Jeremy Renner Offered the Bourne Legacy

As of last week, it was down to four yet-to-break-out/lesser-known actors for The Bourne Legacy. So in typical fashion (and following the trend of the up-and-down, back-and-forth casting process for Captain America and The Amazing Spider-Man a year ago), none of those guys appear to have nabbed it.

Sounds like Universal is thinking wise and wanting someone with audience recognition since the task of being "the new guy" after Matt Damon is so daunting. Latino Review says what started out as a disagreement between writer/director Tony Gilroy and Universal (He wanted Oscar Isaac, currently in Sucker Punch while it's still in theaters and they didn't; guess who got their way?) over the lead has resulted in what could be our guy. 

A formal offer they report has been sent out to, and waiting word back from, to Jeremy Renner to be the new face of the Bourne series.

Great actor; but I wonder if he's already overloaded with too many other tentpoles for his own good. Tom Cruise is passing the Mission: Impossible torch to him this Christmas with the Brad Bird-directed Ghost Protocol, and he has The Avengers coming up (and potentially a slew of Marvel movie follow-ups as Hawkeye along with it) and then there's the ridiculous-sounding Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters lensing right now.

How Do You Not Assign Shane Black to Write Iron Man 3?

It wouldn't make sense to you if I hired one of the greatest chefs in the world, and once getting him into my restaurant I told him his job was strictly serving water to customers. So it strikes me as off that someone as renowned for their writing skills as Shane Black, especially in the action genre, isn't being 100% utilized to write the film he's recently been assigned to direct Iron Man 3.

For the moment, Black is taking a back-seat as Drew Pearce (writer/producer of the UK superhero series No Heroics) pens the third Shellhead installment with Robert Downey Jr., says "TOLDJA!" Pearce's script for Runaways, another Marvel adaptation that seemed all but certain to happen...until it didn't, is said to have gotten him the gig.

Yes, yes, I understand this is a big corporate asset from one of the world's entertainment giants (Disney) with a May 2013 release date set and all that cross-promotions with toys, tee-shirts, drinking cups and the big McDonald's Happy Meal push, to name a few. It's not like Black is planning to drop F-words left and right and have Iron Man 3 go out guns a'blazing with a hard-R rating.

He'll be involved in the writing process, as will Downey of course. Just surprised Black didn't get a first crack at the script before others came in.

The Hangover Part II Trailer

This should be a popular Memorial Day weekend destination.  The Hangover Part II, that is, and not Thailand, where everyone's favorite utterly irresponsible bachelor parties buddies end up in the sequel to the blockbuster 2009 comedy. 

Looks pretty funny.  The Hangover Part II opens in theaters on May 26. 

Geoffrey Rush To Join "Green Lantern"

The voice casting is starting to come together for "Green Lantern" as the powers that be attempt to put this movie together in post-production. On top of the recent news that Michael Clarke Duncan is in talks to voice Kilowog comes the news that Tomar-Re has his voice actor.

Geoffrey Rush, most recently of "The King's Speech" will take on the voice responsibilities for Tomar-Re the alien who mentors Hal Jordan. According to Hero Complex The Brothers Warner are going to make this all official on Thursday.

Geeked up for Rush, the guy is a talent.

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON WELCOME TO COAST CITY

John Travolta Set for Non-Embarrassing/Paycheck Role

John Travolta hasn't acted in awhile. By that I mean, he hasn't done a film in the longest that wasn't a cash-grab and required as little of his talent as possible. Get the impression he just takes the fattest paychecks with the quickest shooting schedule so he can go back to his family and aviation.

He may have found a role to re-remind people of his acting chops, says THR. He's set to play mobster John Gotti in the indie Gotti: Three Generations to be directed by Nick Cassavetes.

The story, according to the trades, centers around "the relationship between John Gotti Sr., the head of the Gambino crime family who died in prison in 2002, and his son John Gotti Jr., who took over the family business for his father, served time in prison, but then successfully escaped conviction in four subsequent racketeering trials."

This is more of the John Travolta I want to see. Something tells me I'm not the only one.

Beating a Dead Horsification Continues: Pirates 5 in Writing Stage

Everyone I've talked about Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides has had the same reaction:

"They're doing another one?!"

