek goddess Io in the upcoming Clash of the Titans remake.Io was not featured in the original movie, which was stop-motion animation maestro Ray Harryhausen's last film before he retired.

In the remake, directed by Louis Leterrier (The Incredible Hulk), Io will become romantically involved with Perseus (Sam Worthington), the human son of Zeus.Arterton told Empire magazine that the remake will focus more on Perseus' quest - a hint that there may be fewer Mount Olympus moments than there were in the original.

4. Giving vampires' image a lift
If 30 Days of Night proved that screen vampires could be horrific again, then the upcoming Elevator Men is out to show that these bloodsuckers don't really have romance in mind when it comes to dealing with us blood-banks-on-legs.According to The Hollywood Reporter, Summit Entertainment - which ironically produces the lovey-dovey vamp-gal romance series Twilight - has picked up this rather grim script by former DreamWorks exec Marc Haimes.

The report said Haimes wanted to show the dark side of what happens when people try to get close to nasty things ... like vampires.The bloodsuckas of Elevator Men do really cruel things to humans, playing traumatising mind games with them before - well, you know. And sure enough, one of those games apparently DOES involve an elevator.

5. The Thing about script revisions ....
Mark the name Eric Heisserer. The upcoming scriptwriter may soon be known for rewriting remakes.According to reports, Heisserer has been tapped to revise Ron Moore's script for the upcoming remake of John Carpenter's The Thing (which itself was a remake).And, says BloodyDisgusting.com, Heisserer was also tapped earlier to rewrite Wesley Strick's screenplay for the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Given that Moore (who counts Battlestar GalacticA among his credits) and Strick (Arachnophobia, Wolf, Doom) have established genre credentials, this Heisserer fella must be pretty good ... in the studio execs' view at any rate ... to be given the job of polishing their material.Well, we fans will find out for ourselves when the movies are out.

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