Brad Bird's 1952 Headed to Tomorrowland

What's been referred to as 1952, the Brad Bird-directed, Damon Lindelof-penned project for Disney, has undergone a title change.

The studio has officially re-titled it to Tomorrowland. George Clooney will star, its set for a December 2014 release in 3D and no, we don't have a clue what it's about yet.

Man of Steel May Have the Strangest, Meta "Cameo"

Cameos of past Superman actors in the latest film incarnation isn't new. In fact, it's an unofficial tradition. Kirk Alyn and Noel Neill played Lois Lane's parents in Superman the Movie and Jack Larson tagged along with Neill for Superman Returns as Jimmy Olsen's bar-tender buddy and the old woman Lex Luthor swindled outta her fortune.

Spanish fansite Superman Javi Olivares has covered this "cameo." It comes from video taken a year back during the Chicago leg of the Man of Steel shoot. Henry Cavill's Clark Kent, sans glasses, is riding a bike in downtown Metropolis.

Take a look at the mild-mannered, fedora and possibly glasses wearing extra in the background. The theory is this is "Christopher Reeve" – a symbolic way of passing the torch to Cavill and saying "Out with the old, in the new?"

Not something to brush off as fanboy bullshit; this is so out there, I buy it.

For the record, this wouldn't be the first time "Christopher Reeve" appeared via cameo in another guy's Superman movie. That Superman Returns Noel Neill cameo I mentioned earlier? After she croaks and gives Luthor everything, he walks out of her bedroom and is faced down by her family... with a paraplegic center frame. Reeve was originally set to cameo before his passing prior to the start of filming.

More X-Men Going Back to Future for Days of Future Past

Bryan Singer directing X-Men: Days of Future Past opened the door for his alumni to return. Why else would Sir Ian McKellen show up after the semi-atrocious, semi-poetic fate of Magneto in The Last Stand. Turning him "straight" with the Mutant Cure - the whole thing is one big gay parable. Notice he hasn't been back since.

More are returning as Singer tweeted to expect to see Anna Paquin, Shawn Ashmore and, the big surprise here, Ellen Page. Her casting was the big contribution by Brett Ratner - Kelsey Grammer and Vinnie Jones were Matthew Vaughn hires before he quit.

Didn't think we'd see Page return, this was pre-Juno and her initial contract undoubtedly expired in the seven years since. Figured they'd spin the Days of Future Past storyline (one of the X-Men psychically time-travels to the past to prevent an event leading to a mutant holocaust) and approximate it for Mystique instead. Jennifer Lawrence is hot, The Hunger Games is big and she’s about to win her Oscar for Silver Linings Playbook. I guess not.

This is going to be an over-stuffed roster. Would it be more appropriate to re-title this Giant Sized X-Men given the growing, and more to come, cast?

Bradley Cooper In Talks to Play Lance Armstrong

All that achievement, all that admiration, all that respect; all wiped clean when it turns out you're a lying, cheating douchebag. That's how Lance Armstrong will be remembered.

Not one to resist kicking a man while he's down as long as it makes a buck (deserved or not), J.J. Abrams is producing the forthcoming tell-all, "Cycle of Lies: The Fall of Lance Armstrong" for Paramount under his Bad Robot Productions banner.

He confirmed to Entertainment Tonight talks are underway for Bradley Cooper (Soon to lose an Oscar to Daniel Day-Lewis) to play the disgraced cyclist. His pre-Hangover filmography is full of douche roles, before breaking out in the Todd Phillips comedy he was best known as Rachel McAdams' asshole boyfriend in Wedding Crashers. This isn't uncharted territory.

Not hard to visualize him being grilled by Debra Wilson as Oprah.

J.J. Abrams Directing Star Wars Episode VII

The Internet broke when news of Disney acquiring Lucasfilm hit the press. It's gonna break all over again.

The Wrap reports J.J. Abrams will direct Star Wars: Episode VII for Disney. Thus vacating his position from the Star Trek franchise at Paramount and proving once again that people in showbiz lie. Remember when he told Empire he wasn't interested?

Ben Affleck was also reportedly in contention. Disney and Kathleen Kennedy wanted a name to wow us right out the gate. They weren't fooling. Some will deem this a "safe" choice. They aren't wrong. But here's the thing. Abrams was able to bring the idea of advanced, futuristic technology as junk, something from the original trilogy, to his '09 Trek restart.

It's a reassuring sign that guy is gonna bring that back to Star Wars, a charm missing from the much-maligned prequels. He can also direct the Hell outta ensembles. And of course, cut to the lens flares jokes.

He's not Brad Bird, whom the Internet unanimously supported, or Jon Favreau, who was long pegged as the favorite. But I'm hard-pressed to not like this choice.

This all goes back to that announcement last October. Disney wants us to be excited about Star Wars again like when we were kids. Mission accomplished and I can't wait to hear, and see, more.

First jOBS Clip

The testament to jOBS, the biopic on Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, is how will it stack against Pirates of Silicon Valley. This first clip made me think of how much I enjoyed the 1999 made-for-TV production on the same subject.

