Director Robert Rodriguez wants his fiancee Rose McGowan to take the lead in his $100 million remake of Barbarella. Universal want a more bankable movie star to headline, but will go with McGowan if Rodriguez agrees to a lower $60 million budget...
J.J Abrams found his Captain Kirk! Chris Pine has accepted the offer, after being touted as the main contender for a few weeks. Karl Urban (Doom) joins the cast as Dr McCoy. Simon Pegg (Hot Fuzz) is Scotty, John Cho (Harold & Kumar) is Sulu, Zachary Quinto (Heroes) is Spock, Anton Yelchin (Huff) is Chekov, Zoe Saldana is Uhura and Eric Bana has been cast as villain Nero.
Spin-off prequel X-Men Origins: Wolverine is moving forward for a summer 2009 release, starring Hugh Jackman and directed by Gavin Hood. Liev Schreiber is being courted to play Stryker (the character previously played by Brian Cox in X-Men 2). A rumour is also circulating that popular X-Men character Gambit may be involved, owing to the film shooting in New Orleans.
A variety of actors and actresses arrived to audition for Justice League Of America, directed by George Miller. According to reports, Shannyn Sossamon tried out for Wonder Woman and impressed the writers so much she heard back from them almost immediately, but director Miller isn't so keen. Others auditioned included: Adam Brody, Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Die Hard 4.0), Common and Teresa Parker.The Saw franchise is likely to take a break next year, but return in 2009 and 2010 with Saw V and Saw VI -- which will be filmed back-to-back. Saw IV is released this Halloween.
Director Peter Berg (The Kingdom) is rumoured to be actively pursuing bringing Dune to the big-screen. The classic sci-fi novel has previous resulted in a cinematic disaster from David Lynch in the 80s, and a sorely-lacking 2000 Sci-Fi Channel mini-series.
A 7-minute scene from The Dark Knight will be attached to IMAX versions of I Am Legend...Mark Burg (a producer on Saw) is planning a remake of Fatal Attraction, entitled Kept, and based on the original novella by Jason Rothwell.
Eli Roth (Hostel) is working on a film called Trailer Trash, due for released in August 2008. It will be his "collection of fake trailers" project.
