Guillermo del Toro Offered Godzilla Reboot

Guillermo del Toro has made his love of all things monsters loud and clear over the years. In fact, I believe there's a quote from him stating if something he's developing doesn't have a monster in it, he won't direct the film. So why not helm a movie centered on the ultimate movie-monster of them all?

Latino Review reports Legendary Pictures has thrown him an offer to helm their planned Godzilla reboot. If del Toro were to give the "thumbs up," he would help in retooling Pacific Rim (a sci-fi pitch purchased by the studio months back) as the basis for the Godzilla update.

Throwing a monkey-wrench in the deal is del Toro's current commitment to his dream project At the Mountains of Madness (set up over at Universal with James Cameron producing) and Legendary's desire to get this ready by 2012. So either he'll have to graciously decline or the studio will push its release back a year or so in order to net him.

If all parties come to an agreement, a Guillermo del Toro-directed Godzilla reboot would be something fans would eat up.

The Lizard is the Villain in Spider-Man Reboot

That didn't take long.

It was only a day or so back that Sony officially announced Rhys Ifans would join Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone as the villain for Marc Webb's 3D Spider-Man reboot. Mum was the word on specifically which baddie the Notting Hill actor would play. Given his own physical attributes, it could have been any one of many different villains from Webhead's rogues gallery.

The Wrap has the inside word Ifans will portray Dr. Curt Connors, aka the Lizard. Plenty of fans guesstimated that's who he'd be playing, and rumors have swirled across the interwebs he'd be used for God knows how long now So, props to those fans who called it.

Gotta say that really sucks for Dylan Baker though. The guy played Connors in the last two Sam Raimi-helmed Spider-Man flicks (he was also expected to return for the ill-fated fourth film) waiting for his moment in the sun. But that day never came, and here's someone else getting it at first shot.

Tom Hardy Joins Batman 3

When Mad Max: Fury Road was recently hit by delays (personally, I don't see it getting back up despite director George Miller's claims to the contrary), all of us wondered what Tom Hardy would do with his newly-open schedule. No doubt he wasn't going to have trouble scoring high-profile work especially after his turn in Christopher Nolan's mega-hit Inception and Bronson. Well, we're getting an Inception reunion pretty quick it seems.

"TOLDJA" reports Hardy has been secured for a leading role in director Nolan's Batman 3. Not a word is being said regarding if he's playing a possible ally of Bats or the newest baddie to follow in the foot-steps of Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy and Heath Ledger. Until further details emerge, we're all going to assume he'll be the latter.

Either way, Batman 3 is off to a great start.

Adam Sandler is One Ugly Woman

But once you get to know her, you'll see she has a great personality!

Taking a break from stalking celebrities at Taco-Bell or following them into the bathroom, TMZ has a snap-shot of Adam Sandler "in character" as Jill for his next cinema-opus Jack & Jill. The actor/comedian will play both title characters - sheer brilliance. I smell an Oscar nomination.

No word on who Rob Schneider will portray, and whether or not he'll scream "You can do it!" and the audiences will laugh and laugh. Did you know that every time someone blows their hard-earned money on shitty Adam Sandler comedies, a puppy dies?

Zack Snyder Non-Denies Zod as Superman: The Man of Steel Villain

In the frenzy of Zack Snyder being announced as the director of Superman: The Man of Steel also came the revelation the reboot's main baddie would be none other than General Zod as first reported by Heat Vision and backed up by Latino Review. It was an idea (similar to Mr. Snyder behind the camera) that grew on me; reminded me of how Christopher Nolan opted to use Ra's al Ghul for Batman Begins and bringing in "the big guns" (like the Joker) for its sequel The Dark Knight.

Plenty of rumors of messy David Goyer scripts, casting, plots about Clark Kent/Supes walking the Earth and so forth have leaked through the cracks since. All the key Superman players are obviously going to keep those lips zipped, but there might be the occasional remark here or there.

Bad Taste had a chat with director Snyder and his producing-partner (and partner-in-life/wife) Deborah over Legend of the Guardians (or "That Owl Movie," as you might also have heard it). When asked about the Christmas 2012 Superman do-over and the prospects of his royal Zod-ness as the heavy, Snyder merely replied:

"For now it's just a rumor."

Not exactly a denial there, so don't start racing to the top of hill proclaiming, "The Zod story's been debunked!" It hasn't been, kids.

Mad Max: Fury Road Delayed? Blame it on the Penguins!

If you weren't buying George Miller's reason behind the Mad Max: Fury Road delay (Damn you, Australian weather!), then this confirms your suspicions. Hey, remember kids, he swore up and down Justice League: Mortal wasn't DOA when all evidence, common-sense and plain old logic said otherwise.

Screen Hub (who require you to pay up for access – bastards; but thankfully Movie Hole has the info) says Warner Brothers wants Miller's full and undivided attention on Happy Feet 2 as that has a November 2011 release locked.

