Christopher Plummer Joins Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The cast is being finalized just before cameras roll on Sony's high-profile remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo with director David Fincher.

THR reports Christopher Plummer will step into the role of Henrik, the Vanger family patriarch who hires disgraced reporter Mikael Blomkvis (Daniel Craig) and hacker Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara, whom everyone is waiting to see how she turns out) to find the whereabouts of his beloved niece.

Originally, Max Von Sydow had secured the part. But I guess certain agreements couldn't be met, and here we have good old Plummer instead.

Robert Zemeckis Returning to Live-Action & Time-Travel

It's weird how filmmakers you grew up admiring and thinking them as untouchable eventually lose that...well, touch.

For Robert Zemeckis (the director of classics like Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Forest Gump), no one is gonna argue the culprit behind his spiral has been his dedication to motion-capture films. It started off well with The Polar Express (cute enough movie), but can't repeat the sentiment for Beowulf, A Christmas Carol and a Yellow Submarine re-do.

But...what's...this?!? He's returning to live-action features? This has to be symptoms from this damn virus that's been killing me since Monday. Nope, this comes outta "TOLDJA!" so it's real.

Zemeckis is poised to return to not only live-action, but the time-travel genre with the just sold pitch Timeless. No further details are available currently besides the studio involved (Warner Brothers) and screenwriter assigned the job (Mike Thompson). So we'll have to use our imaginations for the moment.

I Am Number Four Teaser Trailer

Take away the alien angle, and this feels like another X-Men movie.

Yahoo! Movies has the teaser trailer up and running for I Am Number Four. That's the sci-fi/action/teenage movie helmed by D.J. Caruso and produced by Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay and based on an as-yet-published book co-authored by "non-fiction" writer James Frey.

Christopher Nolan Confirms the Obvious: He's Directing Batman 3

It was only a matter of time before someone got flat out confirmation. Even if it's "No shit, Sherlock!" news, it's yet to be "officially" confirmed, and who am I kidding? Had I had the words uttered to me straight from the man I too would have run to the hills with this news-item.

Christopher Nolan is directing Batman 3. Not courtesy of the info-stealers from "TOLDJA" or the trades, but thankfully Empire.

Just last week, he confirmed he was putting his touches on the script (first penned by his brother Jonah) all the while he looks for a suitable Superman: The Man of Steel director before heading back to Gotham City for a third (and, by all accounts, final) time.

Commence fan speculation on the title and villain(s).

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.

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.

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?

Goodfellas Headed for Television

In the company of films ranging from Raiders of the Lost Ark to Being There, Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas sits amongst my all-time favorite movies. No matter how my day's been going, if it playing on television (even despite being heavily edited for broadcast standards), I will sit my ass down and watch it. Hell my parents even love that movie. Dare I say I've yet to meet someone who didn't?

Courtesy of "TOLDJA," comes the revelation a television version of the 1990 film (labeled by many to be good old Marty's masterpiece – I won't argue against that) is in development. No studio has purchased the rights or a network committed to it. But we can assume it'll be Warner Brothers TV (WB produced/distributed the film) and cable behind this. Imagine this on network television. Yikes.

Nicholas Pileggi (who wrote the original book Wiseguys and co-authored the script with Scorsese) will pen the pilot.

The only thing I find odd is remarking my partner-in-crime Peter Georgiou mere weeks back how The Departed could make a great HBO series. And to now read about this? Jesus, this is weird.