Emma Stone Up for Spider-Man Reboot

For the love of God, don't under any circumstances take the Spider-Man job!

The trades report Emma Stone is up for one of the two female leads for the 2012 3D reboot - presumably Mary Jane Watson. The actress recently met with director Marc Webb and read alongside freshman web-slinger Andrew Garfield. Many are quickly jumping to her support, labeling her as "perfect" for the role. Obviously, a sizeable portion of that is due to her already being a redhead and we know how often fanboys think outside the box.

As The Social Network has shown, having close association with Sony can help score prime gigs. Director David Fincher and Rooney Mara are now on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo remake, and there's young Mr. Garfield, of course. Stone has had a working relationship with the studio, most recently starring in their hit comedy Easy A along with other hits Zombieland, and Superbad.

But that's exactly why she shouldn't take this. She doesn't "need" the Spider-Man franchise nor does she benefit financially especially with the new Spidey himself is pocketing just $500,000. The success of Easy A is opening more doors for her and there's rarely an upswing to playing the female lead/love interest in a comic-book tentpole.

No bullshit, she's too good for it, and it's not a foregone conclusion the general public will open their arms to this new Spider-Man reboot anyway. Stay away, Emma! Stay awaaaaaaaay!

Chris Evans on the Captain America Set

Everyone was leaning towards "UGH!" when those pictures leaked of a stunt double dressed up as Captain America a few weeks back. It looked pretty bad, to be fair to those trigger-happy fanboys wanting to immediately label the Joe Johnston-directed WWII-set flick as shit.

Well more on-set pictures are hitting the interwebs, this time coming courtesy of Celebrity Gossip. It's our gee-whiz, holy-shit first-look at Chris Evans himself! As Steve Rogers.

There's also some YouTube video to enjoy of Evans in action.

The Mission: Impossible Villain with the Dragon Tattoo

All the press as of late has been about Noomi Rapace and what she'd choose for her big studio debut. That's not to suggest her Girl with the Dragon Tattoo co-star Michael Nyqvist is missing out on the Hollywood action either.

What's Playing says he’s in final talks to play the "very charming, but calculating" villain for the forth Mission: Impossible installment. Had MGM not been puking in the toilet (financially speaking), I'd have bet dollars to donuts the Broccolis would have made him a Bond baddie. But this will most certainly do.

Speaking of 007 and franchise traditions, the M:I filmmakers are looking to continue having a different big-name actor for the IMF big-cheese, as portrayed by Jon Voight, Anthony Hopkins and Cowboy Curtis. Director Brad Bird and Tom Cruise are trying to strong-arm a big-name actor and offers have reportedly been sent out.

Their Paramount spies also say that "We're dropping Mission: Impossible from the title!" nonsense has settled down. Think Mission: Impossible: Blankety Blank and not The Mission as some of you thought none too far back.

Trailer for "The Promise"

So it's a little past the 30th Anniversary of Bruce Springsteen's classic 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town, but ask any fan of The Boss who's sung themselves hoarse singing along to "Badlands" at a Springsteen concert (myself included - at 11 shows so far), it remains an amazing enough album that it should be celebrated regardless of what year it is.

Having had it's premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last week, The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town will air on HBO on October 7th. 

Directed by Grammy and Emmy winner Thom Zimny, The Promise is an 85-minute documentary that chronicles the history of the legendary album, still considered to be one of Springsteen's best.  The film will include interviews with Bruce Springsteen, his longtime producer Jon Landau, his former manager Mike Appel and members of the E-Street Band, including the late, great Danny Federici, who passed away in 2008, and to whom the film is dedicated.  It will also include rare studio footage of the album's recording sessions.

A deluxe 30th Anniversary box set, which includes a remastered version of the album and a DVD/blu-ray of The Promise, will be released November 16th.

Kate Beckinsale Back For Underworld 4

I like the Underworld movies, well the first two anyway, I think they have a solid mythology and I prefer their action based style over more vamps and werewolves horror shenanigans.

The 3rd film in the franchise was a prequel and starred Rhona Mitra, but Underworld 4 will be a sequel so no doubt it will have a stand alone title as the 2nd one did, and news arrives this evening via TOLDJA! that Kate Beckinsale has signed on to reprise her role as vampire death dealer Selene.

Kate Beckinsale has signed on for a fourth installment of Underworld. The new pic has been written by John Hlavin with a rewrite by J. Michael Straczynski. No director yet. Screen Gems, which distributed the first three, is back for the fourth. Production starts March in Vancouver.

Superman: The Search For A Director

I know many of the readers of our site and geekdom in general have hearts that are racing just a little faster upon hearing there are some possible directors in the running for the upcoming "Superman" film. Finally there is some news of substance concerning the Man of Steel.

