Third Time Appears To Be the Charm for Immortals - First Good Trailer

Could Immortals be the next Rise of the Planet of the Apes?

Translation: the movie I endlessly shit-talk about how stupid it looks based on the (lack of) strength of its early shitty trailers. Then one single trailer comes along that pulls the plot together, sets up its story in a compelling manner over the course of two minutes cut together from its two-hour running length, pulls a 180 in its broad marketing strategy and winds up both commercially successfully and, gasp, good?

Based on this third trailer for the Tarsem Singh-directed fantasy epic starring Henry Cavill before he was flying around Metropolis, standing for truth, justice and the American way, it's possible. MSN has said footage, but isn't sharing with an embed code, the bastards! But God bless, YouTube so you can either follow the link above or see it below. You tell me I'm wrong, but this is the first time I've seen Immortals and didn't think it screamed, "300 knock-off!"

Now THAT Sounds Like an Arrested Development Movie

Can you imagine a world with an Arrested Development movie finally getting made?

I can't.

Love the series as much as I do, it feels like that ship sailed a long time ago and it had a great wrap-up for a final episode. Going back to the Bluths five years later could be great. Or it could be one of those cases of where they should have left a great thing alone.

Our pals at Screen Rant have received word from a source stating that this will be announced in a few weeks time. But they've heard what the story for the movie will be:

"Ron Howard is making a movie about the Bluths using an A-List cast. But Dr. Tobias plays himself because nobody wants to play him in the movie. The Bluths decide to make their own movie in contention with Ron Howard's."

Not doubting them here. It's a cool idea, and fitting for the irreverent and meta nature of the great, short-lived television series. I'd just be cautious not to get your hopes up. Also this admittedly funny plot description notwithstanding, we've been here before with Arrested Development and creator Mitchell Hurwitz or stars Jason Bateman, Will Arnett or Jeffrey Tambor swearing up and down about how filming is going to start in the spring or fall for release the following year. And then nothing happens.

So Long, Lone Ranger

Even though he headlined three billion-grossing films (two of them in the last two years in a row) and has long been the studio's MVP, even Johnny Depp's power and influence is limited over at Disney. In what was a bombshell announcement late Friday evening, "TOLDJA" broke the story of Disney pulling the plug on The Lone Ranger.

Things had advanced on the Western adventure as far as a director (Gore Verbinski), producer (Jerry Bruckheimer), script (Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio), cast (including Armie Hammer in the title role, Depp as Tonto, Ruth Wilson, Dwight Yoakam, Helena Bonham Carter and Barry Pepper) and a prime December 21, 2012 release date all being committed to.

Who can we thank for this? The budget.

Reportedly in the vicinity of $275 million and Disney execs wanted down to $200 and lowest the filmmakers could bring it down to was closer to $232 million. So just what the Hell would make a Western cost that much? Reports Hollywood Elsewhere, werewolves, obviously! The recent box-office failure of Cowboys & Aliens, Depp's dwindling box-office appeal in the US and Western's unpopularity in the foreign box-office (where Depp is still a huge star and thus the bulk of the gross would come from) also played a factor in its cancellation.

When you're reuniting the key players from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise as Lone Ranger was going to, you know they were just going to let Depp do his "colorful weirdo" routine, no questions asked. As we said on Movie Moan last night, we'll all tired of it and honestly were that many people really looking forward to this?

Mike Myers To Murder Comedy In "Austin Powers 4"

Mike Myers hasn't headlined a live-action comedy since the colossal failure of 2008's The Love Guru. But it's tanking wasn't from a lack of effort. The comedy was heavily promoted including Myers hosting the MTV Movie Awards that served as nothing but an extended commercial thanks to good old-fashioned corporate synergy. Both Paramount and MTV are owned by Viacom. As been the case time and time again, movie-goers just got tired of Myers' routine and decided to spend their money on other comedies that summer like Get Smart, Tropic Thunder, Step Brothers and Pineapple Express.