It should be noted that wasn't said in an excited tone; more like fatigue, boredom and great sense of "Just give it up already, will ya!?!" I even saw that reaction when seeing the Pirates 4 trailer in theaters. But in a way, you can't blame Disney and producer Jerry Bruckheimer; for this one at least. Pirates 3 did earn a hair shy of a $1 billion theatrically. All they're doing is reacting to the last movie and since audience approval or disapproval speaks in dollar signs, they're not wrong per say.

Speaking to USA Today which at CinemaCon, Bruckheimer says work is underway for a fifth Pirates go-around:

"The audience told us what they loved about it is that it was fresh, it was new, it was a whole new story. So that will carry over into the next one, too, to give it something fresh and different. As long as the audience embraces this one, we'll certainly try to make another one. It's really up to Johnny. He loves the character."

That's funny because Curse of the Black Pearl was envisioned as a stand-alone story too. Once the money poured in, and they found a cash-cow in Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow character, they decided to suddenly turn the whole damn thing into a trilogy. Also ironic considering the original plan, according to them, was for Pirates 4 to be the start of a new trilogy and now they're saying it won’t be?

Sounds to me like they're aware of audience fatigue too and readying themselves in case this under-performs, which I for one think it will big time. Find it telling they're not rolling this out for Memorial Day. Is The Hangover Part II that big a threat for ticket sells?

Wonder Woman Set Pics & Video

The reaction to the first look at Adrianne Palicki as Wonder Woman (as seen above) was overall a big "meh". Not because Adrianne looked bad in a skin tight costume, even fanboys can't be that blind. Can they? It was because the colors and look were a little off from what the basement dwellers knew to be Wonder Woman. Even looked a little bit off to me and I could care less about how faithful it is or isn't to the comics.

Apparently the powers that be listened to the whining and adjusted the colors and the look to better relate it to the comics. See below for the final version

New Winnie the Pooh Clip

Everyone say it together now:  awwwww.  Disney has released a new clip from the too-adorable-for-words Winnie the Pooh:

Directed by Stephen J. Anderson and Don Hall, Winnie the Pooh is a sequel to 1977's The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.  It will feature the voices of Jim Cummings as Pooh and Tigger, Craig Ferguson as Owl, Tom Kenny as Rabbit, Bud Luckey as Eeyore, Travis Oates as Piglet, Jack Boulter as Christopher Robin, and John Cleese as the Narrator.  The film will also include the classic Sherman Brothers songs "Winnie the Pooh" and "The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers", as well as seven new songs written by Robert Lopez (Broadway's Avenue Q and The Book of Mormon) and his wife/collaborator Kristen Anderson-Lopez, who also provides the voice of Kanga. 

Winnie the Pooh opens in theaters on July 15.

That Looks Like A Hobbit to Me!

Since principal photography of The Hobbit will eat up all of 2011 and a fair chunk of 2012, there's no telling when Warner Brothers will release official photos of its cast. It's only a week into filming, and already fans are grabbing any "From a far-view distant" snap-shots of the actors in costume. Not that I'm casting a stone at them. When we start seeing set pictures from Superman and James Bond (2)3, I'll be the first to lap them up like a starving mutt.

One Ring has some pictures taken of what appears to be our first-look at Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins. It certainly looks like him, and if it isn't, I'll be damned.

Total Recall Remake Won't Be Getting Its Ass to Mars

I wasn't vehemently against remaking Total Recall when it was first announced. I haven't read Phillip K. Dick's We Can Remember It for You Wholesale. So I figured maybe there was material Paul Verhoeven, Ron Shusett, Dan O'Bannon and those guys opted against using for the 1990 film. Something that Len Wiseman and the new guys could take and make their own with the 2012 do-over.

Whatever their intentions, don't expect Mars in the mix according to Heat Vision.

While announcing the great Bryan Cranston will play the baddie Vilos Cohaagen, they released the plot synopsis with a noticeably non-space-bound setting:

"The new story involves nation states Euromerica and New Shanghai, with Douglas Quaid (Farrell) a factory worker in the latter who begins to believe he is a spy, although he doesn't know for which side."

If they're taking the heavy sci-fi elements out of the equation and, most likely, the "Is this real or this a dream?" scenario, then what the Hell is the point of this Total Recall remake?