Ashton Kutcher may look more like the title character than Noah Wylie. But Wylie gave a career-best performance as the egomaniac Jobs. No preconceived notions against Kutcher as an actor (He's pigeon-holed himself into the Kelso roles) , but I don't buy him here, confronting Josh Gad as Steve Wozniak, who also is hard to take seriously with that fake beard and wig:

Justice League Has Its Lineup

Our scoopster brethren at Latino Review, led by the disciple El Mayimbe, have the roster for Justice League, Warner Brothers' scrambled attempt at having themselves an Avengers-level hit. Going up the same summer as The Avengers 2 if they get their crap together (and sweet baby Jesus is that questionable) since there is still no director, greenlight or even an idea if this plays into The Man of Steel or does their own thing; new cast, continuity and all.

Ironic they blew the opportunity to be first out the gate with George Miller's Justice League: Mortal five years. Nobody was for it, save the people making it obviously, costs were through the roof, the Australian government was giving them grief over tax rates and Christopher Nolan was, shall we say, not too keen on stepping over his toes whilst his Dark Knight trilogy was active. Even took a dinner meeting with Bryan Singer while he was still steering Superman; a meeting of the minds, if you will, about how to avoid the incoming damage it would have inflicted. Needless to say it didn't happen and everyone, with good taste, was happy.

Cut to so many years later and here we are with the studio pushing ahead once again. Whether or not we, or their own people (*Cough*Zack Snyder and Christopher Nolan*Cough*), approve. Anyway, here's the lineup:

1. Superman
2. Batman
3. Wonder Woman
4. Green Lantern
5. The Flash

There's room for maybe cameos from walking-joke Aquaman and Martian Manhunter. If this happens for 2015 (Not holding my breath; nor should you), they'll save a couple of bucks and reuse stuff cooked up for Justice League: Mortal like costumes, production design and even more set-pieces. Same as how they carried over work from Superman: Flyby for Man of Steel.

Toy Set Offers Clue to Additional Man of Steel Villain

History has shown toy displays can be quite the unintended spoilers. Remember advanced toy packaging for The Amazing Spider-Man blabbing the Lizard turning SWAT officers into fellow reptiles?

The London Toy-Far is going down and on display are items from Man of Steel. While no pictures were taken (Studios slowly catching on to how this blows plot points), Blogomatic 3000 was there to take note:

"The set numbers and titles for these sets are as rumoured: 76002 Superman Metropolis Showdown, 76003 Superman Battle of Smallville and 76009 Superman Black Zero Escape. Minifigures featured in the sets include Superman, Zod, Faora, Tor-An and a General Zod figure variant in some kind of armour. The standout piece in the range is in set 76009 – a large spaceship with an almost 'bug'-like appearance..."

Everything reads fine, but who exactly is Tor-An? Haven't heard of him prior and up until this point, we only knew of Zod and Faora being the only Kryptonian baddies duking it out with Henry Cavill's Superman.

A quick search shows Tor-An is a fellow Kryptonian and devoted follower of the General. His plans went as far as disguise himself as a human not unlike our red-and-blue suit wearing hero. A look at his physically appearance shows a resemblance to Tahmoh Penikett, who is listed by the notoriously iffy IMDB as Henry Ackerdson (aka Metallo). But the actor himself tweeted he couldn't talk go into specifics about his role - namely who he is playing.

Perhaps this is the mysterious role he was alluding to?

David Fincher In Talks to Direct Gone Girl

Variety reports David Fincher is in talks to direct Gone Girl for 20^th Century Fox. Quite the bidding war went down last year for the Gillian Flynn novel.

The simple plot synopsis is a woman disappears on the day of her fifth wedding anniversary and the husband is the prime suspect. That's all she wrote. But knowing the genre, and the fact Fincher is attracted to it, there's presumably more underneath the surface.

It's not a stretch truthfully for Fincher. He's covered this ground before. As much as we're only interested in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea due to his involvement (Admit it), that presented a challenge. Could Finch use his filmmaking methodology we've come to know for masterworks like Fight Club, Seven or The Social Network for the popcorn crowds?

I'm not complaining. I love that his heart remains with grown-up geared projects and, yeah, because it's Fincher.

Olympus Has Fallen Trailer Breaks the Cliché-O-Meter

"He is ex-Special Forces!"

"Can we trust him?"

"With all due respect, I'm the best you got!"

The go-to comparison to Olympus Has Fallen is Die Hard for obvious reasons. But my first thoughts went to all those Die Hard rip-offs.

If you like your cheesy cinema with extra cheese, none of the irony, and can stand Gerald Butler (I can't; awful actor), then enjoy. Who wants to bet Speaker of the Houser-cum-Acting President Morgan Freeman is behind it all?

When the White House (Secret Service Code: "Olympus") is captured by a terrorist mastermind and the President is kidnapped, disgraced former Presidential guard Mike Banning finds himself trapped within the building. As our national security team scrambles to respond, they are forced to rely on Banning¹s inside knowledge to help retake the White House, save the President and avert an even bigger disaster. Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) directs an all-star cast featuring Gerard Butler, Morgan Freeman, Aaron Eckhart, Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo, Ashley Judd, and Rick Yune.