Adding fuel to that fire is the commercial under-performance of WB's current animated Legends of the Guardians and the fact that its director Zack Snyder wasn't focused 100% during production. To be fair, he was up to his eyeballs on Sucker Punch at the same time.

Nonetheless, the Happy Feet sequel is understandably the bigger priority. For his sake, I hope Miller finally gets his fourth Mad Max installment going, but maybe the world is generally "Meh" about seeing the leather-clad action-hero Max Rockatansky again.

Fox Eyeing Natalie Portman for Alien Prequel

Similar to her Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky, it seems couple of days we hear of another high-profile genre movie Natalie Portman is up for. As reported by Movie Hole, she's said to be high up on Warner Brothers' list of Lois Lanes for Superman: The Man of Steel. Before that, the studio threw a formal offer her way to headline the troubled Alfonso Cuaron Gravity production (she turned it down) and her long-attachment to Pride & Prejudice & Zombies (she recently left the project).

Courtesy of Vulture comes something else to send the fanboys' blood raising. She's under 20^th Century Fox's radar for the lead of their untitled Alien prequel. My reaction is the same as Aronofsky on Wolverine 2 – just, fuck no. The world isn't clamoring to know the origins of the Goddamn space jockey, and she'd be better off torpedoing Fox's offer. Hasn't she made her mark in the "prequel to popular sci-fi franchise" genre anyway?

This comes hot off the heels of Damon Lindelof (co-creator of Lost and penning the Star Trek sequel with K&O)'s rewrite getting a glowing reception from studio brass. His touch-ups are said to have appeased their concerns with the direction Scott wants to take this prequel – budget and rating. It certainly doesn't sound like both parties have resolved their issues as earlier reported, but Fox is happy. Makes you wonder if they might show Scott the door if a resolution can't be met?

For me, this is one of those flicks I'll believe is happening when we see pictures taken from the set on the first day of filming. Could it still happen, and thus make me dead-wrong? Of course, certainly that wouldn’t be the first time to have occurred.

Darren Aronofsky Nearing Deal to Direct Wolverine Sequel

Last we scanned on Darren Aronofsky's front, Warner Brothers sent over their red-hot Tales from the Gangster Squad script in hopes for him to direct. According to "TOLDJA," he wasn't enticed enough (or at all, for all we know) to make it his Black Swan follow-up.

So you guessed it, things are pointed right back to the Canadian, adamantium-filled comic-hero and that less-than-anticipated sequel. A deal has yet to be closed out, but it's inching closer to happening with him reportedly clawing for a "$5 million against 5% of the gross" deal.

One can see where he found appeal in the Robocop and Superman reboots. There he's starting from the ground-up with a chance of making his mark on those franchises revivals. But Lord help me, I don't see the upswing in helming Wolverine 2, besides the money and a chance to work with Hugh Jackman again. Not that either is necessarily poor reasoning.

The one plus-sign for this (assuming it goes though, which at this rate, I'd be surprised if it didn't) is it shows 20^th Century Fox is content with getting talent behind the cameras for their newest batch of X-Men movies. We're getting the Matthew Vaughn-directed, Bryan Singer-produced X-Men: First Class for release next June and a Darren Aronofsky-helmed Wolverine sequel would certainly raise eye-brows in the nerd/geek/fanboy community.

Caesar: Rise of the Apes Promo Art Leaks

My feelings on the pointlessness of this notwithstanding, yes this does look cool.

AICN got a hold of a "Thank You" card done up by the art department from Caesar: Rise of the Apes. It also gives us an idea of how the title character responsible for the monkeyocalypse (played by Andy Serkis via motion-capture) will look.

Like I said, bang-up job there, but I'm still scratching my head as to why anyone thinks it's financially viable to spend over $100 million on a Planet of the Apes prequel. This is coming straight from the mouth (well, keyboard) of a fan of the original series too. That is, of course, unless 20^th Century Fox is run by monkeys. Zing.

First Set Pictures from The Hangover 2 Surface

Will Warner Brothers/Legendary Pictures and director Todd Phillips be able to capture lightning in a bottle twice?

It shan't be too long before we find out as The Hangover 2 hits cinemas for the Memorial Day 2011 weekend. Filming is underway, and Pop Sugar has the first set pictures of our four leads (Justin Bartha, Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis) together again.

I'd be hard-pressed to imagine the follow-up topping (not to mention, matching) the $280 million gross the original comedy achieved back in June of 2009. A lot of that truthfully had to do with the overall lack of tentpoles that mind (remnants of the late-2007/early-2008 WGA Strike). So it was given proper time to bank in the big smackeross, thanks to its solid opening weekend and subsequent legs the months following. To be fair, the movie being funny as shit helped too!

Quality-wise, the sequel's even more questionable. Having a feeling we're in for a bigger-budget recycling of the original. I'm all for being wrong on this, mind you.