Johnny Depp Trying to Out-Weird Himself in Dark Shadows

We don't know the context by which this scene plays out in the finished film. So it would be immature of us to make fun of these set pictures (courtesy of Celebuzz) showcasing our first look at Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins in Tim Burton's Dark Shadows.

Fortunately none of us here at TMT are mature. So snicker away.

R.I.P.D. Set Pictures Show Off Ryan Reynolds, Kevin Bacon, Nice-Looking Car & Nothing Else

Nothing to take from these set pictures of R.I.P.D. except the fact that Ryan Reynolds is still getting work (Decent actor, and from what I've heard from folks who worked on Green Lantern, super nice guy, but not the box-office god executives were anticipating/expecting/hoping) and he continues the trend of driving pimp cars onscreen. Although it should be noted my experiences with Dodges are they look great, but are shit vehicles.

Still on the "iffy" side with the Robert Schwentke-directed supernatural action-comedy co-starring Jeff Bridges and Kevin Bacon (featured in those snap-shots). It's too Ghostbusters/Men in Black-sounding for my tastes.

Courtesy of Celebuzz.

Ever Wanted to Know What a Pixar Superman Might Look Like?

A few years back, our good pal Kofi Outlaw (aka the #2 big-cheese at Screen Rant) did a speculation piece hypothesizing if a reality was possible where Disney bought the Superman rights in lieu of the lawsuits going down between Warner Brothers/DC Comics and the Joe Shuster/Jerry Siegel estates.

Mind you, that's unlikely to happen given the heavily scrutinized details of what parties own what aspects to the character and property. Most of us can't imagine a settlement not going down before the release of The Man of Steel in June 2013. Similar thing happened before Superman the Movie hit cinemas in the holiday 1978 season. However what would a Superman movie look like done by, say, John Lasseter and the wizards at Pixar?

According to this very cool picture done up on the Superhero Hype! Forum via poster by the handle of Krypto, something like this.

Alas we'll just to settle on the likes of Zack Snyder and Christopher Nolan instead.

Someone's Prayers Answered: Top Gun Getting Converted to 3D

I'm trying my best not to give the time of day to certain Star Trek producers/screenwriters posting conspiracy tweets on the 10^th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Because that's totally appropriate and you're totally not a horrible human being for doing that.

Speaking of ideas that make you go, "Oh...fuck you," the world will be soon be getting a 3D converted version of Top Gun. Yes. You read that right.

THR has the dirty details. Barring approval of helmer Tony Scott, we could be see Goose and Iceman in three-dimensions in the early months of next year where it would face off against the equally point-less, and money-whoring, post-converted Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.

Not answered in said article is who was clamoring for a 3D Top Gun to begin with. Although hearing Kenny Loggins in IMAX sound isn't the worst idea Hollywood's kicked around.

Two More Summer Blockbusters Set to Steal Your Ten Bucks in 2013

As is accustomed, the summer movie season has come to a close, next year's releases are locked and now studios are slotting their big releases (Some will go before cameras in the next 6-ish months, if they haven't already) for the year after next.

THR says 20^th Century Fox and Disney/DreamWorks will split costs on Steven Spielberg's Robopocalypse and cherry-picking the always-lucrative July 4^th weekend in 2013 – Wednesday July 3^rd to be exact. The House of the Mouse gets their white and black-lined gloves on domestic distribution and Internet boogeyman Tom Rothman's joint will handle it overseas where it will make most of its money.

Love Spielberg, always game when he sticks his hands in the blockbuster pie. But I can't get past that stupid, stupid title. That, of course, means I haven't read the book, which could very well be brilliant. But reading is for bitches and us idiot movie-goers require explosions to feed our attention spans!

Elsewhere, M. Night Shyamalan has yet another chance to reclaim his Sixth Sense/Unbreakable/Signs glory days. No, I don't think that's going to happen either.

But his latest, the sci-fi adventure thriller One Thousand A.E. stars both Will and Jaden Smith. So it's going to make a lot of money because it stars Big Willie and li'l Willie is forming a strong career of his own. Sony will drop that one on June 7, 2013. It has an interesting, in a good way, (given the source is Shyamalan) story:

"Set 1,000 years into the future, a young boy navigates an abandoned and sometimes scary Earth to save himself and his estranged father after their ship crashes."

For you kids out there keeping score, that's two more release-dates Star Trek 2 could have grabbed for 2013 but didn't (Seriously, something has got to be up for Abrams & Co. to be dragging their feet this long) and two more films to potentially give The Man of Steel blue-balls.

Mad Mel Is At It Again!

If Hollywood can find it deep in the bottom of its heart to embrace child-molesters and brutal dictators, is there any room left for a bigot like Mel Gibson?

Warner Brothers says, "Why of course!" thinking like any smart studio about their bottom-line and the chance that stirring up controversy will up ticket-sales. Also they probably had their accountants look up Gibson's directorial track-record and saw the guy makes people a lot of money. And that, at the end of the day, is what it's all about in showbiz, is it not?

As per "TOLDJA," Gibson is collaborating with screenwriter Joe Eszterhas (Where's he been in the last decade?) on a historical epic centering on Judah Maccabee, the Jewish warrior whose heroism, along with his father and brothers, is celebrated every year during Hanukkah for leading the crusade against the Greek-Syrian Empire.