In an effort it appears to get back into relevancy, Myers is dusting off the thick rims and bad British teeth. That's right, he's closed a deal for Austin Powers 4, reports HitFix.

As fate would have it a few months back, I caught Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me on FX. As opposed to the fifteen year-old me who (like many) couldn't stop laughing and spent the remainder of the summer quoting that sequel, my twenty-seven year-old self kept thinking, "So this was the defintion of comedy for us back in 1999!"

You would think that the box-office failures of the afore-mentioned Love Guru but also Scream 4 would tell Warner Brothers/New Line this is a bad idea. In the case of Scream 4, Dimension thought taking a once-vibrant franchise and one sympatico with the 1990s and bringing it back would result in modern audiences hungering for a return. It didn't. They had moved on to something else.

If this is going to be more of Myers typical schtick we've seen before, except for making fun of Jason Bourne and Daniel Craig's James Bond, I can't think of anything positive to say. The 90's are over people!

Exclusive: WB Quietly Developing Batman/Superman Movie

As recently as last March, Warner Brothers head-kahuna Jeff Robinov told Hero Complex they were getting the ball rolling on Justice League for 2013 and a post-Christopher Nolan Batman movie of some kind with Nolan and his wife Emma Thomas playing a hand as producers, a la their participation on The Man of Steel. Since Zack Snyder's Superman reboot got pushed back from Christmas 2012 to Summer 2013, don't count on seeing Justice League two years from now and no telling how soon we'd see the first Bats flick following Nolan's swan-song The Dark Knight Rises.

Sources tell TMT WB is keen on getting a Justice League movie going and still high on The Flash despite Green Lantern being neither the critical or commercial success they'd hoped for nor was it embraced by fans. But the studio is also quietly developing a Batman/Superman team-up movie.

Similar to Justice League, the Brothers Warner has wanted to get their two biggest superheroes on the same screen together for years. The closest it came to fruition was Batman vs. Superman with Wolfgang Peterson-directing from a script by Andrew Kevin Walker. That fell apart as we all know, but executives loved that script.

In a classic case of covering your ass, what we're hearing is two separate incarnations are being tooled. One version where the World's Greatest Detective is firmly established and helps mentor an up-and-coming, fresh-faced Supes and vice versa. Essentially, they're hoping they can woo Christian Bale back into the cape-and-cowl for a fourth time and in case the Oscar-winner tells them, "No thanks, I'm done!", they'll go for a new actor altogether. Both versions would feature Henry Cavill's Last Son of Krypton.

Are these plans definite? No, as we mentioned earlier WB, by their own admission, is back into the Justice League mind-set in addition to The Flash, another iteration of Batman, a hypothetical The Man of Steel sequel (Of course, that depends on how the first movie does plus any outcome to the Shuster/Siegel court-cases), etc.

A lot of this is due to their non-definitive plans after 2013. Unlike Marvel who has their shit in order so much so they just announced two "mystery" movies for Summer 2014. So God only knows what we'll end up seeing from them after The Man of Steel.

WB Hoping For Harry Potter Magic on The Stand

Huge news over at HitFix. Warner Brothers is closing in on deals for David Yates and Steve Kloves to, respectively, direct and write a new multi-film version of Stephen King's The Stand.

As a fan of King's work, particularly The Stand, this is the news-item of the week for me. The 1994 television mini-series Mick Garris spearheaded is good, mind you. But at times you felt the restrictions of network-television in terms of both the book’s content and just the budget. Remember how cheap the hand of God looked on the small screen?

They're not saying at the moment how many films are on docket, but we're all assuming a trilogy. If you've read the book (and if you haven't do so), then you know there's enough material to fill three two-hour theatrical features. Having adapted all but one of the Harry Potter books (with the exception of Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix), Kloves can pull this off with King's one, admittedly complex, novel and Yates managed to exceed everyone's expectations with Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows – Part II making it the most successful and, in my opinion and that of many others, best installment of the franchise.