TOLDJA! is reporting that Chris Nolan and his trusty sidekick Emma Thomas are red boot deep in the search for a "Superman" director. The dynamic duo are meeting with candidates and will present their choice to The Brothers Warner & Legendary Pictures in the next several weeks.

On the short list are Tony Scott, Matt Reeves, Jonathan Liebesman, Duncan Jones, and Zack Snyder.  Zack Snyder (Watchmen) and Tony Scott (Use IMDB) are the big dogs on the list, along with Matt Reeves.  I personally would love to see Duncan Jones get the gig,  I loved "Moon". My money however is on Jonathan Liebesman but that is only if something happened with him and the "Clash Of The Titans" sequel or by some miracle he could fit it in.

Keep in mind, in the end it could be none of the directors on this list, which we've seen time and time again through past casting news on several films. Buckle up, this will certainly ignite more news.

Christopher Nolan Gives Batman 3 Update

When fans are anxiously waiting to hear news, sometimes stupid little things that mean nothing get blown up into bigger deals than they really are. Case in point: in an article from the trades giving the latest on Inception's box office (In case you were wondering - $753 million!) a minor update was given from director Christopher Nolan on the status of Batman 3:

"Nolan confirmed he is currently working on the script for 'Batman 3,' which Warned Bros. has announced a July 20, 2012 release date for, though the studio has not yet officially greenlit the pic.
'They haven’t told me they don't want to do it, so I’m hopeful,' he joked."

That blurb was subsequently snipped out not too terribly long after it was published. Cut to some suggesting something was up with Batman 3, Nolan's directorial participation, etc.

During a recent press conference in Rome to pimp Inception, Nolan was asked about where his third Batman installment stood and its greenlight status. It starts at the 56 second mark:

Translation: chill out, fellas. Nothing unsorted is up with Batman 3.

Warner Premiere Greenlights Bryan Singer's "H+" & McG's "Aim High" Digital Series

Warner Premiere has reached an agreement with Dolphin Entertainment to co-finance and co distribute a number of  digital series. The Bryan Singer produced sci-fi tale "H+" will be the first of two series that have been greenlit. The other is McG's "Aim High" involves a high school double agent. Check out the synopsis below.

H+

H+ takes viewers on an episodic two-and-a-half hour, apocalyptic journey into the future where technology has gone horrifically wrong.  In 2019, 33% of the world’s population uses a radical new piece of technology – an implanted computer system called H +. This allows a person’s mind and nervous system to be connected to the Internet 24 hours a day. But that same year, a mysterious and vicious computer virus is released, and within seconds millions of people died -- leading to radical changes to the political and social landscape of the planet. H+ is produced by Bryan Singer.  The series comes from writers John Cabrera (Gilmore Girls) and Cosimo de Tommaso who also serve as executive producers. It will be directed by Stewart Hendler (“Sorority Row”) and produced by Lance Sloane (Yucatan). H + is currently in pre-production and shooting expected to start by the end of the year.

Aim High

 “Killing people is easy. High School is hard,” according to lead character Nick Green. Aim High is the story of a young man leading a double life - juggling his studies by day and serving as a government agent by night.  This series chronicles the life of Nick Green, a sophomore who’s just starting a new school year as one of the country’s 64 highly trained teenage operatives. When he’s not handling international spies, Nick is dreaming of Amanda Meyers, the most popular girl in school who’s cool, intelligent and very alluring. Aim High comes McG.  Peter Murrieta is the Executive Producer. The series is written by Heath Corson and Richie Keen (Living with Abandon) who also serve as Executive Producers, directed by Thor Freudenthal (Hotel for Dogs) and produced by Lance Sloane).  Pre-production is underway and shooting will take place in Los Angeles this October

Vladimir Mashkov Joins M:I 4

A few days ago, Tom Cruise and director Brad Bird were spotted location scouting for Mission: Impossible 4/Untitled Mission: Impossible Sequel/The Mission/whatever they decide to call it next.

As the December start of production approaches, we'll be hearing more names joining the cast next to new lead Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg and the one they call Cruise.

The Wrap reports Russian actor Vladimir Mashkov (best known to us dumb American movie-goers for Behind Enemy Lines) is the newest addition. He'll play what else, a Russian agent. But is he a good, bad or somewhere in the middle? It's a J.J. Abrams production. So how the Hell should I know?

"Gnomeo & Juliet" Trailer

William Shakespeare's well known romantic tragedy receives an injection courtesy of the well known garden-gnome in this computer-animated musical featuring the voices of James McAvoy and Emily Blunt, with music by Elton John. Touchstone will release the animated feature on February 11th. The vocal stylings of Jason Statham, Michael Caine, Maggie Smith and Patrick Stewart complete the quirky cast.