It's the kind of story you can imagine Gibson, the Academy-Award winning filmmaker, getting behind. It also goes without saying why this is going to piss off a lot of people. Rightfully so, let's be honest. This morning, Peter was commenting on how this sounds like his way of winning back the Jewish community. Possible, but in his defense, he's been talking about telling this story for years. I vividly remember reading about this on Dark Horizons, back around 2005. God love him, but Garth doesn't remember.

South Park really hit the nail with the hammer. Mel Gibson, the man, has real problems. But Gibson, the director, knows how to tell a damn good story.

The Expendables 2 Promises To Out Planet Hollywood the First One

If you Joe Sixpack movie-goer went into The Expendables fooled into thinking the whole film was Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis making quips at each other in between dismembering bad guys as violently as the MPAA would allow, then this will either excite you or make you go, "Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, fuck you Sly!"

Movie Hole reported this Holiday weekend (and "TOLDJA" just verified) Arnie and Bruce will return for The Expendables 2 in "substantial" scenes. Knowing how they did it last time, instead of one scene with the trio of 80s action-icons bullshitting together, it'll be *Gasp* two!

I Say, "No Thank You!" to Beetlejuice 2 – Who’s With Me?

Right now...at this very moment...there's an executive in the Burbank offices of Warner Brothers who authorized this Beetlejuice 2 non-sense who's also enjoying a blowjob from behind his desk after the fact.

To that gentleman, I humbly ask, "Wouldn't you rather just settle for that blowjob?" You'll probably reach a better and more fulfilling conclusion.

As per "TOLDJA," Seth Grahame-Smith (author of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Pride & Prejudice & Zombies – the former one of 20^th Century Fox's summer 2012 tentpoles, the latter meandering between directors and leading ladies) has started a production company with David (Son of Jeffery?) Katzenberg and just inked a two-year, first-look deal with WB. And one of the first projects off the bat churning through development and into reality?

You guessed it, Beetlejuice 2.

It goes without saying that not every successful movie needs a follow-up. Like Ghostbusters, my feelings are any extension from that original universe was best served by the late-80s/early-90s animated series instead of an actual sequel. Although yes, attempts were made, scripts were written (Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian!) and executives with cash to make and careers to further tried to woo Tim Burton and Michael Keaton back.

But like my feelings on another Blade Runner, it'd be best to let a young and hungry director with something to prove (something Burton himself was when he made Beetlejuice back in 1987) take this on instead of Burton himself. I don't like this. But that's irrelevant. We're going through this 80s nostalgia trend similar to the one our parents did before we were born in the 70s with the 50s nostalgia trend. It will eventually die down.

Hopefully by the time it does, the world hasn't been subjected to Beetlejuice 2.

Eddie Murphy: Oscar Host

This will probably strike up the "comeback" argument again. Odd when you realize he already had a career resurgence fifteen years ago with The Nutty Professor and since then, has all but squandered away that good-will he'd built back up since then.

You've, no doubt, heard Eddie Murphy will host the 84^th Annual Academy Awards.

We can thank Brett Ratner, producing next year's ceremonies and having recently directed Murphy in the forthcoming Tower Heist (that looks like it'll have some good laughs and be a crowd-pleaser), for the coup. So props to the Ratner for getting the ball rolling as opposed to the "You don't remember how tired his routine was the last time!" nostalgia factor that, for awhile there, looked like it would secure Billy Crystal's return to hosting duties.

I like the notion of a Murphy-headlining ceremony and it can't be any worse than the on-air disasters of recent years like James Franco last year (Anne Hathaway, on the other hand, was great), the equally-awkward Alec Baldwin/Steve Martin tag-team or Ellen DeGeneres. Perhaps this will be a new chapter in his career and the start of his third win.

No, I really don't believe that either.

Johnny Depp Tells Disney, "Not Without My Gore!"

Gore Verbinski and Jerry Bruckheimer have made their concessions and presented the tightened budget for The Lone Ranger to Disney, weeks after the studio castrated the production months before its fall 2011 start-date. The Mouse fearful of the reported $275-$300 million price-tag wouldn't be recouped in the wake of Cowboys & Aliens as commercial turd and the international markets, where Johnny Depp (playing Tonto, reportedly the lead instead of what's traditionally the sidekick role a la Big Trouble in Little China and The Green Hornet and Armie Hammer as the title character) is still a box-office god and where the majority of the gross will come from, being tepid towards westerns.

One of the hypothetical solutions was firing Verbinski and replacing him with a Yes-Man helmer who would do what his master(s) told him.

The problem in that equation, according to Mike Fleming at "TOLDJA," is Depp has made it clear to Disney. Fire Gore Verbinski and you'll have to look for a new Tonto. In an environment where loyalty means dick as long as you can get ahead, this is refreshing to read.

That doesn't mean I'm going to 180 on my anti-The Lone Ranger (well, this version) stance. But good on Depp for sticking with his pal. Still seems like a lost cause, if you ask me. This is an issue which would have been addressed a long time ago privately (Depp's been attached to this since 2008) and to bring it up this late into the game says to me no matter what is presented the big-wigs at Disney had long already made up their minds on killing The Lone Ranger. Then again, how many other actors can claim three $1 billion earning hits?