Issues like casting and how much WB will allow them to get away with (As much as I'd love to see it, I can't imagine them signing off on a big-budget hard-R rated trilogy in this environment) are topics for another day. But The Stand is getting the big screen treatment and that's news to celebrate.

Eddie Murphy Aiming to Sink Career Lower – Voicing Hong Kong Phooey

The Shrek films were a great-paying, in-and-out job for Eddie Murphy over the last decade. But now they're over and I guess Murphy likes the thought of phoning it in for shitty cartoons instead of shitty live-action features. Hence the announcement he'll voice Hong Kong Phooey for a forthcoming film on the Hanna-Barbera cartoon blending live-action with animation.

Here's the press release:

"Eddie Murphy will give voice to the animated lead character in Alcon Entertainment's live action/animated big screen adaptation of the of the 1970s Hanna-Barbera animated TV series Hong Kong Phooey, it was announced by Alcon co-founders and co-CEO's Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove.

In addition to voicing the character of Donkey in the box-office hit "Shrek" franchise, Murphy was also the voice of Mushu, the Dragon, in the successful animated epic Mulan. Murphy will next be seen in the comedies Tower Heist, co-starring Ben Stiller from Universal Studios and A Thousand Words, from DreamWorks.

Alex Zamm (Dr. Dolittle: Million Dollar Mutts, Tooth Fairy 2) will direct. Kosove and Johnson will produce with Jay Stern and Brett Ratner. Steven P. Wegner will executive produce.

Stated Johnson and Kosove: 'We could not be happier that Eddie Murphy will star as Phooey. There is no overstating his contributions to cinema, and to such enduring stars of family entertainments such as 'Shrek' and 'Dr. Dolittle.' We look forward to watching him re-imagine yet another classic character.'

Based on the 70's cult classic Hanna Barbera animated TV series, a mild-mannered dog named Penry (Murphy) stumbles into a mystic ceremony and is accidentally granted mystic powers, including the ability to walk, talk, and do kung fu. Under the tutelage of his kung fu master, Penry dons a costume and becomes Hong Kong Phooey, and with the help of his trusting sidekick Spot the cat cleans up a rogues gallery of wacky criminals."

To think I was just starting to get a little confidence in him from that Tower Heist trailer.

Sony Drops Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Character Profiles

In case you didn't read the book or see the original Swedish film version, the official website for David Fincher's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo has mug-shots of its cast with accompanying character-descriptions for each.

But since most of you only know Daniel Craig and "that freaky looking chick," you can read their profiles here and follow the link above for the rest if you wish.

Bruce Willis In Talks For G.I. Joe 2

Filming for G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation is about to start down here in New Orleans and, according to Heat Vision, the filmmakers are saving the biggest casting bit for last.

Bruce Willis is in talks to join the production as General Joe Colton. That's the original Joe himself who starts the team and, in turn, gains the nick-name "G.I. Joe."

I get it. Bring him onboard as the old-school ass-kicker, show the new generation how it's done (maybe provide a flash-black origin story during the Reagan presidency) and pass the torch to Channing Tatum, Dwayne Johnson & Co.

What's funny to me is by casting a huge name like Willis (who still draws big bucks in the international markets) they're crying "Bullshit!" about why most of The Rise of Cobra's cast was fired from this sequel. It's not because they couldn't afford them due to a tighter budget. They just want to distance themselves from the Stephen Sommers as much as possible and committing to people like Willis and Johnson helps that cause.

Henry Cavill On The Man of Steel Set

Things are in such air-tight security on The Man of Steel (currently lensing up in Illinois) that the working-Joes in the crew aren't allowed to flash a cell-picture from the set. But that hasn't stopped pictures from surfacing from someone. Who is anyone's guess? I mean look at the countless snap-shots taken from The Dark Knight Rises set.

Anyway, the Superman: Man of Steel Facebook page uploaded new pictures including, what appears to be, our first look at Henry Cavill on set. No, not in the McG Superman: Flyby...err...Zack Snyder Man of Steel suit but in plain apparel. He's in pre-disguise Clark Kent mode.